Manitoba AgDays, called Canada’s Largest Indoor Farm show, is held at the Keystone Centre in Brandon every January. The show is an expo of agricultural production expertise, technology and equipment that is part trade show and part symposium, including speakers, meetings, workshops, and presentations on a wide variety of agricultural topics. NACTV’s John Drinkwater visited AgDays this year to give an overview of how it promotes and elevates the local ag sector.

While many people still think of farming as a very hands-on, low-tech industry, technology plays a huge role in modern farming techniques. We are many years past just putting some seeds in the ground and hoping for rain.
 
Kris Kinnaird of Farmers Edge, a rural Manitoba company that has become a global leader in digital agriculture, explains how they use satellite imagery to learn the contours of your land and get a granular view of what piece yields how much. In a similar vein, we also get a glimpse of one of the many open seminars available at the event. Called “Refining Precision Agronomy”, it explores technological advancements in the field and demonstrates how a person can map moisture variability in the soil, among other factors that lead to overall soil variability.

Drinkwater also ran into Ray Baloun, known locally as “Ray the Grain Guy”, who works with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, an organization that works to help end global hunger. To our viewers, Baloun brings it back down to basics: “If you’re not a farmer, thank a farmer when you see one.”