THUNDER BAY — The Lakehead University Agricultural Research Station (LUARS) is continuing to test new fertilizers and other products, with 51 experiments happening in total this summer.
At the annual tour on Aug. 1, Andrew Brekveld, a farmer at Woodstar Farm, said having LUARS is a huge benefit.
“Tarlok Sahota (the LUARS director) and his crew over here do research on a small scale so that, as farmers, we can take those results and apply them to a larger field with less risk because it's been trialled.
“It's been a great thing to have this station here,” he said.
Brekveld said this station is a necessity for the area.
“It has allowed farmers to increase their acres of production and involve new practices. We're very thankful for the work that Tarlok and his crew here does for us,” he said.
Farmers are not the only ones benefitting from the research station.
Harsh Bagria completed his master’s degree in forestry at Lakehead University and LUARS. Under Prof. Brian McLaren and Sahota’s guidance, Bagria performed research on spring wheat.
“I have evaluated different nitrogenous fertilizers with conventional fertilizer. I have tested them on spring wheat.”
Bagria studied what effect different fertilizers have on the yield.
“We’re testing the new hybrid fertilizers so that we can analyze a deficiency fertilizer so that we can reduce nitrogen loss,” he said.
With Bagria completing his degree, he will start working as a grain inspector with SGS Canada in mid-August. He said the work at LUARS helped him get this new job.
“I have learned everything here from the grain sampling and all. This work helped me — it helped me a lot.
“Moreover, my study background back in India helped me,” he said.
Bagria is from Punjab, a state of India known to be the wheat bowl.
As the director of LUARS, Sahota organizes the tour so farmers and anyone interested can learn more about what they are doing.
“We believe that as the saying goes, 'seeing is believing.' Once you see something, it goes to your eyes, heart, brain and everything, and it remains there. Anything these farmers see is good here, they can take home.
"They know if something is growing good here, we are in the same region, same soil, same climate, so it will grow good in their fields also.
“The adoption is then quick. So basically, it is a tool to adopt and spread the technology with what we do here,” he said.
LUARS continues to test plant growth regulators on wheat and barley.
“This year, we had good rainfall. We are seeing very good crops.”
Sahota said the biggest challenge in Northwestern Ontario is climate change.
“It's so unpredictable. We are so dependent on agriculture here because it's not irrigated; it's all rain-fed.”
Sahota said they have seen drought from climate change, which has impacted them the most.
LUARS added 16 new crop varieties, including three HRSW, two malting barley two-row varieties, one two-row feed barley, two truffix canola varieties, one canola, two flax varieties, four soybean varieties and one RR alfalfa variety.
