A growing number of Western Canada’s farmers are using peer groups to drive their performance. This one is ready made. It turns out that size can matter. It makes a difference. Farming at different scales doesn’t necessarily make anyone a better or a worse farmer, but it does change the kinds of problems you have…
Address to the FAO_UN Committee for World Food Security
Robert Saik’s address to the FAO_UN Committee for World Food Security at the High-Level Special Event, Rome (Virtually), Oct 15, 2020 Honorable delegates – greetings from the Private Sector Mechanism on this Rural Woman’s Day. COVID 19 creates an opportunity for the public and private sectors to work together in new ways to address global…
A New Document Goes to Bat for Glyphosate
By Marc Zienkiewicz – September 24, 2018 “Activists always equate GMO to more chemical. That’s not true for Bt and not true for glyphosate- and glufosinate-tolerant crops,” says Saik, an agrologist and founder of Agri-Trend (now Trimble), which helps farmers allocate scarce resources to produce profitable and environmentally sustainable crops. “I want the ag community to be…
No-Till’s Future Depends on Practical Tech & Regulation
By Mackane Vogel posted December 1, 2023 | Posted in The Red Deer Advocate Precision Agriculture New technology in the world of no-till needs to be solutions-oriented in order to reach farmers in a timely manner No-till farming, much like agriculture as a whole, has evolved a lot over the last several decades. From new machinery and technology…
PrAGmatic: Will CHAT GPT impact the sustainable intensification of agriculture?
By Robert Saik posted June 22, 2023 | Posted in The Red Deer Advocate Over the past few months, a technology called CHAT GPT has been making the headlines. I have been watching with interest wondering what impact this technology will have on the agriculture. Even if you are not interested in agriculture per say, this article has…
Championing The Cause
By Robert Saik posted November 202 | Posted in The Future of Food Production Speakers Corner. Can we feed ˜10 billion people by 2050? Robert Saik says we can – but not if the voices of fear and paranoia continue to drown out the voices of science “I have a lot of passion for agriculture and lots of…
prAGmatic: The impact of Nitrogen
By COLUMNISTS posted on March 2, 2023 | Posted in The Red Deer Advocate Nitrogen to sustain crop growth can only come from a few sources; fertilizer, lightning will strike fixed N into the ground, legume crops (think peas, lentils, vetch, clover, alfalfa. etc) are capable of biological nitrogen fixation, a promising but yet not well understood area…
prAGmatic: How Sustainable Intensification Feeds The World
By COLUMNISTS posted on January 31, 2023 | Posted in The Red Deer Advocate While Hippocrates (440 BC) is attributed to the saying “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” today modern genomics is showing that what might be the right food for one person may be different for another. This is leading to a…
It’s all in your head
By Leeann Minogue posted on January 11, 2023 | Posted in The CountryGuide Like most farmers, Saik sees change coming to all areas of the ag sector, driven by improved data availability, new technology, and changing world trade patterns. In the midst of all of these changes, Saik has identified a key priority: “the mental machinery that…
Canola Gains May Lie In The North
By Robert Arnason posted on November 3, 2022 | Posted in The Western Producer There may be an opportunity for 60 or 70 bu. canola in the northern growing region of the Prairies and significantly lower yield potential in the south, but that doesn’t mean that canola growers in the brown soil zone of Saskatchewan should give up….
Liberal fertilizer climate target would have negligible impact on emissions: expert
By Cosmin Dzsurdzsa October 17, 2022 Posted in True North An agrologist told parliamentarians that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s arbitrary 30% fertilizer emission reduction target for farmers would have a negligible impact on global CO2 levels. Robert Saik, Founder and CEO of AGvisorPRO, told the House of Commons Environment Committee on Oct. 4 that a 30%…
Shoot for the Stars
Reported by Natalie Noble (Farming For Tomorrow) on Feb 28, 2022 Olds College’s priority to advance agriculture and technology together align well with Saik’s lifelong drive to generate progress in the industry he loves. “I believe this industry is desperate for farm technology integrators,” says Saik. “Olds College has really stepped up to the plate…
New App Provides Connected Expertise, Confidence for Growers
By Mike Lessiter posted on February 11, 2022 | Posted in Precision Ag, No-Till Farming 101 A new app backed by AGvisorPRO CEO and Co-Founder Rob Saik promises to give no-tillers confidence in their decision-making by tapping into a number of experts. “You can read publications like No-Till Farmer, you can go to conferences, you can go to field days and you can work…
Serial Ag Entrepreneur and Author Creates New Student Awards at Olds College
Reported by Olds College A huge thank you to Robert Saik who recently donated $100,000 to Olds College to create an endowment fund for the Robert Saik AgTech Awards – two $2,500 scholarships per year supporting students from urban areas enrolled in the Agriculture Technology programs at #OldsCollege. “Technology, robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning…
Agricultural leader envisions industry’s future
Reported by Karen Briere (The Western Producer) During a recent presentation at Canada’s Farm Show, Saik said sustainability in all its forms figures prominently in the future. To feed a growing population agriculture has to be “infinitely sustainable,” he said, and that includes soil health, water-use efficiency, greenhouse gas balance and farm viability. READ MORE…
How We Feed the Future: Technology for smarter agriculture
July 14, 2020 The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Rob Saik hosted by Tom Martin. Click here to hear the full audio. Rob Saik, CEO of AgVisorPRO, believes that the next thirty years could be the most important in the history of agriculture, and he claims that in…
Elaine Froese’s Expert Guide to Conflict Resolution
Working With Family Can Be A Challenge Agriculture is largely a family business. Farming operations are often passed down from one generation to the next, and while this can be an extremely rewarding proposition, it also comes with a whole host of potential pitfalls that are best avoided. AGvisorPRO is working hard to bring growers…
Tom Wolf’s EXPERT GUIDE to agricultural sprayers
AGvisorPRO connects farmers who need advice with the experts who have it. When it comes to advice about anything related to spraying or sprayers, one of the best experts to seek advice from is Tom Wolf. In this week’s AGvisorPRO Expert Guide, we speak to Tom about what a farmer needs to have a successful…
Agriculture Experts in the Digital Age
Our brains start from scratch when we are born. While our parents’ generation had the opportunity to be generalists, our generation must be more specialized within our knowledge as the information in each domain is growing exponentially. However, modern farming operations touch so many different areas. Even if they decide to focus on one area…
PRESS RELEASE: New Tool provides connectivity between Agribusiness and Farmers
AGvisorPRO Press Release Calgary, Alberta May 13th, 2020: For Immediate release New Tool provides connectivity between Agribusiness and Farmers AGvisorPRO Inc has launched a new service designed to provide instantaneous connectivity between farmers and company technical representatives to enhance customer service. “The AGvisorPRO Tech Direct Solution™ built on the AGvisorPRO platform creates a connection between…
Technology has increased relevance during pandemic.
No one plans or welcomes a pandemic, but Rob Saik says in this unexpected time of isolation and social distancing, a new service he launched in 2019 can help farmers connect with a diverse network of agricultural expertise either online or by phone, at a time when face-to-face personal contact is being discouraged. Saik, well…
Farmers obtain info remotely
A new internet tool brings together agricultural experts and farmers as they learn to live in the new COVID-19 reality. Rob Saik had some ideas about agronomy and husbandry delivery, coming out of the sale of his Agritrend company to technology giant Trimble. “I had learned a lot over the years about what we could…
The competitive advantage of an extended knowledge pool
Human knowledge doubles every 13 months. However, a farmer only has an average of 35 springs, summers, falls and winters in their entire career. Every single decision is therefore of great importance, as it can heavily impact overall profitability. Meanwhile, there is an abundance of new information that farmers need to keep up with e.g….
AGvisorPR launches as the ‘uberzation’ of knowledge and wisdom
AGvisorPRO, a global platform that connects farmers to experienced ag experts, launched this week in Ag in Motion. Currently offering access to roughly 50 advisors, the platform enables users to connect via audio, video, or text, with photo-sharing capabilities. It also saves the connection for future reference. “AGvisorPRO is basically the ‘Uberization’ of knowledge and…
A Q and A with Robert Saik: It’s Time to Get Big or Go Home for Agriculture Robotics
Robotics has been touted as a way to address some of the biggest issues in agriculture, namely when it comes to an ongoing labor shortage. Fifty-six percent of farmers in California alone have been unable to find enough workers in the past five years, according to a new report from the California Farm Bureau Federation….
As Presented to Canadian Deputy Ministers of Agriculture
On January 23rd I had an opportunity to present my thoughts on opportunities and challenges facing Canadian Agriculture to ALL the Deputy Ministers of Agriculture. I am not sure how I was chosen for this honour, however, I felt obliged to do a good job. Here are the issues I chose to present. BTW…no one…
Nourishing the World: Exponential Challenges, Exponential Technologies
Reported by Scott Bowman (clareo.com) for the TWIN GLOBAL 2018 Report INTRODUCTION In the coming decades, with a population booming to nearly 10 billion people, we will experience exponential growth in our global demand for food, while global food supply will continue to be under great stress. The World Economic Forum projects that global demand…
Lack of trained workers, internet service hold back robotic expansion.
Reported by Ed Maixner (Agri Pulse) Photo courtesy: University of Illinois-A vehicle the size of a Golden Retriever, designed and constructed at the University of Illinois, rolls on miniature tank treads between two rows of young plants in Arizona two years ago during a demonstration to assess a crop of semi-autonomous robots. Global sales…
The EU will become the “Museum of Agriculture,” says Leading Agtech Entrepreneur
Reported by Jack Heald (AgFUNDER NEWS) Editor’s Note: The Thought Leaders in Agriculture series is presented by IntelinAir, makers of AgMRI: a digital decision support system for farmers using aerial imaging. The first in the series is a conversation with Robert Saik, founder of Agri-Trend, a digital agronomy business that was acquired by Trimble in 2015….
SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT GLYPHOSATE
By Christopher P. Dufault, P.AG., and Robert Saik, P.AG. CAC These days we are exposed to a great deal of negative, one-sided and inaccurate information in the media and online about a herbicide called gylphosate, often sold under the trade name Roundup. We interact with farmers and farm organizations on a regular basis. We understand…
What is the Future of Your Farm?
Reported by Christina Herrick (Senior Editor of American Fruit Grower® magazine, published by Meister Media Worldwide.) Where is the future of farming going? How is all the new technology being developed going to be integrated on the family farm in the next 20 years? Robert Saik Robert Saik, Founder of the Agri-Trend Group of Companies (now…
Get There First
Reported by Maggie Van Camp (Senior Business Editor CountryGuide) Agriculture is constantly moving the yardsticks, which means there’s always a new business opportunity on the horizon. So, asks Rob Saik, founder of Agri-Trend: What are you waiting for? This fall Country Guide chatted with Rob Saik founder and CEO of Agri-Trend as the innovative…
Tips From The Top: Build Your Own Brand
Since this article was released, AGRI-TREND has been acquired by Trimble with Rob Saik working with the Trimble team as Global Business Development, extending AGRI-TREND internationally. Rob has been a part of the entrepreneur coaching program, Strategic Coach for 24 years now. Secrets to success from extraordinary entrepreneurs, Part 4 by The Strategic Coach Team…
View From The Top: Robert Saik
Reported by Nate Birt (AGWEB Powered by Farm Journal) Background: Born on a farm in Alberta, Canada, Robert Saik (robertsaik.com) studied agronomy and ag economics at university and went on to specialize in soil chemistry, plant physiology and crop nutrition. He built two independent fertilizer retailers in his 20s and in 1997 founded AGRI-TREND, a…
The Murder of a Molecule
The activist forces are marching against the molecule glyphosate. This one in a hundred year herbicide has done more to revolutionize sustainable farming than ANY other chemistry to date (and maybe all others combined). Yet, everyday activist organizations campaign for its de-registration. Consumers are being fed BS. It all stems from a review panel called…
Anti-science attitude threatens agriculture, humanity – WATTAgNet.com
Reported by Austin Alonzo (WATT Global Media) aalonzo@wattglobal.com Link to article First world consumers need to understand the role genetically modified organisms can, and will, play in feeding billions of people far into the future. Otherwise, a key technology will be lost.| Bigstock.com Whether or not humanity will be able to feed itself in the…
10 forces shaping the future of agriculture – WATTAgNet.com
Reported By: Austin Alonzo (WATT Global Media) aalonzo@wattglobal.com The future of agriculture is bright, thanks to emerging technology and innovative thinking. But, there will be challenges in achieving that vision. The big question in agriculture is whether or not the world’s ever increasing population will be able to feed itself with ever dwindling resources. One…
TOP TWENTY GMO FAQs – by the Robert(s)
By: Robert Saik, Professional Agrologist, Certified Agricultural Consultant, CEO Agri-Trend Inc., Executive Producer of KNOW GMO the MOVIE RSaik@AGRI-TREND.com and, Robert Wager, M.Sc Biology Dept Vancouver Island University Robert.Wager@viu.ca What is a GMO? It stands for Genetically Modified Organism It is generally used incorrectly because most of our food has been Genetically Modified by one breeding…
The Divorce of Science and Decisions?
The following was posted by Farm and Food Care. It relates to the recent EU decision to abolish their Chief Scientific Advisor. I am very concerned that if this trend continues, the use of science in agriculture will be greatly reduced by activists. Net result will be … people will go hungry. Rob Where’s the…
Uganda Experience – why has GMO technology not been released to help the farming poor?
This week I have been on Ugandan farms. I have been talking to poor subsistence farmers as well as some Agri-business people. I have been asking them about GMO. I was north of Gulu with Robert the farmer. He grows a variety of crops typically getting 3-4 years from a small plot of land before…
The Agriculture Manifesto 