More Alliance Impact

Harvest-Boosting Alliance Innovations: Helping Ontario Farmers Grow More Food | University of Guelph

Is fresh Ontario-grown food on your plate this fall? Whether you’re celebrating the harvest or just enjoying seasonal produce, chances are you’re sampling the results of research and innovation coming from the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.

For more than 150 years, the Government of Ontario and U of G have worked together for the benefit of the province’s food producers and processors. The collaboration, known as the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, supports farmers so you can bring home healthy local food to your family.

More data allows better management on-farm for Ontario dairy producers. As of March 2024, raw milk testing provided by the University of Guelph's Agriculture and Food Laboratory (AFL) moved from five to seven days a week so farmers can monitor milk quality and manage production in a timely manner.

A cutting-edge quarantine, isolation and recirculation facility opened today at the Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre in Alma, thanks to a $4.5-million investment from the Government of Ontario through the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario, and with support from the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.

At the 2023 Ontario Agricultural Conference, Sikkema talked about keeping soybeans weed-free and how to deal with herbicide-resistant fleabane and waterhemp in corn and soybean.

Read the articles on Farmtario: 

• Managing Ontario's devious weed duo
• How to keep soybeans weed-free

In this Alliance-funded research, Dr. Adam Gillespie and team developed a tool that creates a soil "fingerprint" using infrared spectroscopy.

The technology could replace traditional time-consuming and costly methods that involve extracting samples and sending them to a lab to be analyzed.

The tool is being tested on research farms. The fingerprint also provides database-informed, regional-specific soil management recommendations for producers.

The Ontario government and the University of Guelph share a commitment to the long-term success of farmers, processors and the entire agri-food sector. Our collaboration makes helps solve real-world challenges and drives impact, from research to practical application.

Watch on YouTube: University of Guelph Partnerships Fuel the Future of Food.

Her interview is part of the Influential Women in Canadian Agriculture series. 

Listen in as McDonald talks about her role with the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (around 10:30), as well as trying new things, rolling with the punches and seeing research in action. 

Research funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance solves real-world challenges and yields meaningful innovations that contribute to the success of the province’s agri-food sector and promote rural economic development throughout Ontario. See the list of projects that were approved in 2020 for Alliance programs.