News

Sometimes innovation isn’t fast and flashy: sometimes it’s slow and dirty.

It's Ontario Agriculture Week, and at the University of Guelph—Canada's Food University—we're celebrating fresh, homegrown food and the farmers, food industry workers and agri-businesses who bring it to our plates.

The fundamental starting point for growing healthy food is healthy soil. With long-term investment and expertise, soil grows productive plants, protects the environment and builds economic sustainability for producers.

Dr. Keith Warriner is the co-author of the new report released by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), a United Nations agency that establishes global standards and guidelines in the field of food safety and indoor farming. 

Learn more: Are Indoor Farms Safe? New FAO Report Shares Risks

OAC’s Dr. Mohsen Yoosefzadeh Najafabadi, who heads the Dry Bean Breeding & Computational Biology Lab, is using AI in a new and innovative approach. His platform, BeanGPT, combines advanced logic and autonomous capabilities with generative AI to help breeders ask more insightful questions, predict outcomes, and find patterns that are difficult to identify without AI assistance.

The University of Guelph professor emeritus in the Department of Animal Biosciences has concentrated his research on nutritional management strategies that enhance early heifer growth, and the delivery of extra nutrients using drinking water, and water and feed combinations during times of physiological needs of the dairy cow and horse.

Read the story in Dairy Herd Management: Water: The Overlooked Nutrient in Dairy Farming

Dr. Milad Eskandari is using artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperspectral imaging to transform soybean breeding, enabling faster, smarter and more precise crop selection. The study, funded in part by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, demonstrated that hyperspectral vegetation indices combined with hybrid AI models – including deep neural networks – can accurately predict soybean yield and biomass.

Could a simple, nutrient-rich feed ingredient hold the key to managing one of the most elusive conditions in equine health? A new research U of G research initiative, led by Dr. Wendy Pearson and funded in part by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, aims to shed light on a little-understood and potentially widespread condition in horses: leaky gut syndrome. 

Precision spraying is being reimagined with a smart technology upgrade. Dr. Medhat Moussa, professor in the University of Guelph College of Engineering, together with industry partners, has developed an automated agricultural robotic system to help farmers manage weeds in lima bean crops.

Dr. Biniam Kebede, a newly appointed professor in the Department of Food Science at the Ontario Agricultural College, leads the Food Bioprocessing and Data Science Lab, where ancient fermentation meets cutting-edge digital innovation.

At a presentation given during the Great Ontario Yield Tour event in Osgoode, Ont., Dr. Holly Byker, manager at the Ontario Crops Research Centre in Winchester, emphasized the importance of scouting fields to identify weeds that escaped control throughout the season. Understanding which herbicides were used, and why they may have been less effective, helps farmers make informed decisions for the next planting season.

This September, the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph will welcome its inaugural Northern Cohort—20 students from Northern Ontario embarking on their journey to become veterinarians through the Collaborative Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program (CDVMP), a groundbreaking partnership between the University of Guelph and Lakehead University.