Alberta Agriculture

Lethbridge is one of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s farm research groups. They have 50 scientists & 300 other staff conducting research on a number of farming properties, 1050 hectares in an around Lethbridge for arable and irrigation cropping Research. There is an additional 17,000 hectares south west of Lethbridge for rangeland grazing research. The research centre opened in 1906.

The area has mainly Brown and dark brown Chernozome soils with a pH of 7 – 8.5. There were soil test taken when the farm was first used and they used to have 5.5-6% organic matter. Testing had shown that over the next 20 years the OM % had dropped by half and this declined was stopped in the early 80’s and has climbed back from 2% to 2.5% due to the introduction of no-till on the research farm.

During the 80’s on the prairies the farmers were still in a wheat-fallow rotation. There some work on no-till by some farmers such as the Hilton’s at Strathmore in South Central Alberta. They were using a disc drill from the USA to sow their crops. It took a long time for it to catch on with other farmers but now it accounts for 75% of farming in the drier regions of South Alberta and South West of Saskatoon.

Eight Feet Wide and Weighs a Couple of Tonne

Hilton's Double Offset Disc Drill