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👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Global average farm size may triple by 2100 amid rural population decline
#farming …

Global average farm size may triple by 2100 amid rural population decline
Farm size plays a crucial role in shaping food production systems and environmental outcomes. However, its long-term global trends have remained poorly understood.

Bonus content on PEI's focus on disappearing farmland. The island isn't getting smaller, or bigger, but housing and industrial development are putting pressure on those potato fields.
#Farming
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-news-farming-land-agriculture-1.6974633

"Watchdog rules Red Tractor exaggerated its environmental standards"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Farming

🍓 A Modular Soft Gripper with Embedded Force Sensing and an Iris-Type Cutting Mechanism for Harvesting Medium-Sized Crops
#robots #agriculture #farming

Good Morning #Canada
Many people, that includes you, are worried about #Skynet assuming control of all military systems, but what happens when it starts harvesting our crops? Canadian agricultural scientists are blindly charging ahead in their efforts to fill our farms with robots. It started with self-driving tractors pulling conventional equipment and evolved to fully autonomous vehicles that plow, plant, fertilizer, weed, and harvest. Organic farming is seeing the biggest benefits as robots can hand weed 2 hectares per day, eliminating herbicides.... and farm workers. Almost 15% of Canada’s dairy farms use robotic milking cubicles where cows enter when they need milking, with no cold human hands involved. IMO, using robots to replace hard back breaking labour or tedious driving of equipment up and down a farm field is a good use of technology. But I hope the tech is not priced out of the reach of small farms.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Robotics #Farming
https://news.uoguelph.ca/2024/08/these-self-driving-weed-cutting-robots-transform-the-future-of-farming-says-u-of-g-researcher/

Graphics-Guided Interactive Farmland Layout Design
#farming #agriculture

"Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Environment

Bonus content - Through this series, I learned what a Pulse Crop was. They even have their own website.
#PulseCrop #Farming
https://pulsecanada.com/

🐐 Bundled climate solutions for better production: Scientists listen to West African farmers
https://phys.org/news/2025-09-bundled-climate-solutions-production-scientists.html

Bundled climate solutions for better production: Scientists listen to West African farmers
The rain delays, sorghum withers; when a storm finally breaks, complaints rise again. To break this cycle of uncertainty, scientists from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, INERA, and the University of Ghana conducted the first large-scale survey on agricultural climate services in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Senegal.

⚡ Will electric tractors gain traction? At a pilot event for farmers, researchers see possibilities
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-electric-tractors-gain-traction-event.html

Will electric tractors gain traction? At a pilot event for farmers, researchers see possibilities
In the soft dirt of an indoor horseback riding ring last month, a group of farmers got ready to test drive a new piece of equipment: an electric tractor.

Good Morning #Canada
We've arrived at our final province on Day #12 of The Dirt on Canadian Farming. It may not be the middle of the country, but I think we can all agree that it's the centre of the universe.
Ontario leads the nation in agricultural exports and is #1 in the number of farms, poultry and egg production, sheep and goat, vegetable and melon, and greenhouse, nursery and floriculture (31.8%). The province is home to one-quarter (25.5%) of total farms in Canada while making up 7.7% of the total farm area. It also employs 870K, more than any other province. There are numerous agricultural centers in Ontario but the Holland Marsh is significant. Just 50 Km north of Toronto lies 21,500 acres of rich black soil that provides vegetables to nearby cities and exports into the USA.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Farming
https://www.canadaaction.ca/ontario-farming-facts

🧑‍🌾 Managing soil fertilization levels can make for more efficient and productive crops
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-soil-fertilization-efficient-productive-crops.html

Managing soil fertilization levels can make for more efficient and productive crops
Modern crops are often excessively fertilized, which boosts yields in the short term but also harms the environment due to nutrient runoffs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Good Morning #Canada
Day #8 of The Dirt on Canadian Farming takes us back east to New Brunswick, which is not that "new" BTW. If it seems like we're jumping around the country in this series, with no logic, well, congratulations, you're paying attention.
New Brunswick's agricultural and agri-food sector reached a record of $1.23 billion in farm cash receipts in 2023, with potatoes, blueberries, maple syrup, and dairy all key products. Within that number lies good and bad news. The province had one of the largest decreases in farm operators in the country, but profits per farm have increased. Blueberry farms increased, and the province is 2nd in Canada in production. In 2024, New Brunswick announced the Agricultural Sustainability Program to assist farmers with reducing tillage, maintaining ponds and wetlands, and protecting pollinator habitat, critical and marginal landscapes, trees, riparian areas and crop management.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Farming
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/95-640-x/2016001/article/14803-eng.htm