News

Ontario soybean fields often differ sharply in yield from one year to the next, but the reasons driving those differences are rarely straightforward. New research led by U of G researcher Dr. Hugh Earl and forming the thesis of M.Sc. student Matt Rundle shows that inputs aren’t the biggest driver of yield variation; rather, environment plays the lead role. Read the story: Here’s what really drives soybean yield variation.

Ontario wheat growers are constantly on guard against fusarium head blight (FHB). In Eastern Canada, FHB is the wheat disease that affects profitability the most.

Dr. Rozita Dara, professor in the School of Computer Science, College of Computational, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, has received just over $1.08 million in funding from Horizon Europe. Dara will represent U of G in the Agriculture of Data (AgData) consortium – a group of international partners working to accelerate digital transformation in agriculture, using data and artificial intelligence to advance sustainability and resilience. 

The aquaculture industry relies on wild-caught fish as the main source of protein and fat in fish feeds. In a trial at the Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre, a U of G research team led by Dr. David Huyben, researcher in the Department of Animal Biosciences, investigated insects as substitutes for wild-caught fish used in fish feed, fishmeal and fish oil.

Producers need to rethink some common assumptions about how nitrogen fertilizer and volatilization inhibitors interact with moisture, soil texture, and plant physiology. That's the overall finding of a four-year research study by a U of G team led by Dr. Joshua Nasielski and incorporating research from the Ontario Crops Research Centre sites in Winchester, Ridgetown and Elora. This research is funded in part by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.

Dr. Mike von Massow, professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, spoke to Reuters and Global News about the new groce

Headed by soil and environmental microbiology professor Dr. Kari Dunfield, a University of Guelph research team leveraged long-running crop trials at the Ontario Crops Research Centre sites in Elora and Ridgetown to map what microbial communities look like in different agricultural soils in southern Ontario. Findings suggest reduced tillage, higher crop diversity (such as winter wheat and cover crops), and more active cropping rotations are a win for bacteria and fungi beneficial to crop production.

Through a series of interviews with 36 Ontario farmers, PhD candidate Rochelle Thompson has been able to learn about farmers’ experiences first-hand. Thompson interviewed the farmers between March 2023 and May 2024. All had experienced some sort of catastrophic event associated with climate change, including prolonged droughts, barn collapses in a natural disaster and disease outbreaks. Thompson hopes to publish the results of her work in 2026.

This is not the first time University of Guelph researchers have explored the mental health of Canadian farmers.  

For the third year in a row, U of G has ranked in the top 150 in the world for life sciences, placing 126–150 out of more than 1,200 institutions in this category. The life sciences subject area includes the core disciplines of agriculture and forestry, veterinary science, biological sciences, biology, biochemistry and sport science. Read the story on U of G News: U of G Ranks Fifth in Canada for Life Sciences, Top 150 Worldwide

Working with U of G professor and food safety expert Dr. Keith Warriner, Ontario-based company Clean Works commercialized Warriner's three- component sanitation process for food. Now, that technology is being applied to crops that are still growing, like grapes, to protect them from mildew and other threats. Aside from cost savings for growers, the technology is sustinable, producing only water and having no negative impacts on pollinators, water sources, or soil.