The 2026 Northern Ontario Ag Conference was held in February in Sudbury, bringing together farmers, researchers, funders, suppliers and other industry representatives to talk about challenges and solutions in agriculture in the North. A panel led by Dr. Sara Epp, U of G professor in rural planning and development, focused on celebrating Northern successes in agriculture.
A renewed $1.3 million investment from Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC) ensures poultry welfare research at the University of Guelph will continue to guide animal care standards and inform management decision. Dr. Alexandra Harlander, professor in OAC’s Department of Animal Biosciences, has been named the new Egg Farmers of Canada Chair in Poultry Welfare. She is recognized for her internationally respected leadership and science that directly informs welfare standards and on-farm practices.
Pabuayon will join the U of G’s Department of Plant Agriculture in OAC on June 1st and will be based at the University's Ridgetown Campus, strengthening its applied research and extension efforts in bean production. Her position has been made possible through major support from the Ontario Bean Growers (OBG), whose investment in U of G’s bean research program continues to expand innovation for the province’s growers.
Dr. Steve Loewen always has his sights on traits that tomatoes will need in the future. After almost four decades as a processing tomato plant breeder, his curiosity and focus on improving the odds for this segment of Ontario agriculture is still what gets him out the door every day.
Loewen’s work supports the processing tomato sector, which harvested over 670,000 tonnes of tomatoes in 2025 and has a gross farm value of nearly $100 million.
It took 14 years of experimentation for U of G potato breeder Gary Johnson to come up with what we know now as the Yukon Gold potato. Read all about its invention: Canadian invention: There's 'gold' in them thar potatoes - Yahoo News Canada
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.