The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario is launching a program to help its members adopt best management practices (BMPs).
The $130,000 program has received more than $80,125 from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to help fund the first year costs of a muli-year project.
The ultimate goal of the project is to develop an automated, user-friendly decision support tool for farmers, called “BOSS for Farms.”
BOSS stands for “Best Optimization Scenario Selection.”
The tool will allow farmers to more easily find the right combination of BMPs to suit individual field conditions and the environmental priorities of their localities.
“We want to link this local knowledge about practices like tillage, cover cropping and erosion control to OMAFRA’s (the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) published BMP recommendations,” said CFFO president Clarence Nywening.
“We’ll also combine these findings with emerging research to build BOSS for Farms.
“We strongly believe that if farmers can use tools like BOSS for Farms, we will be able to make better farm management choices that will strengthen our achievements in soil health and water quality,” he said.
The CFFO will be meeting with members in all 21 CFFO districts to hear from farmers what they think strikes the best balance between productivity and environmental stewardship on their own farms.
