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The Ag Connections Conference is in its second year. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News
AGRICULTURE

‘Connections is a main focus’: Producers gather in Medicine Hat for agriculture conference

Nov 20, 2024 | 5:32 PM

Hundreds of beef and crop producers heard from speakers, checked out vendors and networked at an agriculture-themed conference Wednesday in Medicine Hat.

Cypress County’s annual Ag Connections Conference, now in its second year, is about building bridges, organizer Beth Cash said.

“Connections is a main focus for us,” Cash told CHAT News from inside the auditorium at the Cypress Centre at the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede grounds.

“The whole purpose is connecting our producers with resources and organizations, businesses that they may not have known about, or maybe they did know about, but needed that opportunity to connect with them.”

One of those vendors has been selling drones to farmers for nearly a decade.

“In the early days, that was selling drones for imaging, for scouting and for mapping,” said Landview Drones CEO Markus Weber.

“Then, for the last three years, we’ve also been selling them for spraying and for seeding,” he said, standing in front of a large, $40,000 drone that can carry a 40-litre liquid payload.

Weber also provides training sessions with the drones.

Markus Weber, CEO of DroneView, says that drones can have a variety of uses in the agriculture industry. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

“I’m a big believer that farmers need to get value out of these, they’re not toys, they’re tools,” he said.

“So we train them how to get certified, how to fly safely in Canada’s airspace, but most importantly, how to use it to make money and to save time on the farm.”

Weber said drones give farmers and other producers options.

“There are literally hundreds of uses for a drone…I compare it to a smartphone,” he explained.

“Once you have a drone, you suddenly have a camera that’s airborne, and there’s a million uses for that in every industry, including in agriculture.”

Over 500 registered to go to the 2024 conference, an increase over the 340 that attended last year, according to Cash.

“The event is really growing, and producers seem to love it,” she said.