For this month’s This is Agriculture, we’re highlighting how three engineers forged their own careers in agriculture. Don Freiling (Director, Embedded Systems Engineering, AIRM Consulting), Rheal Boileau (Product Development Manager, Elmer’s Manufacturing), and Tanner West (Innovation Farms Student, EMILI) all come from different backgrounds. Some of them grew up in cities while others grew up in rural areas. Even their educations vary, from computer science to mechanical engineering, and yet they have each managed to find a career path in the agriculture industry. Read on to learn how engineers play an integral role in digital agriculture and the vast opportunities that exist within the field.
Describe your job in one sentence.
Don: I am the embedded software lead on a team responsible for the design, implementation, and productization of a crop monitoring system for the collection of high quality, georeferenced, hyper localized crop metrics.
Rheal: I guide the product development direction of Elmer’s products to accomplish the company’s vision.
Tanner: I’m an agriculture summer student at EMILI’s Innovation Farms where I support innovation and technology projects within the field of digital agriculture.
Where did you grow up? Was it an agriculture or urban environment?
Don: I was born and raised in the urban environment of Winnipeg.
Rheal: I grew up in Southeastern Manitoba on a cattle and hay ranch.
Tanner: I had the best of both worlds! I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but since I was a kid I had the opportunity to help my grandpa on his small-scale hobby farm in Riding Mountain.
What was your dream job when you were a kid?
Don: To be an engineer. I was always interested in Electronics and Software.
Rheal: That is not something I recall, probably Space-Cowboy or Rock Guitarist or Space Rock Guitarist.
Tanner: When I was young, I always wanted to do something like dentistry or be a chiropractor.
What was your first job in agriculture?
Don: My first job in the agriculture field started in 2022 when I joined AIRM.
Rheal: Guarding gates during feeding was probably my first productive contribution in the agriculture sector, which expanded into herding cattle, fencing and haying as I grew.
Tanner: My first job in the industry was working at Laudin Farms in Brunkild, MB, where I supported field operations, mechanical work, and other jobs around the farm.
How does digital agriculture or agtech play a role in your current job?
Don: It is central to what we do. Our goal is to employ the latest sensing and IoT (Internet of Things) technology to collect accurate, georeferenced agricultural data. We use our collected data, along with external data sources, as input to AI/ML models for classification and prediction. The output from our models has applicability in many areas including crop management, crop health monitoring, insurance, optimization of inputs, and more.
Rheal: Developing solutions for growers is our focus and as technology has expanded and growers’ needs evolved more of our products have value from digital solutions. My role is to keep solutions flowing to customers. Our software team is approximately half our R&D staff, which is the discipline that has grown the most in the last decade.
Tanner: I support projects that work with digital tools like crop sensors, including weather stations, pheromone traps, and soil moisture probes. I will also be working with drones and GoPros to collect crop imagery for projects on the farm.
What’s your favourite part about working in digital agriculture and agri-food?
Don: Learning more about the agricultural industry. To effectively apply technology to any pursuit, it is necessary to appreciate it from the perspective of all stakeholders. I have enjoyed meeting with and learning from all manner of participants from farmers to insurance actuaries.
Rheal: The solution space for digital agriculture is still in the wild-west phase where the optimal solutions are still undiscovered, providing immense opportunity to try more out-there ideas to create value for growers.
Tanner: My favourite part about working in this industry is the passion to create new innovations and technology. Each day is different and you never know what to expect. I love that I’m always learning and gaining beneficial knowledge to put towards my future career in agriculture.
Why do you think digital agriculture is important, now more than ever?
Don: Considering climate change and a growing world population, I would put food security at the top of the list of global concerns. We must find ways to produce higher yields while using less inputs and producing less harmful outputs. We must provide producers with tools that foster success such as crop/weather monitoring, crop management recommendations, flexible insurance, etc. In addition to production, we must also work to ensure verifiable quality and to optimize distribution. The application of digital technologies can benefit all the above.
Rheal: Optimization of mechanicals equipment for ag have been in progress for as long as humans have cultivated crops. The potential gains from optimizing in the digital space with the technologies available today are immense, and costs relating to these technologies are becoming more accessible daily.
Tanner: I think digital agriculture is important to farming because agriculture is one of the biggest growing industries, with many opportunities. Where there is innovation and technology, there is opportunity. Digital agriculture has the ability to take farming to the next level of success. It will provide farming more efficiency, sustainability, and career opportunities.
This profile is part of EMILI’s This is Agriculture series, highlighting talented and diverse individuals across the digital agriculture sector. While individuals working in agriculture come from a variety of backgrounds, they share a common interest in growing and strengthening Canadian agriculture to ensure an environmentally and economically sustainable future for generations to come.