Does Your Farm Need an Energy-Efficiency Tune-up?

For a limited time, Southern Alberta dairy, poultry and swine producers in Alberta may apply for an on-site energy assessment to identify where their energy dollars are going and what they can do about it.

If you’re a producer, you know just how much high energy costs can impact your business. Recommendations included in an OnFarm assessment will provide you with a variety of options, ranging from simple behaviour changes to large infrastructure projects that will save you money. You might just be surprised by the range of energy-efficient options out there.

“Higher fuel prices and utility costs are prompting more farmers to look for alternative ways to save energy and money,” says Rick Atkins, with AAFRD’s AgTech Centre, in Lethbridge. “The first step is to track a farm’s energy input to see where improvements can be made.”

“We recognize that energy use on farms is not the only challenge facing the farming community today,” says Simon Knight, President and CEO, C3. “This is an important step towards helping these operations maintain their competitiveness while helping the environment.”

This program is a not for-profit venture. It is designed to gain an understanding of the value energy efficiency assessments could have for Alberta’s agriculture producers. Data collected through the program will provide a baseline of the energy demands in various sectors (dairy, poultry, swine), so producers can identify if their operations are above or below average energy use and what they can do to improve.

The OnFarm Energy-Efficiency Program was developed by C3 and Alberta Agriculture and Food (AF)’s AgTech Centre to help improve energy efficiency within the agriculture sector.

Alberta Advanced Education and Technology’s Innovation Program and AF are the major funders for this project. Other participating sponsors include: ATCO EnergySense, the SouthGrow Regional Initiative, Agrium, Dow AgroSciences, and the Lethbridge Dairy Mart.

Our In-kind sponsors include: