Our Roots
In 2022, Dr. Paul Galpern, a landscape ecologist from the University of Calgary; Dr. Christy Morrissey, an ecotoxicologist from the University of Saskatchewan; Dr. Steve Shirtliffe, agronomist and crop production specialist from the University of Saskatchewan; and Dr. Tristan Skolrud, an agricultural economist from the University of Saskatchewan came together with a grand vision of transforming agriculture in the Canadian Prairies. Thus, the Prairie Precision Sustainability Network, or PPSN for short, was born.
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Starting in 2022 PPSN started what we now call Phase 1: Field Variability Mapping, where we took on the challenge of combining yield data and remote sensing data to build a model for identifying low-producing (marginal) acres within farmed croplands across the Canadian Prairies. Armed with a small budget for conferences and a list of previous agricultural contacts, our Grower Cooperator Liaisons, Tamara McLoughlin and Andrea Astleford, started contacting grain producers across Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba to ask for their help in providing combine yield data for PPSN to use to build the model.
In true Western Canadian style, growers across the Prairies amazed us with their generosity, their willingness to help and their patience as we navigated the process of amassing large amounts of data to use for our research.
By the end of 2025 our network had grown to over 80 producers and just over 1,000,000 acres worth of data!
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When we first started PPSN we knew that we wanted to give something back to the producers to show our appreciation. Our goal was to give our participants economic reports that would show them the results of their data but our computer software developer, Peter Berntsson, came up with a Field Marginality and Profitability Webtool that gives our network the ability to work interactively with their own data. Now everyone that participates in Phase 1, which is a prerequisite to be eligible for Phase 2, receives their data back in the form of .tiff files that can be used in our exclusive webtool.
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In 2024, PPSN was awarded the SARI - NSERC grant which allowed us to expand to Phase 2: Marginal Land Solutions, where we collaborate with growers to help them convert their low-producing acres within cropland to perennial forage and study the benefits.
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Once again our network of farmers delivered, and in 2025 we enrolled 45 fields across the 3 Prairie Provinces. 3 of those fields were designated as demo fields and as such, their enrolled acres were converted to perennial forage in 2025 which allowed us to test a couple different seed blends. There were multiple teams of students deployed to conduct preliminary testing on the other 42 fields as well, which will give us baseline results before they do their forage conversions this year.
While 45 fields is an impressive accomplishment the vast majority of those fields are in Saskatchewan and Alberta. We would like to make sure that Manitoba is adequately represented as a part of our Canadian Prairies wide project so if you are interested in participating or know someone who is please contact us!
PPSN 2025 Update
