MANA Canada hires new manager
Donald Surgeoner will join Makhteshim Agan of North America in Woodstock, Ont., as eastern business manager and Canadian Quali-Pro manager.
Surgeoner will handle customer relations and sales for the expanding crop protection and turf grass product lineups.
After obtaining a bachelor of science in environmental biology from the University of Guelph, Surgeoner worked with Cyanamid Canada in sales and product management.
He also spent six years with BASF Canada as business manager and national sales manager. Most recently, he was commercial manager with Engage Agro.
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Manitoba community projects get support from HyLife
HyLife Fun Days 2025 donated $35,000 each to recreation and housing projects in Killarney, Steinach and Neepawa earlier this fall.
MANA Canada is headquartered in Winnipeg and offers more than 20 branded insecticides, fungicides and herbicides from 19 active ingredients.
IAF announces new executive
The Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C. has a new executive committee with Ken Bates as chair, Irmi Critcher as vice-chair, Jim Tingle as treasurer and Robert Dawson as secretary.
Bates is a third generation farmer living in Ladner. He and his family grow blueberries and potatoes and operate a dairy on a 500-acre farm.
He has participated on agricultural boards and committees, including the B.C. Blueberry Council, the Delta Agricultural Society and the Delta Farmers’ Institute.
Critcher ran a 3,500-acre grain and oilseed farm in the Peace Region for more than 25 years.
She has served on the B.C. Grain Producers Association board and represents the B.C. Grain Producers on the Grain Growers of Canada board.
Tingle co-owns and operates Glenbirnam Farm, marketing Black Angus cattle and market lamb. He has served as a consultant to the Cattle Industry Development Council and provided on-farm forage management recommendationsin the north-central Interior.
He is a member of the Prince George Cattlemen’s Association, the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, the B.C. Angus Association, the Eaglet Lake Farmers Institute, the B.C. Sheep Federation and the B.C. Institute of Agrologists.
Dawson practiced law until he bought his family’s Similkameen orchard in the mid-1970s. Since then, he has served as vice-president and chair of the Okanagan Similkameen Co-operative Growers and a director for B.C. Tree Fruits Ltd. and Sun Rype Products Ltd.
Junior ambassador competition names winner
Chad Lorenz of Markerville, Alta., is the winner of the Canadian Angus Foundation’s 2013 Robert C. McHaffie Junior Ambassador competition.
Lorenz and his family run Lorenz Farms, a 90 head purebred Black Angus cattle operation.
Lorenz serves on the Canadian Junior Angus Association board of directors and the Alberta Junior Angus Association board of directors. At Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alta., Lorenz was the purebred beef team leader at the student managed farm and received his animal science technology diploma.
The annual award program selects one Canadian Junior Angus Association member to be an ambassador for the national Angus association at events across Canada and one international experience.
Four other CJAA members competed for the award: Erin Toner of Kelfield, Sask., Kaitlynn Bolduc of Stavely, Alta., Michael Hargrave of Maxwell, Ont., and Kelsey Ribey of Paisley, Ont.
Competitors are judged on speaking ability, knowledge of the Angus breed and the cattle industry and personal deportment.
Official 4-H museum
The 4-H museum at Roland, Man., will soon have more artifacts as it officially becomes Canada’s national 4-H museum.
Dignitaries, clubs and alumni recently joined with local residents to celebrate 4-H’s 100th anniversary in Canada.
It was on Oct. 9, 1913, when young members of the original club brought their poultry, corn and potatoes to exhibit at Roland’s first fall fair, earning prize money put up by residents, the municipality and the agricultural society.
About $19,000 was raised during the recent anniversary event in Roland.
It will be used to support the village’s 4-H museum, which has operated as a community-based venture to house donated artifacts such as uniforms, banners, trophies, scrapbooks and project paraphernalia since 1990.
The Canadian 4-H Council and its anniversary committee have now officially recognized the project as Canada’s national 4-H museum.
The council will be shipping a large volume of 4-H artifacts, which are stored at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa.
Finalists named in farm sustainability award
Terryland Farms of St-Eugene, Ont., is one of three finalists selected for Dairy Farmers of Canada’s Farm Sustainability Award.
George, Linda and Terry Heinzle of Terryland Farms milk 140 cows on their 900 acre farm in eastern Ontario.
They built a biodigester in 2006 and became the first farm in the province to sell electricity from waste to the grid.
The other award finalists are Sylvain Laquerre and Noelline Dusablon of Ferme Sylvain Laquerre in St-Casimir, Que., and Marian and Jan Slomp of Rimrose Dairy in Rimbey, Alberta.
The award recognizes farms with innovative management practices that go beyond industry standards and meet several sustainability goals to improve the social, environmental and economic impact of dairy farming in Canada.
