Livestock care awards
Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alta., and the Red Deer County Agricultural Services Board received awards of distinction at the Livestock Care Conference held April 4 in Red Deer. The event was hosted by Alberta Farm Animal Care.
Lakeland College received an award in the industry leadership category for its incorporation of humane animal care practices as a core part of the agricultural sciences curriculum.
Red Deer County Agricultural Services Board received its award in the innovation category for its incorporation of protocols and resources for animal care and handling into its emergency preparedness plans.
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The awards are presented by Alberta’s livestock industry to recognize people and organizations that promote humane livestock care.
Fire services training
The province of Alberta will spend $500,000 to train rural fire departments.
Now in its fourth year, the municipal fire services training program offers conditional grants to firefighters for certified training courses at the province’s 24 regional training centres.
The program also supports access to new distance learning programs.
Funding for training is available to firefighters from all Alberta municipalities, with 80 percent of enrolment initially reserved for volunteers. Fire service providers from Alberta’s First Nations communities will also be invited to attend training sessions.
For more information on the fire service training grants, visit the Alberta Emergency Management Agency website at www.aema.alberta.ca and click “training.”
Conservation winner
A Nova Scotia farmer has been honoured for his outstanding contribution to soil conservation in Canada. Bill McCurdy of Old Barns, N.S., is the newest inductee into the Canadian Conservation Hall of Fame.
The award, which recognizes the dedication and commitment of leaders in soil and water conservation, was presented recently at the annual general meeting of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada.
As a member and director of the SCCC, McCurdy helped find solutions to the problem of soil erosion and adopted zero-till practices on his own farm in the early 1990s.
Manufacturing honours
MacDon, a Winnipeg based manufacturer of agricultural harvesting equipment, recently won a pair of awards at the 2007 AE50 Awards.
The awards are given to the top entries in a competition involving the world’s leading agricultural manufacturers.
MacDon was recognized for ground-breaking designs on its M Series self-propelled windrowing tractors and its FD70 FlexDraper header for combines.
Both products represent significant advancements in harvesting technology for producers.
Hosted by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, the AE50 awards honour the top 50 outstanding engineering innovations around the globe for the agricultural, food, and biological systems industries.
Soil guide
Manitoba Agriculture has published a new Soil Management Guide, a user-friendly manual to teach producers about the benefits of proper soil management.
The guide provides up-to-date information on the development and use of soil survey information; water use and management; nutrient management; soil salinity; drainage management; soil erosion; crop residue management; the use of soils information in land use; and watershed and environmental planning.
A chapter on greenhouse gases in agriculture has also been added.
The guide is available from
Manitoba Agriculture Go Centres or on-line at www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/cropproduction/gaa01d44.html.
