Barn cat program returns
The Saskatoon SPCA is again organizing a barn cat program.
Cats that are unable to adapt to indoor living could be good barn cats and assist with pest control on farms and acreages.
Each barn cat costs $25 to adopt. New owners should shelter their cats in a secure barn, building or stable and provide daily food and water and veterinary care as required.
Each barn cat will be spayed or neutered before adoption and will be up to date on vaccinations, including for rabies.
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The agency has a separate wing of barn cats, which are sectioned off into two categories: barn buddies and barn hunters. Both will work well as pest control, but the hunters are more independent and strictly outdoor hunters, while the buddies are usually more friendly but not suitable as house pets.
For more information, or to apply for a barn cat, visit www.saskatoonspca.com/barncat.
Dairy exchange offered
Young adults from Canada, Australia and New Zealand have the opportunity to experience each other’s dairy industries first-hand.
Semex and Holstein Canada are sponsoring the exchange program along with their Australian counterparts, Semex Pty. Ltd and the Victorian branch of the Holstein-Friesian Association of Australia.
The program offers a young Canadian the opportunity to experience the Australian dairy industry and an Australian or New Zealand youth to travel to Canada and gain insight into the Canadian dairy industry.
The successful candidate, between 18 and 25 years of age, will spend approximately three months working on leading Holstein farms and artificial breeding centres in Australia beginning in January.
Applications are available at www.semex.com and www.holstein.ca for Canadians. The application deadline is Aug. 1.
The successful candidate will be contacted in August and publicly announced at the 2013 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.
For more information, contact Brenda Lee-Turner at Semex or Janet Walker at Holstein Canada.
Production specialist hired
Kristen Podolsky is the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association’s production specialist for the 2013 growing season.
The six-month contract is a new position for the association.
Podolsky will provide MPGA members with in-season agronomic support and production information and respond to grower inquiries.
A recent survey found that members want better communication from the association, including crop production knowledge, as well as more vigilance in early detection of emerging diseases and insect problems.
Podolsky has a mixed farming background and is a graduate student at the University of Manitoba. She is wrapping up her master of science thesis in agronomy, in which she investigated reduced tillage implements for managing a green manure cover crop.
She has held summer positions with Viterra, Agriculture Canada, the National Sunflower Association of Canada and Pulse Canada.
