Livestock assistance; College gets money; New Bayer CEO; Research director sought
Livestock assistance
Manitoba Agriculture has extended the deadline for Manitoba livestock producers to apply for assistance under the Manitoba Forage Assistance program.
The new deadline for applications is May 31. The original deadline was March 31.
The forage assistance program was designed to help livestock producers who are short of feed as a result of excess moisture or drought last year.
The program applies across Manitoba and helps offset the costs of transporting hay and straw. It also provides money to offset the costs of transporting livestock to alternative feeding locations in Manitoba.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
In some municipalities, producers may also qualify if they transport grain, pelleted screenings and concentrated feeds.
Further information is available at Manitoba Agriculture offices.
College gets money
The Canada West Equipment Dealers Association has approved a $300,000 contribution to Assiniboine Community College in Brandon.
The contribution, announced March 20, expands on an existing partnership between CWEDA and the college and is the largest contribution ever given by CWEDA to a college in Canada.
The partnership is designed to address the No. 1 issue within dealerships, which is the shortage of properly trained equipment technicians.
The donation will allow the college to enhance programs and facilities including the agricultural equipment technician apprenticeship program, the John Deere Tech and heavy duty equipment technician programs.
Assiniboine College is building a new campus and a new centre for trades and technology, which will allow it to double the size of its heavy duty equipment technician program, from 75 to 150 students.
New Bayer CEO
Kamel Beliazi will take over as president and chief executive officer of Bayer CropScience Canada on July 1.
Currently head of Bayer CropScience in Mexico, Beliazi will move to Calgary to take over from Hartmut van Lengerich, who has been promoted to a new role leading a global crop strategy unit focused on cereals, oilseeds and sugar beets at Bayer’s headquarters in Monheim, Germany.
Since joining Bayer, Beliazi has held a variety of positions including global product manager for insecticides and global product manager for herbicides.
In the 1990s, he held a series of positions with Bayer CropScience and its legacy companies in Portugal, France and Vietnam.
Research director sought
The Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA) is looking for a new executive director.
Dee Ann Benard, executive director since 2004, is leaving the organization to pursue other opportunities.
Ty Faechner, ARECA’s research program manager, will serve as interim executive director until a permanent replacement is chosen.
Faechner is a professional agrologist and certified agricultural consultant who has worked for the Alberta government and private business in the agriculture industry for 30 years.
He has taught GIS, GPS and precision agriculture courses at Assiniboine Community College and Brandon University in Brandon.
He also taught at the University of Alberta and King’s University College in Edmonton. Faechner completed his PhD in variable rate herbicide application at the University of Alberta.
He has recently focused on developing methods to monitor reclaimed industrial sites with GPS, assessing the costs of farming around midfield structures, doing field scale farm research and developing funding initiatives for farm training for Alberta producers.
