SaskBarley announces scholarship recipients
Dilini Adihetty, Jonathan Beutler and Michael Taylor have been selected as recipients of the SaskBarley 2022-23 scholarship, which the group deems an investment in barley research at the university level.
Adihetty, in the University of Alberta’s Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science department, will receive $6,000 for research on managing the negative effects of spot blotch in barley.
The $4,000 scholarships were given to plant science student Michael Taylor at the University of Saskatchewan and Jonathan Beutler in the Land and Food Systems department at the University of British Columbia.
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Taylor’s research is focused on mitigation of lodging in barley through an examination of root system imaging and field data collection.
Beutler’s project seeks to help barley breeders develop net blotch resistant pre-breeding germplasm, which could lead to development of resistant varieties for growers.
Viterra, foodgrains bank celebrate partnership
Canadian Foodgrains Bank, volunteer farmers and Viterra teamed up for their seventh consecutive year in this crop year.
About 180 acres of land were provided at Viterra facilities in Stettler and Trochu in Alberta as well as Balgonie, Raymore and Grenfell in Saskatchewan.
Proceeds from the harvested crops are donated to the foodgrains bank, which uses them to address hunger around the world.
Food security resource available
Agriculture in the Classroom Saskatchewan has launched the Food Security Budget Game for students to use outside the classroom.
The game is designed to help students explore the obstacles that prevent food security and learn the skills of budgeting and cost-effective food choices.
It allows them to plan a real-life budgeting activity that highlights a variety of lifestyles and financial situations such as varying incomes, family structures and other necessities.
The students create a budget for the month and are then handed an emergency expense they must account for.
The activity promotes critical thinking and problem solving, increasing food and financial literacy for high school students.
Based on the latest data from Statistics Canada, 5.8 million Canadians, including 1.4 million children, lived in food insecure households in 2021.
Teachers can order The Food Security Budget Game for free by visitingwww.aitc.sk.ca.
Oat growers celebrate anniversary
The Prairie Oat Growers Association is celebrating 25 years.
It was organized in 1998 after farmers recognized that oat producers needed a strong prairie-wide advocacy group that would require stable funding.
Jack Shymko, a producer from Ituna, Sask., was one of the leaders and later became the first president of the association. Current president is Jenneth Johanson from Manitoba.
The commodity organization was funded first by voluntary membership and later pooled check-off revenue of 50 cents per tonne of provincially marketed oats.
Three provincial associations were established: Saskatchewan Oat Growers Commission in 2006 (SaskOats); Manitoba Oat Growers Association in 2008; and Alberta Oat Growers Commission in 2012.
These associations have supported more than 55 research and marketing projects.
BCRC welcomes new executive committee
The Beef Cattle Research Council appointed a new executive committee for 2022-23.
It has 14 members that represent each of the provincial producer organizations that allocate part of the Canadian Beef Cattle checkoff to research, plus one ex-officio member.
Craig Lehr, a beef producer from southern Alberta, has moved from vice-chair to chair of the council.
Ron Stevenson, a beef producer from Walton, Ont., has been named the BCRC’s new vice-chair.
Fred Lozeman, a beef producer from Claresholm, Alta., has been elected to a second term as the finance chair. Having completed two one-year terms as the BCRC chair, Matt Bowman, a beef producer from Thornloe, Ont., has now moved into a past-chair position on the council.
SPG directors elected
Robyn Henry of Hodgeville and Stuart Lawrence from Rosetown have been elected to the board of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers.
SPG welcomes back Brad Blackwell from Dinsmore who was re-elected for another term.
There were 2,592 votes cast by 1,050 ballots in this year’s election. Nearly all votes were received through the online voting platform. The final vote results are:
- Robyn Henry – 712
- Brad Blackwell – 612
- Stuart Lawrence – 560
- Donald Gaudet – 452
- John Bumbac – 256
CFGA presents leadership award
Ray Robertson has won the 2022 Canadian Forage and Grassland Association’s Leadership Award.
Robertson has been the Ontario Forage Council’s general manager since 2000.
During that time, he has worked to ensure that OFC’s membership has increased yearly.
Robertson developed educational programs, equipment demonstrations, a newsletter and website.
He also developed the Ontario Hay Marketing Forum from which the Ontario Hay and Forage Co-op was born.
He was a founding Ontario director of the CFGA, including serving as chair and past-chair.
Robertson has been involved in forage fact-finding and marketing missions for Ontario and Canada on behalf of the CFGA, visiting other countries.
