Well the first 4 speakers are in the history books and we have had an excellent start!
The Honourable Preston Manning opened the conference up with an excellent talk on the tools of democracy and how individuals can use the democratic tools to help motiviate change.
Brian McConkey gave an excellent talk on how markets and end users are pushing the environmental standards a lot of us are seeing in the agriculture industry.
Wendy Holm looked at how policy is shaped in the industry and looked at how sustainable some things are and are not.
After an excellent Lunch Art Froehlich gave an outstanding presentation on global markets and how everything really works. I would recommend that if you ever get a chance to listen to Art give a talk (from what I understand is not very often) or get a chance to pick his brain, DO IT! He is very insightful and knowledgable.
So far the underlying theme of the conference so far is partnerships and co-operations. This is something that we all in the agriculture industry need to start looking at ways to make strategic partnerships that move our own interests forward but the interests of the entire industry forward
More to come later.....(we also have some excellent speaker interviews we will be posting online in the coming days too)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
At the saca conference
We had a great supper last night with quite a few of the speakers.
Preston Manning is kicking the show off this morning. We are really excited to hear His talk.
I will be trying to post some highlights throughout the day.
Stay tuned!
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Monday, November 22, 2010
Extension, Extension, Extension
Extension is an interesting topic. Before I took the job I am in now I had no idea what extension was. To me extension was how long my favourite team signed their best player for.
In the past 4 + years I have learned a lot about extension and what it means to the agriculture industry. There is a constant need from prodcers to get their hands on the latest information. In an industry that seems to get more and more complex by the day this appetite for information is growing exponentially.
From my understanding, it used to be that the Government or or Department of Agriculture was THE place to go for all of the latest information that you could trust. Over the years, the Governments have scaled back how much "extension" they do and just in the last few years are trying to get back into it. Problem is the extension world is full of companies/consultants promoting their products/ideas with information generated from their own trials etc.
While most of the information out there is of good quality, there is the possibility for a few to be a little far fetched or totally inaccurate. All this means is that the producer needs to think logically and try not to get caught up in the sales pitch. Don't lose your head, and try not to do deals on impulse. Take some time, talk to some people and come to a rational decision.
At the end of the day remember one thing, just because you have heard or read something does not make it true (it also does not make it false) but what you need to do is investigate and come to your own conclusion.
GO RIDERS!
In the past 4 + years I have learned a lot about extension and what it means to the agriculture industry. There is a constant need from prodcers to get their hands on the latest information. In an industry that seems to get more and more complex by the day this appetite for information is growing exponentially.
From my understanding, it used to be that the Government or or Department of Agriculture was THE place to go for all of the latest information that you could trust. Over the years, the Governments have scaled back how much "extension" they do and just in the last few years are trying to get back into it. Problem is the extension world is full of companies/consultants promoting their products/ideas with information generated from their own trials etc.
While most of the information out there is of good quality, there is the possibility for a few to be a little far fetched or totally inaccurate. All this means is that the producer needs to think logically and try not to get caught up in the sales pitch. Don't lose your head, and try not to do deals on impulse. Take some time, talk to some people and come to a rational decision.
At the end of the day remember one thing, just because you have heard or read something does not make it true (it also does not make it false) but what you need to do is investigate and come to your own conclusion.
GO RIDERS!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Its been awhile
Its been awhile between blog postings. It is amazing how fast time goes and how busy a person can get. I have some interesting thoughts on extension and how we our messages out to producers that I will share next week.
But I just wanted to remind you that the SACA Conference is not to far away!
Conference goes from November 30 - December 1 and it is filling up fast!
There are more details on our website http://www.farmingsmarter.com/ on how to register (online or by calling the office) as well as the full agenda etc.
You can go right to the online registration page by clicking on the following link http://farmingsmarter.com/events/register-event.php?eventID=5
Have a great weekend!
But I just wanted to remind you that the SACA Conference is not to far away!
Conference goes from November 30 - December 1 and it is filling up fast!
There are more details on our website http://www.farmingsmarter.com/ on how to register (online or by calling the office) as well as the full agenda etc.
You can go right to the online registration page by clicking on the following link http://farmingsmarter.com/events/register-event.php?eventID=5
Have a great weekend!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
IMG00034-20101109-0937.jpg
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Edge on winter lentil herbicide trial
More pics to follow.
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Thursday, November 4, 2010
Ottawa Rejects Takeover Of Potash Corp
Ottawa Rejects Takeover Of Potash Corp
Click on the link above to read the story about Ottawa rejecting the takeover bid of Potash Corp.
Click on the link above to read the story about Ottawa rejecting the takeover bid of Potash Corp.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Richard Playing Cards at Camrose meetings
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Mike wearing his dealer costume
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Blogging from the 780
We are up in Camrose for our yearly ARECA training and meetings. It is nice to be able to chat with all the other associations from all over the province and hear how their year went.
Interesting to hear from Ward Toma from the ACPC talk about the future of the prairie canola variety trials. Hopefully something will be in place for this spring.
ACPC has some excellent staff and are a treat to work with. It goes to show if you have the right people in place your organization will accomplish some great things.
Have talked to quite a few people about the Western Grazing Conference. I personally am not particularly strong in forages but it sounds like an excellent agenda. For more info go to www.areca.ab.ca
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Monday, November 1, 2010
Monday
Welcome to blog on this monday after Halloween. Hopefully everyone had a safe night and does not have to visit the dentist today!
I wonder if Halloween is a holiday created by dentists similar to those who think some "holidays" are nothing more than "Hallmark Holidays".
What is up this week? Well Ken, Shauna, Mike and myself are heading up to Camrose for the next three days to take in some ARECA meetings and training. It is always nice to get together with all the ARAs throughout the province and share stories of how everyone's year went. There are a few exciting things that are hopefully going to be coming out of the ARECA group in the next few months, so stay tuned!
For those of you wishing to register for the SACA Conference, there will still be staff in our office that would be happy to help get you registered. The number is 403-381-5118, or you can go and register online at http://www.farmingsmarter.com/
While you are on the Farming Smarter website, check out a bunch of the other projects we are working on. We are in the process up putting reports together for all of our projects and if there is something that you might be interested in finding out more info on, don't hesitate to get a hold of us.
As many of you are done or in the final stages of harvest, can't help but think to next year. What should you put in? What are seeded acres of certain crops going to be?
I wonder what the acres of winter wheat will be given the very wet fall we had and some of the challenges with getting the crop off for one.
I also wonder how many acres of Canola and Lentils will be seeded next year. As many of you know Lentil acres hit remarkable highs this year, and from what I have heard so far there were quite a few wrecks. How much will that influence the amount of seeded acres? Time will tell, but I think they might fall back into what normal averages are.
Thats all I got for today! Enjoy the nice November weather!
I wonder if Halloween is a holiday created by dentists similar to those who think some "holidays" are nothing more than "Hallmark Holidays".
What is up this week? Well Ken, Shauna, Mike and myself are heading up to Camrose for the next three days to take in some ARECA meetings and training. It is always nice to get together with all the ARAs throughout the province and share stories of how everyone's year went. There are a few exciting things that are hopefully going to be coming out of the ARECA group in the next few months, so stay tuned!
For those of you wishing to register for the SACA Conference, there will still be staff in our office that would be happy to help get you registered. The number is 403-381-5118, or you can go and register online at http://www.farmingsmarter.com/
While you are on the Farming Smarter website, check out a bunch of the other projects we are working on. We are in the process up putting reports together for all of our projects and if there is something that you might be interested in finding out more info on, don't hesitate to get a hold of us.
As many of you are done or in the final stages of harvest, can't help but think to next year. What should you put in? What are seeded acres of certain crops going to be?
I wonder what the acres of winter wheat will be given the very wet fall we had and some of the challenges with getting the crop off for one.
I also wonder how many acres of Canola and Lentils will be seeded next year. As many of you know Lentil acres hit remarkable highs this year, and from what I have heard so far there were quite a few wrecks. How much will that influence the amount of seeded acres? Time will tell, but I think they might fall back into what normal averages are.
Thats all I got for today! Enjoy the nice November weather!
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