Canadian Cattle Young Leaders
Rob Zeigler received his master’s degree in ruminant nutrition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2020 and a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Wyoming. Although Zeigler didn’t grow up in an agriculture family, he quickly found himself immersed in agriculture in his early teens. He now works as a livestock production and marketing specialist with the University of Wyoming and in technical assistance with Feedlot Health Management Services out of Okotoks, Alta. His mentor is James Bekkering, who is an owner/ operator along with his brother, David, of TFS Feedlots in Taber, Alta. They operate custom backgrounding and finishing yards in the Taber and Vauxhall area.
Zoë Gould grew up on a cow-calf operation just outside Consort, Alta. She graduated from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 2019 and worked as a mixed animal veterinarian for a few years at Oyen Veterinarian Services. During school and while working she was always involved in the farm. The family farm has expanded and is now a mixed grain and cattle operation. Gould is on the farm full-time now with her main role being cattle and grass management. Her mentor is Arno Doerksen, a third-generation farmer/rancher at Gem, Alta. He is part of a multi-generation family farming and ranching enterprise that includes purebred and commercial cattle, irrigated cropland and has recently expanded to direct-market forage-finished beef.
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Congrats to Dr. Keri Hudson Reykdal, who was awarded the 2024 Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) Small Animal Practitioner Award during the annual CVMA Awards Gala on June 26. Hudson Reykdal, a graduate of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, spent the first 20 years of her career in solo mixed rural practice in Ashern, Man. Alongside her regular hospital work, Reykdal operated a fully mobile veterinary clinic, offering care, vaccination, and spay and neuter procedures to surrounding First Nation communities and other locations. In late 2020, she closed her mixed animal practice and moved to Thompson, Man., where she initially provided temporary services to the northern community but soon established a new veterinary clinic to meet the overwhelming demand.
Congratulations to DJ Wassenaar and Matt Bergman of Haybury Farms Inc. located at Jarvis, Ont. They were named Ontario’s Out- standing Young Farmers for 2024 at their regional event held near Guelph on August 22. They started in 2018 when they looked at field management and row crop farming a little differently than traditional farming. Their focus was towards profit per acre. They decided the best way to maximize hay acres was rotation with organics, so they did 25 acres of organic corn as a trial. Increasing to 400 acres of organic corn and soybean rotation in 2019 lead to the creation of Claybank Organics. In 2021 they expanded into northern Ontario/Algoma District, purchasing a farm to grow straight timothy hay for overseas customers. Now in 2024, Claybank Organics produces 1,000 acres a year of organic corn, soybeans and hay, and Haybury Farms 3,200 acres. Bergman manages and makes most of the crop input decisions. Wassenaar is the face of the farm and handles sales and customer relations while constantly chasing new opportunities.
BCRC announced the participants for the 2024-25 Beef Researcher Mentorship Program. Mentees include Dr. Katie Waine, University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine (mentored by Dr. Steve Hendrick and Shylo Penrod); Dr. Simon Lafontaine at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (mentored by Leah Rodvang and Fawn Jackson); Dr. Aneesh Thakur, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatoon, Sask. (mentored by Dr. Dorothy Erickson and Dr. Denis Nagel); Dr. Dinesh Dardawal, Western College of Veterinary Medicine (mentored by Lance Leachman); and Dr. Vanessa Cowen, Western College of Veterinary Medicine (mentored by Shelby Corey and Jenifer Heyden).
Congrats to Dr. Cheryl Waldner, a professor and researcher at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine, who won the 2024 Canadian Beef Industry Award for Outstanding Research and Innovation. She was named to the hon- our during the 2024 Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Saskatoon. Waldner is the current NSERC/BCRC Industrial Research Chair in One Health and production-limiting diseases. Her work focuses on research in health and productivity of cow-calf herds with a special interest in developing tools for on-farm decisions using new technologies. Waldner’s extensive research has contributed to the development of tools for veterinarians and producers to monitor antimicrobial resistance and identify respiratory viruses and bacteria, including the recent creation of a Johne’s disease testing decisions tool to help manage the disease in beef herds.
Kelly Somerville has been appointed as the new CEO for the Livestock Research Innovation Corporation, replacing retiring CEO Mike McMorris. Somerville, a University of Guelph animal science graduate, has an extensive background in the beef industry and co-owns a small herd of purebred Angus cattle. She started at LRIC in 2023 and has been heavily involved in developing and leading many of the organization’s current projects. This includes the farming innovation tour series to introduce government, academia and industry representatives first-hand to farmers and innovation on livestock farms, the Horizon Series webinars, and the Engineering a Better Farm initiative to help bring engineering expertise and innovation to livestock farming by building relationships with engineering schools at several universities. Somerville works closely with LRIC’s membership and with its international research advisory committee and emerging trends and Opportunities Committee.
