Cow-calf operator Dan Darling of Castleton, Ont., was elected president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association last month. Third-generation rancher David Haywood-Farmer of Savona, B.C., is the new vice-president while Dave Solverson of Alberta moves to the past president’s chair in the CCA’s new executive.
Matt Bowman is the new president of Beef Farmers of Ontario and Joe Hill is vice-president. Bowman and his family run a 110-head Charolais-based cow-calf operation, cash crop 700 acres of oats, wheat, barley and canola, operate a seed cleaning plant and a U-pick strawberry patch near Temiskaming in Northern Ontario. Joe Hill and his family run a 200-head, short-keep feedlot operation and crop 800 acres of owned and rented land near Fergus. Also elected to the 12-person board of directors were Hereford breeder Dave Cavanagh from Peterborough County, cow-calf producer Kim Sytsma from Leeds and feedlot director Tom Wilson of Lambton County.
Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) has selected Bryan and Cathy Gilvesy, of Y U Ranch in Tillsonburg as the 2016 winners of the Ontario Environmental Stewardship ward (TESA), sponsored by the RBC Royal Bank. Y U Ranch is a grass-based beef operation featuring Texas Longhorn cattle raised under range conditions. The Gilvesys have demonstrated their commitment to the environment by focusing on water and soil health, managing grasslands and protecting wildlife habitat. The family has been involved in several environmental projects such as the Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program, installed nesting structures to support wildlife diversity, created buffer areas along waterways, managed forest areas to provide wildlife habitat and improve carbon storage, and established a habitat for native pollinator species.
Kevin Aitken of Maple-Dale Farms from the Holstein area in Grey County is the winner of the 2016 Ontario Pasture Award. In 2009, Aitken seeded all of his unpastured land into permanent pasture. Since then, 5,000 feet of waterline have been installed to provide fresh water to each paddock to provide a consistent supply at all times. Pasture is his main source of feed from roughly mid-April to mid-November for his 97 cow-calf pairs plus some custom grazed cattle and a few dairy cattle. Hay is purchased for his own herd during the winter. The Ontario award is sponsored by Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO), Mapleseed and the Ontario Forage Council.
Jim Clark, executive director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association and the Ontario Corn Fed Beef program is the 2016 recipient of the Canadian Cattlemen Association’s Beef Industry Innovation and Sustainability Award. Managed by the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association, the Ontario Corn Fed Beef program has grown into the largest producer-owned branded beef program in Canada.
Dr. Alastair Cribb, a professor of clinical pharmacology and dean of the University of Calgary faculty of veterinary medicine was recently given the Veterinarian of the Year Award by the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association. After completing his DVM degree at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 1984 he spent two years in mixed practice in the Maritimes, before obtaining a PhD in pharmacogenetics/clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto. He followed this with a post-doctoral fellowship at Dalhousie, four years in drug safety assessment with Merck & Co and 10 years as a professor of clinical pharmacology at the Atlantic Veterinary College before being named dean of the Calgary faculty in 2006.
The AVMA also named Dr. Trevor Hook, a mixed animal practitioner from Ponoka as the winner of its Young Veterinarian of the Year Award.
Dr. Kevin MacAulay, a companion animal practitioner from Calgary, was elected president of the AVMA.
Duncan Barnett of 150 Mile House, B.C., received a Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award presented by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston at a ceremony in Vancouver in early March to mark his nearly 15-year fight to protect British Columbia’s agricultural lands and environment from invasive plants. Barnett began by helping to develop the Invasive Plant Strategy in 2001, then by chairing the newly formed Invasive Species Council of British Columbia in 2004.
Aaron Brower is staying for another term as president of the Western Stock Growers’ Association with the support of first vice-president James Hargrave, second vice-president Ryan Copithorne, treasurer Phil Rowland and manager Lindsye Dunbar.
The 2016 board of the Alberta Forage Industry Network includes chair Christine Flukerth of Olds College, vice-chair Surya Acharya with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, treasurer Nora Paulovich with North Peace Applied Research, secretary Brian Palichuk with North Star Seeds and directors John Bland, Cyrus Weasel Fat, Doug Wray and Lyndon Mansell. The board advisers are Grant Lastiwka and Holly Mayer and administrator Kristen McDonald.
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