My First GOAL Experience

If I were to say it has been an exciting start to the 2014 Canadian Junior Angus Association (CJAA) year, that would be an understatement. It was my privilege to attend the Guiding Outstanding Angus Leaders (GOAL) conference February 15-17 in Calgary, Alberta. CJAA members attended from coast to coast, with an outstanding turnout of 52 members, 26 being first-time attendees. Being my first GOAL conference, all of my expectations were exceeded and it was the best experience to say the least! 

I flew into Calgary from Toronto Friday evening. Events were underway by Saturday afternoon starting with icebreakers and social activities. Shortly after, our first speaker of the event, Alvin Law spoke of “Alvin’s Law of Life.” Combining his life story, being born without arms, with personal insight, his motivation to change his attitude proved that happiness can enhance personal satisfaction. I remember a quote Alvin spoke about quite vividly. He said, “All professional development starts with personal assessment and taken together, everyone wins!” It’s safe to say that he was definitely a highlight of the weekend! 

Later that evening, we engaged in an etiquette dinner presentation by Taylor Hughes, in which we were taught how to “properly” eat a five course dinner. Our skills were definitely put to the test with an outstanding steak dinner to follow. 

The Foundation Legacy Scholarship Panel Discussion was a high point to end off this great evening. Patrick Holland, Breanna Anderson, Katie Dietrich, Travis Hunter and Katie Olynyk were the five finalists who participated in the discussion. CEO Rob Smith as well as Canadian Angus directors asked intuitive questions about the ever-changing beef industry. All participants were very sharp with their answers and I think it is safe to say the beef industry and Angus breed have never looked brighter.

It was an early start to Sunday morning. The first guest speaker of the day, Art Froelich, the President of Agriview, delivered a presentation about agriculture in a global perspective. It was exciting to hear that Canada will be one of the five countries needed to feed the world.  Following Froelich, Dr. Tom Pittman spoke about “Calving from A-Z,” which everyone found very informative and interesting.

Later in the afternoon, a special presentation from former Summer Marketing Interns, Matt Bates, Karla Ness and Katie Dietrich brought back the inner child in many of us! Dressing up from a cow to the farmer, everyone participated in the presentation that was used to engage public school children in the beef industry.  

Following our guest speakers, we boarded a bus to see the big reveal of Angus Central. I, as well as the other Juniors were very impressed. The office tour was not solely the reason for the visit; there were also special presentations to be made. The New Zealand World Angus Forum youth team grand and reserve champion teams and the champion individual received awards. 

We were then let loose to tour Irvine’s Tack & Western Wear and buy all those “needed” jeans and cowboy boots for the upcoming show season. 

The night ended with lots of laughs at the Jubilation’s Dinner Theatre. With an excellent dinner intertwined with scenes from the television show Friends, we all had a night to remember. 

The last and final day of GOAL started with a presentation from CJAA President Michael Hargrave during which he spoke of the numerous opportunities that the CJAA has to offer youth. Following, Fred Taylor, grading contractor for Cargill, talked about when we produce a product, we need to understand the needs and wants of our consumer. The third talk of the day came from Kim McConnell, former founder and CEO of AdFarm. McConnell illustrated the consumption differences between the western world and some of the poorest nations, comparing our habits and what this means in the role of agriculture today. The final presentation came from one of our own members, Austen Anderson, who shared information about the Cattleman’s Young Leaders (CYL) program. 

Closing remarks came from two of the retiring CJAA directors, Katie Wright and Austen Anderson. We thank both of these members for their dedication to the program and for inspiring others to be involved.

From the friendships, memories and experiences I have had, I look forward to attending this conference once again next year, as well as many more CJAA events this summer!


Posted by Sophie Wotten
Feedback: cdnangus@cdnangus.ca

Return of a Familiar Face

I have only been working in Angus Central for a few days, yet I am already underway on some very exciting projects. For the next 7 months, I will be working alongside Director of Breed Development Kajal Devani as the Canadian Angus Association’s Research and Special Projects Intern. 

One of our major projects for the summer is the development of genomically enhanced expected progeny differences (GE-EPDs) for a few very economically important traits: teat and udder conformation, as well as feet and leg structure. To develop EPDs for these traits, we will be sampling around 1,500 cows to compare their teat, udder, feet and leg structure with their genetic make-up. I will be visiting producer farms to score the cattle for these traits, and collecting hair samples so that we can run the HD50K marker panel on those animals. Essentially from this information, we will be able to correlate each cows genetic make-up with their conformation for these traits, to come up with GE-EPDs.

Currently we are in the process of applying for grant funding and selecting cattle to be used for the project. We will be using animals from several seedstock producers in the area, as well as animals from the University of Alberta’s Kinsella Research Station. We are very excited to get underway with data collection for this project.

Another item that we are working on is the development of a Canadian Angus Performance Program newsletter that will be sent to producers each quarter. Within this we will be writing some useful articles about topics surrounding the performance program. In the first newsletter, we will be including information about how our members can get funding through Verified Beef Production (VBP) to put in a livestock scale on their farm. We will be breaking this information down into the respective provinces, since there is different funding available in each province, and therefore a different application process. We want all of our members to be on our Performance Program, so we want to keep you informed of opportunities where you can receive funding to do so. Stay tuned for our first newsletter to come out in early March.

I look forward to an exciting summer, and as always if you have any questions do not hesitate to call me at any time.

 

Posted by Matt Bates
Feedback: mbates@cdnangus.ca

Saving the Earth One Cow at a Time

The following post is courtesy of Quentin Stevick. Quentin is the former Chief Beef Cattle Production, Agrifirma Russia who was caring for the Canadian Angus cattle sent to Russia last fall. He sent us these words just before his contract ended.

I spent the afternoon riding “Feda” the black stallion.

We rode to the Angus cows and their calves.  They were peacefully grazing on land that probably never had a domestic beef animal on it. I rode across land that had been grazed by the cows. The benefit of these cattle to the land is obvious to me.

We take sunshine and water. We grow grass and trees. Grass takes carbon dioxide from the air and sequesters it in the soil, building organic matter. The cows come and graze the grass. The grass has a haircut. The plant then gives its roots a haircut, leaving the roots to decompose, making tiny openings in the earth for moisture to seep into. This helps control run off and flooding.

Ninety percent of what a cow consumes is returned to the ecosystem. We use herd effect and short duration, close proximity grazing to complete the nutrient cycle. The cows’ manure and urine is placed back on the earth and trampled into the soil, allowing contact with the micro-organisms to return these nutrients to the grass. The cycle repeats its self. The calves use their mother’s milk to grow and we harvest the meat that results.

Sustainability. Every day the cattle graze the land we do the following.

1.   Avoid nutrient transfer of plant material from the fields to the farms.
2.   Reduce the petroleum products used.
3.   Keep the cattle from the mud of the pens.

Feedback: cdnangus@cdnangus.ca

Manage and Market What You Measure

Representatives from BIXS (Holly Labrie), ViewTrack (Hubert Lau), BIO (Scott Bothwell), Quantum Genetics (Jim Palmer) and the Canadian Angus Association (Kajal Devani) travelled a significant length of Alberta with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s Beef Specialist Pat Ramsey this past week holding producer meetings with information on tools and technology available to the Canadian beef industry.

These information sessions were open to all producers and industry partners and a great opportunity for me to learn more about regional ranching and our members and their customers. It was also an opportunity for me to share with some of our members and their commercial customers information about EPDs and genomics.

Here are some comments from the audience:

• ‘I didn’t realize that EPDs are so easy to use, they have always been there I just didn’t know how to use them so I never looked at them.’
• ‘I’m quite excited about the possibilities genomics will bring us, I would like to have a way to select for disease resistance, fly resistance and feed efficiency.’
• ‘Marketing has changed so much since I started ranching, this was really good information, there are a few very easy things I can do to market my calves better.’
• ‘I think BIXS will be very good for our industry, we need to get carcass data back for our calves.’
• ‘It’s good to learn new things, it makes me feel less old to learn something new.'

If you weren't able to attend a workshop and would like more information about EPDs, please check out our EPD 101 video on YouTube.

Posted by Kajal Devani
Feedback: kdevani@cdnangus.ca

Angus - Champion of the World 2013 Competition

The "Angus - Miss North America 2013" and "Angus - Miss World 2013" title was won by DMM Blackcap Essence 7Y. She was also the 2013 Canadian Western Agribition Grand Champion. This win gives Miller Wilson Angus of Bashaw, Alberta, Canada, back to back "Angus - Miss North America" and "Angus - Miss World" success.

The "Angus - Champion of North America 2013" and "Angus - Champion of the World 2013" title was also won by a Canadian entry. Red Wilbar Longitude 646Y, owned by Redrich Farms of Forestburg, Alberta, Canada. He was named 2013 Canadian Western Agribition Supreme Champion Bull as well as Canadian Naitional Champion Bull at Edmonton Farm Fair.

The "Angus - Champion of the World 2013" Competition took place between December 1-7, 2013 on www.angusbreeder.net and Facebook's "Angus Breeder" page.

Black and red Angus entries from 43 different countries were evaluated by judges from 30 different countries. 

This is a unique event showcasing genetics from literally every corner of the globe. The initiative creates awareness, builds goodwill and encourages international trade. 

The official judges were:

1. Hector Bonomi (Uruguay)

2. Harley van Rhyn (South Africa)

3. Henrik Andersen (Denmark)

4. Bill Biglieni (Canada)

5. The General Public (Representing 30 different countries)

Each of the five judges' rankings made up 20% of the final results.

For a complete list of classes and results, please visit www.angusbreeder.net

Congratulations to Miller Wilson Angus and Redrich Farms!

Feedback: cdnangus@cdnangus.ca