Graduates of Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP) receive advanced standing in University of Guelph Master’s programs

Jan 29, 2014

Guelph, ON - Graduates of the Advanced Agricultural LeadershipProgram (AALP) who wish to gain their MBA or MA at University of Guelph will be granted advance standing, equivalent to two elective courses.

To take advantage of this opportunity, participants need to successfully complete AALP and gain acceptance into either U of G’s Master of Business Administration in Food and Agribusiness Management or the Master of Arts in Leadership.

Janet Horner, Chair of the Rural Ontario Institute, the organization that delivers AALP, calls this decision “groundbreaking” saying, “AALP graduates not only benefit from the learnings within the program, but receive a significant credit when entering one of these premiere Master’s programs.”

The advanced standing designation will create savings of both time and money for AALP grads going on to further studies. Horner continues, “Roughly speaking, AALP grads will save about $5,000 in tuition and approximately four months of online course work and time.”

Sylvain Charlebois, Associate Dean Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Management and Economics at U of G explains, “This is the first time advance standing has been granted to any of our Master’s Programs. We believe that the AALP curriculum provides the real-life learning required to succeed in either of our MBA or MA programs.”

Advanced standing will be considered for the next intake of MBA and MA students and applications are due March 31, 2014. Visit the College of Management and Economics Executive Programs website at www.uoguelph.ca/cme/executive-programs for more information.

AALP is delivered by the Rural Ontario Institute (ROI). Established in 1984, the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP) has graduated over 400 leaders who are now making a positive difference across Ontario and beyond.

Source: AALP

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.