Money will be used to advance machinery education
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
A $750,000 donation by Western Tractor Company to Lethbridge College will be used to further education with the latest equipment and technology.
The money will create the Western Tractor Technology Lab – a facility students will use to complete their Agricultural or Heavy Equipment Technician apprenticeship. Western Tractor Company will also supply the school with John Deere equipment, giving the students hands-on experience with the latest agricultural equipment.
Steven Dyck, Western Tractor Company’s President and General Manager, said the investment will provide farmers with the technicians they need as the industry continues to evolve.
“We know that it’s changing and this generational transition is going to embrace a completely different set of circumstances than the previous generation,” he said. “The complexity of farming has changed tremendously. Precision farming is going to take a different kind of technician (and) different kind of producer.”
Executives with Lethbridge College say the financial supports will help them continue producing agricultural equipment technicians “with marks more than 10 per cent above the provincial average.”
Lethbridge’s trades and technologies facility is expected to be completed in 2017. It will be the largest of its kind in south of Calgary.