Highlights from the Canadian Cattle Young Leaders Spring Forum

Jun 07, 2023

Each spring, Canadian Cattle Young Leaders (CYL) mentees from across Canada gather for the the annual Spring Forum. This three-day event, which was held from May 30 to June 1, 2023 in Calgary, AB and the surrounding area, offered this year's 16 program participants a range of industry tours and training designed to enhance their knowledge and connections in the Canadian beef industry.

One of the key features of the Spring Forum is the speaker sessions throughout the three days, where industry experts shared their insights on various topics. Crystal MacKay of Utensil.ca provided valuable guidance on building your personal and professional brands in agriculture. Dennis Laycraft and Ryder Lee from the Canadian Cattle Association spoke on leadership in the beef industry. Elanco's Chief Animal Welfare Officer, Dr. Michelle Calvo-Lorenzo, joined the young leaders to speak to how we can meet our animal welfare goals by investing in ourselves and our teams. And New Holland's David Zeinstra joined the young leaders at the Vanee Farm Centre in High River, AB to shed light on the latest precision agriculture technology, showcasing innovative approaches to maximize efficiency and productivity.

In an exciting addition to this year's program, young leaders collaborated in groups to tackle farm succession planning problems through a case study competition organized by MNP. Teams analyzed different scenarios of an example farm with financials provided, discussed solutions and financial implications, and presented their findings to a panel of judges. This interactive exercise enabled the young leaders to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills while addressing real-life challenges in the agricultural sector.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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