As my semester comes to an end, I am looking forward to what the summer months await for me. I will be interning with GROWMARK this summer, where I will have the opportunity to travel to Illinois for training and to deliver a final presentation. Aside from my job, I plan to travel to the Agricultural Media Summit in Minnesota with a group of Canadian Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (CanACT) students representing the University of Guelph. In my spare time, I plan on volunteering with the Listowel Agriculture Society and the Perth County Plowmen’s, as well as staying involved with my local riding association -nurturing my passion for politics.

I would also like to thank all those who read my blogs and engaged in dialogue on the issues through commenting. Blogging has become a real enjoyment of mine, and I plan to continue blogging throughout the summer months.

The recent ban on battery cages, housing chickens in cages, in Germany went into effect January of this year and has created a shortage of eggs during the holiday season. Because decorating hard-boiled eggs is an important tradition in Europe, many grocery stores are having to import roughly half of their eggs just  to keep up with the Easter holiday demand. The country was not prepared for the transition period between cages and converting to another housing method. A spokesperson for chicken farmers, Gerd Sonnleitner, President of the National Union of Farmers, says, “With the cage ban we have lost one in five of the country’s chicken population. Right now we are producing only about half of our eggs ourselves.” This problem will extend far beyond the Easter holiday season.

Click icon to play audio from AgWired with Mike Haley speaking about social media

With the emergence of social media’s ability to communicate to a wider audience base, it has become imperative that the providers of our food, farmers, learn the ropes of this new technology. The AgChat Foundation is addressing just that. Its primary purpose is to help empower farmers by teaching them how to connect to communities using social media tools, such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, or YouTube. The foundations goal is to help equip farmers with the necessary tools to be able to advocate  for their industry using these web-based technologies. The following is a few of the programs areas that the foundation will be focussing on:

• Basic SM webinars designed for farmers
• Mid-Level training workshops
• Advanced Ag & SM mastermind group
• Data analysis
• Technology scholarships
• Strategic campaign coordination

The AgChat Foundation is governed by a board of directors and an advisory board. They are leaders in the industry and are currently experts in the field of social media.

Quebec sheep farmers are struggling this Easter because of the latest adjustment made to the province’s revenue stabilization program. The recent changes have prompted farmers from selling sheep directly from the farm gate.

This is a big blow to consumers especially, Coptic Christians and Orthodox Jews who count on purchasing sheep to be slaughtered as a part of their traditional Easter custom.

With the expansion of the number  of the province’s sheep producers over the past year, subsidy payments are now measured through slaughterhouse sales rather than the number of ewes, and farmers are facing a shift in the industry from farm gate to live markets’ sales. Farmers still have the option of selling direct but then they would lose the government subsidy and that represents two-thirds of their costs.

Derek Haley

Click icon to play audio-Derek Haley speaks to CKNX Radio

Derek Haley, a researcher and professor at Ontario’s Veterinary College, is conducting research on different ways to reduce animal stress which can translate into an increase in meat quality. This research will be important for farmers especially if they are looking for different ways to add value on their product. The research comes at an important time as many consumers are starting to become more conscious about the food they eat, and are searching for food that is raised using an ethical approach. This well-rounded approach offers a reduced stressed environment for the animals and an enhanced quality meat for consumers.

Jiana Escobar

I am pleased to invite a guest blogger for this weeks story-Jiana Escobar. Jiana is a student attending California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She is majoring in agriculture science and communications with a minor in English. Jiana is passionate about communicating about agriculture in her role as second vice-president of the National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow.

The California sunshine is glowing and the livestock industry is in full swing. Around our golden state you will find lambs, piglets, calves and foals running the open fields. To me the future of the livestock industry is found in the heart and passion of livestock youth exhibitors. The junior livestock competition season is fast approaching and kids are running around the state finding their future market animal projects. My family and I have been involved in junior livestock competitions for over 10 years. Livestock shows have taught me the trails and tribulations of the livestock industry. This experience has been the start for many successful agriculturalists in California which makes livestock competitions extremely important to the future of agriculture. In the past few years California has seen a decline in support for competitive livestock shows which has caused junior exhibitors to struggle to keep their projects profitable. Each year we see smaller and smaller competitions which has lead to the depletion of many shows. A perfect example of this depletion is the Junior Grand National Stock Show held at The Cow Palace in Daly City, Ca.  The first Junior Grand National Stock Show was held in 1946 with thousands of animals lining the buildings. Today the Stock Show has gone from a month long show to a week with less then half of the livestock it originally attracted. Funds for livestock shows are increasingly going away which is only hurting the youth and the future of the livestock industry. Seeing the trends of the Junior Grand National Stock Show not only effects that particular show but competitions cross California. Shows are in desperate need for more support for the livestock industry to keep this competition alive. It is shown that California sets trends for the rest of the agriculture industry in the United States but the trend of depleting livestock competitions must stop before it reaches other states!

Jiana Escobar showing a steer

Adam Escobar showing swine

This past weekend, the Canadian Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (CanACT) Club and the Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge (SPARK) collaborated to create a display entitled “Students Communicating Agriculture.” The display was showcased at the College Royal. College Royal, a tradition at the University of Guelph since 1925, is the largest student-run open house in Canada. Over 60 clubs participated in the Open House weekend providing displays to inform the public about their club and how they are serving the student body. The judges were impressed by the various displays but CanACT was awarded first prize for best Ontario Agricultural College club display.