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Founded in 1909, UFA Co-operative Limited is an Alberta-based agricultural co-operative with more than 120,000 member-owners. UFA’s network comprises more than 114 bulk fuel and Cardlock Petroleum locations, 34 Farm & Ranch Supply stores and a support office in Calgary, AB. Independent Petroleum Agents and over 1,000 UFA employees provide products, services and agricultural solutions to farmers, ranchers, members and commercial customers in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
takes a certain kind of ambition to do what farmers do. Between the hours and the hard labor, to the public scrutiny and bureaucratic maze running, it's not an easy task. While the agriculture industry feeds millions quietly tilling and producing behind the scenes, many forget that our food comes from the hands of real people with real stories.
Join us as we share stories from those with boots on the ground and unearth unique perspectives on agriculture's biggest conversations. It's time to grab your shovel and get to work. I'm Don Schaefer and this is Digging In with UFA.
The farm of today is not the same farm your grandfather remembers. Though many of the products that have sustained families generations over continue to nourish, the processes and tools used to realize that vision have fundamentally shifted. From artificial intelligence, aided yield prediction models, to on-the-farm social media influencers, the rapidly changing world of technology has simultaneously changed the way we farm.
Today we dig in on technology in agriculture.
Like so many young people who've grown up around the astounding technological achievements of the last 50 years, there is something to be said about our ability to adapt to the changing tools at our disposal. New technology means new ways to innovate, communicate, and change the way we produce. And the curiosity through education is how we shape the future of our crafts. How do we encourage that curiosity and momentum toward the future? Who do we look to for guidance and cultivation of that passion? We turn to someone like
Stuart Cullum.
My name is Stuart Cullum. I am currently the president of Red Deer Polytechnic here in central Alberta. My background is sort of half agriculture and half post-secondary. I grew up on a farm. I farmed for a number of years and I continue to dabble in agriculture, but I've also worked in the post-secondary industry for around 25 years. Most recently as president of Red Deer Polytechnic and prior to that president of Olds College. So I'm a big believer in obviously educating and training the next generation.
into all of the industries that matter to us here in Alberta and Canada and agriculture certainly is a big industry and I'm excited about the ways in which our institutions are training the talent that's needed for our sector.
mean, growing up on a farm is a privilege. I'm thankful for that opportunity and all that it provided to me in my formative years. It taught me a lot. Obviously, it me how to work hard. It taught me how to problem solve. It taught me how to enjoy and appreciate the environment that's around us and how to be productive in that environment and sustainable in that environment. So all of those important lessons, I think, have carried forward into my career.
that has been diverse. It's not just been in agriculture, it's been in other fields as well. But I'd say the understanding of how to utilize our environment to produce food and other products for society's benefit, I think is great to have that knowledge and understanding. But also understand the deep responsibility that we have as an agriculture sector or as citizens to protect our environment and steward that environment for not only what we need today, but what's required in the future.
You know, those are important sort of lifelong lessons that I've come to learn. And it really does start with being a farm kid and being a part of organizations like 4-H and others who really helped me to understand how to be responsible and really engaged in our agriculture systems.
I think one of the reasons why agriculture, you know, people who are in agriculture, who have experienced in agriculture, are so passionate about it is because it's so tangible. It is a complicated endeavor to, you know, to grow food and to see the results of agriculture production. There's so many variables involved, so much required of us as individuals and all the tools and technology that we have available to us.
We become very passionate about it because it is so tangible and there's just so much involved in that. It's just not about pushing a button and voila, it's about so much more than that. And it's often a lifestyle. Those that are involved in agriculture, it's often part and part with where they live, where they grow up. And it's just so much of our life that's integrated with the work of agriculture production.
I had the privilege of being a part of the team at Olds College. And in my period of time there at Olds College, we recognized the need to really double down on our focus in agriculture as an industry that matters to our economy in Alberta and as an industry that is gonna obviously matter indefinitely, I think, for society. So the question is, how do we as an institution ensure that we are leaderful in terms of supporting that position for the province and supporting
the talent and the young people that need to be a part of that. And technology was a big part in that. so decisions were made during that period of time and prior to my time that we need to be focused on technology integration and focused on how to be a champion and proponent of the utilization of technology to help the agriculture system become more productive, but also help it to be more environmentally sustainable. And that's not implying that it wasn't or isn't.
but it's recognizing that we need to be a part of the system that supports what we call smart agriculture process. And it is the case that over the last 20 to 40 years, agriculture has absolutely become more productive, meaning we're producing more and we're producing more with less. We use less water, we use less inputs, we're much more precise. So Canada, I think is a leader in the utilization of technology for increased productivity and enhanced environmental sustainability.
And institutions like Olds College, Lakeland College, Lethbridge College, and some of our universities that are focused on agriculture are a big part of that because they provide the programs that help students understand how to utilize technology, how to integrate technology, how to think critically, and problem solve around technology. So that's critically important. The other important part of that as well is the way in which our institutions have created the environments to support that work.
So if you go to Old's College, you'll notice that it's not just a farm anymore, it's a smart farm. It's a farm that really does utilize and integrate next generation technology. And that was a very intentional step for the institution. We recognized that we needed to really push the envelope when it comes to technology integration, even get ahead of where current production practices are.
because we knew that it was important that we are the place where lot of that technology can be tested, tried, demonstrated, validated. That's important for our industry. It's an important service to our industry to be an environment that does that. But you put a student in that environment and that is fantastic because now you have people who are trained to be, you know, agriculture producers or be a part of that agriculture system. And they're looking at what's working, what's not working, you know, what needs to change, what needs to be improved.
Those are the kinds of skill sets that they're then going to go into industry with and be incredibly valuable to a sector that needs to continue to keep up with the speed of technology and agriculture. So that was the kind of environment that we really tried to produce at Olds College to leverage the strong historical programming that was there. And that did a number of things. I think it improved the brand of the institution. It definitely enhanced the enrollment of the institution. A lot of students wanted to go to Olds College and I know
They want to go to others as well, other institutions who are doing similar things because they were going to get access to that next generation technology and they're going to be able to see some really, really cool things. So that was, I'd say, you know, an important result of that effort is it did increase enrollments, but it also diversified enrollments. What we noticed is we weren't just attracting the farm kids. We sure were, but we were attracting urban kids. We were attracting kids that were really interested in technology and now started to realize
I can get into my passion of technology in agriculture. Agriculture is a field that's now becoming more accessible in some ways to a broader demographic of potential students because of the utilization application of technology, because it is now business systems, it is automation, it is so much more than just shoveling bins and working with your hands and it's about all those other things. So that is another result I'd say.
Institutions like Olds and Lakeland and others that have focused on integration of technology, they've seen an increased enrollment and they've also seen a diversification of their enrollment, which is really, really exciting.
Growing up on the farm is a unique experience. Even in your description of what it was like, it's hard to capture the nuance of the beauty, the dedication, and the lessons that influence your entire life. In the modern era and through social media, however, it's easier than ever to portray that first-person perspective. Being able to share something as miraculous as the birthing of new life on the farm offers a glimpse into a world many people will never see. She immediately settles in and gets pushing.
And you can just see the feet and after about 20 minutes the calf is born. When people can experience these cornerstone moments that made you who you are, it brings you to a whole new level of being seen and it continues to bridge the gap between rural and urban communities. For a look into the world of the resonant voice influencing that merge, this is Charlotte Wucilich.
My name is Charlotte Wysilik and I grew up on a farm just north of Vermillion here in Alberta and agriculture has been a part of my life for a very long time and it continues to be so. I was in 4-H for almost all of the years that I could be in beef 4-H, outdoor and baking and I absolutely loved it and it was such a huge part and a special part of my time growing up.
and it still continues to be a part, whether I'm being a judge for communications or now connecting with members and friends I haven't seen from years ago, and we're starting to connect through the different events that we go together.
Our family as a mixed farm, raised beef cattle when I was growing up and then we added some sheep later on. We have poultry and then recently we have added some hogs into our farming plus of course grains and legumes. And then after I graduated from high school, I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. And over the summer for a number of years, I'd been working at our local agricultural society.
and I had been in the office working with all of the committee heads. I did all of the entries for the beef, equine, sheep, bench, competitive bench show exhibits. And I really enjoyed working in that side of agriculture, having something that was off of the farm, but was still really tied to agriculture. And it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. And after a little bit, my mom found an ad in a magazine.
from Edmonton and it was for the event management program through NAIT in Edmonton. And I took that and while I was taking that, it was all continuing education. So it was on weekends and then I had some other classes that were in the evenings. So my weekdays were absolutely wide open and I wanted to push myself to do something that would forward my learning. And I started a job at what was then Northlands, one of the ag societies in Alberta.
and I worked there on Farmfare International and I continued to work there for many years after. And then within that role, I was working as an Ag event coordinator. And then also I worked with all of the international incoming buyers and I have done that for Farmfare and agri-vision. And it's been part of the agriculture industry that I absolutely love. So now I'm able to...
work as a farmer full-time but also do some of that contract work on the side but still do it from here so I can take a pause from things when it's busy for some of that contract work if I'm busy during liming season but still be ingrained in that part of the industry that I absolutely love and that is within events specifically ag events.
Good morning. My name is Charlotte Wasilic from Chatsworth Farm. Today we are taking you on a tour of the farm during morning chores. I thought I would show you some of our farm fresh hikes, a little bit of the differences between chicken, duck and goose. We are out here at the cows to calf. in their pen and we have a cow that's having a calf. So I thought I'd hop on a live video and show you.
It started in 2020 and as many people were doing, a lot of people were at home, but things on the farm just kept happening. It was March and it was calving season, so there were lots of really exciting things happening on the farm. And I had seen a number of organizations that were just trying to keep in touch with their followers and their supporters and their customers. And one of the ways that they did that and the way that I really loved was
through virtual tours and a lot of zoos did that and one of the favorites that I had was through the Cincinnati Zoo and they would go around and they would choose an animal. Maybe it was a cheetah one day, maybe it was an aardvark another day and they would focus on that specific animal, talk about its lifestyle out in the wild and then what it was like living as that animal there at the zoo, what they eat, all of their behavior, all of the things that that animal would have within its life.
And so I thought that was just really interesting and it was so much fun to watch. And I thought, well, I can do this. It shouldn't be that hard. We don't maybe have as many species as a zoo has, but we certainly have enough animals and I can get really close and we're calving. So there's always a new baby to show. And so I started doing that. I went live on Facebook with my iPhone. So she's progressing really quickly. So she's pushing. So those are the contractions. She's going to keep pushing.
We are over the front shoulders. We're onto the torso. So she's gonna give a little break and then last push. And that was easy. We can hear the calf take a good breath in. Really easy and it was mostly meant for our family and friends at the time my cousins were just starting to have little families and their kids were at the age where what they were watching online would make sense to them.
and that was really fun to be able to just share it with them. But more and more people found it really interesting and they would ask questions that of course for us are every day today and very commonplace, but for them it's not common. They don't get to see a calf being born every day. So being able to highlight that was really special and we had some news media outlets pick it up and it just seemed to increase from there and from those virtual farm tours.
We went into hosting open farm days that August, and that led us to doing more farm to table sales. And that just continues on with the social media part of it. And through that, we have continued to share our day in a life on the farm here through Instagram and Facebook and giving people a look at what being a farmer is like, the highs and the lows and everything in between. It's no secret that technology
is evolving with unprecedented speed. Alongside that rapid growth are the faces of industries across the world because of it. How do we keep pace and use that collective momentum to change the agriculture industry for the better?
I don't think I'm concerned about the speed of technology. It is a challenge. think producers, and I was one once, you know, there's a lot that's coming at you. Plus just the normal stresses of agriculture production, there's so many things that can go wrong, or there's so many things that affect how successful you're going to be. You know, some of it's in your control, a lot of it's not. And so as technology and practice evolves, and as that evolution of technology and practice accelerates, it can become quite overwhelming.
And that's somewhat concerning, but it's also a reason why institutions like ours exist, right? We want to put students in those kinds of environments so that they can figure out how to respond quicker, how to ask the right kinds of questions, how to become maybe faster adopters of technology. But there's a few fundamentals of technology adoption in agriculture. It usually needs to be proven and the risk profile needs to be significantly mitigated.
Most producers don't have multiple cycles in a year to try stuff. They often only have one, right? So the amount of risk associated with the utilization and application of new technology in practice is pretty high. So that need to see proven technology or at least proven to a point where they're willing to accept the risk is really, really important. And again, that's where institutions like Olds and Lakeland and Lethbridge and UC and UVA and others in this province, I think that's where they can provide those kinds of environments to support
that and I think as well there's an appetite within agriculture to utilize specialized expertise more than perhaps there has been in the past. I think gone are the days where farmers and producers feel like they need to be jacks of all trades. They generally are. They generally are quite diversified in their skill sets but they're utilizing consultants more. They're utilizing experts more and they're willing to reach out more and I think the next generation is more willing to do that as well.
they recognize that they're going to need to lean on a community in order to be successful as they apply technology and practice. you know, those things encourage me. I'm not saying it's not still a bit, you know, concerning as technology continues to accelerate, but I think we have an appetite within our agriculture sector to utilize experts, utilize best practice. And there's, think there's a real progressive nature within the agriculture community.
move forward. And I think the evidence is there that that's happening. mean, Central or Western Canada and Canada in general, our agriculture system is considered one of the most highly advanced technologically agriculture systems in the world. So I think that there is evidence that we have a sector that's willing to sort of try to keep up with the pace of change. And we're going to need to continue to focus on that if we're going to continue to lead as a system.
incredible contribution from social media is the ease at which we are able to learn from one another. Popular media platforms give you curated and instantaneous access to peer into the lives of people you may never meet. Like telephone wires stretched across vast distances, we get the opportunity to learn from each other's lived experiences and grow in ways we never thought possible. Well, as farmers and producers, our
Livelihood is based upon someone wanting to buy something that we grow. And maybe it's not exactly what we grow, but it's what our neighbours grow and what our neighbours across the country grow. And it's really important that people have an appreciation and understand and value what we as farmers are doing. Because if they don't appreciate or value or understand any of what we're doing, they're really not going to care all that much. And more and more people are
putting a lot of care and attention into understanding where all of their food comes from. And it's such a cliche where your food comes from, but it's really true. And giving people the opportunity, there hasn't been a better moment in time to be able to do that because we all have phones with us. And it's so easy to take a picture and say, I am out feeding the pigs today and showing people just what that looks like because for a lot of people,
they don't have that experience or they just aren't able to be close to that in a physical way. So giving them that through pictures and videos is the next best thing. And being open and being relatable and being humble about the fact and also being very transparent about everything. And I think that's especially important for our farm. So we'll show you.
a calf being born, maybe it's through a c-section, and then we'll show you, maybe it's the next week, maybe it's in a couple months, we'll show you an animal at our butcher dropping that animal off as an animal walking off the trailer, and then going within the next three to four weeks and picking that animal up. It's all cut and wrapped and we're putting it into tubs to haul it home to label it and put it in our freezers. So really giving people that holistic view of what farming is like.
is a unique and it's a very special thing that we're able to do and a lot of people really appreciate it and gravitate towards it.
I've had a lot of people say that, you should be a teacher. And teaching never really was on my list of things I ever wanted to do. But I think when you have something that you really love, it's very easy to share about that. And especially for me, I love the livestock side, the crop side, and the machinery side. I appreciate and I can do, but the animal is truly where my heart lies. So I can go on and on.
about anything that's related to the livestock, whether it's molt in poultry or gestation periods in sheep, something like that. So for me, it's really fun. And for a lot of people, that's not often what they get to hear of, or sometimes, especially from usually a younger female farmer, that's not what they would always expect. So I think it gives people a huge opportunity to connect and see something maybe in themselves.
And one thing that I notice a lot, and maybe it's just because it's my algorithm and that's what I'm seeing, but the amount of farms that are on social media, the percentage of the individuals who are behind the account mainly are women. And that's really incredible to see how passionate they are about that nurturing and that education side. And that's really cool.
In 2020, everything was very manageable and not to say that this year wasn't manageable, but we understood what our expectations and what our limits could be. And that first year, easy peasy, guided farm tours, we had a little pop-up shop selling our beef and lamb and eggs, and that was pretty much it. Where you fast forward to this year, and UFA is a wonderful supporter of that, and we really appreciate that as well as so many other
of our local businesses and organizations across the province. And we have taken it to something that is much, much larger than what we had in 2020. But it's all about understanding what you're able to do on your own farm. But for me, it's the best opportunity because the only limit is my creativity or even my family's creativity in what we can do.
which we can do pretty much anything and we're only limited actually by our space.
We can put as many animals as we want into different areas of the farm. We can include different activities and sights and sounds and smells. And that's really cool. And it's been so much fun and adding in different pieces of even technology tying it into this conversation. We had Sky Drones. They came and they did a drone demonstration with one of their very large drones.
And that was really exciting for especially our neighbors who are farmers. They came out and looked at that and technology from the side of everybody has their phones and they're posting and they're taking pictures of the animals and maybe it's petting a pig for the first time or my four month old foal, Jamie, things like that. So integrating them as well. Just like all other business strategies, structural retooling or adjusting to new processes is not only difficult, but it can also be risky.
takes lot of planning and procedural mitigation to successfully implement almost all new technology, though some may lean on the old adage, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. At the rate that technology is currently influencing the industry as a whole, there isn't time to languish in the old way of doing anything. How do we ensure success in the face of a rapidly changing business sector? I think the biggest misconception is that farmers are slow to adopt technology in practice.
I think it's true and I think it's a mischaracterization of the situation. As I mentioned earlier, mean, agriculture is a high risk venture. Cycles are long. I mean, if you think about it, if a producer is a grain farmer, they're looking at, you know, 20 to 40 cycles, period, right? Because it's a year long cycle often most times. And so it's that kind of context that creates a conservative nature within producers that technology and practice needs to be sufficiently proven out. But once it reaches that threshold,
Producers are very aggressive, in my view, of applying technology and practice, and very progressive at utilizing technology and practice. That's where I think there can be a misconception that it can be a bit of a backwards industry when in fact, I would say it's one of the more progressive industries. And in fact, I think a lot of technology that is developed in the agriculture sector often can be transitioned into other sectors or vice versa. We've seen...
Lots of examples where technology that's been developed in the oil and gas sector or even the health sector gets applied into agriculture because it's a very open space for new ideas, new practice, and new technology. And I've certainly felt that as a producer, but I would say that that's very much been demonstrated to me as an academic leader is that, you know, the agriculture sector is progressive. They're usually very interested in adopting new technology, new practice, but it needs to be under the right conditions.
I think from the side of social media, would say, and I'll lean into that stream a little bit more, because I think for a lot of farmers and anyone who is younger, adding social media to your farming operation is very easy. But rather than a misconception, it can come with a lot of difficulties in a way. And one of those difficulties could just be, of course, your online trolls and people who are just
really coming at you with maybe those misconceptions as well, or really trying to tell you how you should farm and they've never farmed a day in their life before, or giving you that platform to share something and people are just not going to really appreciate what you have to say and really making it difficult. So sometimes as a farmer, being really vulnerable and sharing those things online can be wonderful. And sometimes they can be really difficult and they can put you in a tricky spot.
for both your mental health or for the safety of your farm, depending on where you're located, if it's really close to a larger urban setting and you might have people who want to show up. Luckily that has never happened for us, but I follow enough people who have larger followings and that's one of the things that they have come across and that's a really difficult and really sad thing that you think that you have to deal with when you're just.
posting photos and videos of what your day in the life is like and then you're having some really nasty things said about you or farming in general. really coming to terms with that can be a challenge and can be a possible deterrent for some people to not want to adopt technology into their operation on the social media side because it has been such a big driver, especially for us and for many others that I know.
Our farming operation on the farm-to-table side wouldn't be what it is today without Facebook and Instagram and all of that tech side. The general assumption with new technology is that it makes things faster, easier, and better for everyone involved. Though we know that isn't always true in many cases across various industries. When it comes to the family farm, how are producers able to keep up with the larger and more efficient farms with higher tier new tech?
And from a food security perspective, is the implementation of this technology solving issues of food security? I think that there is a proliferation of technology in practice. think as agriculture and ag tech has become a popular space to play in, there's been more offering of technology into the industry than there probably has ever before. So that creates challenges because there's a lot of technology that doesn't work well or doesn't integrate well. I mean, no farm.
just transitions from one technology generation to the next. It's an evolution. you know, there's the challenges as much integrating new technology with old technology or old equipment as it is, you know, getting that brand new combine that comes with all the bells and whistles. And that's where I think it can get quite complicated and challenging, but it's definitely an area of opportunity as well. There's lots of examples. And I remember even at old college where we were donated a kind of an early 2000s combine.
And we use that as an example of where new technology could be applied to it and where it could become that much more efficient. It was a great case study for most producers because there's lots of producers that don't have the brand new equipment. There's lots of producers who have equipment that's five, 10, 15 years old. And it's nice to see that you can apply some things to that piece of equipment that makes things that much more efficient or that much more productive. So I think that you're going to see more and more of that.
focus around integrating and solving the integration challenge of technology than it is about advancing from one step to the next to the next. It just doesn't work that way in the real world. Well, I was just on another Zoom call earlier last week and it was for the verified sheep program. Our farm is a verified beef producer and right now I'm working
to get the verified sheep certification. And one of the biggest modules is around food safety. And one of those pieces, especially for the food safety is your RFID tags for your sheep, your CSIP tags, or for your cattle, your CCIA, and using that for traceability. So we have one of the electronic tag readers. I was thinking of all the sort of newer technologies that we have on our farm.
whether that's calving cameras and a lot of the grants that are out there, one in particular, the ESCAP, it offers you a lot of funding opportunities available, but they want you to have programs in place like verified sheep, verified beef, so that as a farmer, the consumers and CFIA can understand and acknowledge that you as a farmer have taken a look at your
food security practices, your biosecurity at your animal care. So that is a huge concern, especially for that. And if you want to be able to get some of the funding that's out there, you can't have it without going through some of those extra steps to ensure that you are at a certain level of food security. we have the tag readers, we added calving cameras this year for the first time. We are a little bit behind the curve on that, but
It was just one of those things that we've always thought about and just didn't happen. this year we had it for calving season and lambing and it was a huge help. And I think if we had adopted it maybe at the very beginning it would have been excellent. But the progression that the technology has made for calving cameras, just the quality of the cameras and also the cellular connection was really great.
Also adding GPS into some of our older tractors and our combines. We have a few of the newer ones where they have that, but then adding that into the older ones. There's a piece of technology that I'm really interested in. It's not available yet, but it is for detecting pregnancy in use and being able to figure out how many lambs they're carrying. So some of those technology developments that are coming down the pipeline are really cool. And
Those are just some of the things that we've got on our farm.
Since technology is really just a set of tools to help us solve present day issues and prepare us for our future, getting these tools into the hands of tomorrow's leaders is a best case scenario when it comes to tech implementation. By tapping into curious minds all over the world, we collectively change our future for the better. How do we continue to inspire farmers and ranchers enough to engage with the tools of today?
This question often comes up around, you know, is agriculture itself going to become sort of decimated in terms of human engagement? I actually don't think it is. Like if you look at some of the stats that are being put out there by the Agriculture Human Resource Council, there's a shortage of labor in the agriculture sector. And that's just not sort of menial labor or that's also technical labor. That is, you know, sort of labor that is needed to support the overall operation of the farm and over the agriculture production system.
So labor will just change. think that the nature of labor within the agriculture sector will just change. Now, does that mean that there's more or there's less sort of boots on the ground in the fields? Well, maybe, maybe that's the case. But I mean, there is a continual push for higher level of precision, a higher level of understanding of what's happening within the field or within the herd. I haven't seen it yet. And I mean, I started farming
commercially in early 2000s, and there was a lot of conversation around that then as well as technology was being applied. I haven't really seen a significant shift away from still a human element, but it's changed significantly in terms of how the individual and that technology interface is happening. And in fact, I'd say it's enhanced in some ways, because there's more folks involved and engaged, maybe not directly tangibly within the herd, but they're engaged in the herd health.
or they're engaged in the decision making process around a particular field or something, they're more engaged. Maybe it's a bit more virtual, but they're still engaged, they're still there and adding a lot to those results. So I think that, you know, it's just changing, but it's not necessarily lessening. First of all, the stats showing we need more talent in the agriculture sector. The fact that there's more enrollment within our schools and those graduates are being employed, they're highly employable. The fact that there's a greater demand within
not only farms, also agriculture, know, dealerships and tech companies, you know, that demand continues to increase. I think the nature of labor is changing, but the demand for talent within the agriculture system remains strong and is probably going to, in my view, only increase as we continue to see this sector grow in advance.
There's nothing that's necessarily just like absolutely shaking me or blowing me away. But there's been lots of things that have been incredibly encouraging. Just the way in which new minds come to a very established industry and think of things in different ways. An example that I had at Olds College, there was a student who saw all the spent burr's grain going out the door into the garbage pails. And he's thinking, you know, that looks like it could be used for something else. It looks like there's value there. Why are we not?
utilizing that value. And so he actually created a company that is a going concern is very, very promising where he utilizes that spent brewers grain to grow mushrooms that are now in restaurants. They're high end oyster mushrooms predominantly that are being consumed within restaurants. So that's cool. He's created a business out of that. But what that's also done is actually changed the profile of that spent brewers grain where it's now much more palatable and beneficial and useful for livestock feed.
So he's kind of created two value adding products from what would been considered waste. I mean, that blows me away. Like that didn't come from, you know, an existing producer or an existing company or a venture capitalist who just thought of something brilliant that came from a student, not an egg, not a farm kid, a student who actually was a chef and just started to try some things in his dorm room, which isn't necessarily something we would always encourage.
But yeah, he started in his dorm room and then went from there and we incubated his idea at Olds College and now he's away. That's pretty cool. That only comes from fresh thinking, innovation, support from not only institutions like Olds, but from other industry leaders and investors and that sort of thing. And it's really great to see that kind of ingenuity be rewarded and be encouraged and fostered. What it also did just to build on that is it really pushed the system because
this additional product that was produced that could be used for livestock production, they just couldn't use it. It had to go through regulatory approval. So it actually pushed the system in terms of regulatory side of things where they had to step up their game because we had this value added product that was generated through.
ingenuity of a student and what are we doing now as a system through our regulatory framework to encourage that utilization because the regulator could just sit there and say, know, this isn't meet whatever current specs and we're going to block it. But that would have been an incredibly, I think, backward result or response. So not only did this student really create something that was innovative and really, really cool, but he actually pushed the system. He pushed the regulator.
He pushed us all to think in different ways and set a tremendous example for others around, you know, what could be done through some innovative thinking. Over the years, my brothers and I, I think we've all become a little bit more confident and bold in what we're able to show. I mean, you do have Instagram and Facebook who are out there banning certain photos and things, but especially if you have an audience who understands that what I might throw at, you might be a little bit...
interesting depending on how you take that. They are going to be open to that and I think that that is a challenge for a lot of farmers because I know of a flower farmer who was growing beautiful flowers. That's her aesthetic. Everything is lovely in the garden except for maybe sometimes the hail or the weeds or the insects. But as soon as she was highlighting that she was butchering some of her lambs
all of her followers did not like that because that is not what they expected of her and that put her in huge issues with Instagram who shadow banned her so she wasn't able to showcase her farm in the general way that the rest of us can because they were literally blocking who could tag her, who could share her photos so she was really at a cliff at that point with Instagram and Facebook because they wouldn't allow
any of her posts or her stories to go anywhere. So that was really challenging. So for us, and I think a lot of farmers, we don't want to make people feel really upset and we don't want to show really negative or gruesome things. But there are a lot of things that happen. Animals really like to injure themselves. And I've shown a whole lot of various series. A Yulam last year, my foal this year who cut.
massive wounds into themselves and showing people what it looks like at the beginning and what it looks like at the end to show them that healing process. And as long as those customers or those followers have an understanding that this is what they can expect from farms, that yes, we might show you something a little bit icky, but there is a good result at the end or we're going to show you why we're going to treat it in this way.
that's really important because so many people are used to seeing a whole turkey or a whole chicken in a grocery store and that's fine. But change that to a beef carcass or a lamb carcass and red flags go up and there's literally no difference. And I think when we can get to a point where we're at that level with whole chickens and turkeys as what beef and lamb carcasses are.
That's when we know we've made it, when it can just be in the public mindset. So that is the end goal.
One thing that seems to be top of mind and Stuart talked about this as well, it doesn't really matter what industry you're in or how you grew up. If you're really interested or passionate about being within the agricultural world or the food producing world, there are so many ways to be a part of that, but you don't have to be that producer yourself. You can be an event manager for a large livestock show. You can be an agronomist. You can work.
at a feed store and be the business analyst for that. There's so many ways to be involved and take your knowledge and take the world of agriculture further, but you don't have to be necessarily those boots in the mud and doing all the dirty work. So it's such a fantastic industry because there's so many different avenues that people can pursue. And it's just so cool that
We can be in that and it really is a privilege and we're living in such exciting and really unique times where we're able to have all this data about various different things and watch as the future of agriculture progresses and what we can do to better the environment, better our sustainability resources and also be very efficient. So it's a really fascinating time and Ag offers so many opportunities.
I mean, Charlotte said it so well, but maybe just to build on Charlotte's comments. If you want to work in technology and you want to make the world a better place, agriculture is an amazing industry to consider because it is a technology driven industry and it applies so many different types of technology, whether as I mentioned, business systems, automation, artificial intelligence. mean, the list just goes on and on. So if you're interested in the application and utilization of technology, agriculture is for you.
And if you're interested in making the world a better place, agriculture is for you. Agriculture is a sector that has just seen tremendous gains over the last 20 to 40 years. A recent stat or quote I noticed in 1980s, agriculture was considered a source of emissions. Now it represents a carbon sink. Between 2005 and 2020, we've seen productivity increases of between 5 to 20%.
across agriculture, different agriculture platforms, and there's been a reduction of emissions by 8%, 8 to 10%. So we're going the right ways when it comes to production and reductions. So it's an industry that is leading the way when it comes to environmental sustainability, but also productivity, and it's just tremendously exciting. So that's what I would leave the listener with is if you want to be in an industry that is
Utilizing and leading in the utilization of technology and making the world a better place, agriculture is for you.
At the end of the day, we look to our resiliency within ourselves and our communities to make our collective futures as bright as possible. All it will really take is conversations like these, some vulnerability, and a little digging.
Thanks to the support of UFA Cooperative, we're able to share stories from those who live and breathe agriculture. We'd like to thank our guests for sharing their insight into the future of agriculture and for being with us today. For more information and a new episode every month, visit ufa.com. With listeners like you, we'll continue to dig a little deeper here on Digging In with UFA. I'm Don Shafer. Thanks for listening. Another Everything Podcast production.
Visit everythingpodcast.com, a division of Patterson Media. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast. The views expressed in this podcast reflect opinions and perspectives from participating guests and not necessarily those of UFA, UFA Cooperatives membership, elected officials or stakeholders.