Coming Events

June 17, 2009
Saskatchewan Pasture School
Heritage Inn
Saskatoon
The 2009 Pasture School include sessions on grass growth, grazing management principles, calculating stocking rates, using grazing calculators, and grazing from a business perspective as well as hands-on pasture tours. Producer Panel discussions will be conducted on grazing management practices and "tricks of the trade" for grassing yearlings. For more information, please contact the Saskatchewan Forage Council at 966-2148 or office@saskforage.ca.

June 17 to 19, 2009
Western Canada Farm Progress Show
Evraz Place, Regina, SK
The Western Canada Farm Progress Show is the largest dryland farm technology show in the country, attracting more than 700 exhibitors and 40,000 qualified attendees from 30 countries. Over its 30 plus year history, the event has earned the right to be called “Canada’s National Farm Show” and has continued to remain relevant to the industry it serves. For more information, please go to www.myfarmshow.com.

June 19, 2009
ACS Annual General Meeting
Salon 3, Queensbury Convention Centre, Regina
Featuring Professor Ken Wong of the Queen's School of Business, who will make the presentation "Marketing your Way to Profits". If you have any questions or need to RSVP, please contact ACS Communications Manager, Dallas Carpenter, by e-mail at carpenterd@agcouncil.ca or by phone at (306) 975-6856.

July 13 to 15, 2009
National Chicken Farmers’ Summer Conference
Saskatoon, SK
For more information on this event please contact the Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan by phone at (306) 242-3611 or (toll free) 1-888-33CLUCK, or go to www.saskatchewanchicken.ca.

Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP) Announced

The Government of Canada is launching a five-year, $163 million Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP). CAAP will help farm families to respond and adapt to challenges in their operations and will build on the successes of the previous program, Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF).

Projects funded under CAAP will be proposal-based and originate from industry. The program encourages the agricultural industry to work in partnerships across the value chain—farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers—to develop and use innovative solutions and to explore new market opportunities. Projects will focus on seizing opportunities, responding to new and emerging issues, and path finding and piloting solutions to new and ongoing issues.

There are national, regional, multi-regional components of the program. Eligible recipients for any of the three components of CAAP must be legal Canadian entities capable of entering into a contract. This includes, but is not limited to, individuals, organizations, associations, cooperatives, marketing boards, corporations, aboriginal groups, non-profit organizations, and for-profit companies. Federal, provincial and territorial government departments or agencies, universities, and colleges are not eligible.

The regional aspect of CAAP will be delivered by Industry Councils across the country. The national aspect, delivered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, will fund eligible projects that are national in scope.

Under the regional component of CAAP, the Industry Councils will help farmers across the country exercise leadership in advancing the agricultural sector and provide them with opportunities to work with others to find solutions to shared challenges.

Located in every province and territory, the Industry Councils, will also be able to access additional funding by undertaking collective outcome projects in collaboration with other councils and national organizations. The first application deadline will be mid-July. Please check the ACS website at www.agcouncil.ca in the next two weeks for the exact date.

More information on CAAP and the Industry Councils will be available on the website at www.agr.gc.ca/caap. ACS will have more information on CAAP, including eligibility criteria and application forms, on our website in a few weeks.

ACS AGM and Industry Forum this Friday!

Friday, June 19
Salon 3, Queensbury Convention Centre, Evraz Place
Regina, Saskatchewan

ACS AGM: 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Saskatchewan Agricultural Industry Forum: 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Featured Speaker: Professor Ken Wong, Queen’s School of Business

ACS is proud to present renowned marketing expert Ken Wong of Queen’s University. His presentation, “Marketing your Way to Profits,” will be an engaging and thought-provoking look at Saskatchewan’s agriculture and agri-food sector and how marketing plays a vital role in maintaining and improving its profitability. Attendees will learn the major sources of profit drain within the sector and how to address these sources to sustain premium prices, reduce costs, build market share and expand market size.

The Industry Forum is open to our members, supporters, guests and all who are attending the Farm Progress Show. The forum will include a presentation from students from the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources and Edwards School of Business. This past April, the students, who are a part of the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association, developed a marketing plan for a seabuckthorn beverage and entered the marketing plan in an agri-marketing competition at the National Agri-Marketing Association conference in the United States. 

Only ACS members and supporters are eligible to attend the business portion of the AGM and the lunch. Only full-members who have paid their fees in advance of the AGM will be eligible to vote.

For more information, please contact:

Dallas Carpenter
Communications Manager
E-mail: carpenterd@agcouncil.ca
Phone: (306) 975-6856
Fax: (306) 975-6850

Student Assisted Business and Marketing Plan Program accepting applications

The Student Assisted Business and Marketing Plan Program will be accepting applications for the fall semester until Friday, August 21, 2009.

Interested agri-food companies will be matched up with a team of upper-year students enrolled in an agribusiness courses in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan. Students will contact the firm and will work closely with an individual from the firm serving as a “client” for the student consulting team. The students will complete a full marketing or business plan for the firm. A marketing plan will include market research, competitor analysis, consumer analysis and the development of marketing strategies.

This program is the result of an alliance between the Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan (ACS), with funding through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Saskatchewan (ACAAFS) Program, and the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics.

Participating organizations will pay $250 of the $500 cost of the program, with $250 funded by ACS through the ACAAFS program. The number of organizations selected for a business plan will depend on the number of students enrolled in the course. Students will contact the organization in early September or January and will work closely with an individual from that organization, who is expected to commit at least 20 hours to working with the students during the four months of the project.

For information or to apply, please visit the program web page or contact:

Lesley Dirkson, Value Chain Assistant
Phone: (306) 975-6847
Toll Free 1-800-641-8256
Email: dirksonl@agcouncil.ca

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to submit an event, please contact us at info@agcouncil.ca.

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Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan Inc.
Box 21038
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan   S7H 5N9
Phone: (306) 975-6847 or toll free at 1-800-641-8256 
Fax: (306) 975-6850
http://www.agcouncil.ca