Growing Agriculture Careers
Nearly forty SD83 students got to the root of their curiosity when it came to careers in the region’s Agriculture industry.
The Grade 10-12 students from Salmon Arm, JL Jackson and AL Fortune secondaries took the day exploring three farms in the region to learn more from local industry people and the careers associated with their businesses. The trip was sponsored by SD83 and the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation, a non-profit organization that works with educators to bring awareness to local agriculture and its careers. Provincial statistics suggest that nearly 12% of the food grown in BC comes from the Shuswap.
The first stop was at Lakeland Farms in west Salmon Arm heading to Silver Creek. Mike and Sara Schroeder have been working their crop, cattle and hen farm for over 11 years. The organic 400-acre farm has an organic milling operation where they take barley, wheat and rye from their farm and mix it in with corn, soybeans, vitamins, minerals and pro-biotics to create food for their chickens. They work with a farm nutritionist with a Masters or PH. D to ensure the feed is top quality. In fact, nearly 75 percent of the feed they create now goes to other organic producers from the Yukon to Saskatchewan to fill a growing demand. Student learned how technology is starting to do tasks quicker and with less costs. Mike Schroeder shared that what use to take a person and a tractor a full day to spread manure across 80 acres and cause some minor damage to the fields, a drone and remote-control pilot can do the same job in two hours with no damage to the soil and no fuel used. The Schroeders also have over 82-hundred hens in a free-range pen which protects the birds from avian flu. They estimate 95 percent of their hens lay a daily egg.
The students then jumped back onto the bus to take them to Elderberry Grove located in east Salmon Arm. Jed and Louise Weibe operate five acres of crop on three parcels throughout the area. With nearly 90 percent of the global Elderberries grown in Europe, Jed Wiebe believed he could find a local market for his organic crop. Much of the crop is crushed to make Elderberry juice which he then sells to over 70 health food stores across western Canada. He estimates he harvests five thousand to 75-hundred pounds of the super berry annually. He also sells much of his trimmings to others via his on-line store. Similar to the Schroeder’s, the couple try to do much of their own work but they do need people to assist in berry picking and processing when the need arises.
The last stop was at Farmer John’s in Grindrod. many students were in awe of the technology used for this dairy operation. Each of the over one hundred cows in their operation have a transponder around their neck. The transponder is linked to a computer which keeps track of when the appropriate time for a cow is to go get milked. When the transponder goes off, the cow moves to a robotic milking machine where the robot cleans the udders, latches on and starts milking. Jared De Dood is a third-generation farmer on the site. He says the typical 800-kilogram cow on his farm can produce anywhere from 41 to 70 liters of milk in their three to four milkings per day. All of this while “Juno”, a robot sweeper, pushes a feed of alfalfa, straw, corn and other nutrients towards the penned cows so they can eat at their leisure. The milk is then sent to Chilliwack or Abbotsford for processing.
All farmers on the tour talked about the various people that help make their farms a success—tradespeople like electricians, construction workers and farm machine mechanics; technicians to assist/troubleshoot with the technology they use; consultations with food or farm nutritionists; truckers to move product to market; bankers specializing in the agriculture sector and many others. SD83 also shared with students a new and enhanced Work Experience program that focuses on the agriculture sector. Students and parents alike can learn more about this opportunity and others when SD83 hosts its annual Work Experience and Dual Credit evenings on Wednesday, October 15th at JL Jackson Secondary and Thursday, October 16th and Pleasent Valley Secondary. Both event go from 5:30-7PM.
If you have any ideas on what a great learning field trip for students may be, please contact SD83’s George Richard via text or phone at 778-824-1188 or email grichard@sd83.bc.ca.