Students from Iowa’s CAC Media Group ventured to Regina for hands-on agricultural journalism experience.

Hannah Grantz, Jake VanderHeiden and Katlin Truelsen, students from high schools across Clinton County in eastern Iowa, interviewed, photographed and videotaped Canadian livestock producers, Spanish bullfighters and Saskatchewan rodeo queens for their social media channels.

They also plan to take stories home and work with other editors and publishers at digital and print publications across the United States.

Truelsen was eager for the chance to explore Canadian agriculture. At 16 years old, she has written articles for Humps N Horns Bull Riding Magazine out of Fort Worth, Texas. At Agribition, she jumped at the chance to interview bullfighters from Spain, who were competing in the Bullfighters Only Canadian Grand Prix on Tuesday.

Growing up on a cattle farm, Truelsen said learning about the rodeo world is new for her.

“It was cool to learn about the rodeo experience, hear what the bull riders have to offer. I mean, most of them are the same age as me, or a little older, so it’s cool to see what they do in their everyday lives compared to what I do.”

In addition to the students, three media group alumni also travelled to Regina for the event: Nate Lange, Beth Lamp and Carsen Mangelsen.

Lange was interested to see how different businesses run their operations. He earned a degree in marketing and sales management after participating in the CAC Media Group program when he was in high school. He’s been drawn to how businesses find efficiencies and create solutions to ongoing problems.

“Everyone does it a little differently, so just seeing how they do it and why they do it is really interesting.”

Lange was one of the first members when Jenna Stevens started the ag media program in 2017. Stevens noticed gaps in the Future Farmers of America (FFA) curriculum when it came to agricultural communications, so when the Agriculture in the Classroom consultant had unexpected free time with a group following an early end to a competition, they started a podcast that got picked up by a local radio station.

From there, they created a television show during COVID-19 because there was studio time up for grabs. Since then, the group continually looks for new opportunities to get student members hands-on experience in the agriculture journalism and communication industry.

The group is working on a rebranding and marketing campaign for Humps N Horns, said Stevens, and will help the magazine launch a new apparel line when the crew goes out to Las Vegas later in the year.

“I’m designing some of the new logos that are going to go on their apparel,” said Stevens. “We’ll be updating their website and doing some more marketing with that.”

Stevens works with 56 teachers in classrooms, teaching agricultural education, whether those are fun lessons for younger students or more complex, hands-on concepts.

Stevens and her students were surprised at the lack of agricultural education and hands-on learning provided in the Saskatchewan curriculum. She works to provide experiences to kids in her area, taking agricultural concepts and putting them into practice. She’s had students build things like rice paddies and hydroponic farms from the ground up.

Before coming to Agribition, the CAC team visited the University of Saskatchewan’s Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence and the Bovigen cattle reproduction centre in Moose Jaw.

Comparing educational opportunities in Saskatchewan versus those in Iowa, people want to see more when it comes to ag education in kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms, said Stevens.

“There are a lot of rural individuals in this particular province and so it seems like people would like to see their children have those opportunities through the school system.”

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Dogs and their handlers competed at the seventh annual Cattle Dog Futurity and Maturity competitions and the International Stock Dog Trials held Thursday at Canadian Western Agribition.

The futurity event featured dogs born between November 2019 and October 2020 who were competing for the first time.

“We believe (they) should be in their prime of their training then. They’re young, viable, and should have enough training, or be trained enough, to come and display in town and educate everyone on the use of cow dogs and how it works,” said event organizer Marcel Vermette of Rafter V Ranch near Outlook, Sask.

Vermette competed with his dog, Jock, who was the event’s reserve champion in 2020.

Calin Duce of Cardston, Alta., brought his three-year-old dog, Tan, to compete in the futurity event before moving on to the stock dog event.

Duce said the dog learns how to read and adjust to different types of animals.

“It’s a little bit of a different game on maybe how you handle them, but it’s very similar to each other,” he said.

With 750 cow-calf pairs and 6,000 in the feedlot, Duce currently has 15 dogs on staff.

After they start to slow down, retirement can be pretty special, he said.

“Usually if a dog has made it to 10 years old with someone, they’re probably going to be sitting on the porch the rest of their life.”

One stock dog can replace three ranch hands, said Vermette, who owns a custom grazing operation.

Beyond the skill, agility, and intelligence of stock dogs, there are other reasons stock dogs are ideal, he said. “These guys show up to work. They’re never hung over. They don’t have to take kids to a ballgame early in the day, whatever. They’ll work till they’re dead. And so they really are the ideal employee.”

Vermette also sees them as better for his cattle herd.

“Cattle are a prey animal. They’re always a little anxious. And if they’re anxious, they’re not going to put weight on when we’re grazing because they’re always looking for that predator that’s coming together. Once we started working with them with the dogs, that anxiety comes back down to nothing.”

Agribition has been a good place to feature the stock dogs, Vermette said, with a great community of fellow handlers.

“We’re all just ranchers… you can brag about how good your dog is but until you bring him to town, it’s just talk,” he said with a laugh.

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For master’s student Rhea Thomas Thommana and PhD student Kashika Sethi, food replication is on the horizon as well.

Thomas Thommana and Sethi were at Ag in Motion this week with a 3D printer designed to incorporate plant-based ingredients into food, part of ongoing research by University of Saskatchewan scientists Martin Reaney and Michael Nickerson.

3D-printed food already exists. However, through the food sciences program at the University of Saskatchewan, Thomas Thommana and Sethi are building recipes that could mean plant-based materials specifically designed for a 3D printer.

“We’re still trying to figure out those concentrations to make it shelf-stable and also maybe in the future we could try dehydrating them, making it into a powder,” said Thomas Thommana.

The end result will be nutrient-rich and edible final products with implications in the healthcare field. The pea protein slurry they had on display was just a starting point, containing pregelatinized starch, canola oil and water.

“This particular slurry is basically made for the patients with dysphagia who have difficulty swallowing,” Sethi said.

The benefits of a 3D printer are that the slurry can be made into different shapes, texture, colours and tastes to make them palatable, to adults and even to children who need a nutritional boost.

Finding the right consistency also means finding a way to adjust the ingredients to fit different nutritional needs, said Thomas Thommana, as this research could mean tailor-making hospital foods to fit the needs of individual patients.

“People who actually have dietary restrictions can actually consume these things because these are made out of basic compounds that are safe for everybody,” she said.

Finding the right moisture content, right protein source and right composition of other ingredients has been the challenge. While a pea protein was on display at the University of Saskatchewan booth, Thomas Thommana said they are working with fava beans, canola, different oilseeds and other beans to see which one would work the best.

With a three-minute printing time, there will be a level of convenience in their 3D-printed food recipes, especially as 3D printers become more popular. If global research into 3D-printable food gets to the point where the packets can be sold like a cake mix, it could be as simple as putting the wet and dry ingredients together, said Thomas Thommana.

“We basically put it in the 3D printer and then we get high-protein-content, nutritious food out of it in the shape and size that we need.”

For Thomas Thommana and Sethi, this future of everyday food replication is more than just something out of science fiction, but the end goal of their research.

— Becky Zimmer reports for Glacier FarmMedia.

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