Proserpine agronomist, George Cole, shares his experiences with the Australian-Canadian Exchange Program facilitated through AgLink Australia and their Canadian counterpart, AgLink Canada.
Earlier this year, Pursehouse Rural Proserpine agronomist George Cole, had the opportunity to visit Canada as part of the AgLink Exchange program. The exchange consisted of a 4-week trip to Canada to visit AgLink Canada retailers, Canadian-ran agronomy trials and activities organised by Ag Link Canada.
An Adventorous Start to AgLink Exchange Trip
George’s Canadian exchange got underway with a flight to Calgary, which just so happened to coincide with the iconic Calgary Stampede, an experience not to be missed during any trip to Canada. George met the other AgLink Australia representatives (of which there were four) and took the opportunity to explore some of the events of the Calgary Stampede.
From the Stampede, the group got into the adventurous spirit with a trail ride to the foothills of the Rockies. It has been quite some time since George had ridden a horse, he recalls, so it took a minute to get back into the rhythm of riding, but it was a great experience, nonetheless.
A Clear Link Between Australian and Canadian Agribusiness
Before long, it was time to get to business with the AgLink Canada partners, and George was placed with his first AgLink Canada retailer, Olds Fert, a family run retailer with two stores providing a complete suite of ag supplies and services. Olds Fert is approximately 1 hour North of Calgary and is situated where the Rockies begin to flatten out into rolling hills and cattle ranches make way for broadacre cropping. Although there are still a lot of mixed enterprises here, the majority was cropping. A big part of the business was contract spraying and fertiliser application. They had a fleet of self-propelled spray rigs and ‘floaters’ (fertiliser spreader) as well as their own fertiliser storage and blending facility. The predominant crops grown in the area were wheat, barley, canola and alfalfa/ hay. As with all of Canada, the growing season was very short, and a lot of things have happened like clockwork to fit it all in. Although their season was very short compared to our Australian growing seasons, and the crops differed from George’s usual paddock checks in Proserpine QLD, they faced a lot of the same issues in weed resistance and on-farm labour shortages.
Ag In Motion for the AgLink Exchange
From Olds Fert the group then headed East, further into the prairies where they experienced a lot of smoke from the wildfires North of their location. The group made it to Saskatchewan where the prairies really flatten out and met back up with the other AgLink members in Saskatoon for Ag in Motion, which is the largest outdoor farm expo in Western Canada. They also enjoyed a tour around some of the Winfield United crop trials, where they looked at several nutrition products and herbicide trials. ‘It was great to have a look around some of the latest Ag equipment on display at Ag In Motion,’ says George, ‘and hear from other seed companies about how they are breeding to meet the needs of crops of the future.’
After everyone recovered from Ag In Motion, they didn’t have far to go to get to the next AgLink Canada retailer. The Rack is another family-owned AgLink Canada member with several stores situated around Saskatchewan. Like many ag retailers in Canada, The Rack, started business mainly as a petroleum company which then transitioned into fertiliser and ag chem. The Rack provided different levels of service at each store with some stores focusing on agronomy, and others providing a full host of services from ag chem and fertiliser sales to custom application and agronomy packages. They had an extensive trial program in place looking at all things relevant to their customers, such as bio stimulants, nutrition strategies and different crops and varieties. Saskatchewan is where George had his first introduction to one of the main weeds Canadian growers tackle, Kochia, ‘I could probably write a whole article on Kochia,’ says George, ‘but I’ll just say they can keep it over there!’
The last retailer on the trip took George further East and into Manitoba. Here the land becomes rather flat, and water slowly meanders through a series of lakes northwards to Hudson Bay. Redfern’s is another family-owned Ag retailer based around Brandon in Western Manitoba and the last AgLink Canda member on the list of visits for the Australian exchange group. They have a number of branches and target the speciality market with some specific products for some of the challenging soil constraints faced by growers on the salt patches. They grow a lot of potatoes in this area under irrigation and George was given the opportunity to visit one of the state of the art, climate-controlled potato storage facilities.
All in all, an unforgettable trip to Canada as part of the AgLink Australia, and AgLink Canada exchange program which has facilitated trips to Canada for a number of Pursehouse Rural agronomists over the years and will continue to do so into the future.
Agronomy and Social Media Go Hand in Hand for George
Before his trip to Canada, George embarked on another adventure in the world of social media, launching his own Instagram page @agwithgeorge, focusing on agronomy updates and posts from the paddock. George saw an opportunity to showcase the work of farmers in the Whitsunday region and highlight some of the common agronomic issues faced by growers. His drone content and catchy reels hero the work of our customers in North Queensland as well as the life of an agronomists. George reiterated the importance promoting the ag industry and the hard work of farmers, and what better way than to utilise social media. Give him a follow-on Instagram if you would like to tag along with his paddock updates.