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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Their concerns centre around new directives centred around moving and tagging which they say would affect Canada’s 5,000 fairs, rodeos and other events.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has proposed that fairgrounds be responsible as the “intermediate site” to record animal movements to and from the fairgrounds within one week. They also say that if an animal loses its indicator at a fairground, it would be up to the site operator to re-tag the animal.

“We are being generalized as having more resources than we actually do,” said CAFE executive director Christina Franc. “And we are seen as high risk because we’re a co-mingling site.”

Eighty-three per cent of people involved in animal shows and events in Canada are volunteers. Franc said asking them to learn and perform added responsibilities could be a challenge.

“Staff and volunteers are very different things,” Franc said. “Labour is already a huge issue, imagine trying to get volunteers on board to do more stuff out of their own time.”

Franc said that many volunteers may not have necessary experience with livestock.

“They may be a bookkeeper in their day job, and never (have) been near a cow before. And now you’re asking them to put a tag in the animal’s ear? That’s risky for the animal, as well as for the individual.”

She said the problems could extend to the producers as well.

“I do not know a single producer who wants their animal to be tagged with a premise ID number other than their own,” she said.

According to CAFE, 90 per cent of producers said they did not want fairgrounds tagging their livestock.

It also says “two thirds of exhibitors have said they would be willing to be responsible for reporting their animal movements to/from the fairgrounds.”

Based on these figures, CAFE is proposing regulations that Franc says will “ensure efficiency and compliance.”

They include producers/farms of origin being the ones responsible for reporting animal movements and re-tagging animals if indicators are lost or damaged.

“We fully support livestock traceability,” Franc said, “but the animal movement, the burden of it, putting it on the fairs when it just makes more sense to put it on the producers who are already doing it, that’s the part we struggle with.”

The federal government has launched a consultation period, running until June 16. CAFE is encouraging those involved in holding animal events, and other stakeholders, to participate by submitting feedback.

CAFE offers a guide on its website for providing feedback; the federal consultation and impact analysis statement are also online via the Canada Gazette.

— Jonah Grignon reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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The probe dates back to October that year, when a beef cow of an unknown age, from a cow-calf operation in B.C.’s southern Interior, was culled, shipped east and slaughtered at a federally-inspected plant in southern Alberta, on Oct. 24, 25 and 26 respectively.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which routinely takes and tests tissue samples from Canadian beef packing plants for its bovine TB surveillance program, on Nov. 9 confirmed positive results from the B.C. animal.

Ultimately, only that cow, and three other animals from the same B.C. herd, were found to have TB-related lesions, and all were later confirmed through lab cultures to have had the same strain of bovine TB.

In the meantime, the probe saw 23,000 animals in 42 herds also tested for bovine TB — with almost 1,050 of those animals ordered destroyed, CFIA said.

As for where the strain came from, lab culture tests and whole-genome sequencing found the strain isolated from the four TB-positive animals to be “most genetically related” to strains isolated in the U.S. from fed cattle of “Mexican or unknown” origin.

But the specific TB strain in this case is not linked to any previous TB cases in wildlife, humans or livestock in Canada, CFIA added.

Canada’s previous outbreak of bovine TB in domestic cattle, in 2016, also featured a whole other TB strain that also had no link to any previous cases in Canada, including the 2018 case.

Rodeo cattle

Given both of those outbreaks, CFIA said it’s been evaluating “possible entry pathways of bovine TB from outside the country” to see if other preventive measures could help stop “non-domestic” strains from arriving in Canada.

Based on its evaluation, CFIA said it has worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to apply “more stringent” testing on U.S.-origin rodeo cattle before they’re imported into Canada, effective May 1 this year.

There’s also been no evidence so far of the 2018 strain spreading to any animals, including wildlife, outside the index herd where the four cases were found. B.C. provincial officials are still running ongoing surveillance of wildlife in the “vicinity” of the index herd.

The index premises had to undergo cleaning and disinfection before it could be restocked. One pasture was “not permitted” for restocking, CFIA added, as the producers chose to keep that pasture fallow for a two-year period, to be completed next year.

Compensation paid out to cover transportation, disposal and destruction of animals totaled $3.78 million, of which about $3.2 million was paid directly to producers, CFIA said in its report, released Aug. 6.

Up to $1 million more was made available through AgriRecovery to help cover “extraordinary costs” incurred where herds were quarantined or ordered destroyed. A portion of eligible costs was covered related to feeding, veterinary expenses, extraordinary handling and cleaning and disinfection on sites where bovine TB was confirmed.

“Given the outcome of the case response, British Columbia continues to be recognized as being free from bovine TB,” as do all other provinces, CFIA said in its report.

“The strength of Canada’s bovine TB program supported uninterrupted international market access for Canadian cattle and meat products during the course of the response and this mitigated any impacts on the overall Canadian cattle sector.”

Data entry

As for lessons learned from the B.C. outbreak, CFIA noted “information management and technology challenges” remain for disease responses. That said, data management was improved using new RFID ear tag readers and centralized data, which “reduced the need for manual data entry and the related costs and potential for errors.”

The beef industry is interested in “further discussions in regard to producer compensation,” CFIA said, including costs not currently covered under federal compensation plans for such outbreaks.

The industry would also like to discuss “potential alternatives to herd destruction for herds with unique genetics,” the agency added.

Producers and industry groups also noted the importance of “effective communications with producers,” CFIA said.

The agency, in its report, acknowledged the “vital role” the province and industry played on that front, including “extremely valuable” ongoing representation from the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association.

It will also help, CFIA said, to have a revised bovine TB hazard-specific plan finalized before the next such outbreak, “to ensure clear direction for incident commanders and field staff.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“As a community celebration, the cancellation of our annual event comes with our community and public health and safety front of mind,” Stampede president Dana Peers said on a conference call Thursday with reporters.

The provincial health department on Thursday confirmed the gathering restrictions it has in place due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will also apply to the province’s various summer festivals, agricultural fairs, rodeos, sporting championships and industry conferences.

The Calgary Folk Music Festival, which had also been scheduled for July this year, announced its cancellation Thursday just shortly before the Stampede’s conference call.

The province’s current orders prohibit gatherings of 15 or more people, require two-metre social distancing at gatherings of fewer than 15 and “will continue to apply until evidence demonstrates that the spread is controlled.”

By clarifying those restrictions now, the province said, event organizers “will be able to provide advance notice of 60 days or more that may help them limit unrecoverable expenditures, and cancel contracts in a timely manner.”

The Stampede had been scheduled for July 3-12 this year. The annual event, which dates back to 1912, is billed as a celebration of “the people, the animals, the land, the traditions and the values that make up the unique spirit of the West.”

A showcase and networking event for the province’s farming and livestock sectors, the Stampede’s attractions typically include “world-class” agricultural competitions and displays and the world’s largest outdoor rodeo, which combined involve over 7,500 animals, including cattle, horses, swine, donkeys and sheep.

The event, and others held in any other given year at its host site Stampede Park, are estimated to contribute about $700 million annually to the Canadian economy, including about $540 million to Alberta’s economy alone, Peers said.

Asked whether the Stampede — which previously has survived calamities such as the city’s June 2013 flood — has any insurance coverage that might help it recover some of the costs of such a cancellation, he replied it does not.

The not-for-profit Stampede organization’s focus will now shift to fall, winter and spring events at Stampede Park, and to planning for the 2021 Stampede, scheduled for July 9-18 that year, he said.

“To stand here and say there’ll be no Stampede for the first time in 97 years, that’s very, very, very tough,” Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said on Thursday’s call, adding the city government stands “in full support” of the Stampede’s decision.

“For the last five weeks it has felt to many of us like more and more and more things are getting taken away — and you know what, it is OK to feel sad and angry and frustrated about some of these things,” he said.

He described the situation as “a test of our collective resolve,” and said that eventually, “the rodeo will come back, the rides will come back, the music will come back and what will never, ever go away is our community spirit.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Being sick brings out my inner whinger. I hate curtailing my physical activities. Missing work days stresses me out, especially during the busy winter season. I also feel a latent guilt over taking sick days or even getting someone else to feed horses for me. I think this is a common thing for those of us who grew up in a rural culture that endorses being tough.

But then I think of Bev McPhee’s sage advice. McPhee was one of my grad school instructors, and also a corporate consultant. A consultant’s most valuable asset is her health, she told us. I think that advice applies to everyone, no matter how a person earns a living.

Resolution to avoid career-ending injuries

By far, the closest call I’ve had was my concussion a few years ago (although on the plus side, I did get a decent column out of it). It was actually my second one. I’d incurred a less serious injury years earlier while horsing around with friends in Edmonton and smacking my head on the sidewalk. That first concussion didn’t really affect me, and I forgot about it for years.

My second concussion was the result of Bear, one of my horses, tossing me. I still have Bear. For a while, we were very nervous with each other, so I eventually sent him to a horse trainer, Cliff Elliott. Between Cliff’s work with Bear, and my work on my own tension, Bear and I now get along pretty good. Non-horse people are often amazed that I’d keep a horse that injured me, but horse people get it. Any horse can be dangerous, and accidents are usually the rider’s fault.

I haven’t had any real long-term problems from the concussion. The only potential effect that lingers has to do with my writing. I sometimes substitute the word I meant to write for a different word. Usually it’s a word with somewhat similar spelling. This happens a few times a week. I usually catch the mistakes while editing, if not right after typing out the errant word. But it’s possible that I did this before I smacked my head, and didn’t notice. It’s also possible that something else is to blame, such as social media.

I’ve been lucky. But I now know better than to take that luck for granted.

Head injuries aren’t just for football players

There’s been a lot of focus in the last few years on head injuries in athletes. Repeated knocks to the head have been linked chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative neurological disease that can only be diagnosed after death, by examining the brain.

There is no cure for CTE. Right now, the only way to prevent it is to avoid incurring multiple concussions.

Football, hockey, and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) have been getting most of the media attention over CTE. But bull riding ranks right up there.

Last November, the Globe and Mail published an in-depth piece looking at head trauma in bull riding (you can find it online by searching “bull riding globe and mail”). The article examines the life and death of Ty Pozzobon, a talented Canadian bull rider who killed himself in January 2017 at the age of 25. He became bull riding’s first confirmed case of CTE. Pozzobon left behind heart-broken parents, friends, and a young wife.

The time Pozzobon died, he’d been knocked unconscious while riding bulls at least 13 times. He’d suffered concussions as far back as age 17. He’d had 20 brain bleeds.

There’s a terrible irony in that, considering all the focus on the welfare of rodeo stock these days. It’s hard to imagine rodeo organizers putting in a bull with the types of injuries that the cowboys ride with.

Of course, the other part of the equation is the culture of toughness and stubbornness in bull riding. It’s like the ranching and farming culture on steroids. Many bull riders compete with broken bones, and they often hide or downplay their concussions.

There are people working within the sport to bring in much-needed changes. A big part of that is changing bull riders’ aversion to acknowledging their own vulnerability. As bull rider Tanner Girletz put it, you don’t feel too tough when you’re carrying your friend in a casket.

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The couple never made it to the rodeo, but three miniature horses came home with them to their acreage near Grandora, Saskatchewan that evening.

The Labelles were already breeding, raising and training Morgan horses, selling them across Canada and the United States. They then began reading up on miniatures and started training them for ground driving. As the herd size increased, they were readily able to sell some of the minis, particularly those trained for agility and driving, and today their reputation for raising well-mannered and well-cared-for horses continues to grow.

“It starts with human contact the day they’re born,” says Esther. She keeps records of when the mares are bred, and as it gets close to their due date, she prepares a maternity ward in the barn complete with several cameras. Television monitors, connected to the cameras, are set up in a trailer nearby so she can keep an eye on the expectant mothers at night. “I can tell by their breathing when they’re going into labour. I’m a light sleeper, so I pick it up right away.”

Esther spends the first couple of hours bonding with the newborn foal and its mother. “With human contact and working with the animals, they develop that trust in you and do anything you want.”

The Labelles use the method of least resistance. This means that when training the horse, the handler is continually reading the animal and responding accordingly. “When you want them to do something, you make it easy; when you don’t want them to do something, you make it awkward. They want to please you,” Gilles says.

“Every horse has his or her own personality. One will take to training really quickly, another not so quick. You have to be consistent and persistent. If you tell the horse one day he can’t do this, but the next day you allow it and the day after that you punish him, the horse becomes totally confused.

“Also, if you tell the horse, ‘you’re going on the right-hand side of that pylon,’ stick with it, whether it takes five minutes or five hours, he’s got to go on the right-hand side. You have to be proactive; you can’t be reacting to the horse. They are very good at reading your body language,” Gilles says.

Miniature horses are hardy and adaptable. They are dewormed spring and fall, and immunized every spring for eastern and western swamp fever and tetanus. Gilles does the hoof trimming. He also builds much of his own equipment, such as eveners, poles, neck yokes, racks for the wagons, and runners for the sleighs.

The Labelles are members of the American Miniature Horse Registry and the American Miniature Horse Association. They take the horses to functions such as the Equine Expo and parades, but do not participate in horse shows. “We’re not in it for the competition. We want to be involved with them for the fun of it, and entertain people to also enjoy them,” says Esther.

The Labelles were instrumental in establishing the province’s first Fun Time Miniature Horse Club. The club, geared for children, has a membership of about 50, half of which are children.

“Working with horses is both relaxing and satisfying. When I was still working off the farm, I’d come home after a bad day, and the horses just totally changed my outlook. They never talk back or get angry with you,” says Esther.

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“My wife Marjorie and I thought if we were going to build a new indoor riding arena, we should do something different,” says Taras.

With his knowledge of graphics and help of some highly skilled labour, Taras created a Canadian flag design that covers the roof of his arena. The flag, which measures 30 metres by 15 metres, is possibly the largest flag-roof design in North America.

The flag was designed to exact scale at his business, Qwik Signs in Saskatoon. The roof has two bars of red at each end and the maple leaf in the center. It was constructed from pre-painted, ribbed sheet metal roofing. No paint or decals were used in the fabrication.

“We joined sheets of roofing metal inside the facility on the ground. The maple leaf was drawn onto the sheet metal, cut out with a special metal-cutting tool, and all the pieces were numbered. We placed the numbered pieces on the roof in proper sequence. That was the easy part — the installation took us about four hours. The design and cutting took 30 hours,” Taras says.

The arena opened in time for Canada Day celebrations July 1, 2013.

A small barn has since been re-roofed and now displays Saskatchewan’s provincial flag in complete detail.

• More on horses from Grainews: Sask Valley Riding Club

Raising Tennessee Walkers

Taras has been raising registered Tennessee Walking horses for the past 20 years and currently has eight registered Tennessee Walkers of his own and 25 boarders of various breeds.

“The Tennessee Walking horse or gaited horse was developed as a specific breed for plantation owners in the southern U.S. to monitor the slaves picking tobacco and cotton. They wanted a saddle horse with a calm disposition that was comfortable to ride. Tennessee Walking horses are noted for their smooth gait and easy-going disposition,” Taras says.

Taras has more than 53 years of experience in training horses. His love of the animals began when he was a 13-year-old working a paper route on the west end of Saskatoon. “The last stop on my route was a riding stable owned by Gordon Spence. From my paper money, I purchased my first horse when I was 13.

“Horses kept me off the streets as a youth,” says Taras. “After school and after delivering papers I stayed busy with horses and went home at night. My weekends were always occupied with the horses. It was a great benefit to me.”

The stable owner, cowboy named Gordon Spence, became his mentor. “He was an old rodeo cowboy and a very skilled horseman who had travelled the rodeo circuit for many years. His skill with animals was unique. He was a very knowledgeable individual and knew more about horses than any person I’ve ever known. He was a fine man and a great teacher. He not only taught me a lot about horses, but also about life and what work was all about.”

• From the Manitoba Co-operator: Obesity a serious health issue for horses

Always loved horses

In his teens and youth, Taras spent a great deal of his spare time around horses and developed the skills necessary to teach and train the animals. “I was breaking horses when I was 14 and absolutely loved it. When I was 21, I had the opportunity to help round up a herd of wild horses near Ashcroft in the mountains of B.C. That was a great experience for a young ‘prairie boy,’” he says.

When he was young, Taras also participated in bull-riding and bareback rodeo events at the encouragement of another one of his mentors, Ralph Claypool and his wife Ellen. Taras taught his horses to perform a variety of tricks to entertain audiences at halftime during rodeo events, which helped with road expenses.

“I’ve gotten a lot of bumps and bruises over the years that come with the territory, but if you take the time with the horses, you’ll be amazed what they can do and how well they respond,” he says.

Taras says patience and kindness are two of the most important factors to remember in working with horses; also body language. “If you watch a horse — they’re all body language — how they move and how they gesture, this is how they mostly communicate with other horses.”

In 1992, Taras took over his uncle’s farm, which originally belonged to his grandfather. He got back into horses simply for the love of the animals, though he was still operating his textile business at the time. He decided to retire from the business in 2001, but says he just couldn’t sit still. He started the sign business in his garage as a hobby, which was eventually relocated in Saskatoon. He credits his success to Marjorie, his wife of 40 years, who has supported his every effort; his three children, Mitch, Chris and Amanda who have been equally supportive; and his parents Peter and Francais, who made sure the horse board was paid when the paper route was a little short of funds.

Taras also values the influence of Gordon Spence, who taught him how to have a strong work ethic and more about horses in seven years than most people learn in a lifetime. “With a good work ethic, I think anyone can be reasonably successful in life,” says Taras. “The world is open to you — people have to seize the opportunities at hand and work hard. If you run into obstacles, which happen in everyone’s life, you’ve got to overcome them and move on.”

Boarding and training

The Lazy T currently boards about 30 horses but the facilities are available to accommodate 50 animals. With two barns, Taras has 22 box stalls along with several private outdoor paddocks with shelters. He has 70 acres of pasture for the animals. Boarders are entitled to the use of all the facilities. “We also have a young lady who trains horses and provides riding instructions at the Lazy T Stables. Rachael Johnson is an accomplished horse trainer from England with 14 years of training horses. She has a great deal of experience and a wealth of knowledge. She loves horses and is a dedicated, competent and capable gal.

“We live in the greatest country in the world,” says Taras. “The huge Canadian flag roof and the provincial flag roof on our barns are a reminder to everyone who either drive by or fly over the Lazy T Stables of how fortunate we all are to be able to enjoy the freedom our country offers us.”

For more information, contact Bruce Taras at the Lazy T Ranch at (306) 229-6651, or send him an email.

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