Project to foster beef industry leadership

Friday, September 23, 2011

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The Ontario Cattlemen’s Association (OCA) will begin a pilot project late this year for 40 Ontario beef producers to help them gain skills in governance, meeting management, leadership styles and organization assessment and planning.

The project, in collaboration with the Rural Ontario Institute, is designed to recruit and retain leaders capable of moving the Ontario beef industry forward.

LeaAnne Hodgins, OCA communications manager, said the pilot would likely begin in December. She said they are targeting younger beef producers. However, there are no age restrictions. Initially, she said, they will contact the 49 Cattlemen’s Associations across the province and ask them to recommend producers who might want to participate.

“We are trying to foster leadership skills in those people that might be up and coming,” she said. “The plan is to have 40 participants in our first round and then we will be able to build on that. Long term, we could have hopefully hundreds of people who have been through the program that understand issues the beef industry faces as well as governance, meeting structure, public speaking, dealing with the media, those sorts of things.”

She said the pilot is still in development and the rollout strategy is not complete. At this point, she said, they expect the program will be free to participants. BF