Train the Trainers & Raising the Next Generation

Project Overview

The Climate Change Adaptation Project aimed to support local field trials, increase access to weather data in the Nechako Valley, and to create a reference guide to enable producers to design and establish their own investigations. BCFC developed the Guide to On-Farm Demonstration Research: How to Plan, Prepare and Conduct Your Own On-Farm Trials to provide ranchers with a tool to help them do their own research on the farm, measure what works best, and calculate whether it saves (or makes) money.

To help more producers be able to utilize the Guide,  BCFC and Thompson Rivers University partnered in a project called “Train the Trainers and Raising the Next Generation”, a training program for both existing producers and students in TRU’s Sustainable Ranching Program.

TRU developed a one-day module to learn how to use the Guide, led by Dr. Catherine Tarasoff. The module was delivered to four existing producers (“Trainers”) and nine ranching student in 2018. Each designed their own demonstration research project with Dr. Tarasoff’s support, with projects implemented in the spring/summer of 2019, and presented at an annual Research Forum in the fall.

More than 60 ranchers participated in the Train the Trainers & Raising the Next Generation Field Day, in August 2019, at D&S Zirnhelt Ranch.

Project Deliverables

  • Final Report (to be published June 2020)
  • On-line Research Forum – for producers to ask questions, share ideas and results
  • A Webinar Series – Dr. Catherine Tarasoff outlines the process of using the Guide to On-Farm Demonstration Research.
  • A Field Day – occurred at D&S Zirnhelt Ranch in August 2019
  • A Workshop on the Guide to On-Farm Research – occurred in Williams Lake, December 2019.
  • A Research Forum where students shared research results – occurred in Williams Lake in October 2019.

Acknowledgements

This project was funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Government of British Columbia through programs delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C. Additional funding provided by the Thompson Rivers University, the BC Cattlemens’ Association and the BC Forage Council.