Cattle producers welcome appointment of forage chair

The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association (SCA) welcomes the appointment of Bree Kelln as the new Beef Industry Integrated Forage Management and Utilization Chair at the University of Saskatchewan.

This new faculty position has been a long time goal for the SCA and is a significant step forward for Saskatchewan and Canada’s forage based beef cattle industry.

SCA Chair Arnold Balicki welcomed the news saying, “Beef cattle production is based on growing and utilizing many different types of forage crops. For too long that area of agriculture has lagged behind others in research and innovation. We see this Chair as bringing focus to the production and more importantly, the utilization of forage crops to produce cattle competitively.”

The Chair is funded through a partnership of industry, government, university and the Global Institute for Food Security. The SCA contributed $1 million of producer check-off funds to help ensure this position is long term (30+ years).

“Competition for land use is intense. We have to be able to make the best decisions on what to grow, how to maintain and maximize those plants and then how to best use that production raising our cattle. This position brings all these things together,” said Balicki. “I am proud of the collaboration between the University, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Beef Cattle Research Council and the Institute that made this come together.”

SCA looks forward to working with Bree and to provide a platform to demonstrate her research.