Cutline: Elaine Froese spoke at an Ag Knowledge Exchange in Estevan during the fall.
Farm Credit Canada (FCC) believes the Ag Knowledge Exchange events, like the one in Estevan on Nov. 30, are an important resource for farmers.
Alex Clarke, a relationship manager with FCC’s Weyburn office, said the organization is tasked with holding a couple of these sessions each year. Estevan and Weyburn were selected for the locations.
The Estevan event didn’t have good attendance, she said, but many of the people who registered for the session didn’t show up, and Clarke attributed that to poor roads that day.
The events typically attract a lot of value to farmers, because it allows producers to hear a message they wouldn’t hear otherwise.
“I have attended each one that we put on in our office, and I typically get quite a bit out of them, just in the sense that we don’t have the opportunity as farmers for a tonne of formal training, so when we do get these types of opportunities, I think it is important to go, because it is free information.”
With the number of farmers who attend these events, there are good questions that they can draw from, and they get networking opportunities during the lunches and the breaks.
The speaker in Estevan on Nov. 30 was Elaine Froese. She talked about communication in farm families and conflict resolution through their transition process, but she also delved into mental health issues facing farmers, and how many of them have suffered from a letdown recently following the completion of what was a challenging harvest.
The speaker in Weyburn the following week, Dr. John Fast, talked about communicating for practical results. Clarke said Fast discussed learning how to communicate with different people on a farm operation.
The presentations were geared towards families, but also stressed how to communicate with different personalities in the farming operation.
“We often communicate to other people how we want to be communicated to, but that’s not often how they want to be communicated to, and that’s often how arguments will start, especially among families, so just better being able to identify what that person’s personality is,” she said.
Both events had really good speakers, she said, and connected with their audience.
“We try, throughout the year, to quiz our customers on what they would like to have for speakers, and what kind of topics they would like to have speakers on,” said Clarke. “So we are catering to what the customers are looking for information on.”
This year the people FCC spoke with wanted sessions on transitions and dealing with family members on the farm.
“People seemed to have really great feedback on that,” said Clarke.
Similar events are held across Saskatchewan and throughout the country. FCC has a collection of speakers that they have access to, and those speakers are rotated through different areas. Geography doesn’t necessarily influence the speakers.
While Estevan’s speaker was from Boissevain, Man., which is about two hours away, the speaker for Weyburn was flown in from Ontario.
“We’ll fly them out if that’s the right speaker for what the people in that area are looking for,” said Clarke.
