The Future of Agriculture Education and Innovation with Nichole Neubauer

Farming, food security, and the future of agriculture in Canada take centre stage in this episode of Bring Back the Porch. Host Brian Konrad sits down with Nicole Neubauer of Neubauer Farms to discuss why agriculture is big business, the role of innovation and technology, and how the new Yuill School of Agriculture is preparing the next generation of farmers, ag professionals, and food system leaders.
From food security and trade relationships to hands-on education, career pathways, and workforce succession, this conversation explores how Canadian agriculture can remain strong, sustainable, and globally competitive.
🎧 What you’ll learn in this episode:• Why agriculture impacts every Canadian, every day• The future of farming, ag technology, and food production• How the Yuill School of Agriculture is changing ag education• Career opportunities beyond traditional farming• Why food security and innovation matter now more than ever
🔔 Subscribe for more conversations about community, leadership, and the ideas shaping our future.

Transcript

0:00

Really, as producers rely on sound trade relationships to add some predictability into a really unpredictable business, because ultimately, Mother Nature is our number one business partner, and she can make things a little challenging, just to say the least. This episode of Bring Back the Porch, brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. And I'm pleased to be joined on the porch today by Nicole Neubauer from Neubauer Farms. You and I talked a lot on the phone over the years. The first time I've ever had the chance to sit down and talk with you face to face. So welcome to the porch. Yes. Thank you for inviting me, Brian. And yes, it's really nice to see each other face to face. Now, we used to do a lot of phone conversations about agriculture. Yeah, it was one of my jobs when I was at chat and, my colleague, former colleague Jesse Gill, wrote an article on Chat News Today back in July when you announced the new Yuill school of agriculture that you're involved with. And when I read that, I said yes. And I'm going to quote you here. Farming is big business, and I think sometimes that's forgotten. I don't know why because everybody interacts with agriculture at least three times a day. Yes. You're you're absolutely correct. Sometimes I think we forget that we are all stakeholders in the Canadian food system. And, the most important thing in any country's, sovereignty and security is being a food secure nation, of which Canada has that in spades. We're so fortunate that we have so many, farmers from across the prairies and really from from sea to sea in this beautiful country. We're capable of growing incredible volumes of food and way more food than we need as a nation, in comparison to our population. So we ship food all over, all over the world. And really, as producers rely on sound trade relationships to add some predictability into a really unpredictable business, because ultimately, Mother Nature is our number one business partner, and she can make things a little challenging, just, to say the least. I've always said this, that, the most optimistic people in the world are farmers. Yeah. You know, we we truly are. And I think that it's it's it's just the, the culture and, the changing of the seasons and the cycles, and no two years are ever the same. And. Right, you know, from the time the last grain goes in the bin in the fall, we're already planning for next year and how we can improve. And we're really fortunate in agriculture that between science and technology, there is so much innovation that allows us to make changes so that we can be more productive, so that we can preserve and conserve our soil and the nutrients in the soil, and then ultimately grow, products that are that are, you know, yield greater or have better quality over time. So thankfully, agriculture is a business of innovation as well. And that's what allows us to continue to grow more food, using fewer resources, less land, and fewer farmers all the time, too. It's amazing to me that with, the opportunities in agriculture that it has taken until 2025 to develop the Yuill school of agriculture in cooperation with the Prairie Rose School Division of the Eagle Butte in Dunmore. And that is something you've been working hard on over the last couple of years. Tell us a little bit about what how the idea started and where you've carried it to to today. Well, it's it's really an exciting legacy project, the Yale School of Agriculture, for myself personally, it's really closing the loop on a on a vision that began over 20 years ago. We first started hosting school groups to our farm at Newberry Farms back in 2005. And basically, the premise for that, which has remained unchanged over the years, was that we wanted kids to form a greater appreciation of where their food comes from, because we know that there is this incredible disconnect between urban and rural, and giving kids a chance to come to a farm and have, some formative memories that are really positive with interacting with the food system we thought was really important. From there, then we launched the urban school Agriculture Discovery Center. Construction was underway for that in 2021, and it opened to students in 2022. So what that really was was a way to educate beyond our gate at Newberry Farms. It was a a space that could be developed where students could become active participants in the day to day operations and management of that student led farm. And really, where older kids could see where there is opportunity in agriculture. I think that feeding people is going to become really big business. I mean, it already is, but as we venture towards 2050, where we think our population might be 9.7 billion people, we are going to have a lot of a lot of mouths to feed. And here in Canada, because we're a food producing nation, we have a moral obligation to optimize production and to really lead the way in creating safe, sustainable food. So from there, we you know, I always had the vision and the dream, and that was to to build pathways for, workforce opportunities, for career opportunities for students because students can't pursue what they don't know. And unfortunately, in agriculture, it's a bit of an unknown entity. I think when you would ask a young person what it would mean to to have a job or a career in agriculture, they'll think that the only way they can do that is if they own land or their family owns land, and they think of, agriculture, of being a farmer, driving a tractor, or, you know, maybe someone riding a horse across the prairie moving some cows along, they don't realize that there is actually an incredible number of jobs, whether it's in agronomy and food science, and then also the incredible opportunities in technology that exist because of data management and AI and moving towards autonomous tractors, that takes some serious, brainpower. And we need to engage with young people and inspire the hearts and minds of these kids to see that there are great opportunities and, define what those pathways look like to get into industry. So really, the whole school of agriculture is set on becoming a premier institution here in southeast Alberta that will equip students with not only the theoretical base of knowledge about all different aspects of the industry, but also will include all the experience and the hands on learning that, yeah, it's a it's like it's almost like the original apprenticeship when when you are in agriculture, you usually start learning the tricks of the trade and, and how to work the tools of the trade when you're maybe about 4 or 5 years old. And, so my belief is that nobody goes to school in grade 11 and goes to a career day and says, hey, mom, I'm going to become an agronomist. That just doesn't really happen like that. They need to have, inspiration of the heart and form a visceral connection with the industry so that they, they can see where there's a place for them, because I believe there's a spot for everyone in agriculture. And that's what the Yale School of Agriculture promises for our region. Is this going to be something that just for students in the prairie rose, or can people from outside come and take advantage of the learning opportunity? Well, at first, of course, Prairie Rose Public School students will be prioritized, a full, enrollment when the your school is up and running in September of 2027 will include 60 students. So that's sort of what we're designing the footprint to house. So all of the feeder schools that come to Eagle Butte High School, students from surrounding schools like urban seven person Schuler, and Radcliff, they will all have first dibs on the opportunities that await them at the new campus. Beyond that, most definitely there will be opportunity. Even if we don't have full enrollment, we would definitely welcome students from other school divisions from, other other regions, even. And, in a similar model to having billet programs for our hockey students, we would be more than happy to figure out how we could do, a billet program for ag students to come and be part of the to be part of the programing. And the beautiful part, for this school is that it will be credit mapped. The the program will students will have the opportunity to earn somewhere around 45 credits of their potential need for 100 in school just by taking the courses, doing some summer work placement and, you know, so we we want it to be open and accessible to all, we also want it to be a place where younger students. So junior high school students from within Prairie rose and the broader region can come for, you know, an afternoon of learning and interaction because it'll be a really dynamic, environment where everything from learning about apiary management and honeybees to, laying hens to beef cattle and a beautiful garden space and a culinary arts program, which will really be a farm to table movement. There'll be super opportunities just to become more engaged with the industry. And, I think another piece that we're really excited to offer the region is that, you know, a school is it can be kind of an underutilized resource because the kids are in from nine till three, you know, basically September till June. And, and there's a lot of a lot of time that nothing's really happening in a school. So we're hoping to be able to bring in guest speakers and provide opportunity for professional development for farmers in the form of extension and training and just just to become a real hub of of exchanging ideas about agriculture and, and really helping to grow the future of the industry in this region. So it's a real community. It'll be a real hub for the entire ag community. It's such a great idea that I'm wondering why it wasn't thought of before, because it was just there. It really was. You know, there's a lot of a lot of moving parts, and a lot of things have to happen in a certain progression. And certainly our, urban AG Discovery Center has been an incredible, development. And and it's really important when you try and create something specific to a particular industry that you have, buy in from the industry, and that the you actually can demonstrate that you have an understanding of what the industry needs. And so the time, the four seasons, the four production cycles at the Agriculture Discovery Center have been amazingly successful. We've raised over $200,000 for that program just in fundraising initiatives, selling beef, selling produce that are at our annual events. And so it really showed us that industry was really supportive and there was a real appetite there to offer agriculture education. So, you know what? That kind of made it, I guess made it feel real and, and, and then we've got an amazing advisory council for the US School of Agriculture. So handpicked some really great, strong leaders in the industry, very diverse group of folks that are all coming together and thinking strategically about, you know, what is what are people going to say about the US School of Agriculture in ten years? And we are not just thinking local, we're not even thinking provincial. We're thinking national. In Canada, there has never been a national standard set for what agriculture education should look like, and that's something that we're very interested in pursuing and creating a model that can serve as a template so that other regions can offer a really high quality, relevant program that's responsive to the needs of industry. The You of Family Foundation is one of the big pieces of this, and it probably wouldn't happen at the scale that you are going to be at without their contribution, money and land. Yes, absolutely. The the your family foundation have they're actually they're the whole cornerstone of why this can take off in the direction that it has and why it can be such a comprehensive offering. So the generosity, of, of the family is really overwhelming and really integral to why we are where we're at today. They've donated 76 acres of land, ideally situated between Medicine Hat and Dunmore. And it's a picturesque, beautiful piece of property with a creek access that goes through it. There's there's wetlands and grasslands and an ideal building site. We actually have done all of the site work, so we'll be able to start construction as soon as the frost is out of the ground in the spring. But it was because of their, their vision and their also their understanding of how important it is to offer students opportunities in high school that lead to careers that lead to pathways that when they graduate from high school, they are job ready. And we really that's going to be a real underpinning of the programing that will offer to students. It's great if students want to go to school after and get a degree. Well, that's fantastic, but not everyone has to have a degree to have a really great life and a meaningful career. They need to have work ethic and they need to have good communication skills. And they just know they need to know how to become a good employee. And we're going to provide those types of, training for the kids while they're pursuing, their, their high school diploma in, in, in, in agriculture, in and out through an agriculture lens. So yes, we're incredibly grateful to the your family Foundation for their vision and their support and their enthusiasm. They're really 100% behind us in this project and also see the tremendous potential in this region and the importance of really training our own from within, instead of having students have to leave the region and go, you know, to central or even northern Alberta to learn about agriculture. That's actually really devastating. It's kind of death by a thousand cuts to our industry because we lose. We lose the, you know, the the kid that's been on the farm, that's been doing work experience since they were five. We lose them while they're going to school. And then there's an even greater potential that they may not come back because there's many tremendous opportunities elsewhere. So we lose a successor for a family farmer ranch. So if we can grow our own in this region, that's how we can truly sustain some economic development by having a strong, skilled workforce that's ready for tomorrow. What's that old expression? How are you going to keep them down on the farm after they've seen Perry? You lose your community? Yes, absolutely you do. And if you don't have young people in your community, you don't have that that future model. And, so, you know, there's a there's a lot of work that needs to be done. I in all my heart believe that the Canada's premier food corridor, absolute, includes the Medicine Hat region. Right here it is right here. We have so many amazing resources, between irrigation and innovation and, you know, great farmers, if we have a skilled workforce as well, that pairs well for attracting value added industry into this region. And, you know, from a farmer perspective, the more of my product that we can add value to instead of sending it away to someone else and then buying it back after it's been processed, let's keep that right here so that we're actually creating products that feed Canadians. And create jobs for other people to work and live and stay in Medicine Hat and area. Yes, it's seems like such an easy thing that we never got to hear before, but the future looks very bright. Speaking of the future though, we have a lot of farmers who are up in their 60s, 70s. We're going to see them going out to pasture, retiring or a well-earned retirement. So who's going to fill in the gaps? Gosh, that is the million dollar question. And you know, here in southeast Alberta, it's no different than it is everywhere in North America. In the next ten years, we're going to experience a succession tsunami where farmers I think that it's about 30% of farmers in this region that will reach 65 in the next ten years. And so succession planning becomes such a huge component of the future. And all of a sudden you're taking this asset that's worth multi-millions millions of dollars of, of asset, whether it's in farm and infrastructure and machinery. And we need to figure out how the next generation is going to move into that world. And it's difficult because not everyone has. I, child that is going to want to take over the family farm. So we need to look at some different models of how can a young person who wants to get in the industry, how can they maybe start with some rent to own of land? How can they how can they start to, you know, train on a farm to eventually end up in a management position? Those, retirees might still only assets, but they're going to need to hire the expertise to manage the day to day operations. And unfortunately, as time goes on, the smaller family farm is becoming less sustainable. And you're going to need to either have some second off farm income or some diversification right on your farm so that you can continue to stay in the game because the cost of production, the cost of technology, it's crazy. Paired with really unpredictable markets and stress trade relationships from, you know, all over the world. So that's a pretty tricky to develop a business plan around something that's a little bit volatile. However, when farms are sold and then bought by bigger farms, those bigger operators have to hire people. Everyone from people who market the grain and people who do the H.R and payroll and the people that drive the tractors. It's a it's a really complicated business model, and the expertise is going to get to be even more in demand because as the bigger farmers even buy the smaller farmers, there's going to be that much more demand for the expertise and the skill set to manage the data, to manage the systems and to keep those, those big operations working. There's a lot of moving parts. So great careers in the future for kids. Students that go through the UOL School of Agriculture. You talked about pathways medicine. That college's one of them. Yes. So that's the other really exciting pieces that we're working closely with, the Medicine Hat College, to see where there's opportunity to build some ag programing here locally. And what we've really zeroed in on is even though there's so many is so broad as an industry, there's so many different areas you could pursue. We keep coming back to the fact that a successful agriculture, operation comes back to business fundamentals. And so good business acumen is super important for anyone that wants to work in this industry, whether you're going to have a small family farmer, you're going to have a massive, you know, multimillion dollar operation. Business decisions can make or break you year in and year out over every season. That's what the water's do for me, because, you know, we talk and mouth gets a little dry. Thank you. Yes. So there's a the medicine I college already has a great business and business diploma and certificate in diploma program. So we're looking right now to see how we can build out dual credit courses with an agriculture lens in the business realm that can be offered to students while they're in high school. And there's a very real potential that they could possibly graduate high school already with a certificate. So like, like first year of college that they've got, you know, in their in their, toolkit all of a sudden and then direct pathways into the second year to graduate with an egg business diploma. So we're working working toward that to even, you know, finally finalizing the loop so that kids are graduating from post-secondary with some with some good business smarts, because taking over even a small family farm that might, you know, have $1 million worth of transactions for a kid that's never balanced their checkbook, mainly because we don't really have them anymore. That's a check. But yeah, exactly that that can be that can be really tricky. So, definitely, we want to we want to empower our young people so that they can be successful in this industry moving forward. I see the fast track there, too, because if you can get that first year while you're still in high school, that's one less year of student loans. That's one year into your career when you can actually be in your career instead of being in the college. So again, wonderful idea. It's wonderful. And we're so very fortunate. I, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention and, acknowledge that also, we've received funding from the Alberta Education through the Collegiate Stream to help support the, building of this campus. And and the collegiate model is a great one because it does talk so much more about pathways to careers for students and and making time meaningful while they're in high school. I mean, there's not one of us that sat in high school during some class and said, when will I ever use this in the future? Oh, yeah. And I mean, some of high school is just learning how to learn so that you can be successful later in life, but also making high school really, really relevant and challenging and and putting experience in it where it's unique and, and, gets kids thinking with creativity and critically and as collaborators working with with others. I think we can we can just build build kids that are more resilient and more capable as they head off into whatever direction. And so even that's the underlying piece. Even if all the kids that go to the US School of Agriculture maybe choose a different pathway, that's okay, because those of us that are in the agriculture industry, we know that kids these days will really benefit from the model of agriculture, which is sustained effort over time, creates wonderful results. It's not an immediate gratification world. In agriculture, you have to put a seed in the ground, and it takes four months to grow a carrot and staying in tune with the needs of something over a period of time is going to develop. Humans that are going to just do better in life. You know, is there going to be a component for animal husbandry? Yes, sir. There is. So, what I do know from the research that I've done, and certainly some of it is just personal animals are a big ticket item for young people. They want to interact with animals and care for animals. And gosh, I would I would hazard a guess that there might be, you know, as many as 75% of young females at some point in time want to become a veterinarian. And so, yes, we'll have we'll have an animal sciences program. So we're building a very diverse building. So inside the building there will be a number of labs. There'll be a botany lab for our plant science, commercial kitchen with a store attached. So the kids will learn to do value added. They'll learn how to can they'll learn how to pickle. And, we're going to raise beef that will be processed and sold out of a storefront. So all of the business, business, financial side and the marketing of all of that, the kids will run this as a business, and then we'll have an animal science building. So while it's within the building, but an animal sciences clinic. So if I had a cow that needed some attention, I could phone up my vet and take it to the clinic with, well, it'll be complete with a cattle handling system inside of it, and the students can observe the vet with the procedure and even participate at a safe distance. When the equine dentist is coming to town. We'll schedule horses there, and the kids can observe the horses getting their their teeth, their teeth looked after. Same with a ferry or so. So there'll be that animal health piece. And then there's also, mechanical systems. So a full on shop. And we've been really fortunate at Prairie Rose to partner quite extensively with Western Tractor. And they are they're offering support for our junior high students to get them excited about careers. And in in sales part service agronomy. You know, all of the technology to so they're going to partner with us to bring partially built combine headers that our kids can assemble during the winter. So again, some great life skills. So so that's a really multi-purpose building with five classrooms in the in the main level. And that's phase one. We'll need to continue to do more fundraising and aggressively, we hope to complete the the additional phases in short order. So there'll be a, a barn for our for our cattle and an egg laying barn with, classroom attached to it with all the cattle handling system and then also, greenhouse. We're investigating right now what a passive solar greenhouse would look like for a year round growing environment that, maybe doesn't use as much natural gas heated as, would be typical. And, honey processing facility as well for our apiary. So we have multiple phases beyond the main structure. But we're really confident once we have the brick and mortar in place that, we'll be able to, will be able to aggressively go after some additional grants and funding to continue, to build the entire campus. What about horticulture? Oh great question. Yes, horticulture is going to be a big piece of it. We'll have a large garden and the students will manage that, summer students working on it during the summer, the the kids will start seedlings in the greenhouse and transplant. We're also super fortunate in that Prairie Rose has, a water license agreement in the Bull's Head Creek. And this was a, an agreement that was signed back when Eagle Butte High School was built. So they pump water from the creek up to a dugout, and then they use that for some ground keeping. And as that, as it turns out, where that water license falls in the Alberta Water Act, we're going to be able to divide that license in half and then allocate through a new point of diversion, some water to this, to this new school. And so that's huge because you can't do anything without water in this neck of the woods. But we're also going to be able to install drip line irrigation systems and we'll, you know, will we'll really manage our water, our precious resource, really well. So there'll be that whole environmental studies piece that the students can be part of and understand that water is is life. And it's also a limited resource that we need to carefully manage. Research, experimental research. I can see opportunities here too. Brian. Yes, yes. Oh, it's it's so exciting. There will be so many opportunities for research. And there's a lot of funding out there for research right now. So another, another piece of the college is the recently launched center for innovation. And so we're hoping to partner with them and actually teach kids how to do research. I think that in this day and age, a lot of people make decisions on health, on food, based on emotion and based on what they see on social media. And unfortunately, that doesn't always, include science. And science is, science is filled with rigor and it's filled with, all of the data and the information that guides the decision. It's not based on what your heart thinks. So teaching kids how to do scientific research, how to think critically and then conduct research. So just a simple, well, a first, a first, example of some research that we just did this year. So we launched Prairie Rose, honey, which was basically we built our own apiary, under the guidance of Sheldon Hill, who is a master beekeeper, and his his lovely partner, Stella, seen. And many would know of Sheldon and Stella from sweet, Pure Honey. They have come in, as our as our subject matter experts to manage, very thriving apiary. And they also partnered with the center for innovation to do some really cool research about having insulated hives for the summer. And the premise behind that is that bees need to keep their hive cool when on a plus 35 degree day. Honey. I know that when honey gets so viscous that it wants to just flow right out of the hive and everything's melting, but the bees bring water in and they use that like a, a heat exchanger to cool the hive. But they they expend so much energy doing that instead of making honey. So Sheldon's theory was, if you insulate a beehive during the summer, it creates a more moderate temperature, and bees can spend more time doing what they do best. And, it was the results were astounding because production in the insulated high was over double what the standard hive was. And we had sensors that monitored the temperature and a scale that weighed it in real time, that he could just look at that data on his phone anytime he wanted. So what a simple concept that could be easily duplicated that the students could be part of. So that's just one example of some of the opportunity that will take place. We'll also have some small crop plots. We'll we'll investigate drought, drought hardy plants, crops and yeah, research, research will become, a big piece of grade 12. So the idea is that in grade ten, the kids will come in and they'll take a little buffet taste test of all the different pathways. And then in grade 11, they'll narrow down then to one that really speaks to their heart that they're most interested in and specialize their knowledge base in that area. And in grade 12, they'll continue to specialize, but then they'll do capstone projects, competitions and applied research opportunities that will just really take that learning to, a real, applicable, real life level. We've been talking a lot about the future of agriculture, and in a little bit of time we have left. I wanted to just kind of look back at this past summer because the rain came, but maybe a little bit too late, but perhaps that might help for 2026. How, in a nutshell, how did it go, sir? Every every year an egg is different. And I guess on Newbury Farms what we really, our practice is very diverse, and we think diversity is probably what works well for our small family farm. So, yes, cropping was a challenge in the dry land because, the rains didn't come until late, so we had quite a bit of different staging to work through, and the quality didn't end up being great and yields were fairly low. So that part was was fairly challenging. But conversely, the late rains actually were really quite good for the pasture and the, the grass was in decent shape and we weaned some of our heaviest calves this fall at, at weaning time when we sold them. So the cows really benefited from from the good grass. We have some grass carryover. So that's always money in the bank. When you're a rancher, you definitely need to that old grass. Even though it doesn't look like much, it actually still packs a punch. And it's, really important to have some carryover. And, actually, there was very little moisture left in the ground from doing ground work in the fall, particularly for the Yale School of Agriculture. We realized just how little moisture there actually is. So will be just like every year we'll be looking for some timely rains and, some timely melt as well to replenish dug out. So there's, it's rare. I think 2010 is the only time in my life that there was more moisture in this region than we really wanted. So we'll always welcome the rain in, in whatever form it wants to come in. Snow is not something I enjoy, but I always think it's good for the land. And if it's good for the land, it's good for everybody. Absolutely. The the better we can, the more food we can grow, the better, because that makes it more readily available for everyone else. Nicole Neubauer I could talk another half hour with you. It's always a pleasure for me to speak with you. And, maybe we can have you back again on the porch. Oh, that'd be awesome. We'd love to come back once. Once everything's open, and then we can. We can talk more about about not what will happen, but what's happening. I'll look forward to that. Thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you. So.