Calgary (Rural Roots Canada) – ‘Are we there yet?’ is the theme of this year’s Livestock Care Conference.

Annemarie Pedersen, Executive Director of Alberta Farm Animal Care, says they decided not to do a full-day virtual event, opting to do lunch hour sessions every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the month starting on March 4.

“There’s going to be lots of fun things happening during that period, and depending on whether it’s a workshop or speaker presentations, the duration will be a little bit different,” Pedersen said.

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Pedersen says they have three workshops during that time.

“The first one is with AHEM, the Animal Health Emergency Management Group, and they’re going to be doing a workshop on how to prepare and get organized and make sure that you’re ready if there’s an emergency on your farm or in your sector, in your region.”

She says they also will be having a mental health workshop.

“It really ties into that ‘Are we there yet? theme to talk about the importance of mental health in the agriculture industry.”

Dr. Jody Carrington of Olds will be presenting on that topic.

“She really stepped up to help all of us kind of manage this crazy year and how we’re all feeling.”

And the agenda doesn’t stop there.

“We’ve got scientists from New Zealand coming to talk about the research, and we have a media panel with Barb Duckworth. We brought her out of retirement, Lee Hart and Alexis Kienlin, to kind of talk about what they’re seeing as how things have changed in their time reporting on agriculture and livestock, agriculture in particular.”

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They’re hoping people can grab their lunch and join them for a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout March.

For a list of all the speakers and to register, click here.

Rural Roots Canada is a proud sponsor of the Livestock Care Conference.