Agri Leader

Agriculture stays strong
in a volatile environment
As we kick off another year, it’s a good time to reflect and
understand the key issues that affected agriculture in
western Canada in 2015. The highlights (in no particular
order) included the following:
• Poultry producers in the BC Fraser Valley battled
a large outbreak of Avian Influenza, contained it,
and then saw many areas of the US (and elsewhere
globally) be devastated by the disease.
• The ghost of Christmas past arrived with another BSE
diagnosis that forced many industry stakeholders to
go back into 9-years of records to ensure safety in the
food chain.
• Ongoing weather volatility with an early spring, and a
summer drought.
• Initial transportation challenges, then improvement
as the railroads became (more) available to
agriculture as petro-products became shut-in with
decade-low oil prices.
• A tumbling Canadian dollar, which will no doubt
change some North/South trade flows, and present
export opportunities.
• Release of long-awaited details of the (somewhat
clandestine) Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). At
first it created anxiety, but that tailed-off as details
emerged
In the end, the hallmark for managing through 2015 had
to be calmness, an agility to adapt, and a resolute belief in
the ongoing importance of agriculture.
Here at Hi-Pro Feeds, we’ve
put our sights squarely Dean Prevost
on ‘creating and keeping
customers’. We’ve dedicated
ourselves to that mission, and have been investing
heavily, learning and improving since we emerged as
a new company in 2012. We took another big step in
2015 with the acquisition of Champion Feed Services in
Northern Alberta… all customers and employees have
been warmly invited to join the Hi-Pro family that can now
make/deliver high-quality feed across the province.
As you flip through the pages of this issue of the Agri
Leader, you will read about livestock, dairy and poultry
producers that have embraced the change and volatility
in this industry. As an employee-owned business their
entrepreneurial spirit is important to us at Hi-Pro. Our
business wants to be big enough to deliver (a broad range
of feed, with service excellence), but small enough to care
(about our communities, customers and employees). It
is our goal to continuously improve alongside the people
that work hard to look after their animals and produce
high quality, safe food for the people of this growing world.
Sincerely,

Dean Prevost
CEO, Hi-Pro Feeds
In this issue…
Dean Prevost, CEO ..........3 Daren Kennett, Founder .....4 Editorial Comments ........5
Beef ................. 7
Nelson Family Ranches. . . . . . . . 7
Hi-Pro Cow/Calf Program .....13
U2 Ranch ..................15
Creep Feeding Calves ........21
OB Colony-Beef .............23
Mycotoxins .................27
Advertisers’ Index .... 87
Dairy................ 31
OB Colony-Dairy ............31
From Calf to Calving .........35
Springbank Holsteins ........37
Cottonwood Holsteins ........44
Laingspring Dairy ...........45
Muller Brothers .............45
Silvervale Farm .............57
Poultry.............. 65
Willow Bend Farms ..........65
Top 5 Learnings .............71
Nature’s Farm Eggs ..........73
Functional Gut Integrity ......78
Dealers.............. 81
Purity Farm & Garden ........81
Paradise Hill Farm Supply ....84
Hi-Pro Feeds Directory .......88
AGRI LEADER » 2016
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