Strathmore ag society to launch ranching school

By Jacob Miller Times Reporter

The Strathmore and District Agricultural Society is planning to launch a Practical Ranching School in 2021.

The school is an effort to further support agriculture and agricultural families within the region.

“We feel there’s a real need to provide opportunities for young people who want to enter farming and ranching to gain practical experience, and the practical ranching school is designed to provide that,” said Ryan Schmidt, ag society general manager.

The society hopes to partner with colleges or high schools to make it a program that is available to earn college or high school credits.

The school would be an actual real working ranch where students would have to come and go when certain things are happening.

“We’re going to design it so that they can experience all different aspects of ranching, including calving season (and) haying season, (and) all different aspects of ranch life that can occur throughout the year,” said Schmidt.

The school will be aimed towards young people who are interested in entering farming and ranching, but Schmidt said that it will be open to all age groups.

The idea of the school came from their membership and members putting forth similar ideas.

“Sometimes good ideas come from many places, and that was the case here,” said Schmidt.

The school will be run by a separate group through the ag society.

“The Strathmore ag society is going to establish a practical ranching committee, it will be a committee that will oversee the running of the ranch and the ultimate final development, a ranching school program,” said Schmidt.

According to the ag society’s website, they hope to launch the school in 2021, and are looking for people who are interested in helping.

“The school is still under development and hasn’t launched yet, but we are hoping to launch in the next couple of years,” said Schmidt.