Local college student wins first prize for research project

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Jack Vergouwen is busy packing his bags and heading to New Zealand for a four-month-long directed field study, but that isn’t the only highlight this year for the Olds College agri-business student.
Vergouwen was also recently awarded first place and a $500 cheque for a presentation on his research project at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference two weeks ago.
The fourth-year student was the only person selected from the Olds College Bachelor of Applied Science in Agribusiness to present his research project alongside 16 other hopefuls at the conference from Aug. 14-16 in London, Ont.
Vergouwen, who grew up on a mixed farm just outside of Strathmore, and two classmates, Layce Donaldson and Catalina Oitzl, got involved with the research project as part of an applied research class, which presented the students with 14 current projects to jump on board with.
Vergouwen and his team decided to align themselves with the Alberta Beef Producers (ABP), Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and their two-year pilot project with the objectives to understand the reason behind producers’ decisions to adopt certain innovations and technologies on the farm as well as the factors necessary to implement them.
“So we essentially just jumped on with them. They were a few months into the project so everything we did we ran a condensed version of their pilot project,” Vergouwen said.
“The biggest factor behind why producers like us tend to not adopt certain innovation is financial risk and time risk. (We need) more localized research or trial runs or pilot projects, anything to educate producers better or finding ways to mitigate those risks.”
The students conducted surveys, focus groups and numerous interviews, where results and recommendations based on the data proved supplementary to the pilot project. Once Vergouwen, Donaldson and Oitzl presented their project to the class, the team was approached by Kaley Segboer, Olds College business coordinator of the Technology Access Centre for Livestock (TAC), who offered Vergouwen the opportunity to head to the Canada Beef Industry Conference and compete in the annual poster competition; a decision that resulted in Vergouwen walking away with the top prize.
“It’s a pretty big honour and so satisfying to see all the amount of hard work that was put in from January to now, to see everything come down and put on one poster, take it to Ontario and get rewarded for it; it’s a pretty good feeling,” Vergouwen said. “But it’s more than that. Just to be given the chance to go over there and take part in an event like that, I’m insanely grateful for it. It was such a great experience… even just for the connections you can make and the relationships you can develop. It’s impossible to leave events like those without making 30 new friends and learning new stuff.
“I talked to so many industry experts and professionals, and you get a good sense of in what direction the industry is headed and what you can expect for a young producer hoping to get into the industry one way or another here soon. It’s pretty remarkable.”
Vergouwen hopes the research will help the industry increase the proportion of producers adopting new innovations and technologies, and in turn, make operations more productive, efficient, sustainable and profitable for producers adopting such new avenues.
While Vergouwen is heading to New Zealand on Sept. 2 to gain experience with one of their cattle finishing operations, his aspirations are motivating him to finish his degree, break into the industry, and one day he hopes to take over his family farm.