Role Of The Canadian Forage And Grassland Association In Advancing The Forage And Grassland Sector Vern Baron Lacombe Research Station Lacombe, AB

Strategic Road Map Start Here

Have A Good Look At Yourself

Scales Are The Moving Target Plot Field Farm Landscape Region Animal Field Farm Landscape National We are here. We talk like we are here. Kyoto is here. Feed yard Feed lot Pasture The landscape is made up of farm units; the farm has field units.

Scales Are The Moving Target Plot Field Farm Landscape Region Animal Field Farm Landscape National We are here. We talk like we are here. Kyoto is here. Feed yard Feed lot Pasture The landscape is made up of farm units; the farm has field units. Local Farm organization CFGA Research, Extension Gov’t and Industry experts Your Farm Community

A Good National Organization Has To: Work with commercial entities which may not be their own. Value the component parts Work with government and government resources to it’s advantage (public good). Share information, even financial information

Trends in Farm Organizations: Consolidation Too many meetings --- Time constraints Lack of resources (volunteers) and cash Larger voice Grain Farmers of Ontario is an amalgamation of corn, soybean and wheat farmers. The process took 10 years. The grass roots wanted more from the cost of a membership.

Examples of Good Farm Organizations: (in common strong leadership) Manitoba Farm Business Groups – Prairie Provinces Farm Account Book - Development of leadership skills - Shared financial information and farm business analyses (why? – Good for business!) Ontario Corn Producers Association (leadership, knowledge-based and innovative) – Now amalgamated into Grain Farmers of Ontario Canola Council of Canada – (started small, valued and mixed government and industry expertise and resources)

Focus The hardest thing about a forage organization is to focus on forage, work on forage and improve forage.

Prioritization: A Problem for Forages in a “Winner - Loser” Environment

Roles Of A National Organization Advocate Educator Leader Voice Consensus Builder Broker Futurist Representative Image Builder

Urgency vs. Importance Decision-Maker for Your Role Urgency Importance Advocate Broker Futurist Leader VoiceConsensus Builder Image Builder Educator

When you come to a stop:

Summary Define, understand and respect the roles along the local to national scale for CFGA and important stakeholders Are there good models or examples to follow? Focus on forage: How do you handle prioritization in CFGA and for forages within stakeholder organizations? What is the role of CFGA? – Advocate, broker, consensus builder and futurist?

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