Premier Danielle Smith walks with Nichole Neubauer through the garden at the Agriculture Discovery Centre with members of the student executive following in this August 31 photo. Principal of Irvine School Trent Rayner and superintendent of Prairie Rose Public Schools are in the background. Smith visited the ADC's display at the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede and requested to have a tour of the facility, which took place in late summer.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
SAMANTHA JOHNSON
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
Nichole Neubauer continues to fill the role of helping people feel good about agriculture, their food and how it contributes to the well-being of everyone in this region. And, following a year full of accomplishment and accolades, Neaubauer has been chosen as the 2023 Newsmaker of the Year.
During the summer and early fall, Neubauer was honoured several times with visits from dignitaries and as an award recipient. The Agriculture Discovery Centre at Irvine School, which Neubauer founded and is currently the co-ordinator of, received recognition when Premier Danielle Smith came for a tour late August.
“We welcomed a number of our students to help host the tour and be available for questions because that is what this program is all about, how we can inspire kids to the different possibilities in agriculture and also for them to be owners in their education,” said Neubauer when reflecting on the visit. “We were so impressed by how personable the premier was and how she demonstrated a good knowledge of the challenges facing agriculture and looked at the industry with some of the shared optimism we have.”
In September, Neubauer Farms hosted Salma Lakhani, Alberta’s 19th Lieutenant Governor during her visit to the region and later that month Neubauer received a 2023 Community Champion for Education award from Prairie Rose Public Schools.
“Nichole has had a profound impact on the learning experiences of students at Irvine School,” superintendent of Prairie Rose Public Schools Reagan Weeks stated. “We are so grateful for her investment in students and willingness to share expertise to enhance the future prospects of the children in our communities.”
In late November, Neubauer sat on a farm direct marketing panel at the first Cypress County Agriculture Connections Conference. At the last board meeting of Prairie Rose Public Schools, trustee Graeme Dennis spoke to the board about the vast impact the farm tours at Neubauer Farms have had on students over the years. Since 2005, 22,000 students from the three regional school divisions have visited Neubauer Farms, providing an opportunity for them to learn about the origins of food, gain an appreciation of agriculture and the role it plays in everyone’s lives.
Neubauer hopes the farm tours have helped create a paradigm shifts for kids.
“It’s only happened because we’ve been so lucky to have great relationships with teachers from all three school divisions who have faith in the fact we will be able to keep their kids occupied and safe in a fun learning environment,” said Neubauer.
This year, a mom, who was one of the first students to visit the farm in 2005 when the farm tours began, returned to the farm with her young child.
“She could speak with vivid detail about some of the activities and the things we did and pointed out some of the major changes she could see on the farm since the time she was there. To make lasting impressions is what we intended to do and that was a real tribute to the work we’ve done and for us, it’s all about creating positive messages,” said Neubauer.
Continuing to innovate, Neubauer is passionate about creating additional opportunities for students to build pathways and bridges into agriculture careers. Under the career technology foundations (CTF) options within PRPS, a partnership was formed with Western Tractor that Neubauer called a raging success.
“With an estimated 123,000 people needed to join agriculture by 2030, which is a difficult number to conceptualize but is something that starts with small steps and by creating opportunities to forge futures for students, this is just another way PRPS is so great at partnering,” said Neubauer.
At the second annual Fall Production and Harvest Sale for the ADC, funds were raised to help create more CTF options, one in the beef industry and another in crop production.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to say in the two years the ADC has been operating, we’ve fundraised over $100,000 to invest in agriculture education and that warms my heart because it is thanks to the wonderful support from our community,” said Neubauer.
It’s a challenging time for anyone who works in agriculture and Neubauer Farms is no exception.
“It’s a broken-record theme these days, we are in year seven of drought and it doesn’t look like the moisture deficit will be remedied anytime soon. We’ve really valued our irrigated and flood land this year, and crops in those two spaces were good. We are fortunate enough that we have lots of diversity in our acres on our farm and I guess that helps shelter us from extremes,” stated Neubauer. “In a year where you have to dig deep to find some positives, they were definitely there and we are just like everyone else, hoping the rains come and markets hold strong for commodity pricing.”
