ELMWOOD – Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week (GBFW) returns for its 58th consecutive year in 2024.
This annual conference and tradeshow will be held in-person at the Elmwood Community Centre (38 Queen St. W., Elmwood), or can be livestreamed from your home, between Jan. 3-9, 2024.
The conference starts with Beef Day, followed by Dairy, Goat, Sheep, Horse, Ecological and Crops Day. It is a seven-day Agricultural Conference packed with a most impressive and informative line-up of speakers.
The coordinators for this event, Grey Ag Services, in conjunction with agricultural commodity leaders from Grey and Bruce counties, look forward to seeing producers, agribusiness professionals, and industry experts gather together. They anticipate a stellar event with strong support from sponsors and exhibitors, as well as lots of enthusiasm from the audience.
Not to be forgotten, the in-person event also includes an excellent hot roast beef meal. Goat and lamb will be served on their respective days, and pies will line dessert tables once more.
Back for 2024
Whether audience members purchase tickets for livestreaming or in-person attendance, all will be given access to conference recordings for a 30-day period post-event. Producers can make use of this ‘Encore Access’ in order to catch up on pieces that they may have missed, or to recap information that they found especially useful.
In addition to the encore access of the live presentations, audience members will also find available 30 ‘on demand’ presentations. These are pre-recorded and available for watching on the attendee’s own time, from home. Topics covered are broad, and access to all thirty presentations are included with tickets purchases for any day of the week. This hugely increases the content available to the GBFW audience.
Keynote speakers
This year’s GBFW will feature the following keynote speakers:
– On Beef Day, Mark Gerber, technical sales specialist from Zinpro Performance Minerals, Minnesota, will deliver Year Round Cow Supplementation Increases Calf Weaning Weights.
– On Dairy Day, Mark Gerber will present Dairy Lameness.
– On Goat Day, Dr. Rosie Busch, sheep and goat extension veterinarian from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, will share two presentations – Pragmatic Approaches to Disease Control on your Farm; and Healthy Udders & Milk Quality.
– On Sheep Day, Dr. Mark Young, innovation specialist with the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock from the UK, will share two topics – Innovations and Technologies to Support Future Breeding Objectives; and Where do Sheep Fit into Sustainable Food Systems of the Future?
– On Horse Day, Lindsey Partridge, founder of Harmony Horsemanship, will delve into Liberty with Horses.
– On Ecological Day, Amy Stein will explore Land Access and Linking.
– On Crops Day, Justin Shepherd, senior economist with Farm Credit Canada, will dig into Macroeconomic Uncertainty – What is the Impact on Ontario Agriculture.
Many, many more excellent speakers fill out the schedules for each day, as well as panel discussions covering (by order of the day they appear) Keeping Cows on the Ontario Landscape, Hoof Health, Ask a Vet, Accelerated vs. Annual Lambing Systems, Equine Metabolic Syndrome, Land Access and Linking, Living Labs Research and Improving Phosphorus Use with Non-Traditional Fertilizer Sources.
Livestreaming tickets must be pre-purchased online. It is recommended that attendees purchase in-person tickets online as well. For those unable to do so, cash, cheque and debit will be accepted at the door.
Registration price is as follows:
– Individual days, in person or livestreamed: $50/day Includes HST.
– $120 for three days.
– Livestreamers can purchase tickets for the whole week for $180.
For more information, visit www.gbfw.ca, email info@greyagservices.ca or call 519-986-3756.
