The University of Saskatchewan's dairy research and teaching facility invited elementary students across six Saskatoon schools on Wednesday to explore careers in agriculture.
Students learned about raising cattle and about how the various ways agricultural workers help put food on the table.
"Saskatchewan is an important player in the global marketplace for many products, and its important that students today know about that, and are excited about this industry, and maybe even consider a career in it," said agriculture program chair Sarah Shymko.
Over 37,000 people across the province currently work in agriculture, not including adjacent industries, but there are concerns about the future workforce.
"Well I don’t think its any surprise. We know there are labour issues in agriculture,” said Hebert Grain Venture’s Evan Shout. “So that’s first and foremost — finding a workforce to continue the food security discussion, and have producers move forward," said Shout.
To stay competitive into the future, producers in Saskatchewan need to be innovative, says Shymko.
“That we have people choosing to be involved in this industry, develop new technologies, and support policies that are going to enable farmers to be successful on their farms."
