Safety on the farm
The Ontario Ministry of Labour has an extensive collection of resources for farming operations on their website at ontario.ca/farmworkersafety. “Farming operation workplaces should be safe, and the employers, supervisors and workers are all responsible for health and safety. Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act applies, with some limitations and conditions, to all farming operations that have paid workers under the Act.” Familiarize yourself with this information. One resource on the site is A Guide to the Occupational Health and Safety Act for Farming Operations. This guide provides important information in an easy-to-read format.
Agricultural Information Atlas
The Agricultural Information Atlas is a great OMAF and MRA tool that farmers, stakeholders and staff can use to create maps, find data and generate records for land across the province. You talked, we listened. We heard suggestions from users on how to make the tool better, so we made the atlas easier to use; created new data layer symbols; made attribute information easier to read and developed better mark-up tools.
And that’s not all! Explore all of the updates at the same address, ontario.ca/agmaps, and click on the Agricultural Information Atlas link. For more information, contact Contact Geographical Information Services at omafra.gis@ontario.ca.
Excellence Award for Agriculture Students Now Open
Farm Management Canada (FMC) and the Canadian Association of Diploma in Agriculture Programs (CADAP) have joined forces to offer an award designed to encourage students to improve their communication and leadership skills through a national video competition. FMC and CADAP are collecting submissions from agricultural students across Canada and will award three winners with $1,000 towards furthering their education in agriculture. The award is designed to help students develop their communication skills by having the opportunity to voice their opinion on a subject related to farm management. Students are asked to submit videos, responding to the following questions: What key skills has your educational institution taught you about farm management that will be most useful in your career? Please explain why these are important? Applications must be received no later than May 9, 2014. For more information, please visit www.fmc-gac.com/excellence-award.