The Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists recognized worthy individuals March 20 at their awards presentation during the SIA Adaptation Convention at the Dekker Cetre.
First, Dave Cubbon, PAg, has been presented with the Distinguished Agrologist Award.
In receiving the award Cubbon was recognized by SIA for being the "go to guy" in the Meadow Lake area for questions about existing and new crop production, providing well-researched answers to producers' questions without bias.
Cubbon, who worked for many years with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, is currently manager of Cavalier Agrow in Meadow Lake. He is the new president-elect of SIA.
Cubbon was credited for providing accurate agrinomic advice on such things as canola, peas and alfalfa seeds, among others. He has written various articles on agrology subjects and has very active as a branch representative on provincial council of the SIA.
Nominators were Doug Fehr and Paul McAllister, who introduced Cubbon at the awards presentation.
They noted that in season Cubbon would rarely be found in his own office - rather, he could be found in the office he is most comfortable with - his clients' fields, from sunup to sundown.
In accepting the honor, Cubbon noted that times in agriculture were much better now than they were before.
"For anybody who worked through the '80s, we're back to having fun again and we're back to doing good things," said Cubbon, who advised fellow agrologists to "remember when you're out in the field to have fun."
The Outstanding Young Agrologist Award is presented to a young member of SIA under age 40 who provided outstanding service and made worthy contributions in agriculture, bioresources, food and the environment. This year that award goes to Jenifer Lee Heyden, PAg.
Nominator Sherrilyn Phelps noted Heyden's efforts in northwest Saskatchewan as a regional livestock specialist, as well as Heyden's active involvement in the community with the northwest branch of SIA, 4-H and the Glaslyn playschool board.
Heyden holds a master's degree from the University of Alberta with a thesis on Beef Cattle Genomics. She helped develop a publication, Year Round Grazing - 365 Days, with over 15,000 copies printed and distributed across Canada.
She has spent her career in the livestock industry with the Battle River Research Group and the Sask. Ministry of Agriculture, where she works now as their regional livestock specialist.
Heyden was described as particularly interested in delivering information to livestock producers directly, whether it was taking information to producers or taking producers to the information. Often she would bring them the information herself through presentations.
Her ideas were recognized with a "Going Above and Beyond" award in 2012 from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Heyden accepted her award with humility.
"I probably don't deserve this award any more than anybody else this year," said Heyden, who added "I am the person that I am because of the people that I work with."
Finally, the Agriculture Excellence award goes to the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency.
SAMA is one of the leading employers of agrologists in the province with 47 professionals employed with them, in their effort to provide the highest professional and ethical standards of service to the public.
The agency is the recognized leader of property assessment in Saskatchewan and is responsible for a $94 billion property assessment base, as well as a $1.4 billion property tax base, and is directly responsible for assessed values of 805,000 properties in the province.
The nominator for this award was the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists provincial council. CEO Irwin Blank accepted the award on behalf of SAMA, and Blank was joined on stage by several SAMA employees during that presentation.
