JULY 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Mentorship program helps expands horizons


Kamloops rancher wants to raise awareness of industry


by MYRNA STARK LEADER KAMLOOPS – Knowledge


and networking are what Alecia Karapita hopes to corral as one of four BC participants in the eighth Cattlemen’s Young Leaders mentorship program offered by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association for producers aged 18 to 35. “It’s something I knew that I wanted to do prior to becoming too old,” says Karapita, who was 35 when she applied. A full-time agriculture specialist with RBC, Karapita has three young children and is partner with her husband Wally Huston and his parents in Willow Ranch, a 400-head Angus operation 20 minutes south of Kamloops. Karapita says RBC and her family are very supportive of her involvement in the program. Karapita grew up on a


grain and cattle farm near Foam Lake, Saskatchewan. She has always been involved in agriculture, raising and showing purebred cattle. She was part of the Saskatchewan Junior Angus program and helped launch the Canadian Junior Angus Association, developing the first show in 2000.


“I met a lot of people and it


really opened up a lot of opportunities throughout North America for me. I thought this program would kind of do the same thing,” she says. Karapita’s mentor is


Canadian Angus Association CEO Rob Smith of Olds, Alberta, who’s spent nearly four decades in the cattle business. Smith’s experience includes working as a livestock extension specialist, managing a purebred seedstock operation, stints with the Alberta and Canadian Angus associations, and most recently co-chairing the 2016 and 2017 Canadian Beef Industry conferences. “Rob and I have known each other for many years. I worked at the Canadian Angus Association prior to him being there, but I’ve known his family for a long time,” says Karapita, who requested a mentor who could help her be the best agriculture advocate possible – someone with lots of connections. Although she studied marketing, she hopes to improve her understanding and use of social media to position herself as a go-to industry leader to assist her RBC agriculture clients across all sectors in the BC Interior. “Rob’s got his finger on the


pulse of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He does some neat things with social media…I’m hoping to gain some tips and tricks and also he had lots of relationships with people I don’t know,” she says. “There continues to be a huge disconnect between urban and rural and I want to do my job to help to continue to bridge that gap and tell our story of how we raise our beef on our ranch.” Smith enjoys mentoring because the work inspires him. It’s also a chance to repay the debt he owes his own mentors. Smith developed and


marketed extension services at Olds College when the Alberta government stopped providing them for free. He recalls cereal grain farmer Ed Shaw, who shared lots of great information and Olds’ dean of agriculture Dennis Kennedy, who taught him the importance of supervising and leading teams with an open heart. Henry Wigman, who


worked for 4-H – a program Smith has been involved in for years – was also influential, although the two had very different personalities. “His was more frantic and


frenzied and I am more deliberate and detailed. So, I learned about being a generalist and being able to adapt to circumstances easier,” explains Smith. Smith’s past relationship


with Karapita gives him insight into her. She has a broad perspective, he says, but she sometimes feels she


Alecia Karapita and her mentor Rob Smith, CEO of Canadian Angus, both have goals as they embark on their year-long relationship through the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders program. SUBMITTED PHOTO


lacks opportunities to flex her muscles at a local and national level. Smith shares Karapita’s


feeling that Willow Ranch has room to tell a better story about its work with Angus cattle. This includes its implementation of a performance program to maximize the weight of calf produced per cow and doing more work in range management to optimize the production of cows based on genetic composition. “The story you can tell about cow-calf production in BC is really a national story. It’s one of history and one still of tremendous progress,” says Smith. “Willow Ranch is increasingly part of that recognition and conversation. … They actually have a plan


and, in fairness, a lot of cattle producers don’t have one that’s quite as defined as Willow Ranch’s.”


Since mentorship pairings


are often long-distance, phone calls, emails and texts are part of the relationship. Participants also have a $2,000 budget to attend conferences where they can engage face-to-face. Other BC participants in


this year’s Cattlemen’s Young Leaders program include Carley Henniger, who works for the BC Angus Association. She is paired with Bob Lowe, managing partner of Bear Trap Feeders in Nanton, Alberta and past chair of Alberta Beef Producers. Andrea Haywood-Farmer of


Indian Gardens Ranch in Savona is under the


mentorship of Emily Murray, general manager of beef with Cargill in Chicago, Illinois. Taylor Grafton, a third- generation rancher from Prince George has Michael Munton of Benchmark Angus, a fourth-generation family operation in southern Alberta, as a mentor. Phil Braig, assistant manager of the historic Douglas Lake Cattle Co., is a program mentor. He’s working with Ben Wilson, a full-time independent filmmaker and consultant who owns Benjo Productions in Bashaw, Alberta. Cattlemen’s Young Leaders


participants met for the first time at the Canadian Angus Association’s national convention in Comox last month.


Reminder of Check-off Increase BC’s Cattle Check-Off increases to $5.00 per head effective JULY 1, 2018.


BC beef producers support the industry with funds for promotion, marketing, development and research.


National Check-off $2.50/head Canada Beef Beef Cattle Research Council Issues Management (CCA)


Provincial Check-off $2.50/head Supports industry projects of these provincial associations:


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www.bcacf.ca


www.cattlemen.bc.ca


www.bcdairy.ca


www.cattlefund.net Cattle Industry Development Council Ph: 250.573.3611 #4-10145 Dallas Dr. Kamloops B.C. V2C 6T4


www.bcbfa.ca


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