Guelph, ON – The 2022 slate of Provincial Directors for the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) was introduced in early February at their virtual annual meeting. Taking the reins as president for the one-year term is Warren Schneckenburger from Dundas County who has represented the Eastern Valley Region.
OSCIA, founded in 1939, is a unique not-for-profit grassroots farm organization. Over 50 county and district associations encompassed by 11 designated regions make up OSCIA’s network of members. Their diverse membership of about 4,000 has a significant presence in all agricultural areas of the province and across all major sectors. OSCIA is farmers actively seeking, testing, and adopting optimal farm production and stewardship practices and their number one applied research priority is soil health. As a leader in agricultural stewardship program delivery for more than 34 years, OSCIA works with producers to support environmental stewardship activities in agriculture through education-based programs and cost-share funding opportunities.
Alongside his parents Arden and Rhonda, Warren and his wife Christine operate Cedar Lodge Farms, a cash crop farm in south Dundas County. Warren and Christine are the third generation on the farm where they produce corn, soybeans, winter wheat, and edible beans. Warren and Christine also have three young daughters: LiliAnne, Emilia, and Catherine. Warren is no stranger to being recognized for his dedication to soil health, environmental stewardship and progressive production methods and was named Innovative Farmer of the Year in 2019 by the Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario. Over the past ten years Warren has implemented many strategies for soil conservation, including improving crop rotation, implementing strip tillage and no-till practices, applying controlled traffic farming and planting cover crops. With his primary focus on soil health and compaction mitigation, Warren’s efforts are reportedly paying off. Warren has been involved in Soil and Crop for as long as he can remember.
From being a member, to holding director roles within the local, regional, and provincial boards. Warren recognizes the value of good land stewardship and has noted that many of the changes incorporated at Cedar Lodge Farms are reflective of the OSCIA mission statement “…to facilitate economic management of soil, water, air, and crops…”
“I feel very humbled to be elected the 84th president of OSCIA, an organization with incredible history and importance to Ontario agriculture,” states Schneckenburger during his in-coming Presidents remarks at the OSCIA 2022 virtual annual meeting. “I have learned the importance of grassroots through my involvement with Dundas County SCIA over the last 20-years, and it is this sort of engagement that gives value to our members; building on a common goal creates a sense of community that will continue to draw members into our organization”.
“Membership value isn’t hard to find within OSCIA., The successes of the OSCIA Tier Two projects are an excellent example of this,” comments Schneckenburger. “I urge you and your local SCIA to build up and engage with your members again, continue with on-farm research, set up a crop tour, a twilight tailgate meeting, get re-engaged. OSCIA is known and respected for sharing information and encouraging others to do the same.”
The OSCIA annual meeting was split into four 2-hour sessions throughout the day and featured both live and pre-recorded presentations. Video recordings of the presentations are available on the OSCIA website for members to access. Topics of technical presentations included grazing cover crops, best practices for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from nitrogen fertilizer, carbon sequestration and emerging carbon markets. Members can log in here to access the full videos: https://membership.ontariosoilcrop.org/member-home/
Photo credit: OSCIA agm presentation
Image 1: Living Lab panel presentation, Grazing cover crops (left to right starting at top left corner)- Tracey Ryan, Steve Sickle, Andy van Niekerk, Mike Groot, Christine O’Reilly, and Dr. Lori Phillips.
“Our board is made up of a dynamic and passionate group of farm leaders,” comments Schneckenburger when discussing the OSCIA Board of Directors “I am confident that the collective knowledge and experience of this board will work diligently to provide the resources and opportunities so that all of our local and regional associations may continue to succeed year after year. This is what Soil and Crop is all about, building, learning, and improving.”
The 2022 provincial Board of Directors are:
Warren Schneckenburger – President (Eastern Valley)
Steve Sickle – 1st Vice (Golden Horseshoe)
Phil Oegema – 2nd Vice (Thames Valley)
Eleanor Renaud – 3rd Vice (Ottawa-Rideau)
Chad Anderson – Past President
Gilles Quesnel – Honourary President 2022
Birgit Martin – Northeastern Ontario
Stefan Szeder – Northwestern Ontario
Chad Quinlan – St. Clair
Andy van Niekerk – Georgian Central
John Poel – Heartland Brady Jones – East Central
Gord Speksnijder – Quinte
Eastern Valley – currently seeking representation
____________________________________________________
For more information, please contact:
Amber Van De Peer at avandepeer@ontariosoilcrop.org OR Warren Schneckenburger, President, at wschneckenburger@ontariosoilcrop.org