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Welcome to Field Notes; the newsletter aiming to bring you the latest news and updates in agriculture, agri-food science, and One Health research.

As the busy holiday season approaches, our Team at ACER Consulting would like to extend our warmest wishes to all of our clients, partners, and colleagues in Canada and beyond. We thank you for following along with Field Notes in 2024 and we look forward to an exciting year ahead - stay tuned for some exciting updates from our team in the new year!

ACER Leads FARM Animal Care Training in California

Steve Roche is in Fresno, California this week conducting Verifier and Evaluator Training for the Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program.  

The National Dairy FARM Program was launched in 2009 by the National Milk Producers Federation. This program helps to support the U.S. dairy industry by ensuring success and demonstrating that American dairy farmers are held to a high standard and are committed to producing safe, high quality milk on their farms.

ACER Consulting has worked with the FARM program since 2020. One of our primary roles is designing and implementing annual certification and recertification training for 2nd party Evaluators and 3rd party Verifiers in animal care. Each year, we train roughly 150 Evaluators on how to evaluate U.S. dairy farms for animal care according to the National Dairy FARM Program.

December Article of the Month

Time to act: Mental health and desired university supports among graduate students

Published in Higher Education & Research Development

Citation: Martow, J. H., E. M. Thornton, P. Conlon, A. Q. Jones, S. Lyons, D. Khosa, J. Hewson, S. Roche, C. Wright, and M. N. Lumley. "Time to act: Mental health and desired university supports among graduate students." Higher Education Research & Development (2024): 1-15.

Summary: This study examines the mental health of Canadian graduate students and their suggestions for improving well-being at university. The survey of 648 graduate students found high rates of mental health issues, with advisor support linked to better mental health outcomes. Key recommendations for improvement included increased financial support. The findings highlight the need for universities to better address the unique mental health needs of graduate students.

Read the open access article here

Table 2 from the article outlines descriptive statistics of mental health variables.

Resource Round-Up

Mastering the New Code of Practice

Check out this webinar for dairy advisors on "Mastering the New Code of Practice", where Steve Roche outlines the science-driven practices included in the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle and how they benefit the Canadian dairy industry.

Click here to watch the full webinar!Sponsored by Lactanet and Dairy Farmers of Canada.

Are there other topics or questions you are interested in?

Email us at [email protected]. We always welcome your questions and feedback!

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