The Canadian Angus Association has launched a new Mentorship Program. The program started at the beginning of June, and already has about 20 people signed up for the program.

The mentorship is designed to pair new breeders with more experienced producers.

Carmen Koning, with the Canadian Angus Association, is a new staff member whose responsibilities include over seeing the program.

She says, they do the best they can to match all applicants.

"If we have a mentee who has applied, and they want to learn more about the business side of things, but we don't have any mentors in our data base, Nathan Marin who is the Director of the Business Development: New Generation, knows the membership so well. He reaches out to someone that he thinks would be a good match and talks to them to see if they're interested. Then we'll do a pairing from there."

The Association will be providing resources to participants of the program including online videos, publications, and workshops. These resources have been gratefully sponsored by Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

Koning adds, it's a common misconception when producers don't know what they have to share.

"They just need to know what producers do in their day to day may not be though of as earth shattering to them, but for younger producers, it could totally change their whole way of thinking."

Canadian Angus wants to promote mentorships to ensure these important relationships and knowledge sharing continues.