Canadian Cattle Young Leaders recognizes 2024–2025 program mentors
February 5, 2025
Calgary, AB — Canadian Cattle Young Leaders is pleased to announce this program year’s industry-leading mentors who are kindly investing their expertise and time to offer guidance to the next generation of the Canadian beef industry.
Each year, the Canadian Cattle Young Leaders (CYL) Program selects 16 program participants ages 18–35 from across the country and offers industry networking, travel, and skill building opportunities. A focal point of the program is matching participants with a hand-picked mentor in their specific area of interest in the Canadian beef industry for a nine-month mentorship experience.
There is an exciting array of mentorship focus areas this year, including innovative grazing practices, risk management, digital communications and marketing, business planning, industry leadership, policy, livestock handling and welfare, and much more.
“As we look to the future, it is crucial to invest in and support the youth of our industry to secure long-term success,” says Canadian Cattle Association President, Nathan Phinney. “We appreciate the dedication and guidance of all past and present mentors for their invaluable role in shaping the next generation of leaders in the Canadian beef industry.”
The formal portion of these mentorships began in November 2024 and will conclude at the end of July 2025. Each participant is granted a $3,000 budget through the program. This is an increase of $1,000 each, thanks to Cargill’s generous funding increase to Platinum Partner. Thanks to the generosity of Cargill and our other program sponsors, these budgets fund various learning opportunities, such as travel to see their mentors and attending industry events.
To learn more about this year’s mentorships pairings, you can visit our participant spotlight page (https://canadiancattleyoungleaders.ca/participant_spotlight2024.html) on our website.
Applications for the 2025–2026 program year are available at www.canadiancattleyoungleaders.ca from January until the end of March 2025, where young people involved in all areas of the beef supply chain ages 18–35 are encouraged to apply.
Thank you to our Platinum Partners, Cargill and McDonald’s Canada, Foundation Partners, MNP, New Holland, Elanco, and Gold Partners, Farm Credit Canada, RBC Future Launch and Alltech for making these opportunities available to the next generation in the Canadian beef industry possible.
About Canadian Cattle Young Leaders
Canadian Cattle Young Leaders (CYL) welcomes young people ages 18–35 across Canada, involved in various aspects of the beef supply chain, to be paired with an industry leader in their specific area of interest for a nine-month mentorship. Through mentorship, networking, and travel, the Canadian CYL Program acts as an industry succession planning tool to equip the next generation of leaders with the skills and tools they need to continue to drive the growth and profitability of the Canadian beef industry. Since established by the Canadian Cattle Association in 2010, the program has seen over 200 CYL graduates. Learn more at www.canadiancattleyoungleaders.ca.
For further information, contact:
Tina Zakowsky
Communications Manager
Canadian Cattle Association
(403) 451-0931 | zakowskyt@cattle.ca
For a PDF of the news release, click here