A Calgary ranching family, who own WA Ranches, has donated $5 million to the University of Calgary (U of C) for research into animal care.
Wynne Chisholm, a University of Calgary graduate and part of WA Ranches, said she wanted to give back to the field she has been involved in her whole life.
“We’ve been working with the University of Calgary since 2008 on our ranch,” said Chisholm.
The university’s dean of veterinary medicine, Alastair E. Cribb, said he wanted to connect students to farms and ranches in their first year. He said toured their ranch and asked if they would be willing to do some hands-on learning.
“We do things with them like have them experience calving, vaccinating, show them how they feed,” Chisholm said. “We’ve been impressed by the faculty and the students.”
“We knew from our relationship that the faculty was looking for assistance to funding research so my dad and I started talking about animal care and welfare. [It’s] something that is important to us,” Chisholm said.
Wynne said her father, J.C. Jack Anderson, has donated to many organizations in the past related to the farming industry, and has decided he would like to help younger people learn how to properly care for cattle.
Both Chisholm and Anderson are active in the farming community.
“I’ve always been raised to give back to the community,” Chisholm said. “My husband and I have been active on boards. We’ve also been active on cattle campaigns.”
She said they believe the area of cattle farming is something is fundamentally important to Canada and needs to be focused on more.
“The area of animal care and welfare [is] an area that is underserved in research,” she said.
She said she hopes the donation will “get the U of C to build on their leading role in animal care and welfare.”
“We saw this as an opportunity to make them a world leader,” Chisholm said.
She said they see this as an opportunity to help out the entire province of Alberta by improving how farmers and ranchers handle their cattle.
“One of our conditions is that they share the practical results of the research with Alberta Farmers and ranchers in the years to come, which can raise the care farmers and ranchers have with their cattle from good to excellent,” Chisholm said.
“It gives an opportunity to show consumers that Alberta raises some of the best cattle in the world,” Chisholm said.
