All year round, Sollio Agriculture welcomes interns of all ages and backgrounds. Whether it is meeting potential interns at job fairs or recruiting youth with learning disabilities through its placement program, Sollio Agriculture has its door wide open to the next generation.

Fairouz, Thomas, Elizabeth and Najwa are all examples of the kinds of people the cooperative looks for: curious minds eager to learn more about one of the most important industries in the world.

Read on to meet these four promising young people.

Originally from Côte d’Ivoire, Lucie Kablan holds a bachelor’s degree in soil science and a master’s in pedology, and she is a member of the Ordre des agronomes du Québec. After her doctoral thesis in agronomic science in Belgium, she decided to move to Canada for the strong job market and promising agricultural industry.

Louis Sabourin seems shy at first, but within minutes he begins opening up and even cracks a smile. Accompanied by his teacher, Mélanie, he has graciously agreed to take some time to talk about his internship at Sollio Agriculture.

From 9:00 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., Louis cleans and sorts grain.

“I like the internship! Mélanie is the one who found it for me. I like how quiet my job is.”

Trained accountant Loïc is not yet 30. But that hasn’t stopped the dynamic leader from taking on the role of financial controller after only three years at Sollio Agriculture.

Climbing the ladder

For Loïc, it all began when Sollio Agriculture offered him a position as junior analyst. Disillusioned with firm culture, Loïc quickly decided to accept and start his next adventure.

Sometimes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Geneviève Rochon can attest to that. Several years ago, Geneviève left her job at Sollio Agriculture as an internal communications advisor to stay closer to home and focus on her family.

“I first worked for Sollio Cooperative Group for four years, in communications. Unfortunately, after the birth of my first child, travelling became too complicated.”

Gabriel Lefebvre has been an occupational health and safety manager for two and a half years, and he firmly believes in Sollio Agriculture’s purpose.

“Something really speaks to me about our mission to feed Canadians and ensure prosperity for farmers, while prioritizing the health and safety of the people who make it happen.”

Gabriel began his career at Sollio Cooperative Group eight years ago, as a safety practitioner at Olymel.

Summer always brings several challenges to farmers in western Canada: drought, hail, extreme heat, and, sometimes, wildfire smoke. Because we have to deal more often with wildfire smoke, let's see how it affects the development of the corn crops. 

When your corn silage has been harvested for 90 days, it is a good time to re-evaluate some of the key characteristics of that silage now that it has had time to ferment. At this point in time, a silage analysis will give a better representation of the way the silage will feed for the remainder of the year.

Foliar fungicides are becoming more commonly used in corn silage production. When used properly, they can increase yield, feed quality, and profitability for farmers.

In our Maizex agronomy work over the last several years, fungicides have been consistently showing the highest ROI in our intensive management trials.

On the Prairies, we are fortunate that we don’t have many insects to deal with when it comes to our corn production. The most prevalent insect is the European corn borer (ECB), and the pressure we see varies by year and location. The following is a summary of the lifecycle of the ECB, how the environment can impact it, and scouting techniques.