Nichole Neubauer, a farmer from near Medicine Hat with a passion for agricultural education, was one of nine people inducted in the Alberta Order of Excellence during an investiture ceremony at Government House on October 16.
Neubauer currently lives on the Neubauer family farm homestead, north of the hamlet of Irvine. Her husband is Mark, and they have two adult children: Logan and Evie.
The couple’s farm is mostly dryland acres, although they do have some irrigated acres as well. They grow grains, oil seeds, pulses and hay, as well as forage for their cow/calf operation.
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Neubauer grew up on a small family farm near Medicine Hat, where the family had cows and horses and made hay.
“I think the deep roots I have for the industry today developed when I was young,” she said.
When she was a teenager, Neubauer taught riding lessons to young people. She loved watching the children connect with the horses and learn to work with them.
“It’s really empowering, powerful for a child to be on top of a 1,000 beast and be in the driver’s seat. I loved that. I realized through the experience that I enjoyed working with children and opening doors for them,” she said.
In 1992, Neubauer had the honour of being the Medicine Hat Stampede Princess.
“That was an amazing experience and helped shape the person I’ve become,” she said.
Neubauer went on to become an ambassador for Medicine Hat. As part of the role, she spent a lot of time going to schools, talking about the role of the Stampede Princess, and answering questions from school children. She also had different opportunities to teach people about rodeo.
“That’s where I cut my teeth talking with folks about something that was really important, and that I was really passionate about, and seeing they had a lot of interest in it as well,” she said.
“This was probably where the seed originally got planted, that has really grown into a real dedication and passion for industry and advocacy and sharing the story and helping people understand a whole lot more about where their food comes from.”
Neubauer said the experience of being the Medicine Hat Stampede Princess solidified her love of working with young people and helped influence her path going forward.
She studied early child education at Medicine Hat College, learned sign language and worked as an interpreter for a deaf child and for children who had delayed speech and language acquisition. Neubauer specialized in working with kids with developmental delays, providing programming and play therapy support. She also helped refer kids to specialists who could help them with their occupational therapy, physical therapy and doctor’s appointments.
“It’s a great, big complicated system. If you have a child with some needs, it can be hard to navigate. My key role, and what I enjoyed most, was providing that navigation and recommendations for families, just to make their journey a little less bumpy,” she said.
Through her work, Neubauer noticed how many kids lived in an overly sanitized world, where they just played with plastic and avoided messy play.
“They didn’t have authentic experiences to connect with plants and animals and the environment. Because of that, they can become more averse to engaging with that,” she said.
Neubauer saw an opportunity to create meaningful purpose for children, offering desensitization to some of the things they were averse to in a natural environment.
“It provided motivation. It was literally magic once we had a chance to bring kids to the farm,” she said.
She had a good friend who was a kindergarten teacher, and they conducted the first class visit to the Neubauer farm. Neubauer set up activities that fit into the kindergarten curriculum about farms and got the children out in a natural environment.
“The kids were delighted because it was real, it was something they knew a little bit of information about, so they could apply prior knowledge. They were free to explore, and they had a great time,” she said.
“It was something that seemed so simple, but was so beneficial.”
After the first visit, Neubauer began to create programming that was appropriate for preschoolers all the way up to Grade 4. All the programming connected back to the curriculum. Full scale farm tours began in 2005, and eventually over 3,000 kids a year visited the farm.
“I reduced my hours at work, so I was able to dedicate more time to this project, and it was so well received by educators in the community that it kind of grew its own legs and took off in so many directions,” she said.
This program became known as the Growing Minds program.
Once the visits became more frequent, Neubauer and her husband Mark, did an entire renovation of their farmyard so it was safe and gave a good flow for tours. The farm had pigs, goats, sheep, laying hens and bottle calves.
The program was extremely successful but had to shut down in 2020 because of COVID-19. Over 22,000 children had visited the farm since 2005. During the shutdown, Neubauer took some time to refocus.
Neubauer decided to reach out to Prairie Rose Public Schools Division to create a new kind of programming. In 2021, the Irvine School Agriculture Discovery Centre was created.
The farm is on the playground of Irvine School and is a fully functional farm of about 200×200 feet. The school is a kindergarten to Grade 9 school, with about 400 students who are a mix of urban and rural.
“It’s just become a special place for kids to take their agriculture learning to a whole new level,” she said.
The farm has feeder steers, bottle calves, sheep, goats, hogs and laying hens. There is a vermicomposting system, a large garden, an apiary and a greenhouse.
“It’s a real highlight for the school,” she said. “As a rural school division, we’re always looking to try and maintain our enrollment numbers, and this has proven to bring kids from neighbouring communities to attend the school here. It’s special.”
The farm has a student board of directors, who make and guide decisions that happen on the farm. This board is made up of Grade 9 students, so there are a lot of junior high students that are up and comers learning how to operate the farm as well.
The program runs from April to October, and all the production animals are sold in the fall, so the school doesn’t have to deal with winter farming.
This year, they held a fall festival which was planned by the students and combined a welcome back barbecue for the families. The event included old time games like sack races and egg and spoon races, as well as an auction for the production animals. The hogs had already been processed, so the school was able to sell their meat.
“With the tremendous support of rural communities, we raised to date, close to $200,000 for this project. And then working with Prairie Rose, which is an amazing school division, every penny of that turns around and is invested with creating agriculture education opportunities for kiddos across the region,” she said.
Neubauer also created AgPro, a program for students from Grade 7 to 9, and that has been woven into an optional class called Career and Technology Foundations, within the Prairie Rose school division.
This class gives students the opportunity to try a sample of real-life jobs. When students sign up for AgPro, they have a six-week block of time where they go out in the community and learn about how an industry works, and what possible job opportunities might exist.
“We’re doing everything we can to get kids thinking about agriculture, because agriculture is a motivation of the heart. And if you don’t have that motivation, you’re not going to stick in this industry for a while,” she said.
One of Neubauer’s goals is to help young people in the industry learn and connect to various aspects of agriculture.
“We have to create a paradigm shift for kids, so that when they think ag, they think differently about it and see that there actually is the spot where they could sit and they don’t have to inherit a township of land to be a farmer. Truly, the supporting careers in this industry are what we need moving forward. That’s going to be the people who can support the technology that continues to be developed. What also is super important is that kids need to develop an understanding of what they’d like to do while they’re still in junior high, so they make sure they take the right courses in high school,” she said.
“Moving forward with intention is probably one of the best things we can do for our kids.”
Neubauer has also served as a board member of the Seven Persons Grazing Association and played a pivotal role in establishing the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce Education Task Force, where she advocates for policy highlighting the importance of agriculture education. In 2020, Alberta’s Agriculture Minister appointed her as a founding director of Results Driven Agriculture Research. Neubauer is also a frequently sought after speaker.
The Neubauers have won numerous awards for their farm, and Neubauer has won many awards for her achievements.
Currently, the Neubauers are partnering with Prairie Rose Public Schools to oversee project design and program development for the launch of a program for high school students called the South Alberta School of Agriculture (SASA). SASA will be a premier institution to equip students with knowledge, skills and experience necessary to flourish in an agriculture career and grow the workforce of tomorrow.
Prairie Rose School Division’s Board of Trustees nominated Neubauer for the Alberta Order of Excellence.
“The application was sent in and then from there, the most amazing part of it was when the Lieutenant Governor phoned, and we actually were so fortunate to host Her Honour and His Honour two years ago at our farm,” she said.
Neubauer said winning the award was incredible.
“It’s the highest honour that you can receive in the province of Alberta, but to receive that from someone who is more than a figurehead, who is an acquaintance and a friend was very meaningful as well,” she said.
Even though she has been awarded Alberta’s top honour, Neubauer is not finished yet.
At the beginning of October, Prairie Rose Schools made the official announcement that they will be constructing the Yuill School of Agriculture, which will equip students with the theory and learning that they need to excel in the agriculture industry. The school is an experiential collegiate that specializes in agriculture to create the workforce that agriculture will need now and in the future.
The Yuill family foundation donated 76 acres of land between the city of Medicine Hat and Dunmore and has provided funding to build the structure. Prairie Rose School Division received funds from Alberta Education to build the campus. Neubauer and her husband are collaborating with everyone else to ensure the programming is relevant to the needs of agriculture. Mark is overseeing the design of the project and construction of the facilities.
“We’re super excited for this region that we’re going to be able to allow for students to learn about agriculture locally, so they can stay in the region and can hopefully continue with careers that will support the future of industry for southeast Alberta. I’m on a journey, and I’m by no means done my work yet,” she said.
The Alberta Order of Excellence was established in 1979 and is the province’s highest honour. There are 229 inductees in the order, and they are selected because of their lifetime contribution to the province.
