2014 Award Recipients
Awards Presented at the AGM in Montréal

2014 John Turnbull Award

houseHAROLD K. HOUSE, P. Eng is the recipient of the 2014 John Turnbull Award in recognition of his outstanding leadership in industry, teaching, applied research and extension in the area of dairy farm building systems. Harold has worked tirelessly on various aspects of dairy farm building systems over the past 30 years. He has developed the OMAF Free Stall Housing Seminar along with the Free Stall Housing Manual. He has also developed a Tie Stall Housing Seminar, and a Calf Housing seminar, along with a Tie Stall Housing Manual and calf housing resources. He was a recipient of the T.R. Hilliard Distinguished Agricultural Extension Award for his work with Ontario dairy producers.

Harold House has spent his entire career in building systems and waste management; started his career in the agricultural private industry designing innovative livestock barn ventilation systems; has done hundreds, if not thousands of hours teaching students, farmers and industry personnel; has performed both peer-reviewed University research and applied research on farms; has worked for more than a generation as an extension agricultural engineer; and been a member of the Society for about 35 years.

Harold is respected provincially, nationally and internationally for his innovative thinking and detail-oriented work with the ever changing dairy industry. During Harold’s career, the dairy industry has consolidated tremendously and Harold has been there assisting it to keep the industry economically viable, while recognizing the social implications of changes to these traditional ‘family farm’ operations. Comfortable cow stalls, natural and fan-ventilation, very wide free-stall barns, robotic-milking, waste handling, heat stress reduction, sand bedding, fire-resistant barns, quota challenges, organic milk operations, new manure handling and storage systems, tingle voltage, anaerobic digestors, calf hutches, labour challenges, the Nutrient Management Act, the Dead Animal Disposal Act, siting of dairy barns by the Minimum Distance Separation formula, the Progressive Dairy Operators organization…Harold has been involved ‘knee-deep’ in every single issue affecting the dairy industry over the past 30 years.

Harold, the person, is extremely modest, preferring to let others take the credit, while quietly leading by example in the background. He is the most honest, fair, respectful, and unselfish man I’ve ever met. Harold is recognized among his peers as being thorough in everything he does. OMAF Agricultural Engineers know that Harold’s motto must be ‘if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well’, something good mentors can pass along to mentees. Harold truly does think outside the box, and he has a wry sense of humour honed through his work with hundreds…no thousands….of farmers across North America.’

2014 Glenn Downing Award

zamanQAMAR UZ ZAMAN, PhD is the recipient of the 2014 Glenn DowningAward in recognition of his outstanding work in industry, teaching, research, and extension in the area of machinery systems.Dr. Zaman established the Precision Agriculture Research Program (PARP) in Atlantic Canada to increase farm profitability and reduce environmental risks. He has developed a strong and effective partnership with industry, government, and other institutions to support PA research needs.He has been playing a very active role in receiving funding consistently and continuously, by federal and provincial governments, international funding agencies, industry partners, and grower’s associations, which allowed his research team to establish state-of-the art facilities for carrying PA systems research.

Dr. Zaman is now one of the pioneers in the field of PA and has already invented cost-effective VR technology for spot application of agrochemicals. In fact, he has received the US Patent # 2012/0195496 A1 and Canadian Patent #7231-1 for the invention of his VR Sprayer System. He saved significant amount of agrochemicals and decreased Nitrate-Nitrogen concentration in ground water with VRT in blueberry fields. He is very confident these viable, affordable, reliable and farmer friendly technologies can be implemented in North America to reduce production cost and environmental impacts.

Teaching has been a major part of Dr. Zaman’s academic duties in the past several years. His teaching evaluations, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, are very exemplary. One of his primary goals has been the training of highly qualified individuals.  Dr. Zaman, during the past six years, has supervised many undergraduate students as well as 5 post-doctoral fellows, 6 international researchers, 9 M.Sc. and 5 Ph.D. students.  He has conducted several workshops at local, national and international levels. Dr. Zaman published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals. One of his publications was featured on the cover page of a North American Journal, HortTechnology. He is highly sought out for national/international seminars and workshops, and has made over 100 conference, industry and extension presentations over the past few years. He also published articles in grower’s magazines, newspapers and developed fact sheets and operational manuals for growers and industry use. His research was promoted in different national and international television channels and is available on Google Video and YouTube.

Dr. Zaman is recognized internationally for his accomplishments in fundamental and applied PA research. He has worked in four internationally renowned PA programs including the University of Florida, University of Agriculture, Pakistan, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and Dalhousie University Canada. He has been serving as visiting professor in Pakistani universities. He delivered lectures in several international seminars as invited/keynote speaker and resource person in several countries

2014 Jim Beamish Award

mckagueKEVIN MCKAGUE, CPESC, P.Eng. is the recipient of the CSBE 2014 Jim Beamish award in recognition of his dedication and contributions in soil and water conservation and environmental engineering spanning 30 years in both the private and public sectors.  He is currently the Rural Water Quality Engineer within the Environmental Management Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s, Food Safety and Environment Division.  

Kevin graduated from the University of Guelph in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering.  Immediately following graduation, he was employed as a soil conservation engineer by the Maitland Valley and Grand River Conservation Authorities.  There he practiced farm extension and on-farm research, encouraging local landowners in their efforts to plan and implement both engineering and agronomic forms of soil conservation practices.  In 1988, Kevin joined the private environmental consulting firm, Ecologistics Limited, where he managed numerous domestic and international soil and water related projects that promoted the sustainable use and protection of our soil and water resources.

In 1999, Kevin accepted employment with  the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) as an applied research specialist and rural water quality engineer.  During this same period, he also undertook graduate work, and received a Master of Science in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Guelph in 2003.  He has authored or co-authored a range of peer-reviewed papers pertaining to his research related to model use in assessing BMP effectiveness in improving soil and water quality.

Still with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Kevin continues to advise and work on a wide range of soil and water conservation issues.  He has been a long-time member of the NMAN development team, a software tool that helps producers manage their manure and fertilizer nutrients.  Recently, he led the adaptation of the USDA’s RUSLE2 (Revised Soil Loss Equation) soil loss prediction tool for use in the Ontario setting.  He also led in the development of OMAFRA’s Agricultural Erosion Control Structures design software (AgErosion).  This product encourages land improvement contractors to follow standardized designs for common agricultural erosion control structures built in the province.

Outside of work, Kevin has volunteered on a variety of projects and awareness events through Water Ambassadors Canada to help bring clean drinking water to rural communities in Central America.

Kevin is a long time member of CSBE/ASABE, a registered Professional Engineer, a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control, and member of the Soil and Water Conservation Society.  He has made an outstanding contribution in developing and promoting sound environmental practices in agricultural production, and is a worthy recipient for the 2014 CSBE Jim Beamish Award in soil and water. 

2014 John Clark Award

rattiCRISTINA RATTI, PhD is the recipient of the 2014 John Clark Award in recognition of her dedicated contributions to the food engineering profession.  Cristina is originally from Bahia Blanca, Argentina, graduated as a chemical engineer from Universidad Nacional del Sur (Bahia Blanca) and began her graduate studies in food engineering at the same institution under the supervision of Dr Enrique Rotstein and Dr Guillermo Crapiste. She obtained a PhD in chemical engineering in 1991 with her thesis on the “Design of batch air dryers for fruit and vegetable products.” Her three postdoctoral placements were undertaken at three academic institutions in collaboration with Dr Arun Mujumdar (Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Canada) from 1991 to 1993, Dr Vijaya Raghavan (Bioresource Engineering, McGill University) from 1993 to 1995, and Dr Guillermo Crapiste in PLAPIQUI (Chemical Engineering Institute, Bahia Blanca) from 1995 to 1996.In 1996 she joined the Soils and Agri-Food Engineering Department of Université Laval (Québec, Canada) as a professor of food engineering. She is presently a full professor and a member of the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods INAF (since 2003). Her research interests have always been related to food dehydration (air drying, freeze-drying, osmotic dehydration) and physicochemical and quality properties of foodstuffs related to drying. She has published numerous scientific manuscripts and contributed to the training of many graduate and undergraduate students on the science of food engineering and dehydration.

2014 Industrial Award

bioterreBIO-TERRE SYSTEMS INC.is the recipient of the 2014 Industrial Award in recognition of the company’s development and commercialization of the innovative low temperature anaerobic digestion technology patented by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The development’s objective is to support and improve the environmental and economic aspects of Canadian agriculture and the Canadian agri-food industry.

The low temperature anaerobic sequencing batch manure treatment process is very well adapted to the Canadian climate and to the large number of small livestock operations. Being a very stable process and easily adaptable to existing farm operations, the batch treatment process can successfully digest all types of liquid manure produced on the farm. In addition to manure, other organic products produced on the farm or imported from neighboring agri-food industries or municipalities can be digested with this process. This can foster new partnerships between farmers and neighboring agencies or industries. From a sustainable development perspective, the Bio-Terre technology produces large amounts of green energy, reduces greenhouse gas production, produces a high quality, pathogen free and odorless crop fertilizer and potentially sets a high future standard for environmental protection.

The Research and Development work completed by Bio-Terre in the last 10 years, in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, highlights new applications with huge potential benefits for the Canadian agricultural and agri-food industry.

Bio-Terre is developing the international market and has placed its technology in several projects in the U.S.A. Target markets include large animal production facilities and agri-food industries that produce highly diluted manure or wastewater to which this technology can be well adapted, and small villages where it is possible to convert organic and human waste into a high value, safe, crop fertilizer.