OLDS — Olds College and the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) have announced the winner of the 2022 UFA Student Pitch Competition.
This year’s winner is Styn Nieuwenhuis, a second-year agriculture management student from Penhold.
His entry maximized the amount of protein content in straw bales using urea, a molecule found in urine created by mammals.
He plans to return to help run the family farm when his studies are completed.
This year marks the third UFA Student Pitch Competition with Olds College and the competition is part of the five-year innovation partnership between UFA and Olds College.
In addition to Nieuwenhuis, semi-finalists were Abbey Taylor of Belmont, Ont., a third-year student taking an applied degree in agribusiness; Julie Cobb who is in her second year of precision agriculture techgronomy; Lauren McKamey, a fourth-year bachelor of applied science student majoring in horticulture and Jasmine Bartelen who was born in Calgary but raised on a farm in New South Wales, Australia.
“It was not an easy decision, all of the ideas were so impressive,” UFA board chair. Kevin Hoppins said in a news release. He thanked all those who had taken part in the competition over the past three months.
"I feel very honoured to win this event and would like to congratulate the hard work of the other participants as well,” Nieuwenhuis said in the news release.
“I would like to thank Wendy Muise and Brandy Old for the mentoring and pitch practice, as well as the staff at Olds College and UFA who made this event into a reality.”
