Sophie Neveux

Sophie Neveux

Animal Welfare and Milk Quality Advisor at Agropur in Saint-Hubert, Quebec

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What brought you to the Animal Welfare Program?
I had the opportunity to work on dairy farms prior to completing my B.Sc. and realized that dairy producers need the input from various professionals. It is a team effort. In addition, many of the improvements that a dairy producer seeks requires an acute comprehension of dairy cattle behaviour. For instance, for a nutritional program to work as intended the parameters around “feeding” have to take into account how dairy cattle eat, their time budgets, their preferences, etc. I wanted to have a global understanding of what drives dairy cattle, how producers can enable animals to meet their full potential and improve the sustainability of their efforts.

What have you been doing since graduating from the AWP?
Since graduating I remain passionate about the dairy industry and dairy animals. I am currently the Animal Welfare and Milk Quality Advisor for Agropur, the largest Canadian dairy processor cooperative. We have developed and deployed an Animal Welfare Strategy that focuses along the whole supply chain, from farm to retail. Agropur has been an associate member of NFACC since 2017 and I am currently an observer for the revision of the Dairy Cattle Code of Practice. I am involved on various committees and collaborations that seek to improve animal welfare standards on-farm, supports dairy producer efforts in reaching industry expectations and communicating our concrete actions to the public.

What advice would you give to students?
Advice that I would give to current students or recent graduates would be to try things out, say “yes”, keep your options open, build your network, focus on maintaining quality working relationships with your network. Participate, be active, share your ideas and have confidence in your knowledge / experience. Don’t be afraid to be wrong or to have an opinion that doesn’t fit the discourse. That said, understand the limits of your knowledge and lean on your entourage to provide valuable insight on matters outside of your scope. Develop your ability to deal with change.