Kemptville College instructor now teaching animal science in Perth

By Connor Lynch
PERTH — A former student and instructor at Kemptville College is back teaching agriculture. But this time Blair Dow is teaching animal science in the new agricultural program launched this year by Algonquin College at its Perth campus.

The program has 26 students (with a maximum of 35) and 45 area farm and farm-related organizations offered to host students in the co-op program offering students placements during the summer.

Kemptville College closed down in 2015 after providing agricultural education for 98 years. Blair Dow graduated from Kemptville in 1984 and joined the college as an agronomy technician in 1988 but his passion was teaching. He became a full-time instructor of the animal science course in 2004.

In 2008, he accepted a position at Lakeland College in Alberta, teaching animal science.

Dow grew up on a Metcalfe farm and runs a small sheep operation there. He said the reintroduction of an ag program in Eastern Ontario was welcome news. But, “it doesn’t replace Kemptville.”