Manitoba Beef Producers 45th AGM, Tradeshow and President’s Banquet
Victoria Inn Hotel & Convention Centre - Brandon
Manitoba Beef Producers wrapped up its successful 45th Annual General Meeting on February 9, 2024 at the Victoria Inn in Brandon.
MBP’s new Executive and slate of directors for 2024-25 is as follows:
| President | Matthew Atkinson |
| Vice-President | Arvid Nottveit |
| 2nd Vice-President | Tyler Fulton |
| Treasurer | Mark Good |
| Secretary | Mike Duguid |
| Alfred Epp, District 1 | Matthew Atkinson, District 8 |
| Mark Schram, District 2 | Trevor Sund, District 9 |
| Andre Steppler, District 3 | Mike Duguid, District 10 |
| Byron Falk, District 4 | Arvid Nottveit, District 11 |
| Steven Manns, District 5 | Mark Good, District 12 |
| Brian English, District 6 | Mary Paziuk, District 13 |
| Tyler Fulton, District 7 | Dale Cazakoff, District 14 |
Day one kicked off with an industry knowledge session, with a focus on the Manitoba competitive advantage. Speakers included Jack Chaffe of Chaffe Farms, Sarah Klopatek, JBS Chief Livestock Scientist, Tyler Fulton on livestock marketing, and Brett Graham of Syngenta on corn-based production systems.
Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn brought greetings, touching on topics such as livestock predation, agricultural Crown lands, and the economic value of the beef industry, and MLA Wayne Balcaen brought greetings on behalf of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative caucus.
A series of resolutions were debated and passed on matters such as livestock predation, the creation of a livestock investigation unit in Manitoba, compensation for hunter-killed livestock, compensation around testing related to bovine TB investigations, and, calling for an increase to the lifetime capital gains exemption.
RCMP Cpl. Owen Third of the livestock investigation unit in Saskatchewan and Jason Pollock of Livestock Services of Saskatchewan gave a presentation on livestock-related crimes and investigative processes related to that. The afternoon keynote address featured Shaun Haney, founder and editor of RealAgriculture.com.
The ever popular President’s Banquet included recognition of outgoing District 2 Director Nancy Howatt who had completed six years of service to the board. The Association of Manitoba Community Pastures was named the recipient of The Environmental Stewardship Award. And, Dr. Allan Preston was named the recipient of MBP’s Lifetime Achievement Award. And, former Winnipegger, Aisha Alfa, now living in Los Angeles and thriving as a comedian, actor and writer capped off the evening’s activities.
Day two activities included an overview of the results of the Livestock Predation Prevention Project. The three-year pilot project has been insightful in terms of ways to help mitigate against on farm predation risks and has led to key takeaways and considerations will be highlighted. This was followed by a discussion with Dr. Al Mussell, Director of Research, Canadian Agri-Policy Institute.
Rounding off the morning will be updates and a Q&A session with several national beef organizations, including the Beef Cattle Research Council, Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, and Canada Beef. There was a market update from Canfax staff. Immediately following the AGM, producers had the opportunity to participate in a free data management workshop.
MBP would like to thank all the producers, elected officials, government staff, representatives from other provincial and national industry associations, sponsors and trade show exhibitors who contributed so much to making the 45th MBP AGM a success!
Photos from the event are available on the MBP social media channels (X, Facebook, Instagram).