Portage's agriculture community showed up to an Evening of Agriculture Excellence at the MNP Exhibition building.

The event was hosted by the Portage Chamber of Commerce.

Executive Director Cindy McDonald talks about what the evening was all about.

"It's an evening to recognize and celebrate all the champions of agriculture. Our community would not be here if it wasn't for agriculture. We're an agriculture rich area, so it's just a huge celebration of agriculture."

The event featured supper, a keynote speech by Teresa Vallotton of Farm Femmes talking about the importance of technology and AI in farming, followed by the awards.

Mcdonald goes over the categories they handed out awards to."Last year we introduced three new awards. The awards are Youth Agvocate of the year, Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture, Agribusiness of the year, and we also give away the Farm Family of the Year award."

The Youth Agvocate award went to Kaitlyn Davey. She was recognized for her passion in ag, as well as being involved in different sections of Canadian agriculture. Jill Verwey took home the Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture award for her many years of promoting Manitoba ag and being the Vice-President of the Keystone Agricultural Producers. Shur-Gro nabbed the Agribusiness of the year for being a prominent Portage business for over 60 years.

McDonald says it's great they've seen success in the event.

"It's great to think that it's continuing after 38 years, now we're going to be going onto our 39th next year, so I think that's quite the accomplishment to have an event for 39 years. We're pretty proud of that." 

Shur-Gro representative, Jill Verwey, and Kaitlyn Davey