Local producers meet for Beef and Forage Days

Beef and Forage Days are taking place this week in three regions, including Austin, just west of Portage la Prairie, Eriksdale, and Pipestone. 

Manitoba Agriculture in Portage Livestock specialist Shawn Cabak says they start Tuesday, January 9 in Pipestone, and Austin on January 10. the Eriksdale meeting for January 11 has been canceled. Start times are a little bit different with Pipestone meeting beginning at 1:00 p.m. and Austin starting at 8:45 a.m.

"There's a number of speakers at the different locations, and the core presentations at all the events will cover pasture and hay production and rejuvenation by a livestock and forage specialist with Manitoba Agriculture," says Cabak. "We will hear about cattle market update and outlook for 2024 from Rick Wright Cattle Consulting. We will have a number of local vets discussing animal health update with the 'Ask the Vet' presentation, and then Greg Penner of the University of Saskatchewan will talk about optimizing green feed and silage production with annual crops. So, there are a number of different nutrition, marketing, and forage production-type talk topics at the different locations."

Cabak says COVID put many in-person events on hold, and they held some online Stock Talk webinars. Last year saw them get back to in-person events again, and he notes they're excited to be back in the local communities throughout the province. 

"If producers want more information, they can contact (204) 851-6087, for Pipestone, (204) 239-3353 for Portage, or for Eriksdale, (204) 768-0534," says Cabak. "Each of those events will have be Agribusiness booths at a number of the locations, so producers can interact, not only with the speakers, but also with the Agribusiness and with their fellow neighbours and beef producers. The Austin and Eriksdale events are a little bit longer, so there will be a few additional presentations at those events from different producer associations giving updates." 

He says they've always had quite a good crowd at the Austin sessions as well as the others. 

"It's close by," adds Cabak. "Producers don't have to travel very far and they generally come out and and support the events quite well. In Austin, we've had it for now, probably, 20-plus years. It's been quite popular throughout the years, so that's worth continuing. There's a lot of online information out there, but it's always good to see and do things in person and deal directly."