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Biosecurity Discussed At KAP Spring Meeting

There was no shortage of discussion at last Thursday's Keystone Agricultural Producers spring General Council meeting in Portage la Prairie. One of the focuses of their resolutions was the enforcement of biosecurity protocols. Citing discussions with producer Carlyle Jorgensen, KAP President Dan Mazier says enforcement can be a challenge especially when it comes to non-producers coming onto farm land.
 
"He can do whatever he wants to do on his farm, meanwhile he has other people driving up and down the road and as soon as he puts his equipment on the road it's contaminated. The approach he's working on right now, he's got a whole bunch of reasons why we need to have a biosecurity protocol, but he doesn't know how. He kept on saying that over and over again, because what we're doing now isn't working."
 
A number of possibilities were discussed, from having municipalities put by-laws in place to allow farmers to enforce their own biosecurity plans, to reaching out to the province to back their protocol.
 
Another highlight of the meeting for Mazier was the approval of their 2015 budget. He says one exciting initiative is finally in place, now that the budget's been approved.
 
"Adding this member benefits person, I think is going to be a big asset. That was one of my pet initiatives, to get that better member-to-member communication and how to do that. You can do interviews all day long but people still like that one-to-one contact and we can definitely do a better job on communicating."
 
He was also thrilled representatives from the Canadian Wheat Board took the time to discuss the sale of the board to private companies.
 
Other topics discussed at the meeting included the upcoming Growing Forward 3 policy framework and changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program.
 

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