Conservative Trade Critic Travelling The Prairies

Apr 28, 2017

Conservative Trade Critic Gerry Ritz spending some time on the road touring the prairies and talking with producers about the challenges they're facing.

He says trade rules, provincially and internationally are a labyrinth of dead ends and blind alleys.

"There are success stories and we can gain a lot from them," he said. "Governments learn from that as well and start to offer programming. Governments love to take credit for the success but in the end, it's always business to business that actually makes it happen."

Ritz says when he was Agriculture Minister, they put together value chain round tables where people could share their mentoring stories.

During his tour he also says he's heard complaints from some about some of the agriculture boards and commissions.

Source : Discoverestevan

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.