'Absolutely Vital' That Brandon Maple Leaf Plant Stays Open, Says Manitoba Pork GM

The general manager for Manitoba Pork says it's vital that the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Brandon continues to operate, despite the growing concern over COVID-19.

 

"The big thing is the community needs to work at this thing to protect the workforce that goes to places like the Brandon plant but to other businesses in town as well, because we need to keep people employed," stated Andrew Dickson. "It's going to become more important when the school season starts up."

 

He says if the Brandon plant was closed, there would be a major challenge for Manitoba pork producers.

 

"That has a huge impact for us. We're pushing hard to keep the plant running. Our problem would be after three or four days, if that plant was closed, we would have a major challenge in terms of where to put 14,000 or 15,000 pigs a day. There's only limited processing capacity here on the Prairies and we can't be shipping down to the United States, they have no capacity to handle them. We need that plant to keep running. It's absolutely vital to producers on the farm that the Brandon plant is in full operational mode."

 

With an increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at the facility, the union representing employees has been pushing for the plant to be shut down.

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.