Agriculture Takes Centre Stage

The annual Manitoba Open Farm Day dinner was held last night at Portage's Canad Inns.

 

Several Portage area organizations were recognized for being part of the media tour, including the Food Development Centre.

 

COO Robin Young explains why it's important to be involved.

 

"To help share the story of agriculture, and also where our food comes from," she says. "And especially being a team of food scientists, to educate people and the public that there are lots of career opportunities in agriculture. This is our first time participating. We're really pleased to be asked to join, and really happy to participate. We did it in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology also."

 

Farm Away Retreat co-owner Tara Lee Simpson says five or six media people toured the local sites, and found out what the event's all about.

 

"And they visited the four sites in Portage," she says. "So they started out at the Food Development Centre, and then they came to Shur-Gro Farm Services, and then came to Farm Away, and went to Verwey Farms, and got the story about what Open Farm Day is all about."

 

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin was also singled out, and Executive Director Anais Biernat says it matches their mandate of representing agriculture.

 

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.