Government/Producer Talk Warms Up To Climate Change

With the climate getting warmer, talk of coping with the weather is getting louder.

 

Tuesday was the last of eight public discussions for the Manitoba Agriculture Risk Management Review Task Force. Morris hosted the final meeting, and before that the task force visited areas like Portage la Prairie, Dauphin, and Arborg.

 

Each meeting included an overview of how a changing climate has affected agriculture in Manitoba and what programs and strategies the government already has in place to deal with risk management. Then the meeting broke up into groups to discuss current programming, suggestions for future programming, and responsibilities of government and producers when it comes to adapting to climate change.

 

While many different farmers from many different areas voiced their concerns at the meetings, there were some commons threads in discussions.

 

"One of the most prominent reactions that farmers have told us, is that we have to be able to come up with a long-term strategy to plan for either the retention or the infrastructure dealing with the amount of water Manitoba is facing across the borders, both south, east, and west," says Bill Uruski, chair of the task force. "The other one is inability of the current AgStability program to meet the needs of farmers, as far as income protection."

 

At the very beginning of Tuesday's meeting, task force representatives said the point of the discussions was not to debate whether or not climate change is happening, but rather to listen to producer concerns regarding risk management policies.

 

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.