Governments of Canada and Manitoba announce new program to help agri-processors mitigate the spread of COVID-19

Jul 23, 2020

Winnipeg, Manitoba – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - The governments of Canada and Manitoba announced a new $3 million cost-shared Canadian Agricultural Partnership program to support projects that will help agricultural processors mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development Minister Blaine Pedersen announced.

The new COVID-19 Response Initiative will provide financial assistance to agri-food and agri-product processors, food distributors and agri-food industry organizations for:

personal protective equipment and sanitation supplies;
business continuity practices, training and resources to support COVID-19 mitigation; and
beginning in September financial assistance will also be available for materials, supplies and equipment rentals needed to adapt production processes to meet social distancing and other precautions related to COVID-19.

Eligible costs must be directly related to the execution of a project, and must be incurred between March 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021. Projects must be completed on or before January 31, 2021. Governments will contribute a maximum of 50 per cent of eligible project costs, up to $25,000 per applicant.

Source : Canada.ca

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.