Previous Ag Critic Named As New Ag Minister

May 05, 2016

A previous Progressive Conservative agriculture critic is taking over the reins as Manitoba's next agriculture minister.

On Tuesday following his official swearing-in, Premier Brian Pallister announced the members of his cabinet, naming Lakeside MLA Ralph Eichler as the new Minister of Agriculture.

Eichler, who has served as Tory ag critic multiple times in past, was one of several rural MLAs to be named to cabinet, such as Blaine Pedersen of Midland and Ian Wishart of Portage la Prairie. Eichler thinks the members of Pallister's cabinet will certainly be able to understand their rural constituents, but says they may need to get to know their urban base a little better.

For Eichler, that may entail working on building consumer trust of farming.

"(We need to) help people understand the fact that their meat doesn't come from Safeway, it comes from those farm producers that take it very seriously. And we have some of the safest, most economical food in the world right here in Manitoba, so we have lots to work with... so I'm looking forward to those challenges," Eichler says.

Source : Steinbachonline

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.