Manitoba Focuses on Financial Aspect in Preparations for ASF

Feb 10, 2020

Manitoba's Minister of Agriculture and Resource Development says the province's top priority in developing plans for responding to African Swine Fever is preparing to address the financial impact of the infection. Concerted global efforts are underway to contain the spread of African Swine Fever.

Blaine Pedersen, Manitoba's Minister of Agriculture and Resource Development, told those on hand last week in Winnipeg for the 2020 Manitoba Swine Seminar, stakeholders are doing their best to keep the infection out of Canada but it's the "what if" so governments are doing all they can to prepare.

Clip-Blaine Pedersen-Manitoba Agriculture:

We're working very closely with the federal government. We had a federal provincial territorial meeting in mid-December. We had a great discussion with the federal government on this. The federal government is doing a good job in trying to keep it out, in terms of border security.

The federal government has also been working with the provinces on mitigation. If it does happen, how do we segregate it, how do we handle that. What we're working on right now is the financial impact because, if the industry was to shut down, it's a half a billion dollar hit to the Manitoba economy.

We have a person on the working group. There's a federal-provincial working group dealing with this and the province has representation there and we continue to work with both Manitoba Pork and the Canadian Pork Council on a financial mitigation plan. That's really huge as part of this.

Source : Farmscape

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.