Manitoba's Young Farmers Adapt To New Way Of Life

Dec 15, 2020

The Canada's Outstanding Young Farmer Award Ceremony for 2020 has been pushed back to next year due to COVID-19

Andre Steppler and his wife Katie were the Manitoba nominees for this year.

The Miami, MB couple manage the cattle division at Steppler farms.

Andre talked about how COVID-19 has impacted his operation.

"For our farm ourselves, we do have to move to more of an online platform for marketing and online for the sales, which we've kind of been doing over the last 10 to 5 years anyways," he says. "It didn't hit us as much as a shock factor but it's no doubt when we trim back our networking and our ability to tour farms and just visit and get to know our customers, it does change our life quite a bit."

Andre says winning the Manitoba award earlier this year has brought more of a spotlight to their farm.

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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.