Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) is applauding the federal government’s $200 million announcement and call for proposals around the On Farm Climate Action Fund to support farmers in reducing greenhouse gas and build resiliency to climate change.
“As we all know, we are in the middle of a hard-hitting drought complete with some areas hammered by a grasshopper infestation here in Manitoba and many producers are facing challenges and hardship,” said Larry Wegner, MFGA Chair. “At the same time, in the community spirit and fortitude that Manitoba’s agricultural community is well known for, we know that even in these tough times that Manitoba livestock and forage producers are sharing insights and expertise around two of the areas mentioned specifically by Minister Bibeau in the announcement today: rotational grazing and cover crops.”
Wegner points to the outstanding success of the MFGA Regenerative Agriculture Conference over the past three years and the recent pandemic-impacted in-person tour of Ryan Boyd’s South Glanton Farms near Brandon as strong links to the announcement.
“Farmers like to learn from farmers and work with farmers. They trust a farmer down the road, or two municipalities over, or a producer from a nearby prairie province as much as they trust anyone,” added Wegner. “We know this and because of this, MFGA gives the producers exactly that forum to exchange information and expertise among each other. We have Made-in-Manitoba experts on rotational grazing and a long line of cover crop expertise from our producer advocates who have been advancing cover crops in Manitoba, at the outset, basically on their own dime and time. That background should be doubly valuable and doubly-counted now and hopefully the Minister and the federal government will look hard at local options to help this program realize best success. Manitoba producers will respond to a Manitoba-led non-prescriptive, collaborative approach on this important stuff. We have seen that first-hand.”
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