ON-FARM THOUGHTS: A Chair's Farewell to Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association
by Larry Wegner, MFGA Chair
The 2021 drought has been by far the most impactful that we have ever had to deal with. This is our fourth consecutive year of drought and dry conditions and it looks like it will continue into the spring of 2022. We can only hope the drought will break next spring with the return of regular snowfall and spring precipitation. My repeated drought advice as we head into winter is not to rebuild your livestock numbers until your forage has recovered. Always remember that the harder the drought is on your soil and forages, the longer the recovery required. On our family farm near Virden where I farm with my wife Rosemary and sons Max and Herbert, we have had three different green ups and growth periods and then we had a total burn off due to following dryness. What has that done to our root reserves? How will that effect next year’s forages growth? Time is a great healer, but we must try and manage for it.
As I wrap up my term as chair for Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA), I want and need to thank MFGA executive director Duncan Morrison and the rest of the MFGA staff who are all part-time contracted employees that put in a full-time effort. I thank you all for your time; it is the people who are behind the scenes that make MFGA stand out. To the MFGA board directors who donate their time to make MFGA a force in our province and other areas, it is your long- and short-term visions as directors that help MFGA pursue our strategic direction. For members, partners and corporate supporters, thank you for helping provide the financial support as much-needed fuel to move MFGA forward.
All involved in MFGA have made a difference and I am very proud of all we have done. We have grown as a commodity group representative for Manitoba producers with a keen interest in regenerative agriculture practices, the forage industry, grasslands, cover crops and soil health. We have made a difference now and into the future. It is only when I step back and think of all the different meeting tables that MFGA has been invited to sit at over recent times that I realize we are growing as a group and have developed our own voice and a solid organizational brand going forward. This has been a coordinated group effort and all involved have made it happen.
Our incoming 2022 MFGA chair Lawrence Knockaert will be busy working with a new MFGA executive group and the MFGA board alongside Duncan and MFGA staff to steer the strategic path for MFGA going forward. I have total confidence that it will be an exciting ride. As I assume the position of past MFGA chair for the next year, my role will shift to more transition and ambassador-type matters. It will be different being in the back seat watching where we are going. We have two new board members stepping up to join MFGA in 2022; they both bring solid resumes and experiences to our Board. For anyone out there that wants to be involved with MFGA, please let any MFGA board member know of your interest. To have fully functioning board, we always need to add new members for succession and organizational strength.
Personally, I will soon be starting on a new adventure as a Coach for Nicole Masters Integrity Soils. I am one of twenty mentors that have been selected to be in attendance stateside at Nicole’s first class this November. It is a mixture of excitement and adrenaline as I start this new part of my life: the excitement of learning and meeting new people and seeing new places and the adrenaline of walking among the like-minded leaders of regenerative agriculture and the synergies we all share.
I hope you all attend – either online or in-person – our MFGA Regenerative Agriculture Conference November 15-17, 2021 at the Vic Inn in Brandon. I am once again amazed at the depth of our keynote speakers and panels. Congratulations to MFGA Conference committee chair and main agenda architect Ryan Boyd and the entire MFGA Conference committee. We have planned, re-grouped and planned for our fourth different conference format in four years in these really strange times. It will be a great show this year too.
As I reflect on my term at MFGA and in the context of this drought we are in, I immediately recall 15 years ago when Don Campbell, my Holistic Management Instructor challenged me: “What if we grew two blades of grass where only one grew before”.
The more I think about how powerful that quote is, it always makes we wonder:
o What if…. we did it with just management… I know producers who have that done it.
o What if…..we could graze two animals where one grazed before?
o What if….we could graze later into the fall and earlier in spring: it would be like having someone give you a second ranch the same size, next door for nothing.
o What if….. We made ranching fun to be in and around so the next generation would want to be part of the operation not just unpaid labor?
o What if…. people come back to the country and not fight to leave?
o What if……we could understand soil health better so we can work with it and not against it?
o What if…..we grew three blades of grass where one grew before?
I would like to thank everyone who reads these blogs and shares them with others. I would like to thank my family for being my sounding board for my thoughts and making sure I could put the time in as required for the good of the MFGA.
Best regards,
