The Manitoba Livestock Marketing Association (MLMA) is holding their largest fundraiser of the year this Thursday at the Killarney Lakeside Golf Club. The annual event draws over 250 people from across the province, all stakeholders in Manitoba's cattle industry.
MLMA Executive Administrator, Rick Wright, says tomorrow's Cattlemen's Classic Golf Tournament will host about 200 on the course and then another 50 or more to the evening supper.
The MLMA represents auction mart owners, livestock dealers, livestock traders and numerous feedlot owners.
Funds raised from this annual event goes towards lobbying efforts of the MLMA in the province's cattle industry.
"We've got a lot of new things happening in the industry and our organization is there to help represent the marketing sector and work with the producer sector as well, to make sure the regulations are workable, and we're not regulated out of business," explains Wright.
"We spent a lot of time in the last few years working on traceability and now we're starting to work with the Manitoba Beef Producers on exploring the options and opportunities for livestock inspection in Manitoba."
Wright says this is a bit of a hot issue as Manitoba is the only province in Western Canada that does not have livestock inspection right now, and the new traceability regulations will be coming into effect in 2025, including transfer of care documents that need to go with the cattle when they leave the producer's farm.
"There's some massive changes coming to our livestock producers all across Canada, but especially in Manitoba," he adds. "And we've had some incidents in Manitoba in the last 24 months that has spurred on the discussions with livestock inspection and finally now the Manitoba Beef Producers are starting to look at it seriously. So, we'll be putting a lot of our efforts working with them and the provincial government to see if it's feasible to do it in Manitoba to get good value for the dollars invested."
Wright says many cattle producers are not in favor of the new regulations when it comes to traceability. However, when cattle go missing, the perpetrators are easier to track down if cattle are identifiable. He notes some producers believe branding Manitoba cattle will be mandatory if these regulations go through, but that's not true. "Branding inspection will be one part of the process but there will be no mandatory branding of cattle if this went forward," he adds.
"It's not going to happen overnight but it's time we started the process of looking at whether it's feasible in Manitoba," says Wright. "I personally believe there is some benefit to it. But we will go where the majority of our members want to go and of course, every time we get on a plane to go someplace, or we go to a meeting, it takes money and that's where a lot of the funds from this particular tournament are going to be directed toward."
Please listen to more with Rick Wright below.