Betty Sawatzky

The community of Minto, as well as cattle producers in Manitoba are still reeling from the sudden passing of former president of Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) just over a week ago.

Bill Campbell passed away at the age of 69 after losing the battle against ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease on Sunday, January 19th.

Antara Agronomy Services was awarded the Agri-Business Award in the Ag Day’s Innovation Showcase this week for their Antara Insights 2.0 program. 

Brunel and Jennifer Sabourin live in St. Jean. They started their company ten years ago out of a need to provide more answers for local farmers. The program is meant to collect local data, giving the tools to local farmers to make more insightful decisions.

The first two days of Ag Days 2025 were filled with dynamic speakers and interactive panel discussions and covered a wide variety of subjects.

Looking forward to Thursday’s program, visitors will see a great mix of agronomy, marketing and livestock sessions.

FCC Theatre Speaker line up

The FCC Theatre program starts on Thursday at 9:30AM when you can join John Heard who is discussing ROI and Balancing Your Nutrient Profile in Soils.

Manitoba Ag Days is Canada’s largest indoor farm show, and the board and management team is excited to welcome guests to the Keystone Center in Brandon, MB.

Kristen Phillips, Manitoba Ag Days General Manager said, “The show highlights the best of all things, agriculture! We are ready to welcome our guests each day to our dominant trade show, our exciting complementary speaker program, innovative thinking in our Innovation Showcase entries and an atmosphere second to none. If it has anything to do with Agriculture, you will find it at our show!”

"We are really happy to invite everyone to the Keystone Centre.  That venue allows us to bring everyone under one roof now in January. So, no matter what the weather is like outside once you get inside there are 550 exhibitors for you to take in," says Ag Days Media Coordinator, Teresa Hildebrand.  "Everything that's related to agriculture you'll find under our roof!"

There are lots of things to see every day and each day is different than the day before, says Hildebrand.

"Canada’s largest indoor farm show will kick off the three-day event on Tuesday January 21st at the Keystone Centre in Brandon," shares Media Coordinator, Teresa Hildebrand.  "This year’s show will include over 550 exhibitors with both indoor and outdoor displays all under one roof!"

Five things to know before the show

1. This year’s theme is Produced on the Prairies.

Looking at this year's grow season, Manitoba Agriculture Applied Research Specialist with WADO, Scott Chalmers says something to certainly be watching out for is the herbicide-resistant weeds that are starting to really take hold, like Kochia.

Chalmers says Kochia has become resistant to a variety of herbicides and if it starts cross-pollinating it could turn into a super weed. 

"We had record prices in 2024,” says Manitoba Livestock Marketing Association Executive Administrator, Rick Wright. "For the cow/calf breeders in Manitoba, across Western Canada, it's the best year we've ever had."

“I've been in the business 45 years, and we've never seen cattle prices where they were this fall. And the good news is that looking ahead into 2025, it looks like these prices have the potential to carry on for next year and possibly the year after,” he says. 

With a spring retirement on the near horizon for Manitoba-Ontario Canadian Foodgrains Bank's rep, Gordon Janzen, the first three months of 2025 will be a busy time.

"The first thing for me will be meeting up with the new representative and making introductions to individuals and groups and organizations across Manitoba," shares Janzen.

After seven plus years of being the Regional Rep for Manitoba and northwestern Ontario for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Gordon Janzen is looking at retirement in spring of the new year.

"I started in November of 2017, so I've been working in this role for just over 7 years," shares Janzen. "It's been a very good seven years of connecting with supporters of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, the individuals and the groups, the growing projects and community groups, the lovely and generous communities across Manitoba and northwest Ontario to connect with."