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It has been a couple of years since members of the Manitoba Beef Producers have been able to meet for their annual meeting but that changes this week when MBP delegates gather in Winnipeg for two days of meetings.
The 44th AGM will cover a variety of topics and President Tyler Fulton of Birtle looks forward to a productive session. "We're excited to be back in person and seeing people we haven't seen over the past number of years. We have had a number of in person district meetings in the fall but it's not the same as the annual meeting."
"We've got researchers coming to talk to us about best practices and considerations for on farm operations. We've got a really good panel set to talk about managing risk. It seems a theme over the past few years has been the possibility of something really throwing a wrench into your plans such as drought or spring storms."
Speakers will talk with producers about ways of mitigating the risk. One speaker will be on hand to talk about their experience of dealing with the wildfire situation in British Columbia.
"I'm optimistic about our industry because prices are starting to bump up. We might even get to price levels we haven't seen since 2014 the last major high. While we've had our challenges and we've had a lot of dispersal sales but I think there's still a lot of great opportunities here," said Fulton.
Tyler Fulton points out there are young people wanting to get into the business and that's something the industry needs to maintain the business.
"A lot of people exiting the industry were people near retirement age but what I heard was for many people the last straw was the spring storms because that was a real struggle for a lot of guys. When you get subsequent storms that you couldn't recover from, and you're also thinking in the back of your mind it's time to slow down and retire, that was the last factor to make the decision for you."
Manitoba Beef Producers AGM runs February 2-3 and more than 200 producers are expected to attend this year's meeting.