Beef producers pleased with ‘many aspects’ of budget

Manitoba Beef Producers is happy with the support for ranchers that was contained in this week’s provincial budget, the group’s CEO said.

The organization on Wednesday welcomed the budget’s commitments to several initiatives, including new funding to address veterinary shortages, continued support for protecting livestock from predators and for compensation from wildlife damage, a continued freeze on Crown land rental rates and increased lending support through the Manitoba Agriculture Services Corporation.

“I think that my main takeaway is that we’re pleased with many aspects of it,” Manitoba Beef Producers CEO Carson Callum said in a phone interview with the Sun on Thursday.

“Those specifics that we’ve seen in it are a positive for our industry, and we look forward to working with the government.”

Callum said beef producers felt acknowledged by the budget, adding that he believes the organization’s efforts to lobby for support have proven successful in some ways.

“With any budget, there’s lots of pieces that are outside of the realm of agriculture. So it’s great to see some specific call-outs to areas of ag, including the beef sector.”

Missing from the new budget was support for a livestock inspection system, Callum said. His organization is working on and advocating for legislation to cut down livestock theft, partly by enforcing the terms of sales contracts for cattle.

“That wasn’t detailed per se in the budget, but I know it was spoken of in the throne speech as an area of importance, and we look forward to continuing work on that,” Callum said.

The provincial government has a good working relationship with Manitoba Beef Producers, and the current low stock of cattle contributed to the government’s support of the beef industry, Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn told the Sun.

“We see the importance of livestock numbers, and where they are. Probably (cattle) numbers are the lowest they’ve been since 1965 in my memory. So we want to see more beef production,” he said.

“Definitely there’s a need for more beef numbers not only in Manitoba but across Canada or North America.”

The NDP is a “listening government” and makes an effort to work with all agriculture groups, he said.

“We’re doing a number of things to try and keep the family farm going.”

Progressive Conservative agriculture critic Konrad Narth described the budget as “extremely disappointing for agriculture.” In an interview with the Sun on Thursday, Narth took aim at the province’s commitment to freeze rental rates on Crown land, saying it is inefficient.

The province should be committing to lease more land to producers so that herds can grow in Manitoba, said Narth, the MLA for La Verendrye.

“That would be much more important to bring down the cost of food to consumers,” he said. “Since this government has taken office … there has been no new option, so no expansion to the amount of acres that that are leased to farmers.”

He said he believes the beef producers didn’t want to be critical in public statements because there’s not much value in it, but the budget did not include much investment in ranchers.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com