Delaney Ross Burtnack and Arthur Cameron received certificates of merit from the University of Manitoba’s faculty of agriculture and food sciences and school of agriculture May 29. The university hands out the award in “recognition of leadership with agricultural organizations and outstanding service to the community at large.”

The great pumpkin and the country fair

Cameron is a long-time organizer of the Roland Pumpkin Fair and one of the founding members of the Manitoba Giant Growers Association. According to nominator Milan Lukes, he also holds the record for the province’s heaviest watermelon at 167 pounds.

Lukes, a student at the university, recounted how he, at age 10, met Cameron at the Roland event. He was fascinated with the giant pumpkins and Cameron became a vital source of information.

“Despite my young age, I always felt that Arthur took me seriously,” Lukes said.

Lukes would go on to win the pumpkin weigh-off at the fair a few years later.

“I imagine that few alumni have had an impact so profound as Arthur Cameron, directly bringing amusement and fascination to thousands upon thousands of attendees at the Roland Pumpkin Fair,” Lukes said.

Seeds of research

Ross Burtnack is the executive director of the Manitoba Canola Growers Association (MCGA), and former president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers (CAAR). Her resume includes numerous agriculture communications jobs.

She graduated from the University of Manitoba with a masters of science in agronomy and precision agriculture in 2001, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Professor emeritus Don Flaten, who nominated Ross Burtnack, recounted how she developed new agronomy and safety training resources and re-engaged CAAR in advocacy issues.

In her role at MCGA, her accomplishments include adding a new revenue reserve that allowed investment into research infrastructure at the University of Manitoba and Assiniboine Community College, Flaten said.

“I must say that one of the most enjoyable aspects of my life is to see young people develop into these fabulous leaders in our agricultural industry, and Delaney is one of those people who watching her career has brought me great joy,” he said.

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The eastern Manitoba couple was named the 2024 recipients of the award in March.

“It is a great honour. You get into a spot in life where you just focus on what you want to do and what’s coming up next,” Marcus Dueck said. “This forces you to sit back and reflect a little bit on what you have done over the last five, 10 or 15 years, and suddenly you realize that it’s actually been quite busy for a while.”

Four Oak Farms is an 800-acre dairy, mixed grain and hay operation. The dairy, which milks 50 cows using the only tie-stall robot in Western Canada, has won multiple milk quality, production and farm awards.

With the exception of some add-ins, feed is produced and milled on the farm. Cash crops include corn and soybeans, as well as forage and grass bound for the horse hay market.

Why it matters: Manitoba’s Outstanding Young Farmers program recognizes excellent operators between 18 and 39 years old. Provincial winners vie for a chance to be named Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers.

Although they grew up in the same area, the couple earned their agricultural stripes in different ways.

Marcus is the latest link in a multi-generational family farm. Four Oaks Farms got its start with his German grandparents, who started farming the same land after the Second World War. Like other multi-generational farm kids, he grew up helping on the farm.

Paige got her start in the city but loved horses. Her mother shared that interest and the family ditched the urban jungle for rural life when Paige was a pre-teen.

“I found jobs gathering chicken eggs, vaccinating chickens, pressure washing pig barns, milking other people’s cows and riding other people’s horses so that I could pay for the horse that I got when we moved to the country,” she said.

“I knew that I wanted a career with animals, so that led me to an animal science degree at the University of Manitoba.”

Marcus was taking the same degree at the same time, just two years ahead of her.

“We met because my brother was getting married,” said Paige. “Marcus was his friend, which I didn’t actually know. When they came to “steal” him and put him in a van blindfolded for a bachelor party, I saw Marcus on my deck, and something clicked. I just kind of knew, and then we started dating.”

It wasn’t long before they realized their connection was actually a reconnection and they had spent years living just one mile apart. Paige remembered stopping by his farm during her search for agricultural odd jobs, hoping his parents needed help with milking.

“They said they didn’t need a worker. That’s why I didn’t meet him earlier.”

The two married right after Paige finished her degree.

“I wrote my last exam, and then we went off and got engaged, built our house, and got married within a year. Then, once we were married and graduated, we both committed to this property to be the next generation to take over.”

OYF process

OYF potentials are first nominated by peers, followed by a lengthy review process. First, the nominees have to accept the nomination. There are forms to fill out and questions to answer about the operation. Finally, they must create a five-minute PowerPoint presentation in which they make their case for the award.

“So, in five minutes, you’re supposed to summarize your farm, which is actually really hard,” said Marcus.

The couple, 36 and 38 years old, squeezed under the age threshold for the OYF award. Both agreed that their ages gave them a slight advantage over the competition.

“We were nominated in 2016 and at that time, we were too young. We had just started to take over the farm and we didn’t win that year,” said Paige. “We were up against a cool couple that runs a potato farm out near Brandon, and they took home the Manitoba award that year.”

This year, with eight more seasons under their belts, they entered the competition as “seasoned young farmers,” she noted, and “it was a little bit easier this year to answer the interview questions and know where we’re at in life.”

Alexander Boersch and Markus Deffner from Mill Creek Organics/Abtshof Farms Ltd. in Elie were also finalists for the 2024 award.

Stand outs

The years between nominations helped the Duecks build their resume of community recognition. Both have abundant work experience and community involvement focused on agriculture.

Marcus holds a professional agrologists licence and worked as a sales associate for Marc Hutlet Seeds Ltd. He is a member of the local fire department and sits on the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba Advisory Committee.

In addition to being an Equine Canada-certified riding instructor, Paige spent two years working for Dairy Farmers of Manitoba as a producer relations co-ordinator.

“When dairy farmers phoned in for producer relations questions, I was on the end of the phone,” she said.

She was also a validator for the ProAction food safety certification that all dairy farms require.

While a high profile in the community can help, the OFY program is not meant to be a popularity contest. The stated objective is to “recognize farmers that exemplify excellence in their profession.”

“Part of it might be the way we manage and we split manage,” Marcus speculated. “Paige takes care of the barn and the cows on the management side, and I take care of the fields, and we both work with each other to help each other out, but there’s no one person running the whole place.”

The aforementioned tie-stall milking robot is also a tally in favour of the farm’s ingenuity.

“Installing it and learning how to operate and maintain it has been something that has brought a lot of people to tour and learn about it,” said Marcus. “It’s increased our milk yields and it’s increased (the cows’) udder health.”

The hay baler is also a technological upgrade.

“We brought in a baler from Germany, specifically to make medium square bales that have small square bundles in them,” he said. “There’s nothing like that out here. It gives us access to American markets and a premium in a market that already pays a good premium.”

The Duecks credit the tendency to seek out premiums and maximize profit for their success. That mindset is critical, given the farm size and the number people it supports.

“We have four generations on our farm right now and we’re managing to keep all four of our households running off of an 800-acre, 50-cow dairy, which is not an easy feat,” said Paige. “You have to work your specialties to get all you can out of what you have to offer.”

Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2024 will be chosen at the national event in Lethbridge Nov. 27-30.

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“We are so pleased to honour a visionary and well-respected leader in ag and food whose work has demonstrated how innovation, leadership and a deep respect for his field can lead to inspiring results and impact across a sector,” said Gina Grandy, dean of the Haskayne School of Business, in a April 10 news release.

“We celebrate not only his achievements throughout a storied career, but also his commitment to nurturing a sustainable future for all of us.”

McConnell, a graduate of the University of Manitoba who is now based in Alberta, launched an agriculture communications and marketing business from his basement in 1984. This company grew into AdFarm, one of North America’s largest agricultural marketing companies, the release said.

He has also served on boards such as that of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI), 4-H Canada and the Calgary Stampede Foundation, CCFI’s website says.

McConnell was inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2012, and was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada in 2017.

He said is personally inspired by family and “the entrepreneurial spirit.”

“Helping and inspiring entrepreneurs is something I truly enjoy and something I find extremely inspiring,” McConnell said in the news release.

McConnell will receive the award at a banquet in Calgary on June 20.

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As well as being the keynote speaker at the conference, Undersander has worked as a forage specialist for 48 years, having shared his knowledge across Canada, partly through his Alfalfa Intensive Training course.

Undersander tells Glacier FarmMedia that he is glad to see the Canadian Forage Council pushing ahead with greenhouse gas (GHG) initiatives and says there is an urgent need for cooperation across Canadian livestock and forage production sectors to quantify their efforts relating to GHG mitigation.

Undersander has published over 1,600 papers related to forage production and utilization. He led the development of the University of Wisconsin Team Forage website, the most widely recognized source of forage information for temperate regions around the world.

Undersander developed the use of the relative feed value (RFV) index in 1990 and the relative forage quality (RFQ) index in 2000, as indices of energy intake by ruminants.

His work with the National Forage Testing Association and its chemical analysis methods has resulted in more dependable analysis of forages. Undersander and a colleague also developed the Milk-per-Acre spreadsheet for evaluating forage yield and quality changes. He led the writing of the Alfalfa Management Guide and worked with grazing groups internationally, which led to a 44-page grazing document. He developed a program to encourage contract harvesting of forage and he conducted numerous studies showing that forage dried more rapidly in a wide swath than conditioned forage in a windrow.

Undersander also developed the concept of stem density to determine when an alfalfa stand density was limiting yield, as a determinant to when the field should be turned over.

The CFGA AGM is hosted in conjunction with the British Columbia Forage Council (BCFC). This event brings together key participants and leaders in the both the forage and livestock sectors to focus on climate solutions for these interdependent industries.

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Long-time board member and past chair Larry Wegner, and John McGregor, probably best known for his years managing the Green Gold alfalfa quality monitoring program, are this year’s inductees for the honour.

Why it matters: It is the third year the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association has singled out individuals for their contributions to the organization and its goals.

“I have had the privilege of working with both of these gentlemen who have contributed so much to our MFGA organization,” said current chair Lawrence Knockaert. “Larry gave us leadership at the board table as our chair and outwardly to our audiences via his network, blogs and expertise. ”

As for McGregor, “John deserves a ton of credit for his leadership, advocacy and delivery of the MFGA Green Gold program,” Knockaert said.

The honourees were announced during the MFGA’s annual Regenerative Ag Conference, an event that Wegner helped get off the ground back in 2018.

Larry Wegner

Wegner, who runs a family-operated cow-calf and yearling operation near Virden, got involved with the MFGA when it used to run meetings in conjunction with Manitoba Beef Producers.

“At the time, they were having a hard time getting people involved,” Wegner said. “I am a strong believer that we need a strong forage industry to have the beef industry functioning well.”

Since then, he has logged two years as vice-chair of the organization, two years as chair and two years as past chair.

The MFGA today looks much different than the one that Wegner joined.

“We basically started with a clean slate. We could do whatever we wanted,” he said.

A conference with accomplished speakers mixed with local producers was one of Wegner’s ideas. Today, that conference draws hundreds of attendees and speakers from across Canada and the U.S.

“My role was bringing in some big ideas, but I had the people working with me to make it happen.”

Over the course of several years, the organization officially adopted the regenerative agriculture cause, becoming one of the main voices for the movement in Manitoba and a partner for organizations like the Manitoba Association of Watersheds, Manitoba Organic Alliance, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives, and various other private and non-profit stakeholders.

Riding a wave of funding opportunities around sustainable and regenerative farming, the MFGA has obtained funds through the Manitoba Conservation Trust and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. It has led research projects and its Aquanty hydrological modelling project has been tapped by organizations like the Assiniboine River Basin Initiative and local governments to map out water management.

In 2021, the MFGA announced an expanded Aquanty forecasting tool allowing farmers anticipate water flows in their area.

Following the MFGA’s reduced annual meeting in 2020, when the event was forced online due to the pandemic, Wegner also took the lead on a regular MFGA blog. He credited former chair Dave Koslowsky for setting the stage for much of the growth.

“I never thought the MFGA would be this far along,” he said.

John McGregor

McGregor spent years with Manitoba Agriculture sharing his forage production expertise with farmers. His history with the MFGA started a decade ago.

Under his 25-year watch, the MFGA’s Green Gold program (originally under the provincial government) expanded into a province-wide asset for producers looking to optimize their alfalfa cuts.

Every year, volunteers from various regions would submit alfalfa samples to be tested for feed quality, with those results were aggregated into weekly reports.

“Through the Green Gold program and the information that’s provided, [producers have] gone from maybe a two-cut system to a three or a four-cut system of alfalfa, which has greatly improved the quality of the alfalfa that they’re using,” McGregor said. “This quality is something that the dairy industry really wanted to look at.”

The Green Gold program was based on a similar initiative in Wisconsin. The U.S. program was highlighted by a visiting speaker and a number of Manitoba Agriculture personnel became interested.

McGregor was working in southeast Manitoba at the time, where the program gained traction among dairy producers. They were critical in providing the financial capital to keep the early program running, he said.

The programs’ expansion was steady, but “very gradual,” he recalled.

Normal workflow at the time had dairy producers taking their first cut late, similar to the current timing of beef hay, he said.

“They weren’t getting the quality. Once they started to see where the quality of their alfalfa was in early June … they started taking on that [earlier cut] practice. And once they did that, they saw how the cows performed, and then, next thing they knew, they were taking a second cut 28 days later and then a third cut 30 days later and then they were taking a fourth cut after freeze up.”

McGregor has stepped away from the program. Today, his name appears behind the MFGA’s regular market updates and status reports as a relative newcomer to the association’s services.

That program provides producers with guidance on general price trends when buying and selling hay in the province.

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Geralyn Wichers added two CFWF awards to her accomplishments. She took third place in the current affairs feature category for her Nov. 3, 2022, article, “Left out: Officials told First Nations farmers they weren’t eligible for BSE relief cash; 20 years later governments say that wasn’t true.”

The category, dubbed the Dick Beamish Award, is “awarded to the best feature article published by a Canadian medium that provides insight into a current agricultural topic or issue,” according to the CFWF’s guidelines.

Wichers also took third place for her current affairs reporting in “Emissions goal realistic, even conservative, with enough funding: experts,” published Sept. 1, 2022.

The Q.H. Martinson Award is “awarded to the best single news story published by a Canadian medium that reports on a current agricultural topic or issue.”

“Current affairs” is defined for both awards as “events happening at the present time that have a political or social interest and importance to Canada.”

Now retired reporter Allan Dawson also ended his Co-operator tenure with another CFWF feather in his cap. Dawson won third place in the landscape photography category for his photo “Red River flooding farmland 2022.” (see photo at top)

The aerial photo showcased spring flood conditions north of Emerson last spring and was published in the photo essay “Flooded fields, island communities,” which appeared on the Co-operator’s website May 6, 2022.

Other wins for Glacier FarmMedia included second- and third-place laurels for Country Guide in the Peter Lewington Award for technical feature writing. Rebecca Hannam took second place for her story “Five moves to make in 2022,” while Jay Whetter took third for “The satisfying pulverization of weed seeds.”

Fellow Country Guide writer Leeann Minogue took third in the Jack Cram Award for feature writing that highlights a person or group, with “Are you ready for this?”

Gerald Pilger, also writing for Country Guide, earned third in the O.R. Evans Award for technical writing for his story, “Not that much choice.”

Matt McIntosh earned Farmtario a second-place nod in the C.B. Fairbairn Award for business or economics reporting with “Failure in the face of demand.”

Ed White of the Western Producer was honoured as the CFWF’s Farm Writer of the Year.

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The Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame came calling for two such people July 17. University of Manitoba canola scientist and researcher Michael Eskin and long-time farm journalist Allan Dawson stood up for their induction ceremony at Exhibition Place at the Red River Ex in Winnipeg.

Every year, the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame honours deserving nominees for their contribution to agriculture.

Dawson, who retired from the Manitoba Co-operator last July, was lauded by the hall of fame for his work to build “awareness and understanding in the agricultural community through unbiased details and well-researched reporting on complex issues affecting the industry, and those who make their living from it.”

Dawson, 67, grew up in the Altamont area and has worked in ag journalism since 1980. He served as farm director at CISV Radio and as a freelancer before joining the Co-operator in 1983. Later, he and six colleagues founded a new farm paper, Farmers Independent Weekly, which merged with the Co-operator in 2007.

His work has earned accolades from the North American Agricultural Journalists Association — a group for which he served as president in 2022-23 — as well as the Canadian Farm Writers Federation and the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists.

Having interviewed many of the hall’s previous inductees over his career and worked with other honourees during his previous stint with the provincial ag department, Dawson said “to be in their company, it’s unbelievable to me.”

Along with those who nominated him and wrote letters of support, Dawson also thanked his extended family.

“My work-life balance wasn’t the best, but my family allowed me time to pursue the work I loved and found meaningful and I’m so grateful for that,” he said.

Canola contribution

Eskin, 82, came to the University of Manitoba from London, England, in 1968 and has since played “a pivotal role in transforming canola into the country’s most profitable food crop” and mentoring the next generation of scientists in Canadian agri-food, the hall of fame said.

His work has included characterizing enzymes responsible for fatty acid breakdown in canola, demonstrating its optimal frying parameters and stability for various food products and highlighting both the “hedonic attributes” — that is, the human acceptability and sensory preference of a food product — and preservation of canola oil in foods.

Honours over Eskin’s career have included the Order of Canada, Order of Manitoba and awards from the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Food Technologists and American Oil Chemists’ Society.

Of his acclaimed university textbook, Biochemistry of Foods, he noted its publisher recently contacted him with plans for a fourth edition: “I guess I’ll do it; I don’t think I’ll be around for the fifth edition,” he joked at the ceremony.

Eskin also launched into an a capella song — borrowing musically from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado — about the perils and pitfalls of food science.

“Those synthetic foods that fill our desires with tastes that are not really there/You think you’re eating a raspberry pie, but it’s really a new-flavoured pear,” he sang.

‘An opportunity’

During the ceremony, hall of fame president Ted Eastley noted the hall’s gallery space at Keystone Centre in Brandon “has reached its physical capacity,” which he said poses logistical challenges. The hall’s board is working to find space for future inductee plaques.

“We also see this as an opportunity, a chance to modernize our hall of fame and embrace technology to tell the captivating stories of our inductees, forge connections with youth and preserve our cherished agricultural heritage,” he said.

The ceremony included the presentation of the hall of fame’s annual scholarship, a $1,000 award, to Messina Schrof, who graduated this summer from Sanford Collegiate and plans to attend the University of Manitoba in the fall.

Schrof’s “passion for agriculture is beautifully expressed” in her application letter and vision “to preserve the essence of family farming” is inspiring, said hall of fame board member Annette Young.

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Geralyn Wichers was chosen from a global list of nominees spanning the IFAJ’s 60 participating nations.

The prestigious award is judged by an international jury and “recognizes the individuals’ professional skills and leadership potential,” according to an April 3 statement from the IFAJ.

“We must focus on a new generation of leaders who have the ability to lead our guilds towards an ever higher degree of professionalism. That is the goal of the Young Leaders Program,” said IFAJ secretary general Adalberto Rossi.

Other 2023 winners included writers from the U.S., Australia, Austria, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Ghana, Argentina and Switzerland.

“The importance of strong journalism in communicating agriculture’s truth in today’s world cannot be overstated,” said Mark Lyons, CEO of Alltech, which has sponsored the award since 2006.

“We are proud to support the next generation of journalists who are passionate about sharing the real stories of the farm and field, and the men and women who work tirelessly to feed our planet.”

All winners will be recognized at this year’s IFAJ World Conference, to be held in Olds, Alta., in June.

Earlier this year, Wichers was awarded at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards for her Indigenous feature entitled, ‘Back to the land: We used to plant hay here.’

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The Sept. 29, 2022 feature “Back to the land: ‘We used to plant hay here’” by reporter Geralyn Wichers was one of five finalists for Best multicultural story in the COPAs’ B2B (business-to-business) division.

Two other Glacier FarmMedia products earned silver in the B2B division: #ICYMI, an ongoing weekly short video roundup of Canadian farm news, for Best video content; and Between The Rows, GFM’s weekly podcast series, for Best podcast.

#ICYMI appears each week on manitobacooperator.ca. Between The Rows aired its series finale on Dec. 22; its previous episodes are available online at the AgCanada.com website.

The COPAs, organized each year by periodical publishing industry journal Masthead, were presented Feb. 9 in Toronto.

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Michael Thiele, Mae Elsinger and Henry Nelson are the newest faces on the association’s wall of fame, the MFGA announced during its Nov. 14-15 regenerative agriculture conference in Brandon.

Board chair Lawrence Knockaert said the three were chosen for either their work on grasslands or their role in “bringing us to where we are now,” during the early days of the association.

“We wouldn’t be here without them…It’s sort of like we’re paying homage to them,” he said.

This is the second year in which the MFGA singled out long-time members or contributors for the mark they’ve left on the organization or the province’s forage and grassland acres.

Leading the way

Henry Nelson has been a pillar of the association for almost 15 years, said the MFGA. The retired agrologist joined the association board in 2008, where he represented the sheep sector. He later served for several years as vice-president.

Nelson’s work on the board was augmented by his history in different corners of the ag sector. His resume spanned the crop and livestock sectors and the public and private spheres.

A former employee of the University of Manitoba, Nelson’s history also included work with Monsanto, the provincial agriculture department – where he specialized in weeds – and crop insurance. His work involved financial mediation, foreign ownership of farmland and sustainable agriculture.

“He’s been instrumental in pushing forage and grasses,” Knockaert said.

On the MFGA board, Nelson helped blaze a trail for the Aquanty project, an initiative that is now a major driver for the association. The hydrological modeling project promised to mimic water flows across five interconnected models of the Assiniboine River Basin, drawing on ground mapping and other data. Scenarios could then be layered onto the model to gauge the impact of different policy or projects.

A real-time hydrological forecasting tool is next in the works for Aquanty. That phase will allow residents to anticipate water flows in a specific area.

[RELATED] Annual forages best in dry years

Nelson co-chaired the project’s steering committee through its first phases from 2015 to 2018.

Today’s MFGA board also credits Nelson for helping secure funds for the organization, for his work toward putting a dollar amount to ecological goods and services, and for being a driving force for the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association.

His work with the MFGA’s national counterpart included a look at forage insurance, a stint co-chairing the environment committee, collaboration with the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation and spearheading the association’s leadership award.

Government contribution

Mae Elsinger’s history with the MFGA predates the organization as it is now known. A rangeland biologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Elsinger’s name first appeared in collaboration with the MFGA’s predecessor, the Manitoba Forage Council.

Three years of field data went into the Native Pasture Improvement Project under that organization, and Elsinger later put her name to the brush monitoring chapter of the MFC’s Guide to Integrated Brush Management.

[RELATED] VIDEO: What does a healthy pasture look like?

She also contributed to forage benchmarking efforts with the forage council. That project drew on forage production data from 12 Crown land leases from 2004-2010.

“I’m still, to this day, being asked for that kind of data,” said Elsinger. “The researchers and other people in the industry – producer groups – they’re still asking us for that forage productivity data.”

From 2010 to 2017, Elsinger’s name appeared among the list of contractors and federal and provincial ag department staff involved in the Manitoba Rangeland and Pasture Health Initiative, under the renamed MFGA. That project yielded a rangeland classification document, pasture health assessment workbook, eco-site map for southwestern Manitoba and eco-region map for two regions of Westman.

In 2014, Elsinger joined the board of the MFGA as a non-voting member representing AAFC.

More recently, the MFGA’s Kirkella Community Pasture Grassland Enhancement Project benefitted from Elsinger’s expertise. The researcher collected pasture data on the site in 2019, followed by a list of recommendations to improve forage production.

Elsinger has also been tapped for projects and field tours hosted by the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives, a demonstration farm with two sites north of Brandon and near Brookdale, She was one of the researchers who studied leafy spurge management at the site. The demonstration farm draws support from various public and industry groups, including the MFGA.

Outside of the MFGA, Elsinger has been involved with Living Labs Eastern Prairies, the Manitoba branch of a federal initiative showcasing innovative farm management projects on a network of farms across the country.

She described her nomination as “unexpected.”

“I think it’s a nice honour. It’s like a lighthouse that tells me that I’m doing good stuff.”

Peer-to-peer

For Michael Thiele, outreach to farmers and advocacy for regenerative agriculture put him on this year’s wall of fame.

As one moderator put it during the Brandon conference, Thiele has been everywhere.

He grew up on a farm near Riding Mountain National Park and started his career in conservation after graduating university. His early career included stints with Farming for Tomorrow, the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation, Delta Waterfowl Foundation, Ducks Unlimited Canada and Manitoba’s network of conservation districts.

“I just worked with all the different groups kind of part time,” he said, “always just sort of asking the question, ‘why are we doing this? Can we do it a little bit better?’” he said.

Eventually, his work roles brought him toward forages, grazing and winter cereals; common tools in the regenerative agriculture toolbox. Thiele began to embrace the regenerative philosophy toward farming, which took its cues from the natural state of grasslands, including biodiversity, quick intense grazing of large ruminants and as maintaining vegetative cover.

[RELATED] Regenerative ag takes soils off life support

Many know him as an organizing force behind the Ducks Unlimited Canada Grazing Club, where Thiele spent two decades promoting forage and pasture management in southwestern Manitoba. Field tours, seminars and workshops throughout the region have consistently featured him as both an organizer and presenter.

Thiele said he is proud of the connections built through those kinds of farmer-to-farmer events. Through the grazing club, he has watched the spread of a “community of farmers that are now kind of learning and growing and sharing.”

He has seen attendees of the grazing clubs branch into other programs that work with farmers on soil health, carbon sequestration and holistic management.

It is in that vein that several dozen farms in Saskatchewan and Manitoba might also know him as their coach.

Thiele was one of the regenerative ag experts tapped by General Mills for its on-farm promotion of holistic management in February 2019. A total 45 farmers were chosen for three years of holistic management coaching through that program.

“That started to happen, which was wonderful because it got me kind of back into nuts-and-bolts ag,” Thiele said.

Today, he is also a consultant for regenerative agriculture firm Understanding Ag.

“You think about it like, what could be the ultimate goal of a farmer? To be able to say at the end of the career, I made a living, I raised a family, I grew good food and I took care of the resources. I made my land better. What could be more rewarding than that?” he said.

“The problem is that we can’t necessarily say that today. What I’ve come to understand is that most of these problems that we talk about, whatever it is – degraded soil or climate change or go down the list – it’s a lack of understanding. They become educational problems and only through deeper understanding can we make change.”

Second round

The three honourees are the second group named to the wall of fame. The MFGA launched the initiative last year “to help celebrate our organization’s history and showcase the exemplary contributions of persons who went above and beyond to ensure our organization’s place in Manitoba,” and to “position MFGA as a well-regarded and well-respected producer-led organization among Manitoba’s agriculture groups.”

This year’s cohort was unanimously approved, the association said.

The MFGA collects nominations through conversations and board meetings, and current board members and staff are not eligible to be named.

In 2021, the association named five inaugural inductees: farmer, former Nuffield scholar and former MFGA board member Ryan Boyd; Ken Gross of Ducks Unlimited Canada; Manitoba Agriculture livestock specialist Pam Iwanchysko; former MFGA chair Dave Koslowsky and Fraser Stewart, former provincial forage specialist and executive director of the MFC.

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