In 2024, the MFGA welcomed the Senate report that called for a long-term soil health strategy for the nation, along with soil being named a national asset and designating a soil health advocate. Senator Rob Black, who has outspokenly pushed soil health on Parliament Hill and elsewhere, singled out the development of the strategy among 25 recommendations outlined in the report.

A little under two years later, there’s a promise from Ottawa to make that proposed strategy a reality.

On March 26, the federal government announced plans toward development of a national agricultural soil health strategy.

“It’s a critical time that we’re in, relevant to soil erosion, climate change, and everything that we’re doing with technology and innovation is to ensure that soil remains where it is,” federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald said.

“(The strategy) is going to put an element of integrity on any research that’s being done in the future and hopefully that research can coincide with what we’re seeing here today.”

Manitoba support

It’s a “wonderful announcement,” MFGA executive director Duncan Morrison said.

“MFGA applauds the engagement of the strategy,” he said. “Of course, as with everything, the proof will be in the pudding as to how this is all mobilized, but on Day 1, it’s a great day.”

The organization, Morrison said, has thrown its weight behind the development of a strategy, both among its communications and its support of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC) — another group that has pushed hard for a strategy, and that the government says will be tapped for input as the strategy is developed. He also pointed to letters of support and congratulations they have sent to Black and Senator Paula Simons, who also helped drive the 2024 Senate soil report.

Morrison further threw kudos to Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP).

KAP has helped get Manitoba farmers a seat at the table on the issue, he noted, adding the MFGA has since met with KAP and hopes to see outreach to the MFGA as “a farmer-focused group that has been pushing the soil health narrative hard for the last decade.”

“These things take time towards sorting out, and we sure hope that the regen ag practices and mindsets on our MFGA farmers’ farms are being valued and included here as part of the soil health solution,” Morrison said.

Soil health bill

The strategy announcement dovetails with gains for Black’s Bill S-230, the National Strategy for Soil Health Act, which closely follows the report’s 25 recommendations. That bill also passed in the Senate March 26, and MacDonald said Bill S-230 will inform the strategy.

During Bill S-230’s third reading, Black told the Senate chamber it was bolstering to know “the government not only supports the bill but is ready to move forward before it is legislated.”

Reading the AAFC’s intention to develop a national soil health strategy during the third reading showed the value of the Senate, Black said. “It also put (the government) on record, on notice that we’re watching,” Black said.

According to Black, work on the strategy to safeguard Canadian soil could begin as early as April and be completed and officially launched by December 2027.

Collaboration with farmers, industry pledged

Ideally, Black said, the national strategy will avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. It will include educational support, financial support, peer-to-peer networks and a position for a national soil health advocate. He noted Australia’s soil advocates have been very effective in promoting the adoption of soil health practices, but acknowledged the position comes with a cost.

Collaboration will play a key role in developing the strategy, with input from the SCCC, farmers, the agriculture industry, Indigenous communities, provinces and territories and related ministries.

For the MFGA’s part, Morrison said they are “determined to contribute and advance soil health awareness and encourage on-farm uptake of BMPs (best management practices).

“We have been pushing for exactly this type of structure, soil strategy and leadership for years,” he said.

Healthy soils important for all Canadians: Kruszel

The in-depth research by Black and the Senate committee on agriculture and forestry into Canada’s soil has highlighted the significance of healthy soil and the threats it faces, said Alan Kruszel, SCCC’s eastern producer director.

“Healthy soils are so important for producers as well as for all Canadians. Healthy soils provide the majority of the food we eat,” he said. “Soils help to purify our water, to clean our air and provide habitats for all kinds of life.”

Kruszel said the agriculture sector provides one in nine jobs nationally. Investment in soil health is ongoing through research, farm organizations, input suppliers and other groups to support the adoption of sustainable on-farm practices.

“Our intention through the national soil health strategy is to optimize those investments through collaborations,” he said. “And collectively working to identify gaps in research, measurement, education and extension, and of course, resources while establishing priority actions that we can all work on.”

— With files from Diana Martin

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Water Canada has selected the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) as the winner of its Early Adopter/Innovation Partnership Award for its Aquanty hydrological modelling project, MFGA’s executive director Duncan Morrison said.

The MFGA was named as one of three finalists in July.

“They announced us as finalists, and then the waiting began,” Morrison said. “It’s a pretty significant win for us.”

WHY IT MATTERS: It’s not often a farm-facing organization, in this case the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association, receives this sort of national-level recognition for work in the water management sector.

Water Canada chose award recipients based on their collaborations with municipalities, corporations or institutions and technology companies that demonstrate shared dedication to progressing Canada’s water sector. Aquanty, the MFGA’s partner in the project, submitted the nomination.

The winning partnership was revealed during the Water Canada Awards ceremony Oct. 16 in Toronto.

“We’re extremely proud of Aquanty, and of being a little group that took on a really big task,” Morrison said.

He noted MFGA’s leadership was certain from the start the organization was up to the challenge.

“We had the support of our board, and we went and did it,” Morrison said.

Hydrological modelling project updated

The organization has continued to advance the technology since its initial adoption, and winning the award is proof MFGA is on the right path, Morrison said. Meanwhile, Aquanty is continuing to update its models and scenarios.

“We continue to work with watershed districts and First Nations and agriculture groups to get us the best profile we possibly can with this thing,” Morrison said.

The Aquanty project has gone through several phases, from an initial model tapped for local water management planning to a more recent flood forecasting tool. The project assists farmers and communities throughout the Assiniboine River Basin in preparing for extreme weather patterns. The model uses a technology called HydroGeoSphere to simulate the water cycle and anticipate how water would behave in a virtual replica of the basin, given changing factors such as weather data.

Building on success

MFGA’s innovation continues to attract recognition and investment. The organization recently received support through the federal Climate Action Fund for a new project which will aim to evaluate climate change effects on Manitoba’s forage and grassland landscapes.

Announced by Environment and Climate Change Minister Mike Moyes on Earth Day 2025, the project received $130,000 in funding as part of a $2-million provincial investment in climate initiatives. Through this one-year project, MFGA and Aquanty will again engage their hydrological model in the Pembina Valley and Assiniboine West Watershed Districts to explore how a shifting climate could affect Manitoba’s forage and grasslands. Using future climate scenarios for 2050 and 2100, they will develop detailed risk maps and share them with farmers, watershed groups and policymakers to help strengthen long-term resiliency.

Bringing the farm perspective

A farm organization being recognized in the water sector is significant, Morrison believes.

“Rarely is a farm group nominated around water, and that is something that we did,” he said. “We were able to get into downtown Toronto to speak to Canada’s water movers.”

The MFGA was able to share the work their farmers are doing and the perspective that water is essentially important to agriculture.

“We made sure that we gave them confidence that farmers are doing great work. And it’s groups like MFGA and some of our partners that continue to promote this great work,” Morrison said.

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Ads for new-crop and carryover forage are plentiful, said John MacGregor, forage expert with the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association, and prices have been fairly steady throughout the summer.

Why it matters: Patchy rains translated to patchy first cuts, but Manitoba will generally come into winter better off than more drought-stricken regions of the Prairies.

Producers who expect to be short on feed should source other supplies sooner rather than later, MacGregor advised.

The MFGA’s September hay update set alfalfa prices at eight to 11 cents per pound — slightly up from August, when alfalfa was going for six to 10 cents. Dairy quality alfalfa was unchanged during the period, with both months posting 10 to 12-cent prices.

Good quality alfalfa-grass mix was selling for six to 7.5 cents per pound in September, with beef quality going for five to seven cents, similar to August numbers.

In the lower quality spectrum, beef hay was selling for 3.5 to seven cents a pound in September, down from six to 9.5 cents a month earlier.

Final feed harvest

As of Sept. 24, corn silage harvest was well underway and some areas were finished, according to the last Manitoba Agriculture crop report of the month. Yields ranged from 13 to 15 tonnes per acre.

Beef producers were still working on the second cut of grass hay, the province said, and were cutting slough hay in some areas. A second alfalfa cut is also available for some producers, with fields more than three weeks past the critical harvest date set at the start of September.

In past seasons, producers might be on their third cut by the post-critical harvest window.

Forage growth on hay and pasture was mostly finished by late September, though MacGregor noted recent rains could green up some fields.

Parts of the northwest region had light frost as of the last crop report, sparking concern about nitrate concentrations in standing silage and greenfeed. Producers are advised to test annual crops for nitrates before feeding.

Straw baling was under way for bedding and cattle feed, the provincial crop report said. MacGregor said more beef producers are relying on straw for feed.

They should also grab straw for bedding while it’s plentiful, said Carson Callum, general manager for Manitoba Beef Producers.

Weather roller-coaster

The open question is, how far afield will producers have to go for winter feed this year?

Echoing a common theme of the 2023 growing season, farmers’ hay supply has been “based on where the thunderstorms hit,” MacGregor said.

Provincial data shows few areas of Manitoba had a normal amount of rain, and most are sitting well below average.

As of Sept. 24, the central region ranged from 34 per cent of normal precipitation at Cartwright to 67 per cent at Emerson, which was one of only three stations across the province to rise above the 60 per cent mark.

Manitoba Agriculture data shows the Altona and Gretna areas got nearly 27 and 34 millimetres, respectively, from Sept. 18-24.

In the southwest, precipitation records swing between 47 per cent of normal at Alexander and Findlay to 85 per cent at Deloraine. The northwest ranged between 48 per cent of normal at Keld to 80 per cent at Ethelbert.

The Interlake, in a break from past seasons as the dry nucleus of the province, received 57 per cent of normal at Stonewall and Arborg and 102 per cent of normal at Fisherton. The latter number may be deceiving. Provincial meteorologist Timi Ojo said in early September that the Fisherton station received 134 mm in one day rather than slow, soaking rains that provide more benefit to crops.

Despite patches of positive outlook, some producers struggled with conditions bad enough to prompt a Manitoba Beef Producers’ request that the province consider an AgriRecovery assessment, similar to requests made by Saskatchewan and Alberta this year.

Aid is in the works for both western Prairie provinces. In late August, Saskatchewan pledged up to $70 million to support livestock producers and Alberta is said to be drafting details of a program.

Around the same time, the federal government released an initial list of areas in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba eligible for the livestock tax deferral, a program that allows producers to push a portion of taxable income from the sale of breeding stock to the following year. Nineteen Manitoba municipalities made that list.

MBP wants the Manitoba government to ask for a smaller portfolio of aid than the rest of the Prairies, but Callum said it appears the province doesn’t think it is warranted.

Unlike the drought year of 2021, producers generally have carryover feed, Callum said. However, many will fine-tune rations and stretch feed as long as possible. If there isn’t much snow to provide insulation over the winter, next year could be “even more worrisome,” he said.

Some producers are also concerned about water levels, Callum noted. Several have applied for funds through the Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program and Sustainable Agriculture Manitoba program to improve dugouts or other water infrastructure.

They’re still waiting to hear if they’ll get that funding, said Callum, but the election may have delayed those decisions.

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The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) has provided the Manitoba Association of Watersheds with access to roughly 15 grazing experts. Those experts are spread across the province and will be made available for one-on-one mentorships through the program.

Why it matters: Producers who want to implement rotational grazing can get the government to foot part of the bill, and a new mentor program aims to help as many producers as possible get the most from the opportunity.

The goal is to help farmers access funding programs delivered through the watersheds association. Mentorships will focus on grazing strategies and on-farm best management practices (BMP) that are eligible for funding under the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program.

That program has up to $40 million in project funding to divvy out and is one of 12 programs funded nationally by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s On-Farm Climate Action Fund. The program is delivered in Saskatchewan and Manitoba by each province’s watershed district association.

“MFGA has been a strong partner within the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program,” said Garry Wasylowski, the watershed group’s board chair. “We look forward to their services being available to support Manitoba’s watershed districts in their delivery of the rotational grazing BMP.”

The watersheds climate program covers three types of BMPs: rotational grazing, cover crops and nitrogen management. The rotational grazing stream, in which the mentorship program will operate, includes projects such as new fence and water system installation, pasture improvements or the creation of a grazing plan.

Infrastructure projects can receive $18,000 per quarter, to a maximum of $75,000. Producers who seed legumes into pasture can get $35 per acre, up to $75,000, while producers can get up to half the cost, up to $400, of creating a grazing plan.

Meet the mentors

MFGA grazing mentors come from the association’s network, either as board members or supporters.

Executive director Duncan Morrison said the mentorship program was initiated to get more farmers into the rotational grazing funding stream.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of interest in the other two BMPs … but with the BMPs around grazing, there’s not quite as high of a threshold of interest,” he said.

Watersheds executive director Lynda Nicol said slow uptake of the rotational grazing program is at least partly because it is new.

“We have already heard from a lot of our watershed districts that there is increased interest around rotational grazing. We’re seeing a lot more applications coming through the door.”

While she said the mentor program will likely increase interest, tapping into the MFGA’s expertise was always part of the plan.

“The MFGA was one of our original supporters when we were putting together our application for the On-Farm Climate Action Fund,” she said. “They’ve been an integral partner throughout this entire process.”

Nicol said the mentor program will leverage the strength of MFGA’s network to benefit Manitoba producers interested in trying new things.

“One of the exceptional things about the MFGA network is that they’re early adopters,” she said. “These folks have been doing a lot of these practices for a long time and are in a position to provide real expertise from what they’ve already done on-farm—the things that worked and the things that didn’t work—to help people make better decisions.”

The MFGA’s grazing plan approach will be organized by board alumnus Larry Wegner.

“The idea is to give the producers the skill and information they need to be successful,” he said. “The mentors are here to make sure the new producers that are trying this succeed.”

Wegner has managed his herd with planned grazing for the past 20 years. Things have changed since then, he said, and he hopes to see producers opt into the new program so he and other mentors can share what they’ve learned.

“We can do so much better than we have in the past. Pasture management for livestock has been very minimal and there’s so much more we could do to make things better,” said Wegner. “Poor grazing management will ruin the land as fast as anything else.”

The program is also expected to help producers deal with some of the finer details of the grant process. Producers must get their grazing plan approval by a certified agrologist under the program. Morrison said four of the 15 mentors have that certification.

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“An in-person gathering of the magnitude and impact we had hoped to make for our conference delegates is simply not feasible in these strange times,” the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) said in a news release, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t try our best to put together a great showcase for regenerative agriculture, healthy soils and healthy lands.”

The live, online event will take place over four Thursday evenings in November.

Advocates of the movement say regenerative agriculture focuses on producing food while improving soil and natural ecosystems.

“There’s so much information available online already that we didn’t want to discourage anyone from taking part in our celebration,” Ryan Boyd, finance chair of MFGA, said. “I have been in really good discussions with our previously announced keynote speakers and each one has agreed to put a very strong Manitoba flavour into their presentations and also be available for a post-presentation facilitated question-and-answer session.”

Speakers will include Diana Rodgers, a nutritionist who speaks internationally about the intersection of optimal human nutrition and regenerative agriculture.

Another speaker, Nicole Masters, is an agroecologist. Her team of “soil coaches” through her business, Integrity Soils, work with producers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand to increase profitability and environmental outcomes.

Mark Shepard heads the Forest Agriculture Nursery in Wisconsin and runs New Forest Farm, a 106-acre commercial-scale perennial agricultural ecosystem that was converted from a row-crop grain farm. Shepard is also the author of the book Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers.

Brenda Tjaden is a food economist and marketer from Birds Hill, Man. Her company, Sustainable Grain, provides guidance to commercial farms on regenerative agriculture strategies. She also works with small farms to develop new local food economies.

Boyd will also present his 2019 Nuffield Scholarship findings.

The show will also feature an online trade show.

The MFGA will also host two socially distanced on-farm tours before November, the association has said. Fees will be collected at the tours for 2021 MFGA memberships.

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Darren Chapman, a Virden, Man. producer and chair of the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA), explained that regrowth following the first cut of hay has been strong.

First-cut hay crops were stunted by an unseasonably chilly, dry spring and yields were around half to two-thirds of what’s typically expected.

“We were late on the first cut because there wasn’t much there,” Chapman said.

Second-cut yields are expected to be higher, around 75 per cent of average. Farmers who got the first cut off the fields earlier in the season may start their second cut as early as the first week in August.

“Now that the rain has started, I guess we’re not too bad,” he said.

“There’s going to be a lot of moisture for the regrowth, that’s what we’re gaining now.”

The timing of rain is almost as important as the amount; hay’s quality diminishes if it’s rained on after it’s cut but before it’s baled.

“It is nitpicky, but it would be nice if we had one or two days longer between the rains to get some hay put up,” Chapman said.

“Some producers are having a difficult time getting their first cut off in good condition,” MFGA extension specialist John McGregor said.

General sentiment among producers is more positive these days, however. Prices are currently between $220 and $250 per tonne for dairy-quality alfalfa and between $170 and $200 for mixed hay, with some variation in prices as “producers don’t know just how much hay they’ve got,” he said.

“They don’t know how much hay they’re going to have as a surplus that they’ll be able to sell.”

MFGA performs a price survey for producers in late August.

Concerns of a hay shortage still linger, due to lower-than-average carryout stocks from 2018 that were completely used up over the winter.

“No matter how good this crop will be, we will likely be short of hay,” McGregor said.

“We’re never getting back to 100 per cent of our normal hay supply.”

According to the most recent crop report from Manitoba Agriculture, hay and forage yields are weakest in the Interlake region. First-cut yields were reported as 30 to 60 per cent of average.

Hay fields are rated as 30 per cent fair and 60 per cent poor to very poor.

Some producers who also have cattle and horses have explored alternative feeding options in response to lowered crop yields and subsequently higher-than-average prices.

“Producers have planted green feed, some are looking into silage, and some are lining up straw,” said McGregor.

“They’re just looking for alternative forage to get their herds through the winter.”

— Marlo Glass writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.

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Winter Cereals Manitoba Inc. (WCMI) announced Thursday its chair, Doug Martin, and director Allan Olinyk will join a steering committee made up of directors and staff from the Manitoba Corn Growers Association (MCGA), Manitoba Flax Growers Association (MFGA), National Sunflower Association of Canada (NSAC) and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association (MWBGA).

The four-group steering committee has been gathering and collating feedback on the proposal for a combined organization, coming out of the groups’ regional meetings in January and annual general meetings in February.

An “amended” proposal is due to be released next month, the five groups said Thursday.

Another group, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, had been in on an initial memorandum of understanding in May last year to consider amalgamation. As of August this year, though, only MCGA, MWBGA, MFGA and NSAC remained.

The four groups and MPSG had been considering two options — amalgamation and a model that “did not include legal amalgamation.” From those discussions, the four groups, without MPSG, agreed in August to “move forward together” on amalgamation by putting a potential merger to a vote.

WCMI’s board felt “the time was right to join the discussion… to explore a potential amalgamation with the understanding that membership will make the decision,” Martin, who farms at East Selkirk, Man., said in Thursday’s release.

WCMI is no stranger to a shared-services approach. In February it contracted NSAC and MWBGA to manage its day-to-day operations, research work and communications with members and stakeholders and is now based out of a shared office in Carman.

The new proposal due out in December is expected to include “revised board and governance structures, an organizational chart, budget allocations, timelines, and the legal process to legally amalgamate,” the five groups said.

The steering committee is also “determining the next steps to ensure an adequate consultation period for members to review the proposal.”

Their target timeline currently calls for the members of each participating organization to vote on an amalgamation proposal resolution at their annual general meetings in February next year.

If approved, the target date for a new joint organization to be in place would be Aug. 1, 2019.

While the groups’ leaderships have touted the merits of a merger as a more efficient use of grower levies and checkoffs, the plan drew some criticism from members of participating groups at their annual meetings earlier this year.

Some farmers voiced fears that a merged body might undermine farmer control and allow smaller crops to fall through the cracks. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The hydrological model, to be launched in March 2018, will mimic the interaction between water and land in the Assiniboine River Basin.

“As we learn more about the MFGA Aquanty model, it becomes more and more evident that this model has great potential as a necessary decision-support tool for flood and drought planning in the Assiniboine River Basin,” Dave Koslowsky, Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association chair, said.

Announced in 2016, the over-$3-million project will use HydroGeoSphere software developed by research company Aquanty Inc. The software has previously been used for site assessment in the mining and energy industry, flood risk assessment, research on groundwater in Prairie potholes and other applications. The company has turned to Saskatchewan IT firm ISM to interpret and package its data for the public. Data will be available through an online portal and may be used to create tables, graphs, line plots and maps to reflect different scenarios.

The finished product will include five interconnected models, one for the entire region, one for each of the three sub-basins (the Assiniboine, Souris and Qu’Appelle rivers), and an in-depth analysis of the Assiniboine-Birdstail Watershed. The watershed crosses the Manitoba-Saskatch­ewan border and runs from south of Miniota to Riding Mountain National Park.

Nearing completion

The project has faced its first stress test after a scenario added riparian vegetation to the Assiniboine-Birdstail Watershed. Initial results were presented during a June 21 Aquanty project tour in Russell.

The test simulated a 300-metre buffer around waterways and measured impact on river flow rates, according to Alaba Boluwade, one of the project’s scientists. Results showed peak flows were reduced and snowmelt run-off was delayed with the increase in riparian vegetation. The model consistently matched flow trends when compared to historical data, although exact flows varied somewhat from observed measurements in several years studied.

Steve Frey, one of the lead researchers on the project, called the results, “very promising because we see that the model is sensitive to the elements of the landscape that it should be sensitive to.”

“We’re trying to simulate Mother Nature to the best of our ability and we’re building, basically, a three-dimensional realization of what the real world looks like, but it’s only a model. Models are inherently uncertain,” he said. “It should never be looked at as an exact replica of the natural system, but the fact that we rely on underlying physics and physical laws of how water moves through the surface and subsurface means that we can capture the key elements of what drives water flows under flood and drought conditions.”

The watershed was singled out both for its size — 7,000 square kilometres compared to the 40,000-60,000 square kilometres of the Assiniboine, Souris or Qu’Appelle river basins — as well as diversity of cropland, forest and grasslands, Frey told MFGA publication, the Grasslander, earlier this year.

“The smaller we go in area, the more resolution we can carry,” Frey later said. “So if we want to identify localized impacts of land use changes in and around the rivers, such as putting more forages and grasslands into the landscape, we can see the highest level of detail in the smaller models.

“We actually are using information generated at a much larger scale to drive the local-scale simulations,” he added. “The groundwater systems are all interconnected and stream flows are interconnected, so we need to know what’s going on around these local high-resolution areas in order to really resolve what’s going on within them.”

Boluwade hopes to model similar scenarios with a 50-metre buffer now that initial results have come in.

Useful tool

Frey says the project’s main goal is to quantify the role of forage and grassland in the watershed, but the finished model will have implications for climate change policy, drainage and flood mitigation and nutrient transport, among others.

“I’m quite encouraged,” Ryan Canart, Upper Assiniboine River Conservation District manager, said. “I think the different uses for the model are going to grow as we learn a little bit more about it.”

The conservation district is one of the main stakeholders in the Assiniboine-Birdstail Watershed and was the focus of the June 21 tour.

Canart says he is already considering other scenarios he would like to run through the program. In particular, he says the model may shed light on infiltration-focused farm management and how it compares to water management infrastructure. Surface water management is among the district’s top priorities, as laid out in the Assiniboine-Birdstail Integrated Watershed Management Plan.

“I think you can take the model and add 50 small dams to the landscape and run them all and say, ‘How does that affect how much peak flow comes through?’ and get a number,” he said. “And then you can say, ‘OK, with the same amount of money we could work with 10-15 farms and could put in practices that increase the organic content in their soil, therefore holding “x” gallons of water, how does that compare to the small-dam concept?’”

Water control structures will account for a significant part of the district’s budget this year, Canart said during a tour stop at one such structure.

The model will also back their education programming and outreach to local farmers with scientific evidence, Canart said.

The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association is now identifying potential user groups and how those groups might access the project.

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The Manitoba Forage & Grassland Association last week issued the final report for the Green Gold program, which tracks progress of the province’s alfalfa crop. Participating producers submit twice-weekly samples for testing of relative feed value (RFV), and the MFGA declares ‘Hay Day’ when RFV reaches the optimum of 150.

Crop progress is reported twice weekly by email and through media, including the Co-operator website and daily newsletter.

The MFGA report said Hay Day was about a week earlier than average this year, arriving on May 30 in the eastern region, June 2 in the central region and June 1 in the western/Interlake region. The crop averaged 25 inches in height by Hay Day and by the end of testing, most fields were in the late-bud stage or starting to flower.

However, “Rain in early June delayed the first cut across the province until June 6 into the third week of June. Most of the alfalfa harvest was limited to silage production with only two to three days without rain at a time. Dry hay harvest has been difficult to impossible,” the report said.

For more information on the program, visit mfga.net/green-gold-program/.

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“We are below average across the province in comparison to previous years,” said John McGregor, extension support with the Manitoba Forage and Grasslands Association (MFGA). “Even in the areas that have an average or above-average crop, the yields are not through the roof. There is going to be some surplus in the central and eastern areas of the province, but it is not going to be a huge surplus.”

Along with an online survey, McGregor has been collaborating with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development forage specialists and various forage industry personnel to gain insight into this year’s hay situation and price outlooks.

“At this time, and it is still early to nail down exact prices, but generally we are seeing around eight to 10 cents a pound for quality, dairy alfalfa,” said McGregor. “As we move into other areas that don’t rely on alfalfa as much as a feed source, they are running closer to the seven cents a pound.”

Grass alfalfa is currently running around four to six cents a pound, beef hay is sitting at approximately three to five cents a pounds and straw is being sold at $6 to $10 per bale in swath.

“The demand right now is low. Once we get into late September, early October, producers will then have a good idea of how much feed they have on hand and that is when we will start to see the demand pick up, which may affect these prices.”

Manitoba has seen wide variations in hay production this year, mainly due to erratic weather.

“The late-May frost we had did slow some producers down in the northwest area and a portion of the southwest,” said McGregor. “The frost had a fairly dramatic impact on the alfalfa. Some of the producers in that area were only able to get one cut. However, the frost wasn’t hard enough to affect the grasses. But, what did affect the grasses were the dry and cool conditions in the early part of the year.”

Regional outlooks

The southwest region of the province is reporting variable conditions with certain areas having a small surplus, while others are reporting minor shortages.

“In the southwest, producers are indicating that they have taken off a second cut of alfalfa, with some in the area getting ready to do a third cut,” said McGregor.

Survey respondents in the southwest say they have had average yields and will have hay for sale.

In the northwest region, yields are below average, with 60 per cent of survey respondents indicating they will be looking to acquire additional hay this fall.

“The northwest area of the province had dry conditions in the early part of the year and the hay, grass and alfalfa were very slow coming,” said McGregor. “Some in the area are looking to harvest the native hay, which can be hit or miss from year to year, depending on how the moisture conditions progress into fall.”

In central Manitoba, producers in the south portion of the region are reporting above-average yields but have made no indication they will have hay for sale.

“The central area of the province has pretty well finished its second cut. Some of the areas there, towards the north, have had a bit of moisture and that is causing the second cut to be a little bit poor quality,” said McGregor.

The eastern region is reporting a surplus of hay but has noted an issue with quality.

“The first cut in the east was not as good of quality as a lot of producers would have liked but as they’ve got into the second cut and now the third cut, quality looks to have improved, as well as the amount of hay.”

The Interlake region has indicated a shortage of hay with a number of producers looking at greenfeed and silage to help bring yields up.

“Right now we are sitting on a very fine line and are in a situation where we have some good cattle prices out there. We could have some producers who may decide to not pay the price for feed and instead, reduce their herd, because they can get good money for their cows,” said McGregor.

McGregor encourages producers who will be purchasing hay to be diligent about testing feed quality and to also be cognizant of bale weights.

“It is important to know the quality of the hay you are purchasing in order to be able to purchase the minimum amount to meet your requirements,” he said. “Another thing I think that producers need to think about is weighing the hay they are buying. A lot of times hay is sold by the bale and it is an approximate weight or a guess and you want to ensure that you are getting what you pay for.”

MFGA will be continuing its online survey on hay production and pricing into the winter months and encourages producers throughout the province to participate. The survey can be found at, mfga.net.

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