Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council

As I guide my car down the dusty gravel roads near Fisher Branch, Man., I see cattle, grass and bush almost every direction I turn. I’m greeted by a statue of a baby calf at the entrance of G7 Ranch, the home of MRAC director Betty Green and her husband Robert. Green scrambles to clean up the kitchen as she invites me in. She was up early that morning helping deliver a newborn calf and then rushed inside for a lengthy conference call. She’s now busy making grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for lunch. It’s all in a day’s work for this “nontraditional traditional farm wife,” as she’s been called. After lunch Green takes some time out of her busy day to answer my questions before showing me the family’s Simmental cattle. 

When Green joined the MRAC Board of Directors in 2006 she was looking for a way to become more proactive. The former president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association experienced several years during BSE of being very reactive.

“I saw MRAC as an opportunity to be more progressive in some initiatives,” she says, noting MRAC has a nice balance of proactive initiatives and research, both at the academic and grassroots levels.

An example of a MRAC proactive initiative is the Vibrant Rural Communities project, undertaken by the MRAC Human Resource/Infrastructure Task Force Committee. This project hits home with Green, who is a member of this committee.

“Partly because I have a young son and son-in-law involved in the farm, I see those issues from their perspective, and I can recognize how important they are,” she says, adding, “Rural communities are really struggling as a result of some of the challenges farmers are facing and it’s an issue that isn’t well addressed.”

Green is also looking forward to working with the newly-formed Leadership/Mentorship Task Force Committee and feels finding young producers to take on leadership roles is going to be a challenge.  Farms are getting larger, she says, and skilled young producers are operating their farms like a business often leaving little time to pursue leadership roles. However, Green still believes participating in agriculture organizations offers value to both the individuals and the organization.

“It’s really important for organizations to have youth representation so somehow we have to encourage that and look for ways to give those opportunities to young people,” she says.

These young people are changing the agriculture industry and Green believes the future of agriculture is going to look different.

“The farms are getting bigger and the individuals who are farming are better educated than my generation. They have talents and skills that a lot of people would suggest are better used elsewhere. And it’s really disappointing that we discourage the best of our youth away from agriculture,” she says.

Another challenge facing agriculture is the growing rural urban divide. Years of struggling across all agriculture sectors has left the urban public with a negative impression of the industry, says Green, noting, better public relations are needed to restore a connection between rural and urban people.

“It’s likely that the urban public would enjoy agriculture if they knew anything about it. We need to be more assertive and open to explaining exactly what we do,” she says.

Unfortunately a lot of producers don’t think they should have to tell others about the good food products they produce, notes Green.

“Our family is very proud to be food producers and we hold the safety of the food we produce at the highest level, and yet we’d never go out and promote that. That’s the one piece of our business plan we’re not good at,” she says.

And producers are realizing that this is an important piece of the puzzle. We need to start communicating with consumers about the safeguards we have in place to guarantee the best food products in the world, says Green.

“Producers are very good at being producers. But they sometimes don’t have the skills as communicators. Both the Vibrant Rural Communities project and the Leadership/Mentorship Task Force are going to draw those producers into a field that’s unfamiliar to them. They’re going to have to become advocates for their own industry,” she says.

Farm life

The 55-year-old grew up one of 11 girls on a farm near Rathwell, Man. From a young age her parents instilled a strong work ethic in her, which she and her husband of 36 years have passed down to their five children and eight grandchildren.

“All of the things that I value most are because I live on the farm, and those are the values we’ve instilled in our children, who are very independent and self sufficient. That came from knowing how to put in a hard day’s work and knowing how to do without sometimes,” she says. “I’ve always said that I wouldn’t want to raise children in the city. I really value what we can offer them in a farm setting.”

Green and her husband work with their son and son-in-law on the family farm. They have approximately 1,000 breeding cows and between 600 and 700 animals in the feedlot. They also grow their own forages for the animals, as well as corn, barley and oats for silage.

Through BSE the Green’s continued to expand their herd. 

“We’ve expanded at a time when a lot of people have been reducing,” she says. “And that’s primarily because we have two young men that want to farm. It’s a tough time to be expanding. But we’re eternal optimists, we have to be.”

That optimism is paying off as cattle prices have been improving. Green expects to see some producers take advantage of the higher prices and sell their herds, while others will see this as an opportunity to stay in the business and expand their herds.

As we walk through Green’s herd lazily chewing their cud in the sunny pasture, we come across a lost calf. As soon as I leave I know Green will be out there reuniting mother and baby because as she says, “If there’s a job that needs to be done, I roll up my sleeves and do it.”

~ Teresa Falk, MRAC Communications Officer