Manitoba Ag Days has best speaker line-up

For farmers and agribusiness professionals who like to hear informative and sometimes provocative presentations, Manitoba Ag Days remains the winter’s winning venue by a country mile. Other events have some speakers, but nothing like the annual event held in Brandon.

The Grain Expo at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina has two days of speakers on November 24 and 25. While most of the presenters are event sponsors, there are a number of interesting topics. Evan Shout of Maverick Ag and wealth transition specialist Van Panko will be good. So will Tom Wolf talking about the good, bad and ugly of spray drones. Tickets to the Grain Expo need to be obtained from event sponsors.

On January 12 and 13, the Sask Crops Forum will be held at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. The forum is organized by SaskBarley, SaskOats, Sask Oilseeds, Sask Pulse Growers and Sask Wheat.

In between annual meetings for these various crop commissions, four guest speakers are scheduled. None are household names. The event has been very successful with producers learning about what is happening within the crop commissions they support with levy dollars, but the format doesn’t allow for a lot of outside speakers.

At the nearby Western Canadian Crop Production Show, there is a speaker’s program that typically has some interesting presentations.

An event called the Crossroads Crop Conference is held in Alberta each January. This year, it’s in Edmonton on January 26 and 27. It’s organized by Alberta Canola, Alberta Grains and Alberta Pulse Growers. Each of the organizations have their annual meetings at the event and the day and a half also includes a speaker’s program.

Based on the website, the agenda is still being finalized, but no household names are currently listed. Crossroads claims to be modeled after an event called FarmTech, but FarmTech was rich with top-tier speakers. In fact, you had trouble attending everything of interest because there were so many concurrent break-out sessions.

As stated off the top, Manitoba Ag Days dwarfs the other events for content. January 19 to 21 marks its 50th anniversary. Two speaking venues go nonstop, surrounded by an absolutely massive agricultural trade show at the Keystone Centre. Pay your admission to the trade show and then you can pick and choose what presentations you want to see.

The website lists 67 speakers. Some will be part of panel discussions and a few may be virtual rather that live, but it’s still a huge contingent with many recognizable names.

Brenna Grant of CanFax will present for cattle producers in attendance while Bruce Burnett will provide grain market analysis. David Chilton, author of The Wealthy Barber books will be a big draw. Drew Lerner of World Weather Inc. will try to forecast the next growing season.

J.P. Gervais of Farm Credit Canada is on the agenda as is Josh Linville, the fertilizer market guru. For entertainment as well as some pithy opinions, laugh along with Rick Mercer and Quick Dick McDick.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is scheduled to make an appearance and Manitoba’s Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn typically launches Manitoba’s crop insurance offering at the event. Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald is also on the speaker’s list.

The only downside to Manitoba Ag Days is accommodations. Brandon just doesn’t have enough hotel rooms for the influx of trade show exhibitors and attendees, but if you like good speakers, it’s a great event.