Manitoba farmers are wondering if their provincial government’s agriculture department is becoming too short-staffed to adequately advise them.
“There is no livestock specialist in the southwestern part of the province,” Bill Campbell of Minto, Man., said during a debate of the issue at Keystone Agricultural Producers’ annual convention Jan 28.
“They’re in Portage. If you’re in Pierson, you have trouble communicating with those.”
Campbell said the official livestock specialist in Brandon is on maternity leave, and Manitoba Agriculture has not filled the position.
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Starbuck farmer Chuck Fossay said the problem might not be a case of the department being unwilling to fill the jobs. Instead, it might have more to do with the fact that it can’t fill the positions.
“They’ve got a whole bunch of vacancies and no applications,” said Fossay.
“Nobody’s applying for some of these jobs.”
Butch Harder of Lowe Farm said another problem is that farmers have devalued the role of agriculture department advisers.
“Farmers now go to someone from the chemical company. They don’t use the ag reps,” he said.
Provincial agriculture departments across the Prairies have transformed the roles of agronomists and other specialists advising farmers.
Every region used to have a stable of advisers on all types of basic farm production, but most departments have since switched to highly specialized advisers focused on narrower ranges of production areas.
Agriculture department advisers tend to be further away from farmers in most areas but have more specialized skills in whatever they cover.
Rob Brunel of Ste. Rose du Lac said he’d rather see the department review the best way to deliver technical advice to farmers than simply fill every vacant position.
