Manitoba Ag Days: Highlighting Westman’s Vital Role in Agriculture

Manitoba Ag Days is a key annual event that showcases agricultural production expertise, technology, and equipment, drawing exhibitors and visitors from across Canada and the USA. This year's event took place in January 21-23, 2025 at the Keystone Centre in Brandon. During the exhibition, Premier Wab Kinew and Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn made a significant announcement regarding two new Manitoba Agricultural Service Corporation offices in Virden and Shoal Lake.

Liway Cabrera – Local Journalism Initiative

Premier Wab Kinew began the opening remarks by saying, “I’m here with Minister Rob Kostynshyn, the Agricultural Minister here in the great province of Manitoba at Ag Days, here to welcome everyone to another great year of Ag Days and to celebrate the organizers and the people who make this happen each and every year. It’s a great driver for the Ag industry...it’s also a great driver for our economy particularly here in Brandon and the Westman.”  

“Our team was very proud today to announce that we are opening two new MASC Service Centres. Now this is reversing a trend that you saw under the previous government with offices closing one after another..leaving small rural communities. Now, we are reversing that trend, we are investing in small town Manitoba. In particular, these two new locations which have been long awaited. There’s been a lot of communities across Manitoba advocating for themselves and asking that we locate in their region.  So we are very proud to say that these two new MASC service centres will be in Virden and in Shoal Lake. Importantly, this is gonna help some 1600 MASC clients and after these offices open later this summer, 94% of MASC clients will be within a one hour drive of a MASC service centre which is a dramatic improvement from the current status quo. So a lot to do but an important milestone along the way of investing in the Ag industry here in Manitoba which is the backbone of our economy.” said Kinew.

Interviews with some of the Agricultural Businesses present during the Ag Days

NACTV took the opportunity to interview various agricultural businesses on the final day of the exhibition, with some businesses from the Neepawa & Area in attendance. Agriculture plays a vital role in Neepawa's economy. The Prairie Mountain region has over 95 registered businesses in oilseed and grain farming, along with other industries such as hog farming, cattle ranching, and poultry & egg production.

One of the businesses that NACTV interviewed is a representative from Mar-Dee Enterprises. “Hi! My name is Wayne Gullet. I’ve been with Mar-dee Enterprise for 18 years. I’m the Regional Sales Manager and I travel most of Manitoba.. The Ag Days, we’ve got a pretty good oil sale on here at Ag Days. It’s been very very popular and we’ve got twine and so forth on sale.. also oil carts and tow kit packages and so forth. It’s been a very successful three days.”

The recent announcement regarding the expansion of agricultural offices is poised to play a crucial role in strengthening agriculture in rural areas. This initiative will help bolster the sector, particularly in the face of challenges such as tariff threats and other ongoing issues within the agricultural industry.