Manitoba Agriculture is reminding agricultural producers affected by dry conditions of the programs and services available to livestock producers to manage forage shortages. To date, low levels of precipitation and soil moisture have affected the growth of pastures and forage crops in parts of Manitoba.
Manitoba Agriculture provides a number of tools and resources for producers to manage the impact of lower forage supplies. These include:
- alternative feeding strategies such as straw and feed grain rations, greenfeed and utilizing other crop products as feed sources;
- the Manitoba Hay Listing Service, which allows producers to list hay, pasture or alternative feed that is either available or wanted;
- forage and pasture management; and
- livestock production.
Producers with AgriInsurance contracts who intend to put their crop to alternate use are required to contact the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation for a field appraisal prior to harvesting the crop. Crop producers managing crop residue should consider making crop residue available to livestock producers as an alternative to burning this residue.
Producers can contact Manitoba Agriculture toll-free at 1-84-GROW-MB-AG (1-844-769-6224) for more information on any of these programs and services or go to www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture under Quick Links.
