Manitoba Dairy Conference gets underway

Dairy producers are gathering in Winnipeg this week for their Annual Conference. 

David Wiens, Chair of the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba says it's nice to be back with an in-person event.

"There's a lot of excitement for farmers, our stakeholders and suppliers to come together."

He says while last year was a struggle for producers trying to find feed with the drought, things turned around this year and despite wet conditions, producers brought in some surprisingly good crops.

He notes that along with the impact of the drought and last year's wet conditions the industry continues to see some major challenges.

"We've experienced the inflationary pressures just as much as everybody else around us. Fertilizer costs have gone up by 44 per cent, fuels gone up by 32 per cent, animal feeds gone up by 8 per cent. So, you know, that was a real challenge. Certainly, the farmgate price increase that we received in February of this year was very helpful, and then there was also that interim increase of 2.2 per cent in September."