|
Historically, I always plan to use my editorial space in our November MFGA ebulletin as a thanks and recap for our annual conference, taking a deep breath and setting the stage for a winding down period into December and soon into that special time of year where Christmas, family and friends are front and center.
But 2025 wasn’t an ordinary conference for MFGA. I’m still dazzled by several great things that happened over our two-day celebration in Brandon November 12-13, 2025.
The first - and by far - most important thing was your attendance and support.
You attended our event, perhaps, even in droves we’ve never seen before.
There’s nothing more a conference committee wants to see than venue staff throwing down a whole row of tables and chairs to seat the additional delegates. We are still getting a handle on final tallies and numbers, but early signals are 2025 was an all-time high attendance.
Of course, once you got to the conference, our sold-out trade show was there waiting for you. A busy, bustling room full of experts on products, programs and services for delegates to access and talk about. Those two groups connecting and doing business absolutely powered our conference vibe between keynotes and panels.
On the stage, we brought in well know USA speaker Rick Clark and surrounded him with four awesome Western Canadian keynotes: Michael Ferguson, Rob Wunder, Kimberly Cornish and Tom Krawiec. We brought back the Chuiko’s, John and Deanne, to give a Year Two update on their Vence virtual grazing project. We handed the microphone to our partners at Manitoba Association of Watersheds to update on their programs and at Regeneration Canada, as their provincial lead Kristelle Harper launched the Manitoba Regenerative Dairy Programto conference attendees.
We – of course - crowed about MFGA on MFGA Night, we have had such a great year with great things ahead. We inducted our well-respected chair Mike Duguid into the MFGA Wall of Fame as he has termed off our board and we also tapped into the strengths of Holistic Management Canada’s Bluesette Campbell and Dana Penrice to moderate three stellar panels around the Farm Gate, Dinner Plate and Global Weight of Regen Ag at our first ever MFGA Regen Ag Summit Night. And they crushed it. Hearty thanks to panelists Arron Nerbas, Zack Koscielny, Michelle Schram, Stuart Chutter, Mark Schram, Dr. Jayden Dobson, Rick Clark, Shelley Seed and Kevin
Elmy. It wasn’t an easy assignment, but you all made it so fabulous with common sense, provocative and experiential dialogue that resonated smartly. Thank you.
And last, but certainly not least, we were graced by the presence of Hon. Ron Kostyshyn, Manitoba Agriculture Minister, who welcomed delegates and used our event to launch a pilot project at MASC around perennials, marginal lands and a discount on forage insurance in front of our entire conference as well as John Plohman, the chair of MASC Board and several of the MASC board directors who were sitting in the audience and were singled out for their leadership.
We script every agenda heading into each conference, but we honestly couldn’t script this kind of wonderful stuff if we tried.
For sure, we know that there are things we can do better, will do better, want to do better and might never do again. There always is. That’s the beauty of adaptive management, right? Plan the work, work the plan, adapt, repeat. That’s also the significance of your feedback, so please do share your thoughts in our feedback gathering process underway via email and below.
But eight conferences later, this event hosted by a small farmer led group interested in learning more about regenerative agriculture has evolved into something that none of us could ever imagined at the time.
At its core, the MFGA Regenerative Agriculture Conference is a farmer led event for farmers and those that want to support and work with the innovative pod of farmers who come to our event.
And that is something super cool.
For that, MFGA graciously thanks every single one of you. We are truly humbled by your support.
| 
