SaskOrganics, Manitoba Organic Alliance, and Organic Alberta are teaming up to offer a mini-conference full of resources and creative ideas to improve your organic, grass fed, or regenerative livestock operation. Sessions will be fun and engaging, with lots of chances to workshop opportunities on your own farm or ranch, ask questions, and talk with other producers. Day 1 focuses on innovative approaches to feeding in times of shortage and to improving your land's drought resiliency. Day 2 is all about business networking and direct marketing, including how to navigate social media as a specialty meat producer.

Agenda

(Subject to change. All times listed in MST)

Thursday, January 27th - Innovations in Feeding and Grazing

1:00 (2:00 CST) Welcome & Kick-Off

1:15 (2:15 CST) Feeding in Times of Shortage

Speakers: Cindy Zenk, Coordinator for South Dakota Soil Health Coalition and Shawn Freeland, Vice President for South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, Karen Klassen on the new Manitoba Grazing Exchange, Kevin Beach and Donna Bryck-Beach.

Karen Klassen will demo the new Manitoba Grazing Exchange platform which matches livestock producers and grain farmers interested in grazing both annual cover crops and perennials. This platform, created through a partnership between the Manitoba Organic Alliance and the Manitoba Forage & Grassland Association, is based on the model developed by the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition. Cindy Zenk and Shawn Freeland will be joining us to share how the South Dakota Grazing Exchange has been working so far.

Afterwards, we'll be hearing from organic farmers, Kevin Beach and Donna Bryck-Beach, on their experience with fodder systems to supplement feed and then open the floor for questions and to share other feeding innovations farmers have heard of or tried out themselves.

2:30 (3:30 CST) BREAK

2:45 (3:45 CST) Workshop: Stocking Rates for Long-Term Drought Resilience

Speaker: Norine Ambrose, Executive Director of Cows and Fish

CEU credits available

There is a lot of emphasis of increasing your stocking rate these days, but how do you know what your land can support for grazing? How do you calculate it? Long held wisdom and phrases like ‘take half, leave half’ are all based on the concept of knowing your land and carrying capacity. Learn more about how carrying capacity and your stocking rate are related and how to determine them for individual pastures, and how having the appropriate stocking rate and grazing strategies add drought resilience to your operation.

4:00 (5:00 CST) END OF DAY

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Friday, January 28th - Marketing for Meat Producers

1:00 (2:00 CST) Welcome

1:05 (2:05 CST) Digital Marketing: No More Chores

Speakers: John Nelson, Creative Director, 9 Clouds & Jenny Lockhart, Account Management Director, 9 Clouds

Organic livestock producers already face unique challenges, and digital marketing shouldn’t be one of them. You need fewer chores and more wins. In this presentation, John and Jenny will cover helpful, time-saving, confidence-building tactics to help you get control and thrive online in 2022.

Whether you're an experienced website operator or just getting started with digital tools, you'll come away from this presentation with useful information. Learn how to make digital marketing less of a chore:

· Automatically reach commercial and retail buyers at the right time on Facebook, Google, email, and more.

· Find accurate marketing ROI data for your online efforts.

· Tactfully share and defend the facts about organic and regenerative livestock production.

1:35 (2:35 SK) Producer Marketing Experience: Mike Beretta, Beretta Farms

Speaker: Mike Beretta, Beretta Farms

The Beretta brand focuses on organic, grass-fed antibiotic and hormone free beef, chicken, pork, turkey, and value-added items. Beretta is available at grocers across Canada in both national chains and independents. In this talk you’ll hear from Mike Beretta, President/Founder of Beretta Farms, and learn more about their business, history and where they are today, marketing strategy including digital marketing and social media, and more.

2:10 (3:10 CST) BREAK

2:20 (3:20 CST) Business Development Speed-Networking

This is a unique chance to chat with other producers and industry partners from across the prairies in small-group breakout rooms. Ask questions, learn about some of the products and services available to organic and regenerative livestock producers, and swap stories with fellow farmers and ranchers!

3:30 (4:30 CST) END OF DAY

Presentations will be recorded and made available to all registrants after the event. However, there is always a chance that tech issues may disrupt our plans, so if there is a session you are especially excited about, try to attend it live!