Manitoba sets record farm cash receipts in 2023
Ron Kostyshyn doesn’t have to think long when asked what influenced his work ethic.
Manitoba’s minister of agriculture points to growing up on the family farm near Ethelbert as a lifestyle that helped shape him.
There were the early mornings when he was about eight years old and he’d milk the cows by hand before catching the school bus. He also recalls being a young teen and earning some pocket money helping an elderly neighbour clear rocks off his land.
“I distinctly remember picking stones by hand (and putting them) on a flat sheet of steel that you pulled with a tractor,” Kostyshyn says in a phone interview with Manitoba Inc. “Or you would carry the stones onto a four-tire trailer and you would pile these rocks on the planks on this trailer and fill it at a point where you couldn’t put any more rocks because they would spill off the trailer.
“You’d drive as close as you could to the existing stone pile and you would literally throw some rocks off. But the trick was also getting close enough so you could be strong enough to turn the planks over and unload the stones as close as you can.”
He earned 75 cents an hour for “the challenging work”—and learned a valuable life lesson.
“I learnt to use that 75 cents wisely because I worked so hard for that and I was not going to blow this 75 cents an hour bucket of money I got,” says Kostyshyn, who graduated from Ethelbert High School in 1974.
“If anything, I became very conscientious about how I spent my money from that, because it was hard work in order to get ahead.”
Kostyshyn is doing a lot more heavy lifting these days—and being mindful of tight budgets—in his second go-round overseeing the province’s agriculture portfolio after he was elected last October in the NDP’s victory.
The MLA for Dauphin was also minister of agriculture from 2012-16 under Greg Selinger’s government.
Record farm cash receipts
Kostyshyn takes over during a time when Manitoba’s agriculture industry is hitting new highs.
Statistics Canada released numbers in February that showed Manitoba set a record for farm cash receipts in 2023 for the fourth consecutive year.
The province had farm cash receipts of $10.19 billion in 2023, up $373 million (3.8 per cent) from 2022. Canola topped cash receipts at $2.28 billion, followed by a record $1.91 billion for wheat (excluding durum). The hog industry was third with $1.47 billion, but that was a 2.8 per cent drop from 2022.
Livestock sectors produced record receipts last year of $3.28 billion, up 7.4 percent over 2022. The sector with the biggest jump was cattle and calves, which rose 32.3 per cent to a record $945 million last year.
Kostyshyn said historically high beef prices are good, but the inventory of beef livestock has dropped across North America to “probably one of its lowest since the 1960s.” The high prices may be an incentive to draw more producers back to the industry, but the time and investment it takes to start an operation is considerable.
Commodity prices on the grain side have been “relatively comfortable” but you can’t predict the future, he says.
“The biggest challenge in the agriculture industry is that you can plan everything the way you want it to be done … but there are always costs that are beyond your control. That could be the basic input cost that continues to challenge the profitability that agriculture producers are always faced with.”
The rising cost of fertilizer, fuel and machinery are examples, he adds. Unpredictable weather is also a factor. Drought conditions are predicted for parts of Manitoba for a second straight year.
To-do list
When Kostyshyn was sworn into office, Premier Wab Kinew gave him a mandate letter outlining five “immediate priorities” for the new minister.
One of the areas was transfers of agricultural Crown land (ACL) that producers lease for uses such as grazing, haying or annual crops.
Kostyshyn says changes to the program under the previous Progressive Conservative government made “some challenging times” for producers so he halted the program until there could be a review.
He’s since made some amendments such as increasing the temporary rent reduction for ACL forage leases to 55 per cent from 33 per cent for this year’s growing season. He also paused auctions of Crown land leases and permits in 2024 as part of the review.
Kostyshyn’s to-do letter also included supporting innovation and research in the agricultural sector, as well as working to deliver funding to build the Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon.
The estimated $120-million centre is in the design stage. The projected opening was recently reported as fall 2027. Student capacity is expected to increase to 800 from 300. The centre will offer agriculture-related programming, including research, labour-market development and industry engagement.
Kostyshyn says as farms grow, producers are facing a shortage of experienced labour. He notes that’s been helped in the Dauphin area and other parts of Manitoba by immigrants from Ukraine, but it’s important to work with schools to train people in agriculture work that’s becoming more technology-driven.
“It’s amazing to see the numbers of individuals that have an interest that don’t even (come) from a farm,” he says. “The reason why there’s a high interest is because agriculture has now become a really modernized type of technology and technician operations of the computers, the GPS units, the drones.”
After Kostyshyn graduated high school, he worked 10 years for an engineering firm in Saskatoon but returned to Manitoba when his father became ill. He and wife Judy bought a mixed farm close to the family homestead and raised two daughters. His brother, Garry, now owns the century-old family farm. He also has four sisters.
Kostyshyn was a longtime councillor and reeve for the Rural Municipality of Mossey River and maintains ties to the area.
He sold some of his own farmland to “generational” farmers and still has about 12 acres. He and Judy use it as their “cottage away from the city.”
With such deep roots in the farming community, Kostyshyn wants to ensure economic growth across the province, including opportunities for added value through secondary businesses.
“We could be talking about buckwheat in central Manitoba to wild berries in northern Manitoba to manufacturing in southern Manitoba. I think there’s an opportunity and it’s not designated in any geographical area of the province of Manitoba,” he says.
