Congratulations to Germain Lefebvre, winner of the 2021 Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) Leadership Award. Lefebvre began work in the forage sector in 1985, participating in the first meeting organized to launch a Quebec forage council in the fall of 1987. The Conseil québécois des plantes fourragères (CQPF) incorporated in 1989 with Lefebvre joining its board of directors as president in 1995, a position he held for 18 years. Under his leadership, the CQPF supported the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation’s creation of a forage plant industry table in 1999, which he continues to actively participate in through the Forum québécois du foin de commerce established in 2013. Lefebvre was also one of the CQPF members to attend the inaugural meeting of the CFGA’s founding organizations in 2010. 2021 marked Lefebvre’s 50th year as a professional agronomist. He is also a producer of field crops and commercial hay, the author of several reports on forages and a public speaker on the topic.
The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) inducted two producers, two provincial government representatives and a Ducks Unlimited Canada agrologist to its MFGA Wall of Fame during the association’s regenerative agriculture conference this fall.
Producer Ryan Boyd was honoured for peer- to-peer leadership. Boyd and his family operate South Glanton Farms near Forrest, Man., where they focus on integrating cattle and crops and capitalizing the synergies between the two. Boyd has a passion for soil health, forage-efficient cattle and no-till cropping systems. He served as the MFGA finance chair and as the conference committee chair in 2020 and 2021. While on the MFGA board, Boyd also travelled the world investigating grazing practices as a 2019 Nuffield scholar, bringing insights to the board table (including the “total grazing” practice) and helping line up global keynote speakers to the conference. He has visited with leading farmers and researchers about regenerative agriculture and how to maximize the resilience of western Canadian farms.
Read Also
Growing Canada’s beef herd: CCA’s priorities working with new federal government
This is my first column since the federal election. The Canadian Cattle Association works with all elected officials and parliamentarians, regardless…
Ken Gross, an agrologist with Ducks Unlimited Canada, has filled many roles on the MFGA board over 20 years, including on the hiring and executive committees. Gross was also a founding member of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association and vice-president of the Manitoba Forage Council (MFGA’s predecessor). Together with MFGA staff, Gross helped the organization move from pocket gopher research to setting up the $700,000 Conservation Trust forage project partnership. He secured funding in the early 2000s for several other projects, including one that moved the grazing club to a provincial scale. Gross demonstrated his commitment to wetland conservation and Manitoba agriculture by cultivating partnerships with groups such as MFGA, Manitoba Zero till Association and several individual ag producers.
Pam Iwanchysko worked with MFGA from 1996 to 2020, as a Manitoba Agriculture government representative. Her ability to organize events sponsored by MFGA was key to the organization. Iwanchysko helped organize the Manitoba Grazing School for 14 years, which led to several provincial summer grazing tours. She’s also helped organize the Manitoba Forage Symposium, Western Canadian Holistic Management Conference, Beef and Forage Week and co-chaired the first MFGA Regenerative Agriculture Conference in 2018. She also helped with the Manitoba Grazing Mentorship program and helped develop 30 grazing clubs across Manitoba, along with Ducks Unlimited and the Cana- dian Cattlemen’s Association. Iwanchysko was also the project lead for the Planned Grazing Project at the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives for seven years and helped compile the Manitoba Forage and Grazing Manual.
Dave Koslowsky and his wife Rhonda run a grain and beef operation near Killarney, Man. Koslowsky first joined the MFGA board in 2012, and served as chair from 2016 to 2018. During his time on the board, he worked with the rest of the board, staff and a consultant to update the bylaws and governance to allow the organization to grow. He was also one of four chairs to oversee MFGA’s work on the MFGA Aquanty Model, which looks at the role of forage and grasslands during drought and flooding in the Assiniboine River Basin. Koslowsky also helped foster and steward relationships with different organizations and government officials, garnering respect for MFGA. Koslowsky was named recipient of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association Leadership Award in 2018.
Fraser Stewart was a forage specialist with Manitoba Agriculture for several years. During that time, major extension activities focused on managed grazing systems and technology to improve forage storage systems. Following retirement from Manitoba Agriculture, Stewart served as the executive director of the Manitoba Forage Council, where he was involved with several forage and grassland technology projects, extension projects (including in China’s Inner Mongolia region) and oversaw the organization’s name change to MFGA. He was also involved with many activities with MFGA, including the Manitoba Grazing School, pasture tours, grazing clubs, projects promoting quality forage such as baled silage, the Green Gold program, and promoting grazing management systems such as pasture renovation. He also helped develop many producer forage and grassland publications.
