The province of Manitoba has been assisting producers with an innovative way of communicating information and tips for the last few months in a webinar presentation called StockTalk.

Shawn Cabak is forage and livestock specialist with Manitoba Agriculture in Portage and explains what it's all about.

"Manitoba Agriculture is offering a series of livestock and forage presentations this winter through the online webinars series, and producers can find out the latest on research and productions of recent forage management by participating in these virtual sessions. The sessions started in December and they run monthly, and cover a variety of topics from cattle marketing to forage production, forage rejuvenation, livestock price and forage insurance, and different timely topics like those."

He explains the sessions run from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. with the next one on April 14th, and you could always go back to view past presentations as they are saved for continued availability.

"Producers can join from their computer, smartphone or tablet," continues Cabak. "They can find out more information on Manitoba Agriculture's website and they can register there for StockTalks," adds Cabak. "And if they can't make this session, then they can always go back and watch the recorded webinar. The latest Stocktalk will be covering different methods of crop-livestock integration and the use of forage cover crops, intercropping and diverse mixtures, and also talking about the livestock price and forage insurance programs offered by MASC."

Cabak says that last year, when COVID was in the mix, and no in-person type of extension events being held, they went to online presentations.

"Our StockTalk webinar series kicked off last year, and so we had a number of different topics throughout the year, again on forage and livestock-related information that producers would find useful and informative," continues Cabak. "So, we continued it this year, being the way COVID was taking place, and something that will likely continue on in the future. A lot of organizations have had to go virtual, and so we're no difference. We had to pivot with COVID and this is really good in the fact that producers can get the information."

He notes producers can watch the presentations from the comfort of their homes and they don't have to go out in public.

"And we can still get some of the good, timely information out to the producers," says Cabak. "If they can't watch it live, they can still watch the recording at a later date. So, it gives them a lot of flexibility and we're still able to stay in contact with them."