Brenna Mahoney is currently the General Manager of Keystone Agricultural Producers. Brenna is focused on building a strong primary agriculture advocacy capacity in Manitoba, by ensuring communications and outreach are at the foundation of all organizational efforts. She has contributed to and built national coalitions and partnerships focused on advancing the Canadian brand, farm practices and market access, public trust, grain nutrition and health, and sustainability. 

Brenna holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology, with a major in Clothing and Textiles/Textile Sciences, from the University of Manitoba. After working in her field, she pursued her certification in Human Resource Management from Red River College. She has significant experience working in project management, communications, and consensus building.

Brenna has a passion for agriculture and working with members of the entire value chain to ensure positive collaboration from all aspects of the Canadian agricultural industry.

Morag Marjerison grew up in England and emigrated to Manitoba in 2004.  She is a qualified workplace safety and health professional and has specialized in agricultural safety for over 25 years.  Morag has also owned her own farms for much of her adult life, so understands the challenges of matching the practical day to day running of agricultural operations with implementing expected health and safety standards.  She currently works for Keystone Agricultural Producers as the Farm Safety Consultant for FarmSafe Manitoba.

In today’s Bonus episode, we are talking with Brenna Mahoney and Morag Marjerison of Keystone Ag Producers.  Annually, during the third week of March, Canadian Agricultural Safety Week occurs as a public campaign to raise the awareness of ag safety.  This year, that week is March 12-18th. 

Keystone Ag Producers is involved in Farm Safety through offering resources and information, and Free Farm Safety Consultations through their program, Farm Safe Manitoba.  To view the Farm Safe Manitoba website, please visit: https://farmsafemanitoba.ca

Brenna discusses the 4 Building Blocks of Farm Sare Manitoba, which have been created in order to give “bite sized” pieces of information to farmers who are interested in learning more.  The Building Blocks are; Be Farm Safety Aware, Follow the Law, Prepare to be Farm Safe and Sustain Safety on Your Farm.  Brenna and Morag both discuss farm safety as a carousell, which means you can get on board with farm safety at any time, and there is no specific start or end to being safe in your operation. 

Currently, Keystone Ag Producers is working on a wide variety of resources that will be available on their website soon through the Farm Safe Manitoba Program!  Producers are also able to email, call or contact Morag through the website to ask questions, book a consultation or to request information on safety related topics.  Morag is a wealth of information and is one of KAP’s greatest safety resources. 

Morag shares information on steps to better farm safety and the importance of having both farm meetings to discuss safety and “near misses,” as well as on-the-job training for all employees on the farm. 

While the amount of legislation is too large to discuss in the short time frame of the podcast, Morag does mention some very important pieces of legislation all farmers, farm workers and farm owners should be aware of.  These include the Workplace Health & Safety Act, which has aspects that are applicable to all farms, regardless of their size or number of employees and Young Workers Readiness through Safe Work Manitoba.  

Through the Farm Safe Manitoba Program, producers can access free, confidential farm safety consultations.  These consultations can be anything from an email or a phone call, to a coffee shop meeting, to an on-farm consultation with or without notes.  These consultations are set up with Morag, who can give as much, or as little support as producers are wanting and can focus on specific aspects of the farm, or can include a look at the entire operation.   

Before we wrap up, Morag also gives us a few tips and tricks to achieving and sustaining farm safety in all operations. 

To contact Brenna, please email: [email protected]

To contact Morag, please email: [email protected]

There are many resources mentioned in this episode. 

To find out more information on Keystone Ag Producers, please visit: https://www.kap.ca

Manitoba Workplace Safety & Health Act: 

https://www.gov.mb.ca/labour/safety/pdf/whs_workplace_safety_act_and_regs.pdf

Young Workers Readiness/Safe Work Manitoba Website:

https://www.safemanitoba.com/Education/Pages/YWRCC.aspx

The research programs and daily operations at MBFI would not be possible without the funding from the Province of Manitoba, Government of Canada, and Canadian Agricultural Partnership, as well as the partnership with Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP), Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA). 

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