Neal Wagar is the National Sales Manager for EcoTea.

He joined the agriculture industry just over 5 years ago with EcoTea. Neal was previously a golf course superintendent and has a degree in turf grass science. Once in the agriculture industry he went back to school to get his Ag Diploma from Olds College.

Neal has worked in all facets of the company from production and delivery of product to sales. He supports EcoTea Canada-wide with a strong focus on the prairies. One of his passions in the job is helping coordinate and analyze research. EcoTea has done over a million dollars worth of research in the last 5 years and is proud to share all of it - good, bad and ugly - with not only growers, but the industry as a whole.

Mary-Jane leads a dedicated team at MBFI to advance Manitoba’s beef & forage industry through engaging stakeholders, evaluating on-farm innovation, and extension for sustainability of farmers, the public, and the environment. She deeply values the opportunity to collaborate with producers, researchers, education providers, extension specialists, conservation groups, and all stakeholders in field-testing management practices and growing understanding of improved production in Manitoba. Mary-Jane holds a PhD from Purdue University in soil microbial ecology in agricultural systems, is a Professional Agrologist, and Certified Crop Advisor. Her experience in ecology and field agronomy gives her a unique perspective on the challenges facing agriculture today.

In today’s episode, we chat with Neal about his role with EcoTea, as well as a bit of history of the company and the products EcoTea has to offer producers.

Neal also explains the origin and process they use in creating the EcoTea products, and explains the process they use to ensure a consistent product year after year.

We discuss some of the research done on the EcoTea products, which have occurred in a variety of crops and locations, as well as trials that EcoTea is planning for the 2026 season.

We also chat about the benefits of using EcoTea, the benefits of increasing soil nutrient cycling and nutrient use.

We also talk with Mary-Jane about the preliminary results they have seen from their use of the EcoTea products at MBFI, as well as the trials she is looking to implement in the 2026 growing season using EcoTea products.

You can find EcoTea:

Online at: www.ecotea.ca

On X: @ecoteaag

On Instagram: @ecotea_ag

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

We encourage you to follow MBFI on social media, or check out the website for more information on project findings and results, upcoming events and more!

Instagram: @MBBeefandForage

Facebook: @MBBeefandForage

X (Twitter): @MBBeefandForage

Website: www.mbfi.ca

Email address: information@mbfi.ca

Mary-Jane’s Phone Number: 431-255-0011

Callum Morrison is a Crop Production Specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, serving the Central Region. Originally from Scotland, Callum moved to Canada in 2017 and brings an international perspective to prairie crop production. He works closely with producers on agronomy, crop management, and applied research to support profitable and sustainable farming systems. In 2020, Callum conducted the Prairie Cover Crop Survey, helping capture early adoption trends and on-farm experiences, and he is currently leading a follow-up survey five years on to assess how cover crop use has evolved. In addition to his role with Manitoba Agriculture, Callum farms near Altona, Manitoba with his partner and black Labrador, Bobby.”

Today we are chatting with Callum about cover crops and the Prairie Cover Crop Survey. Callum shares about his role and regular tasks with Manitoba Agriculture and shares some information about what cover crops are and some of the benefits they provide.

The Prairie Cover Crop Survey was conducted in 2020 and is being offered a second time this year. This allows Callum and his team to see what changes have occurred to cover crop implementation in the Prairies and Ontario, including challenges and benefits producers are seeing in regards to cover crop use, and why producers have started or stopped using cover crops on their land, if this change has been made.

We chat about who is eligible, and why this research is important to share. The deadline to complete the survey is March 31st, 2026.

Callum hopes to have the results of the survey compiled and ready to share by the fall of 2026.

To participate in the survey, you can head over to: https://gfo.ca/cover-crop-survey/

To find the results of the 202 survey, you can visit: https://umanitoba.ca/agricultural-food-sciences/sites/agricultural-food-sciences/files/2021-10/2020-prairie-cover-crop-survey-report.pdf

To contact Callum, please email him at callum.morrison@gov.mb.ca or call him at 1-431-344-0133. He is also on twitter @callummorrisons and on LinkedIn.

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

We encourage you to follow MBFI on social media, or check out the website for more information on project findings and results, upcoming events and more!

Instagram: @MBBeefandForage

Facebook: @MBBeefandForage

X (Twitter): @MBBeefandForage

Website: www.mbfi.ca

Email address: information@mbfi.ca

Mary-Jane’s Phone Number: 431-255-0011

In today’s episode, we chat with Mary-Jane about upcoming events and projects that are coming to MBFI in 2026 and then we move into a discussion about the different annual forage production approaches used in the 2025 growing season. Our discussion also touched on the multiyear MBFI Cropping Project that is looking at using annual forage intercrops to build soil health. This project was discussed in Episode #40 all the way back in September of 2023.

This episode looks at the 4-5 approaches MBFI uses to grow forages. As we dig in, we examine yield data, feed quality results, the impact of soil variability to MBFI’s crop trials and the impact fertility has had in the trial plots. Much of this information is looking at the differences between monocrops and polycrop trials implemented at MBFI.

Mary-Jane also talks about some of the biggest challenges in implementing cropping trials and have she and the MBFI team have worked to either overcome these or switch the focus of the project to work within their parameters and context.

We would like to take a moment to thank Imperial Seeds, FP Genetics, Northstar Seeds, and Secan who have been project sponsors for the 2025 project year.

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

We encourage you to follow MBFI on social media, or check out the website for more information on project findings and results, upcoming events and more!

Instagram: @MBBeefandForage

Facebook: @MBBeefandForage

X (Twitter): @MBBeefandForage

Website: www.mbfi.ca

Email address: information@mbfi.ca

Mary-Jane’s Phone Number: 431-255-0011