"Everyone talks about the autoworkers in Ontario. Well, agriculture is the auto sector of Western Canada," Fisher Branch rancher and MCPA president Joe Bouchard said Thursday.

"It's the thing that drives everything else around here and governments need to take farming more seriously."

"You see the industry in COOL shock right now. Everyone's wondering and trying to see how COOL is going to play out. "Right now it's not playing out very well in Manitoba's favour."