More than half of the province's community pastures are now managed by a non-profit organization responsible for their future use and stewardship.

Last week Thursday, the province of Manitoba announced the Association of Manitoba Community Pastures (AMCP) has taken over 14 pastures to date, with nine more to go over the next year.

Barry Ross, acting general manager of the AMCP, says they hope to act similarly to the former Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), and so far they've kept most staff and patrons.

"So far as the pastures come on, we're getting a better and better response because they know we've been out there and operating them for a year, so the newer pastures that are coming on, we're keeping all the patrons and it's been working well," he says.

Ross says AMCP has changed some services, for example, they don't offer breeding services that the PFRA used to.

The project was made possible through $1.05 in funding from the Manitoba government over three years. Community pastures were established in the 1930s throughout the three prairie provinces to help reclaim badly eroded soils. There are 23 community pastures in Manitoba covering 400,000 acres and 80 per cent are on provincial Crown land.