At last week's general council meeting, Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) supported a resolution to help deal with an unique type of crop damage.

KAP president Dan Mazier says this year, the western side of the province saw quite a bit of crop damage from black bears. At the meeting, KAP resolved to lobby Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation to allow insurance adjusters to use photo and videos to identify this kind of wildlife crop damage after the adjuster's first visit.

"The concern from the people bringing the resolution forward was the delay and the whole process and trying to prove it," Mazier says. "It's easy to prove a hail claim, but when you're trying to prove wildlife damage in a canola field that you've got to harvest over 40, 50 acres, it proves to be challenging."

Canada's rail system also came up as an issue when it came time to vote on resolutions. Producers at the meeting voted in favour of a resolution calling on the federal government for open rail running rights. KAP says this would improve grain transportation by allowing both railway companies, plus shortlines, to use all rail lines, not just the ones they own.

KAP president Dan Mazier says the conversation went off the rails a bit, with discussion moving into the future of hopper cars.

"I know from my work with the Crop Logistics Working Group and working on the CTA (Canada Transportation Act) review, our hopper car fleet is a very unique point in history. We've got probably half the hopper fleet has got about 10 years of life left, and the other half is about 20. So we've got to start talking about this situation and what's going on, who owns our hopper cars," he says.

Mazier says the CTA review due in December is only the beginning of figuring out Canada's rail transportation issues.

Producers at the meeting also passed resolutions in regards to roadway safety and subdivisions.