Beef Cattle Research Council names new executive

The Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) has announced its 2025-2026 executive committee following its December meeting in Calgary. The Council is made up of beef producers from across Canada, representing each provincial organization that allocates a portion of the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off to research.

Nova Scotia producer Dean Manning has been named BCRC Chair. Based in the Annapolis Valley, Manning and his family run a mixed farm near Falmouth, and were recognized with the Canadian Cattle Association’s Environmental Stewardship Award in 2021. His experience across a diverse agricultural region will help shape the Council’s strategic direction.

Alberta’s Lee Irvine, a beef producer from Rocky View County who sits on the Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) Board of Directors, has been named the new BCRC Vice Chair.

Irvine and his family operate a grass backgrounding operation in the Cochrane area. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to market cattle through TEAM and Calgary Stockyards, to sit in the boardroom of multinational pharmaceutical companies and to run the auction market and feedlot software for ViewTrak Technologies. He has been an auditor for the Verified Beef Production Plus program and sat on the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef Framework Committee.

Manitoba’s Melissa Atchison has been elected Finance Chair. Atchison and her family operate Poplarview Stock Farms in Pipestone, a cow-calf and backgrounding operation with 650 cows and a small cropping enterprise.

The 2025-2026 Beef Cattle Research Council members include, front row left to right: Vice Chair Lee Irvine, AB; Chair Dean Manning, NS/Atlantic; Outgoing Chair Craig Lehr, AB; Graeme Finn, AB, and Jeff Braisher, BC. Back row left to right: 2024-2025 Outgoing Chair Matt Bowman, ON; Lyle Adams, AB; ex-officio member Nathalie Côté, QC; Michael Spratt, SK; Tara Mulhern Davidson, SK; Fred Lozeman, AB; Trevor Sund, MB, and Finance Chair Melissa Atchison, MB. Not pictured are Phil Hamar, AB; Roger Meyers, SK; Kim Jo Bliss, ON, and Nick Martin, ON.

Alberta producer and ABP delegate Craig Lehr, who completed three one-year terms as Chair, will continue serving as Past Chair. Lehr operates Short Grass Ranches, a third-generation business combining a 7,000-head backgrounding feedlot, a 1,200-head cow-calf herd, and both irrigated and dryland cropping.

Council members are appointed each year by provincial cattle organizations. While producers may serve multiple years, executive members can serve a maximum of two one-year terms.

For more information on BCRC programs and updates, visit BeefResearch.ca.