Collective Impact Carbon is pleased to welcome Jason Dobbin as our new Producer Engagement Specialist, joining the team full time. Jason brings with him a rare combination of lived farming experience, deep knowledge of agricultural risk management, and a practical, producer-first approach to sustainability.
Based in southwestern Manitoba, just north of Holland in the Assiniboine River Valley, Jason farms alongside his son on a medium-sized, mixed operation producing grain, oilseeds, and cattle. His operation reflects the reality of Prairie agriculture, a constantly changing land base, highly variable soils ranging from heavy river-flat clays to lighter, erosion-prone ground, and a mix of conventional, zero-till, forage, and regenerative practices.
“Some of our land needs conventional practice,” Jason explains. “Other areas are well suited to regenerative approaches. It’s about understanding the land, the variability, and what makes sense agronomically and financially.”
While Jason is a first-generation farmer, his family’s connection to the land runs deep. The original homestead dates back to 1899, and every off-farm job Jason has held since starting to farm while still in high school has been about building and sustaining the operation. His son is now stepping into more of the day-to-day farm responsibilities, continuing that legacy. Jason’s background includes forage production, manure management strategies, and experience working with irrigated potato rotations on river-flat soils, experience that gives him a strong understanding of how management practices differ across landscapes, crops, and production systems.
For the past 16 years, Jason worked with the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC), most recently as a Business Development Specialist. In that role, he worked directly with producers across Manitoba, supporting Agriinsurance, Livestock Price Insurance, and Ad Hoc programs. It involved on-farm inspections, producer and stakeholder education, and building trust.
“Being a producer myself it gave me credibility with the roles at MASC,” Jason says. “Producers know I understand agriculture. If something doesn’t make financial sense or operational sense, it’s not going to work.”
That philosophy aligns closely with Collective Impact’s approach. Jason believes that sustainability initiatives and carbon programs will increasingly become part of mainstream agriculture, but only if they are grounded in common sense and designed with producers in mind.
Jason is motivated by the opportunity to help tell agriculture’s story more accurately.
“Farmers get a bad rap sometimes when it comes to environmental issues,” he says. “This is a way to show that producers are stewards of the land, that we care about soil, water, and the environment and that we’re willing to be part of solutions.”