Why Manitoba?
Your absolutely prime cattle country is Alberta or Sask. and B.C. also has some good cattle country, but be aware the winters are probably longer than what you are used to, and a lot harsher, with alot more predators to eat your animals.
Depending on where you are,often you can only get one hay crop, some real good years you might get two depending on where you are and whether you have a hotter and longer than normal summer. I have seen years where hay crops are poor and of course the prices go up, and a fair number of people truck hay long distances when that happens, and of course
this causes the prices of hay to be higher than they normally are south of the 49 th parallel.
Alberta has the huge meat packing houses, so cattle prices are often better there than other areas.
The north country in many areas is mosquito "heaven" and around Winnipeg even more so due to the large number of large lakes in the area. the cattle are often driven nuts by the bugs.
Land prices that are low are usually due to being in a remote area with few local jobs or industries, and few nice paved roads, and few towns of any size. Small towns mean little selection if you are a person who likes to shop, and high prices for what is there.
Things are starting to change as foreigners from Saudi Arabia, China etc are coming in and buying up huge tracts of land for crazy prices, so much so that it is becoming more difficult for local people in some areas to buy a decent size piece of ground, and you hear the grumbling down the grapevine.
Also the prices for vet care is often pretty high due to the long distances they travel, unless you can take your animal to the vet office. Often to reduce Vet costs some of the neighbors "pool" work that needs to be done, which means the vet comes out one day to a number of farms in an area and the neighbors split the travel costs the vet charges.
For a vet to come in our area it is about 47 miles one way, and then of course their return trip, and they charge accordingly
Raising cattle has its challenges in the north, but it can be done..