The annual value of forage production is estimated at more than $5 billion, with forage and pastures covering more than 70 million acres and ranking as Canada’s third most important crop behind only wheat and canola.

Our view of forages is often multilayered, and ironically it is important to look down on forages to realize how important they are and how they work.

Sometimes forage management takes a side view or roadside approach, but this does not tell us much about what our forage crops are doing.

Looking at forages from the side is akin to crop scouting by driving down the road and looking at the edge of a canola or wheat field without delving into the middle of the field and taking a good look.

Forage crops are similar and usually more complex.

Even simplified forage mixtures for hay production will often include three or more species, and grazing mixes, particularly on native rangelands, can easily include 15 or more species in a single field.

One of the goals of forage production is to capture as much sunlight as possible over the course of a growing season.

This may mean having plants that perform well in the shoulders of the growing season (spring and fall), combined with plants that have growth curves through the middle of the season.

It may also include plants that excel in cool and moist situations all the way through hot and dry conditions and plants that perform across a variety of soil types and topographies.

Handling this diversity of conditions is important to create a stable forage base.

Stems vs. leaves

When most species of forages grow, they establish stems to provide structure to support leaves. They also serve as the plumbing to shuttle nutrients up and down the plant.

Stems are generally less nutritious than leaves because they contain higher levels of lignin, which makes them stiffer than leaves and less digestible.

Leaves contain softer tissues, which are usually higher in sugar than the tissue in stems because leaves are where most of the photosynthesis tends to occur.

From the side view, stems are often impressive looking because they add height to the plant community.

However, looks can be deceiving when we consider the relative nutritional value of stems versus leaves. What can appear as a tall, heavy stand from a side view may be less impressive when looking from overhead.

Basal plant density

Basal plant density is the number of stems or plants per sq. foot. This is roughly equivalent to a crop seeded to have a certain number of plants per sq. foot.

If you clip all of the plants in a set area, the stems that represent a plant are the basal density. This number will always be less than 100 per cent, but generally speaking, a higher basal density equals more yield.

Canopy cover

Canopy cover is how much leaf area covers a given piece of ground.

In a complex forage mixture, this number can exceed 100 per cent by two or more times.

In other words, looking straight down on the forage stand, there is on average more than one leaf between your eyes and the surface of the ground.

This is one advantage of diverse stands with a variety of species with varying growth patterns. Because of this variation, it is possible to have a higher degree of canopy cover at varying heights.

This allows more sunlight capture, driving the photosynthetic engine and increasing productivity.

It is further enhanced by species mixes that grow better across the spectrum of the seasons, maintaining canopy cover, rather than dropping leaves at any single point in the growing season.

Litter

Litter is another important piece of the forage puzzle.

In essence, litter is the forage that is not harvested. Importantly, this does not mean that forage is wasted.

Instead, the leaves and stems that form litter collapse and cover the ground between the plants, creating a protective layer over the soil that prevents moisture loss, provides insulation for seedlings and helps control soil temperature.

Litter also feeds nutrients back into the soil and prevents moisture loss while reducing rain impacts and ensuring infiltration.

Litter is not something we can see from the side view. We must get overhead and look down.

There are optimal levels of litter.

Too much can impede plant growth and result in a stagnant system; too little can result in a brittle system that struggles to adapt to changes in weather patterns in both the short and long term.

Litter at appropriate levels serves multiple functions that help to reduce risk.

Another level

Another useful perspective from above is to take a higher-level view.

Tools such as Google Earth allow us to look at forage stands over time. This is particularly relevant in grazing scenarios where we may want to use images over time to measure factors such as woody species encroachment.

At an even higher level, we can use satellite imagery to measure forage production, view grazing patterns and areas of use and see plant response to moisture.

Forages are worthy of our respect as a huge contributor to agriculture in Canada.

Good management of forages requires us to take an overhead view of our stands to proactively manage litter, plant density and canopy cover.

Respect for our forages really is looking down.

The post Canada’s $5B forage crop needs a closer look appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Finalists will be selected this spring, with up to two winners to be announced in 2028, who will each receive up to $1 million to scale their solutions.

Leduc, a sheep and beef farmer with a PhD in animal science from Université Laval who completed post-graduate work with McGill and Lactanet, kept running into the same issue: Farmers are being encouraged to adopt best management practices for forages, but few had the data needed to know whether those changes actually worked.

“Forage systems are long-term systems,” he said.

“If you make a mistake in seeding, you might not see the impact for a long time. If you choose the wrong bull, it’s two years before you fully understand the outcome.”

That makes it harder to connect management decisions to results — and even harder to justify change. The core problem, Leduc said, is data.

“In forage systems, data is not collected in a standardized way. Producers want answers right away. But to get analytics, you need data — and in forage, that takes time,” he said, adding this gap limits progress not only on productivity, but also on greenhouse gas reductions.

Enter Mon Système Fourrager, an integrated platform that connects data “from soil to animal,” letting users log and import field management data, harvest information, forage and silage analyses, and observations such as winter survival or stand density.

Leduc also acquired and is modernizing EweManage, a sheep and goat management software program, and is developing Agri-Doc, a module for agronomists to easily log information during farm visits, generate reports required for provincial support programs and transcribe voice notes directly into structured records. The goal is to make data capture faster and less burdensome.

“Data collection is like accounting —rationally, it’s good. Emotionally, it’s boring.”

Maxime Leduc

He is also experimenting with mobile chatbot interfaces that will allow producers to ask questions and receive insights based on their own Excel-based records.

According to Leduc, helping producers measure yields, track forage analyses and link feed quality to animal performance will support more precise feeding strategies that can improve digestibility, reduce methane intensity and increase overall farm efficiency.

Leduc emphasized that practices that reduce emissions often also improve profitability — but only if producers can see and measure the impact.

“You need to recognize you have a problem, know the possible solutions, evaluate them and then monitor the results,” he said.

“Without data, you can’t do that.”

Rather than marketing directly to individual producers one by one, Leduc is focusing on partnerships with forage labs and agronomists who already need to collect and interpret data. If advisers adopt the platform, producers are more likely to follow.

He currently has a few hundred users of his technologies, mostly in Quebec, where he works closely with a network of producers, agronomists, agricultural organizations like the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association, and forage labs.

Next milestones include launching the agronomists’ tool and hopefully advancing to the final round of the methane challenge, which would provide an additional grant of up to $500,000 to support further development and testing of his system. He’s also received funding from Investissement Quebec.

His longer-term vision is straightforward: keep the business viable and help producers become more profitable while reducing their environmental footprint. The forage sector’s future depends on closing the data gap, he says.

“The answer lies in accessing and leveraging the data producers already collect, but don’t use fully,” he said.

The post From soil to stall: the digital platform closing the data gap in methane reduction appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

While iron deficiency is a well-recognized concern in human health, dietary iron deficiency has never been documented in adult horses.

Iron carries a certain mystique in equine nutrition. Its association with blood and performance, particularly in the racing industry, has fostered the widespread belief that supplementing iron can boost energy or enhance oxygen delivery. In reality, the opposite is true for most horses. Chronic iron excess is now recognized as a silent yet pervasive disruptor of health.

Approximately 60 per cent of the body’s iron is bound within hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells from the lungs to the tissues. Another 20 per cent resides in myoglobin within muscles, storing oxygen for movement. The remainder exists in storage and transport proteins — such as ferritin and transferrin — and within immune cells in the liver and spleen.

Iron efficiency

Horses are remarkably efficient at recycling and regulating iron.

Red blood cells live about 150 days, after which their iron is reclaimed to form new cells.

Losses are minimal, and the hormone hepcidin serves as the regulatory gatekeeper controlling iron absorption and storage. Under normal circumstances, this system ensures that horses rarely — perhaps never — require supplemental iron.

In nature, horses are surrounded by iron. It is abundant in grasses, hays, grains and even water. A typical 500 kilogram horse consuming 10 kg of timothy hay daily, containing around 250 milligrams of iron per kg, ingests more than 2,500 mg of iron, which is well above the National Research Council minimum requirement of 400 mg per day and comfortably below the upper safe limit of 5,000 mg.

Thus, a horse on a typical forage-based diet will receive sufficient iron.

Iron in feed

It’s important to recognize that all plant-based feed ingredients naturally contain iron, so most commercial feeds already supply more than enough.

If iron is specifically added to a feed product, it appears on labels as iron oxide, ferrous fumarate, ferrous sulfate or ferrous gluconate. These forms of supplemental inorganic iron are best avoided.

Additional sources can include certain salt blocks, which may appear reddish due to iron enrichment. Like fortified feeds, these sources of inorganic iron can contribute to chronic overload.

The problem with iron

The problem with high iron is not just the iron itself but how it disrupts the delicate balance of other essential minerals.

In the small intestine, iron, copper, zinc and manganese all compete for the same transport proteins. When iron levels are excessive, it can “crowd out” copper and zinc, preventing adequate absorption, even when diets appear balanced.

This mineral imbalance often develops subtly, leaving owners unaware of the underlying cause as structural and metabolic issues begin to surface.

Not all sources of dietary iron are obvious.

Pastures grown on iron-rich soil, or on soil acidified by modern agricultural practices, tend to increase the amount of iron available for plant uptake, resulting in forage with elevated iron content.

Horses grazing on such pastures may ingest far more iron than needed, particularly if copper and zinc levels are already low.

Well water containing more than 10 mg per litre of iron can further elevate total intake, and when combined with fortified feeds or multiple supplements, daily levels can easily exceed safe limits.

Collectively, these environmental and management factors make chronic iron excess a more realistic concern than deficiency in the modern horse.

Over time, this slow accumulation takes a toll.

Horses consuming iron-rich forages, feed or water or receiving unnecessary supplementation may show telltale signs such as rusty tips on dark manes, dull or reddish coats, brittle hoofs or recurring abscesses.

These subtle changes reflect underlying interference with copper, zinc and manganese absorption, minerals essential for connective tissue strength, joint health and hoof integrity. Left unchecked, the imbalance can contribute to fatigue, inflammation, weakened immunity and metabolic instability.

Emerging evidence further suggests that chronic iron overload may play a contributing role in metabolic disorders such as equine metabolic syndrome and laminitis.

Excess iron interferes with trace mineral balance and enzymatic function, disrupting insulin regulation and connective tissue health.

Horses grazing on high-iron, high-sugar pastures or consuming iron-rich concentrates may therefore be more susceptible to metabolic stress.

In this context, iron acts as an environmental factor that interacts with diet, water quality and individual metabolic resilience to potentially tip the balance toward insulin resistance and laminitic episodes.

Avoiding a problem

Horse owners can take several proactive steps to safeguard mineral balance.

Begin by testing forage and water, especially in regions with mineral-rich or acidic soils.

Evaluate trace mineral ratios, maintaining Fe:Cu:Zn between roughly 4:1:4 and 10:1:4 to offset excess iron’s effects.

Adjust feeding management as needed by offering tested hay, rotating or blending pastures and sourcing alternative water if necessary.

Under veterinary guidance, blood testing for ferritin and transferrin can help assess stored iron and detect early metabolic stress.

Iron is undeniably essential for equine health, yet for many horses, the challenge lies not in a deficiency, but in maintaining balance and avoiding excess.

The post Beware giving horses too much iron appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Krawiec’s “grazing in the sweet spot” philosophy is a method that allowed him to scale from 40 cow-calf pairs on 373 acres in 2000 to grazing 5,000 yearlings on 5,500 acres by 2007 with minimal hired help.

“It was just myself and the summer students,” Krawiec said at the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association’s (MFGA) 2025 Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Brandon on Nov. 12-13.

WHY IT MATTERS: Grazing at the right moment in the plant’s growth cycle can dramatically increase forage production, animal performance, and profitability, an Alberta rancher says.

Krawiec’s “sweet spot” is a specific point in grass growth, just before plants enter the reproductive phase, when around 15 to 20 per cent of plants are in reproductive phase and the rest remain in late vegetative state.

“The other thing about grazing in the sweet spot that is really critical is that I only take 20 to 40 per cent (of forages) during the growing season,” he said.

Success with the system requires training livestock to move as a co-ordinated group, Krawiec stressed.

Feeding soil biology year-round

Krawiec’s approach feeds soil biology multiple times per year, rather than just once.

When plants enter reproductive phase, they redirect energy from root exudates, which feed soil microbes, into seed production, he told conference attendees. Root exudates are fluids emitted through the roots of the plant. They contain a complex cocktail of sugars, amino acids, organic acids and metabolites. They promote microbial activity, facilitate nutrient cycling in the soil, and foster overall soil health.

“The thing about letting plants go into reproductive phase is that that’s where they release the least amount of exudates,” Krawiec said. “Instead of releasing exudates into the soil, those exudates go into producing seed.”

Gaining livestock performance

The impact on his farm has been substantial.

Krawiec reported increasing daily gains on heifers from 1.5 pounds per day to 2.5 pounds per day after implementing his system. Cow-calf producers using his methods commonly see 60-80 pounds higher weaning weights, while sheep producers can achieve lambs weighing 100-15 pounds in four-and-a-half months, Krawiec said. Conception rates in the first breeding cycle consistently exceed 80 per cent, and have gone as high as 83 per cent.

Last November, Krawiec backgrounded calves on stockpiled pasture at a cost of 12 cents per day. A forage test from that period showed 24 per cent protein and 65 per cent total digestible nutrients (TDN). That paddock yielded 317 stock days per acre.

Krawiec described a “tipping point” at approximately 175 stock days per acre where the system becomes self-sustaining, requiring no inputs except management. This typically takes two to three years, he said.

Grazing system math

Krawiec’s approach centres on respecting both graze period and resting periods. He found livestock behaviour helped indicate when a paddock has been grazed too long.

“The first day they walked back to water, I gave them a strip (of forage). Second day, they had to walk back to water. Day three, same thing, they had to walk back a lot of the water. Day four, same thing … but as we’re coming back to graze, they stopped in the first strip, and that’s when I realized that was my grace period,” he said.

Krawiec thus put ideal graze period at his latitude (similar to Athabasca, Alta.) at three days. With that three-day graze period and a minimum of 13 paddocks, the math works out to 36 days of rest. Rest periods increase at more northern latitudes due to fewer daylight hours, Krawiec added.

He pointed to his grazing chart as an essential planning tool.

The chart allows Krawiec to adjust rotation based on growing conditions. In June 2021, when temperatures hit 38.5 C for weeks, he extended his second rotation to 55 rest days after his strip system suggested that grass growth had slowed. He later sped up his third rotation to 42 days, and was able to keep high-quality forage through November, plus stockpiling enough grass to calve 1,000 cows the following spring.

“The results were amazing, but what I did was not amazing. I just used my grazing (method), and I just adjusted to conditions,” he said.

The post Grazing ‘sweet spot’ boosts pasture performance appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) application window opens Feb. 1, with a 70 per cent rebate on approved projects with an approved grazing plan in hand.

“Don’t wait until the very end of January to start your application,” forage specialist Jodie Horvath said in a presentation at the Innovation on the Range event in Bow Island, Alta., last month.

“You have lots of time to work on it (grazing plan) over the winter. It’s a perfect time to do some kitchen table design of maps and what not. There is help for doing these applications, and there’s also lots of workshops to help throughout the winter, throughout the provinces.”

The fund applies to rotational grazing with fencing, water and perennial seeding categories eligible for funding.

Items such as cross or electrical fencing, virtual fence collars, portable crops, flow-line pipelines or shallow barren pipelines for water development are covered along with mobile units. Drilling or broadcasting legumes into existing stands to improve them are covered for seeding.

“Water development, not source water. There’s other programs that cover that, like digging wells and dugouts,” said Horvath.

Alberta was given $21 million this year to distribute to producers, enough for 42 projects.

“We have some projects that are massive. We have one that is 1,300 hectares that are looking to go in and intensify their grazing, so they needed a razor grazer and they seeded, they put in $70,000 worth of seed,” said Sonja Shank, program co-ordinator at the Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta, which helps deliver the OFCAF funding.

“So make sure you are in the know of what is out there. I’ll go into some of these meetings and nobody heard of OFCAF. And then I feel bad because it was a $210 million program across the country.”

Many tools are available to ranchers, including the online advanced grazing systems that can help producers get started on the application process and access help from mentors.

Project reimbursement for producers who become mentors increases from 70 to 85 per cent. There are currently 200 mentors, with more being trained over the winter.

An advanced grazing program helps with:Extending the grazing period.

Increasing pasture yields.

Improving forage quality for livestock.

Reducing weed pressure.

Improving nutrient cycling.

Helping build soil health.

The OFCAF’s objective is to support farmers in adopting beneficial management practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases, specifically in nitrogen management, cover cropping and rotational grazing practices

The CFGA works solely to support the rotational grazing practices stream in Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

Shank is the contact for Alberta OFCAF along with other available programs. Funding can be retroactive for purchases made after February 2025.

The post The planning time is now for approved grazing plan for upcoming On-Farm Climate Fund applications for early 2026 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A new course by the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association delves into all these components and more.

“The High-Performance Forage course will be available early in 2026 to producers, agronomists and technical teams interested in improving the quality of Canadian forage available for market both domestically and internationally,” according to Kaylee Healy, the CFGA’s communications and knowledge technology transfer logistics manager.

The course covers a range of topics designed to give participants in-depth knowledge on the different aspects of growing high-performance forage across Canada, including examining regional challenges.

This 12-module course is designed for producers who are already growing forage and who are ready to take their product to the next level to take advantage of existing and new markets. Participants can expect to walk away with an in-depth understanding of forage production and practical next steps to improve the quality of forage produced by their operations.

The course is being developed with the help of forage specialist Dan Undersander from the University of Wisconsin, who brings knowledge of more than five decades of advancing forage production.

His expertise spans all aspects of forage management, including production and harvesting methods for hay, haylage, baleage and silage, as well as forage analysis and grazing. His work is supported by other subject matter experts from across Canada and the United States.

“We’ve been building this information for the last three years with Dr. Undersander,” Healy said.

“It’s building on a series of workshops held back in the early 2000s. They were in-person workshops geared towards agronomists and technical experts in forage to help develop higher-quality forage across Canada.”

Course content

The course takes a ground-up approach, starting with planning growing systems, defining the rations and yield potential. Planning the system helps identify goals, determine labour and management costs and determine crop goals. It is the foundation for the rest of the course and includes elements to help producers track and assess performance.

It’s important to understand the seed mix, including seed genetics, which will grow best in a producer’s region based on climate, soil fertility and other growing conditions.

The module also looks at seeding rates and seeding strategies.

Fertility is an important component of growing quality forage. It begins with understanding the nutrients and density required to match the seed selection made.

Emphasis on soil testing illustrates the need to understand soil pH and existing nutrients, plus soil additives including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, calcium and magnesium. This module also explores the use of liquid and solid manure and touches on the impact of salinity.

Seed management looks at different tillage systems designed to facilitate proper seed placement and other seedbed preparation considerations, while weed control covers topics such as assessing weed pressures and challenges. It specifically looks at when weeds cause a problem, how to manage weeds through pre-seeding and post-seeding, mechanical needs for weed control and when spraying may be required.

Disease and pest management dives into understanding the pressures that these problems place on crops. The module looks at how to identify problems and manage them.

The course offers a diverse look at harvesting and harvest systems, beginning with targeted harvesting time. This is a natural segue into matching forage quality to animal requirements and targeting moisture levels at harvest.

The harvest module also looks at minimizing field losses, selecting the best mower for your operation, the use of conditioning systems, racking, preservation and making baleage.

Making forage is only part of the equation. The course also features modules on storage including packing density, bunk filling rates and other storage considerations to minimize loss.

Producers feeding out forage will appreciate the module on feed-out management, which touches on topics such as maintaining a fresh bunk face, designing storage systems and engaging a nutritionist. It closes with tracking forage quality and building rations.

As the course winds down, participants will gain a better understanding of tracking and performance, including what records to keep, why producers should keep them and how to inventory quantity and quality in storage.

The initial plan, the tracking and the records help producers better understand the cost of production for an operation. Producers walk away from training with a template to develop the cost of production for their own operation, looking at the cost of harvest and storage losses and the overall cost of forage production.

The course closes with discussion on sustainable management, greenhouse gas impacts and management strategies to help producers with soil carbon sequestering and determining manure storage and application methods for their operations.

Producers will complete training with a plan on how they can improve the quality of forage they produce.

“The course presents information using a combination of written and video materials and provides resources and action items so producers can take the techniques and strategies outlined in the material and apply them to their farm,” said Healy.

Why now?

The CFGA has been working with Undersander and other experts for several years to create this training series based on the demand from producers and extension specialists to improve the quality of forage produced in Canada. It has been long recognized that forages are essential to maintaining the health of cropping systems in addition to being an important crop on its own.

Growers face a number of challenges regionally, including disease, pests, drought, excessive moisture and varying rates of soil fertility.

A pilot, three-day workshop offered this past March in Manitoba underlined the desire for knowledge and the need to build new supports and connections for growers.

“With experts planning retirement or moving into other roles, the CFGA recognized the opportunity to capture this knowledge now and assist with transferring it to the next generation of producers, agronomists and technicians who are looking to improve Canadian forage,” Healy said.

“This free online course will be available through the CFGA’s learning management system in both English and French early in 2026.”

The new High-Performance Forage course joins other online educational opportunities provided by the CFGA, including Advanced Grazing Systems with sub-courses on dairy and brown soil zones.

– Susanne Wagner is the OFCAF/AGS course developer for the Canadian Forage & Grassland Association.

The post New high performance forage training program to launch in 2026 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Nearly all major crops have finished combining, with 37 per cent of Manitoba’s sunflowers finished, plus 71 per cent of grain corn and small amounts of soybeans and potatoes left to do.

Manitoba Ag also reported most of the fall fertilizer applications have wrapped up. As well, the planting of winter wheat and fall rye benefitted from warm fall temperatures and sufficient soil moisture levels, giving a good start to the 2026 crop.

Yields above average

The report placed this year’s winter wheat yields at 50 to 90 bushels per acre and fall rye at 60 to 110 bu./ac. with some instances of fields hitting 135.

Yields for the spring cereals ranged from 50 to 90 bu./ac. for wheat, with good quality and protein levels of 13.5 to 14.5 per cent. Although some later planted spring cereals did not fare as well due to wet conditions. Oats reaped 80 to 120 bu./ac. with barley at 80 to 110.

Corn yields varied, depending on the amount of rain received. Areas with limited rainfall saw 90 to 120 bu./ac. while those areas with timely rain had 130 to 150.

Among the oilseeds, canola yields were 30 to 60 bu./ac., flax at 15 to 35 and soybeans at 30 to 50. Sunflower yields are above normal across most of the province, but below normal in the Interlake.

The pea harvest registered at 30 to 70 bu./ac.

As for forages, the late season precipitation helped to extend pasture grazing. While hay yields were average, forage quality varied due to wet conditions. That was also the case with corn silage yields but greenfeed and cereal sileage were near average.

The post Most of Manitoba harvest wraps up for 2025 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Manitoba crops were 93 per cent combined as of Oct. 13, six points more than the previous week, said the province’s weekly crop report released on Oct. 15. All regions saw at least 14 millimetres of precipitation while snow accumulated in parts of the northwest. The Pas received the most precipitation at 65.7 mm. Winds exceeding 60 kilometres per hour were also felt in most regions. Nevertheless, harvest progress in all regions ranged from 91 to 98 per cent.

The barley and oat harvests were 99 per cent complete, while canola and dry beans were 96 per cent finished. Soybeans were 90 per cent complete while potatoes were at 84 per cent. Silage corn and flax were at 77 and 76 per cent, respectively, while grain corn lagged at 42 per cent and sunflowers trailed all crops at 17 per cent.

Winter cereal planting is complete with most of them in the three-leaf stage. Spring wheat yields averaged 60 bushels per acre with some fields showing yields up to 90 bu./ac. Barley yields ranged from 65 to 110 bu./ac., while oats ranged from 110 to 130 bu./ac. However, wet harvest conditions have caused a loss of quality in spring cereals.

Canola yields averaged 45 bu./ac. in a range of 30 to 70 bu./ac. The field pea harvest yielded an average of 60 bu./ac. from a range of 30 to 75 bu./ac. The soybean harvest continued with yields between 30 to 55 bu./ac. Meanwhile, the sunflower harvest was delayed due to producers waiting for them to dry.

Producers with cereal silage and native/slough hay are fighting wet conditions to wrap up their harvests. Producers are also encouraged to use management practices to promote and maintain snow cover for insulating alfalfa crowns in the winter. Pastures are now dormant with livestock now feeding on stockpiled forages, crop residue and regrowth or supplemental feed.

Livestock operations have begun weaning, but rains caused muddy conditions in pastures and corrals. Most producers have acquired sufficient amounts of feed for the winter, while hay and straw bales were being moved to wintering areas. Manure was also being spread out onto fields.

The post Manitoba Crop Report: Harvest near completion despite snowfall appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

According to Blue, Alberta has enough forage and feed grain to meet livestock needs heading into the upcoming winter season.

“The Peace River area and eastern side of Alberta generally had below average hay yields due to lack of rain and spotty showers,” said Blue, who is based in Edmonton and farms near Vermilion.

Hay yields from central and southern Alberta were mostly average to above average, he said.

“The hay was generally baled in good condition with little to no rain while it was curing in the field,” he said.

Marketing sites in Edmonton and Calgary areas show lots of hay for sale, but there is less hay advertised for sale in northeastern Alberta and generally down the east side to Medicine Hat, he said.

“It’s tighter than maybe we would like, but it will be fine. Farmers are resilient so they’ll find a way. They’re making other arrangements in some cases,” said Blue.

He has been following hay sales on websites like Facebook and Kijiji.

“Asking prices for large round bales seem to be in the range of 10 to 12 cents a pound picked up. And of course, for any trucking distance required, trucking would add or could add significantly to that price,” he said.

Some hay is available outside that price range, but 10 to 12 cents a pound seems to be average.

“That’s not that much higher or different than last year, when we had higher volumes of hay produced,” he said.

The years of drought have made feed supplies patchy across the province.

“In the Vermilion area, some yields are average or better and some are just not good at all. In that central upper area, things are pretty good, generally, but variable,” he said.

“On the other hand, there were enough showers in most areas to have provided a reasonably okay, not always average, sometimes below average cereal crop. In some of those areas, there is quite a bit of straw being baled. In the case where there aren’t adequate feed supplies, some producers will use straw and combine it with feed greens, like oats or barley, along with some pellets to try to get by,” he said.

The eastern side of the province, the northeast and the Peace Country will have some deficits, but there aren’t as many cattle in that region that will be affected by short supplies.

The Peace Country has the lowest supply of feed, and people in the area may decide to buy hay from other areas.

“Even up there, in some areas west of Grande Prairie, for example, and north, there are some showers that came through and some of the crops weren’t too bad. And yet, just a mile or two away, or a few miles away, the crops weren’t good. And the same applies to the forage situation and to pasture for that matter.”

Farmers in areas with low feed will buy feed from surplus feed areas. “Some might ship a portion of their cattle away from the area to be custom fed in areas that have more hay. It might be cheaper to ship the cattle and have them custom fed then bring the hay in. Some might even sell part of their herd to reduce winter feeding costs,” he said.

Blue said there was a reduction of the herd during the summer based on the dryness, which reflected poor pasture conditions.

“I guess the one good thing about that alternative is that cattle prices are record high, and so at least the prices were high when they were selling or reducing their herd,” he said.

Alberta’s cattle herd is smaller, which means less need for feed.

“On the hay side, like perennial forage, there’s been a reduction in hay acreage over time too, in favour of annual crops which have had better economic conditions for the last number of years. I guess, despite me promoting the idea of seeding more acres to hay, just from a rotational benefit point of view, it generally hasn’t happened yet,” said Blue.

More acres could be seeded to hay if the current mediocre or lower annual crop prices remain, he said.

Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation has a product that it put out in the spring called Cropping Alternatives, which can be found online. Blue said the website showed that forage may have been one of the better promises of net income compared with the annual crops.

Crop prices are generally weaker at harvest time, but since the spring, prices have dropped on a lot of annual crops.

“There may be a bit of a rebound in forage acres or interest in it. I’ve even promoted that idea for those that do not have cattle, that they could maybe arrange in advance with someone who does have cattle, or who does custom cutting and baling of hay,” he said.

The feed situation going into the winter is decent.

“Farmers will find a way and the bright spot is for those who decide they don’t want to ship their cattle out, or pay the cost of getting hay brought in, they could reduce the herd a bit or ship some of their herd to be fed elsewhere. Cattle prices remain very high,” he said.

High cattle prices mean farmers will have the ability to pay for hay and likely have a profit, barring some kind of problem with livestock prices, he said.

The other option is to sell some livestock to reduce the herd to manage available supply.

The post Alberta has adequate feed supplies going into winter appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Isolated showers had minimal impact on harvesting operations as 78 per cent of the province’s crops are now off the ground, an 18-point increase from a week earlier. This was compared to the five-year average of 69.8 per cent and the 10-year average of 56.2 per cent.

The south region led the way at 84.3 per cent, followed by the northwest at 80.1 per cent, the Peace region at 77.6 per cent, the northeast at 76.8 per cent and the central region at 71.5 per cent.

The winter wheat, dry pea, fall rye and lentil harvests are complete, while durum was 92.3 per cent done. The spring wheat harvest was at 88.8 per cent, while the barley harvest was at 87.4 per cent, followed by mustard at 84.9 per cent and oats at 82.1 per cent. The chickpea harvest was 71.1 per cent complete, compared to the canola harvest at 55.9 per cent, the potato harvest at 52.5 per cent and flax at 35.4 per cent.

Average crop yields were 76.2 bushels per acre for oats, 72.6 for barley, 54.6 for spring wheat, 46.8 for dry peas and 42.1 for canola. Except for dry peas, all estimated yields increased from the previous week.

Surface soil moisture in Alberta was measured at 34.1 per cent poor, 40.8 per cent fair, 23.2 per cent good and 1.9 per cent excellent. The five-year average was 45 per cent good to excellent. Sub-surface soil moisture was at 28 per cent good to excellent, down three points from last week.

Provincial pasture growth was rated at 28 per cent good to excellent, down four points from the previous report. This was below the five-year average of 32 per cent.

Fall-seeded crops were rated 40 per cent good to excellent, below the five-year average of 57 per cent. Provincial dryland hay yields were estimated at 1.3 tons per acre for the first cut and one ton per acre for the second cut, indicating that current dryland hay yields are in line with long-term averages. Provincial irrigated hay yields were only reported for the South Region and were estimated at 2.5 tons per acre for the first cut and 2.3 tons per acre for the second cut.

The post Alberta Crop Report: Harvest more than three-quarters finished appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.