Reading Time: 3 minutes If you want to know what happens when research doesn’t get done, ask Doug Wray. “Where the hay yields haven’t increased in the last 10 years, the canola, wheat, and barley yields have,” says the cow-calf producer from Irricana. “It’s created a real challenge to keep forages on the landscape in that dynamic where the […] Read more
Experts decry lack of long-term forage research
Research projects tend to be commodity specific and short term
Tips for making hay during fall’s cool, damp weather
Fall is less than an ideal time for putting up forage, so the goal should be to salvage what can be salvaged and feed it quickly
Reading Time: 2 minutes Time is of the essence when putting up forage under less-than-ideal moisture conditions. “Cool and wet fall weather is great for pasture recovery and for easing forages into dormancy, but not so good for drying hay,” says Linda Hunt, forage specialist with the Alberta Ag-Info Centre in Stettler. “It’s not uncommon for fall conditions in […] Read more
Watch for mineral deficiencies in cattle diets when grazing stubble
Cow-calf pairs turned into stubble fields have different mineral supplementation requirements compared to when they were on pasture
Reading Time: 3 minutes Letting cows graze on stubble is a good way to utilize forage resources, but producers need to pay attention to potential mineral deficiencies, says provincial beef and forage specialist Barry Yaremcio. “They will pick and choose what they eat from the straw, chaff, weed seeds in the stubble, slough hay from the low areas and […] Read more
Energy-dense forage for the future
Energy-dense forage could present a viable alternative to feedlots in some instances
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s time for producers to take an annual look at a perennial issue. “What we need to do is get away from our conventional thinking,” Clayton Robins said during a seminar. Annual forage mixes can play a key role in both beef, dairy and sheep production, said the beef producer and former Agriculture Canada research […] Read more
Women will not boycott World Cup over artificial turf
Toronto | Reuters — There are no plans to boycott next year’s Women’s World Cup but players will proceed with a gender discrimination lawsuit against FIFA if forced to play on artificial turf, one of the complainants said on Thursday. Reigning FIFA player of the year Nadine Angerer, who is among over 40 international women […] Read more
What lies beneath your feet is a marvel of nature
It’s believed native grasslands contain plants a century old, their tillers advancing inch by inch to create a perpetual ecosystem
Reading Time: 3 minutes The other day, the Dickinson Research Extension Center became home to an unstoppable force that is going to drill a well. In this case, an oil well. The spot selected is in the middle of a native grass pasture. Who knows the age of that native grass, but certainly the plants were there long before […] Read more
Permaculture advocate says work with nature, not against it
Ferintosh producer Takota Coen says carefully designed mixed farms are the way of the future
Reading Time: 4 minutes The first thing you’ll notice as you drive by Grass Roots Family Farm is the orchard — an unlikely sight in rural Alberta, but somehow it seems right at home beside the sprawling vegetable garden. In a paddock near the house, a sow nurses a handful of nearly newborn piglets, and just down the lane […] Read more
It’s Canada’s biggest crop – but forage research remains a hard sell
There has been a dramatic drop in forage research, but it’s not just because producers could make more money growing canola
Reading Time: 4 minutes More than 52 million acres in Alberta are currently used to graze livestock or produce crops like alfalfa and timothy hay, but farmers who manage grasslands and forage fields say their industry is declining so rapidly its future is at risk. “The long-term graph of forage research shows a dramatic drop — probably 70 per […] Read more
Researcher finds a way to calculate roundworm risk in Alberta pastures
Weather matters a lot when it comes to predicting where roundworm infestations are likely to be worst
Reading Time: 2 minutes A federal research scientist has developed “a hint of a tool” for predicting roundworm risk in Alberta pastures. “The question we came up with late at night was: Can we make a correlation between egg counts, antibody levels, and environmental parameters and build a GIS map that would give us an idea of what the […] Read more
Doing a better job of turning grass into grain — and saying so
Growing more forage is the right thing to do. Is the beef industry prepared if it happens?
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re looking for proof that there is no such thing as bad publicity, beef may be a good example. For years it’s been painted as a public health and environmental villain, and recently there were more reports on how bovine frontal and rearward methane emissions are a major source of climate-altering greenhouse gas. All […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
