Sheep under solar panels on Sun Cycle Farms. Photo: Submitted by Jason Bradley

Solar and sheep provide valuable farm diversification

Thousands of acres of solar panels across Canada can actually enhance agricultural production

Reading Time: 6 minutes Agrivoltaics - the system of grazing sheep or conducting other agricultural activity under arrays of solar panels - can provide farmers with diversification options for their operations.


Cattle on John Ross's 60,000 acre ranch benefit from a new water well and storage tank located away from the Milk River. Multisar paid for well drilling and materials to protect species habitat along the Milk River. With water nearby, cattle now graze areas of the ranch that they didn't use before. The grazing also creates habitat for endangered burrowing owls, which do not thrive in thick grass.

Conservation groups enter grazing lease debate

Five Alberta groups ask for halt of proposed project to convert native grasslands to irrigation

Reading Time: 3 minutes The Municipal District of Taber in southern Alberta remains at a political crossroads, weighing the interests of generating revenue for public services with conserving native grasslands.

The provincial government is expected to launch its rangeland grazing framework in the near future.  |  File photo

Alberta invests $1.3 million in rangeland research

Alberta’s Rangeland Sustainability Program helps research organizations do their own research to improve grasslands

Reading Time: 5 minutes Alberta’s government is investing $1.3 million to strengthen the health,biodiversity and resilience of the province’s rangelands through the Rangeland Sustainability Program.



The Bob Creek Ranch is an important piece of land along Highway 22. It is home to many species at risk, and has varied terrain. The Waldron Grazing Co-operative and the Nature Conservancy of Canada are working together to place the land under a conservation easement.

Saving southern Alberta’s Bob Creek Ranch

Bob Creek Ranch around the Cowboy Trail in process of being conserved by the Waldron Grazing Co-op and the Nature Conservancy of Canada

Reading Time: 4 minutes The Waldron Grazing Co-op and the Nature Conservancy of Canada are working towards the conservation of the Bob Creek Ranch around the Cowboy Trail in southern Alberta.


Cattle are turned out on pasture near Priddis west of Calgary in mid-May. Recent precipitation in the area has improved field and pasture outlooks and helped reduce wildfire risk.

Better weather winds for 2024 grazing season

Prairie provinces received vital rains in April and May

Reading Time: 4 minutes The grazing season has had some memorably bad starts in recent years, but 2024 promises to break the cycle across much of the Prairies. “This is the best start we’ve had for a year for a long time,” said Graeme Finn, founder of Union Forage and rancher near Crossfield, Alta. “These pastures now are looking […] Read more

Cattle take shelter in the stalks of Brett McRae’s intercropped corn grazing system.

Corn-soybean intercrop put to grazing test

The novel crop combination is getting an even more novel utility test

Reading Time: 4 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Brett McRae is spicing up his corn grazing system this year. He’s got more than one variety growing – a grazing-oriented option and the typical silage corn – but the real experiment is happening beneath the canopy. This year, the corn shared space with forage soybean and hairy vetch. The beans were […] Read more


Preliminary results from a winter feeding trial at Lakeland College show that the overall feed quality of a forage blend in a swath grazing program is better than just oats.

Forage blends benefit swath grazing

Winter feeding trial studies virtual fencing as well as potential of moving away from using only one crop in swath grazing

Reading Time: 2 minutes A researcher at Lakeland College says he wanted to investigate using forage blends in winter swath grazing systems to ease producer hesitancy. Obioha Durunna, who is now in the third year of the study, says he was also prompted by the limited information available on backgrounding weaned calves in such systems. Durunna says producers are […] Read more

Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Kristine Tapley says the focus is on unproductive cropland.

Farmers urged to use marginal land for forage

Ducks Unlimited Canada, Farm Credit Canada lauch program to turn uneconomical farmland into perennial forage

Reading Time: 2 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – A new program sponsored by Ducks Unlimited Canada and supported by Farm Credit Canada hopes to spur producers to turn uneconomical farmland into perennial forage. The Marginal Areas Program on the Prairies is open to producers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, with DUC providing financial support to convert unproductive cropland to forage […] Read more