Reading Time: 2 minutes You can’t just let your cows loose on a piece of grass without proper planning and knowledge. “When I take over land, I assess it and see where we need to go,” grazing consultant Graeme Finn said at the recent Western Canada Grazing Conference. “If we have weed issues, then we control them with chemicals […] Read more
Expert says plan your pastures and save yourself some headaches
Heavy seeding and a weed control strategy geared to specific pasture conditions are key for grazing consultant and rancher Graeme Finn
Advocating for forage crops is critical work and needs to continue
The Canadian Forage and Grassland Association works on a tight budget, but is in it for the long haul
Reading Time: 3 minutes Recent reports on the financial situation of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association suggest its future is grim. But while we’ll be on a tight budget in the coming year, the association is on firm financial footing and we intend on being around for a long time. In fact, the need for an organization like […] Read more
High cost, high risk, but corn a perfect cold-weather grazing crop
When the weather outside is frightful, cattle can get all of their energy and protein requirements by grazing corn
Reading Time: 3 minutes One of the “best-kept secrets” of Manitoba cow-calf producers could soon make its way west — as long as producers have access to better genetics. “The low-heat-unit corn varieties certainly have some potential to move into a cow or a calf backgrounding program,” Dr. Bart Lardner from the Western Beef Development Centre said at the […] Read more
Pasture the focus at conference
"Going Beyond Sustainability” will be held at the Radisson Hotel from Dec. 9-11
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Western Canadian Grazing Conference “Going Beyond Sustainability” will be held Dec. 9-11 at the Radisson Hotel, Edmonton South. This event is designed as a forum to discuss leading-edge grazing and forage techniques and theories for producers across Western Canada. Keynote speakers include Judith Schwartz who will speak on “Cows Save the Planet,” and Diane […] Read more
American soil health guru plants seeds in Alberta
In-demand speaker barnstorms province to talk about building better soil with ‘cocktail’ cover crops and integrated crops/livestock system
Reading Time: 3 minutes Gabe Brown found some fertile Alberta soil for his message that diversity builds soil health and boosts profitability. The North Dakota farmer and soil health guru did a barnstorm tour of the province in the last week of October, starting in the Peace Country community of Grimshaw, swinging through Legal and Vermilion, and then zigging […] 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
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
Bloat no problem with the right genetics
Managing bloat comes down to the right genetics, right feed, and right mineral products
Reading Time: 3 minutes The fear of bloat costs the livestock industry more than the condition ever does, says a well-known grazing consultant and researcher from Idaho. “I’ve seen the figures from the States, and something like two one-hundredths of one per cent of the total cattle herd dies each year from bloat,” Jim Gerrish told attendees at a […] Read more
Is your pasture ready to graze? Start counting leaves
Grazing a pasture for six weeks costs about half of the annual production potential for your forages
Reading Time: 3 minutes Deciding when to graze a pasture has nothing to do with plant height, says an Idaho-based grazing expert. “Height doesn’t tell us very much,” Jim Gerrish said recently at a Foothills Forage and Grazing tour near Acme. “What we really want to know is, physiologically, is a plant ready to be grazed?” And leaf stage […] Read more
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