Forage ecologist Mike Schellenberg offers his insights on how to reinvigorate pastures and boost productivity
Reading Time: 4 minutes “Five years to forever.” That’s a long time for a forage stand to be highly productive — and yet that’s the answer producers often give when asked how long they expect the benefits of rejuvenating pastures to last, said Mike Schellenberg, a range and plant forage ecologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Swift Current, Sask. […] Read more
Draft a plan before rejuvenating tired forage stand
There can be a steep price for early grazing
The choices aren’t great, but a forage expert warns that early grazing can cost you dearly down the line
Reading Time: 2 minutes With the early spring, some farmers, ranchers, and acreage owners are turning out livestock four to six weeks earlier than usual. “Some of the turnouts are due to a lack of feed, and for others it is necessary to get the cows out of the corrals,” said provincial beef and forage specialist Barry Yaremcio. Under […] Read more
Don’t graze cattle too early this spring
It’s tempting to start grazing when pastures green up, but nutrient quality is poor
Reading Time: 2 minutes Pasture recovery is an important topic on the heels of last year’s dry conditions, particularly given this year’s poor snow cover in the central and southern regions of Alberta. “If we have a dry spring, producers will need to balance potential feed shortages with the need to protect their recovering pastures,” said provincial forage and […] Read more
Ducks Unlimited shifts forage incentive for Manitoba
A program encouraging Prairie farmers to improve waterfowl habitat by flipping cropland into hayland or pasture will continue the same this spring, except in Manitoba. The DUC/CPS forage program, offered by Ducks Unlimited Canada and Crop Production Services (CPS) Canada, will still see growers in Saskatchewan and Alberta get a rebate of $100 for each […] Read more
Want to up your grazing game? Disrupt, diversify, and stock high
Use a rich mix of forage species, build organic matter, and fight that urge to do the same things year after year, says expert
Reading Time: 3 minutes More of the same is not a good thing when it comes to pastures. “When you have a monoculture above the ground, you have a monoculture below the ground,” said grazing consultant Allen Williams. “In most monoculture situations, you have mined out many of the available minerals within the first two or three strata of […] Read more
Boosting the bottom line through better pasture management
It’s about more sunlight, rain, and forage types — and never overgrazing
Reading Time: 3 minutes If farming these days is all about managing inputs, then grazing comes down to managing the land itself — the sunlight, water, minerals, and biodiversity that make pasture lands grow. “We can’t control the price of oil; we can’t control the cost of steel for making farming equipment; but we can manage and control these […] Read more
Doing the right thing — and getting paid for it
ALUS program shares cost of stewardship projects with farmers
Reading Time: 4 minutes Like most farmers, Kevin Ziola wants to be a good steward of the land — but it’s been tough for the third-generation farmer to balance his conservation efforts with his bottom line. “As a cattle farmer, I believe it’s important to work with nature, not against it,” said Ziola, who runs 200 head of cattle […] Read more
Survival mode: Three allies to help you deal with drought
Young producer says knowing exactly how many days of grazing are left is a ‘game changer’ in a drought year
Reading Time: 4 minutes Cattle producer Blake Hall isn’t about to sugar-coat things. “People are so petrified of the word drought, but we’ve been using it for the last three weeks,” the Red Deer cattle producer said in a July 7 interview. “We stopped seeing any significant regrowth in our pastures about five weeks ago. Now we’re in drought-management […] Read more
Drought management strategies for cattle
Reading Time: < 1 minute Whether in the form of pasture, stored forage, or supplements, feed is the largest variable input cost in cow-calf operations. A big challenge is to feed the cow in a way that meets her current and future nutritional requirements for maintenance, lactation, maintaining a successful pregnancy, giving birth and getting rebred within 80-85 days of […] Read more
Guenther: Manage risks around weather-stressed pastures, forages
Mother Nature has dealt a weak hand to many northwestern Saskatchewan livestock producers this year as frost, a cool spring and dry weather have hit pastures and hay stands. But there are still a few strategies for producers to make the best — and avoid the worst — of what the weather has left them. […] Read more