Reading Time: 4 minutes You might think you know your land inside and out, but getting back to basics can improve pasture productivity. “It’s important to look at this basic stuff because it helps tune the eye,” said Ross Adams, range management specialist with Alberta Environment and Parks. “It’s easier to integrate livestock into the system if you understand […] Read more
Taking a fresh look at your land, cattle and grazing system
Range management principles are ‘fairly simple’ but applying them depends on local conditions
Pick the right forage for productivity and profitability
Productivity in many Alberta pastures is so low it ‘doesn’t pay a lot of bills,’ says forage specialist
Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s an elephant in your pasture. “The elephant is disappointment,” said Grant Lastiwka, forage specialist with Union Forage. “When you start to look at the average, Alberta hay yields are around 1.3 tonnes per acre across the province. That’s a low number. “When we look at pasture, all we’re getting in grazing days across many […] Read more
Carrying capacity: You gotta know if it can hold ’em
Overgrazing can really hurt productivity, so it pays to know how many cows you can put on a pasture
Reading Time: 3 minutes Struggling with finding the right amount of cattle to graze on a pasture or not sure how many cattle a new rented pasture will hold? The Beef Cattle Research Council now has a calculator to help you with that. There are four basic principles of range management: Balancing forage supply and demand; managing for uniform […] Read more
Annual forages offer benefits, says forage specialist
Annual pastures allow you to properly rest their perennial cousins and can be used for silage or greenfeed
Reading Time: 2 minutes Annual forages offer a couple of advantages for producers, says a provincial forage and beef specialist. “By seeding annual pastures, producers can give stressed perennial pastures a rest,” said Karin Lindquist. “If those pastures are rested early in the spring and following rain, they can produce good amounts of growth later in the summer. However, […] Read more
Many pastures took a beating this winter, so scout early
Conduct plant counts as soon as pastures and hayfields start to green up, say forage experts
Reading Time: 4 minutes Cold, wet conditions through the fall and winter were the right recipe for winterkill in alfalfa pastures across the Prairies. “With climate change, the risk of forage stands being injured or killed by environmental stresses is predicted to increase,” said Bill Thomas, owner of BT Agronomy in Truro, Nova Scotia. “Just in the last month, […] Read more
Hay shortage in Manitoba Interlake reaches tipping point
MarketsFarm — A state of agricultural emergency has been declared in 12 municipalities, mostly in Manitoba’s Interlake region, due to chronically low hay yields. Drought and grasshoppers have hindered crops to the point that hay production is about 25 to 30 per cent of average. “We’ve moved cows out of pastures because the grasshoppers ate […] Read more
Prairie drought reaches tipping point
MarketsFarm — The Prairie provinces have been under the influence of a large ridge of high pressure for a number of weeks, which has produced prolonged dryness with little precipitation. That high pressure system has pushed low-pressure, precipitation-carrying systems to the south, where the U.S. Midwest has already received significant rain. Environment Canada estimated the […] Read more
Forage supplies starting to dip on dry Prairies
CNS Canada — Forage supplies are starting to dwindle across Western Canada following a long, cold, winter and rain is needed soon to make for a good forage crop this year. “People tended to kind of blend hay this year and they managed to get through. But the prolonged cold spring really I think put […] Read more
U.S. cattle placements hit 16-year high for February
Chicago | Reuters — Ranchers drove 7.3 per cent more cattle into U.S. feedlots in February than a year ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported on Friday, the most for the month in 16 years. Persistent drought in the U.S. Plains withered winter wheat grazing pastures, which forced beef cattle into feedyards in states […] Read more
Hay shortage could make for difficult winter
CNS Canada — Many cattle producers looking for local feed this winter might have a difficult time, according to a Saskatchewan provincial forage specialist. However, producers further north in the grey and black soil zones, and those in Alberta producing high-quality feed for export, saw near-record hay production. Terry Kowalchuk of Saskatchewan Agriculture in Regina […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
