A panel of three producers sits at the front of a room filled to bursting with farmers and professionals in the industry. It’s a chilly day in December in Edmonton, Alta., at the Western Canada Soil Health and Grazing Conference, but these producers don’t mind the cold — in fact, they often use it to their advantage on their operations, including the Ziolas from Iron Kreek Ranch.
Kevin and Roxanne Ziola share a microphone as they field questions from the crowd about their ranch and how they use grazing to improve their beef, their soil and their livelihood.
Their priorities aren’t just their ranch, though, as is evident when one of their daughters runs onto the stage, straight into Roxanne’s arms. They’re family-oriented people, too.
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“I want them out there with us when we do all this stuff,” Kevin says when talking about his family.
When Kevin took over the family farm from his father, it was a mixed operation. He and Roxanne decided to switch to ranching only based on their passion for the cattle industry, as well as the land they ranch on near Red Deer, Alta.
“We are in lowland,” Roxanne says. “To put crops in wouldn’t be feasible in some of our lowlands. So we would have to do cattle regardless, just to get that land utilized.”
Today they raise and direct market their grass-fed beef, as well as lamb and pork.
[VIDEO] Kevin Ziola on the ‘insurance policy’ he has for his cows in a drought year. (Video courtesy Ziola family)
Winter grazing
Several years back, Roxanne began suffering from health problems, including loss of taste and balance. In the end, she changed her diet, eating only grass-fed beef. Her health concerns and dietary changes pushed the Ziolas to focus on grass-finished cattle on their own operation. They also started shifting to holistic and regenerative practices.
“We’re always trying to improve. We haven’t used sprays or fertilizers for four or five years. And we haven’t worked anything up for that amount of time either,” Kevin says.
At first, the Ziolas started small, finishing one calf on grass. From there, they continued increasing the number of cattle they raised grass-fed, until it consisted of their whole herd.
Now, Iron Kreek Ranch is certified grass-fed and animal welfare approved by A Greener World (AGW).
“Our life kind of grew and grew with the grass-fed program, and we met more like-minded people, and they helped grow and mentor us,” Roxanne says.
Winter grazing is key to the Ziolas’ grass-fed operation. Cattle remain on pasture during the winter months and can be fed in a variety of ways, such as bale grazing, swath grazing or foraging for grass through the snow.
Roxanne says the first year of winter grazing was a big learning curve.
“We don’t have necessarily a shelter for them in all different areas. We had just put in watering systems. And throughout all of the years, we learn a little bit more and a little bit more.”
[VIDEO] Kevin Ziola on winter grazing and how snow helps preserve the quality of grass. (Video courtesy Ziola family)
To ease the transition to grass-fed, the Ziolas have taken advantage of programs offered by ALUS, a charitable organization that helps producers maintain ecosystem services on their land. Kevin says ALUS helped them reconstruct natural areas such as wetlands and grasslands on their land, at no financial cost to themselves.
“That program has helped us with all the watering systems, with the tumble wheels,” Kevin says. “We could not be doing what we’re doing on our ranch … without the ALUS program.”
The Ziolas’ cattle need to learn how to dig through the snow to forage for a legume crop left for winter grazing. Kevin says it’s important to him that his cattle work for him — not the other way around.
“You can’t just put them out there and expect them to be happy,” Kevin says. “We couldn’t buy animals into our herd … because they don’t know how to work. They don’t know how to eat through the winter and dig in the snow. And so, our cows teach their babies how to do that. And they’re really good at it. They’re very hardy.”
Foraging for food wasn’t something their cattle learned overnight, though. Kevin says it was a training process over the years.
“We went from feeding cows for 200 days of stored feed to swath grazing for most of the winter,” he says. “And then we would start to integrate in some grazing on grass longer and longer and longer and less swath grazing. To the point where last year was the first time that we took them all the way through winter.”
Although a lot of snow can make foraging hard for cattle, Kevin says snow is an important part of winter grazing, and the cattle will learn how to move it.
“Snow is important. We want winter with snow. It insulates things, makes things live,” he says.
For any producers interested in trying to teach their cattle to graze in the winter, Kevin recommends starting as early as possible. Starting earlier in the winter gives the cows a chance to learn to graze through snow before conditions become too difficult, he says.
“And then they start to realize that they can do it, and then you start to integrate harder snow,” he says.
Cattle and soil health
Kevin says winter grazing has improved their cattle’s health. Rotating their cattle from pasture to pasture constantly helps improve the cattle’s health by consistently being on the move. He says it’s rare for any of his cows to get foot rot.
He says he also doesn’t treat pinkeye or use ivermectin on his cattle. “They get through it on their own in short time,” he says, something he attributes to moving them regularly.
Roxanne attributes the health of their cattle to not having to live in or near their own feces.
“We’ve basically eradicated a lot of sickness because we keep moving,” she says. “So they’re not standing in their own cesspool.”
Since they’ve implemented winter grazing, constantly rotating the cattle, Kevin and Roxanne say they’ve noticed different types of insects in their fields. They’ve also seen a difference in the feces of the cattle, which break down into the land much faster.
The soil health of their operation is important to the Ziolas, so they have also previously brought in different types of insects to control certain weeds. Now, they are seeing that work pay off.
“We’ve definitely rehabilitated the land. The land is definitely waking up,” Roxanne says.
“Mother Nature is on our side. Why are we working so hard against Mother Nature when she’s trying to help us?”
