Making quality forages takes commitment and knowledge. Weather, disease, pest, harvest and storage all play a role in creating quality forages, as does seed selection and weed management. A new course by the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) delves into all these components and more, helping Canadian producers create quality high-performance forage.
“The High-Performance Forage course will be available early in 2026 to producers, agronomists and technical teams interested in improving the quality of Canadian forage available for market both domestically and internationally,” says CFGA communications and knowledge technology transfer logistics manager Kaylee Healy. The course covers a range of topics designed to give participants in-depth knowledge on the different aspects of growing high-performance forage across Canada, including examining regional challenges.
This 12-module course is designed for producers who are already growing forage and who are ready to take their product to the next level to take advantage of existing and new markets. Participants can expect to walk away with an in-depth understanding of forage production and practical next steps to improve the quality of forage produced by their operations.
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The course is being developed with the help of forage specialist Dan Undersander from the University of Wisconsin who brings knowledge of more than five decades of advancing forage production. His expertise spans all aspects of forage management, including production and harvesting methods for hay, haylage, baleage and silage, as well as forage analysis and grazing. His work is supported by other subject matter experts from across Canada and the United States.
“We’ve been building this information for the last three years with Dr. Undersander,” Healy said. “It’s building on a series of workshops held back in the early 2000s. They were in-person workshops geared towards agronomists and technical experts in forage to help develop higher-quality forage across Canada.”
Course content
The course takes a ground-up approach starting with planning growing systems, defining the rations and yield potential.
Planning the system helps identify goals, determine labour and management costs and determine crop goals; it is the foundation for the rest of the course and includes elements to help producers track and assess performance.
Seed selection is obviously an important aspect of growing quality forage. It’s important to understand the seed mix, including seed genetics, which will grow best in a producer’s region based on climate, soil fertility and other growing conditions. The module also looks at seeding rates and seeding strategies. Fertility is an important component of growing quality forage. It begins with understanding the nutrients and density required to match the seed selection made. Emphasis on soil testing illustrates the need to understand soil pH and existing nutrients, plus soil additives including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, calcium and magnesium. This module also explores the use of liquid and solid manure and touches on the impact of salinity.
Seed management looks at different tillage systems designed to facilitate proper seed placement and other seedbed preparation considerations while weed control covers important topics including assessing weed pressures and challenges. It specifically looks at when weeds cause a problem, how to manage weeds through pre-seeding and post-seeding, mechanical needs for weed control and when spraying may be required.
Disease and pest management dives into understanding the pressures on crops by these problems. The module looks at how to identify problems and manage them.
The course offers a diverse look at harvesting and harvest systems beginning with targeted harvesting time. This is a natural segue into matching forage quality to animal requirements and targeting moisture levels at harvest. The harvest module also looks at minimizing field losses, selecting the best mower for your operation, the use of conditioning systems, racking, preservation and making baleage.
Making forage is only part of the equation. The course also features modules on storage including packing density, bunk filling rates and other storage considerations to minimize loss.
Producers feeding out forage will appreciate the module on feed-out management which touches on topics such as maintaining a fresh bunk face, designing storage systems and engaging your nutritionist. It closes with tracking forage quality and building rations.
As the course winds down, participants will gain a better understanding of tracking and performance including what records to keep, why you should keep them and how to inventory quantity and quality in storage.
The initial plan, the tracking and the records help producers better understand the cost of production for an operation. Producers walk away from training with a template to develop the cost of production for their own operation, looking at the cost of harvest and storage losses and the overall cost of forage production.
The course closes with discussion on sustainable management, greenhouse gas impacts and management strategies to help producers with soil carbon sequestering and determining manure storage and application methods for their operations.
Producers will complete training with a plan on how they can improve the quality of forage they produce.
“The course presents information using a combination of written and video materials and provides resources and action items so producers can take the techniques and strategies outlined in the material and apply them to their farm,” said Healy.
Why now?
The CFGA has been working with Undersander and other experts for several years to create this training series based on the demand from producers and extension specialists to improve the quality of forage produced in Canada. It has been long recognized that forages are essential to maintaining the health of cropping systems in addition to being an important crop on its own.
Growers face a number of challenges regionally including disease, pests, drought, excessive moisture and varying rates of soil fertility.
A pilot, three-day workshop offered in March 2025 in Manitoba, underlined the desire for knowledge and the need to build new supports and connections for growers.
“With experts planning retirement or moving into other roles, the CFGA recognized the opportunity to capture this knowledge now and assist with transferring it to the next generation of producers, agronomists and technicians who are looking to improve Canadian forage,” Healy said. “This free online course will be available through the CFGA’s learning management system in both English and French early in 2026.”
The new High-Performance Forage course joins other online educational opportunities provided by the CFGA, including Advanced Grazing Systems with sub-courses on dairy and brown soil zones. The CFGA is committed to forage growers across Canada by supplying education, training and skills development through collaboration with regional forage partners and provincial forage associations to provide regional growing content and collaboration.
For additional information visit the CFGA Advanced Grazing Systems webpage or email [email protected].
