Producers got a close look at several of those approaches during a Jan. 12 winter grazing tour at the Bos family farm. Jordan Bos demonstrated how cover crops, straw and silage pile grazing fit into the operation’s winter feeding plan.

Rather than relying heavily on chopped silage, the operation is grazing a mix of feed sources through the winter. These include pea straw, barley straw and hay at roughly 20 pounds of dry matter per head per day.

“Three times a week we come out with a rack of straw and just roll it out for them so they all have access,” Bos said.

WHY IT MATTERS: Experts say that using cover crops, straw and silage grazing can help cattle producers manage winter feed costs, as long as rations are carefully balanced to meet herd nutritional needs.

Cover crops on the Bos farm cost about $35 an acre to establish, with funding support for a water site provided by a local watershed district.

“It’s nice if you can get some funding and cut the cost,” Bos said.

The farm typically fertilizes its corn but not its cover crop.

The tour included a demonstration of the farm’s feed truck and TMR mixer, which they call “Mad Max.” The truck reduces labour during the winter.

“The idea is to use that truck as much as we can for a good part of the winter,” Bos said.

Silage pile grazing in practice

Silage pile grazing was another stop on the tour. Cattle are grazing the pile with minimal waste, Bos said.

“I don’t think they’re wasting much. They’re eating it right down to the dirt,” he said. “It seems to be working good.”

The silage pile is about 70-feet wide, with both sides exposed, providing roughly 140 feet of space for about 300 head. Electric wire is adjusted daily to control access and manage utilization.

“You get pretty good utilization like this,” Bos said. “It’s cheaper than hauling it out.”

The winter feeding system appears to be meeting cattle needs, Bos said.

“The animals seem pretty content and full.”

Importance of feed testing and balanced rations

While alternative feed sources like pea and barley straw can help manage costs when available, provincial livestock and forage extension specialist Kristen Bouchard-Teasdale said that it’s important to ensure proper feed testing and balanced rations.

“Winter feed supplies are our biggest expense in these cattle productions,” she said.

“How people feed and what proportions they’re able to mix into their ration is going to be dictated by the quality of the feed ingredients that they have on hand.”

Producers incorporating straw into winter rations need to ensure cattle receive sufficient protein and energy, particularly during extreme cold periods like the one that has been gripping most of Manitoba for the past few weeks.

“Cows can’t eat enough of those fibrous feeds, like the pea straw and the barley straw, to be able to meet those energy requirements in particular,” she said.

That’s why feed testing is so critical for developing effective winter feeding strategies, she added.

“Get your feed tested, know how much you have of something and exactly what’s in it, and then you have that information. It makes it much easier to be able to change your strategy if need be,” Bouchard-Teasdale said.

The post Winter grazing strategies offer cost relief for Manitoba cattle producer appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

Know your soil

“Before you even start down this journey with cover crops, know what you need in your soil and build that cover crop or for- age down to what suits your soil type,” says Finn. For example, producers with sandy, light soil should look for “massive taproots.”

Knowing your soil isn’t just about knowing which plants will perform best — it can affect animal health, too. For example, those with high sulphur soils should avoid brassicas such as forage turnips or rapes. Brassica plants “love sulphur,” says Finn and will store it in their cells. About three days after the cattle eat those brassicas, producers will see them walking in circles, pushing their heads against posts. They’re basically getting headaches, Finn explains, as their brains swell and hemorrhage. The condition, known as bovine polio, kills cattle. High-sulphate water can also trigger the condition. Other symptoms may include progressive blindness, seizures and depression.

Finn also advocates knowing what the soil needs for fertilizer and applying accordingly. While some say farmers can skip the fertilizer, he knows from personal experience that doesn’t work for long.

“When we stopped using fertilizers, everything was good for the first three years and then started going backwards in the next two years.”

He suggests working with an independent agronomist to find out what the soil needs, keeping in mind livestock will add nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. He pegs the cost of a soil sample at around $63. “That’s cheap as chips in the overall farm expenses.”

How many species?

In Finn’s view, anywhere from four to six species in a cover crop blend is great. He suggests producers seed a blend of eight or nine on their own farms.“And then they can just discover what works for them.”

Cereals and peas will do well, he predicts. Forage rapes might do better in drier areas, he says. C-4s such as sorghum generally don’t like competition but do well in drier areas, while sunflowers thrive under competition, he adds.

“Cattle love eating the heads,” Finn says of sunflowers, but they leave the fibrous stalk. If there are too many in the blend, farmers will have to try to seed through the stalks the following year, he cautions.

After observing the first year, producers can start narrowing it down to a few species that work. That might be a combination such as sorghum or peas, or a cereal, pea and brassica. But it’s important to know about the plants in the blend.

“They’ve got to be careful with the C-4s because they’re toxic under two feet tall.” C-4 plants such as sorghum and Sudan grasses evolved to repel grazers while growing on the Serengeti Plains. Once the plants are two inches in height and have set seed, they’re no longer toxic. Migrating grazers ingest the seeds, populating the plains with C-4s as they head south.

Finn avoids perennial legumes in annual cover crop mixes. They tend to be expensive, and don’t start fixing nitrogen until the second or third year. “So really, you put an expensive $4-a-pound crop in there to get forage. And not really good forage because… it doesn’t crown out in the first year. It’s just building root system.”

Low versus high rainfall

Whether you’re in a low or high-rainfall area, “always have a cereal in there,” says Finn. Make sure it’s smooth-awned, if it’s barley or wheat, or has no awns. Triticale is a good addition to oats, he says.

Different brassicas can be used in low- or high-rainfall areas. For example, turnips need eight to 12 inches, he says, whereas a forage rape only needs six to eight inches, “so they’re a different cat altogether.”

Italian ryegrass is another good choice for irrigated or high-moisture areas, as it’s “some of the highest sugar and high-energy feed you can get.” Something like Italian ryegrass, hunter forage turnip, plus chicory or plantain “will be absolute rocket fuel for your livestock under irrigation or high-moisture areas.” That would be a “really simple combination,” he says, and producers could still add cereals to it.

Chicory and plantain also work in dryland because they’re tap-rooted and fibrous, says Finn, and can mine for moisture.

A forage turnip isn’t great for drier areas because it just has a bulb and small tap root underneath. But a forage rape has “big, fibrous roots going everywhere the size of your finger, so they can mine more.” They also have a wax coating. As the mercury climbs, the leaves droop, reducing solar evaporation, he explains.

Farmers in dry areas can add cereals, sorghums and peas to the mix. Finn says he doesn’t like green field peas because they don’t have much height. “So they don’t have enough tonnage. But your 4010 (forage peas) grow as tall as you and I. And they’re a pretty vigorous plant. So yeah, it’s horse for courses, really.”

Patience for perennials

While annuals “know they have to get up and go,” Finn says, “perennials are a slow pony. They’re not a racehorse.”

That means producers need to be patient. Weeds can be a problem, but Finn suggests mowing them the first year if they need to be controlled, so they don’t crown over the perennials. If the weeds get too thick in some areas, producers might need to touch up a few acres, but that’s much cheaper than spraying out the whole field and starting again.

“Never give up on a perennial stand the very first year.”

For those with a mediocre grass pasture, inter-seeding a legume is an option. Finn suggests putting down some phosphorus with the legumes. Avoid nitrogen “because you don’t want these grasses getting the kick on and smothering in your legumes.”

Producers should also avoid grazing it for a whole year, he adds, even if it looks good. Many perennial crops fail because producers tax them too early. Grazing the first year slows root development, leading to winterkill.

Parting advice

“Don’t overcomplicate stuff. Just think about it simply.” For example, if a producer wants to cover crop annuals, they could start with cereals and peas.

He also suggests talking to neighbours about what they’re doing. Look for the “silent achievers” who are doing their own thing, don’t toot their own horns, but are happy to share their experiences.

Those growing crops should make friends with ranchers running livestock.

“We should be seeing a lot more young farmers coming into the cattle business and grain guys working together now.” Cattle can bring a lot of value to grain land, adding fertility and organic matter, and through the different root systems of forage plants. Finn sees potential in land sharing arrangements, where a rancher’s cattle are integrated into a rotation, grazing a quarter for a year or two before moving to the next quarter. Grain farmers worried about compaction can still offer their land for winter grazing, he adds.

Others are thinking about pairing farmers and ranchers, too. The Manitoba Grazing Exchange is expanding across Canada, seeking to match grain and livestock producers through its website at canadagrazingexchange.com.

Ag in Motion is slated for July 16-18, 2024, at Langham, Sask.

The post Finding a forage to fit your farm appeared first on Canadian Cattlemen.

“My job isn’t focusing on cover crops, but I think it’s always something I’m going to be interested in,” he says.

He’s been working in the cover cropping area of research for years since he started his master of science program at the University of Manitoba in 2019. At the time, Morrison and his supervising professor, Dr. Yvonne Lawley, created a survey asking questions about cover crops and sent it out to producers. Two-hundred-and-eleven producers responded, from a range of different operations, using cover crops in different ways. They sent out another survey in 2020 where 281 farmers from across the Prairies responded.

While conducting these surveys, Morrison looked at two different groups of producers — those who were growing cover crops for grazing, and those who didn’t intend to graze.

Grazing cover crops

Of all the people surveyed by Morrison, 62 per cent of all respondents had livestock, and 54 per cent had beef cattle.

He went on to say 50 per cent of grazing producers also intended to grow cash crops, compared to a third of respondents who wouldn’t be grazing.

Many people who are using cover crops for grazing start by intercropping, which means sowing two different crops together to maximize total yield. Cover cropping entails growing two or more crops together to cover the soil and improve soil health.

“I think they’re growing for longer throughout the season. So, we’re potentially seeing a bit more biomass and I think there’s more potential for, you know, changes to take place in the soil and such,” says Morrison.

In the survey, common reasons given for grazing cover crops included building soil health and financial gain. Financial gain as a motivation is more common for people in the cropping sector. However, 20 per cent of grazers were motivated by financial gain, as well.

“So really, what that’s telling me is that people are growing cover crops clearly more for environmental reasons at this point, rather than to necessarily see financial gains.”

Diversity

The difference between growing cover crops for grain versus for grazing is clear when looking at the types of plants grown in the cover crop, as well as how many are grown. Morrison says often when a cover crop is grown for grain, there are one or two types of plants in the cover crop, whereas for grazing, there are more frequently five or six crops. This means ranchers are often willing to pay more for their cover crop.

“For farmers that aren’t intending to graze, it’s really pretty simple mixes,” Morrison says. “What we see with those who intend to graze, the most common response was two to three species and the second-most common response is six to seven species. So, what we’re seeing here is really (for) farmers that intend to graze, they seem more likely to select more species, which are more diverse, and potentially willing to pay more for those mixes.”

Though most farmers surveyed say cover crops are helping to improve their soil health and they see an increase in soil organic matter, they also don’t know how it benefits them financially, especially for graziers who are spending more money on their mixes.

“When everything’s all aggregated together, 47 per cent of our farmers told us that they didn’t know how cover crops were impacting their bottom line. So to me, it’s really too early to say if farmers are seeing financial benefits,” Morrison says.

But the financial benefits become clearer after a producer uses a cover crop for a few years because 88 per cent of grazing respondents who grew cover crops saw positive benefits from the cover crops within the first three years.

“People who responded to our survey who wanted to graze, they seem to be seeing benefits quicker.”

Challenges

While Morrison says not being able to measure financial gain is one of the challenges of cover cropping, he says there are a few other challenges such as the short growing season. This is especially an issue for producers who want to harvest their cover crop instead of grazing it, as Morrison says sometimes producers are forced to graze their cover crops due to the weather.

“Occasionally, something wasn’t managed to be grazed that was in the end, or someone grew it with the intention of grazing but due to circumstances, it wasn’t.”

Other challenges are a lack of equipment, an absence of moisture in the fall and which herbicides to use and when.

Morrison says a large barrier for producers who want to get into cover cropping but don’t know where to start is a lack of information.

“So that kind of gets into, when you look at those who want to try growing cover crops, they say that technical assistance is the number one thing that would help them adopt cover crops.”

Advice

Although Morrison’s primary focus is on the annual crop side of cover cropping, he says grazing and non-grazing producers need to have the same things in mind when starting to use cover crops; primarily, a goal. Then producers can look into what opportunities they have to integrate cover crops on their farms.

“I think farmers should know that you don’t have to aim for the most complex cover crops. You don’t need to delve right into the deep end. There’s nothing wrong with starting simple and on a small number of your acres.”

He says producers should be flexible and constantly evaluate the work they’re doing on their operations to ensure growing cover crops is still what’s best for their operation. He says sometimes weather, the landscape, or the location can make or break whether cover crops work.

“I think that by starting small, you leave yourself that flexibility,” Morrison says.

“You may have every intention to grow a cover crop or adopt a certain practice. But don’t feel bad that every year will not give you the same opportunity.”

Future of cover crops

When Morrison started his research for his master’s degree, cover cropping wasn’t very common on the Prairies. Now, more and more producers are using it, and there’s funding for cover crop research.

“People’s knowledge that these things exist is a lot more common. There’s a lot more networks now, peer-to-peer farmers learning and talking to one another. So, I’d be interested to see kind of how things have changed.”

He says he’d be interested in doing another survey now to compare to the surveys he did in 2019 and 2020.

For now, Morrison is finishing off his thesis part-time while he works full-time for Manitoba Agriculture. And while he isn’t working in the cover crop area, he still has a fascination in the topic.

“I want people to know that I think cover crops are a tool to help you achieve things.”

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The Weston Family Foundation — the philanthropic arm of the Weston business empire — has slated $10 million for those eight projects through the organization’s soil health initiative, it was announced Feb. 13.

The initiative is tagged under the foundation’s “environmental stewardship” stream — a category mandated towards biodiversity improvement, research and sustainable agriculture. Other projects in the stream have funded ecological renewal around the Great Lakes and promoted grasslands.

The new soil health initiative was launched in spring 2022. Successful projects would help spread practices like cover cropping, 4R nutrient management or diverse crop rotations to increase soil organic matter, according to the foundation’s website.

In total, 38 organizations made a bid for the funding, said Eliza Mitchell, chair of the foundation’s conservation committee. Of those, 16 were invited to make a full proposal, with the final lineup decided by a review panel.

“Several [reviewers] were active farmers, but they all had experience in soil health management, some were involved in conservation…and they were all in fair agreement of the outstanding eight,” Mitchell said.

Those standouts “had a really clear focus and a really clear way forward,” she said. “The projects that showed a defined and clear approach on how they would successfully help shift producers towards greater adoption were given more weight.”

The list of chosen projects includes digital soil mapping tools for better nitrogen management, a farmer-led peer network, a reverse auction model to incentivize small grain and cover crop acres, research into cover crop best practices, benchmarking soil in Ontario’s Greenbelt, soil health outreach, a registry to help underpin markets for ecosystem service credits and Indigenous-led education for managing First Nations farmland.

The project list spreads funds widely nationwide, although Mitchell said that was more happy accident than part of the selection criteria. First project assessments were largely blind in terms of location, she noted.

The final list also spans both industry and academic perspectives, she said, pointing to the split of producer groups and universities singled out for funding. Half of the awardees are post-secondary institutions.

“There’s a lot of complexity in soil health and in rebuilding healthy, fertile soil, so there’s lots of ways of going at it. But we wanted to find projects that would help promote beneficial management practices, not just to the individuals involved, but hopefully communicate it out into the wider farming community,” Mitchell said.

— Alexis Stockford reports for the Manitoba Co-operator from Brandon.

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When most people think of British Columbia, they think of white-capped waves on the Pacific Ocean off the Sunshine Coast, the sweeping, snowy Coast Mountains of Whistler, or trees hung heavy with fruit in the Okanagan. 

Most people wouldn’t think of a landscape very similar to Alberta, with gently rolling hills divided by cropland, the whole region split by the Peace River. According to Nadia Mori, it’s a region that’s often overlooked.

But the area is being acknowledged with the Peace Region Living Lab.

Announced in July by federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, Living Labs is a federal initiative to have producers work with scientists and other collaborators and organizations to test innovative practices and technologies. Previously, the Living Labs were only in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island. Now, they have been expanded across the country, with an emphasis on agri-environmental issues.

The Peace Region Living Lab is unique, however, because it crosses the border into Alberta. Mori, the extension co-ordinator for the Living Lab, says pairing two provinces for a program is uncommon but is being done in the Peace because of the agricultural similarities of the regions in B.C. and Alberta.

Previously, Mori worked for 10 years as a forage and range extension specialist in Saskatchewan. When she got involved with the B.C. Forage Association, she saw an opportunity to continue the work she loved with the Living Lab.

“I was quite passionate about putting on things that could possibly be useful for farmers and ranchers,” Mori says. “And just help them have the knowledge that they need to make things go better on their operations.”

The Peace Region Living Lab focuses on a variety of different topics, such as lime application and vermicomposting. There’s also a large emphasis on the cattle industry, with the Living Lab exploring topics such as intercropping, cover cropping and rotational grazing.

Research topics 

Mori says the mission of the Living Lab is “enhancing agro-ecosystems in the Peace region,” while focusing on carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reduction.

“The carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission is sort of the overarching sheet that binds it all together,” she says.

Producers usually bring forward projects that they would like to see researched.

“The 55 producer projects that we have there, I would say every one is unique,” Mori says.

She says there are a variety of projects being done on many different topics. While some are seeing how they could rejuvenate a pasture or hayfield without breaking the soil to reseed, others are taking a deeper look at multi-paddock grazing and how quickly it might make an impact on the land. There are also projects comparing very dense bale grazing to a lower-density bale graze. These are some of the things producers in the area have expressed interest in learning.

Each project always comes back to the environment, however. Along with the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration focus, the Living Lab will be doing other things to focus on the environment, such as environmental co-benefits, which is finding other benefits that are a result of applying the best management practices, Mori explains.

Producer role

Living Labs take a unique approach to research by directly involving producers. The producer commits to joining the project for however long it may go on, and they provide some of their land to be used to conduct the experiments, trials and samples. In return, the producer gets to express exactly what they would like researched.

“The special thing about the Living Labs is that it’s producer-focused and driven,” Mori says. The producer works with a research team, which is assigned by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Mori says they can also pull in additional expertise, if need be, such as from agrologists or experts from nearby universities. 

Mori says the Peace Region Living Lab is also doing something different, with what she calls a “learning cluster.” This means that if something isn’t going as expected for a producer, the Living Lab can bring an expert to go out to the field with the producer. Neighbours who are also interested in the topic can join, and as a group, they can discuss what may be going wrong.

“Then we can have just a little session looking at what might be going on on that parcel,” Mori says. “And so, again, each producer can make this a very tailored experience, what would be helpful for them.”

Karin Schmid is a beef production and extension specialist with Alberta Beef Producers, which is heading the Alberta AgriSystems Living Lab, currently focusing on the Peace, west-central and southern Alberta.* She says the Living Lab gives researchers and industry experts a chance to work directly with producers in the field.

“It’s about looking to see what’s happening on the ground under actual production conditions,” Schmid says. “And so it also has producers involved every step of the way with their experts.”

Schmid adds the lab demonstrates the ways that beef and forage farmers, alongside crop producers, can expand on the work they’re already doing on their operations. Hand-in-hand with that, the Living Lab provides an opportunity to show whether what researchers say should work does work in the field and if geography or production systems play a part.

“I also think it could really create a community of like-minded producers interested in trying new things or tweaking existing practices who can share experiences, learn from each other and better others,” she says.

Soil sampling and mapping

Although Food and Water Wellness is more involved with other Living Labs in Alberta, Kimberly Cornish, director of the organization, says they also wanted to provide the same service to the Peace Region Living Lab as the other ones: predictive soil mapping and metre-deep soil sampling.

To map the soils, they use their soil samples to create maps of soil variables from 60 sites in the region. Cornish says they use 60 layers of data to determine the most efficient places to sample.

“When that sample is taken, it can be extrapolated without a lot of noise, because it’s already kind of correlated to all of those layers of data,” Cornish says. “And then we add in another 200 layers of remotely sensed data across the growing seasons to create those carbon maps and bulk density maps.”

They will take samples from all the different sites in the Peace region, as well as a few additional sites.

“They’ll be able to have a carbon map for the entire peace region as an outcome of the project, as opposed to just data on the specific farms and the Living Lab that they’re working on,” Cornish says.

The future

The Peace Region Living Lab is just starting. The first year of the five-year project was spent as an establishment year, gathering baseline data. Mori explains funding was approved late in the year, after farmers had already made plans and the cropping season was well underway.

However, 2023 will see the practices implemented. Mori says they will also have at least seven or eight field tours every summer, put on by the different groups involved with the lab.

Schmid says there are indications the Alberta AgriSystems Living Lab could get extended past the five years, but even with only the five years, she believes they can create change with the work they’ll do through the lab.

“I think, hopefully, we’ll eventually be able to provide some direction around government policy solutions to climate resilience that are practical for producers.”

As a resident of the Peace region, Mori takes pride in the work taking place on the Living Lab — both on the B.C. and Alberta sides. Although the government has emphasized the importance of the environmental work that will come out of these Living Labs, Mori says it’s also important to recognize and build on the environmental work producers are already doing.

“I feel as a producer, you always get these new buzzwords shot at you, like very recently it was ‘regenerative agriculture’ and before that it was ‘sustainable’,” she says. “I sense that producers are pretty tired of this … I think at the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is just help the producer have an easier time to make the bottom line work, as it’s not easy being out there, with all the change that’s being thrown at you.”

She says if they can find ways to help producers improve how their farms operate, then that is just as important.

“If we can help a little bit with that, then I think we’ve been successful.”

*Update: This story originally stated the Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) were involved in the Peace Region Living Lab. ABP is not involved with the Peace Region Living Lab, but is heading the Alberta AgriSystems Living Lab, which is present in the Peace region, as well as southern and west-central Alberta. We regret the error.

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Cedric MacLeod with the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) says a few people at CFGA took a mentorship program from the Canadian Cattle Association in 2003-2006. Since then, MacLeod says he’s always wanted to be involved with one himself, so he jumped on the chance when Farmers for Climate Solutions reached out.

“I went to work and basically built out what I thought a program would look like in the modern day and age,” MacLeod says. “And then (Farmers for Climate Solutions) did manage to find a pot of money and called us up and said, ‘Do you want to do it?’ and I said, ‘We are ready to roll.’”

MacLeod says the program was designed to provide mentors with the knowledge and tools they need to consistently support growers and to help build out grazing plans.

“One thing that we identified as a bit of a gap in grazing is certainly as a science, but it’s also a lot of art mixed in like a lot of things in agriculture,” he says. “And different advisors have different approaches. We want to just create a bit of a standardized approach that people could choose to use if they were experienced and had their own system.”

Mentors were chosen by provincial forage and cattle associations, such as Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiatives and Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association. These associations reached out to people they knew were active in the grazing community to see if they had an interest in mentoring.

Producers interested can work with a mentor — or do the entire class using online resources. MacLeod says whatever gets producers interested in the class is equally as important.

“Most talk about the first post being the most difficult to pound. And knowing where to pound that first post is the very first hurdle to get through,” MacLeod says. “This program will help you to identify where to pound that first post…we’ve got all the tools to support growers in advancing their grazing systems and we were excited to use it.”

The grazing stream isn’t the only mentorship program, however.

Karen Klassen is an executive director with Manitoba Organic Alliance and a Manitoba farmer who is heavily involved with the cover cropping mentorship program.

“Because I’m going to help run it, I thought I would also be a mentor,” Klassen says. “So I’m kind of involved on both higher-level training organization part of it and have been on the ground actually doing the mentorship just so I can get a feel for how it works on the ground, in real life, and get some feedback.”

Klassen explains that there are mentors all over the country involved with the class, meaning producers who are interested in taking it will be able to have access to a mentor within their province.

As a mentor herself, Klassen hosted a farm tour in July with the program. She says it drew both conventional farmers and organic farmers, as well as farmers who have never grown a cover crop.

“It was a really, really good experience for me as a mentor, just because I’m getting out of it as much as I’m putting in from the learning aspect of it,” she says.

Cover cropping is a technique used by both grain farmers and cattle ranchers and is a growing area of interest for many producers. Klassen says that’s a reason why it’s important to offer experiences such as the mentorship program.

“I think there’s so much evidence about the value of cover cropping and the value it adds to your farm, to soil health,” she says. “The ecological benefits, both from an environmental point of view, if you’re a hardcore environmentalist or even if you’re just profit-driven,” Klassen says.

All of the FaRM programs offered by Farmers for Climate Solutions are free. Although 2022 has been the pilot year, both Klassen and MacLeod plan to continue.

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Of course, that day McCord finally gets some rain, sending everyone running from the Gavelins’ cover-cropping field and back onto the bus.

Calvin Gavelin, Marla’s husband, says they never expected such a large crowd at their first field day, but put it down it to people’s interest in the topic — holistic management.

“People want to learn it on the field scale, and from a farmer,” he says. “Saturday night, that crowd, we were supposedly done at eight o’clock, they were still there at 11 o’clock. Discussions were going strong.”

The next day, there were over 40 people back again, he adds, as “people wanted more.”

A rough start

The Gavelins’ holistic management approach focuses on cover crops, which are a variety of plants that are grown to protect and cover the soil.

Gavelin watched a friend in his area grow cover crops in 2017. Like many people, he was initially skeptical. However, when he saw how beneficial the cover crop turned out to be, his opinion changed.

In 2019, they planted their own cover crop, but when they received hail that summer which wiped out the entire field, Gavelin thought they were done for. 

“We actually got hailed out 100 per cent in July. It was very gut-wrenching, I didn’t know what to do with it. But it came back, and it rallied hard. And that field set up our whole herd for the 2019 winter. And it was amazing. It was the first time in my life that I never started a tractor for the majority of the winter. The cows were out there grazing it. They were happy, content, in great shape,” he says.

“That first year when we got hailed out 100 per cent on that field, I thought I wasted my time. But that crop turned around and showed me the potential.”

In 2020, the Gavelins took a holistic management course alongside many of their neighbours. The course is offered by Ralph Corcoran and runs over six days for a group of people who live in the same area to establish goal-setting, financial planning, as well as pasture and land planning.

“It was very rewarding,” Gavelin says. “It was very life-changing for our operation.

“They’re not a set of principles. It’s more an idealism that you can use in any industry or any occupation that you do. So it’s just the walking through the processes.”

According to Holistic Management International, the form holistic management may take (for example, cover cropping, intensive rotational grazing, etc.) depends on the producer and their operation’s needs. The website states that holistic management practices can increase water infiltration and retention, create more food and fibre from the sun by increasing land productivity, improve wildlife ground cover and increase organic matter in the soil as well as bring more carbon from the atmosphere into the soil.

Spreading the word

Near McCord, Sask., the group that took Corcoran’s course on holistic management didn’t stop after the course was done. From there, they created the group Prairie South Holistic Management to show other people the benefits they’ve reaped from holistic management.

In June 2022, they hosted their first conference and field tour.

“It was a little mind-boggling and nerve-wracking for our first time,” Gavelin says. “It’s the power of sharing information amongst us. That is more rewarding than anything, because having the ability to discuss opportunities for your farm, and even seeding alternatives, that just made our operations a little stronger.”

Their group varies in the types of people as well, and has changed since they’ve taken the course.

“We’ve had people ask to join and we’ve let them join,” Gavelin says. “We’re basically proponents of how well this is doing. And we’re a variety of age ranges too. We have people that are next to retirement, we have people with young families like myself, or other couples. It works for all of us.”

Gavelin’s focus is on cover crops, but different people in the group concentrate on different aspects of holistic management.

Gavelin has seen some of the benefits holistic management cites, particularly when it comes to soil.

“What we’re finding with our cover crops, the ones that we grazed last year, there was also a soil health benefit that I never expected,” Gavelin says. “And when we did our fertility test last fall, when I hired Nutrien to do it, they were very skeptical of that. But when the results came back in that field, the cover crop that we grazed in October is actually sowing 30 pounds more and the biological activity of the soil is higher, and the CO2 levels are higher. That cover crop is doing more than just feeding my cows, the soil is improving.”

Also because of all the different nutrients offered in his diverse cover crops, he has seen an improvement in his cattle herd.

“When we preg-checked in September, the vet was just over the moon excited about our conception rates. Because none of our neighbours or even anybody in the country was even close to it. And she said, ‘What are you doing differently?’ And I said, ‘Well, they were grazing cover crops,’” Gavelin says.

Gavelin says they were also putting on more weight on the cover crops than they had on normal vegetation.

Not only that, but the cover crops persisted through the brutal drought of 2021.

“And then when we had some August rains, it just flourished. And that 80-acre field produced enough feed for five-and-a-half weeks for my 200-head operation. They started grazing October 1, and the economics of it and the drought, that field paid for itself many times over.

“Even last year’s drought, taking the risk has proven itself that it was very rewarding, because when all my monocultures were dead, my cover crop flourished. So when people come and see that, then they can relate it back to their operations. And then they can take the chance whether it’s five acres or 10 acres or whatever they’re willing to trust or even commit to, it gives them the opportunity to look at it.”

Kevin Elmy, based in Saltcoats, Sask., is a cover crop consultant for Imperial Seed, and also runs Cover Crops Canada.

“When we look at nature, nature never has a monoculture. And this is what we’ve been trying to do for the last 100 years in the Prairies,” Elmy says. Through cover crops, “we’re creating a really strong ecosystem that’s going to build our soil biology and create better feed for animals.”

Elmy echoes Gavelin’s statement that people are often skeptical of how well cover crops work before they see them. He says this is because of the fluid nature of cover cropping.

“When we start talking about cover cropping, there’s no recipe saying this is the blend to use,” Elmy says. “Whether it’s different parts of the province or the Prairies, or different soil types, different climate types, seeding equipment, all of these different variables, people want that button saying ‘This is how we grow canola. This is the recipe, that’s how we do it.’ When we look at cover cropping, it takes into account so many more variables that you know you’re going to have to work on developing that blend for you. You’re going to be able to go in and modify your plans to match the conditions.”

Benefits beyond the field

Switching to holistic management practices and cover cropping hasn’t just helped Calvin Gavelin’s farm, though. It’s also helped his relationship with his wife and his kids.

“Just walking through the processes on our operation has actually strengthened the bond between myself and my wife. And holistic management and doing cover crops, my kids are actually excited to be out there in the field. They’re out there themselves. They’re asking to move cattle because they’re excited to go out there. They’re excited to see the variety of plants that we’re seeding.

“So that first year when we winter-grazed those cover crops, that was the first time that I actually had time for my kids, whether it was skating or other winter activities. I wasn’t feeding cows all the time.”

Interest is growing, too. Elmy says more people are getting into cover cropping all the time, and that is echoed in the interest Gavelin has seen on his farm. With people constantly asking to check out his plots, Gavelin will now be involved with a Living Lab.

Announced by federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau in July, Living Labs bring together farmers and scientists to address agri-environmental issues. Two Living Labs will be coming to Saskatchewan — and Gavelin will reach people interested in cover cropping through it.

“I have people asking me to do this for the next five years, to do cover crop plots. And they just want to see it, or they want to experience it. And it’s industry asking that,” he says, adding that “everybody wants to know what’s actually going on. And I said, ‘The only way to know it is to start data collection.’”

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As cover cropping gains interest, producers are looking at different types of plants that might work well to produce a diverse crop for grazing.

Because nature doesn’t favour monocrops, cover crops and intercrops are more resistant to drought-like conditions, cover cropping proponent say. With a drought that persisted through 2020, 2021, and into 2022 in certain areas of Canada, resisting drought is important to producers’ livelihood. There are certain plants producers can seed that will help in drought times.

At the holistic management conference hosted by Prairie South Holistic Management near McCord, Sask. at the end of June, Avery Shepherd spoke about using sunflowers in cover crops. Shepherd is a bison producer and Imperial Seed rep based near Livelong, Sask. He says sunflowers are a good crop to plant in times of drought because they retain moisture.  

“They’ve got a deep fibrous root system,” Shepherd says. “They pull moisture up. And they associate highly with mycorrhizal fungi. They help build up that component of the soil. And through mycorrhizal fungi, they can actually share their nutrients and moisture with other plants.”

Shepherd says in 2021, his own mixed crops — mostly barley crop mixtures that had a few sunflowers — performed better than the rest of their crops. He gives credit to the sunflowers for helping the crop thrive despite the dry weather.

However, Shepherd says to best use sunflowers, they need to be grown in a blend with a variety of other plants.

“They’re best grown with a group of other species,” he says. “On their own, there wouldn’t be an advantage. But grown with other species, you can use the synergistic effect of all the plants to gain a bit of an advantage in a drought situation.”

Kevin Elmy, based at Saltcoats, Sask., is also an Imperial Seed consultant and the founder of Cover Crops Canada. He agrees with Shepherd on how to use sunflowers, and adds that he also grows sunflowers in his cover crops. 

According to Elmy, livestock will consume the sunflowers eventually.

“At first, they’re not all that excited about it,” he says. “For ourselves, I was custom grazing bison, and they didn’t touch them until November. And then about November second or third, we got a really hard frost on them. Then, by the seventh of November, (the sunflowers) were all gone. They ate all of them on three quarters.”

However, because sunflowers retain so much moisture and oil, they are usually best used for grazing and not hay.

“If you’re going to try and do dry hay, it’s a bit of a problem because they have a fairly coarse stem,” Elmy says. “So the dry down can be a bit of an issue.”

Producers also should keep an eye out for soil-borne diseases that can affect sunflowers. Otherwise, Elmy says the positives outweigh the negatives.

“The biggest concern is if you’re going to hay it, keep the rates extremely low. Otherwise, if you’re going to use it for grazing or silage, absolutely. They’re inexpensive seeds to get the seeds per square foot. And they’re something that we don’t have in our rotation. So it’s going to add plant diversity…So if we can have great blends that are going to be building soil, we’re going to be a lot friendlier on the rumen and we’re going to have better gains and we are going to have less methane, better feed, all of those things that we’re looking for in livestock production.”

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DSV (Deutsche Saatveredelung) announced last week it has reached a deal in early April to buy up all shares of Northstar Seed, which is based at Neepawa, Man. with an Alberta office at Okotoks.

Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close “within the coming months,” were not disclosed.

DSV, based at Lippstadt, east of Dortmund, said in a release April 26 it will be “able to enrich our portfolio with new genetics, including alfalfa, to serve our customers worldwide even better.”

DSV is already a joint owner with another German seed firm, NPZ-Lembke, in Manitoba-based canola and pea seed breeding firm DL Seeds.

“Through this acquisition, DSV will not only be managing (its) own seed multiplication areas in Canada and North America, but also gaining access to the Canadian as well as the North and South American retail market, thus enlarging its footprint into the Americas significantly,” the company said.

Northstar founders Don Pollock and Rob Wolfe said in the same release that under DSV’s ownership “we are certain that we can expand our business worldwide — a true win-win situation for both companies.”

Founded by alfalfa seed growers in 1982, privately-held Northstar today produces, sells and distributes Canadian-grown forage, turf, cover crop and native grass seed, as well as leafcutter bees and equipment.

Northstar has said it “continues to expand its activities” selling into markets in North and South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. It also takes part in research and development programs internationally “to ensure that we remain on the cutting edge of plant breeding and genetics.”

DSV, meanwhile, bills itself as one of Germany’s leading plant breeding and seed companies, with gross revenues of over 210 million euros (C$284 million) per year.

DSV, which produces seed for grasses, corn, cereals, oilseed rape and cover crops, has stakes in “well-known” companies in the seed industry in Germany and elsewhere, as well as its own subsidiaries in Denmark, the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Poland, Argentina and Ukraine. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The agreement will make it easier for CHS’s 75,000 farmer-members to enrol in Bayer’s Carbon Program, an early leader in the drive to encourage farmers to capture carbon by planting off-season crops, tilling the ground less and use fertilizer more efficiently.

It also expands the program from 17 states to 21, the companies said.

The Bayer Carbon Program pays growers up to $9 an acre for planting cover crops and reducing soil tillage. Farmers in the program log their practices on digital platforms to generate a carbon credit.

Agricultural companies use the credits to offset the climate impact of other parts of their businesses or sell them to companies looking to reduce their own carbon footprints.

It is the latest collaboration between large agricultural firms racing to sign up acres for carbon sequestration, or trapping atmosphere warming carbon underground, and environmental credit trading programs.

Some farmers have embraced the carbon programs as a welcome new stream of revenue and a potentially powerful tool to combat climate change. Others have voiced suspicion that companies will collect farming data that will be used to sell them more products.

CHS will pay its members an additional $3 an acre for enrolling in Bayer’s program and purchasing certain products such as “enhanced-efficiency fertilizers.” Payments will be distributed in the fourth quarter of 2022, CHS said.

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