Editor’s note: This week, September 22-28, 2014, is national organic week. This post is dedicated to all 3 organic producers that read this site. Thank you for following along! “My dad let me do things my way, so I’m doing the same for them,” laughs Josef Hagen, when asked what pushed his dairy farm near… Read More
The possible arrival of the first widespread killing frost in Western Canada this week has implications for livestock producers looking to maximize feed quality for their animals. Freezing temperatures can cause nitrates to accumulate in cereal species grown for greenfeed, which can be toxic to cattle (more info here on the SaskAg website.) However, management… Read More
Knowing what species to establish, when to plant them and what nutrients they require is certainly crucial for establishing a good pasture stand, but there’s one thing that’s perhaps a little less obvious but equally important: what, exactly, do the numbers on your forage seed mixture mean? According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s regulations, forage… Read More
Good forage makes money, but poor forage is money lost. Tom Kilcer, of Advanced Ag Systems in Kinderhook, NY, has spent years researching forage production, forage quality, and livestock performance. Here’s what he’s learned. Contrary to common assumptions, forage does not dry by the same mechanisms from start to finish. They are, in fact, three… Read More
By Cheyenne Stapley This post first appeared on Stapley’s blog Little Prairie Baby. Visit the blog here. Editor’s note: According to the ESRD, there are currently 980 feral horses on the Southern East Slopes alone; it is suspected this number is actually low. Currently in Alberta there are capture permits out to cull some of… Read More
Should you stick with silage specific hybrids or include a few (or more) dual purpose lines for good measure? Both strategies can work, says Aaron Stevanus, market agronomist for PRIDE Seeds, it simply depends on your management system. Leafy, highly digestible silage-specific lines are a great choice, especially near the barn on highly fertile ground,… Read More
Ah, Artemesia absinthium. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of being acquainted with absinth wormwood, you’ll likely never forget it. Many describe the plant by its appearance and odor, both likened to pasture sage. Absinth’s odor is strong, however, and in my experience, the pollen profoundly irritates the respiratory system. In fact, you can quite… Read More
It’s time to get down, get your hands dirty and take stock of, well, what you feed your stock. As discussed in the last Beef Research School, rangelands serve several purposes beyond just growing grass, and their health is a measure of five key components — species mix, nutrient cycling, site stability, water management and… Read More
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” While this business principle seems to apply more to hard numbers and bushels per acre, it applies just as perfectly to rangeland production. Beyond just grass tonnage or pounds of growth per acre, there are several other outputs of rangeland production that should be assessed, measured… Read More
When you’ve got many hungry mouths to feed, efficiency counts. And while a big tractor or TMR mixer may help, the process of creating rations and feeding cattle can be made faster and more efficient through the use of a piece of equipment engineered specifically for the task at hand. The Faresin Ecomdoe self-loading TMR… Read More
What’s tall and showy and a new silage option for Alberta ranchers? Sorghum Sudan grass! The crop is a warm season, fast growing, high nitrogen user that, as silage, is capturing the attention of silage users in Alberta, now that varieties are coming along to better fit the growing area. As Vern Turchyn, of Viterra,… Read More
If your grain-farming neighbour is wincing at crop prices and that makes you smile, you might be a cattle producer. And so begins a series of events and conditions converging to support solid cattle prices for the near term. As you’ll hear in this interview with Anne Wasko, of Gateway Livestock, cattlement are enjoying strong… Read More
In the last Beef Research School episode, we took a virtual walk through a riparian area to assess its health. Healthy riparian areas, that transitional zone from pasture to waterway, are critical to decreasing riverbank erosion and nutrient migration to waterways. Once you’ve determined the general health of your riparian areas, it’s time to put… Read More
Well-managed pastures can produce good yields for years, but will produce best if fertility of those pastures is planned for the long-term. Big producing pastures require big fertility numbers, though grazing helps to cycle these nutrients back to the soil. Over-grazing, too low or high stocking densities and time all can begin to mine pasture… Read More
Canada’s Farm Progress Show is a great event to take in if you’re looking for neat new pieces of equipment to make life on the farm easier and more productive. The show even hands out awards to those inventions that offer a new way to tackle an old job. Haukaas Manufacturing, based at Mortlach, Sask.,… Read More