Ryan Boyd, who farms with wife Sarah and parents Jim and Joanne Boyd, is that young man.

The Boyd family has been farming near Forrest, just north of Brandon for nearly 70 years. Ryan and Sarah met at the University of Manitoba where both were studying agriculture. Today their family’s mixed farm includes over 400 cows, 1,400 acres of perennial pasture and 2,000 acres of crop. In addition, Sarah is a grower for a garden centre operation owned by her family.

There are many parts to this success story in sustainability, but these five areas of management focus stand out.

Soil improvement

The farm thinks above and below ground management. Nearly a third of the tillable acres is devoted to perennial forage. Grazing helps maximize the benefits to the soil, and keeps nutrients on the field. Improving soil organic matter enables greater nutrient cycling and availability, and enhances water-holding capacity, biological activity and soil structure.

Short grazing sessions and long recovery periods give plants time to develop abundant root mass. Bale grazing spreads nutrients and residue on pasture, which has improved yields, animal performance and decreased salinity.

Stubble grazing also helps with the nutrient cycle and hoof action speeds up residue decomposition. The small amount of manure in corrals is composted and applied to fields. And high-density grazing controls weeds.

The farm has used zero tillage for about 15 years and the Boyds are convinced that has increased fertilizer efficiency and soil structure. “Fields withstand more traffic in wet years and have better moisture efficiency in dry years,” says Boyd.

Crop rotations are carefully planned to break disease and weed cycles. Forage fields that are rotated into croplands are the most productive cropping fields. All fields are soil tested to monitor nutrients and adjust the fertilizer program.

Erosion control

Residue is left on the soil surface following grazing and after harvest of grain crops, eliminating wind erosion and greatly minimizing water erosion. Creek bottoms in fields have been left in grass to avoid water erosion.

Water management

Every effort is made to promote infiltration of precipitation to avoid problems related to run-off. The perennial rotation utilizes subsoil moisture and enhances soil water-holding capacity, reducing salinity and the need for surface drainage. All riparian areas are fenced off and grazed only briefly. Cattle are watered off site using solar water pumps and pasture pipelines.

Natural lands management

The farm has a real focus on managing natural lands for improving native vegetation and their grazing program has helped protect native tress and provide wildlife habitat. The result is abundant wildlife such as deer, geese, ducks and coyotes. Since intensive grazing was started, prairie chicken populations have increased.

Energy, conservation and management

Zero tillage has reduced fuel usage in the field, and recently the family began straight cutting canola, avoiding swathing. Bale grazing reduces fuel usage for processing hay, and bale grazing and long grazing rotations have allowed pasture productivity to be increased without energy-intensive commercial fertilizers.

In addition, portable watering systems use wind and solar power to water cattle. And new technology added this year is an energy-free cattle waterer that uses ground heat to stay thawed in winter.

Benefits and challenges

There are many benefits to thinking in conservation terms but many challenges ahead for the farming industry in meeting those needs, according to Ryan Boyd.

“The challenge is that the benefits of soil conservation are not always immediate as it takes time for the living soil system to get up and running,” he says. “The financial demands of farming are challenging and patience is required because in the long term, soil conservation will always pay.”

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“National Soil Conservation

Week allows us to celebrate this success and keep soils in the public eye.”

– GLEN SHAW

Farm soils are moving up the radar of public interest. Long the forgotten child of the environmental movement, there is growing evidence that soils are becoming of greater interest to the general public and the farmers and ranchers who manage them, says the Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC).

“People generally are much more interested in where their food comes from today and much more environmentally aware,” says Glen Shaw, executive director of SCCC, as the organization celebrates National Soil Conservation Week, April 18 to 24, 2010. “On the farming side, producers are very conscious of the value that soil quality and farming systems represents to their business today and the value of their farm in the future.”

DIRECT SEEDING: Reducing or eliminating tillage is one of many ways farmers can look after soil.

Likely the biggest driver of this trend nationally is low-tillage farming systems, says Shaw. Minimumtillage or no-tillage systems use minimal soil disturbance. Unlike soil management systems of previous generations which tilled the soil extensively each

year, these direct-seeding systems plant through the crop residue of the previous year.

That farming approach leaves a healing mulch of organic material that protects the soil surface, holds moisture and helps prevent wind and water erosion. The soil cover results in more insects and other soil life which in turn attracts other species up the food chain, resulting in greater biodiversity.

Across Canada farmers are building on this renewed interest in sustainability to develop marketing relationships that add value to their farms and their industry. There has also been a corresponding increase in new technologies, research and management systems that meet these production and marketing goals.

“National Soil Conservation Week allows us to celebrate this success and keep soils in the public eye,” says Shaw. “It also allows us to focus on the need for continual improvement. There is still farmland that is not being managed effectively. Some is overtilled, has too many nutrients applied to it and there is still much to be learned about continually improving soil quality in

ALLAN DAWSON

the evolution of cropping systems.”

It’s why SCCC is a charter supporter of National Soil Conservation Week and why the values of soil management are more important every year, says Shaw. One way that is acknowledged each year by the organization is to recognize “soils champions,” producers and others from across Canada who represent the goals and successes of the soil conservation movement.

“These people provided leadership when these soil management systems were not as popular as they are today,” adds Shaw. “That’s another reason to salute their efforts. Hopefully in doing so, we remind farmers and ranchers and the general public of the value of well-managed soil to everyone.”

Articles on the 2010 soil champions and soil conservation in general, are available on the SCCC website www.soilcc.ca,says Shaw.

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