“It should be holding water,” said Sean Murphy of the land — currently bone dry and shorn for hay after a summer of drought.

Murphy runs cattle on about 2,500 acres near Souris in western Manitoba.

Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) worked with Murphy to fill a drainage ditch dug in the 1970s, which drained the land into Plum Creek, it said in an Oct. 21 news release. The 63-acre project is the biggest conservation agreement of its kind with DUC.

Once there’s water to hold, the marsh will fill and contain at least a bit of water year round, said Murphy. If it gets too full, water will spill over the top of the dam.

In a way he’s undoing his father’s work, done in a very different time. Murphy told the Co-operator that in the late 1960s and ’70s, farms to the west of their ranch were draining.

“Our farmland was completely flooded,” he said. “Our farm was just a holding pond.

“They had to do something,” he added.

Over time, conditions changed and now Murphy admits there’s been too much drainage. He said he’s happy to plug the ditch and hang on to some of the water.

Ideally, the centre of the land will hold standing water, wicking into the rest of the marshy ground and spurring hay growth, he said. Cattails and other pond-loving plants will provide cover for birds and insects.

“Like a sponge, wetlands hold winter moisture through the spring and early summer,” said Kylie Nielsen, the conservation project specialist who worked with Murphy on the project.

“By August, water levels will drop, allowing Sean to hay a portion of the acres,” she said in an email. “Restoring a wetland also restores the ecosystem by providing shelter and food for waterfowl and wildlife, filtering water and mitigating the effects of drought and flooding.”

The move was a family decision. Murphy, a dad of five, farms with his three sons. They’ve been transitioning the ranch to an organic operation, which, he said, requires more water.

Murphy said he’s been building a relationship with DUC over the past few years. He used to own a restaurant in Souris, and DUC would hold regional meetings there. He and his sons kept hearing DUC ads on the radio, and after talking it over, decided to give them a call.

The meeting resulted in a 10-year plan for the 63 acres, and Murphy says he’d be happy to extend it another 10 years. It aligns completely with his goals for the land.

This isn’t Murphy’s first collaboration with a conservation group. Earlier this year, his local watershed district helped him put a small weir, or dam, in Plum Creek to retain water for his cattle to drink.

“Water was an issue this summer. A lack of it,” he said.

DUC and Murphy have another, smaller project in the works which Murphy said will dam up another old drainage ditch. That project awaits co-operation from Manitoba Highways, as it borders a provincial roadway, said Nielsen.

Murphy’s farm sits within the Prairie Pothole Region. According to Ducks Unlimited, in some areas of the region, 70 per cent of Prairie pothole wetlands have been destroyed by changing land use.

The post Souris rancher takes on massive water-retention project appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“When you’re in the field every day, you see how much habitat is being lost. That always pushed me to work even harder to save the natural landscape,” said Babee, who worked for Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) for 36 years.

In September, DUC unveiled a plaque at the site, south of Riding Mountain National Park, to commemorate Babee’s retirement, DUC said in a Sept. 24 news release.

Babee worked out of Dauphin, Minnedosa and Brandon and contributed to conservation projects across Manitoba.

He grew up on a farm near Dauphin and worked with DUC as a summer student in the 1980s, DUC said in an article on its website.

“I was always in awe of the fall migration,” Babee said in the article. “The sight of all those ducks and geese flying over. And the sounds!”

He joined DUC full time in 1985 and helped landowners conserve, restore and manage wetlands and grasslands to benefit waterfowl, wildlife and people.

“I love working outdoors,” Babee said. “It’s not just about the ducks but about the upland critters, too. You don’t get to see those kinds of results when you’re working at a desk job.”

Babee said his favourite pro­ject is the carp exclusion at Delta Marsh near Portage la Prairie.

In partnership with the Manitoba government, DUC created dikes and screens to prevent invasive carp from entering Delta Marsh from Lake Manitoba, where they disrupt aquatic vegetation vital to waterfowl and marsh biodiversity, DUC said.

“To see all those carp in the channels… so many you could almost walk across the water,” Babee recalled. “To keep them out has made a big impact on the health of Delta Marsh.”

In the mid-1990s, Babee began work on a quarter section of land southwest of Riding Mountain National Park, near Erickson. The land, which DUC obtained through a dispersal sale, had been drained and overfarmed but Babee cultivated 120 acres of prairie grasses and restored 40 acres of wetlands.

“We knew the waterfowl would come back,” he said.

Twenty-five years later, ducks and pelicans have made the marsh home, DUC wrote on its website. Prairie grasses are waist-high in some spots.

The commemorative plaque on the land reads, in part, “This wetland project reflects the integrity, innovation and commitment Glenn showed during a career devoted to conserving and enhancing our precious wetlands.”

The post Ducks Unlimited names 160 acres for Manitoba conservationist appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In late March, Cargill and McDonald’s Canada, along with DUC, announced $5 million to transition a target 125,000 acres of less productive farmland from annual crops to forage or pasture by 2025.

The companies have said they will provide $1.25 million to the program over five years, with DUC filling in $3.75 million.

Why it matters: Farmland trends more commonly have hayfields and pastures converted to annual crops than the other way around.

The companies and DUC have tied the project to carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat preservation and water quality improvements.

Courtney Hall, senior sustainability manager with Cargill, said the announcement comes under the company’s work on sustainable grazing. The company identified four key points as part of its BeefUp Sustainability Initiative — sustainable grazing, food waste reduction, feed innovation and regenerative agriculture in row crops.

The BeefUp Sustainability Initiative has a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across their North American beef supply chain by 30 per cent by 2030.

“With BeefUp, we are really looking for partners that are working in the conservation field that have the expertise on working with ranchers or farmers on delivering really good environmental programs with excellent benefits and Ducks Unlimited had over 10 years of experience working on this forage conversion program,” she said. “So we wanted to work together and say, ‘OK, what is possible if we bring our two organizations together with McDonald’s Canada?’”

Nuts and bolts

Projects got their first shot of that funding in the 2020 growing season.

“We’re super excited about the additional partnership with Cargill and McDonald’s,” Scott Stephens, DUC director of operations in the Prairies and boreal region, said. “It really lets us expand and do more acres with more producers across the three Prairie provinces.”

DUC markets the program based on financial incentives (such as a per-acre payment for enrolled producers) as well as added forage or grazing capacity.

In Manitoba, those payments add up to $50 an acre if the producer agrees to keep the land in forage for 10 years and $90 an acre for a 15-year agreement, provincial program manager Ken Gross said.

A deal with Nutrien potentially adds another cost incentive, according to both Stephens and Gross.

“If producers decide to use Nutrien seed, they can receive up to another $20 an acre,” Gross said.

That payment is on top of the per-acre payment.

Most producers commit around 80 acres, and up to 300 acres on the upper end, according to Gross.

“The typical goal would be that we’re kind of enrolling quarter sections or fields in the traditional Forage Program,” Stephens said.

The program is one of two operated by DUC oriented around replacing crops on marginal land with forage or pasture. DUC also operates a Marginal Areas Program (meant for smaller parcels of unproductive land, such as saline patches). That program is separate and comes with a $125-an-acre payment, Gross said.

The Forage Program does not keep a tight rein on forage species and generally follows the producer’s lead on which forage types best fit their needs, according to Stephens.

Manitoba typically has the lowest enrolled acres of the Prairie provinces, Stephens noted, largely due to a smaller eligible area.

The Manitoba program is targeted at the southwestern part of the province. The program does not consider any parcels east of west-central Manitoba.

Stephens said eligibility is largely driven by the funds used to pay for the program.

“Those areas that we have identified on the maps, those are kind of driven by some of the biodiversity benefits and some of the other partner funding that comes to the table,” he said.

In particular, he said, specific funding out of the U.S. leans towards migratory bird impacts best seen in the Forage Program’s current eligibility zones.

Gross said almost 70 producers and over 5,000 acres were enrolled in the province last year. He expects more to enrol this year, given the bigger program.

“I think it’s been a pretty popular program option,” he said. “I’ve heard from cattle producers that it’s nice to hear a different market signal, to provide them with some incentive to keep the land in grass or to restore it to grass.”

The post DUC forage program brings in the green appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Western Winter Wheat Initiative agronomist Ken Gross said conditions are ideal for the crop’s first flush, despite the dry conditions that have plagued Manitoba this growing season.

“As far as getting winter wheat into the ground, it may be difficult if producers haven’t already harvested some canola or, perhaps, oats out east, but if they have a field open, it’s perfect growing conditions for winter wheat,” he said.

Winter wheat acres have plummeted in Manitoba, but agronomists pushing the crop hope to reverse that trend with better agronomy, plus good growing conditions this fall.

Parts of western Manitoba and some patches of the east saw over 50 millimetres of rain Aug. 24-27, according to Manitoba Agriculture. A further swath northeast from Hamiota and into the Interlake near Moosehorn saw between 40 and 50 millimetres, some of the only substantial rains to fall on that area of the Interlake this year. Those storms missed most of the southern Interlake, however. Another storm system Sept. 4 brought almost 40 millimetres to the Brandon area.

Rains have slowed harvest, but few of the producers Gross has spoken to are worried about getting stuck. The dry soil has quickly absorbed the rain and producers are soon back in the field, he said.

Reversing course?

Gross says winter wheat may be poised for resurgence. It’s been on the decline in recent years, with only 130,000 acres in 2017 compared to 615,000 acres in 2013, according to MASC.

Winterkill further whittled acreage and hit yields last year. MASC reported only 34,000 harvested acres in 2018, 32 per cent lower than the 10-year average. Fields that survived averaged 56 bushels an acre, also well below the 65-bushels average in the previous decade.

“I see a lot of interest in it again this fall,” Gross said. “Producers are seeing some of the yields that we’re getting.”

Field trials near Roblin and Winnipeg returned over 100 bushels an acre this year, while AAC Wildfire, a relatively new variety on the market, has been yielding 123 bushels an acre.

The province has reported slightly lower numbers. The provincial crop report noted yields between 60 and 70 bushels an acre in central Manitoba and 60 to 75 bushels an acre in the Interlake as of Aug. 20. The following week, the province noted “average to below-average” winter cereal yields in the southwest.

The province did note, however, that hybrids were yielding higher than open-pollinated varieties.

“Some of the newer varieties really have the producers interested,” Gross said. “It’s just a matter of getting it into the ground. Now the weather is a factor in that for sure, and getting a hold of the seed is getting to be a little bit of a challenge.”

The crop has fallen out of favour with seed growers given the falling acreage, he noted.

Producers will soon be able to get a list of seed growers through Ducks Unlimited and the Western Winter Wheat Initiative in response to that problem.

Balancing the nutrient budget

The Western Winter Wheat Initiative hopes better agronomy will also help tilt seeding decisions towards winter wheat.

Current practice involves putting down about 120 pounds an acre of nitrogen, about 30 pounds an acre of phosphate and generally to “ignore potassium altogether,” Gross said, something he warns may come back to haunt the producer on winter hardiness.

“Quite often, producers overlook their potassium and phosphate requirements, so we’re working with Western Ag to provide more of a balanced fertility recommendation and I’m really happy with the results so far,” he said.

Producers involved with the project reported 75 to 85 bushels an acre, above most yields reported by the provincial crop report, despite only a few inches of rainfall through the growing season.

The Western Winter Wheat Initiative, Western Ag and Winter Cereals Manitoba area are also researching how to match fertility with new higher-yielding varieties at Manitoba’s crop diversification centres.

Gross commonly urges producers to put half of their nitrogen down at seeding, despite increased risk of loss over the winter.

Gross acknowledges the risk although he argues that products like SuperU or Agrotain and conversations with an agronomist can do much to mitigate that risk.

“We want that nitrogen available first thing in the spring so that seed head that’s developing at the time has access to nutrition and can maximize yield potential,” he said.

The post Rains bring relief for winter wheat seeding appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ontario has long been the country’s powerhouse for winter wheat. Statistics Canada projected the province’s farmers to seed just over one million acres this year, nearly 75 per cent of Canada’s total winter wheat acres.

However, Marty Vermey, senior agronomist with Grain Farmers of Ontario, said the province’s farmers lost up to a third of their crop because of weather conditions since the fall.

Vermey said yields ranged quite widely, from as little as 18 bushels per acre up to 120, averaging 40-80. Almost the entire Ontario crop has been harvested, with some fields in northern Ontario remaining, he said.

“There were some success stories, and some real failures,” Vermey said.

A cool, wet fall not only delayed planting, but also led to poor development when combined with the wet spring Ontario had this year.

“We had a very wet March and April and that killed off [a lot] of the crop,” Vermey said.

Despite those challenges, the quality of Ontario’s winter wheat was surprising. It showed good weight and was affected very little by diseases such as fusarium, he noted.

Prairies

Elmer Kaskiw of Ducks Unlimited Canada estimated two-thirds of Manitoba’s winter wheat has been harvested. He said nearly all farmers in eastern Manitoba had finished their combining, while most of the remaining harvest was in western Manitoba.

“Yields are a little bit lower than anticipated, given the yield expectations of winter wheat,” which were 65 to 70 bushels per acre Kaskiw stated.

Protein levels were particularly good at 11.5 to 13.5 per cent, he added.

“There’s no trouble marketing it,” Kaskiw said.

In Saskatchewan, very little winter wheat has come off the field, said Brad White, a director with the Saskatchewan Winter Cereals Development Commission. He said rain delays have forced farmers to keep their combines off the fields.

During the growing season, the most notable issue was crops retillered after heading-out, which affected about half the winter wheat, according to White.

Despite this year’s problems, there are good amounts of reserve moisture in the ground, he said.

Earlier this year StatsCan estimated about 1.35 million acres of winter wheat would be seeded this year, down from 1.4 million in 2018. The largest amount of seeded acres was 2.82 million in 2008.

— Glen Hallick writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.

Table: Estimated winter wheat seeded acres, 2019 over 2018 (thousands)

The post Winter wheat harvest varies by province appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That’s how much wetland Manitoba loses every year to drainage. The new law specifies no net loss of “wetland benefits.”
Source: Manitoba government

$748 Million

Protecting key wetlands would prevent 1,000 tonnes of P and 55,000 tonnes of N from entering lakes and waterways annually. The estimated saving on removal using existing technology: $748 million per year.
Source: Ducks Unlimited

$1 Billion

Wetland drainage destroys natural flood protection, which contributes to flooding. Floods in 2011 and 2014 each cost the Manitoba economy $1 billion.
Source: Ducks Unlimited

Manitoba’s strategy

Manitoba’s new water management strategy will see much steeper fines for those who illegally drain wetlands but financial rewards for those who protect them.

Bill 7 (The Sustainable Watersheds Act) was introduced last fall and given royal assent on June 4, making it law.

Its aim is to protect prescribed classes of wetlands by requiring those who alter them to ensure there’s no “net loss of wetland benefits,” a provincial spokesman said.

The act provides protection to prescribed classes of wetlands and will require those proposing to take action that would result in the loss or alteration of a prescribed class of wetland to ensure that there is no net loss of those benefits, a statement from the province said.

“In those few cases where drainage of a wetland may be justified, mitigation will be required to ensure no net loss of wetland benefits,” it says.

A regulation describing the prescribed classes of wetlands and the specific actions required is currently under development.

• Read more: Manitoba budget contains multimillion-dollar conservation trust

However, the province has already defined seasonal, semi-permanent and permanent wetlands (classes III, IV and V as set out in the Stewart and Kantrud Wetland Classification System) for protection.

Estimates suggest Manitoba is losing over 2,000 hectares of wetlands every year in agricultural areas of Manitoba and recent scientific evidence shows the significant impact draining them is having on nutrient loading, underscoring the urgent need to protect remaining wetlands, the provincial statement said.

The new law also brings penalties for illegal drainage in line with those for violations under the Water Protection Act and The Environment Act.

• Read more: CDs cite need for multi-benefit water control projects

That means sharply higher fines for illegal drainage, rising from $10,000 to $50,000 for an individual’s first offence and from $25,000 to $500,000 for a corporation.

At the same time the new legislation ushers in a long-awaited program that will pay farmers to protect remaining and existing wetlands.

The program — GRowing Outcomes in Watersheds (GROW) — is based on the former Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) model for incentivizing ecological goods and services provision that originated in this province in the early 1990s.

Sustainable Development and Manitoba Agriculture are currently looking at feedback offered from Manitobans from consultations on GROW towards development of that program, the spokesperson said.

• Read more: Province tables Sustainable Watersheds Act

“It is envisioned that the types of practices and payment schemes will be tailored to local needs depending on the location and the type of practices suitable to the watershed needs.”

Among those who have offered their input are the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association and the Keystone Agricultural Producers. In a media statement issued last summer announcing the final round of consultation, both groups gave the proposal a passing grade.

Arnold Coutts, chair of the MCDA, said at the time the group was especially pleased by the promise of GROW.

“This will greatly enhance our ability to further deliver watershed-based programs for improved water management in Manitoba,” he said. “Having this articulated support at the provincial level also puts into place the tools to better enhance environmental programming’s success at a greater scale which will also further advance Manitoba’s climate change efforts.”

Dan Mazier, KAP president, echoed the sentiment in the same release.

“Improved water management regulations and ecological goods and services programming are the top priorities for farmers right now,” said Mazier. “As the province’s largest group of land managers, farmers know that we have a unique opportunity to partner with government to provide ecological benefits to Manitobans.”

He also voiced support for the province’s collaborative approach, noting changes would help farmers manage water and reduce environmental and economic losses from drought and flooding.

The new legislation also brings changes to drainage licensing processes, or a “streamlined regulatory approach for the licensing of drainage projects.”

Registered projects will be audited and inspected to ensure compliance with required standards, according to the statement.

“Through the development of the dual-track review pro­cess, the Manitoba government is committed to reducing wait times and streamlining approvals for low-risk/low-impact projects,” it said.

Projects proceeding through the registration process will undergo a short review period of 14 days. If the project meets standards outlined, the proponent will receive authorization to proceed with the project.

High-risk, high-impact projects will continue to be authorized through a licensing process.

“Regulations are currently under development to set out specific classes of registrable projects and are expected to include projects such as culvert for culvert replacements, construction of new minor works or water control works that will not affect prescribed wetlands,” the statement said.

The Sustainable Watersheds Act amended four acts, including The Conservation Districts Act, The Manitoba Habitat Heritage Act, The Water Protection Act, and The Water Rights Act and is one of the government’s first steps toward implementing actions outlined under the water pillar of Manitoba’s Climate and Green Plan.

The move also got the thumbs up from groups involved in wetlands preservation, including Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), that praised the province for demonstrating “sound leadership.”

Scott Stephens, DUC regional director, said royal assent for the bill was a “banner day” for Manitoba, in a media release.

“Now we will truly see sustainable development when it comes to wetland protection in Manitoba,” he said.

The post New law aims to protect wetlands, lakes, rivers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“We start losing cold tolerance, especially in March and going into April now. And that’s when you need to monitor temperatures or for (the crop) to be covered up if you do get some cold temperatures,” said Doug Martin, chairman of Winter Cereals Manitoba and a farmer near East Selkirk.

Temperatures across the Prairies have dipped to the -20 C or lower range throughout the end of March and start of April. Temperatures are normally higher than 0 C at this time of year.

While Martin didn’t get any winter wheat seeded himself this year, due to the dry conditions last fall, his neighbours did. Based on conditions around his area, Martin had thought his neighbours’ crops would fare well for most of the winter, but now he isn’t as sure.

“We had a snowfall (in March) which was great and got the crop covered up, but since then we’ve had some melting and now some really cold temperatures.”

In Saskatchewan the situation has been worse; the majority of the southern portion of the province was bare for most of the winter up until the early March snowstorm.

“We’re very short on moisture and we need more and we need some rain this spring definitely. But the snow will help for sure,” said Amanda Swanson, a southern Saskatchewan winter wheat agronomist with Ducks Unlimited.

Swanson is optimistic about this year’s winter wheat crop. While the winter has been unseasonably cold and dry, she said it’ll all depend on the spring conditions. A warm, wet spring will be good for winter wheat, while a cold, dry spring could cause damage.

Ducks Unlimited won’t have an idea of how the winter wheat crop fared until at least early April. Normally agronomists hold off on doing assessments and digging up plants until producers are seeding or almost halfway done.

“We don’t want growers to be worried that they’re going to have to write off their winter wheat fields. Again our message is always for guys to be patient when doing spring assessments,” Swanson said.

According to Swanson, there have been a few areas of Saskatchewan where soil temperatures have come close to causing damage. Winter wheat can handle soil temperatures as cold as -16 C.

Even if there are crops facing a little bit of damage, she said, good spring conditions will help the crop to bounce back.

“I’m hopeful that most of the winter wheat out there made it through the winter, especially those crops that made it to the three-leaf stage in the fall.”

Western Canadian farmers seeded 335,000 acres of winter wheat last fall, down from 535,000 the previous year, according to Statistics Canada.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow her at @ashleymr1993 on Twitter.

The post Prairie winter wheat conditions uncertain appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ground should never be bare, the holistic management instructor argued in Pipestone March 14, part of an event dissecting agriculture’s role in climate change.

Hjertaas argued that conventional annual cropping leaves gaps in early spring and in fall after harvest where nothing is growing and solar energy is being wasted. Instead, he said, longer green cover would maximize time plants are available to photosynthesize, taking carbon dioxide out of the air and converting it to carbon as they grow. That same carbon is later stored in the soil as roots and residue break down into organic matter.

That concept of carbon sequestration became a key point of the day.

Course correction?

Hjertaas’s ideas represent what is increasingly called “regenerative agriculture,” methods focused on building soil organic matter, jump-starting soil biology, lessening input use, and increasing diversity both above and below the ground.

“I think it’s a process we’re all learning that we know, kind of, where we’re going, but the type of agriculture that we have today didn’t develop quickly either. It took a long time and we’ve gained an awful lot of skills along the way,” Hjertaas said. “I think now it’s time to make a mid-course correction and we need to learn an awful lot of skills about moving in a more regenerative way. I think we understand the principles, but the practices, I don’t think we know them all. I think there’s a lot of learning to be done, but there’s tremendous innovation among farmers.”

Some of those methods have come to include things like cover crops, intercrops and mob grazing, with livestock intensely grazing a small area for a short period of time, followed by a long rest period for the land, something advocates argue encourages more forage production, deeper roots, and therefore more carbon sequestration and organic matter. By the same token, grazing cover crops has been offered as an option for farmers looking for some economic return on what would otherwise be a pure expense for the sake of soil health.

His operation near Redvers, Sask., has been managed under regenerative practices for the last two decades. In 2014, he estimated that he sequestered 239.61 tonnes of carbon per hectare on his mob grazed acres, a number that he suggests is on an upwards trend, jumping over six tonnes of carbon per hectare per year for every year his land is under regenerative management.

Michael Thiele of the Ducks Unlimited Grazing Club is another voice arguing for rotational grazing to bolster forage growth and, therefore, stored carbon.

Thiele helped spearhead a three-year project with Brandon-area farmer Brian Harper of Circle H Farms on high density mob grazing.

Those results have become central to Thiele’s efforts to sway producers towards planned grazing and regenerative agriculture.

Circle H Farms reported longer grazing seasons, excess forage and a 9,400-pound increase in beef taken off the same pasture within three years, along with a 0.7 per cent increase in organic matter, Solvita test jump from 26.6 to 71.7 and a dramatic jump in biodiversity, both in the soil and in terms of wildlife like birds.

“To me, this is the solution we’ve been waiting for, for 30 years, not only for agriculture but conservation — soil, water, wildlife. It’s just very few are kind of getting it yet,” Thiele said. “Luckily, producers are the ones who are getting it first. Conservation is kind of struggling, because how can the thing that caused the problem, agriculture, be the solution? It can. We just change agriculture.”

Still fringe

But while advocates like Thiele and Hjertaas cite gains, regenerative agriculture remains a small portion of the overall farm landscape.

Profit has seemingly not been the persuasive argument that Thiele hoped when results of the three-year study came in, with farmers reluctant to move away from established practices, he said.

Livestock have been critical to many regenerative agriculture success stories, although Hjertaas says that farmers can build soil health without them, albeit not as quickly. Large-scale agriculture, however, makes livestock integration a hard sell for increasingly specialized, increasingly large, farms.

Regenerative agriculture advocates often argue that beef and grain producers could team up to solve that issue. In practice, however, sharing livestock hits logistical hurdles if producers don’t share the same vision, can’t reach an agreement or fail to find another producer in the area willing to enter such a deal.

A co-operative cattle herd, bolstered by outside investors, might be the solution to that problem, Hjertaas suggested.

“So we have this huge pool of cattle that is then managed by a group of existing cattle producers that have the knowledge to run that,” he said. “That then has to be shared out to grain producers who have the desire; they want to improve soil health; they know that they need to sow something different down, cover crops something like that, and here is this pool of cattle that is available for this purpose.”

Revenue from cattle fed and sold through the program would then be shared between grain farmers, cattle operators and investors involved with the co-operative.

Likewise, Hjertaas does not expect anyone to bankrupt themselves for the sake of their soils. Benefits from the system will not happen overnight, he warned, and may, in fact, take years where the farmer still has to make a profit.

He also does not expect farmers to totally do away with inputs. High-input agriculture also leads to high greenhouse gas emissions, he said, but added that he has no issue with a farmer turning to fertilizer or herbicide to solve a problem. The concern, he said, comes when inputs become habitual without solving the underlying problem.

“They need to understand what soil health is and they need to understand that when soil gets healthy it becomes more profitable, but it’s not a quick fix, so they have to think about, on their own operation with their own management, what they can do to change that will achieve those goals, while at the same time not sinking the farm doing it and it’s little steps, I think,” he said.

Government funding

The province has insisted that there is money coming in for green projects, although it’s unclear if anything on the regenerative agriculture wish list will see that money.

Manitoba officially passed its $25-per-tonne carbon tax March 15, to take effect in September. The announcement was made soon after Manitoba joined the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change in late February.

The province is sticking to its guns on carbon price, a schedule that would keep Manitoba in line with federal policy for only 2-1/2 years as federal carbon tax policy ramps up to $50 a tonne by 2022, but provincial officials argued that joining the framework was necessary to access up to $67 million in federal funds to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

At the same time, the province has promised $40 million for “projects in Manitoba dedicated to help reduce emissions and adapt to climate change,” a definition that extends to public transportation projects, natural restoration and energy efficiency in buildings.

For his part, Hjertaas is skeptical of both the provincial and national climate plans.

“They’re not doing anything to deal with actual climate change,” he said. “That’s the political talk, but it’s not solving the problem. The only way we can solve it is putting the carbon back into the ground and make the hydrological cycle cool the earth more effectively. That’s in our hands… if you want it to happen rapidly, what you do is you pay us to do that. That’s what will make it roll.”

The holistic management instructor would see farmers paid directly for the carbon they sequester; something he says is necessary to get new producers to buy in.

For his part, Thiele would like to see new grazing practices and farmer education get a nod from those government funds.

“We’re doing work to show how much carbon we can sequester just by using cows, good grazing management,” he said, pointing to the high density grazing experiment at Circle H Farms.

“With the 7-1/2 tonnes that Brian Harper is sequestering per acre per year, 7-1/2 tonnes times $25 a tonne, that’s a lot of money,” he said. “It’s regenerative ag. This is a revolution. We are going to change how agriculture gets done, how we think about agriculture.”

The post Confronting climate change through the power of plants appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“Some of them are continuing projects from last year,” said MBFI president Ramona Blyth. “Research is never just done in one year, so there’s the carry-over into years two and three on some of the projects and then we have a few others that have been expanding their projects.”

One of those projects is dealing with leafy spurge, the scourge of many pastures in western Manitoba. Common knowledge is that spurge is low on the menu for cattle and it’s considered poisonous to most livestock, although it can be grazed by goats and sheep. Manitoba Agriculture’s weed database says that livestock grazing leafy spurge may become photosensitive and the sap is irritating to skin. In cattle, producers have reported sores on the mouth and irritation to the digestive system.

Despite this, Jane Thornton, lead researcher of MBFI’s spurge-training project, hopes cattle can be taught to successfully graze the weed.

Year two of the project is about to launch from MBFI’s First Street Pasture site.

The training regimen was developed by Kathy Voth, a U.S. speaker and educator on training livestock to eat weeds. It attempts to entice cattle to eat leafy spurge, thus recouping pasture lands plagued by the invasive plant. The project would see spurge in five per cent of an animal’s diet and hopes to determine if infestations can be decreased through cattle grazing.

Adding spurge to supplements

“They get about a week training period and each day they get a new type of feed supplement,” research co-ordinator Kristelle Harper said. “It’s new and different for them so they get used to eating different supplements or different things, and then at the end of the training period we actually clip leafy spurge and put that into the barrels.”

With the animals already accustomed to different supplements in their feed, the cattle are less likely to refuse the leafy spurge. Once spurge-eating behaviour is established, the herd is turned onto a small area containing the weed for a day of intensive grazing. The experience reinforces the idea of actively grazing leafy spurge, after which the animals are taken to the paddocks to graze freely.

Last year, five cow-calf pairs and 50 heifers went through the training. Sampling through the year showed cattle were eating about seven per cent of available spurge stems.

Voth has written extensively about her first forays into training cattle to eat leafy spurge in 2005.

“By the end of the summer, the cows had demonstrated that they could and would eat leafy spurge in pasture and I was still seeing no negative effects,” she says on her website, Livestock for Landscapes.

Voth has noted, however, that diverse forage variety will be critical in leafy spurge grazing.

The project now looks to the next generation. Animals trained last summer now have calves on the ground and Thornton hopes to determine if the knowledge can be transferred from mother to calf.

Twenty-five replacement heifers will be added to the herd this summer after also going through the training program.

Harper hopes the project may help control leafy spurge on MBFI properties without resorting to herbicide, which may damage forage growth. The weed has had a detrimental impact on the First Street Pasture’s productivity, Harper has said.

Rotational grazing, soil health and low-cost pasture land regeneration are also being explored at the First Street pasture.

A variety of other projects

Calving is ongoing at MBFI’s Johnson Research Farm, just east of the First Street Pasture. The location will see a list of research projects, ranging from gopher management (which tested various traps last year and determined that trapping should take place in early spring and August), cow-calf needle-free vaccination and comparing forage varieties in extended grazing systems.

The forage evaluation is part of a larger project with fields in Arborg, Carman, Roblin, Saskatoon and Lanigan, Sask. Cattle were moved onto the site in late 2016. Results will be measured on quality, spring regrowth and tolerance for snow cover in various forages.

To the north, MBFI will return once again to the Brookdale Research Farm, provided by Ducks Unlimited. The 400 acres of forage and cropland onsite will also see extended grazing systems, along with research into polycrops, grazing strategies, energy-dense annual forages and the effect of different grazing systems on cicer milkvetch.

“We have so many projects, which is exciting and keeps us all on our toes and busy. It’s hard to just pinpoint favourites,” Harper said.

Learning centre debut

Work on the Brookdale Research Farm MBFI Learning Centre is expected to start in June, with a grand opening in late fall or early winter. The project was approved September 2016.

Blyth said the building will include a classroom space and kitchen and programming will range from food sourcing to sustainability in agriculture and farm innovations.

“The learning centre’s always been part of the project, because we want to be able to engage with producers and do workshops — and not only producers, it’s the youth, the university/college students, 4-H, Ag in the Classroom,” Blyth said.

A capital campaign is underway to raise support for the project.

“There are just so many things that the learning centre will be able to offer us,” Blyth said. “It’ll be the hub that will engage everyone.”

MBFI is a collaboration between the Manitoba Beef Producers, Manitoba Agriculture, Ducks Unlimited, and Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association.

The post Putting spurge on the menu for research — and cattle appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Otherwise the alarming loss of wetlands and other critical wildlife habitat will continue its upward spiral, Scott Stephens, DUC’s director of regional operations for the Prairie region told the committee, which is examining landownership.

“Skyrocketing prices and the loss of agricultural land not only negatively impact Canada’s agricultural sector but it also has serious consequences for our country as a whole, as it translates into the loss of critical ecosystem services,” he said.

The next APF presents a great opportunity to rethink how Canada views, governs and grows its agricultural sector, he said.

“The vision we as a country should aspire to is one where those farmers and rural landowners who already embrace environmentally sustainable land management are compensated for delivering critical ecosystem services to Canadians,” Stephens said. “This will, in turn, help protect critical habitats in the larger agricultural landscape upon which they reside.”

At the same time government should support industry initiatives, practices and emerging technologies that help improve agricultural production on the existing land base, he said.

“Such innovations remain key to Canada’s ability to grow a competitive and environmentally sustainable agricultural sector,” Stephens said.

James Brennan, DUC’s director of government relations said the same pressures of rising land values face his organization’s efforts to preserve habitat. So it works at developing partnerships with landowners of cost-share conservation programs or assist farmers to restore natural wetlands.

In the case of a farmer who wants to sell, DUC will buy the property, restore any lost or degraded natural areas on that land and then list the property for sale on the open market along with its restored habitats, which are protected by perpetual conservation easement attached on title, Brennan said.

The program has proved especially popular and successful in the Prairie region, where DUC has purchased 29,000 acres over the past three years and sold 15,000 acres back into private ownership.

“The remaining acres purchased are either currently for sale or are being restored in anticipation of future sale,” he said.

Rising land values are making habitat conservation on private land increasingly difficult, he said.

“This is because the financial incentives we offer through our various conservation programs must, at a minimum, equal current land use values,” Brennan said. “Without this benefit, it becomes unattractive or uneconomical for the producer to undertake any form of conservation or restoration of habitat.”

He noted a property known as Luke’s Club on Lake St. Clair in Ontario was put up for sale in 2014.

“The listing price for the 512 acres of important coastal wetland habitat was $3.9 million, a value based only on its farming potential,” he said. “Because this price was more than three times the value of a comparable Great Lakes coastal wetland habitat, neither DUC nor any other conservation organization could afford this property and thus avoid risks of habitat conversion.”

Development pressures and urban growth are also affecting land values and habitat conservation.

“Farmers who own agricultural lands near major city centres are more likely to sell their properties and take advantage of high prices,” Brennan said. “When this occurs, any residual habitat usually gets converted to residential or industrial development, as does the farmland.”

Nearly one-third, or 19.6 million hectares, of Canada’s agricultural land base functions as important wildlife habitat, he said.

“Thanks to the environmental commitment of 18,000 individual landowners and our other partners, Ducks Unlimited Canada has been able to conserve nearly 6.4 million acres of habitat to date nationwide,” he said.

Despite these efforts however, Brennan said wetland and other habitat loss in Canada is continuing to increase at an alarming rate.

Since the arrival of European settlers, an estimated 70 per cent of Canada’s wetland base has been lost or degraded in the settled regions of our country.

“To this day, we continue to lose more than 29,000 acres of wetlands each and every year,” he said. “The consequences of this ecological loss are significant and are proving to have long-term ramifications not only for Canada’s finances and climate resiliency but also for our agriculture sector’s growth, competitiveness and the necessary public trust that underpins it.”

He also said the loss of these lands means farmers will face more frequent flooding and soil erosion, which will only be magnified by a changing climate.

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