Andy Rainforth and his wife Shannon and young son Caed farm near Lacombe in central Alberta not far from where Andy grew up. They raise Angus cattle and various crops.
They have been on a journey over the past dozen years or more to develop a more efficient beef herd as well as a more intensive grazing and pasture management program with a goal towards a year-round grazing system.
“We’ve made some changes with our cattle and grazing and it all happened simultaneously,” says Rainforth. “We ran a mixed herd of cattle, primarily Angus and Angus-cross cows as well as some Simmental cows, calving in March and April. We ran mostly Angus bulls and occasionally a Simmental bull.”
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He liked the low-maintenance of the Angus at calving time, and began to focus on keeping more of the Angus-influenced calves as replacements, using the Simmental as a terminal cross and selling their calves.
“I like that cross, however, so the odd Angus/Simmental cross would find its way back into the herd,” says Rainforth. “We utilized rotational grazing through summer, grazing as long as we could into the fall. At that time we were doing some swath grazing and increasing the acres planted each year but primarily fed silage and a bit of hay through the winter months.
“In 2009 we had a dry spring and summer and started to run out of grass. The pastures were all managed the same but we were getting more days out of the paddocks the Angus were on. Rather than buy expensive feed, we decided to sell the Simmentals. They were a really nice group of cows but the difference in feed consumption made the decision for us.”
Focus on Angus
It was at this point that Rainforth started to focus even more on the Angus breed. His cousin had been telling him about some easy-fleshing, grass-based genetics he had been using from Diamond D Angus in Montana, so in 2011 they purchased their first animals from there.
“Starting with those cattle, we began using line-breeding as a tool to work on creating a herd of cows that are genetically similar and as a result will produce a more uniform group of calves,” he says.
Another benefit of having the cattle close-bred is the extra growth obtained from the resulting hybrid vigour when out-crossed. “We run a closed herd and primarily raise our own bulls for in-herd use, but we do use AI and will bring in an outside bull if it fits with what we are doing,” he says.
“Line-breeding is a great tool but you need to be always looking for the next line to use. The cows will always be a work in progress but we have been happy with the results we are seeing. We do finish some of the cattle on forage and direct-market them; the rest are sold privately to cattle buyers or directly to feedlots.”
About the same time as he was switching gears with the cattle, he saw an article on Gabe Brown, a well-known U.S. beef producer who developed a year-round grazing system with cover crops and multi-species forage varieties.
“I had never heard of this before so it piqued my interest, especially after we were running low on pasture,” says Rainforth. “No one around here was doing anything with cover crops at that time, but I finally found Kevin Elmy from Friendly Acres Farm in Saskatchewan, who had some cover crop seed. The first thing we tried was some tillage radish which we added into the swath grazing mix for the next few years.” (Along with being a seed producer, Elmy has developed a year-round grazing system for his own livestock operation. He promotes the concept of using cover crops. Visit his website www.covercropping.ca).
In 2013 Rainforth attended the Grassfed Exchange Conference in Bismarck, North Dakota, which included a tour of Gabe Brown’s farm. “Seeing what he was doing on a much larger scale was an eye-opener,” says Rainforth. “You could really see the huge benefits that multispecies blends had on the health of the soil.”
One demonstration at the Brown farm that made an impression was the rainfall simulation. This involved simulating a ¾-inch-per-hour rainfall on different soils that came from holistically and conventionally managed pastures.
“Seeing the holistically managed soils retain essentially all of the water with little to no run-off compared to the other samples that retained very little of the water was an eye-opener,” says Rainforth. “When we got back from that trip, I started looking to put more species into the forage blend.”
This was around the time that Union Forage (an Alberta-based seed company) started up offering different blends of cover crop seed available to western Canadian producers. “We have been very happy with the blends we have gotten from them and the cows have done well on it too,” he says.
Later calving
Traditionally the Rainforths had been calving in March/April but in 2012 decided to start calving on stockpiled grass a bit later moving to April/May, now with a calving date in late April. “This was one of the better decisions we’ve made,” he says. “We strip-graze this stockpiled forage, moving the cows every few days in order to keep the calves on clean ground. We rarely have to deal with sick calves now as the bug load is virtually eliminated.”
Through the summer, they manage grazing as the growing season dictates. “We rotational graze as much as possible, aiming to increase pounds per acre of animal impact and then give the grass sufficient rest to regrow,” he says. “I can’t say we do it very well, but try to do the best we can. We still put up some stored feed but our goal is to graze as long as possible on pasture or on swath grazing before having to utilize hay, and every year is different.”
Rainforth says the 2021 growing season was a challenge. Pastures were stressed by dry conditions. They ended up having to silage the crop that was intended for swath grazing as the lack of rain caused the cereals to mature too quickly. The cover crop blend didn’t get a chance to really get growing either.
“I really didn’t know what I was doing when I started,” he says. “But decided I would just plunge in and try some of this, and see what it does. It’s been a lot of trial and error as we figure this out, keeping a bigger-picture focus, trying to do more with less.
“When I first started looking into holistic management, most of the ‘experts’ were either environmental activists with no experience, pushing ideas based on bad science, or they were backyard gardeners who had a few chickens and their ideas really didn’t translate onto a larger scale.
Rainforth says he has now found excellent resources and support available from people such as Graeme Finn, one of the founders of Union Forage and a long-time advocate of improved grazing management practices. Rainforth also appreciates the experience of farmers such as Gabe Brown, various soil specialists, the folks who publish Stockman Grass Farmer, and even the holistic management work that Savory Institute founder has done in Africa, Mexico and other countries.
“A person can definitely see the benefits of this type of management,” says Rainforth. “Their experience and the concepts they utilize can be used to some degree, no matter what kind of farm/ranch operation you have,” he says. “I think a person just needs to start by using the resources that are available to them and continually learn and look for ways to improve.”
