“We are extremely disappointed by PMRA’s decision and ask them to reconsider this decision,” David Marit, Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister, said in a news release.

“We need a federal regulatory system that considers economic impacts felt by producers and the realities on the ground.”

Alberta’s Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, in a separate statement, said he’s also “deeply disappointed” in the PMRA’s decision and called on the PMRA to reinstate the product’s use for farmers.

The annual risk to hay and native pastures from RGS runs above $800 million and “the risk of this exploding RGS population is detrimental to farms and ranches across the country,” he said.

On Oct. 1, 2025, Saskatchewan Agriculture partnered with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation to submit an emergency use request for two per cent liquid strychnine for management of RGS.

The rodent has been growing in population for the last few years and has shown no sign of slowing down.

The submission was a response to concerns from producers and industry about the on-farm efficacy of other registered products for the control of the pest, following the ban of strychnine in March 2023.

Heath MacDonald, federal agriculture minister, had made a verbal promise to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities in October to support any emergency use applications. The PMRA, however, is not under the jurisdiction of the agriculture ministry.

The Saskatchewan government said it had included “robust, science-based and strengthened mitigation measures” in its proposal.

However, the PMRA said the methods used to prove necessity of strychnine were insuffient to mitigate an acceptable level of risk, which prompted the denial of emergency use.

The post PMRA denies strychnine emergency use request appeared first on Grainews.

It’s not particularly tuneful, and the lyrics will never be mistaken as profound or deep, but summertime anthems don’t care.

The chorus, “If there ever come a time I got rabies, you’re high on my bitin’ list,” has inspired viral videos themed around things people simply cannot stand. I tend to focus on the positives, but this twangy tune has prompted me to think about what would be high on my ranch biting list…

Coming in at number one is invasive weeds. Leafy spurge, downy brome, baby’s breath, absinthe, bindweed, chamomile — the list goes on and on. The threat of invasives can be regional and specific, but also general and widespread.

They’ll infest rangeland, pastures and waterways whether they’re well-managed or not. You can take great pains on your property to prevent and contain weeds, yet wind, water, feed, wildlife, livestock, equipment and other vectors can provide a direct pathway for these detestable plants to infiltrate your land. As a producer, volunteer and (back-in-the-day) professional, I’ve spent way too much time and money scheming, mapping and spraying these plants.

Gophers may be part of the everyday environment, but around here we’ve experienced them in plague-like proportions for about seven years out of the past two decades. This has prompted me to catalogue them on the naughty list.

Speaking of biting, they munch our pastures, hay and annual crops, and they once gnawed the buds out of my new tree saplings. They dig down beside the foundations of our buildings, excavate my garden and build a dangerous network of tunnels, making it almost impossible to ride a horse or drive a pickup across some pastures. The only time I cheered with delight at their antics was when a gopher dined on my newly planted larkspur — the joke was on them, because larkspur is poisonous.

A grasshopper invasion is another thing to index. While they haven’t bothered us as badly this year as they have in the past, I have a very recent recollection of them eating our annual and perennial crops, stripping the tree leaves and even devouring Canada thistle and sagebrush. I have a lot of sympathy for producers who are still fighting the good fight against hoppers. Their damage is swift, whether it’s targeted at seedlings, well-established crops or those ready for harvest.

Last but not least, I’m listing raccoons. They’re cagey, a tiny bit cute and wildly destructive. They’re nimble and bolder than brass. Ironically, raccoons can transmit rabies, so they are more likely to bite me than the other way around. On one of our first dates, my husband introduced me to tactical raccoon management. He spotted a few of the wily wildlife barricaded inside an old building and quickly deployed me as backup.

Twenty-five years later, we’re still collaborating to keep the critters from setting up camp on our ranch. I wonder if our relationship would have flourished if I hadn’t passed the raccoon removal test decades earlier?

Every ranch endures challenges that make us foam at the mouth more than others. To a certain extent, some, like invasive weeds or pesty raccoons, can be managed with proactive prevention. Others, like gopher and grasshopper infestations, are largely out of our control. Even so, our reaction to handling those troubles can be mastered. When things get biting, a positive attitude might be the most effective antidote.

The post A rancher’s ‘bitin’ list’ appeared first on Grainews.

Better genetics and nutrition are two good reasons. Yet, these brand-new mothers still require special attention after calving, despite some producers treating them like seasoned mature cows.

I often recommend that a good walk be taken among the main cow herd or segregated groups of first-calved heifers (now young cows). Conduct a proper body condition score (BCS) of each young animal, which determines their nutritional status. From there, select the particular feeding program on which you want to take them, once the heifers are on pasture in order to get rebred with their second calf.

A good BCS of each young cow on the day of calving is a good starting point that will dictate the success of such upcoming reproductive performance. That’s because an optimum BCS of 5 to 6 on a scale of 0 to 9 is an indication of her current nutritional status, which is the single most important factor that controls postpartum interval, milk production, estrus strength, services per conception and, ultimately, successful rebreeding.

In light of research-proven facts, I recently spent a couple of hours with a herd manager of a 350-head cow-calf operation. We completed a body assessment of about 60 calved-out replacement heifers. The premise was:

• Starting calving date was March 1, 2025.
• First-calf replacement heifers were bred three weeks ahead of the main cowherd – allowing 20–30 days of extra post-partum interval.
• All heifers were fed an overwintered diet of 15 kg barley silage, two kg grass hay, 0.5 kg canola meal and four oz. of a well-balanced fortified mineral-vitamin premix. All barley grain was removed a couple of weeks ago.
• Replacement heifers were segregated from the main herd and housed along with cull cows due to a lack of facilities.
• Creep feeders were placed in the pen and filled with a 16 per cent texturized oat-corn ration.
• Bulls are released on pasture during mid-May for a 60-day breeding season.

Most of these calved replacement heifers are well-framed animals that scored the desired 5 to 6, which I believe was directly responsible for only one or two assisted births from the present calvings.

These young mothers were also nursing well with two- to three-week-old calves that had great vitality. Only two replacement heifers were poor doers (thin body condition, due to other factors) and were soon to be culled.

Since there was a good amount of rainfall in the fall, in combination with early spring snows, the manager expects most pastures to be in good shape by the time the cow herd is released. The plan is that his first-parity cows (nursing a new calf) will be moved onto green pastures broken up only a couple of years ago. The high quality of these tamed pastures is expected to match their high energy and protein requirements for lactation, support of good body growth and retaining body condition in order to trigger at least one active estrus before the breeding season.

The manager also routinely feeds a loose mineral on pasture to the main cowherd as well as to all first-calved beef heifers. It has been his experience that a well-formulated mineral should be fed at three to four ounces per day in order to build up the mineral/vitamin status of every cow, which promotes active rebreeding and conception.

His personal choice is a “breeder-type” mineral with 18 per cent calcium and nine per cent phosphorus plus fortified levels of “chelated” copper, zinc, manganese and selenium as well as higher levels of vitamins A, D and E. He has never had much of a problem with grass tetany over the years, so he limits the magnesium to about three per cent, which meets those respective requirements.

Given that good pasture nutrition is in place, his only real concern is a bout of foot rot that hits the same young cow group (with nursing calves). When it happens, about every other year, it starts with one or two cows and spreads to about a third of the other grazers. Luckily, the most visible cases are caught in the early stages and treated with antibiotics.

Beyond that concern, it’s a matter of providing good nutrition and management to a young set of mothers that really started at the beginning of winter and carried on to the calving season. It means carrying on this special attention from calving and right through the breeding season on pasture.

As a result of all these efforts I look forward to successful confirmation of a second pregnancy, 30 days hence.

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The project’s origins can be traced to the extremely dry year of 2021, which left many producers in the province’s eastern Lakeland region in need of feed and water resources. Canola crops withered, yielding as little as 30 per cent of normal, and overgrazed pastures produced less in the following year.

Many livestock producers turned to novel feeds and grazing annuals in 2021 when drought withered pastures and normal forage sources failed to produce.

Winter cereals sown in fall have proven their value in providing early-season grazing in spring. But that comes with a catch: the crops move into reproductive stage relatively soon, so quality and production decline beyond July.

Early spring-seeded winter cereals remain in the vegetative stage throughout the summer and fall, improving biomass, maintaining nutritional quality and creating more chances for grazing, Alyssa Krawchuk of the Lakeland Agricultural Research Association (LARA) wrote in an email.

These grazing opportunities can begin in early June and extend into September.

Having more grazing periods in a growing season is just the start. An additional harvest opportunity and forage quality improvement were two more highlights of the early-seeding approach.

Early seeding also resulted in greater biomass production, which Krawchuk says could make or break an operation during dry or drought conditions when feed sources are scarce. Having that extra biomass can give perennial pastures the chance to rest and regenerate, reducing the need for producers to buy dry feed or rent other pastures.

“The year after a drought, this could be used as a method to defer grazing on drought-stressed pastures until later in the grazing season and provide more rest for these pastures throughout the summer.”

Early winter wheat seeding also seems to increase crude protein levels in feed compared to regularly-timed counterparts. The tactic can create more grazing days and reduce production costs while maintaining adequate feed quality and quantity.

“Furthermore, by seeding early, the winter cereals can take advantage of any early growing season moisture that might occur before regular seeding dates,” Krawchuk says.

“In addition, seeding cereals early in the spring allows for capture of early-season moisture through snow melt that may not be available in dry and drought conditions later in May when cereals are normally seeded.”

The research project took place at the LARA Fort Kent research site, southwest of Cold Lake in the Municipal District of Bonnyville. The “ultra-early” seeding date was April 29, 2022, in a soil temperature of 2 C. The regular seeding date was May 27, 2022, more or less within the normal seeding schedule for the region, in a 12 C soil temperature.

Wheat was harvested when each variety was an average of 30 centimetres high and cut to two inches. Regrowth was harvested throughout the summer and fall once it reached 30 cm.

Due to dry soil conditions at the time, varieties of winter cereals were seeded to a depth of 1.5 inches. Six treatments included two varieties of winter triticale (Metzger and Luoma) and two each of winter wheat (Pintale and Wildfire) and fall rye (Prima and Hazlet). Plots were 1.15 metres wide by 7.5 metres long with a minimum harvested area of six square metres.

There was little difference in first harvest timing between the two treatments. Both were between seven and eight weeks after planting. Early-seeded regrowth was harvested in three weeks. The third harvest occurred seven weeks later, with regular-seeded regrowth harvested seven weeks after the first harvest.

The early-seeded treatment produced more total yield than the regular-seeded treatment. Hazlet fall rye and Luoma winter triticale were the top-yielding varieties. The former produced about 0.67 tonnes per acre of dry matter forage yield whether seeded in the early and regular categories.

The lowest-yielding cereal was Metzger winter triticale with about 0.32 tonnes per acre of forage yield with the early-seeded treatment and just a little higher with the regularly timed seeding.

Although there was some difference in crude protein among varieties, the early-seeded cereals sported higher crude protein and the first harvest had higher crude protein than the subsequent harvest.

Wildfire winter wheat, for example, produced 28.25 per cent crude protein in the early-seeded set while the same variety scored 24.74 per cent with the regularly-seeded treatment.

The number of total digestible nutrients was much higher in the first harvest than those thereafter. However, they did not differ by variety or seeding date.

‘No. 1 question’

There are risks to planting cereals so early, but they may not be the ones producers first think of, Krawchuk says.

“Frost tends to be the No. 1 question when proposing early-seeded cereals to local producers. However, cereal crops have been shown to withstand temperatures as low as -8 C for a short period without detrimental impacts on growth and productivity.”

A bigger challenge when seeding winter cereals in low soil temperatures is the capacity of fields to hold the weight of seeding equipment.

“This is heavily dependent on soil type and moisture, which tends to be more of an issue the further north you go in Alberta where more clay type soils dominate.”

Although the 2022 project was intended to develop guidance for cereal producers in northeastern Alberta, LARA plans to take this show on the road.

With new funding from Results Driven Agriculture Research hopefully in hand, Krawchuk and her team plan to expand the trial to Oyen, Fairview and Fort Vermilion.

“We feel it is imperative to run this trial in different eco-regions of the province as varying agroclimatic conditions will have an impact on the biomass produced and the number of harvests achieved.”

The basic concept of the pending projects will remain the same — with some differences.

“The trial now includes three varieties of each winter wheat, winter triticale and fall rye and will be compared to an annual cereal commonly grown for feed. In addition, we will be working with economist Kathy Larson from the University of Saskatchewan to provide producers with a cost-benefit analysis for the project.”

The post Early-spring-seeded winter cereals can bring more, better forage appeared first on Grainews.

Harvest continued on. We tried to help Barb out so she didn’t do any lifting or have too much activity. Jospeh stepped up and was a big help. He did a lot of dishes and odd chores and was quite dedicated to reading to Grandma to help her relax.

Gregory and John hauled the Reford ditch bales home on Oct. 3 and 4 because the barley was not quite dry enough. On Oct. 7 we started the barley and had two weeks of very nice weather.

On the Saturday of the long weekend we had a Thanksgiving supper with Father Rinesh from Our Lady of the Assumption, Anna’s godparents Phil and Tish Ulrich, Gregory’s sister Theresa, and John and Barb.

On the 14th we switched the combines over to oats. God gave us a wonderful week and we were able to combine the oats reasonably dry and even finished harvest on the 19th!

We did stop the combines on the 18th to go to the funeral for John’s aunt, Sister Rosetta Reiniger. It was held at St. Anne’s in Saskatoon. I met the dear lady once several years ago and have sent her Christmas letters ever since. She will be dearly missed.

After the funeral, Gregory and the kids and I headed for home and continued combining. Gregory swathed until he got far enough ahead that he switched to the combine and we finished what was cut. The next day, John was back in the combine and as the sun was setting, we had three combines finishing the field.

On the 21st we dug our potatoes. It was a little chilly but turned out to be a good day. It is always a treat when we can get the potatoes in before the snow.

On the 23rd Gregory and I set out to round up the calves off Phil and Tish Ulrich’s pasture. We wanted to wean the keeper heifers and have the sale calves on hand for the next day. This year we had the herd pretty evenly split between our Landis pasture and the Ulrich pasture. We usually try to load up the sale calves and take them to Provost the day before the sale, but being that they were in two different pastures, we thought maybe we shouldn’t push our luck. It turns out we were right.

When we got over to the Ulrich pasture, we noticed there were some animals in the neighbour’s pasture. We rounded our cows up and then sorted off the calves. I was marking off the cows and calves so when we got to the end, I knew we were missing a pair. With the calves secured on the trailer we rode over to check out the other pasture. Early this year, a different neighbour’s cows had gotten in with ours. They are not used to being moved with horses and are very flighty and our cows are not used to being moved with quads, so we decided to let them stay there until after the surrounding crop was harvested and the neighbour could chase his cows home.

Our pair was with the flighty cows, so we needed to sort her off as quietly as possible. We got the pair sorted off and tried to get them out of a gate, but the calf decided he wanted to go back and when I turned him back, he jumped through the fence and took off.

The cow soon followed, so we changed our plan and I followed him around the stubble fields until they were outside the Ulrich pasture. Our cows were standing around the makeshift corral bawling to their calves on the trailer, so they were the perfect bait to get the pair back in the correct pasture. Once we got the pair in the corral, we put them straight on the horse trailer and hauled them and the calves home. This cow had discovered how to walk through fences this winter and was always out eating the bale I was feeding to the horses. Since she showed us she hadn’t stopped her fence walking, she is not working for us anymore.

The next day we headed out to Landis to get the rest of the calves. This pasture doesn’t have a corral yet, so we’ve been setting up panels around the watering system. This time they would not go into our corral, so we changed our plans and moved the panels to a different location. It worked great and in no time we had them corralled and sorted and the calves loaded.

We then headed back home and sorted the sale calves off from the group that was at Ulrich’s. We loaded all the kids up and headed to Provost. It’s become a bit of a tradition to take the family to Provost to unload the calves and then take the kids out for supper.

The post Good weather holds through harvest appeared first on Grainews.

In a one-hour presentation at the Western Canada Conference on Soil Health and Grazing in Edmonton, Alta. on December 12, he passed some of that knowledge on to conference attendees.

“If you own soil, we have to be able to look at what we’re doing and be able to see the changes. The power of observation is many times much greater than the data that goes with that observation,” Bieber said at the start of his presentation.

Bieber is a retired farmer from South Dakota, U.S. He travels the world, talking and teaching about soil health. Though his son has now taken over their operation, known as Soil Care, Bieber is still passionate about farming and soil.

When he started, though, it wasn’t to fix his soil – it was to cut costs and increase profits. The benefits to his soil came along with that.

To him, the most important part of soil health is letting the biology in the soil do what comes naturally.

“I’m just basically asking my soil biology, ‘do your job,’” Bieber said.

He said he saw the most success on their operation by doing a combination of long-term no-till and cover cropping. It’s important to keep the soil covered, to protect the biology, he said. If the soil is exposed, then the  soil’s biology will be disturbed by things like rain and chemicals.

“Look at tillage as being a disturbance, and it is,” Biever said. “That’s a physical disturbance. But we also have our biological disturbances, the herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, pesticides, they’re biological disturbances that cause the biology to not perform in balances.”

Bieber also used a version of adaptive rotational grazing, with both pastureland and on their cover crops. He said cows help with soil health because they move organic matter around with their grazing.

“These are our biological distributors because they’re taking what’s out on that native range land, and they’re bringing it out, and they’re spreading it very uniformly throughout our field,” he said. “That’s all we need. We don’t need to have that full coverage of manure out there, as long as we have it like that.”

Bieber said in addition to the cattle, the diversity of the plants grown has to support what the livestock bring to the land. He says it is important to listen to what your land is telling you and then to respond.

“We keep getting told, ‘Do it here, do it there. This is how to do it.’ But we never get the answers of why, and your soils will tell you the why.”

The Western Canada Conference on Grazing and Soil Health ended Thursday afternoon after three days and over 15 speakers. Topics ranged from cover crops and intercrops, grazing methods, types of forages to use, microbes and microbiomes and more.

The post South Dakota farmer focuses on soil biology appeared first on Grainews.

Of course, as I write this, I must acknowledge that within the past 24 hours, we’ve received nearly five inches of heavy rain and hail. I’m not sure if I should rejoice by listening to my winter cereals germinate, or if I will gleefully torch a tumbleweed, but our municipal fire ban is still in effect, so I’ll be mindful of my celebrations.

In reality, farmers and ranchers everywhere are somewhere on the continuum of experiencing severe drought or being submerged in unwanted water. Every region has unique challenges, and every farm business has its goals and objectives.

How you approach drought, flood or any disaster in between will depend on a lot of factors. Are you just starting out as a farmer or are you winding down your operation? What is your appetite for risk? What are your strengths? What are your short-term workarounds and what are your long-term goals? What will you do if the tough times last for six months…or six years? What will your cash flow needs be?

Ranching in a drier region, we are always somewhat expecting a drought, although the past seven years have been a longer dry spell than what we typically deal with.

Water is our major limitation, not just for forage crops and pastures, but particularly for stock water. Most of our pastures rely on dugouts for surface water, and when runoff is minimal and wind-fuelled evaporation is at its maximum, both quality and quantity plummet.

Fortunately, pumping from the water source using solar- or wind-powered pumps can dramatically extend the longevity of your water supply and help retain quality. You must check your pumps daily, but if you can extend your dugout by a few weeks, or even a few days, it’s often worth it. Trail cameras can also be useful for alerting you between checks.

If you find yourself hauling water to pastures, ensure you have adequate trough space for the herd and that one trough is low enough for calves to reach. Perhaps a big poly tank can be set up and filled to gravity-feed into troughs, to ensure a more consistent flow. Also, consider what infrastructure you may be tying up. For example, if you are hauling water with a semi, that may limit the job to one or two licensed operators and tie up equipment that could be used for other things…like hauling feed.

Test water and feed

In Saskatchewan, we are extremely fortunate to access water quality testing through our agriculture extension offices. We have a robust forage and livestock extension service that many other provinces envy, so I figure if they are willing to help, let’s capitalize on it.

Grassland and forages are the cornerstone of beef cattle production and stickhandling through drought becomes a function of managing inventories: how much grass, how much feed, and how many cattle.

Don Campbell, a well-known holistic management instructor and grazer, shared a Bud Williams quote with me: “You can never have too much money, you can never have too much grass, but you can have too many cattle.”

Those words have stuck with me. When things are uncertain, we use our yearlings as a flex herd and can retain or sell them as needed or as the season progresses.

We’ve had to expand our definition of “feed,” but in doing so, I want to emphasize that you must feed test to prevent a wreck. We’ve fed a variety of crops and byproducts and have worked with a nutritionist to help us make confident choices. Using a custom-made mineral program has helped us offset any feed or water quality concerns.

While we’ve grown some good intercrops and continue to look into novel forages, we tend to safety up and stick with tried-and-true crops for our farm such as fall rye that we can use for grazing, baling, silage or combining.

Raising a living commodity gives beef producers a different sense of responsibility and urgency. We don’t worry about bushels of grain the same way we worry about meeting the needs of our herd. That accountability can fuel innovation, resourcefulness and empathy and can bring out the best in people when you need it most.

The relationships we forged and maintained through some of our hardest times, and the people who shared an encouraging word or idea, something we try to pay forward, have been a blessing.

When the wind stops blowing and the dust settles, it’s not government programs or feed or even five inches of rain that will pull you through tough times, it is people.

The post Prepare your ranch and business plan for bouts with drought appeared first on Grainews.

Don is the third generation of his family in that region and says holistic management has made a big difference in his success as a farmer. He took his first course with Allan Savory at Bismarck, N.D.

“That was a life-changing event. I came back to the ranch and tried to do some of the things he talked about, but it was very intense — five and a half days of lecturing — and you don’t retain 100 per cent.”

Since then, Don has taken two more courses and has helped Ralph Corcoran (a certified educator from Saskatchewan) present a course.

“The last course I took was in our local area, to meet with like-minded people who understood what I was doing and have someone to bounce ideas off and get feedback,” Don says. “We formed a club, and for about 15 years met once a month.”

His parents were supportive of what he was trying to do, even though they didn’t always understand it. After his father passed away, his mother said he’d told her, “I don’t have a clue what he’s doing, but he seems to be making headway.”

Change can be hard if a person has always done things a certain way, but holistic management enabled Don to improve his pastures and run more cattle. He was one of the first ranchers in his area to start bale grazing and winter cows out on pasture.

“I worried that somebody would report me for cruelty to animals because they didn’t know what I was doing, but now some of the guys in our neighbourhood who probably thought I was off my rocker back then are feeding their cows out on the land and achieving some of the same goals.”

Boosting yield

The Guilfords’ approach allows them to put nutrients back on the land and improve the soil. Don puts bales very close together on a piece of ground he wants to improve, so it gets covered with litter and manure. The bales are only 25 to 30 feet apart, which gives an even covering. On one piece he had 750 bales on 15 acres, completely covering it.

Rejean Picard, from Manitoba Agriculture, did soil sampling at the site before and after the bales were put there.

“One year later, we’d increased our yield on that field by 10-fold. Plus, we haul hay straight from the hayfield in July — to where we plan to bale graze — so we only handle the hay once.”

This practice reduces the cost of harvest and winter feeding. Don and his wife could move electric fences and feed 200 cows in 20 minutes, for one week.

READ MORE: Lessons in cow economics learned in the field

“We experimented on how often to let the cattle into a new batch of bales. We tried three days, a week, two weeks, and a month,” Don says. “Even letting them have an area for a month, from what the cows would normally eat in a bale feeder in the corral, we wasted the equivalent of only one or two bales and didn’t use any diesel fuel for feeding.”

The approach has saved money and created more productive ground. In doing so, they have increased the number of cows per quarter.

“Ten more cows is a 33 per cent increase in number, plus adding the length of grazing has given us about twice the amount of grazing, on the same land. This makes the land more profitable. If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be looking for more land or spending money for more hay.”

Importance of budgeting

Don and Diane have continued with holistic management, not only because it has improved their land but also because this method of record-keeping enables them to know if they are making headway or going backward.

The cattle business, of course, isn’t easy. Many Canadian ranchers faced a tough time getting through the BSE crisis. “Bankers were watching us carefully. We’d done our holistic budgets and plans for the year, and the bank was making life difficult for us,” Don recalls. “At that time we had 300 cows and in 2003 the market was so terrible (due to BSE) that we kept all our heifers.”

The next two years were no better, so they kept them all again, and got to the point where they bred 605 cows.

“We were stretching our pasture resources and buying hay,” Don says.

“At that point we quit the Royal Bank and went to the credit union to see if they were interested in doing our loan. They had us fill out a line of credit and I asked if they wanted to see our bookkeeping.”

Don showed them the ranch’s numbers, including operating needs for each month of the year — something the credit manager said they were the first to do. The lender wanted clients who knew their operation well enough to predict what they were going to make and what it would cost. Holistic management can help guide people through the tough times, and in the good times create a higher level of profit.

This budgeting gave Don more confidence. “You think you can make it, but you aren’t sure. Once you do a budget you know you can make it. You might not make much profit, but you know you are in the black. When I got a semi-load of feed that cost 10 grand, I was comfortable writing the cheque because I knew I could pay for it,” he says.

“Holistic management has made a huge difference in our lives, helping us get through BSE and other challenges. After a 15-year grind we came out on the other side with more cows than we went into it. I told my banker the only way we both would come out ahead was if I had inventory when prices recover. We lived on a tight budget, but doubled our cow herd during BSE when many people were selling cows at low prices. When prices came back, we sold cows for $2,700 that the bank valued at $800.”

Many people sold cows to try to retain the same amount of gross income and got farther behind, but Don and Diane were keeping replacements, doubling their stocking rates with bale grazing, and making progress. In 2006, though, they decided they had to sell some cows.

“We were running out of pasture, and dry-lotted 100 cows on 50 acres all summer,” Don says. “It was hard on the land, but the cows did well; we fed raw screenings and straw along with the pasture… We sold those cows in Swift Current, and they did well, on very cheap feed.”

Looking ahead

The long-term effect of holistic management has greatly improved the farm. The 1,200 acres will easily handle 250 cows and 50 replacement heifers, and still have hay ground. “This is our goal if our grandson comes back to ranch,” Don says.

A person spends a lifetime building a place and good cattle and hopes family will carry on, he says. “You have to enjoy it, however. We would never have made it through BSE if we didn’t like what we were doing. At my age (74), people ask why I don’t quit, and I tell them I like what I’m doing and it gives me a reason to get up in the morning.

“If our grandson comes back, Diane and I can keep doing it longer.”

Their grandson is currently working toward a diploma in agriculture and hopes to come back full-time.

“I’d like for him and me and Diane, and maybe his mother, to take a week-long course in holistic management. The value in that is we all sit down together and set personal goals and ranch goals — what we want to be and do — along with financial plans. It’s important to all be on the same page in terms of our expectations.”

The post Redefining a ranch appeared first on Grainews.

Throughout the growing season, as interesting plants pop up in ditches, fields and pastures, I get texts, tweets and messages with photos of mystery plants from friends requesting identification. “Is this a good plant? Is it a weed? Does it grow here often? Is it toxic?”

My interest in plant identification started young with my mom, a former ag rep and agrologist, who is the original plant ID matriarch of the family.

As a kid, I remember neighbours and even strangers dropping by with puzzling plants for her to look at. I learned from her that the right plants can add beauty and bucks, but the wrong ones can cost you money and a lot of grief.

When I got older, I gravitated toward summer jobs that leveled up my weed, forage and rangeland plant identification. I quickly learned there are a lot of identity-obsessed plant experts, and I’m fortunate to have an inner circle of plant gurus to lean on for more information.

Whether a plant is welcome or not will differ according to region, soil type and goals; what might be a preferred plant on one farm is a weed on another.

Farmers and ranchers spend a lot more time identifying plants than perhaps they realize. Plants provide us with many clues about what is happening on our land. For example, we use weed identification in our annual crops to determine potential problems, including herbicide resistance. Being aware of common weeds helps us decide which crop protection products to use.

The threat of invasive weeds has many farmers vigilant and on the lookout for infestations of leafy spurge, toadflax or scentless chamomile. Risks like the movement of feed, the use of equipment between “contaminated” sites and clean fields, and industrial development and construction can all lead to a productivity-sucking invasion. In this sense, accurate plant identification can be the difference between swift eradication and a costly, multi-generational fight against invasive weeds.

Of course, there are plenty of good plants to take note of, too. For example, some plants only grow in moist habitats and their presence can indicate pockets of sub-irrigation, making them helpful in deciding where to potentially source a new well or dugout. These riparian plants can also filter out sediment and nutrients, helping to improve standing water quality.

Plants are also a part of our culture, and we look to them to signal the beginning or end of seasons. The familiar ritual of seeking out a prairie crocus confirms the arrival of spring; the ripening of saskatoon berries is a summertime staple; and the turning of leaves on a dogwood or Manitoba maple is a beacon of colder weather.

My favourite group of plants are those that are native to our Prairie grasslands. These plants have spent the past 10,000 years (give or take) adapting to be resilient against whatever disturbance is thrown at them.

Range plants each occupy a different, valuable niche on the landscape. In addition to providing benefits such as forage, carbon sequestration and biodiversity, many range plants fix nitrogen, like one of our many native milkvetch species.

Other species, such as creeping juniper, reduce hillside erosion. Shrubs such as buckbrush and silver sagebrush help trap snow and provide habitat for songbirds. Winterfat, a beloved prairie shrub, looks similar to sagebrush but lacks the smell. It’s known as the “ice cream” species because it’s preferred by both livestock and wildlife, and its robust presence can be an indicator of a healthy prairie pasture.

There are several regional plant ID books and you can also find answers to plant questions at your local extension office. There is also a wonderful website that helpfully categorizes wildflowers according to colour.

The next time you see a plant that piques your interest, ask yourself why it might be there. What are our plants telling us about our environment?

The post Plants and their identity crises appeared first on Grainews.

As humankind evolved from a nomadic hunter-gatherer society into agricultural-based settlement populations, there is a reason domesticated bovine played a major role as a farmed species. Cattle are hardy and resilient, defending themselves against many potentially harmful viruses, bacteria and parasitic burdens.

There are scenarios, though, where beef cattle producers can help ease that burden, by implementing some simple barriers against disease to keep their herds productive and healthy.

1. Grazing leases and shared pastures

Producers can play a proactive role in community grazing situations by ensuring animals with a poor body condition score, or showing signs of possible illness, are not shipped to a community pasture.

Pasture staff should have a standardized protocol for vaccination, disease identification and treatment while animals are at the community pasture, and they should work closely with a veterinarian when things aren’t looking right.

Remember, cattle coming out of community pastures or grazing leases can bring unwanted diseases home, such as those that cause fetal loss such as bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVD) or infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), even if they appear healthy. To avoid spreading these to the main herd, it is recommended to manage them separately for three to four weeks before they rejoin the core group.

2. Wildlife contact

Identifying key areas on the farm where beef cattle potentially comingle with wildlife is a key factor when considering the risk of transmission of infectious diseases to a herd. For example, when cattle share pastures and water sources with other cloven-hooved animals such as deer and elk, diseases such as tuberculosis can spread between cohorts. Close contact with wild birds and other wildlife and their droppings should also be limited as much as possible to prevent cross-contamination between species.

3. Shared trailers and equipment

Farmers often work together in busy seasons to be more efficient with time and resources. When agreeing with a neighbour to work together, consider having a conversation about the risk factors associated with cross-contamination between farms, and make every effort to minimize those risks. Some jumping-off points include ensuring both herds have a similar vaccination and health status and thoroughly cleaning the shared equipment between uses.

4. Horse lending

When lending a hand to the neighbours we often think about cleaning our trailers and washing our boots, but what about horses? When a horse has spent time in a neighbouring herd, there should be adequate time and measures taken to ensure they are not bringing home pathogens on their feet or in their respiratory tracts, so some level of quarantine is recommended.

5. Livestock shows

The comingling of people, equipment and animals at 4-H events, local fairs, livestock shows and markets poses a significant risk to farming operations. Any animals or equipment returning from these events must be thoroughly cleaned, disinfected and quarantined.

6. Raw colostrum from other farms

Cows from within your own herd will have the best antibody profile in their colostrum to protect your calves from the diseases persistent in your environment. Raw colostrum from other farms, especially dairies, may not include all the antibodies to protect against the diseases that threaten your herd.

Worse than that, it could also contain dangerous viruses, bacteria or parasites that are not part of your environment already. Introducing pathogens such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, Johne’s disease, cryptosporidium, and scours-causing organisms can cause devastating results. If you have calves that require colostrum but have none from your herd on hand, opt for pasteurized powdered colostrum instead.

7. Custom operators

Custom workers often travel from farm to farm to provide services. While this is convenient and often timesaving for a producer, it also creates a risk if the contractor is not following biosecurity recommendations. Ensure all contractors are aware of your biosecurity protocols and that they are responsible for complying. This can include spraying tires, boot baths and wearing booties on-farm.

8. Farm visitors

Off-farm family and friends are often excited to experience the farm, and beef producers are welcoming and enjoy sharing a glimpse into their lifestyle. When offering access to farm visitors, it is equally important to ensure simple steps are taken to protect the animals on the farm. These may include boot washes, clothing changes and hand washing.

9. Orphaned calves

The economic consequences of having a dry cow for the season are significant. Because of this, it is tempting to adopt a calf from another operation onto a willing mother cow. However, the risks outweigh the reward.

Orphaned calves will carry all the pathogens they have been exposed to on their farm of origin. These pathogens may not harm the orphan calf, as they will have exposure immunity from their herd of origin. Those same pathogens, however, may be novel to your herd and could have devastating consequences for your cows and calves in the forms of scours outbreaks or reproductive wrecks.

10. Service providers

Veterinarians, feed consultants and nutritionists have the best intentions in providing critical advice to help your herd stay healthy and remain profitable. They often travel between farms, so it is crucial they follow biosecurity protocols when entering and leaving the farm.

11. Leased livestock

Custom feeding and leased livestock can help bolster income when needed. Animals that do not originate from your herd will need to be quarantined and placed on the same vaccination program as the rest of your herd, in consultation with your veterinarian, before fully integrating into your herd.

12. Purchased stock

Bulls, replacement heifers and any other newly purchased animals will not have the same immunity as your home herd. They must be properly vaccinated and quarantined to ensure they don’t introduce disease to your herd, or vice versa.

13. Borrowed or purchased nurse cows

Nurse cows can pose a significant threat to the health status of your herd, by introducing new pathogens to which your calves and cows could be naive. When acquiring a nurse cow from another operation, it is key to allow for an adequate amount of time to properly quarantine and evaluate the health of the incoming animal.

14. Different livestock species

Just because an animal is a different species doesn’t mean it cannot still carry or spread disease to the cow herd. Care must be taken when introducing new species onto the farm, such as hogs, horses, or small ruminants such as sheep and goats.

15. Fence-line contact and shared water

If your cows are sharing a fence line or a water source with a neighbouring herd, their problems become your problems. Any cattle that are across a fence or drinking from the same water source will need to be considered when assessing risk and developing vaccination protocols.

While it is not possible to protect your herd from everything all the time, understanding where the potential breaches are in your biosecurity plan can help identify reasonable changes in management and develop health and vaccination protocols that effectively protect your herd.

The post For your cattle, the best biosecurity offence is defence appeared first on Grainews.