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Forage and Livestock eNews
Updates and information from across the industry
Volume 14, Issue 8, August 16, 2022
2022 Saskatchewan Pasture Tour highlights
by: Shannon McArton, SFC Executive Director

Another successful Saskatchewan Pasture Tour was held on August 4th near St. Brieux, where SM AG Research and Kertan Farms showcased their diverse operation to a large crowd. Owned and operated by Marc Kernaleguen and Stephanie Ginter, along with Marc’s parents Jean and Eva Marie, this 2,000-acre mixed farm includes a small-plot research station that specializes in pesticide experimental product research, seed treatments, fertility and variety trials. It made for an interesting and informative day, with a lot of interaction from the engaged attendees.
Individual presentations included rotational grazing strategies, water systems and water quality, tame forage plant identification, soil health, weed management, intermediate wheat grass trials, under-seeding canola with forage trials, wildlife management and total mixed ration grazing. Presentations also included a review of programming opportunities from the Ministry of Agriculture and Ducks Unlimited, as well as wildlife predation insurance programming from Saskatchewan Crop Insurance.
Image: Tour hosts Marc Kernaleguen and
Stephanie Ginter
Site hosts Marc and Stephanie led some of the presentations, and were joined in the list of speakers by Sid Kernohan from Anderson Pump House, Rikki-Jean Wilson, Charlotte Ward and Taylor Lenard from the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Greg Penner from the University of Saskatchewan, Jo-Anne Relf-Eckstein from Saskatchewan Forage Seed Development Commission, Scott Gerbrandt from Young Cattlemen’s Council, Brooke Howat and Tess Ryder from Ducks Unlimited, Paul Kernaleguen and Avery Shepard from Imperial Seed and Greg Skurdal from Saskatchewan Crop Insurance.

The weather co-operated, and a perfect day outdoors ended with a steak supper that allowed another opportunity for networking and idea-sharing.

The Saskatchewan Pasture Tour is an annual event, organized by a partnership group that includes Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ducks Unlimited Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, the Saskatchewan Forage Council, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Saskatchewan and Young Cattlemen’s Council. Planning for the 2023 tour will soon be underway.

Our sincere thanks to our generous 2022 tour sponsors.
Check out BCRC's cover crops page
The Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) has a wealth of information for beef cattle producers. On the cover crops page, you can read about cover crop goals and objectives, seed mixes, grazing cover crops, and more.

Some key points include (excerpt from BCRC Cover Crop page):

Cover crops are simple or diverse mixes of annual and sometimes biennial or perennial species that are planted in order to “cover” the ground.

Proponents of cover crops plant them to increase soil organic matter, improve water infiltration, improve the health of soil microbial communities, reduce the need for fertilizer inputs, and suppress weeds.

Common cover crop mixes include a blend of warm-season and cool-season plants, grasses or cereals, legumes, and Brassica species.

Cover crops may be grazed, baled, or put up as silage, depending on the mix and goals of the producer.

A feed analysis should be done prior to grazing or feeding cover crops to ensure there are no toxicity issues, particularly with nitrates and sulfates.

2022 Agriculture Student Scholarship winners
The Agriculture Student Scholarship is for students who want to tell the exciting story of agriculture. The winning scholarship is valued at $4,000 and the three runner-up scholarships are valued at $2,000 each.

The 2022 Grand Prize Scholarship Winner was Emily Sebastian. Emily and her family have a cow-calf operation near Montmartre, Sask. As an active leader in her community, Emily understands the importance of communication and transparency in the agriculture industry.

In her award-winning video, Emily discusses how consumers want to make sustainable choices about their food and transparency lays the foundation to build trust between the producer and consumer.

Runners up for the scholarship were Kristie Pedersen, Grace Waldenberger and Kate Axten.

Their Bags are Packed, Young Burrowing Owls are Moving Out!
by: Nature Saskatchewan, August 4, 2022

The time has come for young Burrowing Owls to jump into the real world. Early August marks the beginning of a new life stage for juvenile Burrowing Owls as they say goodbye to mom and dad’s grocery shopping and home cooking, and begin leaving the nest to forage for themselves. During this transition period, the young owls are practicing their hunting and flying skills and continually gaining more independence. While this time of year is great for spotting Burrowing Owls, it is a dangerous season for the ever-learning young Burrowing Owls. Roadside foraging is a common activity for the young owls, introducing the danger of vehicles. “At dusk the road surface tends to be warmer than surrounding grasslands, attracting many small insects and rodents,” explains Kaytlyn Burrows, coordinator of Operation Burrowing Owl, “As a result young owls are also attracted to the road and ditch when they begin searching for prey.”

Each year, young foraging Burrowing Owls are injured or killed by vehicles along roadsides. The steady decline of the Burrowing Owl population has made the survival of each and every juvenile owl critical for the persistence and growth of the population. Luckily, those of us driving in rural Saskatchewan can play our individual parts in conserving the Burrowing Owl species. Kaytlyn Burrows suggests that “when motorists are driving in rural areas, particularly nearby pasture land, it’s important that they take a few extra minutes and slow down. This will reduce the risk of owl-vehicle collisions”. Slowing down will also increase your chances of spotting this endangered bird!

Burrowing Owls tend to be found nesting in well-grazed native or tame prairie. Their nest itself is recycled from a burrow dug by burrowing mammals such as badgers or ground squirrels (gophers). The surrounding short vegetation allows for long sight lines from the burrow so that they can easily spot nearby predators. If you are lucky enough to spot a Burrowing Owl, you might see it standing at its burrow entrance, on a fence post, or foraging in a ditch.

Employment opportunity
Grasslands National Park Resource Conservation Manager - Parks Canada - Saskatchewan South Field Unit, Val Marie (Saskatchewan)

Closing date: 30 August 2022 - 23:59, Pacific Time

Who can apply: Persons residing in Canada, and Canadian citizens and Permanent residents abroad.

Forage testing for the future
by: Progressive Forage Editor Joy Hendrix, July 14, 2022

The case in favor of how valuable a forage test can be is solid and largely undisputed, but how often do those tests need to be performed to be most efficient?

Rosy-Lane Holsteins in Watertown, Wisconsin, is part of a project by Rock River Laboratory called the data-driven program. In this program, forage testing is implemented on a much more frequent basis than usual so feed adjustments can be made in a timelier manner.

“We thought of all the things we monitor on the dairy,” says Jordan Matthews, a partner of Rosy-Lane Holsteins. “We look at milk weights of a cow three times a day. We are monitoring activity on the cow every hour and combining all these data points to better manage that cow.”

With this in mind, is the status quo of forage testing once or twice a month enough? The traditional way of thinking is generally that once you put feed up in the bunker, the feed should be consistent throughout.

“That wasn’t exactly our logic,” says Matthews, “but we were pretty intrigued to test that theory.”

Matthews says the idea of making forage decisions based off a series of data points throughout the month seemed more logical than basing decisions from one test that had been taken and fed from the bunker as distant as two weeks before receiving results.

Video: Menoken Farm
Menoken Farm is a combination of natural resource education and systems approach conservation. This 150-acre demonstration farm, located just east of Bismarck, N.D. was established in 2009 and draws people from all over the United States and beyond.

Learn more about Menoken Farm in this short video on YouTube:

Upcoming Events
Canadian Beef Industry Conference
August 16-18, 2022
Penticton, BC

Native Prairie Speaker Series - Invasive Weeds in Native Prairie
August 30, 2022
via Webinar

MFGA 2022 Regenerative Agriculture Conference
November 14-15, 2022
Brandon, MB

Western Canada Conference on Soil Health and Grazing
December 13-15, 2022
Edmonton, AB
Financial support for the Forage and Livestock eNews is provided in part by one of our partners, the Saskatchewan Forage Seed
Development Commission.
Forage and Livestock eNews is published by the Saskatchewan Forage Council (SFC). Opinions and information are provided by the authors and publication does not imply endorsement by the SFC.
The Saskatchewan Forage Council gratefully acknowledges funding for our "Facilitating Forage Initiatives in Saskatchewan" project through the
Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association Industry Development Fund:
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