Our Alberta ranch is a family-run cow-and-calf operation. We are a certified sustainable grazing operation that takes great pride in the way we look after the soil, livestock and environment that we operate on.

At this time of year, we are well into getting the cattle on to the winter swathing programme of oats, forage peas, forage rape and turnip cover crop blended together, which are swathed and left out in the paddock under the snow. This way, we can preserve the quality of the crop just like putting it into a freezer for the winter. We have 260ac of swath grazing crop and once it is laid down, I put up electric fencing to control the amount of daily intake.

The fence is moved every morning so the cows are getting new swaths. The ground is frozen down to 5in, so I use a cordless drill with a masonry bit to drill in 3in deep holes for fibreglass posts and polywire, which will be the break fence for the day’s grazing. Having the ground frozen, we do not have to worry about soil compaction from the hooves. Using this method of grazing, we also fertilise the soil and add organic matter at the same time as feed the livestock.

Last year, we had 10 days in a row of -38°C lows and -24°C highs, which really tested the cows, but they just kept on grazing and doing well. The normal temperatures around here for winter nights are around -10°C days to -18°C, which are nice if we don’t have a wind to make the wind chill double that.

This year has been dry, with only 5.5in of rain in the growing season, which has made the crops lower in feed value and tonnage so we are weaning in November instead of January. Calving starts on 1 May for six weeks. Earlier weaning is to keep the body condition on the cows through winter, which can be a hard time for them if the feed quality is not right.

We try to keep the protein in the feed above 18% to 20% and total digestible nutrients (TDN) above 69% to 72%. This year, the swaths came in at 11% protein and TDN 61%, which is the lowest we have ever had it to date. Hopefully we get rain next year.

The watering systems are old loader tyres with cement plugs in the bottom. The are half-covered over the tops with lids and swather canvas from the top cover to the bottom of the system to make a heat chamber, which has a floating water heater inside to prevent the water freezing.

The cows are Hereford/Angus black and red baldies crosses, which make a very good first-generation crossbred cow for our year-round grazing program. We breed these back to Hereford and Angus bulls.

We buy the bulls from producers who raise their bulls on pasture instead of silage diets. They do a lot better in our programme of year-round grazing.

Cows and calves are coming in from the high-legume (grasses, alfalfa, milk vetch and sanfoin) perennial pasture which are grazed from late May until now. The cow herd has taken a few years of breeding and selection to become the forage-based herd we are now comfortable with – and worry-free.

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