Site Background
About the Location
Located just south of Highridge, Alberta, on Highway 777, the Greener Pastures Ranching Bale Grazing and Advanced Grazing Systems demonstration site lives in a hilly, grey wooded soil zone with clay-like soil and a creek. It was forested many years ago.
About the Farm
Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd. Is owned by Steven Kenyon and he leases the land from private land owners. It is a 1st generation farm that has existed for 25 years, 14 of which have been spent on this pasture. Steven’s interest in rotational grazing systems comes from a belief that modern agriculture does not have the answers. We need to manage in a regenerative manner in order to be sustainable for generations. The custom grazing operation runs around 1200 head of livestock on 3000 acres of leased land. They also keep about 130 cow/calf pairs over the winter in order to build up their land through Bale Grazing.
Learning about Rotational Grazing
Steven learned about rotational grazing through private industry seminars, conferences and schools.
The Rotational Grazing Objective
The goal of this demonstration site is to promote and educate about Advanced Grazing Systems and to show how we can build soil, heal ecosystems and repair the water cycle. Bale Grazing is another tool that can help build up the water holding capacity that allows us to heal the land faster.
Acknowledgement
Steven Kenyon.
Agronomic Details
The site is 560 acres in total. The site has a barb-wire perimeter for fencing with one wire high tensile for cross. The water is pumped from dugouts and the creek.
water system installation occurred in 2009. The demonstration site pasture is one paddock in a larger advanced grazing system (AGS).
Project Overview
Steven chose to do this project as a few of his paddocks did not heal as fast as others with an AGS and needed additional help. This project sees a twice-over rotational grazing system with an average of two days per paddock. There are a total of 25 paddocks. The site will see a 50-day rest period and will be slower on the second rotation.
Funding for this project [in part] has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund.