AB - Greener Pastures Ranching

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.

About the Farm

Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd. is owned by Steven Kenyon and he leases the land from private landowners. 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. They also own about 100 sheep.

Learning about Rotational Grazing

Steven learned about rotational grazing through private industry seminars, conferences and schools over the last 25 years.

The Rotational Grazing Objective

The goal of this demonstration site is to promote and educate about Advanced Grazing Systems (AGS), 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."

Why Did You Do This Project?

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. Bale grazing and adding legumes can speed up the healing process. “We have learned that we lose many of our clovers, for example, due to extremely dry years. It is worthwhile to add more seed to increase diversity.”

History & Soil Tests

The goal at Greener Pastures Ranching is to grow soil. They do this by using livestock to manage a perennial polyculture. “The plants, along with help from our underground employees, help us sequester carbon. We take carbon out of the air with photosynthesis and push it into the soil with exudation. We turn our base material into topsoil.”

The soil tests and picture below show how Greener Pastures Ranching has improved the soil structure over the past 17 years. The first test shows the starting point of two paddocks back in 2005. After the initial soil testing, one paddock was bale grazed and the other was not. Soil testing was completed in both paddocks again in 2023. This is when big changes were observed! The bale grazing paddock had 6.0% organic matter at 0-6 inches and 8.2% at 6-12 inches. The non bale grazed paddock was at 4.4% and 7.8%, respectively. Both showed major improvement however the bale grazing paddock has quite the head start! Additionally, average soil organic carbon (SOC) went up to 6.6 and the soil depth is now an estimated 10 inches. “We started with grey wooded soil that was developed under forest. It had virtually no topsoil, but we were able to grow it to 10 inches in 17 years!” pH also increased, reducing soil acidity.

Both sets of tests were taken by the Gateway Research Organization using proper sampling procedures. Greener Pastures Ranching plans on doing more extensive soil testing in the near future. Academia has been teaching that it takes 100 years to grow an inch of topsoil however Steven disagrees. “With proper management, we can grow the Ah horizon a lot faster.”

2005 Soil Test

2023 Soil Test

This project sees a twice (2.5) over rotational grazing system with an average of 2 days per paddock. This means that every paddock usually gets grazed 2 times and some will get grazed 3 times. “We never use to be able to do this but as we improve our water holding capacity, we can increase our number of rotations. Years ago we only grazed this 1.5 or 2 times.” There are a total of 25 paddocks. The site will see a 50-day rest period with the rest period being even slower on the second/third 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.