Rural Routes to Climate Solutions

In recent years, mycorrhizal fungi have become a hot topic, especially when talking about soil health. You may be wondering how fungi can improve and foster soil health. Well, mycorrhizal fungi are vast networks of nutrient exchange between plants and other microscopic critters you can find in the soil. Fortunately, the management practices for maintaining this conduit of nutrient exchange tend to...

Riparian areas can be a value-added project of the wetlands on your land if you choose to leave your wetlands intact. The wetland itself is great for maintaining the water table and can become an important source of water for your cattle.  The value added to a wetland that can be found in a riparian area is seemingly endless: water filtration, food for wild game, habitat for native pollinator...

You could argue that compared to other livestock, cattle are pretty simple to feed – get them grazing during the growing season and feed them bales in the winter. However, this relatively simple feeding system begins to fall apart when you get hit by drought; forage isn’t growing in your pasture and the price of hay goes through the roof. During a dry year, you might want to look into...

If you manage them properly, riparian areas can be a savings account that you can tap into during a dry year. There are plenty of good reasons for fencing off and protecting bodies of water on your land, like giving biodiversity a boost or keeping water clean for livestock. Not to mention how handy that strip of greenery adjacent to a wetland can be when your pasture isn’t growing or recover...

When it comes to soil amendments, charcoal is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. But if you really think about it, charcoal is carbon that’s been locked up in the same way that coal is carbon, perfectly sequestered. There’s a catch though – you can’t burn it. But if we can’t burn it, how do we activate the carbon in biochar? In this episode, Rob Lavoie o...

Welcome to another episode in our Getting Through Drought series. If you live in Alberta and raise cattle, odds are you will try every possible way to keep that spring melt, or heavy rain, on your land. While you may throw in a shelter belt or an eco buffer, we hope that you’re also giving your pasture adequate rest and recovery so moisture can soak into the soil. Here in Alberta, a tried an...

Welcome to the launch of an exciting new series called Getting Through Drought. It’s safe to say that when it comes to droughts in Alberta, it’s less a matter of if and more a question of when. So, in this series we are exploring the best management practices that cow calf operators in Alberta can use to prepare for the next drought, whenever that may be. There are very few things that can mess up...

With fertilizer prices hitting $1,000 a ton, it’s no surprise that cover crops are a hot topic. It makes sense that non-synthetic inputs like cover crops are becoming more and more appealing to producers. There’s many benefits to cover crops – including feeding livestock and pollinators, improving water filtration, suppressing weeds, building soil carbon and improving soil biology. In this e...

We’re celebrating a pretty cool milestone – 50 podcast episodes!  This episode is all about reflecting on the past and anticipating the future. We’ve covered so many great topics and had the most amazing speakers join us. While we can’t highlight or cover it all in our “podcast tour”, we picked ones that impacted the podcast’s trajectory. Since it took us 5 years to reach this milestone...

Most of us are familiar with the Canadian Agricultural Partnership or CAP. It is the funding agreement between the federal government and provinces and territories supporting many programs and services for the agriculture sector. CAP is coming to an end this year and right now a new Agricultural Policy Framework (APF) is being negotiated. In fact, federal, provincial and territorial ministers are...

In our first two episodes of this series, we looked at farming and ranching at the Kainai First Nation, located in Southern Alberta. If you’ve had a chance to listen, you may have noticed a theme – the importance of the Iinnii (buffalo). In this episode, knowledge holder Dr. Leroy Little Bear shares his work to restore the Iinnii. Little Bear sheds light on why this work is important, not on...

Cattle ranching on the Blood Reserve can be a very rewarding experience and endeavour, however, it does come with challenges in today’s changing times. In this episode, Blackfoot knowledge keeper and cattle producer Mike Bruised Head shares his early beginnings as a cattle producer and how his understanding of Blackfoot ways of knowing has contributed to his practice. Mike sheds light on how he ha...

Three Alberta agricultural producers discuss what the ‘regenerative mindset’ is and why it is important for those transitioning to regenerative agriculture. This episode features Daryl Chubb, Tim Wray and Sheldon Atwood. Highlights: Coming soon… Alberta agricultural producers mentioned in this episode: Tim Wray of WR Grazing (Irricana). Read about Tim’s story on our Farmer’s Blog...

Feedlot manager and proponent of holistic management and regenerative agriculture Andrea Stroeve-Sawa shares low-stress livestock handling tips we can use to have constructive conversations about the livestock and the environment issue. Even if we don’t agree with the other person. Andrea also shares what it was like for her to sit down and have that exact conversation with a vegan. While be...

Filmmaker and communications strategist Sarah Wray discusses communications techniques we can use to have constructive conversations about the livestock and the environment issue. Even if we don’t agree with the other person. The Bridging the Echo Chambers project is a Food Water Wellness Foundation project that delves into the debate about the impacts of livestock on the environment and how...

Author and leadership advisor David Irvine discusses the strategies we can use to have constructive conversations about the livestock and environment issue. Even if we don’t agree with the other person. The Bridging the Echo Chambers project is a Food Water Wellness Foundation project that delves into the debate about the impacts of livestock on the environment and how we can facilitate heal...

The thrilling conclusion of our exploration of post-secondary research and regenerative agriculture with Jason Bradley of Olds College. Useful Links: Rural Routes to Climate Solutions Regenerative Agriculture Lab Want to learn more? Our Farmer’s Blog is a great go-to source for stories of producers in Alberta who are going the extra mile with their management practices for the land, food and their...

Take a deep dive with Jason Bradley of Olds College into post-secondary agriculture research and how research can assist the acceleration of regen ag in Alberta. Useful Links: Rural Routes to Climate Solutions Regenerative Agriculture Lab  Want to learn more? Our Farmer’s Blog is a great go-to source for stories of producers in Alberta who are going the extra mile with their management practices f...

Kainai First Nation members Cyrus and Roy Weasel Fat share their success story of farming and ranching on the Blood Reserve in southern Alberta. The father and son team discuss some of the challenges of farming on the reserve and how they built a successful small business and educational outlet for the community. Useful Links: Rural Routes to Climate Solutions Siksikaitsitapi Agriculture Project W...

Co-operatives have a long history in Alberta of getting the job done. We ask Rod Olson of YYC Growers if co-ops can assist in advancing regenerative agriculture in the province. Want to learn more? Our Farmer’s Blog is a great go-to source for stories of producers in Alberta who are going the extra mile with their management practices for the land, food and their communities.

Cutting hay is not the only thing an agricultural producer can do these days when the sun is shining. A crash course in on-farm solar from A-Z with Lee Sinal of KCP Energy. Alberta agricultural producers mentioned in this episode: Vaudet Dairy in Ferintosh: Investing in Solar Energy for Tomorrow Northern Lights Farms in Manning: Low-Carbon Market Gardening Useful Links: Agricultural Clean Technolo...

Agriculture in Alberta and in other parts of the world is going through a bit of a ‘personnel change’ right now. You can still find those agricultural producers whose families moved out to the Prairies about a century ago to try their luck at building a better life for themselves, but there is not as many of them as there used to be (there are 62% less agricultural producers in Canada...

Agricultural producers who move fence and cattle (or some other ruminant) daily or every few days during the growing season have talked about the benefits of adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing, sometimes called rotational grazing, for soil health, plant diversity and their livestock for quite some time now. A recently released study on AMP grazing on the Prairies provides new evidence to support...

There’s an interesting demographic shift going in agriculture right now. The agricultural population is drastically shrinking—right now there is 62% less agricultural producers in Canada than there was fifty years ago. Out on the Prairies, farms and ranches are becoming fewer (in Alberta, 34% less than in 1966) and larger (farms that are 5,000 acres or more account for almost half the acres underp...

Jianyi Dong and his passive solar greenhouse. Highlights: Alberta agricultural producers mentioned in this episode: Jianyi Dong of Freshpal Farms in Olds, Alberta https://rr2cs.ca/passive-solar-greenhouses-without-borders-growing-technology-on-albertas-prairies/ Useful Links: Want to learn more? After listening to this episode, we recommend downloading our first Passive Solar Greenhouse (Episode 1...