Grazing for Profit at Kootenay Meadows Dairy

Precision Grazing for Profit

Field Day

Creston, June 28

A tour of Kootenay Meadow’s pastures to see intensive grazing management in action. Discussions about how intensive grazing management can be a low-tech way to increase yields and build soil, and the economics of intensive versus traditional management.

Resources:

• KBFA Field Day Summary: Notes on Grazing Systems at Kootenay Meadows, June 28, 2018

• Participant handout (includes summary of Wayne’s grazing operation): Field Day Handout

• Nutrition Summary, prepared by Dr. Annette Suominen: Nutritional Summary for Kootenay Meadows Farm

• Resource from Dr. Annette Suominen that explains sugar levels in forage (Brix levels): Economics of Grass Fed Beef Production

Event details:
Date and Time: Thursday, June 28, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, Kootenay Meadows Farm, 3071 – 16th Street, Lister 
Host Farm: Wayne and Denise Harris have managed an organic dairy for more than two decades according to principles of low-input intensive grazing management, using robotic milkers and turnstiles to rotate their 80 cows quickly through small paddocks for the benefit of the animals, the pasture, and the dairy’s bottom line.
Presenter: Dr. Lauchlan Fraser of Thompson Rivers University has spent years working with ranchers doing intensive grazing management, collecting and analyzing data. His projects include measuring soil carbon as a means to earn “carbon credits” for ranchers who effectively build their soils.
Support: Nutritionist Dr. Annette Suominen worked for 13 years in the feed industry after receiving her PhD in 1997 from the University of Alberta in ruminant digestive physiology. Since 2011 she has worked as an independent consultant while operating a 1000 acre ranch with 200 cattle in Red Deer along with her husband and son.