Forages Archives | Country Guide

Small grains like rye are the focus of a pilot project to encourage growers to lengthen their rotations with cereals.

Building interest for small grain cereals

This new initiative hopes to grow demand for small grains by recognizing their environmental benefits

By Ralph Pearce November 23, 2020

Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s everything growers could ask for. Imagine market demand that’s driven by acknowledging the healthfulness of the crops you grow and their environmental and sustainability benefits, plus a premium return on investment so you can afford to plant even more. How many times have growers wanted this kind of market pull in exchange for excellence […] Read more

The project aims to shift to more legume and good-quality forage grass species rather than some of the non-essential plants or weeds now in the pasture.

Forages, Livestock

More cattle, more birds and more carbon

New Brunswick community pasture project to measure the benefits of keeping land out of annual crops

By Trudy Kelly Forsythe November 12, 2020

Reading Time: 6 minutes The Tantramar Marsh near Sackville, New Brunswick, is a rich biodiversity zone and serves as an important flyway for North American birds. It is also home to the Tantramar Community Pasture, 1,685 acres on Crown land established in 1961 to provide cattle producers limited land to pasture their livestock and help keep costs low. About […] Read more

One tip is to make sure bales are the right size to fit through your hoop so you don’t end up with a pile of bales you can’t wrap.

Crops, Forages

Tips and tricks for successful baled silage

Don’t delay cutting, and make sure bales are a consistent size

By Trudy Kelly Forsythe October 30, 2020

Reading Time: 5 minutes Baled silage has several advantages over dry hay, including reduced risk and a higher-quality product when it’s made right. That was the message from Manitoba Agriculture’s livestock specialist Ray Bittner at the online Ag in Motion show in July. While a perfect season can mean a good yield of dry hay with no mould and […] Read more

Researchers with AAFC say they are close to developing a perennial grain and forage rye.

Cereals, Crops

Perennial cereal rye 2.0

After setbacks with an earlier program, Lethbridge researchers are making progress in developing a dual-purpose grain and forage rye

By Jeff Melchior November 1, 2019

Reading Time: 5 minutes It sounds ideal like the ideal crop. It produces grain every year, has no annual seed and planting costs, provides excellent weed control and you can also use it for forage. Too good to be true? Maybe not. Efforts to develop perennial wheat continue their slow pace with commercialization pegged at around 15 years from […] Read more

Contrast in control of Roundup Ready alfalfa with herbicides applied in early fall (foreground) compared to late fall (background).

Crops, Forages

Pest Patrol: Killing off Roundup Ready alfalfa

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

By Mike Cowbrough September 18, 2019

Reading Time: 3 minutes Six tank-mix partners are recommended for the removal of Roundup Ready alfalfa, and since they vary significantly in cost (Table 1 below), their effectiveness was evaluated in a trial conducted at the Elora Research Station in 2018-19. Growing degree day accumulation after herbicide application appeared to have the greatest effect on the control of Roundup […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Forages, Livestock

Five tips for grazing corn this winter

November 16, 2018

Corn grazing is becoming more popular across Canada because producers can grow more biomass on less land. If you are planning on grazing corn this winter, here are five tips to help you make the most of the corn grazing season:

The Green Gold program focuses on quality rather than quantity for the first cut, but it’s also helped producers harvest more cuts per year.

Crops, Hay

Knowing when it’s ‘hay day’

A provincial sampling program helps producers decide the best time to cut alfalfa for maximum RFV

By Duncan Morrison October 5, 2018

Reading Time: 3 minutes An alfalfa-monitoring program designed more than 20 years ago continues to pay dividends for Manitoba dairy producers and the domestic and export dairy hay industry. Manitoba Forage and Grasslands Association’s (MFGA) “Green Gold” program just wrapped up the program’s 23rd year of helping to predict “Hay Day” — the date when harvested pure alfalfa stands[...]
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Crops, Forages, Weather

Drought’s effects linger on Prairies

By Ashley Robinson - MarketsFarm July 27, 2018

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — After a dry growing season last year in Western Canada, effects of the drought are still evident with news that most livestock producers won’t be doing a second cut of hay. “Pastures and hay fields didn’t get the moisture that they needed to really recharge over that winter period and get a[...]
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Crops, Hay, Weather

Hay shortage could make for difficult winter

By Terry Fries October 3, 2017

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Many cattle producers looking for local feed this winter might have a difficult time, according to a Saskatchewan provincial forage specialist. However, producers further north in the grey and black soil zones, and those in Alberta producing high-quality feed for export, saw near-record hay production. Terry Kowalchuk of Saskatchewan Agriculture in Regina[...]
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Ray Robertson, of the Ontario Forage Council, says foreign markets are an opportunity for Canadian forage growers.

Forages, News

Rain means much of Ontario first cut hay is yet to be harvested

Forage quality declining with each passing day

By John Greig July 4, 2017

Reading Time: 2 minutes Wet weather that has much of the Ontario first cut hay crop still standing in the field hasn’t yet changed the price for hay. Typically, the first cut hay harvest is mostly complete by the first of July, but regular rains in June this year have left hay in the field and declining in quality each[...]
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Olymel restarting hog slaughter at Red Deer

ICE weekly outlook: Canola back where it started

CBOT weekly outlook: High U.S. corn prices cut into ethanol production

GFM Network News