The Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) will join 14 other grain groups across the country, including Alberta Grains, SaskWheat and the Atlantic Grains Council. According to a Jan. 8 news release, trade, transportation, infrastructure and research will be central to the groups’ unified advocacy under the Grain Growers of Canada (GGC).

Ontario is one of Canada’s top grain producing provinces, including 60 per cent of all corn produced in the country. Prior to the announcement, it was the only province without representation as a GGC member group.

In the Jan. 8 release, GFO Chair Jeff Harrison called the partnership a “a strategic decision that reflects today’s political landscape and positions all grain farmers for long-term success,” saying grain farmers are strongest when standing with peers across Canada.

“We bring deep expertise and a strong voice to national discussions, and we are committed to working collaboratively to advance policies that benefit farmers from coast to coast,” Harrison said.

Scott Hepworth, GGC chair, said GFO’s joining the organization comes as Canadian grain farmers “have been dealing with the fallout of long-standing issues that have been left unresolved.”

“Global market instability is exposing cracks across the system, and Grain Farmers of Ontario joining Grain Growers of Canada reflects just how broad these pressures are and why a unified national voice, representing every major grain-producing region, is critical now,” said Hepworth.

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Why it matters: Free trade is critical for Canadian farmers, as much of what they produce is exported.

“We feel the current agreement is a good one and we’d like to see it continue as is,” said Keith Currie, Canadian Federation of Agriculture president, adding the request includes signing it for the original 16-year completion date without weakening its provisions or introducing any changes that negatively affect the agricultural sector.

“It’s really important to make the job of governments harder to ignore us when we are together as an industry.”

Signed by 98 Canadian food and agricultural value chain organizations, the letter mirrors one signed and submitted to Congress by 124 United States food and agricultural value chain organizations in October for the 2026 Joint Review of CUSMA public consultation, placing pressure on both governments to respect the agriculture industry’s support for the agreement.

Highlighting CUSMA’s instrumental role in building a stable, integrated and thriving North American agricultural market, the letter highlighted specific areas Canadian farmers, ranchers and processors would like to remain untouched.

“We are calling on governments to maintain the agreement’s SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) provisions, which have improved transparency and ensured science-based treatment of agricultural products—protecting plant and animal health,” the letter states. “The continuation of science-based regulatory cooperation is critical to ensuring timely access to agricultural innovations.”

It also reflects full support for the Chapter 31 dispute settlement provisions designed to resolve “barriers that otherwise disrupt market stability and growth.”

Political and geopolitical events of the last decade are shifting the narrative, making it necessary for Canada’s 260-plus commodities, along with Mexico and the U.S. agricultural sectors, to support one another, Currie explained.

The letter said that between 2005 and 2023, CUSMA tripled the value of North American agriculture and agrifood trade to the tune of approximately C$400 billion (US$285 billion).

Currie said the three countries are aligned through a shared language, goals and collaborative relationship-building to strengthen and improve the sector.

“We all need each other’s help, and we can’t get this across the finish line unless we’re all pushing in the same direction,” he explained, adding all three countries are aligned through a shared language, goals, and collaborative relationship-building to strengthen and improve the sector.

“When the deal is all done, I would certainly be happy with an advantage for our farmers, but I don’t want to see it come at the detriment of either my colleagues, my farmer friends in the U.S., or relationships between nations.”

Currie said consumers now have a better understanding of agriculture and the agri-food industry’s role in driving Canada’s economy forward, gaining a clearer perspective on what food security means to them.

A recent Nanos poll asking Canadians to rank the government’s top two priorities for countering U.S. tariffs found that agriculture ranked first with 29 per cent, and 19 per cent ranked it as a secondary priority.

Automotive was second, with primary and secondary priority ratings of 24 and 18 per cent, respectively.

Provincially, Prairie provinces showed 42 per cent agricultural support. In comparison, automotive garnered 18 per cent, while others saw agriculture gain 26 to 28 per cent as the primary priority and automotive from 14 to 24 per cent.

Ontario was an outlier, ranking automotive as the primary with 35 per cent and agriculture at 24 per cent. Softwood lumber was the top concern in British Columbia, with 35 per cent, and second in Atlantic Canada at 24 per cent.

“(Consumers) want to make sure the government understands that they recognize agriculture is important,” explained Currie. “That helps us now go to the government and say, ‘Look, this is in the national interest. Food security is important. Economic security is also important, and agriculture wants to be part of the team.”

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Through a partnership with Grain Farmers of Ontario, Cereals Canada said in a Thursday release its technical team will analyze the quality of four Eastern wheat classes including Canada Eastern Soft Red Winter (CESRW) for the 2025 crop year. Representative samples are provided through Grain Farmers of Ontario’s annual Ontario wheat harvest survey.

Cereals Canada has been analyzing western wheat quality for over 50 years. The Winnipeg-based organization said in the release the expanded program builds on its “established reputation as the globally recognized independent expert in Canadian grain quality, processing quality, and milling technology.”

“Cereals Canada is the trusted source for quality information on Western Canadian wheat, and our technical experts understand the data needed to support our domestic and global markets,” said Dean Dias, chief executive officer at Cereals Canada. “Our partnership with Grain Farmers of Ontario brings that same level of expertise to Eastern Canadian wheat. This united, comprehensive approach will help to strengthen Canada’s global position as a premier wheat supplier.”

To conduct the annual Harvest Assessment, Cereals Canada works with exporters to obtain representative samples from four wheat classes grown in Western Canada: Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS), Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD), Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR), Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW).

Composite samples of CWRS, CWAD, CPSR, and CESRW from the 2025 wheat harvest will be evaluated for milling performance, flour/semolina quality, and end-product functionality for the New Wheat Crop Report. Depending on the class of wheat, bread, pasta, noodles, and/or cookies are produced in the technical labs at Cereals Canada and thoroughly assessed by the team to evaluate quality.

“Partnering with Cereals Canada on comprehensive milling and baking quality analysis of our wheat harvest helps reinforce the strong reputation of Eastern Canadian wheat in both domestic and international markets,” said Crosby Devitt, chief executive officer at Grain Farmers of Ontario, adding the collaboration also creates new opportunities to strengthen international engagement for Ontario wheat growers.

Cereals Canada said data generated from Harvest Assessment activities will be used to create the 2025 New Wheat Crop Report, which will be released to members, global and domestic customers, and stakeholders on November 18, 2025. The report, which will be available on cerealscanada.ca on its launch day, provides detailed information on milling performance, functionality, and end-use applications of this year’s Canadian wheat quality.

Composite sample assessments of Canada Eastern Hard Red Winter (CEHRW), Canada Eastern Red Spring (CERS), Canada Eastern Soft White Winter (CESWW), and Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) will also be available for customers upon request, Cereals Canada said. Grain Farmers of Ontario said it also continues to work with SGS Canada on real-time wheat grain grading analysis, with results posted on gfo.ca throughout harvest.

Cereal Canada’s harvest assessment activities in Western Canada are funded in part by the Government of Canada under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriScience Program. Grain Farmers of Ontario provided funding for the assessment of Eastern wheat classes.

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Alberta Grains, SaskWheat, Manitoba Crop Alliance and Grain Farmers of Ontario will contribute $13.4 million to the project known as Gate.

All are members of Cereals Canada, which has proposed the $102 million building to advance Canada’s position as a leader in innovation and food security. So far, $18.4 million has been raised with a contribution from Cereals Canada’s coffers.

JoAnne Buth is the capital campaign chair.

“High-quality Canadian wheat starts with the growers, so it is fitting that this capital campaign starts with their commitment,” she said in a news release.

She added that farmers understand the need to stay competitive in a global market.

Gate is to contain state-of-the-art equipment for milling, baking, pasta and noodle making, malt and brewing and oat processing.

Fundraising was delayed earlier this summer. Several members of Cereals Canada had also decided to leave around that time.

Some farmers on social media said after the funding announcement that they opposed the contributions because levies should not be used to construct buildings.

—Updated Sept. 18

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Unifor workers in both Ontario and Quebec walked off the job Sunday following a breakdown in talks between the union and the system operator, St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp (SLSMC).

Negotiations with a federal mediator are slated to resume on Friday, but Devitt said there is little time to spare because the longer the seaway is closed, the bigger impact the strike will have.

“What we’re doing is calling on government and the parties involved to get this strike over as soon as possible.”

Devitt said storage capacity in southwestern Ontario, which is home to the province’s grain and soybean production, is limited because of the close proximity to port access. The strike is occurring at a particularity critical point in the harvest, he added.

“We’re in the last third of soybean harvest, and corn is just getting started in Ontario. It’s been a late start for the growing season and wet weather these last few weeks. We’ve got a huge amount of corn and soybeans that are either in the field or need to get to market,” he said.

“We rely on boats moving out the St. Lawrence around the world at harvest in Ontario.”

Port terminals in southwestern Ontario are filling up and deliveries are starting to be restricted.

Storage capacity is currently being used for soybeans, which means corn can’t be harvested and stored, Devitt said.

“If we don’t free up that room in the countryside from beans, we’re not going to have room for corn,” he said.

The strike’s impacts could reach beyond southwestern Ontario if it continues. The seaway usually closes during freeze-up in January, and the backlog could hit western grain shipments coming out of Thunder Bay if a resolution isn’t found before the New Year, he added.

The Canada Labour Code requires workers to continue serving bulk grain vessels at ports in the event of a strike or lockout, as was the case during the longshore workers’ strike at West Coast ports this summer.

The SLSMC has sought a ruling from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) on whether that Labour Code rule applies to seaway workers in this case.

SLSMC vice-president Jean Aubry-Morin said via email Tuesday that no deadline has yet been announced for the CIRB to rule on the matter.

— Alex McCuaig reports for the Western Producer from Medicine Hat, Alta. Includes files from Dave Bedard of AGCanada.com.

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Grain Farmers of Ontario, which inherited the pooling system from one of its heritage organizations, the Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board, announced Tuesday it will wind down its wheat pool and its forward-contract wheat marketing programs.

The organization’s wheat pool dates back to 1973, when the OWPMB assumed responsibility for marketing the province’s wheat. At the time, GFO said, “there was a single-desk marketing system and fewer ways to market wheat in Ontario.”

Today, GFO said, there are more than 267 licensed dealers and 372 licensed elevators in Ontario. Grain farmers in the province resumed full open marketing in 2003.

GFO’s board made its decision “after several years of gathering feedback from our farmer-members and watching the trends in wheat marketing,” GFO chair Markus Haerle said Tuesday in a release.

“It became increasingly clear that our farmer-members are successfully marketing their wheat on their own through other wheat buyers.”

The GFO wheat pool handled 3,300 tonnes of wheat in the 2019 crop year, when total harvested area sat at 752,000 acres. Ontario farmers grew more than 1.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2019 for the 2020 crop year, GFO said.

GFO farmer-members “have shown through decreased engagement with our wheat pool and contract programs that they are able to market their wheat successfully through other vendors, and that they prefer to do so.”

The 2020 pool and contracts will continue to be marketed without any changes, GFO said. The organization said it will work on an individual basis with any farmer-member who has wheat contracted past the completion of the marketing year, expected by May 31, 2021.

GFO said it will also continue to provide daily price reports and bids as well as the SellSmart market information app it set up in 2010-11. “The only change to information shared by (GFO) about prices and markets is that our own bid will no longer exist.”

The organization said it will also continue to work with the SGS Grains Analytical Lab to provide “credible quality data and enhanced customer confidence” and will still “actively promote Ontario wheat to domestic and international markets.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Ontario organization, which represents about 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers in the province, cited a lack of representation in the national policy group.

GFO publicly announced its withdrawal in a news release on Thursday, days after it informed the national organization of the decision.

“The voice of grain farmers is needed at national policy discussions in many areas; however, at this time, our farmer-members voices are not being represented in key areas effectively through GGC,” GFO said.

GGC was responsible for lobbying the federal government in Ottawa, but GFO had concerns key advocacy work “would be hampered or undermined by conflicting GGC narrative.”

Guelph-based GFO, which joined GGC in 2018, said in a statement it was “unable to overlook issues with the structure of the organization and personality conflicts” and was “concerned with governance and regulation compliance.”

The Ontario group gave detailed reasons for its departure in its resignation letter to GGC and is keeping those specifics confidential, GFO chair Markus Haerle said via email Friday.

GFO now plans to lobby the federal government on its own behalf, having a number of people already registered to do so in Ottawa, the organization said.

GGC chair Jeff Nielsen promised to continue advocating for all grain growers across the province.

“We’re united, we’re focused on moving forward. We speak for all commodities, we know that’s what we have to do,” he said, adding there weren’t any “major issues” between the organizations.

At a December board meeting, some challenges were discussed, and Nielsen said changes were implemented right away.

While the loss of such a significant membership impacts the organization, Nielsen said he doesn’t like to play the numbers game.

“We want to represent our members equally,” he said. “That’s how we were designed.”

Nielsen expects the two organizations to continue working together and is open to Ontario grain growers once again joining the national organization.

“You never close the door in agriculture, you always leave that door open and keep the lines of communication moving,” he said.

‘Priorities’

GFO was one of four farm groups that made a separate joint public statement Thursday in Ottawa “to shine a spotlight on policy priorities for the grains and oilseed farmers they represent.”

Those groups also included the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, Atlantic Grains Council and Producteurs de grains du Quebec. GGC was not mentioned in the statement.

Grain groups including GGC have already voiced concerns at the federal level about China’s market-depressing ban on Canadian canola seed imports.

But the groups speaking in Ottawa Thursday instead called attention to what PGQ’s William Van Tassel described as the “de facto ban of soybeans at the China border” as well as the “unlevel playing field” caused by bailouts for U.S. farmers affected by the U.S.-China trade war.

GFO’s Haerle, in the four groups’ joint statement Thursday, called for Ottawa to “set up a compensation package for soybean farmers who are unable to cover the costs they have paid to grow their crop.”

“We are in Ottawa to educate everyone we meet on the need to make sure the federal government provides compensation for soybean farmers facing border closure in China and highlight fixes required to make (business risk management programs) work for farmers as they begin to recover from these losses over the next five years,” AGC’s Michael Delaney said in the same joint statement.

Canada’s soybean exports to China have indeed tanked in recent months, only in part because Chinese feed demand has dropped due to African swine fever’s impact on the Chinese hog herd.

It doesn’t help that China remains in a diplomatic row with Canada over its December 2018 arrest of a Chinese telecom executive in Vancouver on U.S. charges — and is still noticeably importing soy from other countries.

The availability of U.S. soy due to Washington’s trade fight with China has also depressed prices in other export markets.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Barry Senft announced Tuesday he will step down as CEO of Grain Farmers of Ontario in April 2020, a post he’s held since the 2009 merger of the province’s corn, soy and wheat grower groups under the GFO banner.

GFO, which represents about 28,000 growers provincewide, said Tuesday it will “immediately” start the process of a CEO search.

Senft came to the GFO with a resume that included stints as chief commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission (1997-2002), second vice-president of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (1993-97) and executive director of Cigi, the Canadian International Grains Institute (2002-09).

Senft, who hailed from a family farm at Lipton, Sask., “led the organization through its growth as the largest commodity organization in Ontario, including the addition of barley and oat growers into membership,” GFO said in a release.

“Having served more than 10 years as CEO, it is time for me to step aside. Grain Farmers of Ontario, its board, and its staff has been a wonderful organization to help lead and grow,” Senft said in the release.

GFO, under Senft’s oversight, “placed an unprecedented focus on public outreach about grains and grain farming, and farmer-members benefited from focused and advanced research investments and a team dedicated to market development,” the group said.

Senft “played a key role in fighting unnecessary government regulations on farming, and ensuring government programs were scrutinized for opportunities to better help farmers,” GFO said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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It announces, “Sample Ontario Corn Whisky: Neat, On the rocks, Whisky sour cocktail.” In a way, it’s the kind of sign I expect to see at the Toronto Gourmet Food & Wine Expo, where agencies promote food companies, wineries and distilleries.

Except this isn’t a liquor agency doing the promoting. It’s the Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO).

GFO communications co-ordinator Brianne Curtis greets visitors who wander into the booth. It’s a big booth with seats where attendees can stop, talk, sample, and hang out. Along with corn whisky, they have samples of oat cakes made with Ontario oats.

Mixed crowd

$35 gets you in the door of the 140,000-square-foot event. There is no dress code for the show, though the website suggests anything from smart casual to city chic to quite dressy.

The crowd tonight is mixed, but there are lots of gleaming shoes and pressed suits, and most attendees wield a wineglass in one hand, sometimes skillfully sometimes tentatively navigating the crowd with the glass held out front to avoid spillage.

At the end of the aisle with the GFO booth is a chef presentation. A few rows over is a figure skater in a frilly gown performing on fake ice.

There’s wine, hard cider, beer, and booze from all over the world. And there are mixologists with all sorts of mixing tips. One booth has olives to taste. Another charcuterie. A couple of aisles over, the restaurant chain Moxies is serving tasters.

The din in the background is a mix of people talking, live bluesy music, and amplified voices giving cooking demos.

GFO at the show

I check in with GFO after the show to learn more. “This year was our fourth year that we’ve attended the show,” Curtis explains. She says that some people are surprised when they come to the booth and realize it’s the Grain Farmers of Ontario, but when they hear about the connection of grain farmers to the whisky and oat cakes, they say, “Oh, that makes sense.” She tells them that the whisky is made from Ontario grains grown within 250 km of a distillery in Collingwood, Ont.

That consumer awareness — that “Oh, that makes sense” — is the goal.

“The whisky and the whisky sours were a big hit,” says Curtis. A fun drink at this event is likely to be a hit, meaning a fun drink opens the door to tell the story of the whisky — and of the grain behind it.

The oat cakes are made an hour away at a bakery in Guelph, Ont., with Ontario oats, she says. “We were able to tell the story of local food made from local farmers.”

Victoria Berry, GFO manager of communications says shows focused on food and celebrating food are a good fit for GFO. “It’s a great opportunity for us to remind people that their food is grown very well here,” she says. It allows consumers to connect their food to the farm and the way it’s grown.

Farm outreach. Ontario corn. Whisky sours. Three tickets.

How to meet consumers

Sampling whisky at a Toronto food and wine show is part of the GFO’s larger Good in Every Grain campaign which launched in 2014. It is an umbrella campaign for GFO’s consumer-focused initiatives.

The GFO Good in Every Grain campaign has a number of consumer touchpoints. “We go all over the place,” explains Victoria Berry, manager of communications at GFO. “We have to marry the event portion, and the social portion, and the website, and different other campaigns that we might be running,” she says.

For example, GFO has an interactive trailer that it sets up at fairs. There are larger displays at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, the International Plowing Match, and the Canadian National Exhibition.

Another urban, non-farm event that GFO attends is the Honda Indy. The first year, recalls GFO communications co-ordinator Brianne Curtis, people stopped to take a double take, saying, “Grain farmers?” But once she explained that grain corn is used in ethanol, which is used in fuel, people made the connection.

The Honda Indy is an opportunity to connect with consumers who would not otherwise be thinking of corn when they think of fuel. They’ve even taken the campaign to the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada to talk about the ethanol connection.

Berry points out that sometimes it’s effective to use people from outside the farm industry to share information. For example, GFO works with nutritionists and dieticians for some initiatives, while the current Train with Grains campaign is working with the Ottawa Senators.

Some conversations are more challenging than the story of whisky. The Good in Every Grain website includes topics such as GMOs, high-fructose corn syrup, pollinators, and sprays. Curtis says that these are topics where there can be strong opinions. While opening a dialogue doesn’t mean it’s possible to change the mind of someone who is passionate, when people are truly curious, there is an opportunity to share the farmer viewpoint. Even if there is a difference of opinion, she says, it’s often possible to end on a positive note and talk about quality.

Curtis talks about putting a face to an industry. As part of the campaign, the GFO website showcased a different farmer each week, with photos, information about the farm, and insights to help non-farmers relate to farmers. “We connect them to the food, and then connect that food back to the farm,” says Curtis. “Here are your farmers, growing food on your behalf.”

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Mike Buis has been doing it for about 15 years, seeing the overall benefits in animal health, crop production and soil structure. He’s even travelled to Nebraska, North Dakota and Michigan to share what he’s done on his operation.

“We made it a part of our whole farm structure,” says Buis, who farms about 750 acres in the Chatham-Kent area of Ontario. He has about 300 head of beef cattle, including 225 bred cows that graze crop residues and cover crops. “Those are part of our rotation and provide us with more alternatives to give us more options.”

Buis’s rotation consists of commercial (grain) corn, seed corn and sweet corn, commercial soybeans and seed soybeans, winter wheat and winter barley. He’s tried double-cropping soybeans on winter barley but has found that a challenge, although he pledges to give it one more try in 2019.

Buis has been able to feed dry cows during the course of the winter, after they wean their calves. He maintains that there’s enough feed quality in the corn stalks left after harvest. He also gets excellent nutritive value from rye and oats. If the cows are sent out in decent condition, with a little bit of fat and a good hair coat, they do just fine throughout the winter, he says. In years with a lot of snow, the cows can dig down through as much as a foot of snow to find their feed.

“To me, grazing on cover crops gives us an economical feed source in the winter, plus the fact that we don’t have to spread manure, we don’t have to store feed to haul it to the cows —they do all of the work themselves,” Buis adds. “And we find the cows are healthier, they calve easier because they’re walking.”

He says he’s also getting excellent nutritive value from the base of his cover crop regimen, which starts with spring oats, winter barley and winter rye. Other cover crop species include turnips, crimson clover and sorghum.

Grazing on a cover crop following corn was an initial challenge, so Buis began seeding covers into standing corn using a Hi-Boy spreader at about the five-leaf stage — well past the critical weed-free period. That translated into an additional two-week window for grazing the cows heading into the winter.

“In the commercial corn, that’s where we utilize the ryegrass, crimson clover and some brassicas,” he says. “Following winter wheat, we have a beautiful window to get crops established and that’s been working well for us.”

Most years, Buis can take a cut of the cover crop blend in September, wrap it and keep it as a supplementary feed for the winter. That’s one of his tenets with cover crops and grazing — always have a Plan B. In some years the weather won’t allow for winter grazing, which is why he’ll cut some cover crops, cutting and wrapping some for winter use.

Helping the soil

At one point, Buis was concerned about compaction, especially in some heavier clay pockets. But he says he grazes cows through the winter without problems.

“We actually did some measurements on the soils this past spring and found that we’re not causing any significant compaction,” he says. “In fact, you can tell where the tractor drove into the field but you can’t tell where the cows have walked. The shape of the cow’s hoof doesn’t pack the soil — it cuts in. We’ll pull cows off a field and no till into a field that the cows have been on all winter and spring. And aside from a few hoof marks, we can no till through that without any trouble, and have very good crops without any issues at all.”

But he notes that if a newcomer were to put cows out on a conventionally tilled soybean field without a lot of cover crop, they’d likely have problems.

“We’ve been building up the soil so we have good organic matter, and with the cover crops on top and combined with no till, we have that good surface protection,” Buis says. “The cows are walking on cover crops and corn stalks — they’re not walking on bare dirt, and that’s helped us a lot.”

Nutrition balance

Christine O’Reilly, forage and grazing specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, says grazing cover crops is an old practice that many growers are considering due to changes in economics and technology. She says one of the challenges, at least in Eastern Canada, is that much of the research and extension on cover crops has been on agronomics rather than feed value. OMAFRA staff are working with Beef Farmers of Ontario and the Grain Farmers of Ontario to provide some workshops on the topic this fall.

Fencing is often a concern for some producers, but O’Reilly says that it’s often the easiest factor to deal with. It doesn’t have to be a permanent fence — as long as the cattle are trained to an electric fence, a semi-permanent design is sufficient.

Balanced nutrition is another concern, but O’Reilly says to worry about picking the best crop first.

“When farmers are trying grazing cover crops, if they pick a crop that they’re comfortable growing and they’re familiar with, they’re setting themselves up for success, rather than trying to come up with the perfect nutritional blend. To get past the point where it might not be balanced, it’s very easy to take a forage sample, send it to the lab and when those results come back, talk to a feed sales rep or a nutritionist. They can walk a farmer through what might be missing.”

For choosing cover crop species, O’Reilly and Buis both recommend using the selection tool on the Midwest Cover Crop Council website. Another online tool is the Cover Crop Decision Tool.

“Luckily, most cover crops can be grazed successfully,” says O’Reilly. The only exception is some that might be toxic. “For example, in horticulture production, some growers are using a type of mustard as a cover crop because when they chop and pack it, it acts as a natural fungicide. But because that same compound is suppressing the fungus is also detrimental to animal health — that’s not a good one to feed.”

Most others are okay. O’Reilly adds that sorghum can produce prussic acid when it’s stressed (e.g. drought), but it’s manageable and can be fenced from grazing animals under those stress conditions.

Graze at the neighbour’s

O’Reilly and Buis say another option is working with a crop-growing neighbour. Although transporting cattle from one farm to another can be an economic and logistical challenge, working with a neighbour who shares a fence line can provide several benefits to both farmers.

“We did that last year for the first time; we had a neighbour that had a wheat field that he put radishes in and then he had another chunk of a corn field where he didn’t get his stalks shredded,” Buis says. “We approached him and he let us fence off his field — it worked great for us and it worked great for him.”

The cows took care of the extra cornstalks without the farmer having to go out and shred them, and Buis calculated that they left 200 tons of manure. His neighbour then made a deal for Buis to supply the cover crop seed and plant the seed on that field. That helped him with a cover crop, building the soil and preventing erosion while Buis took advantage of the grazing potential needed for his cows. It worked so well that they have agreed to do it again in 2019.

O’Reilly says this collaboration with neighbours will be one of the aspects they’ll cover in their upcoming workshops, helping to connect producers who are interested. She says the arrangement can also serve as a form of succession planning.

“Potentially there’s an opportunity for crop farmers to help the next generation of livestock farmers get in because they can build mutually beneficial business relationships grazing those cover crops. And it gives young people who may not have equity to buy land access to land for grazing that benefits their livestock business.”

This article was originally published in the 2018 Forage & Grassland Guide.

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