In Conversation with Rachel Herbert – Trail’s End Beef – Nanton, AB
‘Sustainability’ is what drives the Herbert family, owners of Trail’s End Beef, a grass-fed and finished beef ranch, nestled outside of the town of Nanton, in the Porcupine Hills of southern Alberta. Rachel and Tyler, with the help of their two children, practice rotational grazing management and steward the native grasslands, rolling hills, abundant springs, and sheltering poplar and willow groves. They raise calves entirely on pasture (and stored forage through the winter) until they’re 26 to 29 months-old, and direct market the beef to a diverse customer-base in southern Alberta.
The Herbert family ranches with an ethic for animal care, and environmental stewardship and regeneration, protecting watersheds, planting cover crops, and allowing the land to rest between grazing. They share the native grassland with a variety of wild ‘neighbours’, including geese, songbirds, coyotes, muskrat, cougars and grizzly bears.
EP33 Stories from the Peace
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Peace country agricultural producers Ash Armstrong and Curt Hale talk regenerative agriculture, taking risks and pursuing goals in one of our best episodes yet. Co-hosted by PCBFA’s Johanna Murray.
Intercropping: Experimenting for Diversity – Andy Kirschenman – Hilda, AB
Intercropping is something that I was first drawn to after reading articles about Colin Rosengren, a grain farmer who practices intercropping on his farm, Rosengren Farm, in southern Saskatchewan. Fifteen years ago, I first experimented with managing 20 acres of peas and canola, and have since tried different combinations almost every year. I have managed as much as 600 acres, and as little as zero in the years after that first try. I have experimented with different crops together and different seeding rates.
EP24 AMP Grazing
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University of Alberta PhD student Jessica Grenke and Dr. Edward Bork discuss adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing systems’ impacts on plant ecology and soil carbon sequestration.
EP23 Water & Adaptation
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Dr. David Sauchyn, director of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative, discusses moisture on the Prairies and how adaptation has helped us farm in one of the most variable climates on Earth.
EP22 Farming Effectively
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Agricultural producer Takota Coen explains how by farming more effectively agricultural producers we have the potential to improve not just the health of the environment, but our own health as well.
EP9 Adaptive Agriculture
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Three agricultural producers present on how they would adjust their land management practices in the future to a changing climate.
EP7 How Organics Fight Climate Change
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A growing body of data shows organic agriculture is more energy efficient, produces less greenhouse gases and nurtures soil’s amazing ability to sequester carbon. Find out why with Dr. Tracy Misiewicz of The Organic Center.
EP1 Cows and Climate Change
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Find out how better management practices may be the key to reducing cattle’s carbon footprint.
