Upcoming Saskatchewan Pasture School in Saskatoon

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The 2006 edition of the Saskatchewan Pasture School will take place at Saskatoon’s Heritage Inn on June 14 and 15.

Once again, the organizers are limiting registrations to 50 in order to make this hands-on event as rewarding as possible for participants. The school is held in Saskatoon because of its central location, and because the proximity to the tame and native pastures and to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) resources makes it possible to offer a much more comprehensive program.

“The pasture school is designed for producers, and the goal is to help them improve their forage and pasture management skills," says Al Foster, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food Forage Development Specialist, one of the school's organizers. "Therefore, we try to ensure that everything in the program is useful to livestock and forage producers, that it will increase their knowledge."

Topics for the first day of the two-day school include principles of pasture production and grazing management, calculating stocking rates, forage establishment and assessing pasture condition.

In addition to classroom sessions, pasture tours take producers out into the field to discuss practical problems and techniques of good forage and pasture management. The first day will conclude with a barbeque and a producer panel, which will give participants an opportunity to hear and share their experiences with other producers.

The second day will include discussions of annual crops for greenfeed, pasture and swath grazing, pasture rejuvenation options and herd health. A session entitled Matching Animal Requirements to Forage Quality will be delivered by Allan Iwaasa of AAFC, which will teach producers how to ensure they have top quality forage at the point in the season when the animals require quality. Another session, entitled The Economics of Grain to Grass, will be led by Lorne Christopherson, a producer from Weldon who collaborated with the Western Beef Development Centre on a project to determine the economics of turning grain land into pasture.

The second day will also feature another field tour, this time to the AAFC Saskatoon research station, to view and discuss forage varieties for hay and pasture.

The Saskatchewan Pasture School brochure may be downloaded from the Western Beef Development Centre website at www.wbdc.sk.ca.

For more information, contact:

Janice Bruynooghe
Saskatchewan Forage Council
Phone (306) 966-2148

or

Al Foster
Forage Development Specialist
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
(306) 878-8890