Enhanced Grazing Practices 

Grazing Forward

A&W Canada and Cargill have collaborated to create Grazing Forward, to support ALUS and expand its New Acre™ Project, which helps farmers and ranchers accelerate agricultural practices to promote healthy grasslands, improve wetlands, create wildlife habitat and protect species to build landscape resilience. 

 

What Is Enhanced Grazing?

Enhanced grazing with ALUS is a suite of management tools used to catalyze accelerated grass growth and ultimately build rich, healthy soils that sequester carbon and provide many other ecological and agricultural benefits. Multiple ranching practice options exist to meet the realities and needs of each operation.

 

Enhanced grazing practices include:

  • Subdividing pastures into paddocks and grazing for shorter periods
  • Providing a long rest and recovery time between grazes
  • Balancing stocking rate with forage production
  • Grassland improvement and seeding
  • Providing upland drinking water away from streams and waterbodies
  • Providing upland salt and minerals away from streams and waterbodies
  • Permanent and/or temporary fencing to keep cattle out of waterbodies
  • Controlling weeds
  • Leaving grazing residual

What Are the Benefits of Enhanced Grazing?

CARBON SEQUESTRATION

Enhanced grazing results in a deeper topsoil layer enriched with organic matter and increased leaf litter on the surface. The enhanced biomass above and below ground plays a key role in storing soil organic carbon.

CLEANER WATER

The improved vegetation biomass and leaf litter also increase water infiltration into the soil. Healthy soils work as a filter, reducing nutrient flows from the agricultural landscape into the water cycle, and provide a buffer against flood and drought conditions.

CLIMATE RESILIENCE

Managing soil biodiversity and health improves water infiltration and retention, providing a barrier to both floods and drought.

WILDLIFE HABITAT

Enhanced grazing maintains habitats for numerous grassland species, including mammals, birds and pollinators. Building healthy soils supports a robust population of insects and soil microbes

Grazing Forward at a Glance

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communities

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acres

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MT greenhouse gas emission sequestered per year

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invested over 3 years

Grazing Stories

Sean McGrath

Round Rock Ranching

Sheldon Atwood

Tomahawk Ranch

Cole Goad

Goad Family Angus 

Dean and Leslie Lovell

Lovell Ranch 

Allan Goddard 

ALUS Brazeau 

Zack Koscielny on Creating Rural Resilience on the Prairies

Zack Koscielny on Creating Rural Resilience on the Prairies

A new generation of farmers finding community and peer-to-peer support through regenerative farming with ALUS  Zack Koscielny on Green Beach Farm and Food at the Prairie Hub field conference. Zack and his family live near Strathclair, Manitoba, and together they...

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