COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • SEPTEMBER 2019


Forage council ready for a


changing climate


Producers told to treat their soils like a bank account by TOM WALKER


COLDSTREAM – Climate change and soil health were key topics discussed at the annual general meeting and field day of the BC Forage Council in Coldstream on August 9-10.


The cornerstone was a talk on climate change and range management practices in the BC Interior by Lauchlan Fraser, professor and senior NSERC industrial research chair in ecosystem reclamation at Thompson Rivers University. Fraser reviewed relevant


research and spoke about some of the work his grad students have been conducting.


Grazing has often received a bad rap among certain environmentalists, says Fraser. “But we know that light


grazing stimulates a growth response and ups the carbon sequestration process in plants,” he counters. To study the effects of climate change on forage, one of Fraser’s students is working with heat chambers and rainout shelters. The open-top heat chambers increase the soil temperature by 2°C and that rise in temperature affects forage production. “We saw that there is a


reduction of forage production at the low and middle elevation grasslands with the increase in temperature,” he says. When the effects of


different wet seasons were studied using the controlled conditions of rainout shelters and hand-watering, researchers found that spring watering gives better forage production than fall watering. “If climate change brings a


shift to fall rains, we are likely to see less forage for our livestock,” says Fraser. While managed grazing


and its role in carbon sequestration is a popular topic, its effects are


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ambiguous and hard to quantify, says Fraser. He looked at a continuum of grazing practices – from extensive grazing in which a few animals graze a large area over a long period to intensive grazing, where a larger number of animals spend a short time on a small tract.


The results indicate that


intensive grazing systems capture more carbon. “There are lots of programs


for planting trees to capture carbon,” Fraser points out. “Planting forage may be an alternative.”


Knapweed busters


One of the positive outcomes of the intensive grazing trials has been the discovery that cattle will eat the invasive knapweed that is plaguing BC grasslands. But there are two problems with restoring a pasture where knapweed has been removed. “Knapweed gives off a chemical that inhibits the growth of its neighbours,” he


Mike Witt in his corn production demonstration plot. He’s planted brassicas between the rows of corn to improve soil health and provide grazing potential after the corn is harvested for silage. TOM WALKER PHOTO


points out. Moreover, there is a real


shortage of native grass seed to be used for reseeding. “People want to use native


grasses for reseeding but we do not have a native seed policy,” he says. Norm Dueck, agronomy and business development representative for BC with A&L Canada Laboratories, talked about soil health,


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