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An interactive forage species selection tool for Canada

The Canadian farms producing top-quality beef are as unique as our country’s topography. They do have one thing in common--each uses forages in some way. 

Forage U-Pick--a tool that helps farmers and ranchers from British Columbia to the Maritimes choose forages best suited to their fields, calculate seeding rates and manage forage weeds--is now available online at no cost.  

“Selecting forage species that will thrive under the growing and management conditions of a specific field on your farm improves the crop’s productivity. Since well-managed forage is typically the cheapest source of feed, growing productive forages can widen the profit margins of a beef operation,” shares Amy Higgins of the Maritime Beef Council.  

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Episode 115: Home on the Range

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We look at how high crop prices, driven in part by rising global food demand, biofuel incentives, and risk perspective and management, are encouraging the conversion of marginal grasslands into cultivated cropland. As more hay and pastureland is turned over to crop production, wildlife habitat becomes increasingly fragmented, leaving isolated “islands” of grass that may be too small to sustain functioning grassland ecosystems. We explore research using Alberta as a case study to understand the impact that conversion of hay and pasturelands into cropland could have on ecosystem intactness and biodiversity.