Dairy Pasture Walks To Be Featured in Iowa Grazing Academy

Jul 08, 2026

By Larry Tranel

The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Dairy Team will offer two pasture walks as part of the Iowa Grazing Academy, a series of online sessions and in-person field days that provide practical skills and strategies for improving grazing practices for beef and dairy producers.

Shelby Gruss, extension forage specialist at Iowa State, will walk attendees through species identification, biomass estimation techniques, the value of rotational stocking for plant health and productivity and pasture problem diagnosis and renovation. In addition, Larry Tranel, extension dairy specialist at Iowa State, will be on hand to discuss grazing dairy heifers, economics of organic dairying and low-cost parlors, which will be showcased at both sites.

Registration is not required for the dairy pasture walks, and there is no cost.

Dairy-focused pasture walks

Northwest Iowa: Aug. 19, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Torrey and Erin Wilson Farm, 4375 Pierce Avenue, Paullina
Eastern Iowa: Aug. 20, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Toby Miller Farm, 2129 110th Street, Kalona

Source : iastate.edu

Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.