Researchers Looking At Strip Tillage

 

About a quarter of the agricultural crop land in Manitoba is under zero tillage.

 

That from Marla Rieckman, soil management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, who notes much of that is in the west side of the province.

 

She says there's some interesting research currently being done at the University of Manitoba.

 

"They're looking at tilling strips in the soil and then leaving the stubble standing between the strips, so you get that benefit of the no till, but still having a little bit of that tillage happening to blacken up the soil, warm it up and still be able to grow a crop in. So it's not quite no till but it's a bit of an advancement towards a kind of a minimum till system in an area in the [Red River] Valley where people have found it's farm too challenging to do things like no till just because of the heavy, clay soils."

 

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.