13 www.SmallFarmCanada.ca TOP: UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA PHOTO | LUCA - ADOBE STOCK 12 December 2025 On a sunny January day with a high of minus 10, Val Steinmann shrugs into her insulated coveralls, yanks on a pair of heavy mitts, and kicks off the 2024 pasture season. The grass won’t be active for months, but the Ospringe, Ontario farmer is rolling out a hay bale, allowing her small cattle herd to “bale graze” across the hilly winter landscape. “Bale grazing is one of the few things you can do during the winter to keep building soil health,” says Steinmann, whose small but diverse farm produces cider, maple products, and grass-fed beef. “When I see that bale rolled out and the animals lined up along the hay in the snow, I know we’re working together to improve the soil for the next season. It gives me a deep sense of satisfaction.” That satisfaction is shared by more farmers these days. According to Statistics Canada’s 2021 Agricultural Census, 41 per cent of cattle farms used bale grazing and other “winter grazing and in-field feeding” techniques. That’s roughly a six per cent increase since 2016, and a massive rise from a few decades ago when bale grazing was a crazy fringe activity, like planting cover crops or grazing corn. Bale grazing’s heartland remains in the Prairies and US Northern Great Plains, but the approach is spreading to mid and small-sized operations in other parts of Canada. “There’s a lot of big farms that use bale grazing out west,” says John Duynisveld, a Nova Scotia farmer and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) researcher whose own herd has been bale grazing through the winter for nearly a decade. “But if you have five cows, you could use it too.” BALE GRAZING At its most basic, bale grazing involves laying out round bales in the fall – typically in a grid of 25 bales to the acre, about 40 feet apart, like pawns on a chess board – and surrounding them with temporary electric fence. When it’s time for winter feeding, the farmer shifts the fence every 2-5 days, giving the herd access to a few bales at a time. Compared to starting a tractor and dropping bales in a feeder, the system slashes costs for bedding and pen cleaning. There’s less pushing snow, fewer -25°C tractor starts and much less manure handling and spreading. A 2017 economics study at AAFC’s Nappan Research Farm found the approach shaved 92 cents per day off the winter cost of keeping a cow-calf pair – a savings of more than $7,000 for a 40-cow herd. Given cost increases during the past six years, reWINTER BALE FEEDING FOR COW AND SOIL ARTICLE BY RAY FORD LIVESTOCK Build a foundation to start a successful farm enterprise Term 1 is now available Learn at your own pace! 1-800-387-RAIN Providing Irrigation Solutions since 1954. 2515 Pinegrove Road Delhi ON N4B 2X1 www.vandenbussche.com Place equipment orders with us now & be prepared for 2026! Cows in a bale-grazing trial at the University of Manitoba. Note the portable windbreaks to the rear of the feeding area. When the ground is frozen, many producers hold their electric fencing in place by mounting a hotwire to a temporary metal post driven into the bales.
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