This podcast was funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.

This episode features two compelling arguments for the use of cover crops in field crop or vegetable production. In the first segment, we’ll learn about a Fraser Valley Dairy Farmer’s experience with planting a relay cover crop once his silage corn is established, and the benefits he’s realized from that effort.

After that, an Agriculture & Agri-food Canada researcher will tell us why it is so very important, if not imperative, that BC’s field crop and veggie farmers start including cover cropping in their weed management plans.

My guests this episode:

Holger Schwichtenberg of Holberg Dairy Farm in Agassiz, BC

Jichul Bae, Researcher at Agriculture & Agrifood Canada's Agassiz Research & Development Centre

This podcast was funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.

This episode: the final chapter in our miniseries on rotational grazing in collaboration with BC’s Small Scale Meat Producers Association.

This one features a long-form conversation with rancher Joseph Moilliet of Avely Ranch, a sheep and cattle operation in Vavenby, British Columbia. Management-intensive rotational grazing is a major pillar in Joseph’s approach to sustainable livestock management.

Rotational grazing is the main focus of this conversation, but you’ll also hear Joseph talk about other practices he uses to improve the health and productivity of his soil, such as winter bale grazing and an avoid-tillage-at-all-costs approach to pasture rejuvenation.

Mentioned in this episode:

Check out the Small Scale Meat Producers Youtube Page!

You'll find lots of videos about fencing and rotational grazing at the SSMPA Youtube page.

This podcast was funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.

This episode: the next chapter in our miniseries on rotational grazing in collaboration with BC’s Small Scale Meat Producers Association. In the first two episodes, we learned about the fundamental principles of rotational grazing from forage specialist Woody Lane. Woody described the ideal approach to management intensive rotational grazing if we want to get the most out of this system.

But! It’s called ‘management intensive grazing’ for a reason. Conducting our grazing this way is labour intensive, which can make it difficult, when things get busy, to avoid violating the fundamental principles that Woody described.

My two guests in this episode are here to tell you that that’s okay, sometimes at least, to break the rules, and to give examples of how they break the rules on their own farms.

My guests this episode:

Joseph Moilliet of Aveley Ranch in Vavenby, who we'll hear a lot more from in the next episode.

Steve Meggait of Fresh Valley Farms in Spallumcheen, who also featured in episodes 44 & 45 of this podcast.

Mentioned in this episode:

Check out the Small Scale Meat Producers Youtube Page!

You'll find lots of videos about fencing and rotational grazing at the SSMPA Youtube page.

This episode, a look at cover-cropping in the vineyard context. My guest this episode is Lisa Wambold.

Lisa has spent a lot of her career in vineyards consulting with farmers on beneficial management practices, including cover cropping. She’s a big believer in the positive role cover crops can play both in both the mid-row and under the vines, and so I asked her to join me to summarize the benefits of cover cropping in the vineyard. We also talk about species selection, the tools required, circumstances where she advises against the use of cover crops, and plenty more.

This episode, an interview with Sarah Stewart, and a shorter segment from an interview with Jichul Bae. 

The last few years, farmer and videographer Sarah Stewart has been working with Organic BC on some extension work that has involved a pretty big focus on emerging technologies for mechanical weed management. She’s learned a tonne about autonomous weeding robots and the use of lasers and electricity, and the increasing role that artificial intelligence is playing in the age-old battle to keep the weeds at bay. But gathering information was only half the job. The other half was to share it. Among other things, Sarah has produced videos about her findings and hosted equipment demonstrations around BC and coordinated conference panels and, behind the scenes, helped me produce the episodes about weeding agritech that you may have already listened to on this podcast.

I asked Sarah for an interview because it recently struck me how well-positioned she is to talk about the strengths and limitations of the newest generation of weeding agri-tech. What you’ll hear is that she’s bullish on the role she expects these tools will play on BC farms over the long term, but perhaps not right away. Listen to hear why!

Then: a segment of my conversation with Dr. Jichul Bae, a researcher at Agriculture and Agrifood Canada based at the Agassiz Research and Development Centre. Jichul focuses on weed management and is an expert on herbicide resistant weeds. I had requested an interview with Jichul to talk about the strengths and limitations of weeding agritech. We ended up having a wide-ranging conversation. I’ll only be sharing a piece of it here, in which we talk about how good weeds are at adapting to our weed management strategies, especially when we rely too much on one form of management, regardless of the form in question. I’m including this segment here because, in the midst of all the hype around the promise of the newest generation of mechanical weeding technology, Jichul wants us to consider that no single approach should be thought of as a panacea.

This episode of the Organic BC Podcast was funded by the Governments of Canada and British Columbia through the Sustainable Canada Agricultural Partnership. Opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests and not necessarily those of the Governments of Canada or British Columbia. The Governments of Canada and British Columbia and their directors, agents, employees, or contractors will not be liable for any claims, damages, or losses of any kind whatsoever arising out of the use of, or reliance upon, this information.

This episode, a return to the topic of robotic weeding technology. This time, I speak with two farmers, each of whom has spent considerable time working using some cutting edge weeding machinery. There has been a lot of hype around robotic- and AI-driven agritech. I invited these two farmers to share their perspectives about the performance of a couple such tools on the farm, in order to get a sense of their strengths and limitations.

First: Gabriel Demarco. Gabe is the head winemaker and viticulturalist at Cave Spring Vineyard in the Niagara region of Ontario. I reached out to Gabe because at his vineyard he’s been working with a battery-operated vineyard robot called TED. It’s manufactured by Naio, an agritech company located in france. In Canada, the TED is distributed by Haggerty Agrobotics, whose president, Chuck Haggerty, we heard from in episode 53 last year.

Then: Matthew Carr. Matt is the BC Operations Manager for the Vegetable Division of Monette Farms, which grows organic and conventional produce for distribution in Western Canda and parts of the western US. Matt has been using a robotic weeder called The Smart Cultivator, manufactured by Stout primarily to tackle weeding in horticultural crops.

This episode of the Organic BC Podcast was funded by the Governments of Canada and British Columbia through the Sustainable Canada Agricultural Partnership. Opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests and not necessarily those of the Governments of Canada or British Columbia. The Governments of Canada and British Columbia and their directors, agents, employees, or contractors will not be liable for any claims, damages, or losses of any kind whatsoever arising out of the use of, or reliance upon, this information.

This podcast was funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.

This episode, part two of our miniseries on rotational grazing in collaboration with BC’s Small Scale Meat Producers Association. The first two episodes will cover the fundamentals of managed rotational grazing in the context of the home farm or ranch. In this episode, part two of my conversation with Dr. Woody Lane, in which we discuss what Woody calls the four principles of managed rotational grazing, and address some of the skepticism that Woody hears from farmers when he presents workshops on the subject.

My guest for the first two episodes of this series is Dr. Woody Lane. Woody is a livestock nutritionist and forage specialist from Oregon. Woody has devoted much of his career to promoting the benefits of rotational grazing and teaching others how to implement successful rotational grazing techniques on their farms. He has written multiple books about management-intensive rotational grazing, including Capturing Sunlight: Skills & Ideas for Intensive Grazing, Sustainable Pastures, Healthy Soils, & Grassfed Livestock.

Mentioned in this episode:

Check out the SSMPA Youtube Page!

The Small Scale Meat Producers collaborated on this miniseries and have a great youtube page featuring lots of videos about grazing and fencing. Check it out!

SSMPA Youtube Page

This podcast was funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.

This episode, we launch a miniseries on rotational grazing in collaboration with BC’s Small Scale Meat Producers Association. The first two episodes will cover the fundamentals of managed rotational grazing in the context of the home farm or ranch. In this episode, we’ll learn about the rationale for managed rotational grazing, also referred to as management intensive grazing, and the main concepts and tools that need to be understood in order for this approach to grazing to be effective.

My guest for the first two episodes of this series is Dr. Woody Lane. Woody is a livestock nutritionist and forage specialist from Oregon. Woody has devoted much of his career to promoting the benefits of rotational grazing and teaching others how to implement successful rotational grazing techniques on their farms. He has written multiple books about management-intensive rotational grazing, including Capturing Sunlight: Skills & Ideas for Intensive Grazing, Sustainable Pastures, Healthy Soils, & Grassfed Livestock.

Check out the Small Scale Meat Producers Youtube Channel for plenty of videos about rotational grazing and livestock fencing! https://www.youtube.com/@smallscalemeat

Mentioned in this episode:

Check out the SSMPA Youtube Page!

The Small Scale Meat Producers collaborated on this miniseries and have a great youtube page featuring lots of videos about grazing and fencing. Check it out!

SSMPA Youtube Page

The last four episodes of the podcast made up a miniseries about GAP Certification for small and medium-scale farms. The main focus of this miniseries was the work of Okanagan farmer Emily Jubenvil to obtain GAP certification for her carrots and beets in order  to preserve and expand her access to wholesale markets. The series is essentially done, but as I promised last week, I’m back with one more short episode that doesn’t have anything to do with GAP certification.

At one point in my interviews with Emily we went on a bit of a tangent about becoming a more efficient carrot producer. I think this will be relevant to any small-scale farmer who’s considering scaling up one or more crops in order to sell bulk quantities to wholesale buyers...Emily does a great job summarizing the changes she had to make.

This is episode three of our miniseries about GAP Certification for small and medium-scale farms. So far, you’ve heard three episodes about Okanagan farmer Emily Jubenvil and her pursuit of GAP certification to preserve and expand her access to wholesale markets. If you’ve already listened, you know that Emily’s experience was largely positive and entirely successful. We thought we might end the series there, but then we decided to seek out a couple more perspectives about GAP certification from small-scale farmers to put listeners in a better position to judge how applicable Emily’s experiences are to other contexts. 

First: Brandi Smith of Bessette Creek Farm in Lumby.

Then: Anna Helmer of Helmer's Organic Farm in Pemberton.