Rancher aims to fit grazing system to the land

Managing 300 cow-calf pairs on coarse, sandy land instead of pushing grains and oilseeds takes intensive approach

This story is part of an ongoing series that looks at how some farmers are attempting to preserve their land, water and natural habitat while increasing profits and stability.

MEDORA, Man. — In this area of southwestern Manitoba where cranes strutted across recently harvested cropland like departing kings, Matt van Steelandt paused to enjoy the swooping and wheeling of the barn swallows above his cow herd.

But much of the time he kept his eyes much lower, on the munching cattle and the scruffy green stuff growing out of the ground.

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A flash of beauty caught his eye.

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“These sunflowers you wouldn’t see in a continuously grazed pasture,” said Van Steelandt, who runs his 300 cow-calf pairs across coarse, sandy land that both floods and fails to hold water well.

It’s always a tough place to manage a herd, but the 2021 growing season was an extreme test. The drought gave his pastures little moisture, but he hopes it’ll be enough to allow him to keep his animals grazing until near Christmas.

“Part of why we do this is so that we can get more out of the land,” said Van Steelandt, about his intensive cattle management, which includes twice-daily herd movement between small paddocks and long rest periods between severe grazings.

“I like the environmental benefits, but the reason we started doing this is so we could get more production out of our land.”

Like every farm, his operates in a unique environment, a knitted-together system of fields atop varying types of soil, an underlying aquifer and surrounding wildlife habitat. Most of his neighbours are crop growers, but he has doubled-down on cattle production, despite its challenges in Manitoba.

“We’re losing land all the time. We’re losing producers all the time to grain,” said Van Steelandt.

“The issue in Manitoba with beef is that we are losing viability.”

Finding a way to take what is now considered viable, if marginal, cropland and instead running cattle profitably on it is a challenge that has defeated many farmers.

Van Steelandt thinks intensive grazing and water management could reverse the trend away from cattle in the province, which has seen the herd shrink year after year for decades. However, such a change requires a re-think of both cattle and crop economics.

“This prairie ecosystem with the grasslands is perfect for this area,” said Van Steelandt, as he moved his cattle from one electric-wired paddock to the next, causing an immediate cessation of the hungry mooing they had commenced upon seeing the farmer arrive at the pasture.

While words like “regenerative” and “sustainable” buzz around the agriculture industry like relentless horseflies, Van Steelandt focuses on more concrete concerns like: what will make the grass grow more, the water drain faster and the feed to be more predictable year after year?

Perennial forages in this area send down deep roots, which both bring up the moisture the plants need for growth and take down the water that often flows out of a nearby drainage channel and across fields. A vibrant mix of perennials is growing on the sandy soil here, with an increasing variety of plants that usually wither on over-grazed or regularly grazed pastures.

At the same time, the noxious and unappetizing plants are diminishing.

“Those (beneficial) species are starting to thrive,” said Van Steelandt.

“These perennial systems are actually improving the soil, and improving the water cycle.”

To make his system work, Van Steelandt felt compelled to add eight kilometres of water piping last year so the animals would have water supplies all across the land, wherever he moves them, rather than being forced to orbit around dugouts with worsening quality water as animals tromp into them.

His management allows him to “stockpile” pastureland for early-spring grazing. He leaves certain patches ungrazed during the growing season so there’s still something left to eat late into the year and before more producers put their cattle back out on the fields.

Manure is spread evenly across many more acres than what occurs in huge, open fields, further building soil strength and nutrient dispersion.

So far, the system is producing enough forage for his cattle, does not suffer the collapses in pasture growth that afflict overgrazed land, removes the need for many purchased inputs, and offers him long-term stability, he said.

With conventional cropping and grazing, production is insecure and unstable, both in terms of yield and expenses.

“You become very dependent on that timely rainfall. You don’t have that resource of moisture in the land,” said Van Steelandt.

This year, that lack of reliance paid off with his herd still having enough feed to get through to another season, where, with luck, there will be more rain.

His system is working for him, but it’s a work in progress, and he admits it can be annoying to see some government programs seeming to promote risky, unstable crop production on marginal land instead of low-risk cattle production where it makes sense.

“In some cases we’d be better off growing corn for crop insurance,” said Van Steelandt.

But if he can get his system to operate year after year with greater stability, increasing productivity and less stress from the weather, he isn’t likely to back away from it. He’d rather fit his system to the land, water and natural environment than force it to work where it doesn’t seem to make sense.

“There are all kinds of birds here,” he noted as a hawk circled high above his quietly chomping cows.