Central Manitoba Grazing Clubs

Welcome to the Central Manitoba Grazing Clubs Page

Grazing Clubs provide and excellent opportunity for producers to learn new management strategies – often in a hands-on setting. By attending tours and meetings you will learn about intensive grazing management, managing water sites, new fencing options, holistic management and more from experienced graziers and extension experts.

Read below to see what some Central Manitoba clubs have been doing over the past year.

Check out our Upcoming Events page to see if there’s a tour or event you’re interested in attending.

If you would like to learn more or join a Club, please refer to the following table to locate a Club near you.

Central Manitoba Grazing Clubs Contacts

Central Clubs	Grazing Club Name	Grazing Club Coordinator	MAFRI Contacts
.	.	.	.
Gladstone	Benchland Forage Consortium	.	Dennis Beernaert (204) 385-6632 dennis.beernaert@gov.mb.ca
.	.	.	.
Cartwright	Cartwright Grazing Club	.	Jo-Lene Gardiner (204) 825-3512 jolene.gardiner@gov.mb.ca
Portage la Prairie	Delta Grazing Club	.	Shawn Cabak (204) 239-3353 shawn.cabak@gov.mb.ca
Morden	Red River Grazing Club	Kim Brown-Livingston (204) 745-0226	.
Manitou	Lizard Lake	.	.

Past Events

Minnedosa Tour

July 12, 2007

18 ranchers toured the Manitoba Zero Till Association Research Farm (12 miles north of Brandon) where they viewed the alfalfa grazing / Alfasure project . The deep-rooted alfalfa varieties fit best in a 2- to 3-year crop rotation because they tap deeper nutrient resources and provide greater productivity. The Alfasure controls bloat very well as long as the cattle don’t have access to other water sources. Unfortunately, this required that the sloughs be fenced out resulting in little herd impact on the wetland vegetation. As a result the cattail is starting to choke out the sloughs.

The Ducks Unlimited trial pasture (640 acres at the N.E. corner of the Zero Till Farm) consists of both tame paddocks (mainly crested wheatgrass and alfalfa) and native ecovars, planted several years ago. The big bluestem, switchgrass and other natives had diminished over the years, so it was inter-seeded with a rough mix of legumes three years ago. This year, it is nicely filled with Cicer milkvetch (mainly), alfalfa, sainfoin and a little birdsfoot trefoil.

Gerald Bos guided us through his pasture, an area he recently converted from a grain to forages. He used a meadow brome / smooth brome / orchard grass / timothy / alfalfa mix, and divided the quarter sections into paddocks of about 20 acres. Forage production is tremendous in all paddocks. Gerald keeps perfect track of all grazing events and retains plenty of cover in grazed paddocks, moving the cattle daily. He demonstrated how the 600 cattle (cow-calf and yearlings) move to new paddocks with very little trouble, using a plastic post (insulated) to lift the electrified wire and allow access under it. His piped watering sites consist of 12-foot tires embedded in soil, blocked with concrete and back-filled with gravel.

Zero Till Research Association Farm

Photo courtesy of Karli Flinta-Murphy – Manitoba Co-operator

Group touring Ducks Unlimited Pasture

Photo courtesty of Karli Flinta-Murphy – Manitoba Co-operator

Gerald Bos

Photo courtesy of Karli-Flinta Murphy, Manitoba Co-operator