A farmer near Fletcher has long been recognized for his no-till, cover crop and soil-building practices. Now he’s added beef cattle to the mix.
Blake Vince sees it as a long-term investment that he expects will pay for itself by enhancing the quality of his heavy, clay ground and, with time, reducing cropping input costs.
“I’ve been saying this for a decade: the thing I have control over as a commodity farmer is to keep a lid on expenses,” Vince said.
“I’m doing this to focus on soil health and improving the bottom line.”
Permanent fencing has been installed and Vince had 20 cows and calves shipped south to his farm between Chatham and Tilbury along Highway 401. These and another 40 black animals are being custom grazed on an overwintered, multi-species cover crop.
Vince, who never had cattle before, now has a year’s experience but there’s still a learning curve ahead. He benefits from the knowledge of his father Elwin who was a dairy farmer in years past.
More than 100 acres of cover crops are being grazed, species from an 18-way mix that survived the winter. Hairy vetch is most evident from a visual examination. Other species include crimson clover, white cover, cereal rye, winter canola, a trace amount of Austrian winter peas and a bit of volunteer wheat.
The cover crop has been grazed in 2.5-acre increments since mid-May. One 50-acre section, heavily grazed, will be planted to either soybeans or short-day corn. The remainder will be regrazed two or three times and then left fallow.
At that point the animals being custom grazed will be sent home and Vince’s own cattle will be turned into a 19-acre permanent pasture planted to tallgrass prairie species and supplemented as needed.
A neighbour, 18-year-old Brice Laprise, found summer employment thanks to the project. The hired hand brought a strong work ethic to the project but is new to farming.
Vince said the questions he receives about the direction he’s taken tends to revolve around profitability. He said there are upfront costs. As a consequence, having a long-term perspective is important.
“There return is not just in one year; the benefit from this system is over multiple years.”
Using the example of nitrogen, Vince said he typically applies 185 pounds per acre to grow corn. That was reduced to 165 pounds last year where the cattle had been grabbed. He harvested 185 dry bushels per acre of a non-GMO variety.
“I got the value from custom-grazing, plus the revenue from the corn plus the non-GMO premium.”
If corn is planted, Vince hopes to dial down the nitrogen rate further but is unsure of just how much. It will be a matter of wait and see.
“You just cannot go from hero to zero. You cannot just go from using 180-plus pounds nitrogen and to nothing. You have to wean yourself off those things.”
The economics of nitrogen have changed radically from just one year ago, prices having tripled. While generating returns from a nitrogen application was once a given for cash croppers, Vince believes the economic dynamics appear to be shifting, opening the door to agronomic systems in which animals have an important role.
“If we spread our risk and not have our eggs in one basket, we can create our own resiliency.”
Even after a couple weeks, the manure paddies left by the cattle at the Vince farm were disappearing, providing food for the biological community of his soil. There are also other positive plant-herbivore-soil interactions, including those related to animal urine and saliva and the release of root exudates which also feed soil microorganisms.
According to Fred Provenza, professor emeritus with Utah State University, as quoted in Progressive Cattle, “When a plant is grazed, root growth halts temporarily and exudates are released into the soil. About 30 percent of the carbon that plants fix goes into the soil and serves as an energy source for bacteria and other soil microbes, stimulating life in the soil.”
Vince began to adjust the way he farms by introducing cover crops to his cropping operation. That began red clover was under-seeded in wheat and left to overwinter. Hay was taken and sold to a neighbor and the cover left to regrow and then taken as a seed crop.
An old fellow passing by made a point of stopping to observe that it was an approach he approved of, something long absent in the neighborhood. To this day, Vince maintains, there’s been a yield benefit where the clover was grown.
Vince said he’s learned from his Nuffield Scholarship experience, which included a visit to Argentina where he learned about the traditional rotation prior to the introduction of glyphosate. This involved multiple years of perennial species that were grazed followed by four or five years of annual crops.
Vince said he’s also had support from Chris Knight of Clear Creek Farms, Jack Kyle, the former pasture specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and others.