Tune in as we are joined by industry experts and farmers to discuss important issues in organic grain farming. Check out our website at www.manitobaorganicalliance.com and www.pivotandgrow.com and see what organic grain production can do for you. We bring the resources, tools and expertise you need to get growing! Grain on the Brain podcast is created by the Prairie Organic Grain Initiative; working to create resilience and stability in the prairie organic grain sector.
This podcast is partially funded by the Prairie Organic Development Fund.
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Soil Health Tools
Season 4 · Episode 4
Thursday, April 20, 2023 • Duration 44:03
Today Scott talks with John Cote who runs John Boy Farms near St. Agathe Manitoba. John shares about his experience growing vegetables for the local market and how and why he chose to focus on garlic. They also cover a few other topics such as soil health, cover crops and inputs.
Organic Connections Panel
Season 4 · Episode 3
Monday, March 27, 2023 • Duration 50:06
In this episode, Scott interviews Cody Straza and Ian Cushon in a live panel format, recorded at the Organic Connections show in Saskatoon. Both are experienced organic farmers and they cover a wide variety of topics including species diversity, green manures, soil fertility, livestock and more.
Farmers for Climate Solutions
Season 2 · Episode 9
Friday, March 26, 2021 • Duration 36:43
Resources links
You can get involved as a Farmer For Climate Solutions by going to their website and clicking on the Take Action button
Funding is provided in part by the Canada and Manitoba governments through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership and Millview Farms.
Guest bio for Karen Ross
Karen Ross is the director of Farmers for Climate Solutions (FCS), a national alliance of farmers and farmer supporters advancing climate solutions in Canadian agriculture. Karen has a PhD from Western University and comes to FCS with experience leading a national program advancing policies and communications on soil, greenhouse gases and agriculture at Equiterre, a policy advocate and researcher on sustainable food systems in Canada, as a former lecturer in social justice and international development, and a project manager on a federally funded project in central Africa. Karen manages a vegetable, fruit and flower farm with her partner, selling their produce directly to daycares and farmers markets.
Growing Perennial Wheat in Manitoba
Season 2 · Episode 8
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 • Duration 28:47
Guest bio for Dr. Doug Cattani
Doug received his BSA and MSc. from the University of Manitoba (Plant Breeding) and his PhD. from Wageningen University, The Netherlands in Plant Production Ecology. He has worked with herbaceous perennial for over three decades with emphasis on breeding and seed production. His current position is as Perennial Crop Breeder in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba with the breeding of intermediate wheatgrass and perennial sunflower for grain production as the major focus.
If you're in Manitoba and interested in growing a small plot of perennial wheat on your land, you can contact him at: Doug.Cattani@umanitoba.ca
Resources
Learn more about the development of Kernza® and other perennial grasses from the Land Institute
Funding is provided in part by the Canada and Manitoba governments through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
Livestock Integration
Season 2 · Episode 7
Tuesday, February 16, 2021 • Duration 01:05:54
Resources
Our resource list this episode is directly from our guest Ward Middleton and includes the resources he has found helpful on his own farm.
For farmers who may be interested in integrating livestock that they do not own, like winter feeding someone else's cows and are concerned about cost effective ways to make that possible, here are some articles I used:
Dr Zavala and the farmers she works with in Alberta recommend getting a soil health mentor!
If you’d like to join their WhatsApp group to talk about all things soil, email: shwhatsalb@gmail.com
Guest Bio
Dr. Yamily Zavala has extensive international experience in restoring soil fertility and improving cropping systems. Her work is supported by an education focused on agriculture and soils. Her passion for understanding and improving the health of soils has positively impacted the local agricultural economies where she has worked. In addition to applied research projects, she manages CARA’s Soil Health Lab in Eastern Alberta(CSHL). The Lab focuses on the evaluation of physical and biological soil properties and allows producers the opportunity for hands-on evaluation of their soils.
Building Soil Carbon
Season 2 · Episode 5
Friday, November 27, 2020 • Duration 43:18
Resources links
Read about soil health research on organic farms conducted by the Organic Farming Research Foundation:
If you're near Quebec City and are interested in participating in Professor Kallenbach's research, she is always looking for additional good field sites, particularly with areas of waterlogging, for research with cover crops!
Guest bio for Professor Cynthia Kallenbach
Cynthia Kallenbach joined McGill’s Department of Natural Resource Sciences as an Assistant Professor in 2018. Her research integrates soil ecology and biogeochemistry to understand soil organic matter turnover and accumulation and microbial-plant interactions affecting carbon and nutrient cycling under land use and global change. She received her BSc degree (Geography) from Sonoma State University, California. She earned two MSc at University of California-Davis in International Agriculture Development and in Soil Biogeochemistry, and her PhD from the University of New Hampshire in Earth and Environmental Science. Before coming to McGill, she was a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University.
Credits
Host: Scott Beaton
Narrator: Karen Klassen
Producer: Karen Klassen
Editor: Jason Peters
Podcast oversight committee: Anne Kirk, Jason Peters, Kim Wilton, Tierra Stokes, Marla Carlson, Deb Tuchelt
DisclaimerSponsor
All About Seeds
Season 2 · Episode 4
Wednesday, September 16, 2020 • Duration 57:06
Guest biosIris
Iris Vaisman is the Prairie Regional Coordinator for the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security and the Grains Program Manager at Organic Alberta. In these roles, she has the joy and privilege of partnering with farmers, researchers, industry, government and various stakeholders to work on diverse projects. The projects aim to contribute to the resilience of seed systems and organic grain production systems. Before taking on these roles, Iris worked at the University of Manitoba as a research technician, working on research that included participatory plant breeding, cover crops, organic no-till, and soil fertility. Iris has an M.Sc. from the University of Manitoba in organic agronomy and an Hon. B.Sc. from the University of Toronto in Ecology.
Ryan
Ryan Pengelly farms and seed cleans organic grains and native grasses near Erickson, Manitoba. Ryan is a second generation farmer having returned to the family farm in 2014.
Resources links
Interested in breeding your own seed or getting involved in the Participatory Plant Breeding Program? You can download some helpful tips and seed selection manuals here:
Developed in 2015 in partnership with COG, USC Canada, and The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, you can learn more about seed saving by taking a vegetable seed saving course for commercial production:
Learn about producing organic seeds
Learn about commercial seed production including harvesting, quality, marketing, and breeding seeds
Sponsor
Farming with pollinators
Season 2 · Episode 3
Sunday, June 21, 2020 • Duration 46:15
Sponsor
Funding is provided in part by the Canada and Manitoba governments through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
Additional sponsorship has been provided by Secan.
SeCan is the largest supplier of certified seed to Canadian farmers with more than 600 independent seed business members from coast to coast engaged in seed production, processing and marketing. We are a private, not-for-profit, member corporation with the primary goal of accessing and promoting leading genetics.
Want to ask Mike Killewald from the University of Manitoba a question about bugs?Favourite booksGuest bio for Stephanie FrischieGuest Bio for Allison Squires
Mechanical Weed Control
Season 2 · Episode 2
Thursday, May 7, 2020 • Duration 50:31
We recorded today’s episode in March at the 2020 Prairie Organics Conference in Brandon Manitoba.
Scott gets into the weeds with Sam Hitchcock Tilton as they discuss ways to control weeds at all stages of their life cycle throughout the growing season.
Sponsor
Thanks to Regen Ag Solutions for helping to sponsor this episode. If you’re thinking about trying out some of the machines Sam and Scott were talking about, check out their website at https://regenagsolutions.ca/ or give them a call on 1-204-999-1232.
Their farming solutions aim to help farmers achieve balance and synergy between plants and soil. They provide their clients with the best products to develop soil nutrition, increase yields and promote long-term sustainability.
Dalhousie University has put together some great resources from harrowing to robotic weed control to help you decide what will work best for your farm.
And lastly, the POGI Green Manure Manual: a plug for a resource that is near and dear to me, which i used to help assess the cost effectiveness (dollar wise and nutrient wise) whether it is better to graze off a green manure / cover crop or to terminate it mechanically. Here, it states (in 5.3.3) that losses can range between 5-16% when terminating a green manure. And I have the fullest confidence in the people that put this manual together.
Ward and his wife Jo-Anne Middleton own and operate an organic farm in Sturgeon County Alberta.
In 1994, at his family’s invitation, Ward and his wife Jo-Anne took over the family farm by purchasing shares from his father and three siblings. After dabbling in various specialty crops, they chose organic production as the way forward. Today, Midmore Farms near Morinville, Alberta grows wheat, rye, oats, barley, flax, canola, peas, fava, alfalfa, sweet clover and some nutraceuticals (milk thistle and sea buckthorn). The couple also custom feed cattle and tend an 80-acre woodlot – a contribution to future generations that enhances biodiversity and is already a haven for wildlife.
Funding is provided in part by the Canada and Manitoba governments through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Manitoba Organic Alliance.
Funding is provided in part by the Canada and Manitoba governments through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
Build your own business following your own unique seed-farm business plan
Discoverlife.org and bugguide.net have some great identification and general resources, although their identification resources might be somewhat hard for the general public to use.
Decent guide for "what's that bug?" type identification because it's broken down by general insect shape.
For Manitoba crop specific insect updates you can request to be part of John Gavloski’s email list: John.Gavloski@gov.mb.ca. He sends out the occasional insect reports during the growing season.
These are available for sale through booksellers (not from Xerces). They are available as thank you gifts for becoming a member of Xerces. https://gifts.xerces.org/
Bumble bees of North America by Williams et al. are great resources for people wanting a physical book about bees.
Based in northwest Indiana, Stephanie provides pollinator habitat expertise to farms in Canada and the U.S. She also works with the native seed industry and researchers to plan and develop seed supply of important plant species for restoration of insect habitat. Before joining Xerces, Stephanie conducted research on the potential of native cover crops in Spanish olive orchards at Semillas Silvestres, S.L. through the Native Seed Science, Technology and Conservation (NASSTEC) grant. Previously, she was the plant materials and conservation programs manager for eleven years at the Nature Conservancy’s Kankakee Sands restoration project in northwest Indiana. Stephanie volunteers as a rare plant monitor with Plants of Concern and is the secretary of the International Network for Seed-based Restoration. Her master's of science is from Northwestern University/Chicago Botanic Garden’s Conservation Land Management Program and she holds a bachelor's of science in international agronomy from Purdue University.
Allison was born in St. John’s, NFLD and grew up primarily in Southern Ontario. After completing her BSc in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Guelph (Guelph, ON) she moved to Saskatoon, SK to complete first her MSc and then Ph.D. in Toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan. Like Cody, Allison is very interested in promoting the organic industry, especially through on-farm research. Allison supports involving organic producers at the individual farm level and believes that it will contribute to the overall applicability of organic research. As such both her and Cody have implemented several on-farm research projects at Upland Organics. Allison enjoys managing the research programs for Upland Organics and is always looking for new opportunities to collaborate with research scientists, agriculture industry professionals, and other organic producers. Allison serves the national organic community as a director on the Canadian Organic Growers board and in 2020 was also elected to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) North America board of Directors.
Keep learning about pollinators at these events/webinars:
Sam Hitchcock Tilton is a Horticulture Instructor at Lakeshore Technical College, just North of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He has a background in vegetable farming and earned a Master’s degree in Horticulture from Michigan State University, where he studied and conducted research on precision weeding tools. Sam was the Midwest Sales Representative for KULT-Kress precision cultivation tools. For this work he designed weeding machines for all types of crops, developed new tools, and traveled through Europe and the US visiting farms. He writes for Vegetable Grower’s News and Growing for Market, and is the organizer of the annual Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day – the nation’s premier event for weeding tool demonstrations.
