Category: Tending

  • How to Buy A “Good” Fleece

    How to Buy A “Good” Fleece

    Fleeces at the homestead! From top left — Banjo on the boards with Alex; Castor’s first fleece, cut-side up; Amy, looking a little fuzzy; Banjo on the left beside Levon, two distinct fleece “styles” in my flock; needle felting locks and figures from Erin Davis at Hawthorn Studios; weaving samples from Traceable Textiles in Edmonton…

  • Maps!! I love a good map

    Maps!! I love a good map

    Is there any tool more useful when it comes to land stewardship than a good map? Maps come in all kinds of formats and answer all kinds of questions. Chances are, if you’re wondering about something, there’s a map for that. Land stewardship sits somewhere between science and story. As a child, I loved the…

  • Always Come Down the Mountain – Let’s Try Something Fun.

    Always Come Down the Mountain – Let’s Try Something Fun.

    In the most recent season of Clarkson’s Farm, Farmer Harriet told Jeremy “Always come down the mountain.” What was she talking about? When it comes to sheep, does the mountain matter? There is nothing fashionable about the stratified hill system. It was born when British farmers were trying hard to find ways to grow food…

  • What Hay Can Tell You (with just your eyeballs)

    What Hay Can Tell You (with just your eyeballs)

    There is a lot of knowledge to be gained by looking at hay. When you start to pull it apart, what story is hiding in your bales and how might it change or impact the way you use them? You don’t need to know the Latin names, you don’t need a forage analysis, you don’t…

  • Poor Man’s Fertilizer

    Poor Man’s Fertilizer

    If the ground is frozen anyway, do trees, shelterbelts and partial canopy really matter when it comes to soil moisture? There’s an old prairie saying that snow is the “poor man’s fertilizer.” On the surface it sounds quaint — but there’s real science behind it, especially in Alberta’s cold, semi-arid landscape. However, in order to…

  • When Fire Isn’t an Option

    When Fire Isn’t an Option

    What happens when an ecosystem that evolved with fire doesn’t burn? There are places where fire is the right tool—and places where it simply isn’t available to us, even when the ecology is practically begging for it. Regulations, neighbours, smoke risk, volatile weather, liability, proximity to infrastructure… sometimes “prescribed burn” is not a lever you…

  • Hay Is NOT a Failure

    Hay Is NOT a Failure

    Is hay a fallback? Or an integral part of your SUMMER feeding strategy? There’s a quiet assumption in livestock culture that grass is success and hay is compromise. Particularly in the regenerative agriculture space, there is a sense that if one resorts to hay, it’s a management error. But that only makes sense if we…

  • AMP Management: A Pod Case Study

    AMP Management: A Pod Case Study

    Making wise choices so we can choose good consequences. First, a quick disclaimer:This is not a grazing template or prescription. This is a record of what we did in one specific pod, with our flock, on our soils, under our weather patterns in the Alberta foothills. Stocking rate, rest periods, timing, and even animal behavior…

  • Barely? No, BARLEY

    Barely? No, BARLEY

    How does barley straw impact feed and hygiene? If you ever visit our place in winter, you’ll notice something almost immediately: we use a lot of barley straw. Not just a little “sprinkle for bedding.” Straw is a structural element in our winter system. It’s part of how we keep the flock comfortable, how we…