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Photo: Foothills Forage andGrazingAssoc.
THE
FarMGaTe
By TreVOr BaCQUe
Winter
2014
Grains
West
12
OFkaLeaNDCOWs
aTCrOssFieLD
The cows are probably hoping so, too.
Finn’s kale had a hearty 16.2 per cent
crude protein, nearly double the 9.6 per
cent of his oat-and-barley swath mix.
“It was bred for grazing specifically,”
said John Snider, an Oregon-based mar-
keting agronomist with PGG Wrightson
Seeds, a New Zealand seed company.
Snider supplied the seed to Finn and
said he isn’t surprised it held up well in
Alberta’s climate.
“We use it in California because it’s so
drought-tolerant,” he said, “but it defies all
kinds of descriptions and planting zones.”
Overall, Finn’s kale grew quickly with
large full leaves. In the future, getting the
seed in the ground in May would allow
earlier growth and perhaps two grazings
during the summer. Due to its high mois-
ture content, at nearly 70 per cent, the
swaths Finn tried were fairly wet going
into the fall, which increased the risk of
moulding within the swath, according to
Laura Gibney, FFGA manager.
Crusader rye grass. I know the kale won’t
come back, but the rye should. I’ll be able to
have some cows on it,” he said.
Will the experiments continue? Finn has
reason to believe the leafy superfeed, which
can fully mature in 60 days, might make
another appearance on his pasture.
“If I had spare cropland and was going to
put yearlings on it, I’d do it in a heartbeat,”
he said.
WHEN RANCHER GRAEME FINN
trialed a bite-sized, seven-acre plot of kale
this past year on his Crossfield-area grazing
land, he thought it would be a simple crop
investigation. As it turned out, the plot was
both revealing (for him) and nutritious (for
the cows).
Years prior, he had visited a friend in the
high country of New Zealand who farmed
kale. Finn, an Australian expat, finally
decided to give it a go here in Alberta. This
past June, he seeded the Winfred variety
of kale, part of the brassica family, into the
ground with Crusader rye grass as a grazing
mix. He swathed it just after Labour Day
and samples were collected September 13 for
analysis.
Even with some chilly nights approaching
-30°C late last year, Finn said the cell struc-
ture of the kale hadn’t deteriorated.
“The way it tolerated the cold was just
phenomenal,” said Finn, a director of the
Foothills Forage and Grazing Association
(FFGA). “We mixed it with [semi-annual]
THANKS A MILLION, CANADA—ACTUALLY, 6.5 MILLION. THAT’S THE NUMBER
of pounds Farm Credit Canada (FCC) tallied for its 10th annual Drive Away
Hunger campaign. When the final numbers were added, shock is what set in among staff,
according to Dawn Kobayashi, FCC’s manager of community investment in Regina.
“It was overwhelming, for sure,” she said. “When we equated what that means, that’s
about five million meals.”
Oh, and if you’re wondering, 2013 easily eclipsed 2012’s donations of 3.1 million
pounds—a job well done by everyone who participated. Over the last 10 years, FCC has
brought in more than 17 million pounds of food to Canadian food banks.
According to FCC, more than 900,000 Canadians, 338,000 of whom are children,
rely on food banks across the country each month.
WeightyNumbers
Photo: FarmCredit Canada