This episode, the topic is biofumigation, a biological form of pest control that involves growing and turning under certain cover crop species that naturally suppress many weeds and soil-borne diseases and pests.

In this episode:

Tom Forge, a research scientist at the Summerland Research & Development Centre.

Kip Cantrell, garlic grower at Thistle Farm in the Creston Valley.

This document from Oregon State University Extension is a good primer on biofumigation.

This episode, the topic is silvopasture, a branch of agroforestry that purposefully combines trees, forage, and livestock on the same land unit to create a mutually beneficial, intensively managed system.

Our guest for this episode is Lisa Zabek, Agroforestry Specialist at the BC Ministry of Agriculture, who joined us to explain how silvopasture systems work, the benefits these systems deliver when practiced well, and highlight examples of silvopasture in practice in BC.

For more information about Silvopasture practices, this BC MInistry of Agriculture page is a good place to start.

This podcast was funded by the Climate Agri-Solutions Fund. Funding for the Climate Agri-Solutions Fund has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund.

This episode, a look at the use of bale grazing as an alternative to tillage when attempting to manage field-edge encroachment by woody perennials like rosebush and willow.

Farmer Rob Larson operates a mixed livestock operation that covers around 5000 acres Northwest of Fort St. John, in BC’s Peace country. The encroachment of wild rosebush onto some of Rob’s fields has been an ongoing challenge that Rob used to manage with repeated tillage. This approach is effective, but, as we’ll hear, also costly from both an economic and ecological perspective. So, back in 2017, Rob teamed up with the Peace River Forage Association to conduct a trial to explore whether winter bale grazing his cattle in areas of rosebush encroachment could suppress the advance of the rosebush and other woody perennials while improving his soil at the same time. In this interview, Rob will summarize the trial, as well as provide an update on the state of his field edges since then.

Later on, we’ll hear from Sandra Burton, a soil scientist who worked with Rob on this project.