OSC4 Explores Ecological Intensification

Managed Grazing for Weed Control pt 2: Case Studies

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 was produced in partnership with the Small Scale Meat Producers Association [http://smallscalemeat.ca]. In this episode of the podcast, the second of a two-part series about managed grazing for weed control. In episode one I spoke with grazing expert Sarah Flack and retired BC Agrologist Greg Tegart about the principles of controlling weeds with managed grazing. In this episode, my conversations with three BC-based farmers about their successful management of three different invasive weeds: knapweed, Canada Thistle, and finally, adding a rare bit of mystery and intrigue on the Organic BC Podcast, an unidentified invasive grass. Guests in this episode: Julia Smith of Blue Sky Ranch [https://blueskyranch.ca/] on knapweed control Joseph Moilliet of Aveley Ranch [https://aveleyranch.com/] on control of Canada Thistle Amber Rowse Robinson of Brass Bell Farm [https://www.brassbellfarm.com/our-story]

Managed Grazing for Weed Control pt 1: Principles

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 In this episode of the podcast, the first of a two-part series about managed grazing for weed control. Managed grazing can take different forms with different names…rotational grazing, adaptive graving, management-intensive grazing, mob grazing, but the core principles of each are the same: don’t allow livestock to overgraze a given field or paddock, and don’t allow those animals to return until the field has sufficiently recovered. There are numerous benefits to well-executed managed grazing, and one of them is that managed grazing can be an effective alternative to the use of mowing, herbicides and tillage to control weeds in the pasture. And it’s this benefit that this series will focus on. In this episode, we focus on the principles of managed grazing for weed control. Guests this episode: Sarah Flack: Sarah [https://www.sarahflackconsulting.com/] has over 30 years of experience working with grass-based farmers on business planning combined with agronomy to improve forages, soils and pastures. Sarah also teaches workshops and has written books, articles and other publications with the goal to create more successful grass-based livestock farms. Greg Tegart: is a retired agrologist who spent much of his career working as a field crops & range specialist for BC's Ministry of Agriculture. He primarily focused on forage crops, field crops, and livestock production. Additional Resources Webinar [https://youtu.be/wLM3kxR23A0] about weed control with managed grazing featuring Sarah Flack produced by Organic BC [http://organicbc.org] & Small Scale Meat Producers Association [http://smallscalemeat.ca]

The Complex, Vital Work of Updating Canada's Organic Standards

This episode was funded by the Organic Federation of Canada [https://organicfederation.ca/] to highlight the work of the 2025 Review [https://organicfederation.ca/2025-review-of-the-canadian-organic-standards/] of the Canadian Organic Standards By the time this episode airs, the newest version of the Canadian Organic Standards will have been published. This is a big deal! We only get an update to the standards every five years, and only after a multi-year process involving dozens of people, many of them volunteers, collectively devoting thousands of hours of their time to the endeavor. To mark this momentous achievement, this episode we’ll take a look at the massive effort that goes into each cycle of updates to the Canadian Organic Standards, and we’ll learn why these updates are so important. My guests this episode are Rochelle Eisen, who chaired a working group of the 2025 Review of the Candian Organic Standards, and Nic Walser, who sat on the Technical Committee. If the updated standards have been published by the time you're reading this, you'll be able to find them here. [https://organicfederation.ca/2025-review-of-the-canadian-organic-standards/#]

OSC4 Explores Ecological Intensification

This episode was funded by the Organic Federation of Canada to highlight the work of Organic Science Cluster 4. The Organic Science Cluster is an industry-led research and development endeavour co-managed by the Organic Federation of Canada [https://organicfederation.ca/] and the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada [https://www.dal.ca/faculty/agriculture/oacc/en-home.html] at Dalhousie University. It is also supported by the AgriScience Program under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership [https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/department/initiatives/sustainable-canadian-agricultural-partnership] together with over 80 funding partners. This episode, my interview with Dr. Juli Carillo [https://www.landfood.ubc.ca/juli-carrillo/], associate professor in the faculty of Land & Food Systems at UBC Vancouver. Together with her UBC colleague Dr. Claire Kremen [https://zoology.ubc.ca/person/claire-kremen], Juli’s Organic Science Cluster 4 research [https://www.organic-science-canada.ca/environment/habitat-amendments-for-multiple-co-benefits-in-agroecosystems/] is exploring how on-farm habitat can be amended to intensify beneficial ecological interactions. Translation: how can we increase and support biodiversity on the farm that in turn supports farm production goals? Juli joins me to outline her project and her results so far.

OSC4 Seeks Better Carrots for Organic Growers

This episode was funded by the Organic Federation of Canada to highlight the work of Organic Science Cluster 4. The Organic Science Cluster is an industry-led research and development endeavour co-managed by the Organic Federation of Canada [https://organicfederation.ca/] and the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada [https://www.dal.ca/faculty/agriculture/oacc/en-home.html] at Dalhousie University. It is also supported by the AgriScience Program under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership [https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/department/initiatives/sustainable-canadian-agricultural-partnership] together with over 80 funding partners. This episode, my interview with Dr. Loren Rieseber [https://botany.ubc.ca/people/loren-rieseberg/]g, Professor of Botany at UBC Vancouver about his Organic Science Cluster 4 [https://www.organic-science-canada.ca/horticulture/canadian-organic-vegetable-improvement-integrating-genomics-ecophysiology-and-farmer-participation-for-climate-adaptation/] research. Dr. Rieseberg and his team are combining genomics, ecophysiology, and participatory plant breeding with a goal of developing climate resilient veggie cultivars that are better adapted to organic production systems. Translation: this project wants to create improved, open-pollinated carrot and lettuce varieties for Canadian organic farmers, and Dr. Rieseberg joined me to tell me about combining traditional and technological breeding techniques in order to do so.