STEINBACH, MAN. THE CARILLON n C5
www.thecarillon.com n
THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2024
ZACK KOSCIELNY Grandma keeps a watchful eye on Zack Koscielny getting a seeder ready to zero-till a rye crop into already established clover.
ZACK KOSCIELNY
Beef cattle get an early start on spring grazing at Green Beach Farm near Strathclair, Manitoba.
Regenerative agriculture prompts return to farming
crop the vine-like ketch will climb, which makes combining easier, he said. There is also the welcome income any surplus of seeds brings to add to the profitability of the farm opera- tion, he added. While regenerative agriculture has allowed Green Beach Farm to ex- pand their livestock operation with more productive use of the land, Ko- scielny worries about the shortage of slaughter facilities in the province. There is a government inspect- ed facility within 20 minutes of the farm, but should that close, it is more than an hour to Brandon, Ko- scielny says. “We need more killing facilities in the neighborhood. Some are booked two years in advance. We need more slaughter capacity in Manitoba.” And there certainly is a ready market for their grass-finished beef, pasture-raised pork, pasture-raised chicken and eggs. Most of their marketing has been effective word-of-mouth sales, as a portion of the population prefers farm market meat. Sales have been brisk in the local community, in Brandon and in Win- nipeg. Green Beach Farm products are available at St Leon Gardens, Winnipeg; the Aristocrat Food Truck Company at Onanole and Camp Cantina at Wasagaming.
three to four weeks, and in spite of being outdoors there is very little loss to predators. To discourage predators there are motion lights, and chickens are fed at dusk and a radio is played at night. All these steps seem to be working well, Koscielny says. Last year Green Beach Farm started with 750 chickens and finished with 738 ready for market. This year the num- ber of chickens raised will again be increased. Considering there are also losses when pigs and chickens are raised in a barn, Koscielny said they are obvi- ously doing something right. Koscielny also shared a four-year plan for crop rotation which includ- ed a variety of cover crops and the sowing of winter wheat and hairy vetch as a cash crop, to be harvest- ed for seed, in the fourth year of the rotation. Hairy vetch is great feed and can be baled. It does well in the soil con- ditions at Strathclair, but Kosciel- ny wasn’t sure how well it would do in sandy soils in some areas of the Southeast. Green Beach Farm is now into seed production of that forage crop as well. At $3 a pound for hairy vetch and a very good yield, it makes sense for them to grow their own seed, Koscielny said. The challenge comes in harvest- ing, but planted amongst a cereal
change meant tractoring feed out every five to seven days all winter. Now we go on winter vacation.” But there have been challenges with the changes to the regenera- tive pasture system and it has been a learning curve for both the farmer and the cow, Koscielny said. If he had to offer one piece of ad- vice, he said, it would be to go with portable fences wherever possible. The permanent fences they have on their farm, in some cases, makes maneuverability a problem when moving cows daily. But even moving the cows daily is not that much of a hardship as it takes only 35 to 40 minutes and the benefits far outweigh the inconve- nience, he said. “The productivity is great, with plants coming back quickly after grazing. The first year of daily moves we had more winter feed than we needed.” But the Green Beach Farm is not only a 70-80 cow-calf operation, but also markets pastured pork and chicken and surplus seed from the cropping operations. Pigs and chickens are raised on an acreage not used for other purposes and seed screenings from the four cleaners in use on the farm is a wel- come supplement to the chickens’ diet. The chickens are moved every
organic grains. Green Beach Farm has always been a cattle operation and has a long history of rotational grazing. In 1985, for example, they moved their cattle from pasture to pasture every three weeks. The shift to regenerative pasture management started in 2018, when steps were taken to shorten the graz- ing period and lengthen the recovery period for the pasture. The current pasture management system has been in place since 2020, Koscielny said. Adaptive multi-paddock grazing uses a portable fencing system to move cattle strategically around a large pasture. At Green Beach, this involves dai- ly moves from May to October and moves every two days in April, No- vember and December. Bale graz- ing fills in the winter months from Christmas to April 1. This way, the grazing period is ex- tended by a month in spring, and two months in fall and winter. Feed is delivered in a quantity for two to three weeks of bale grazing at a time. Asked whether it has been worth the change, Koscielny told the group they had managed well, even through the drought with an excess of feed. “Winter feeding prior to the
by WES KEATING G rowing up on the family’s 800- acre farm at Strathclair, Zack Koscielny didn’t believe they had enough acreage for him to con- sider farming full-time. A universi- ty class in regenerative agriculture changed his mind. It was there Koscielny saw regen- erative agriculture for the first time and he says it really opened his eyes. His mindset had been that their farm was too small to make it work as a full-time job and after attending this class he began to think they could make it work on their scale. He rethought making Green Beach Farm his career. After discussing the idea with his parents, Kosciel- ny returned to Green Beach Farm to put this new approach to grazing and regenerating both pastures and crop land into practice. Their farm is mostly pasture, with just under 300 acres being cropped. Koscielny told a large group of farmers attending the Seine/Rat/Ro- seau Watershed District’s ReGen Day at Friedensfeld Community Centre last month that pasture manage- ment is where his passion lies. “I came home and here we are.” Green Beach Farm is a fifth gener- ation family farm that today focuses on grass fed beef, naturally raised pork, pastured poultry and certified
WES KEATING THE CARILLON Zack Koscielny explains his farm’s regenerative agriculture practices to a crowd of farmers during Regen Day at Friedensfeld.
ZACK KOSCIELNY
A good supply of feed is needed for bale grazing during the winter months.
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