Helped define foundation for off-site cattle wintering program
Like a growing number of ranchers today, Claude and Deborah Mindorff want their cattle to work for them rather than the other way around. As first-time ranchers, they want to enjoy the soil nutrient benefits and freedom from daily corral feeding that wintering cattle in pasture offers. At the same time, they want to make sure that it, and their other ranching practices, leave as small a footprint on the environment as possible.
However, being new to the industry, they were not sure how to identify the environmental risks on their ranch, located four kilometres west of the village of Tilley in southeast Alberta. So they sought out a number of tools to help them. One of these was the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) program.
"We look at developing a ranch like building a house," says Claude. "If you build a solid foundation, the house lasts longer. Doing an EFP has played a role in building that foundation. It has helped us identify ways to set up a wintering program while protecting our water resources and those of our neighbours. In a broader sense, the plan helped us gain a better knowledge of our land in general."
The Mindorffs' concern for the environmental health of their land is, both philosophically and geographically, a by-product of the enterprise which brought the couple to Alberta in the first place. Claude is president of West WindEau, a renewable energy company developing a 200-megawatt wind energy project on approximately 10,000 acres of privately-owned land 45 km southeast of Medicine Hat.
With the project came a decision to move from their home in Ontario's wine-belt near Niagara Falls to a stone's throw away from Alberta's Cypress County. Doing so gave the Mindorffs an opportunity to fulfil a long-time ambition in owning and operating their own ranch. So, in January 2006, they purchased the land near Tilley and have since built a small but growing cattle herd.
The couple's original plan was to move a modular home onto the property as they prepared to build a permanent home. Although this plan initially fell victim to red tape, Deborah says the waiting period actually allowed them to step back, look at their land, and get better prepared.
"The fact that we weren't living on the property actually contributed to our excitement over the EFP workshop," she says. "There was a feeling that we were starting from scratch, that there was an opportunity to take some time to set our own priorities."
The first step they took was to commission a survey to plot the existing buildings, water bodies, gas and water lines, and the overall topography of the property. By superimposing the survey results on top of an image downloaded from Google Earth, they were able to get a better idea of the environmental challenges they faced.
The next step was figuring out how to tackle those challenges. That process was one that involved seeking out the appropriate resources for assistance. One of the tools the couple investigated was the EFP program. Deborah says she was drawn to the program after seeing a publication at the Medicine Hat Stampede outlining the risks involved in improper management of fuel storage. For her, it drove home the importance of a number of stewardship issues they had not previously considered.
Deborah attended two EFP workshops to receive instruction on how to use the EFP workbook, the core document of the program. "I really found the EFP workshops and workbook easy to follow," she says. "The facilitators were very well versed in the subject matter and I also received a lot of help from the other attendees developing a farm plan. It was a simple, helpful process."
Before long, the EFP process became a family affair. "Deborah would learn something at a workshop, share that information with me, and then we would get the kids excited about making environmental improvements," says Claude. "There was education happening on multiple levels."
Although the EFP program has directed the Mindorffs' attention to a number of potential improvements, their primary focus continues to be the protection of water resources on their land.
A major challenge is the lack of sufficient off-site watering infrastructure. Although their herd is presently grazing on nearby community pasture and on a grazing lease the Mindorffs own, the couple's goal is to winter the cattle on their own property starting this year.
"We really want to feed our cattle as much on pasture as possible during the winter, which requires heated water and a system to deliver it," says Claude. "Right now, the cattle have direct access to the two dugouts and the nearby J Reservoir, a situation which presents a contamination risk."
There are also infrastructure issues they intend to tackle in the near future. "Right now, our waste water is handled by a field discharge system. The septic tank pumps into an irrigation ditch that runs adjacent to one of the dugouts. That's something we plan to address when we move from the mobile home we're living in now to the permanent home we plan to build."
The barns and corrals on the farmstead also present management challenges. For one, they represent a large capital expense for facilities they plan to use on a minimal basis. From an environmental perspective, they are located close to a dugout and the ranch's flood irrigation system (240 acres on the property is flood irrigated).
"The flood irrigation system picks up contaminants from the barns and corrals. Some would say that we're picking up extra nutrients on the way to the field, but that's not really how it works," says Claude. "We plan to tear most of the old wintering yard down and replace it with pens for handling and branding."
They would like to switch from flood irrigation to a wheeled irrigation system, although the cost is prohibitive at this time. "Flood irrigation is just not an efficient use of water," he says. "However, it costs $15,000 to $20,000 per quarter-section to switch to wheeled, and that's using old, used equipment."
The Mindorffs see the EFP program as a tool that has helped them, as first time ranchers, make a start in an industry that has become notoriously difficult to gain a foothold in without prior experience.
"Rural Alberta is about people living there," says Claude. "Initiatives such as the EFP program contribute to facilitating new people entering the farming and ranching industry. We're taking an old, run-down piece of land and making it sustainable as a single family ranch. It kind of runs counter to the trend of larger and larger amalgamations of land."
The information on this website is available for reprint with credit to "The Alberta Environmental Farm Plan, www.albertaEFP.com".
Article development courtesy of The Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company