The Ontario Forage Council presented Profitable Pastures 2017 on February 28th in Mount Forest, ON, with the tagline: "Grazing Management, Proven Success! Can it work on My Farm?".
This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Jason Rowntree. Jason Rowntree is an Associate Professor in Animal Science at Michigan State University focusing on grass-finishing of beef, livestock grazing influence on ecosystem services and carbon footprint. He is faculty coordinator of Lake City Research Center a 810 ac facility that maintains 300 AU of registered and commercial Red Angus cattle and also supports bioenergy and potato research: http://agbioresearch.msu.edu/centers/lakecity.
Lake City is also the first university based farm to collaborate with the Savory Institute (http://savory.global) as a global farm hub for holistic management. Dr. Rowntree is also an accredited educator in Holistic Management specializing in developing land-based decisions that improve the triple bottom line of agriculture. While at MSU, Jason has accrued over $2,000,000 in state and federal funding as lead or co-investigator and has been the invited speaker at multiple national and international grazing and environmental conferences. Jason is Chairman of the board of the Grassfed Exchange, the leading educational outreach of the USA grass-fed industry and is an advisor for Standard Soil, a newly formed B-Corporation whose goal is to supply the nation’s growing demand for grass finished beef at commercial scale.
2017 Presentations:
Northern Cow Herd Expansion Update - Rob Lipsett
Upper Midwest Grass Finishing - Jason Rowntree
The Profitablility of Grazing Beef Cows Vs. Cash Cropping in Southern ON - DougYungblut
Pasture Management on My Farm - Vince Stutzki
Grazing Management to Increase Production and Lower Cost - Jason Rowntree
2017 Mapleseed Pasture Award Recipient - Paul DeJong
Remote Locations:
Algoma
Central Algoma Freshwater Coalition Office
9154 Highway 17
East Bruce Mines, ON
Register: 877-892-8663
Thunder Bay
Beef Farmers of Thunder Bay - Private Residence
Register: Kendal.Donahue@ontario.ca
Lanark
Civitan Club of Perth
6787 Lanark County Rd 43
Perth, ON
Register: Dave Campbell 613 268 2138, daveandfern@hotmail.com
2015 Presentations - Click on link below to listen/view
Please contact the Ontario Forage Council to be added to the notification list for next year!
E-mail: support@ontarioforagecouncil.com
Phone: 519 986-1484 or 1-877-892-8663
Presentations from past conferences:
Made In Manitoba - A Manitoba Perspective
Strategic Parasite Control for Grazing Animals
The Ontario Forage Council is proud to announce Profitable Pastures 2015! This year’s event will take place in Elmwood, ON at the Elmwood Community Centre. This year’s keynote speaker will be Joshua Dukart-Certified Educator of Holistic Management. He will be speaking to attendees regarding “Grazing With Purpose”- focuses on our grazing management, not just haphazardly grazing, as well as “Tapping into Biological Horsepower – Year-round”- focuses on enhancing the health of the plant-animal-profit complex. Supporting speakers will include: Jack Kyle, Grazier Specialist-OMAFRA, Andy MacDonald, Producer and the Ontario Pasture Award winner, Peter Kotzeff. Don’t miss this exciting day of pasture management expertise!