Video: Polycultures with Dr. Jillian Bainard
Producers rely on grazing native, tame perennial pastures or stockpiled feed to typically feed their livestock. Diverse forage mixtures, such as polycultures, give producers an opportunity to provide high-quality feed while also gaining additional benefits for the soil and ecosystem. Polyculture cover cropping, also known as multi-species or cocktail mixture planting, is the intentional co-planting of several species of plants in the same field or plot. New research is underway to find the best mixtures to plant as forage to improve crop yield, soil organic matter, moisture retention, weed control, and even add more nutrients – all potentially great benefits to farmers, ranchers, and producers.
Join Young Agrarians and Rural Routes to Climate Solutions to learn about forage polycultures with Dr. Jillian Bainard of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. As a Forage Ecophysiologist, Dr. Bainard’s research involves studying forage crops and the interface between plants and their environment. Through her work, she collaborates with many other disciplines including forage breeders, ecologists, animal scientists, soil scientists, economists and more to develop forage practices that are beneficial nutritionally, environmentally, and economically. Dr. Bainard’s current areas of research include:
- diverse annual forage crops (polycultures, cover crops)
- integrated crop-livestock systems
- plant response to stress
- plant endopolyploidy and genome size
- plant ecology in rangeland ecosystems
This webinar is a great opportunity to learn more about the latest polyculture research happening in the Canadian prairies.