Annual Forages for Soil Health with Mary-Jane Orr

This week Mary-Jane Orr, General Manager for Manitoba Beef & Forage Initiatives Inc., joins me to discuss the Annual Forages for Soil Health Project that is currently taking place at MBFI’s Brookdale Farm. 

Mary-Jane leads a dedicated team at MBFI to advance Manitoba’s beef & forage industry through engaging stakeholders, evaluating on-farm innovation, and extension for sustainability of farmers, the public, and the environment. She deeply values the opportunity to collaborate with producers, researchers, education providers, extension specialists, conservation groups, and all stakeholders in field-testing management practices and growing understanding of improved production in Manitoba. Mary-Jane holds a PhD from Purdue University in soil microbial ecology in agricultural systems, is a Professional Agrologist, and Certified Crop Advisor. Her experience in ecology and field agronomy gives her a unique perspective on the challenges facing agriculture today. 

This project started in 2022 and is ongoing at MBFI and has been supported by funding and in-kind donations from the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, DLF Pickseed and Secan Seeds.

Mary-Jane begins with an overview of the project, the research objectives and what data is being collected for this project, as well as sharing information on the plot design and implementation.  She also shares some information on the definitions of monocrop, cover crop, intercrop and polycrop for the purpose of this project. 

There are vast benefits ecologically that polycrops provide that aren’t seen in monocrop use, which include forage quality, soil fertility and soil health.  Mary-Jane shares how each of these are being measured in this project and although there were many challenges in the 2022 seeding and growing season for this project, there have been some observations made in terms of forage yield, forage quality differences and regrowth that we discuss in this episode.

We discuss the benefits of polycrop use in terms of the financial aspect, as well as the flexibility this system offers to producers and round our conversation out with a discussion on why this information is beneficial to share with producers in general.

Additional project information for the “Annual Forages for Soil Health Project” at MBFI can be found at the following link: https://www.mbfi.ca/annual-forage-polycrops-soil-health

The research programs and daily operations at MBFI would not be possible without the funding from the Province of Manitoba, Government of Canada, and Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, as well as the partnership with Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC).

We encourage you to follow MBFI on social media, or check out the website for more information on project findings and results, upcoming events and more!

Instagram: @MBBeefandForage

Facebook: @MBBeefandForage

Twitter: @MBBeefandForage

Website: www.mbfi.ca 

Email address: information@mbfi.ca 

Mary-Jane’s Phone Number: 431-255-0011