Prairie Watersheds Climate Program allows farmers to try BMPs with ‘a little less financial risk’ – PembinaValleyOnline.com

Farmers and landowners across the province are being encouraged to apply for the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program being led by the Manitoba Association of Watersheds, but being delivered across Manitoba by individual watersheds.

One of those is the Seine Rat Roseau, and Virginia Janzen is its Regenerative Agriculture Program Coordinator. The program provides funding to adopt beneficial management practices (BMPs) in three areas; cover crops, nitrogen management and rotational grazing. The funding comes from the On Farm Climate Action Fund, from Agriculture and Agri-food Canada. 

“This funding gives farmers the opportunity to try these new BMP’s on their farm with a little less financial risk,” shared Janzen. “So, for example, it takes experimenting with different types and timings of cover crops to figure out exactly how it works on individual farms. Going to the environmental side, there are many ways that these BMP’s help the environment. They can improve the nitrogen use on the farm, so that means less excess nutrients end up in our rivers and streams. It not only helps our individual farms, but it helps our environment and then our communities around our farms. These BMP’s can help support diversity on the landscape. When we have more diverse plants on the landscape, this helps our pollinators have a lot of food to eat and to thrive.”

Aerial photo of a rotational grazing project supported by the PWCP

There are three main practices supported through the PWCP, but within each practice there are many eligible activities.

“For example, we can cover the soil in the fall with a cover crop to prevent soil erosion, or we can use a cover crop mix,” said Janzen. ” The second management practice is nitrogen management, and we have many eligible activities that can be applied for, including the use of dual inhibitors, or slow release fertilizer. Doing split application with your fertilizer, soil testing and mapping on the farm. Our final management practice is rotational grazing, and this is the practice of moving livestock through different fenced off pastures for grazing. This movement of the livestock gives the plants in the prior pasture areas more time to recover, and that just allows for better plant regrowth, and can help to improve soil health. Applicants can apply to add cross fences to their farm to allow for the creation of these different paddocks, or different fenced areas.”

To learn more about the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program, you can reach out to Janzen by calling the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District Office, or by connecting through their website.

“If you don’t live in the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District, and you’re still interested in the program and don’t know where to start, call our office and we’ll connect you with our colleagues at the watershed that you live in,” she noted.

Virginia Janzen made the comments for Ripple Effect, presented by the Red River Basin Commission, which you can listen to below.

If you are not sure if you are in the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District, check the above map