In this episode of 'In Living Cover,' presented by the Regenerative Alberta Living Lab, host Kim Cornish talks with Nora Paulovich, a Peace Country producer, former district agriculturalist, former manager of the North Peace Applied Research Association, and founder of the Western Canada Conference on Soil Health and Grazing. Nora looks back on the early days of extension in Alberta and on how she and her husband started bale grazing in the late 1980s, and walks through the multi-species swath grazing mix they use today, including what changed when they began leaving calves on the cows through the winter. The conversation covers what freeze-thaw winters do to a swath grazing plan, how these practices have affected their bottom line and their workload, what research might miss when it measures these systems, and why Nora sees more livestock on the landscape as key to wider adoption.

00:00 Introduction

00:47 Welcome Nora Paulovich

02:48 What Drew Nora to Soil Health

05:12 The Role of the District Agriculturalist

09:42 Bale Grazing and Pasture Rejuvenation

13:55 Early Resistance to Bale Grazing

16:48 Leaving Calves on Cows and Multi-Species Swath Grazing

22:05 Swath Grazing Through Ice and Freeze-Thaw Winters

26:05 Fertility and Swath Grazing in the Crop Rotation

27:06 Fewer Inputs, Fewer Tractor Hours and Daily Moves

29:43 Applied Research Associations and the Power of Networks

36:16 What Moves Producers to Adopt New Practices

41:35 How These Practices Affect the Bottom Line

42:20 What Research Can Miss

51:19 Growing Interest in the Soil Health and Grazing Conference

52:40 One Change: More Livestock on the Landscape

55:00 Wrap-Up