In this episode of 'In Living Cover,' presented by the Regenerative Alberta Living Lab, host Kim Cornish sits down with Graeme Finn, a rancher who grew up on family farms in Queensland and New South Wales before settling in Alberta in the early 1990s. Graeme shares how the cost of machinery pushed him to look for a different way to winter cattle, and how ideas from Australia and New Zealand led him to bring forage brassicas into swath grazing, work that grew into the seed company Union Forage. The conversation covers breeding cattle that hold condition on grazed feed, why stockmanship still matters as virtual fencing collars become more common, and why family finances sit at the top of his priorities, ahead of livestock and soil. Graeme and Kim also look at what the Living Lab's carbon maps are showing on his place, including a result that didn't match expectations, and Graeme reflects on how much of today's regenerative thinking can be found in farming books written more than a century ago.

00:00 Introduction to Graeme Finn

03:40 Growing Up on Family Farms in Australia

07:33 Coming to Canada

09:53 A Hands-On Agricultural Education

13:22 Whole-System Thinking and One Voice for the Industry

21:12 First Impressions of Canadian Agriculture

24:55 Too Much Iron: Looking for Another Way to Winter Cattle

28:29 How Low-Cost Winter Grazing Got Started

30:21 Bringing Brassicas into Swath Grazing

33:01 Grazing Turnips Safely

35:00 Breeding Cattle That Fit the System

38:22 Stockmanship in the Age of Collars

40:20 Lessons from a Dugout

43:25 Starting Union Forage and Giving Honest Advice

49:32 Finances, Livestock, Then Soil

51:36 What the Carbon Maps Are Showing

57:30 Why Profitability Comes First

1:00:55 Succession and What's Next for the Industry

1:08:08 Learning from Argentina and Mongolia

1:11:26 Regenerative Agriculture Before It Had a Name

1:15:16 Old Farm Books Worth Reading

1:18:11 Wrap-Up