Deep Roots, Tight Soils: How Innovation Is Driving Regeneration at El-Shaddai Dairies

In the fields surrounding New Sarepta, southeast of Edmonton, Dieter Gagelmans is tackling a complex puzzle—how to grow more resilient, nutritious forage while improving soil health and carbon sequestration in some of Alberta’s tighter, more compacted soils. At first glance, Dieter’s switch from conventional corn silage to a fully multispecies silage system is paying off. Yields are strong, diversity is up, and the land is responding. But below the surface, quite literally, the soil still has stories to tell—and challenges to overcome.

What makes Dieter’s work stand out isn’t just his commitment to regenerative principles. It’s how he’s weaving together multiple approaches to create a living, adaptive system—one that responds to both opportunity and constraint, while nudging the land toward better structure, deeper function, and greater carbon drawdown.

The Soil Challenge: Tight Ground, Shallow Roots

The soils around New Sarepta are known for being fine-textured, clay-rich, and prone to compaction—especially in wetter seasons or under heavy equipment. In Dieter’s case, the problem runs deeper. His plants are hitting a chemical compaction layer—a dense subsoil horizon that restricts root penetration, limits water infiltration, and impedes carbon sequestration at depth.

This means that even with aboveground success—diverse plant mixes, improved forage nutrition, and robust yields—the full regenerative potential of the soil is being held back. Roots can’t explore deeply, microbial communities struggle to thrive beyond the surface, and organic matter builds slowly.

But Dieter isn’t discouraged. Instead, he’s doubling down on innovation.

Closing the Loop: Cows, Crops, and Carbon

At the heart of Dieter’s system is closed-loop thinking. His dairy cows are no longer just animals in a barn—they’re strategic partners in a multi-paddock grazing system that stretches across both permanent pasture and silage fields.

Here's how the system works:

• Pasture & Hayfield Rejuvenation: Instead of fully renovating old fields (which can release carbon and disturb soil structure), Dieter is using grazing to stimulate regrowth and improve diversity. This encourages the establishment of legumes, boosts pasture nutrition, and helps maintain living roots in the soil year-round.

• Strategic Grazing on Silage Fields: After harvesting his multispecies silage, Dieter allows the cows to graze the regrowth. This not only provides a secondary source of nutrition but also returns nutrients via manure and urine, while stimulating root exudation—the plant’s way of feeding soil microbes with carbon-rich compounds.

Together, these practices create a positive feedback loop: more plant growth fuels more microbial activity, which releases more nutrients, builds more aggregates, and improves the soil’s structure. The aim? Deeper roots, better water management, and more carbon in the ground.

Boosting Structure: A Trial with Electrically Available Calcium

One of Dieter’s most promising experiments involved the use of GSR Calcium—a product designed to deliver electrically available calcium that promotes flocculation (the clustering of fine particles into larger, more stable aggregates). In clay-heavy soils like Dieter’s, flocculation is key: it opens up pore space, improves aeration, and sets the stage for microbial communities to thrive.

And the results? On the field where GSR Calcium was applied, Dieter recorded his highest yield to date—over 12 tonnes of multispecies forage per acre.

But the benefits went deeper than yield:

• Improved Soil Structure: The calcium helped kickstart the flocculation process, making the soil more friable and easier for roots to penetrate.

• Increased Photosynthesis: Healthier plants photosynthesized more efficiently, generating more sugars that were sent belowground as root exudates.

• Microbial Activation: That extra carbon flow fed microbial populations, which in turn released more nutrients and began forming water-stable aggregates—essential for long-term carbon storage and soil health.

  
  

This experiment showed Dieter something crucial: amending the soil alone isn’t enough. It’s the combination of mineral balance, biological inputs, plant diversity, and animal impact that really moves the needle.

Integration as Innovation

Dieter’s work is a powerful example of what happens when challenges become catalysts for change. Compacted soils forced him to look beyond single fixes. Instead, he’s building a system where each component—cows, crops, soil amendments, grazing patterns—reinforces the others.

This approach mirrors what the Regenerative Alberta Living Lab is all about: not promoting one-size-fits-all solutions, but supporting producers as they test, adapt, and iterate in real-world conditions.

In Dieter’s case, it means using:

• Multi-paddock grazing to extend root systems and pasture diversity

• Legumes and multispecies mixes to enhance nitrogen fixation and nutrition

• Calcium amendments to restore soil structure and unlock deeper carbon pathways

• Closed-loop nutrient cycling to reduce inputs and feed both livestock and microbes

Looking Forward: Innovation Never Stops

Despite impressive yields and a steadily improving system, Dieter’s soil challenges remain. But that’s the nature of working regeneratively—it’s never “done.” The land is dynamic, the weather unpredictable, and biology always changing. With each new problem comes a chance to experiment, learn, and adapt.

And as Dieter keeps layering practices, measuring results, and sharing insights, he’s not just improving his own land—he’s lighting a path for other producers facing similar hurdles across Alberta’s mixed and dairy operations.

Because regeneration isn’t a destination—it’s a mindset. One rooted in curiosity, guided by data, and sustained by community.