Field Innovation in Action: Integrating BMPs at the Skeels Farm

A collaborative field event brought together the Regenerative Alberta Living Lab (RA-LL) and the Alberta AgriSystems Living Lab to visit the innovative farm of Doug and Deb Skeels. Their land is a living demonstration of how integrating a suite of Best Management Practices (BMPs) can elevate soil health, build resilience, and unlock both ecological and economic benefits. These benefits are not speculation. In addition to seeing BMP’s in action at the field day, the team identified a clear and compelling correlation using soil carbon mapping innovation: areas where BMPs were in place consistently show higher levels of soil carbon. 

A Living Lab of Practices

Doug and Deb’s farm is far from a static operation. Their land showcases a diverse range of regenerative practices implemented across various parts of their operation. These include:

• Swath Grazing of an Intercrop: Triticale and oats are grown together, then swathed and grazed in place, extending the grazing season and reducing winter feeding costs.

• High-Legume Pastures: Legumes such as clovers are integrated for their nitrogen-fixing benefits, enhancing soil fertility and animal nutrition.

• Bale Grazing: Strategically placing hay bales in the field during winter allows livestock to distribute nutrients naturally while minimizing mechanical inputs.

• Pasture Rejuvenation and Legume Integration: Their efforts include seeding legumes into old pastures and using targeted herbicides to manage competition, opening ecological space for more diverse species.

• Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) Grazing: This form of rotational grazing allows for rest and regrowth, building biomass and organic matter, and increasing carbon inputs to soil.

These practices aren't isolated—they're stacked and synergized across the farm, tailored to each parcel’s unique needs and potential.

Carbon Insights Drive Decisions

In a unique moment of cross-disciplinary exchange, Doug and Deb participated in a co-development session before the field day with scientists and partners from RA-LL. Together, they reviewed the farm’s soil carbon map—an innovative tool that visualizes how different management strategies influence soil carbon stocks.

Zooming in on their home quarter, the team observed that the paddocks managed with AMP and bale grazing had noticeably higher soil carbon levels than treed area almost 20 tonnes of CO2e per acre more. This surprised some, but not the Skeels. Their land lies within the Grey Luvisolic soil zone—also known as grey wooded soils—which typically store much of their organic carbon in surface litter and forest biomass rather than in the soil itself.

In natural (undisturbed) wooded systems, carbon tends to accumulate more aboveground. But through management, Doug and Deb have shifted that carbon into the soil profile, where it's more stable and beneficial for soil function. Their practices have increased carbon sequestration by increase carbon inputs and reducing losses through erosion or oxidation.

Long-Term Haying vs. Regenerative Grazing

One particularly striking insight came from a section of the farm that had been cut for hay for several decades. Compared to their grazed paddocks, this area showed significantly lower soil carbon levels, on average 40 tonnes of CO2e per acre less. 

The Skeels will rejuvenate their hay field with swath grazing as a strategy to restore organic matter, enhance microbial activity, and improve overall soil function. This consideration has been prompted, in part, by real-time feedback from soil and plant health data collected on their land. It serves as a clear example of how data can present an opportunity—not just for observation, but for informed, adaptive decision-making that aligns with regenerative management goals.

The Power of Integration

What makes Doug and Deb’s story stand out is not just the individual practices—they’re not doing one thing differently, but many things, in coordination. The integration of BMPs creates compounding benefits:

• More diverse pastures support healthier animals and soils.

• Stacked practices enhance nutrient cycling, water retention, and root biomass.

• Year-round ground cover minimizes erosion and boosts carbon inputs.

• Data-informed decisions accelerate progress and increase confidence in change.

By building a mosaic of practices, they’re not only boosting resilience and profitability, but also delivering measurable climate benefits through carbon sequestration.

The Skeels farm exemplifies what the Living Labs are all about: farmer-led innovation, grounded in science, and supported by collaboration. As more producers see examples like Doug and Deb’s—and as tools like carbon mapping become more accessible—integrated regenerative practices may become the new normal on the Canadian Prairies.