Regenerative agriculture and agritech: Supporting sustainable agriculture

Hannah & Les Willms are 3^rd generation farmers who since 1993 have run a 2^nd generation farm LH Willms Inc, in Rose Prairie, B.C. (Treaty 8 territory on the traditional lands of the Dane-zaa people). 

What drew you to regenerative farming practices? 

In grain farming, soil health is a high priority. We know that healthy soils produce the best crops, both in the quality and quantity. The drive to grow better crops has taken us down this road of regenerative farming practices.   

Which regenerative practices did you implement first on the farm? 

Some of our first regenerative practices that we implemented on our farm were zero tillage, and leaving the straw and residue at harvest. These practices have built up organic matter.  

Growing legumes has been another beneficial practice we have been rotating into our cropping system. We started with red clover in a few different scenarios and have moved towards growing alfalfa.  

This past year we grew our first cover crops with a variety of blends and have found tillage radish, combined with crimson clover to be the most promising. We are currently in the research and development of this practice in the B.C. Peace Country. 

Which regenerative practices have you found to have the best ROI? 

Zero tillage has been the regenerative practice that we have seen the greatest ROI. With savings in labour, fuel, equipment, and the ability to plant large acres in short amounts of time, as well as building organic matter in our soils, this practice made sense. It has been widely adopted by grain producers world-wide.  

Another practice that has proven to be beneficial is growing legumes as green manure, often the subsequent crops will have a 10% yield increase. 

Do you have advice for farmers interested in introducing regenerative practices on their farms? 

Everything has a cost but taking part in regenerative practices that build soil will be beneficial in the long term. 

Do you have any lessons learned you are interested in sharing? 

One lesson learned has been switching from bias ply tires on our tractors, to tracked tractors. We still face compaction issues in the Peace Country, but we can see a reduction of compaction in our fields by implementing this beneficial practice. Along with using tracked tractors in our fields, we have found that we need to stay off our land when it is too wet, whether it be seeding or harvest, otherwise compaction becomes a detriment to our soil that is not easy to correct. This is often hard especially in the north as we are always on a time crunch with our short growing season.  

Wade and Sandra Clifton and family run Clifton Ranch, established 1967 in Similkameen / South Okanagan on the Indigenous territory of the Okanagan-Sylix peoples, Keremeos, B.C.

Started by Wilson and June Clifton over 50 years ago and ran together with their sons, Brad and Wade for many years, Clifton Ranch is now run by Wade Clifton with wife Sandra and their family. They raise a herd of 500 cow-calf pairs and operate a feedlot for finishing cattle to direct market their homegrown beef to local consumers. 

Since the beginning, Clifton Ranch has been working towards improving their environmental management practices while also maintaining an economically viable ranching operation conjunction with many environmental focused groups. Clifton Ranch has a long-standing partnership with the Nature Trust of British Columbia to improvement water management, implement rotational grazing, and construct wildlife-friendly fencing. All of these practices are in place to ensure that their ranch exists in harmony with the natural ecosystems and the 50+ species at risk that call the land that they operate on home.

In 2019, the Clifton Ranch received two awards related to their environmental practices:

• The 2019 BC Cattlemen’s Association Ranch Sustainability Award, and
• The Environmental Stewardship Award (2019), presented by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.

What drew you to regenerative farming practices? 

Wade’s father, Wilson Clifton, always was interested in utilizing different practices to try to improve the land base and overall efficiency of the operation. Ranching in a regenerative way is the base behind what our family has always done and worked towards; however, we started focusing more closely on having specific regenerative management practice plans in place when we partnered with The Nature Trust of BC approximately 30 years ago.

Which regenerative practices did you implement first on the farm? 

Rotational grazing between different pastures and ranges was always done in some manner, but as we were able to grow our land base, we were able to implement this in a more structured way. We now rotate pastures to allow more sensitive areas to rest every other year.

Which regenerative practices have you found have the best ROI? 

Water is such a key area of farming and ranching. Its importance sometimes gets overlooked. Between the various ranges and pastures there are over 100 water developments that are used to water the cattle and manage their grazing patterns. These developments range from a 17,000-foot gravity fed system that we built down a mountain range that has 9 connecting troughs, to simple spring and trough setups, and the use of solar power. Having multiple water sources is key to being able to spread out the cattle over a broader area, leading to less negative impacts and pressure on the grass and riparian areas. In the long run the cattle eat better grass, gain more efficiently, and the sensitive ecosystems around the riparian areas are more protected.

Do you have advice for farmers interested in introducing regenerative practices on their farms? 

Most of what you are already doing to operate is likely geared in a regenerative manner. It’s taking what you’re already doing and making a more committed action plan that you can execute on to make improvements in areas that will benefit you more in the long term than potentially in the immediate term.

Keep in mind that there are always changing factors that will influence how you operate, and you need to be willing to adapt to what makes the most sense at the time and be willing to evolve to continue to move forward.

Do you have any lessons learned you are interested in sharing? 

If you’re willing to look at regenerative opportunities in a positive light versus another make work project, you will experience the long term benefits for sustainability in both an environmental and economical way. The end goal for everyone is the long-term viability of the land.

How is your land being affected by climate change and the increasing prevalence of wildfires? 

In drier years, the grass becomes dormant faster on the lower grazing areas, luckily, we also have higher elevation range that we can move the cattle in to for the second half of the year. Water is always something that we watch very closely as well. There are changes that we make to where the cattle graze based on the accessibility of water that’s available.

Have regenerative practices helped or hindered to reduce the effects of wildfires on your land? 

The cattle graze down the grass so that there’s less potential fuel for the fires. There are actually certain areas that we focus the cattle on grazing more intensely to protect high value areas such as around the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory that sits within our White Lake Basin range.

Werner and Jody Stump own Crystal Lake Ranch which has been in operation for over 64 years in Malakwa, B.C., the traditional territory of the Secwépemc Peoples. Their ranch is 870 acres, of which 340 of those are irrigated.  In addition, they operate on a grazing license that encompasses 194,000 acres.

What drew you to regenerative farming practices?

Improved soil health and water quality are the primary environmental outcomes of regenerative farming practices.  The specific practices that contribute positively to soil health and water quality vary widely but these practices are included to some degree in probably every agriculture operation in BC.  Looking after the land and water are key factors in the sustainability of every agriculture operation.

Which regenerative practices did you implement first on the farm?

Some of the first regenerative practices that we have implemented on our operation include silvopasture management systems, cover cropping, efficient water delivery systems, riparian habitat management, and nutrient re-cycling. 

Which regenerative practice have you found have the best ROI?

So far, the highest economic return we have probably seen is gaining efficiency in our water delivery systems by moving toward pivot irrigation.

Do you have advice for farmers interested in introducing regenerative practices on their farms?

For farmers interested in introducing regenerative practices, I would say that you probably have already included at least one regenerative practice in your operation, because as farmers we are always thinking about the sustainability of our operations.  Sustainability is not defined as a destination, rather it is a continuous process of improvement of practices considering soil, water, air quality and biodiversity.  Our understanding of the inter-relationships of these attributes continuously grows, and so our practices evolve.  Meeting the economic and food security needs of the present while striving to improve the foundational factors that influence agronomic productivity, environmental values and resilience is my definition of sustainability in agriculture.