Dr. Angela Straathof is the director of research and knowledge transfer at the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), she presented at the CFGA’s 15th Annual Conference, Roots to Success: The Foundation of Resilient Agriculture, in Guelph, Ontario in December. 

As the lead of a team responsible for delivering on-farm research trials, Angela reviewed some of the key programs OSCIA delivers in partnership with the Agricultural Climate Solutions’ On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) and Living Lab programs. Her talk looked at both successes and lessons learned. 
 
OSCIA is a farmer-centric organization. Angela said the learnings from Ontario can be extended to other parts of the country and vice-versa as the Ontario grasslands are just one key part of grasslands (which are a national network and a national resource). 
 
The presentation focused on some of the OSCIA’s grassroots research including a collaborative project delivered in partnership with the Thunder Bay Community Pastures, the Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance and the Living Labs Ontario program, looking at the effects of rotational grazing on a community pasture. 
 
Angela focused on some of the challenges such as repeatability and data collection over multi-year projects located on working farms. She says it’s critical to build viable and mutually respectful relationships with the farmer cooperators. One way to help improve data collection is to provide templates, specific directions and support. 
 
“You go and sit at a kitchen table with them and get more insight into their units, more insight into the terminology that they’re using, which might be different across different commodities… and we love those connections with farmers.” 
 
Angela says they recognize there are lot of economic and financial barriers to implementing the practices by producers, adding it makes it very rewarding when they talk about their experience with other producers and continue using them on their operations. 
 
Angela addresses several specific programs including Species at Risk Farm Incentive Program, OFCAF and Ontario’s Habitat Biodiversity & Assessment Tool. 
 
She also touched on the fact that there are many overlapping programs offered by different organizations which can be a challenge and an opportunity to meet the needs of grazers and forage producers in Ontario. 

2024 conference recordings   
To hear all of this presentation, you can purchase access to it, and all of the recordings from the 2024 conference proceedings. Note, the recordings are available for free to those who registered for the 2024 conference. For more information, email [email protected] 
 
Save the date for the CFGA’s 2025 conference 
The CFGA’s 16th Annual Conference will take place Nov. 18 to 21 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The conference is being organized in partnership with the CFGA provincial partner the New Brunswick Soil and Crop Improvement Association (NBSCIA). The theme is Greener Horizons: Technological Innovations in Forage and Grassland Management and the event will include pre-conference workshops, two days of presentations and a not-to-be-missed post conference tour to several New Brunswick farms. More details coming soon.