Marie-Pier Landry, an agronomist and a project manager for perennial forage crops and regenerative agriculture at the Centre d’Innovation Agricole, spoke at the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association’s (CFGA) 16th Annual Conference: Greener Horizons: Technological Innovations in Forage and Grassland Management. The conference took place Nov. 18 to 21 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and was organized in partnership with the New Brunswick Soil and Crop Improvement Association (NBSCIA). 
 
Marie-Pier brought pasture planning into a new light by comparing pasture development to developing a winning hockey team. Like each player on the ice, each plant species plays an important role in keeping a pasture strong throughout the season, year after year. 
 
The first step to having a winning team is to make good choices during the draft, followed by new approaches in coaching and then new strategies on the ice. She said if the team starts off performing well in the beginning of the season, but starts to slow down later in the season, it signals the need to plan for the team’s evolution over the year. A strong team starts with good players and a long-term strategy and that applies to building a resilient pasture as well. 
 
Building a strong pasture, begins with a soil analysis, she said. “There are problems with acidic soil, we need correct this by strategically applying lime.”  
 
The soil analysis will tell producers if their soil pH is not optimal and if they’re missing phosphorus or something else. Once the soil is optimized, she says to next focus on water. Are there areas where drainage corrections are needed or places where a water hole makes sense? The type of soil makes a difference to the types of plants which will eventually grow there. 
 
Plant selection will vary depending on the region, the soil types, the livestock being grazed. “In this situation we do this and then in that situation we do that; it depends,” she explained. 
 
Regardless of the situation, selecting the right number of “players” for you team is important. For a resilient pasture that will withstand the challenges created by the changing seasons, the optimal number is between four to six species. Choosing the six species can be challenging as it depends on the region, the livestock and grazing goals. Marie-Pier said this could include alfalfa and fescue brome grasses, which are all good choices. The seed catalog has many good varieties from which to choose. 
 
It’s important to recognize you need to manage for the entire season and balance within the plant mix based on the soil makeup which can impact how some species grow. You may need to select species which are more drought tolerant and which will perform throughout the growth season and the overall pasture season. 
 
“There are species like fava which work well in the spring, but may not do well through a drought, but it has advantages for the spring” she said. “Brome grass and fescue work well in warm periods, rye grass works well for the end of the season; it will grow at lower temperatures.” 
 
She highlighted white clover, timothy grass and meadow grass as players that will be there long-term. Clovers will flower and spread quickly, which is less costly than purchasing new seed.  
 
“Planning the evolution over the year, you have to select players who will perform quickly, develop the soil structure and build stability over time. That’s where meadow grasses and canary grasses can play a part.” 
 
She added early season overseeding, sometimes by drone or by four-wheeler, can help fill in the holes and get pastures off to strong start. 
 
She also stressed it’s important to look at the team before the season starts and to plan to different issues. 
 
“If it’s going to rain a lot, for example, you need to know beforehand which plot will work or which will work if its very, very dry. Can you stockpile? Can you bale graze?” she said. “Maybe you won’t need to put that plan into action, but it’s better to have it and be resilient over the long term.” 
 
She said part of the role of the “coach” is to understand how the different species work, which ones establish quickly, which have deeper roots, which do well under adverse conditions. “If we continue thinking about our pasture mix as a hocky team, we’ll have better pastures, we’ll be able to sequester carbon and we’ll have an industry that is respected by our consumers, because we act in a way they find correct.” 
 
2025 conference recordings   
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