Spring lions

March predominantly came in like a lamb, but its promises of spring and an end to pandemic restrictions were eclipsed by international shock, horror, and outrage.

Vladimir Putin trampled over February’s Olympic harmony when he ordered the Russian army to invade Ukraine. More than a million have fled the country and its now-bloodstained homes, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure.

The rabid dictator ignored global condemnation for his actions and threatened to repel any interference with nuclear weapons.

Ukrainians and the innocent Russian people are not the only victims of Putin’s war. Already inflated by the COVID-19 pandemic, energy prices have sky-rocketed, driving up food, grain, and fertilizer prices. Canada has raised interest rates to combat inflation, and the cost of living continues to soar.

But more peace talks are scheduled and there is hope….

Now more than ever, it is vital for farmers to cut production costs. Extended grazing can reduce feed expenditures. That was one of the topics discussed at the Maritime Beef Conference. John Duynisveld and Dean Manning summarized their experiences reducing winter feed expenditures with extended grazing and corn and bale grazing (page 34).

Grazing perennial pasture is less than one-third the cost of feeding hay, Ontario extension specialist Christine O’Reilly told those at the region’s first annual Sheep Industry Conference in Debert, N.S. She joined Perennia extension specialists Shane Wood and Katie Trottier in advising farmers on how to draw profit from their pastures and forage.

Dan Woolley reports on Wood’s recommendations about pasture management and Trottier’s advice on providing proper nutrition and balancing rations in a sheep’s diet (page 24).

Keeping sheep outdoors 24-7 is simply a matter of management, says Darryl Stoltz, who talks with Nicole Kitchener on page 28 about the pasture-based sheep production system used on his family’s farm in Bonshaw, P.E.I.

One of the ways to combat rising (grain and feed) costs is to improve the efficiency of your calf crop, and eventually improve the feed efficiency of your cow herd, Jacy McInnis says. That involves selecting the proper herd sire. She writes about the bulls on test at the Maritime Beef Test Station in

Nappan, N.S., and explains RFI and BIO$, two important bull selection tools (page 22).

Sheep Producers Association of Nova Scotia chairman Joseph Leck says there is a lot of potential for future growth in the sector. He laid out the four priorities of the provincial sheep industry strategy at the association’s annual meeting in November (page 20).

Les Halliday delves into cattle diets in this issue of Atlantic Beef & Sheep. On page 48, he provides some facts producers should know before feeding potatoes and ensiling them with forage.

And on page 38, Don MacLean investigates cattle rustling in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands and the impact it’s having on Margaree Valley producers’ livelihoods.

And should March go out like a lion, let it peacefully limp back to its den.