Fifty farms participate in the cattle for the climate initiative

As soon as Daniel Lajoie puts her feet in the pasture, his cows start. The animals know that the grass will be greener in the neighboring plot. And, in fact, the breeder detaches the electrified cable which serves as a fence, turns a crank and opens the transition to cattle to more tender horizons.

The farm of Mr. Lajoie, the breeding of the small calf, is established in the country hills of Kamouraska, in Bas-Saint-Laurent. When he and his spouse, Isabelle Hudon, bought the earth, in 1998, “there was nothing”. Behind the ancestral house are now a bovine farm of 100 cows and 100 calves, with all the paraphernalia that this implies.

Obviously, breeders always seek to optimize their exploitation. They want their calves to grow quickly and well, in health. Certain practices make the farm more productive, and sometimes, also, less emitting greenhouse gas (GHG) – we know that beef is the strongest carbon protein on our plates. But what are the most beneficial gestures?

Little calf breeding is one of the 50 farms in Quebec (35 cattle breeders, 15 sheep farmers) who participate in a project called “Bovin for the climate” which aims to answer this question. The initiative, which will be deployed over three years, is the greatest effort undertaken in our campaigns to characterize the agricultural practices of bovid and carbon sheep breeders. The key, we hope to find the way for more ecological meat.

“There are lots of things that producers are trying on their farm, but the concrete result is not documented,” explains Elizabeth Lepage, the project coordinator at the Quebec Agriculture Development Council (CDAQ). The Quebec government grants $ 3.5 million to this project which is part of its plan for a 2030 green economy.

The participants, recruited last fall, first had help to carry out their carbon footprint. Then they chose one or more intervention axes – manure, grazing, herd management – where a reduction in GHGs is possible. They now benefit from the help of advisers who take detailed notes on their practices. Soil or manure analyzes complete the portrait.

Some participants are testing new approaches in order to have a more efficient and more sober carbon breeding. Others do as usual, but their personal experiments, being recorded, now contribute to developing knowledge that will benefit all Quebec breeders.

Luzerne, clover, manure

While The duty Accompany Mr. Lajoie in his field, Luzerne clouds exhibit their pretty purple flowers. Plants of the legume family are known to “fix” nitrogen in the air and make it available in the ground. This reduces synthetic fertilizer needs, therefore an economy for the producer, and a reduction in carbon.

In addition, fodder crops break their bushy roots in the ground, which helps to kidnap carbon. No soil work will be done in this meadow for at least a decade, said Mr. Lajoie. “There will be, carbon in the ground!” Exclaims the sympathetic farmer, who wants to reverse the trend of the impoverishment of land.

Later, when the Luzerne is tired, he will disperse clover seeds in this pasture. This technique, which is called “Sursemis”, is one of those studied in the climate project. At Mr. Lajoie as elsewhere, the advisers will try to understand if this Sursemis is worth it.

Little calf farming also participates in the “manure” axis. In a corner of the farm, protected from the river wind by a wooded, is one of the wintering enclosures. The animals spend the coldest months of the year there and, of course, their droppings accumulate there. Each spring, we see an immense heap of excrement, urine and litter.

This summer, the heap is divided into two: half is left in the open air, as usually done for solid manure; The other is covered with a large tarpaulin. “We will measure if there are losses [d’éléments nutritifs] Below the canvas, ”explains Mr. Lajoie, who will spread this manure in the fields later in the season.

In a cattle breeding, the digestion of animals, which generates large quantities of methane (CH₄), is the main GHG emission position. Man management represents another large piece of the balance sheet. “Here, we try to reduce nitrogen losses by volatilization. There is an economic benefit for the producer: the more it keeps nitrogen, the less it will have to buy fertilizers, ”underlines Pierre-Luc Lizotte, an independent researcher associated with the project, who also raises sheep in Saint-Mathieu-de-Rioux.

The tarpaulin protects the pile of manure from the sun, rain and wind. This should reduce ammoniacal volatilization, which, further in the chain of chemical reactions, will prevent the creation of nitrogen oxide (N₂O), a gas 300 times more powerful than CO₂ to warm the atmosphere.

Under the powerful sun in August, Mr. Lizotte pushes a probe – a hollow metallic tube – in the manure of manure to take a sample. Such specimens are collected four times during the season to be analyzed in the laboratory. Mr. Lizotte will take care of statistical analyzes.

Often, research projects monopolize the rare free time of farmers, underlines the agricultural engineer. “This is the opposite. We work for the producer: what can we do to both make our farm more efficient and reduce our GHGs? »»

Over the three years of the project, many meetings will take place with each of the 50 participating producers: some in private, with the regular advisers and the coordinator; Others in groups, to present the conclusions and highlight best practices anonymously.

Agriculture counts for a tenth of Quebec’s GHG emissions. The Legault government has targeted to reduce methane emissions from 6 % farms in 2030 compared to 2017. It will never be possible to bring these emissions to zero, but breeders can make significant gains.

As for consumers, the intergovernmental group of experts in the evolution of the climate (IPCC) recommends them to opt for a “balanced diet, which includes foods of vegetable origin, such as those based on secondary cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and animal foods produced in resilient and durable systems”.

Daniel Lajoie and Isabelle Hudon intend to do well. Both must still work outside the farm to reach both ends, but the company they have built in a quarter of a century will not be retired: among their four children, today adults, there is succession.

It remains to refine the recipe for breeding to measure the challenges of the XXI^e century.

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