Celebrating Environmental Stewardship: Ferme Guayclair Inc.

Updated: Jul 19, 2022

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) is pleased to feature the provincial stewardship award recipients nominated for 2022 The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA). The recipient of the CCA’s national award will be announced during the Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Penticton, British Columbia, August 16-18, 2022.

For 26 years, recipients have shared their stories, insights, beliefs, and values, so Canadians can get a glimpse into the care and commitment that is taken to raise cattle, while protecting and enhancing the environment.

In this issue, we feature the Quebec Cattle Producers Environmental Stewardship Award recipient, Ferme Guayclair Inc.

Quebec Environmental Stewardship recipient working to make a difference

By Lee Hart

Stéphane Guay produces beef and cash crops on his farm in southwest Quebec, but there is so much more happening on this 400 acre regenerative agriculture operation he's been developing over the past few years.

Yes there are cattle and crops, but they're just part of a diversified farming operation that includes a wide range of practices aimed at reducing the farm's environmental footprint, improving animal welfare, increasing biological biodiversity, improving soil health, and increasing public awareness of sustainable farming practices.

His efforts to develop Ferme Guayclair Inc. with a holistic farming approach, earned him recognition earlier this year as the Quebec Cattle Producers Environmental Stewardship Award recipient. Stéphane will now move forward as the Quebec nominee to the national The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA) through the Canadian Cattleman's Association. Ferme Guayclair is located at Brownsburg-Chatham about 100 km northwest of Montreal.

"As I began farming, I wanted to do things differently than everyone else," says Stéphane, who started out with a dairy farm and cash crops in 2004 before transitioning to the beef/cash crop operation in 2019. His approach is to apply a wide range of livestock and crop management practices that complement each other and benefit the environment.

Stéphane runs an 85 head crossbred cow-calf operation, with all calves finished on the farm, processed at a local federally inspected abattoir, with the beef marketed through an on-farm retail outlet, as well as farmers' markets.

The cattle spend most of their year in an intensively managed rotational grazing system that begins with calving out on pasture in late May and June and continues with grazing a wide range of perennial and annual forages, and crop residue right through to mid to late December "maybe someday even into January," before being moved indoors for the remainder of the winter feeding program.

That beef management program itself is a departure from a more common practice of feeding beef animals indoors and/or in a feed yard. "Again, I wanted to do something different," he says. "I believe it is better for the animals if they can be out on pasture. I like seeing them out on pasture and so many people who come by the farm like to see them out as well." Also, running cattle on pasture essentially seven months of the year is a much more efficient way of returning nutrients (manure and urine) to the soil.

Looking at crops, Stéphane produces about 217 acres of annual cash crops including corn, soybeans and wheat. There are about 52 acres of perennial pasture, another 37 acres of annual pasture and 96 acres of hayland. He's adopted a regenerative agriculture approach. Key elements involve zero till cropping practices, increasing plant biodiversity, and working to keep some type of crop or vegetative material green and growing on the soil at all times right up until freeze up.

Hay and pastureland are seeded to perennial forages. He uses a number of different crop species for annual pasture as well as for intercropping and cover cropping.

The 37 acres of annual pasture are seeded to two different blends. About half the area is seeded to a cover crop blend that includes, oats, peas, sunn hemp, sunflower, crimson clover, lablab (a forage legume that grows similar to sweet pea), and radish.

"Everything in the blend has a purpose," says Stéphane. "There are several different rooting structures, there are legumes to feed the soil, and flowering species that benefit pollinators and they all produce feed for cattle."

The other half of the annual pasture is seeded to a blend, often just the leftovers from the spring seeding operations. That could include a combination of soybeans, corn, oats, and wheat.

"I am just learning as I go and there isn't a lot of research, so I try different combinations, run my own trials to see what might work," he says.

Cover crops fit into the program as wheat and soybeans are harvested. As the wheat is combined in August, he seeds a similar seven-species forage blend as he used in the first annual pasture mix, but he also adds some pearl millet. As soybeans are harvested a bit later, he is looking for cover crops that are faster growing and can also fix nitrogen (those soybean acres will be seeded to corn and wheat the following season). The cover crop following soybeans can include peas, clover, hairy vetch, and oats.

On the corn acres, he uses an intercrop blend. After the corn is seeded on 30 inch rows and established, he comes back when the corn is at the four to five leaf stage and seeds a blend of crimson clover, annual rye grass, and tillage radish between the corn rows.

"The idea is to keep something green and growing on these acres right through to the end of the growing season," he says. "Above ground these crops are producing feed for cattle and below ground they feeding the soil microbes — helping to build the soil." While his earlier farming practices included tillage, soil organic matter declined. Since he switched to zero till soil organic matter is beginning to rebuild.

The cows calve on pasture in late May and June, with the rotational grazing season usually starting on permanent pasture around June 1. Depending on the growing season, the cowherd is moved into new grazing usually every day. Stéphane actually manages two grazing herds. The cow-calf pairs move through pastures first, while the herd of yearlings follow behind about 30 days later.

"The actual move interval depends on the animals and the growing conditions," says Stéphane. "I want to make sure forages have a chance to recover before they are grazed again. "Depending on the growing season cattle may move through the rotation three or four times during the year.

The basic grazing plan is to start on the perennial pastures, move into the annual pastures later in the summer, and then the cover crop and intercrop seedings in the fall. Hopefully the forage supply will allow cattle to remain on pasture until at least late December.

But there are many other aspects to Stéphane 's regenerative agriculture plan. He established a Food Forest on the farm. It's about a three-acre parcel seeded to a variety of tree seedlings. There are deciduous species, along with fruit trees such as apple, pear and plum, and species he will replant in areas of the farm to serve as shelterbelts, windbreaks, and wildlife habitat. He also planted an area for raspberries and pumpkins are seeded to help control weeds. The Food Forest is multipurpose. It will produce trees that can be replanted on the farm, it serves a nursery producing tree stock that can be sold to area residents and it will also produce fruit species to be used for a u-pick operation.

While he is holding off on pasture poultry this year until the avian flu risk has passed, he does run pasture poultry on parts of the farm including the Food Forest. The poultry feed on grass, their droppings add nutrients to the soil, and they eat insect pests that can infect fruit trees and crops.

Stéphane has introduced birdhouses on the farm to attract swallows and bluebirds — species that also help with insect pest control. He has established grassed waterways on annual cropland to reduce the risk of soil erosion. With perennial forage species such as forage plantain and chicory their natural compounds help to boost the natural immunity system of livestock so he's been able to eliminate the use of chemical treatments for parasite control. With no chemical residue in the manure that encourages dung beetles to feed and return nutrients to the soil.

With the retail outlet, Stéphane always welcomes visitors to the farm so they can learn about agriculture, and he also hosts tours for other farmers to show what practices he is using. "It is important to share our experiences and we can learn from each other," says Stéphane.

While the business of Ferme Guayclair is to be a profitable operation to produce crops and beef, Stéphane says the broader, long-term plan is to improve soil health and to benefit the environment. "It is a whole systems approach," he says. "It is a circle — each aspect of the farming operation works with and benefits another."

With several conservation measures being applied, Stéphane wants the farm to become carbon neutral within the next three years, thereby making a difference in the drive towards more sustainable agriculture.

Learn more about TESA

In celebration of TESA’s 25th anniversary in 2021, CCA checked in with some of the outstanding farmers and ranchers from across the country who have been recognized as past recipients. Learn more about their stories in the short video below.