OFCAF Announcement and Upcoming Winter OFCAF Events

  Hello folks and happy snowstorm to you all, If you are looking for some winter learning opportunities, we have been teaming up with local industry groups to support sessions related to the three beneficial management practices of OFCAF. Also, as you may have heard, OFCAF has been announced for another three years! With this announcement, our team and AAFC are working hard to update the program requirements for the 2025 - 2026 year. Applications

2025-02-13T18:13:20+00:00February 13, 2025|Categories: Cover Crops, Nitrogen Management, OFCAF, Rotational Grazing|

You are Invited to the OFCAF Field Day!

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying these beautiful late summer days. The Perennia Ag Services team is hosting a Field Day for the OFCAF BMPs. Our extension team will showcase six demonstration plots including intercropping legumes in corn, forage recovery, understanding marigolds as a cover crop and more. This is a great opportunity to receive your OFCAF education credits or CCA credits and chat with our team about the BMPs. There are also a

2024-09-11T13:37:41+00:00September 11, 2024|Categories: Cover Crops, Nitrogen Management, OFCAF, Rotational Grazing|

Application Update April 2024

The OFCAF application deadline for the Spring 2024 intake will be closing April 12th, 2024. This is a reminder to folks to fully complete and send their application by this Friday For any questions around the three beneficial management practices and applying them to your farm contact Georgia Lewis at glewis@perennia.ca or 902-670-9655 For questions surrounding the application itself and eligible criteria contact Helene Arenburg at harenburg@perennia.ca or Sarah Wood at swood@perennia.ca We are looking

2024-04-08T15:17:53+00:00April 8, 2024|Categories: Cover Crops, Nitrogen Management, OFCAF, Rotational Grazing, Uncategorized|

A Brief Introduction and Update

  Happy Friday Folks  As this is my first blog post, please allow me to introduce myself as the new OFCAF team member here at Perennia, my name is Georgia Lewis.  I grew up in Kingston, Nova Scotia and graduated from the NSAC in 2014. I am very excited to be part of the Perennia team and to be working hand in hand with farmers and industry within our Atlantic region.  Last weekend I was

2023-11-27T18:13:00+00:00November 24, 2023|Categories: Climate Change, Cover Crops, Nitrogen Management, OFCAF|

Best Management Practices in Greenhouse Soils with Judson Reid

Judson Reid from Cornell University and Talia Plaskett, Perennia's Protected Crops Specialist, will be making the rounds in Nova Scotia July 3-July 5 for farmer-guided discussions on soil health in tunnel spaces! These sessions will be primarily focused around nitrogen management, and the crucial considerations to make when selecting nutrient inputs to make sure that we are supporting a healthy and resilient soil system, as well as maximizing the productivity on our target crops. This

2023-06-22T16:48:55+00:00June 22, 2023|Categories: Cover Crops, Nitrogen Management|

Check out some of our new educational materials!

We have had a busy winter!  There are lots of great new resources that have been developed over the last several months to help further your journey in cover cropping, nitrogen management, and rotational grazing.  You can find all of this on our OFCAF website and on Perennia's YouTube channel, but here is a rundown of what you may have missed!Some great instructional YouTube videos featuring farmers and Perennia Specialists: Frost Seeding Red Clover into

Terminating cover crops with herbicides

When implementing cover crops into a crop rotation, it is important that the cover crop doesn't then become a weed!  For farms that use herbicides, check out this excellent article on considerations for cover crop species selection and termination, written by Purdue University.  (Note that this is an American publication, and you should check the Health Canada website before using any products to ensure that it is registered in Canada and that you are

2022-08-10T14:31:32+00:00April 10, 2023|Categories: Cover Crops|

The effect of residual herbicides on cover crop establishment

Last winter, in a Horticulture Nova Scotia Research and Advisory committee meeting, we were discussing the effect of residual herbicides on cover crop establishment.  Very good tables are available on the residual effects of herbicides used in field crops on cover crop establishment, but many of the horticultural herbicides are not include in these tables. In order to answer the question: “Which cover crops are best suited to be planted after commonly used horticultural residual

2023-01-17T18:49:25+00:00January 17, 2023|Categories: Cover Crops, Uncategorized|Tags: , |

Calibrating a Broadcast Seeder

Frost seeding is a good way to improve a pasture or for seeding cover crops. A handheld broadcaster or a broadcaster mounted on an ATV is an easy way to get the job done. If you are thinking of trying frost seeding with a broadcaster for the first time you should know that calibrating your broadcaster is a really good idea, just like you would do for your seeders and sprayers. Calibration will ensure

2023-01-17T19:31:33+00:00January 9, 2023|Categories: Cover Crops, OFCAF|Tags: |

How much soil in the Annapolis Valley will be covered this winter?

Cover crops can provide a huge variety of advantages, reducing soil erosion, improving soil structure and drainage, capturing atmospheric carbon, and more!  We have had a remarkably warm and open winter in Nova Scotia this year and having a cover crop in place is imperative to protect your soil.  We have made some great strides with increasing the acres in cover crops over the past several years, but it is not time to rest on

2023-01-03T14:18:43+00:00January 3, 2023|Categories: Cover Crops, OFCAF|
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