Sustainable agriculture or farming is about taking care of the land and animals as they continue to benefit from the soil and the crops while also being cognizant of how farming practices affect the environment.

Rachel Charbonneau, an agronomist at Nature Quebec, a charitable organization working to encourage the sustainable use of resources in Quebec, said sustainable farming means “have[ing] the lowest impact on the environment.” It also includes keeping your soil healthy, reducing the . . .

use of pesticides, and fertilizers.

One technique that farmers use that contributes to the health of the soil is a cover crop. Farmers use a plant to help slow down erosion, improve soil health, enhance water availability and increase biodiversity. No-till farming, for example, is a way of not degrading the soil and the earth by the use of heavy machinery, but rather leaving the earth and the living organism in it such as worms and fungi and not disrupting it.

Charbonneau explained one of the major impacts is the use of less fuel which directly impacts the environment and yields better crops.

Some farmers here in Pontiac have been carrying out some of these practices and talked about how being aware of sustainable practices not only directly impacts the environment, but they also do it because it means healthier land and happy animals.

Ben Younge, a third-generation farmer has been learning about farming from his father who learned from his father. Willow Hollow Farms in Shawville was established by the Younge family in 1962, and now Younge and his father, Rick, run the farm together.

“I define sustainable as just treating the land and treating the animals with respect and letting them do their thing.

They have approximately 230 cows on 1,000 acres of land and Younge pointed out that the two work in “harmony” to keep the land healthy. “We use the fertilizer from the cows and the grazing from the cows to improve the quality of the land,” said Younge.

On their farm, they operate a cow-calf operation with a small feedlot. They raise the calves up and whenever they’re done with their mother some of them will sell right away and some of them will be kept for another 10 months or so and then they will be ready for market.

Most recently, they got verified through a program called Verified Beef Production, and what that means is having a rigorous standard of rules to follow when it comes to environmental rules, animal health and different aspects of record-keeping that according to Younge they had been carrying out so the process to get verified did not impact them greatly because “It’s always been in our favour to do it,” said Younge.

Land health is a big part of sustainability, Younge explains, “farming is about the land. So leaving the land in better condition than when you got it [and] just constantly improving it.” One way of doing that is crop rotation, meaning they grow different crops on the land because each of the various crops adds nutrients to the soil which keeps it healthy for longer.

Younge’s grandfather was an “industry leader” he said, “crop rotation, which is something that my grandfather knew about a long time ago, long before we started talking about it, is so valuable towards the land.”

For Younge and his father, he grew up learning sustainable practices to continue his family legacy and believes “you need to be sustainable to be efficient and to be profitable. Eventually, it’ll catch up to you if you try to cut corners.”

Dairy Farmer and owner of Little Red Wagon, Scott Judd highlights how farming has changed over the generations and what may have worked in the past as time went on farmers continue to change their practices to improve their harvest.

One example is the use of the moldboard plow, and how using it breaks the earth down too much, which leads to erosion and more runoff. “It’s kind of interesting to see that change, we’ve seen tractors get bigger to make life easier. And now tractors are starting to get smaller again with the onslaught of electric tractors coming on now and robotic tractors coming on now in the future.” He continues to explain that with less tillage, less carbon is being released into the air.

As fuel prices get higher, farmers are using their tractors less, which means you are tilling your soil less, and so Judd said, “working smarter in the field, you’re being more environmentally friendly.”

Judd points out that farmers continue to improve their practices and change with time and improve the ways they farm. “To progress in agriculture is a way of being sustainable,” he said. Sustainability, Judd explains, is not being afraid of change and constantly advancing your own practices and seeing what new things are being done.

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