Sustainable Cattle Ranching on Native Prairie | Box H Farm in Saskatchewan

Box H Farm is owned by Mark and Laura Hoimyr and located near Gladmar in south-central Saskatchewan. We graze beef cattle in the rolling hills on native prairie and tame forages. Besides a cow-calf operation, we also grass-finish cattle and sell directly to consumers.

We practice rotational grazing using a short-duration, non-selective graze followed by a lengthy recovery period. We spend a lot of time on the land observing the impact our of grazing practices and doing our best to learn and improve our management and to build the health of our soil, plants and livestock.

The native prairie ecosystem is a critical part of our farm and a piece of it that value greatly. We feel that multiple strategies are needed to keep Saskatchewan’s remaining prairie intact, to maintain habitat for grassland species and to provide the many other ecosystem services a functioning prairie system can offer. One of these strategies is to value the prairie as a place where Indigenous land users can perform their traditional practices and can share their ancestral knowledge to help us better understand how we can think about and manage our grasslands for future generations.

On May 31, our farm hosted an event for the Treaty Land Sharing Network (TLSN). The TLSN connects farmers and other landholders with First Nations and Métis people needing safe access to land to practice their way of life. Members of the have come together to affirm treaty relationships and to share land for mutual benefit, as treaties always intended. This event, which was organized by TLSN’s Indigenous Advisory Circle, brought together Indigenous elders, harvesters, and knowledge keepers with farmers, ranchers and members of supporting organizations. We began the day with a traditional feast and pipe ceremony, then enjoyed a walk in the native prairie. We felt very lucky to be part of this unique day that brought together indigenous and non-indigenous people who are focused on land stewardship and building relationships. For anyone interesting in learning more about land sharing or the TLSN, their website is a great place to start: https://treatylandsharingnetwork.ca/.

Other projects we’re working on at Box H Farm include converting more barbed-wire fence to electric to manage rotational grazing, improving the diversity in our tame forage stands, and developing water projects to capture precipitation and runoff. We’re also excited to be part of a pilot project with the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundation and Birds Canada called the Bird Friendliness Index. Read more about that here: https://ssgf.ca/program/bird-friendliness-index-pilot-project/.