Discussions

CBC Headline From 27 August 2022: Swimmers told to stay out of the water at Ninette Beach due to high toxic algae levels.  
 
This continues to be a massive problem that we can't seem to get resolved. This happens every single year, and this should have never gotten to this point. It is not fair to the people of Westman, and it is not fair to the recreational cottage owners at this (and other) Manitoba lakes. As somebody who is regularly affected by toxic algae blooms, I would really like to see government get pick up their responsibilities and get to the root cause of this problem. This has gotten completely out of control. This has gone on for far too long, and way too many people are affected, too frequently.  
 
I don't think people really understand what is possible. I'm not saying it needs to be perfect, but I have personally travelled to several parts of the globe not much different than Canada (in this case, Patagonian region of Argentina and Chile) where you can literally scoop a cup of water straight out of the lakes and drink it. And not only can you do this, but it is regularly encouraged, and not only by the people that live in these areas, but by government. I have spent literally months in these areas not even needing to consider where I can get drinking water from, when you drink it straight out of the lakes without any fear of health problems.  
 
Come to Canada, and you can expect that you won't even be able to touch or swim in this toxic sludge, even on a good day. That is the difference between where we are at, and where things could be.  
 
Argentina is known globally to be among the most successful beef producers in the world . Argentina has a thriving agriculture industry. But the difference seems to be that they manage their water resources with the respect that it deserves, and here in Canada (a very comparable country) there is a complete disconnect between what the people think of this resource, and how they manage waste and nutrient inputs on the land.  
 
Seeing this week what has happened to Pelican Lake, I know that we can do better. And I would think that leadership starts with government. There has got to be a better balance of interests, between what we currently have, and what is actually possible:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ninette-beach-algae-advisory-1.6564338

Bales of barley straw added to lake water will prevent growth of algae.

Maybe. Problem is that that Pelican lake is 18 km long and 2 km wide. And Lake Winnipeg is 400 km long and maybe 100 wide.  
 
Interesting read though:  
 
https://extension.psu.edu/barley-straw-for-algae-control

Frankly you can not compare beef production in Argentina to that in Western Canada.  
Argentina is widely known as a low cost producer of poor quality beef product produced under poor animal welfare by animals in poor physical condition and poor environmental conditions with little regulation.  
While I agree that habitat must not be subject to pollution or degradation I feel that in farmers you are pointing the finger of blame largely at the wrong people. It is completely not in our interest to pollute and it is very much in our interest to promote improved soil health and biodiversity while producing healthy and nutritious food in the abundance to which you have become accustomed. Remember successive generations have to make our living from the land that we own and no one is making any more of it. Huge improvements in Western Canada have been made in recent years to use nutrients more efficiently, to improve soil health, increase soil water holding capacity and increase organic matter while reducing soil erosion and our understanding of these ecosystems is improving dramatically.  
While some have their feet up by the lake we are out here improving ourselves and working to improve the environment whilst we struggle to get by financially.

Sorry Farmergeorge. https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/argentinian-steak-best-world/  
 
If you don’t like this link, search it and see what the world says.  
 
Putting my feet up by the lake is something I should be able to do. If farm runoff is killing the lake, it’s time to start thinking about solutions.  
 
Edited by loeog, 2022-08-27 18:23:21

Is it farm run off? What role does human effluent play in Pelican Lake?  
 
Lake Winnipeg gets a lot of raw sewage dumped in from the city, basically every time it rains. It's convenient to blame farmers, but you have to wonder.  
 
Also, what role does intact wetlands plat in absorbing excess nutrients? What is the status of the wetlands in places like Ninette? What are the wetlands like in Argentina?

The top 2 issues are:  
That external nutrient fluxes into the lake were strongly linked to surface hydrology, suggesting that increased rainfall associated with climate variability or climate change has strongly contributed to nutrient inputs to prairie lakes in recent years.  
2. Variation in nutrient concentrations was high between the tributaries that drained the lakes sub-catchments, suggesting the potential for management of land use or morphology (e.g., hill slope stabilization) to reduce external nutrient loads.  
 
Here is a link to 1 of the studies.  
https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/manitoba-prairie-lakes-mass-pelican-lake.pdf

It's true that raw sewage is an issue, but it's an issue that many cities have been tackling. Having said that, it's pretty well known and understood that farm runoff, usually from fertilized fields, is a significant contributor to algae blooms in lakes.  
 
Here's but one article about this issue from Ontario.  
 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/algae-blooms-farmland-new-wave-1.5071577  
 
The city of Winnipeg has been making efforts to reduce the impact of sewage. In number 3 of the FAQ on this page they mention that agricultural runoff is a problem for Lake Winnipeg.  
 
https://winnipeg.ca/waterandwaste/sewage/ProtectingOurWaterways/index.stm#3  
 
With all the fertilizer used in agriculture, some is absolutely going to end up in the watershed, and it will serve as nutrients to algae, promoting its growth in lakes.  
 
Edited by JosephC, 2022-08-27 19:19:49

The industry is constantly striving towards and implementing real, practical and effective solutions that improve soil health, water quality and sustainability.  
Every time poorly informed blame is laid upon family businesses another family quits the land , their knowledge of the environment around them built over generations is lost and a rural community becomes less viable. We are out here  
Creating and implementing new and exciting solutions which will improve the environment and help society.  
What did you do today and are you doing your part? Because if you are not working towards proven solutions as we are then you are part of the problem.  
The sustainability and quality of Argentinian beef and their animals is subjective, open to question and very much against the ethos of local food production from small family farm businesses.  
Lastly of course you have the right to relax by the lake, you have earned it, I have to make a living on my land and I have property taxes to pay as well.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-08-27 19:39:51

Safe fertilizer application is less a question regarding quantity and more a need to find the correct balance of nutrients. If three layer multiple position soil testing is properly carried out and analyzed in a good soil testing laboratory a good independent agronomist (who does not sell product) can formulate a specific fertilizer plan for each field which uses the correct balance of macro and micro nutrients that ensures efficient plant uptake, growth and utilization therefore reducing the risk of nutrient overload, waste and leaching into groundwater. This is carried out on every field on my small farm every year with the advantages of minimizing applied fertilizer costs and quantity required and provides us with a multi year documented and accessible history of nutrients present in each layer, organic matter and cation exchange capacity.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-08-27 21:43:06

of soil testing, or anything else, is going to stop the flow of fertilizer into lakes and streams, when four or five inch down pours are common . The spring melt, and the run off from cattle sheds draining into streams and rivers, cant be stopped, until they are eliminated. The attitude, its not not me polluting ,its the other guy has to change. The Duck Mountains lakes don't have this issue with toxic algae, as they don't have fertilizer, or cattle waste running into them.

A typically stupid and misinformed comment from you.  
The attitude is that we are changing our industry for the better, we are improving practices, methods and application, we are increasing efficiency and we have the documentation and approval from leading conservation groups and watershed authorities that back up and prove this. Many projects and changes of practice are being implemented to hold back and retain water and nutrients and a big unseen part of that is improving soil water holding capacity which not only reduces runoff and pollution but makes our land more capable of withstanding extreme weather events while sustaining families and responsible food production.  
So my advice is get yourself educated on the facts and peer reviewed scientific research and start to make positive change as Canadian agriculture is doing already and has been for a good number of years.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-08-28 09:16:33

CBC Headline From 27 August 2022: Swimmers told to stay out of the water at Ninette Beach due to high toxic algae levels.

And yet there is little evidence showing the cause.  
Answer me this . My dugouts and lakes on my land remain algae free. During spring runoff our largest lake is fed directly by runoff that goes through my farm yard. That lake and the water from it pumped to pasture water bowls remains algae free.  
Another pasture has water bowls fed by water pumped from a deep underground well. The water in those bowls grows algae which I have to remove.  
This suggests that water pumped from deep underground contains far more nutrients probably from natural mineral deposits than that fed by surface runoff.  
Until you understand the movement of nutrients through soil profiles , their availability to plant uptake and the interaction of nutrients with each other one cannot begin to comprehend this important and complicated subject.

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-algal-bloom.php

Excellent link, enjoyed the read, nice to see an article that doesn’t just focus on one group.  
Phosphorus in its different forms is the eleventh most common element in the earths crust, some is water soluble some is not, so erosion along rivers and stream is also able to increase levels. If plant growth along any body of water increases, and then those plants die and decompose, water flowing over that area will pick up both phosphates and nitrates

There seems to be some a fair amount of evidence that there is significant nutrient loading - specifically phosphorus - happening in groundwater, so your well pumped water is likely contaminated from unused fertilizer once applied to your farm, and so when you pump this up it is highly concentrated phosphorus that is causing the algae problem in your water bowls.  
 
You have suggested that "water pumped from deep underground contains far more nutrients probably from natural mineral deposits than that fed by surface runoff." While I agree that your groundwater likely contains "far more nutrients" I disagree with your comment that it is "probably (caused) from natural mineral deposits than that fed by surface runoff."  
 
Think about it ... when your agronomist (independent or otherwise) comes to your field and tests 3 or four different soil depths likely up to 24" in depth, they are making recommendations for you to apply fertilizer for maximum theoretical uptake by plants. But you have assumed that the plants actually uptake 100% of these nutrients, which is clearly false. We know that this does not happen in the real world. So then we might conclude that any unused fertilizer would stay in the root zone until the following year's crop when it would be topped up again, based on the next year's soil testing results.  
 
But let's face it. What happens when rainfall comes down and hits your field? The rain proceeds to saturate the soil, and anything in excess turns into surface runoff. This happens not only during periods of medium to high rainfall, but it also happens in the spring during snowmelt.  
 
But how does groundwater get there? What replenishes these aquifers? It is water that has penetrated the surface layer and has drained through that soil and become part of that aquafer. And we know that fertilizer readily dilutes in water, so we should be able to rationalize that water that reaches the aquifer is not 100 percent oxygen and hydrogen (H2O). It contains dissolved solids including nutrients, minerals, other micronutrients and likely even components of some chemicals. So once these nutrients reach the aquifer where are they to go? Probably nowhere. The only place for these nutrients is for their concentrations to increase until they are removed through, in your case, your deep water well.  
 
I would suggest here that the source of high nutrient groundwater is not a natural phenomenon, but the result of fertilizer practices in which practices have increased the levels of these nutrients all throughout the soil profile, including the aquifer zone where you source some of this water. It only makes sense. If it is unused, it has to go somewhere, and water is the only transport molecule that is going to allow it to reach these areas.  
 
It would be interesting to know if you could test your groundwater to determine your phosphorous content, and then somehow use this groundwater as a nutrient source to see what happens. But I would imagine that the soil profile is likely filled with unused nutrients, so it could take a very long time to use up these nutrients that were bought and paid for at one point in the past, and never used as a plant input.  
 
I did a bit of searching into nutrient contamination of groundwater, but most of the studies I came across seemed to be inconclusive. Some of the studies tried to use both modelling and tracer chemicals to monitor groundwater flow paths, but obviously this type of study can also get very complicated as there are also various forms of nitrogen including nitrite and nitrate. What most of what I have come across seems to suggest an accumulation of phosphorus in groundwater sources, which is often the limiting nutrient causing surface algal blooms.  
 
My gut tells me that over decades of applying fertilizer, we have likely saturated a much deeper soil profile that what gets tested annually by agronomists. And it is likely a combination of this, and everything else including wetland reductions, that have led us to where we are today with the health of our lakes and waterways. Throw in climate change and heavier down pours that cause surface runoff, and we have likely lost control of how these nutrients are being used.  
 
While everybody is focused on testing soil and supplementing the root zone, no assessment ever considers that there is never 100% uptake by plants, and anything below the first few feet depth of soil is never considered. But it makes no sense that we can apply these nutrients to the soil and think that we are in full control of where it ends up.  
 
An interesting article I came across suggested that recent installation of drainage tile in fields likely picks up nutrients that have seeped in from the root zone by dissolving in water, and that this high nutrient water is then being quickly transported off the field and into the rivers and lakes, being a significant cause of eutrophication through this simple mechanism, which I can see to be highly probable.  
 
Lots of scenarios. But the bottom line is that there is a problem. And the problem isn't just for the cottage owners affected by toxic algae blooms, but this is a problem for the farmer who is spending high amounts of inputs for his field, that simply are not getting used in plant growth. I think we need an assessment of everything, and try to get some better control over where we are at, and this likely starts with retaining wetlands, preventing surface run-off, and looking at past and current practices including drainage. Does anybody with field drainage bother to test the amount of nutrients that could be being removed through this simple mechanism?

Core samples done on Killarney lake showed that it was subject to algae blooms for thousands of years. Our rich soils are naturally nutrient rich. Do things like farm runoff, residential fertilizer use etc contribute? Sure. But lakes in this landscape have never been crystal clear.

Our well water is tested and safe to drink for humans so another of your theories is blown out of the water.  
Tile drainage is particularly rare in this area being so expensive to install, in any case nutrients from such a drain system as with sewage can easily be removed through the use of man made reed beds which should be used in such situations.  
This is pothole country so we prefer to allow the sloughs, native grassland and bush do it’s natural thing and retain water for times of drought. This is why ruminant livestock play a key role in preserving these areas and completing the carbon cycle and putting nutrients back into the soil improving its structure. Believe me, where cattle disappear I am seeing bush pushed and native grass ploughed under for crop production on marginal land, that is not at all the right way to approach this  
Again many seem unable to understand our monitoring through soil testing of Cation Exchange Capacity and it’s relationship in binding soil water and nutrients to soil particles thus preventing leaching and nutrient loss and improving sustainability through drought.  
I prefer to trust the facts of peer reviewed and independent soil science and I prefer this work to be carried out for me by professionals who understand the interaction of nutrients, who can understand a tissue test and determine that applied nutrients are used by the crop and prevent me from wasting product, money and causing environmental damage and can help me to improve efficiency while building a sustainable business. So no I don’t accept that I am losing applied nutrients because I have the data and tissue testing that shows otherwise and proves efficient nutrient uptake and is backed up by soil tests in the next fall. I work within my surroundings in a responsible manner encouraging increased biodiversity, increased animal, plant and insect life while building our soil shown by increasing organic matter and microbes.  
Everyone has a part to play in this one way or another and it is only by establishing fact through peer reviewed science that we can move forward in a constructive manner.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-08-29 07:52:25

Having spoken to someone fairly agriculturally focused about this, it strikes me that many farmers are fairly responsible when it comes to this area. They just can’t help inclement weather events, and the fact that there are far fewer of them to make their points heard. Verses the far louder crowd of primarily city dwellers making judgements based on flawed (if not entirely incorrect) information and assumptions.  
 
Though I can’t speak for any other cities in the Lake Winnipeg watershed, I know for a fact that Winnipeg (one of the larger contributors or pollution to the lake) has needed upgrades to their treatment systems for at least a decade. And they keep kicking the can down the road, even though inflation will only get worse. And climate change is only going to make spillage events more frequent.  
 
I don’t know what the fines aught to be. But clearly they aren’t enough to make away the “not my problem” aspect to this situation.

On our farm we do no not use any "cides".  
Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc. We also do not use any chemical fertilizer.  
Our animals are herbivores therefore we do not feed them any grain at all. We are selling our product as "grass-fed".  
Please remember the slogan: "It is not the cow, it is the how."  
I am not a grain farmer and do not own any workable acres. But I see and smell what my grain farming neighbors are doing on their land. I am NOT happy about it. There are a current small minority of crop farmers out there who are not using any "cides" on their crop fields at all! They are also not using any fertilizer at all. Their method of fertilizing their land is either cover crops or animal input BUT the most successful ones are using both , cover crops grazed down by cows. The poster boy for this way of crop farming is Gabe Brown from North Dakota.  
 
The problem is that like everybody else farmers are also reluctant to try new things. Farmers are also pointing out Regenerative farming will not work on their specific farm! This is in contrast with professor doctor Elaine Ingham from Australia a soil microbiologist who are consulting farmers all over the globe. Thus far she has not found a single place, including the Canadian Prairies where Regenerative farming is NOT working.  
Nitrogen is the most abundant substance in the air and it is free! Farmers can use biology (living critters) to add Nitrogen for free in their soils. This Nitrogen derived from biology does not contaminate surface and or ground water.  
Dr. Elaine Ingham also could not find a single farm in the whole world including the Prairies where there are not enough phosphate in the soil. BUT the soil needs biology to make phosphate in the soil water soluble so that the plants can take it up.  
There is a better way and I am looking forward to the day when ALL farmers are part of the solution and not contributing to the problem.  
 
Now shoot me!

So a couple of questions here from another cow/calf operator.  
Bearing in mind that there is no grass to be grazed in Manitoba during the winter period.  
Where does your winter feed come from and how is your winter feed ration made up?  
Where does your straw or other product for winter bedding come from?  
While it is true that feeding excessive amounts of grain can be harmful do you accept that some grain fed as part of a complete balanced winter ration helps the cows rumen digest better and utilize other feeds and water more efficiently?  
Do you accept that Some nutrients are not soil mobile so for optimum plant uptake they either need balancing with other macro and micro nutrients or additional nutrients added. Also any piece of land can never produce all nutrients removed without additional nutrients in one form or another being added be that in organic or prepared form. The failure to do so would effectively cause mining of soil nutrients causing harm and destroy soil structure.

It’s exactly this inability to answer simple questions with science based answers derived from repeatable measured data that has consumers , the public and politicians confused about different agricultural systems.  
There an old adage in agriculture and it applies to all business. ‘You can’t control what you don’t measure’. This is why consistent annual soil testing and plant tissue testing along with professional analysis is so important. This way a producer knows what is happening in their soil, how their crop is growing and using nutrients and what is left in the soil. I know what is there , what I apply, where it’s going and how it’s being used. I also know why I’m applying each specific product, the quantity, how it interacts with other nutrients and the position that each product is placed in the soil or on the leaf. In the future this measured and recorded information will become a requirement prior to making nutrient or manure applications and will serve to help us grow more efficient , nutritious and more climate resilient crops using less water and creating less waste.

Farmer George your right nobody goes out and over fertilizes. But yes you apply for the crop your hoping to get but Mother Nature still holds the cards. If it don’t rain then yes there’s gonna be nutrients left in the soil. But algae bloom has been tied to phosphate so who uses the phosphate farmers. So let’s just blame it on the farmers the media says it’s the farmers so must be their fault. I shared a link that lists all the causes of algae bloom. Be curious to see how many people actually took the time to read them. Or are they just set in their ways.

So a couple of questions here from another cow/calf operator.  
Bearing in mind that there is no grass to be grazed in Manitoba during the winter period.  
Where does your winter feed come from and how is your winter feed ration made up?  
Where does your straw or other product for winter bedding come from?  
While it is true that feeding excessive amounts of grain can be harmful do you accept that some grain fed as part of a complete balanced winter ration helps the cows rumen digest better and utilize other feeds and water more efficiently?  
Do you accept that Some nutrients are not soil mobile so for optimum plant uptake they either need balancing with other macro and micro nutrients or additional nutrients added. Also any piece of land can never produce all nutrients removed without additional nutrients in one form or another being added be that in organic or prepared form. The failure to do so would effectively cause mining of soil nutrients causing harm and destroy soil structure.  
 
 
1 It is not true that there are no grass to be grazed in Manitoba during the winter months. The truth is that conventional beef farmers like yourselves do not plan for it. Last year we grazed until December 13th and this year we started grazing on May 1st. This year we are planning on doing much better! How do you thing the bison survived Manitoba winters. Anyways research has shown that cows will put their muzzles in the snow up to their eyes if they know that there is grass down there. So the trick is to plan for grass down there. We have not mastered it completely but are working on it, visiting other farmers in Manitoba who are doing in successfully. It is al a matter of not being scared to experiment.  
 
2 We buy our winter feed, straw and hay. In a perfect world we would buy from farmers who are not using "cides" or chemical fertilizers.  
 
3Feeding grains to a ruminant lowers the Ph of the rumen. Thus inhibiting the bacteria that are digesting the cellulose in grass. The cow does better with the grain but is doing a poor job digesting the hay. We select heifers with huge bellies who are adapted to grass only feed and they are doing well on a grass only diet.  
 
4It is a myth that feeding grain will better the utilization of the cows water intake! Where did you get that information from?  
 
5 There are several environmentally friendly ways to spread nutrients:  
a) The cow eats HERE and leave a cow pie THERE. We do not take nutrients away we redistribute the nutrients. Also jus like you we do feed our cows salt and minerals and the cows are distributing the minerals for us for free.  
b In healthy soil the Mycorrhiza Fungi attached to the grass roots. In exchange for simple sugars the plant provides via photosynthesis and exuding through the roots the Mycorrhiza Fungi go deep in the soil, they are able to exchange minerals or water for sugars. They have the ability to attach themselves to rocks deep down and chemical mine the rocks for all kinds of minerals. Of course if you administer "cides" on your soil you are killing all the beneficial micro organisms and the plants are depending on your chemical fertilizers. This is a wicked down spiral circle.  
c) The other way we are putting minerals and nutrients into our soil is by unrolling the bales we are buying on our pasture. This the bales we are buying serves a double purpose, feeding the cows and fertilizing our soil in a manner that will NOT harm the environment.  
 
In short we are NOT mining our pastures and also satellite images shows that we are retaining more moisture into our soils than our neighbors who are either beef and or crop farmers. If soils retain water it is a sure sign in carbon which acted like a sponge. So I am confident that we are sequestering carbon into our soils and doing our part in the fight against climate change. Then of course not using ANY poison on our land our farms is a refuge for all kind of wildlife including bees, dung beetles, cow birds and a lot more!

1: it’s cruel to expect a domesticated cow to find grass through Manitoba winter snow In a climate this cold. Studies show that grazing of native grasses during the late fall, winter, early spring period is harmful to those species and decreases quality of forage and decreases plant survival . This is a poor management practice as is expecting cows to lick snow for water. Supplemental feed and a good source of clean drinking water must be provided or death loss and suffering will occur.  
2: you buy your winter feed and hay from outside your holding.  
All of our hay , straw , a little home grown barley is home grown allowing us to closely control the quality of the ration we feed and reducing transport needs. If we are short of hay I am able to bale some of my oat crop as green feed to stretch our hay crop but I prefer to feed hay.  
3 and 4: Feeding a little grain as part of a mostly forage based ration is extremely beneficial to rumen and therefore cow health. It can reduce the amount of hay required and provides an ideal method to accurately feed supplemental mineral.. This information is learned through five generations of rearing cattle on two different continents. Personally from experience I dispute that feeding of a little grain encourages the cow to digest hay poorly, it encourages more efficient digestion and extraction of nutrients . We also select our own home bred home bred heifers for forage efficiency, known good health, temperament and historical breeding success traits along with strong maternal traits.  
5: By grazing pasture using ruminant animals you will indeed be increasing soil health and in turn you will complete the carbon cycle while providing ideal habitat for increased native plant species and wildlife, improved moisture and nutrient retention and increased organic matter.  
I do use some herbicides on my crop land, I try to avoid the use of insecticides as I want to increase the numbers of helpful predatory insects and as noted I use fertilizer using a carefully prepared plan including judicious soil testing and tissue testing and the advice of a well respected and experienced independent local agronomist who has no ties to the fertilizer or chemical suppliers.  
So you see apart from a few differences we are not so very different and we ultimately have shared goals .  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-08-30 16:21:38

"1: it’s cruel to expect a domesticated cow to find grass through Manitoba winter snow In a climate this cold. Studies show that grazing of native grasses during the late fall, winter, early spring period is harmful to those species and decreases quality of forage and decreases plant survival . This is a poor management practice as is expecting cows to lick snow for water. Supplemental feed and a good source of clean drinking water must be provided or death loss and suffering will occur.  
2: you buy your winter feed and hay from outside your holding.  
All of our hay , straw , a little home grown barley is home grown allowing us to closely control the quality of the ration we feed and reducing transport needs. If we are short of hay I am able to bale some of my oat crop as green feed to stretch our hay crop but I prefer to feed hay.  
3 and 4: Feeding a little grain as part of a mostly forage based ration is extremely beneficial to rumen and therefore cow health. It can reduce the amount of hay required and provides an ideal method to accurately feed supplemental mineral.. This information is learned through five generations of rearing cattle on two different continents. Personally from experience I dispute that feeding of a little grain encourages the cow to digest hay poorly, it encourages more efficient digestion and extraction of nutrients . We also select our own home bred home bred heifers for forage efficiency, known good health, temperament and historical breeding success traits along with strong maternal traits.  
5: By grazing pasture using ruminant animals you will indeed be increasing soil health and in turn you will complete the carbon cycle while providing ideal habitat for increased native plant species and wildlife, improved moisture and nutrient retention and increased organic matter.  
I do use some herbicides on my crop land, I try to avoid the use of insecticides as I want to increase the numbers of helpful predatory insects and as noted I use fertilizer using a carefully prepared plan including judicious soil testing and tissue testing and the advice of a well respected and experienced independent local agronomist who has no ties to the fertilizer or chemical suppliers.  
So you see apart from a few differences we are not so very different and we ultimately have shared goals . ":  
 
1) It is clear that you have not seen cows eating grass under the snow and enjoying it and thriving on it. You are responding on a subject you clearly have not seen in practice or studied. I would like to invite you come and have a look at our cows in the middle of December. Furthermore our Manitoba forages were grazed in the winter by bison for eons! We plan for the winter grazing. We do not summer graze where we planned to winter graze and then we do not graze it the winter grazed pastures in summer. From what we have seen up to now is that our pastures are improving! Of course we are adaptive if the snow is too deep then we bale graze. If there is a warm spell in the middle of winter and there forms a crush on top of the snow then our winter pasture grazing is over and we move to bale grazing. But come and have a look!  
 
2)Yes we buy our hay from outside our holding thus transporting nutrients to our soil. You transport fertilizer and "cides" which are coming from outside your holding, we transport hay, so not much difference.  
 
3 & 4) Your cows are doing good on a little grain and hay. Because of the energy provided by the grain you are feeding you do not notice that the cellulose in your hay does not break down completely. Our cows are thriving on grass and hay. If you would come to our farm you will notice that our cows have bigger bellies than yours. Even horse people know that a horse on pasture develops an grass belly and if you put him on grain, the grass belly disappear. You see our cows are one hundred percent herbivores and they are proficient in digesting cellulose.  
 
5) Do the math. Say you are completely weaned from fertilizers and "cides", How much are you going to safe in input costs?