Connor English
Territory manager: Manitoba
Bradwardine, Manitoba
About Me
Hey my name is Connor English. I live on my family’s multi-generational farm near Bradwardine, MB, with my wife, Kyla, and my son Colter. I am very proud to be the 5th generation to farm in the Bradwardine district. Alongside my dad Brian we have a cow/calf and yearling operation that we implement intensive summer and winter grazing systems on. Since graduating from Lakeland College in 2019, I have gained a large interest in intensive grazing systems. I had the opportunity to work for Ryan Boyd and his family for 3 years following college. The cattle industry can not be very appealing to most individuals, finding ways to increase production on many variations of land while reducing inputs and increasing overalls profits was something I really took away from my time working for them.
In spring 2022, I made the leap to return home to the farm. Over the past few years, our operation has changed immensely. The majority of our land base is into perennial forages now, with the remainder being used for winter feed sources such as silage, corn grazing and swath grazing, as well as some annual cash crops. For the most part, after calving, our cow herd is moved daily throughout the summer in one group. High-density grazing followed by long recovery is a tool we have been seeing great results from for the past few years. Reducing our winter feed costs has always been something we’ve strived to do while having the cattle out on the land distributing manure and urine to help regenerate our soil. Aside from the farm, my wife and I enjoy spending our free time playing hockey and curling in the winter, as well as spending time with our great group of friends throughout the year.
Why Did I Choose Covers & Co.?
Diversity on the farm seems to be a word that comes to my mind more and more as we go down this regenerative/ animal integration journey. When the opportunity came to join the Covers and Co. team, I was very excited to be able to work with like-minded individuals who have the same goals as myself. My dad started using cover crops many years ago with the desire to reduce costs and bring more life into our soil. Since integrating our cattle onto the annual cropped fields more in the past few years we’ve seen a great response which has helped reduce fertilizer usage and leaving us with a very dark rich soil that we so desire. I really look forward to cycling out some of our diverse perennial pastures in the future back into cropping systems to see what results we can achieve. I believe a good rotation of perennial and annual crops on a multi year cycle can be very beneficial to the longevity of our soils. I look forward to joining producers around Manitoba in their journey through soil health.