The Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference is giving producers a lot to think about.

It was a full day of presentations yesterday including one which looked at using Grazing Management for Carbon Sequestration.

Allan Iwaasa is a Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada’s Swift Current Research and Development Centre.

Iwassa said, "Potentially using perennial forages and different mixtures in your perennial forages that can actually or potentially enhance your ability to sequester carbon and using the soils as a sync can actually

reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions. so that's one area that is being looked at."

He notes carbon sequestration also provides ecosystem co-benefits such as increased soil water holding capacity, better soil structure, improved soil quality, nutrient cycling and reduced soil erosion.

The Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference continues today in Regina.

Those in attendance had a chance to learn more about Managing Forages, Animal Healthcare and Carbon Sequestration benefits in grasslands.

Allan Iwaasa, a Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada’s Swift Current Research and Development Centre, talks about some of the benefits of carbon syncs.

Iwassa said, "Through productivity to improve the health of the soil to be more resilient to drought, to have better healthier water conditions as well as other things that are a benefit to the ecological goods and services of that land

besides sequestering carbon."

One study, for Western Canada, suggests that soils under native grasslands may contain up to 200 tonnes of carbon per hectare within the first metre under fescue prairie, while estimates suggest there could be two to three billion tonnes of carbon within uncultivated grasslands.