PFRA Community Pasture Program

The Community Pasture Program is PFRA's largest and longest-running contribution to soil conservation on the prairies. Started in the 1930s to reclaim badly eroded areas, the program has returned more than 145,000 hectares (ha) of poor quality cultivated lands to grass cover since 1937 and currently encompasses in excess of 900,000 ha of rangeland.

The two major objectives of the Community Pasture Program are:

• To make possible the removal of lands from unsuitable or unacceptable land use and to facilitate improved land use through their rehabilitation, conservation and management.
• To utilize the resource primarily for the summer grazing of cattle while assisting in stabilizing small farms and providing breeding bulls to encourage high quality, long term cattle production.

How does it work?

• Under the Community Pasture Program, marginal land is primarily used for the summer grazing of cattle. In addition to maintaining a permanent cover, PFRA is committed to multiple use of its rangelands.
• The program is designed to help producers strengthen their operations by providing pastures as well as a breeding service.
• The formula used to allot grazing space is designed to benefit small producers by allocating grazing priviledges in inverse proportion to land owned, leased or rented by clients.
• Fees are charged for all services provided on the pastures.

Who is eligible?

Small producers in need of grazing space.

What are the criteria for eligibility?

To be eligible for grazing privileges, applicants must be:

• a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant
• at least eighteen (18) years of age
• be considered to be actively engaged in managing and operating a farm; and considered a bona fide farmer.

Allocation of grazing space is based on a number of factors, the most important being the assessment of need.

Close to 4,000 producers use the pastures each summer grazing about 220,000 head of livestock and utilizing over 3,000 bulls in the pasture breeding program.

Application forms are available from the PFRA Programs & services page.

Additional Information