Eight years ago, David and Val Pogson swapped their conventional farming practices for holistic ones. Today, David Pogson says he's probably increased pasture carrying capacity by about 95 per cent.

"It's really unbelievable," he says. "We haven't sowed anything or added any seed or anything, all we've done is moved our animals with this planned grazing, and it's made our pastures just that much better."

Planned grazing, which is a plan for rotating livestock through grazing pastures to help with plant growth, was one of many topics that was supposed to be highlighted at field day on Tuesday.

The Pogsons' ranch was to host a day of discussions on cover crops, soil health, and creek bank stabilization, however the open-gate event was cancelled due to low registration. Holistic Management Canada is holding several field days like this one this across the prairies, inviting producers to learn about the system from ranches and farms in areas like Red Deer, Ponoka, and Frontier. Other than in Clearwater, there hasn't been trouble with participants signing up.

"I think this was just an unfortunate one, just with the timing, guys are haying and stuff like that," says Pamela Iwanchysko of Holistic Management Canada. "The other field days have been going quite well."

Information about Holistic Management can still be found online, but Pogson says it's important to give producers a first-hand experience.

"You really have to see it," says Pogson, "I mean I could talk all day about it, but that's why we have these field days. We want to show people what they can do on their farm, just by the movement of their animals or the changing of the mindset."

There are two more Holistic Management field days coming up in Manitoba, first in Toutes Aides on Aug. 26, then in Rapid City on Sept. 1.