Cattle management practices need further study.Ottawa—Australia is launching a national soil action strategy this year and Canada would be well advised to follow suit, says Cedric MacLeod, Executive-Director of the Canadian Forage and Grasslands Association.Canada is already headed in that direction with moves by Agriculture Canada to create living labs that work on the ground with producers, he told the Commons agriculture committee.He was responding to a question from Alistair MacGregor, NDP ag critic, who has a private member's bill in the Commons calling for the development of national soil strategy.Senator Rob Black has been pushing for the Senate agriculture committee, which he now is chairman of, to begin such a study.MacLeod said the Agriculture Canada has created a more clear linkage between the grower community and its researchers, and a focus on extension and Best Management Practices (BMP) adoption.The new federal on-farm climate action fund will also help by focusing on producer education and outreach on putting dollars in the hands of growers to advance practices that have been demonstrated as good for soil and environmental health.“Let's keep that going.”MacGregor said the Australian plan “to commit the country to a 20-year course. That strategy is going to involve increased soil advocacy and extension services. They're going to try to improve soil monitoring and data sharing. They want to increase investment in soil research and development.“They want to improve the communication and collaboration among researchers, landholders, industry, government, first nations peoples and educators. They want to give greater support to land managers to change practices to improve soil health, and they also want to increase focus on education, training and accreditation career paths for soil professionals.”Having toured cattle farms, he wondered what was the best way to encourage soil management practices and how the federal government could help.Andrea Stroeve-Sawa, a director of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, said research needs funding to better understand land conversion, agriculture emission reduction and carbon sequestration potential.“Investment in technology transfer is also very important, because in the end that research needs to be delivered to us as producers on the ground, and we need to be able to use that,” she said.“The health of the soil is where the rubber meets the road and if we don't have healthy soils, we can't produce any type of crop then. Those foundations of soil health and the soil health principles are absolutely where we need to go.”She also supported the development of national soil strategy.