Media

Videos

April 2024: National Farmers Union, Depth of Field

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has teamed up with award-winning documentary filmmakers of March Forth Creative Inc. to produce and present Depth of Field: Films About Farming–a series of short documentaries featuring individual farm stories across Canada with a focus on sustainable agriculture.

January 2025: Outstanding Young Farmers Program

March 2024: Rotational Grazing Management System for Hogs

Aubyn of Spray Creek Ranch demonstrates her rotational grazing system for hogs including choosing a paddock location and portable fencing, housing and feeding infrastructure. Electric netting provides both a physical barrier and a psychological barrier. It is often a better option for young hogs but most older hogs will be respectful of one or two strands of wire. One of the biggest issues with electric netting is grounding out due to vegetative load at the bottom. Grazing or mowing before installing netting and/or deactivating the bottom of the net can help to mitigate this issue.

March 2024: Multi-species Rotational Grazing Grid System

Aubyn of Spray Creek Ranch demonstrates how they use a rotational grazing grid system to move their sheep and poultry around the field. Choosing the right type of fencing for your livestock is an important part of ensuring your system is successful. Aubyn also discusses how they use a combination of fencing and livestock guardian dogs to deter predators. Terrain is an important consideration when you are choosing your electric fencing solutions. Other infrastructure considerations include housing, watering, feeding and supplements. Ensuring that your infrastructure and systems are easy to move will make it easier for you to keep your livestock moving and prevent overgrazing.

March 2024: Insulated Line Post and Wood Post Insulators Demonstration

Integrating Gallagher Insulated Line posts into your permanent or permanent fencing system is affordable and easy. Tristan of Spray Creek Ranch describes the system and demonstrates installation techniques. These posts can be used with a wide range of fencing including high tensile, polywire and barbed wire. Tristan also demonstrates installing insulators to a wood post and includes some tips and tricks that will make your fencing system more resilient.

4 April 2023, Episode 4: Winter Rotational Grazing Systems

In this episode of our Organic Innovation Series, rancher Tristan Banwell takes us on a journey of a year on grass for their cattle at Spray Creek Ranch in Lillooet, BC. He highlights their winter grazing methods of stockpile grazing, bale grazing and what it takes to prepare in the summer months to keep the cows fed and happy through the winter.

10 February 2022: Holistic Management Canada Conference 2022

Tristan Banwell manages Spray Creek Ranch, a regenerative, organic, diversified 500-acre farm in the Northern St’at’imc Territory near Lillooet, BC.  Together with his wife Aubyn, he raises cattle, pigs and poultry on pasture along the mighty Fraser River in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains.  In addition to his volunteer work with Organic BC, Tristan co-founded the Lillooet Agriculture & Food Society and the BC Small-Scale Meat Producers Association. 

4 March 2025: La Semaine Verte

Tristan discusses our Farmgate Plus Slaughter License. Caution: contains slaughter footage.

Podcasts

Organic BC, 8 April 2023, Episode 50: Electric Fencing Tips for Rotational Grazing Systems

This episode: you can’t run a successful rotational grazing system without good fencing! Rancher Tristan Banwell guest hosts to interview fencing expert Axle Boris of Fencefast about the crucial considerations for using electric fencing in a rotational grazing setup.

listen on Spotify
listen at Organic BC

Organic BC, 23 March 2023, Episode 47: The Long Roots of Indigenous Agriculture with Jacob Beaton of Tea Creek Farm

This episode: farmer & entrepreneur Jacob Beaton joins guest host Tristan Banwell to discuss the Indigenous relationship with agriculture that has been largely ignored or even suppressed in mainstream discourse about the history and traditions of Canada’s First Peoples. Jacob is a member of the Eagle Clan of the Tsimshian Nation. He lives and farms near Gitwangak in Gitxsan territory of Northern BC, where he operates a thriving Indigenous skills training program at Tea Creek Farm.

listen on Spotify
listen at Organic BC

18 October 2022, Episode 32: New Slaughter Regs & New Opportunities for Meat Producers in BC

In this episode, BC Organic Rancher Tristan Banwell describes changes to BC’s slaughter regulations that took effect on October 1st, 2020. We begin our conversation with a brief review of how slaughter regulations have evolved in BC over the last two decades, leading up to these newest changes, which Tristan believes will create new opportunities for meat producers in the province, particularly those operating at a small scale. A must-listen for meat producers in BC!

listen on Spotify
listen at Organic BC

18 October 2022, Episode 28: Winter Grazing Strategies with Steve Kenyon

In this episode, guest interviewer and rancher Tristan Banwell speaks with rancher Steve Kenyon about winter grazing strategies for the herd. Tristan is co-owner of Spray Creek Ranch in Lillooet, BC. Steve is a grazing expert and co-owner of Greener Pastures Ranching, in Busby, Alberta. In addition to managing a custom livestock-grazing operation, Steve is an author and speaker focused on sound farm business management and regenerative ranching practices.

Plant-growers take note: this is clearly one for the animal-farmers, but Steve’s ideas on building what he calls “good soil armour” will be of interest to any farmer interested in improving their soil health!

listen on Spotify
listen at Organic BC

23 January 2022, Episode 19: Maintaining Organic Integrity as your Livestock Heads Through the Abattoir

This episode features a conversation between Guest interviewer Tristan Banwell and Anne Macey, who is the president of the Saltspring Abattoir Society and also sits on the COABC accreditation board. So Anne knows a lot about livestock processing and a lot about the organic standards, which is why Tristan phoned Anne to talk about maintaining the organic integrity of your animals as they pass through the abattoir.

listen on Spotify
listen at Organic BC

8 September 2021, Episode 3: British Columbia’s Animal Health Centre

This episode is about the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries’ Animal Health Centre. Guest interviewer Tristan Banwell interviews Dr. Glenna McGregor, a veterinary pathologist at the centre, about the centre’s purpose and how it can help you diagnose pathology in your animals. Along the way you’ll learn a bit of vocabulary and some basics about necropsy.

listen on Spotify
listen at Organic BC

18 June 2019, Episode 111: Rotational Grazing Tips with Sarah Flack

This Episode features Tristan Banwell, BC-based rancher and occasional co-host of the show, recorded this interview with Sarah Flack, author of The Art and Science of Grazing: How Grass Farmers Can Create Sustainable Systems for Healthy Animals and Farm Ecosystems. 

listen on SCRIBD
listen at The Ruminant

20 February 2019, Episode 104: Silvopasture with Steve Gabriel

This episode: Ruminant co-host Tristan Banwell interviews Farmer and Author Steve Gabriel about his book  Silvopasture: A Guide to Managing Grazing Animals, Forage Crops, and Trees in a Temperate Farm Ecosystem.

listen on SCRIBD
listen at The Ruminant

Journals, Articles & Newspapers

13 March 2024: Spray Creek wins BC OYF

Aubyn and Tristan Banwell of Spray Creek Ranch near Lillooet were named BC & Yukon Outstanding Young Farmers at the Clarion Hotel in Abbotsford, March 12.
by Anna Klochko & Peter Mitham | Country Life BC

Read the Country Life Article

2 May 2022: Meat in moderation can be part of the climate solution, regenerative ranchers say.

Sunlight glowed through Tristan Banwell’s thick brown beard as he trudged through half-melted snowdrifts towards a herd of small brown cows chowing down on a hay bale one mid-February morning near Lillooet, B.C. Thick fog that had cloaked the Fraser Canyon earlier that morning lifted, revealing snow-capped mountains towering on the horizon.
By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson | National Observer

READ THE NATIONal observer Article

26 February 2019: Going Green Boosts Ranch’s Credibility

LILLOOET – Spray Creek Ranch owners Tristan and Aubyn Banwell say becoming one of five BC farms certified by A Greener World (AGW), a five-year-old certification body based in Terrebonne, Oregon, has been worth the extra effort.
By Jackie Pearase | Country Life in BC

READ THE Country Life Article

“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”    -Masanobu Fukuoka