In Practice
Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
MARCH / APRIL 2017
a publication of Holistic Management International
NUMBER 172
HMI “Gatherings” and the “Slow” Movement BY DANNY NUCKOLS, PhD
“Creativity is the product of ‘wasted’ time” —Albert Einstein “Not everything that counts can be counted” —Stefan Collini
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s I continue to reap the benefits of attending HMI’s 2016 HMI Gathering in Paicines, California, I have been thinking about what made that event so powerful for me. While there was lots of opportunity to learn critical skills as Holistic Management practitioners, what really inspired me was the opportunity to engage in heartfelt dialogue and exploration with other participants—to slow down and explore. While the slow-food movement has shone a light on the importance of thoughtful engagement with food, there is also a greater understanding of the importance of slowing down in all areas of our lives to better engage with that which we value. Those in the vanguard of the slow-food movement have shared important information over the importance of blunting the velocity by which food is produced and consumed; and how the introduction of ‘speed’ by mechanization and industrialization has damaged not only the quality of food but the land resources used for its creation. The claim is that shifting back to more locally sourced food will create more equity between growers and consumers, save energy, bring back diversity to the land via abstaining from chemical-intensive mono-cropping, and restore local jobs and vibrant communities. In addition, such a slow-food mission is thought to preserve local cuisines and gastronomic traditions, which would, importantly, aid in restoring local culture. Likewise, a resilient local culture is an important by-product of Holistic Management, and is a sentiment voiced at HMI gatherings, with its emphasis on how good company (conviviality) can help build a gateway towards a vibrant, inclusive local economy. In fact, food INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Creating Resilience Creating resilience in any system— natural, human, or financial—requires us first to understand the system and then work with the critical processes and principles within that system. Ken Klemm of the Buffalo Guys has learned how to do that with his operation. Read about his Holistic Management journey on page 7.
W W W. H O L I S T I C M A N A G E M E N T. O R G
production and consumption do not simply perform a functional role, but rather have a crucial social context. The conversations overheard at Holistic Management gatherings signal the critical importance of coming together and sharing ‘why’ we believe and act as we do, combined with that of declaring the social responsibility that surrounds sustainable land management. In their superb text The Slow Professor, Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber further extend the important theme of sharing contemplation in a gathering. We need time to think, digest, and understand each other. Berg and Seeber tells us that research shows that periods of escape from tightly constructed time schedules are actually essential to deep thought, creativity, and problem solving. Scholars and poets have suggested over the years that the timeless intensity of “the present moment” (read HMI Gathering) is a gateway to creativity and joy; and that when we leave the compressed frame of our routine job, we experience a sense of timelessness, which brings forth creativeness. Indeed, creativity itself is experienced as timelessness. This timelessness houses a gathering that creates, cultivates and nourishes trust, along with understanding, compassion and patience— making it possible to have an open exchange of artistic ideas. After all, the conversations found at a gathering are fundamentally about collaboration, and collaboration is, in essence, about thinking together. All of the preceding benefits gleaned from a gathering are especially enriched if they are coupled with an opportunity to “walk the land.” Such an opportunity was provided by HMI Advisory Council member Sallie Calhoun, owner of the Paicines Ranch, as she hosted nano-workshops dealing with Holistic Management. I hope to see you at the next HMI Gathering or any of the Open Gates HMI hosts each year. Together we can learn to lessen the culture of speed and alleviate stress and, consequently, continue to sustain a mission of holistic training in land management and the collegiality it feeds.
Holistic Management—
Adapting to a Changing Climate
Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
In Practice a publication of Hollistic Management International
HMI educates people in regenerative agriculture for healthy land and thriving communities. STAFF Ann Adams. . . . . . . . . . . . Executive Director Kelly Curtis. . . . . . . . . . . . Finance and Operations Director Jennifer Klass . . . . . . . . . Development Director Kathy Harris. . . . . . . . . . . Program Director Peggy Cole. . . . . . . . . . . . Program Manager, Texas Mary Girsch-Bock. . . . . . Development Manager Carrie Stearns . . . . . . . . . Communications & Outreach Manager Valerie Grubbs. . . . . . . . . Accounting Manager Julie Fierro. . . . . . . . . . . . Education Manager Stephanie Von Ancken . . Programs / Office Assistant
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Daniel Nuckols, Chair Walter Lynn, Vice-Chair Kelly Sidoryk, Past Board Chair Gerardo Bezanilla Kirrily Blomfield Kevin Boyer Lee Dueringer Guy Glosson Wayne Knight Robert Potts Jim Shelton Sarah Williford
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT In Practice (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by: Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: hmi@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2017 Holistic Management® is a registered trademark of Holistic Management International
BY RICHARD MURPHY
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little more than 100 years ago, Dorothea Mackellar first published her iconic poem My Country, in which she aptly and famously described Australia as a land of “droughts and flooding rains.” Variation in climate from season to season and year to year has been the constant challenge for Australian farmers for two centuries. To the admiration of a nation, the determination and ingenuity of Australian From Left to right: Betty, Graeme, Ewan, Lily, Anita, farmers have consistently seen them Quinn andJustin Weaver. adapt their farming systems and overcome adversity. With our area of south west Victoria pastures were dominated by annual grasses experiencing dry conditions into the summer of and areas of bare ground. Heavy reliance on 2016 (January – March) only to be followed by superphosphate to maintain production had record winter rain and widespread flooding, Miss depleted soils of micronutrients and increased Mackellar’s description remains appropriate. The soil acidity. Stock access to waterways had experience also matches climate predictions removed riparian vegetation, pugged banks of an increase in extreme weather events for and encouraged erosion. The Weavers began Australia under a changing climate. Consistent making changes to the farm practices and with their history, Australian farmers are looking experimenting with different ideas immediately: for ways to adapt their farming systems to meet implementing rotational grazing; cropping the climate challenge. the worst paddocks to manage weeds, bare ground and build soil organic matter; application First Steps of micronutrients and dolomite to address Successive years of drought on their farm in soil issues. the north of Victoria, forced the Weaver family In 2010, the Weavers took advantage of to accept the reality of climate change and an opportunity with the regional conservation relocate their sheep and cropping operation. In agency, Glenelg Hopkins Catchment 2009, the Weaver’s purchased “Woodlands,” Management Authority (GHCMA), to protect a 1400-hectare property near Balmoral, and restore the Glenelg River and tributaries. and moved their sheep farming operation to Funded by the Victorian Government, the southwest Victoria from the state’s north. Glenelg River Restoration Project assisted With frontage to the Glenelg River and a the Weavers in fencing about 21 kilometers of number of tributaries, plus access to pipeline waterway, gully and environmentally sensitive for a stock and domestic water, Woodlands had areas, revegetating degraded riparian areas the water security the Weavers were looking and establishing additional off-stream water for. While picturesque, the property was in need points for stock. In undertaking this work, the of some attention. Run as a cattle enterprise, Weavers joined 627 other farmers to fence continuous grazing phalaris-sub clover based 1,600 kilometers of the Glenelg River in a
FEATURE STORIES
LAND & LIVESTOCK
NEWS & NETWORK
Holistic Management— Adapting to a Changing Climate
The Buffalo Guys— Implementing Good Conservation Methods that Pay
Grapevine................................................................ 17
How Consensus-Building Works— Making Conflict Your Friend
Spring Creek Farm’s Grass Dairy— Benefitting from an Improved Environment
Estimating Plant Populations by Measuring Distances— A Great Way to Track Effectiveness of Management Practices
When Correcting Your Soil Costs Too Much— Making Decisions about Building Soil Fertility
RICHARD MURPHY...................................................................... 2
JEFF GOEBEL ............................................................................. 4
TUOMAS MATTILA....................................................................... 5
2 IN PRACTICE
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HEATHER SMITH THOMAS......................................................... 7
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS.......................................................14
NEAL KINSEY.............................................................................16
Program Round Up.................................................. 18 From the Executive Director.................................... 19 Certified Educators.................................................. 20 Marketplace............................................................. 21 Development Corner............................................... 24
project for which GHCMA was awarded the 2013 Australian River Prize by the International River Foundation.
Crisis=Opportunity
In 2013, two life-changing events forced the Weaver family to completely re-evaluate their farming enterprise. First, an incursion of sheep from a neighboring property caused a virulent footrot outbreak in the Weavers’ flock. Second, despite low expectations given the 12-month time scale, the Planned Grazing trial showed excellent results. Implementing biosecurity protocols to manage and contain footrot, the Weavers completely destocked and quarantined the farm. With the costs of disease eradication and risks of reinfection and production, as well as the emotional drain of this situation, the Weavers had no choice but drop sheep from their operation and moved to a cattle-only operation. Encouraged by the outcomes of their Planned Grazing trial, the Weavers decided to adopt Holistic Management across the farm. Adopting Holistic Management required Native grasses (left) Wallaby Grass, Weeping the Weavers to change how they farmed. Grass in rear-ground, and (right) Kangaroo They planned the annual production cycle Grass, Weeping Grass in fore-ground, have of their cattle enterprise to work with nature, proliferated under Planned Grazing implemented Planned Grazing and focused Soon after their move to Balmoral, Anita on a breeding herd rather than trading. While and Betty attended an introduction to Holistic it all made logical and practical sense, moving Management and Planned Grazing provided from a way of farming the Weaver family had by Holistic Management Certified Educator, undertaken for generations and were familiar Graeme Hand. Anita encouraged husband, and confident in managing to one they had no Justin, and father-in-law, Graeme, to track down experience with and would learn on the go, Graeme Hand, as she felt Holistic Management proved an unnerving experience. could help them achieve the goals they were “There were some difficult times in the early working towards. That opportunity came in 2012 stages,” says Graeme, “There was more conflict when GHCMA offered farmers an opportunity within the family because we were going outside to undertake small scale 12-month, Planned everyone’s comfort zone. Even though everyone Grazing demonstration trials on their farm with was for the change, we were not sure where the the assistance of Graeme Hand. Participating changes would take us. It was easy to imagine it farmers fenced a small area of their poorest all falling apart. But now it has me more excited performing land, intensively grazed then about farming and enjoying it more.” excluded stock to allow recovery. “Holistic Management gives us a farming system we can readily adapt to the variability of climate each year. The land and animals are looking better and the farming operation is a lot more resilient,” says Justin. “The biggest stress factor was making the decision to start changing. I think fear of the unknown keeps a lot of farmers doing the same thing over and over again even when they know it doesn’t work.” While the Weavers Stock moved out of a paddock based on dung score, gut fill and have been quick to paddock residue targets. adopt Planned Grazing,
While the Weavers are no longer cropping on their farm, time made available through improved planning allows Justin and Graeme to undertake contract sowing and other off farm work. they are still working on their Holistic Goal and the financial management. “We know we just have to get together and do it,” says Justin. “I think adopting the grazing was the easy part, but we are getting there.” The continuing support from GHCMA made possible through the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme, has helped the holistic farmers form the South West Holistic Farmers Group of which Justin is now president. Justin says, “The group brings together farmers who are trying to adopt Holistic Management and Planned Grazing from across a pretty large area who would otherwise be trying to do it on their own. We share experiences and ideas and get in expert advice when we need it. If it wasn’t for the support of the CMA and the group, we wouldn’t have made the change. Without Graeme Hand, we couldn’t have done it.” Richard Murphy is Land Health Coordinator with Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority based at Hamilton, Victoria, Australia. Amongst a diversity of sustainable agriculture projects, Richard has been working with Holistic Management Educator, Graeme Hand to support farmers adopting Holistic Management since 2012. This project is supported by Glenelg Hopkins CMA, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme and the Victorian Government.
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How Consensus-Building Works—
Making Conflict Your Friend BY JEFF GOEBEL
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remember about 20 years ago, I was going through a really difficult time in life and my friend Bob Chadwick said this difficulty was good. I was absolutely shocked! He said he appreciates conflict because of the lessons that he learns and how it makes him grow. He told me that he asks to have conflict present in his life daily and that conflict was his friend. I will readily admit it has taken me a while to understand this perspective. But, today I feel that I am at a place where I can call conflict my friend because I have seen the results of what can happen when you operate from that place. But, let me explain the process I use that I learned from Bob that has helped me more effectively engage with conflict to create the best outcome for many groups around the world. This is a process that works if you can stay present.
Four Questions
Bob asked me four questions, which have guided my learning and growing ever since he shared them with me twenty years ago. The first question is “How do I feel about this conflict?” He wasn’t just asking me for a word that described an emotion, but to reach within myself and be conscious about where that feeling was manifesting itself in my body. As Viktor Frankl said “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” The next question is “What can I learn from this situation that will help me be successful?” There are nuggets in each moment of life. To be conscious of them adds power into your purposeful movement toward a desired future. The third question threw me at first. “What do I STILL need to learn that will help me be successful?” Isn’t that odd, asking for what you don’t know? Yet, each time I ask, an answer comes to me. And finally, he phrased the fourth question like this “If it’s true that we create our own reality, what is the purpose of this reality that I created for myself?” Ouch! This question touches on my area of growth.
Changing Patterns
Since I have worked with many indigenous tribes, especially in North America, I have learned various stories about the legend “Coyote.” Coyote is known as the teacher, and coyote teaches through tricks. It is said that coyote will repeat the trick until you learn the 4 IN PRACTICE
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lesson. Earlier in my life, without being conscious, I would blindly go from issue to similar issue, and wonder what was happening. As I progressed in life, and years, I started seeing patterns in my life. I also learned that we can change these patterns. At the core of these Jeff has practiced consensus building and holistic decision-making with many patterns were audiences including the Colville Tribe in Nespelem, Washington. our beliefs, which affected our behaviors, which ultimately gave us the results 3) What are the best possible outcomes of in life, good or bad. I also learned about limiting confronting the present situation? beliefs, which prevented me from attaining 4) What beliefs, behaviors, strategies and desired outcomes. I learned that these limiting actions will foster the best possible beliefs are deeply held and often only factual outcomes. because we believe them. This resulted in What I learned from Bob is that “Worst manifesting what we didn’t want, what we might Possible Outcomes are feared future outcomes, be afraid to see happen, and it happened. often based on past experience, with a presently In my journey came a phrase which has experienced emotion and physical reaction. helped me with addressing limiting beliefs. If When people believe them, they affect their we become conscious of our “self-talk,” we can perceptions, beliefs, values and strategies. begin to “catch” ourselves telling us limiting They tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies when beliefs that prevent us from attaining what we strongly held.” These words really fit every truly desire. However, there are limiting beliefs conflict situation that I have come across. I often that we don’t consciously realize and direct us will look at what a people’s present situation is toward a destiny that is less than desirable and and what their worst possible outcomes are, and well below our potential. This quote has served I usually find that there is not much difference. me well in addressing my limiting beliefs: “One They are living their worst outcomes when in way to defeat limiting beliefs, even ones you unresolved conflict! may not know that you have, is to simply dream of a life so grand that the limiting beliefs couldn’t Beyond Conflict possibly make sense. And then start living that Recently, I was in a meeting of my local soil life today, however humbly, at first.” and water conservation district. I was elected Bob taught me a simple process for resolving to the board about 18 months ago, shortly any conflict that I have addressed over the past after I bought my farm. I have wanted to be 25 years. This process has served me well with involved on the local level with the conservation successfully resolving intra-personal conflict, movement since I was first employed with the which comprises about 85% of what I do. The Soil Conservation Service (now called the simple steps are to ask: Natural Resource Conservation Service). One 1) What is the present situation and how do key individual on the board is a climate denier, you feel about it? and obviously, I have had conflict with his 2) What are the worst possible outcomes of beliefs. Due to his position, he has been able to confronting / not confronting the present shut my ideas down, which include promoting situation? CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
Estimating Plant Populations by Measuring Distances—
A Great Way to Track Effectiveness of Management Practices BY TUOMAS MATTILA
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olistic Management Biological Monitoring is a toolbox for collecting useful information on a landscape and monitoring the change over time. One key measurement is the distance to the nearest perennial plant. Collected over time, that indicator will show if the ecosystem is moving towards perennials or annuals and the direction of ecological succession. However the same data can be used to estimate plant densities and to follow desirable plant (e.g. legume) or undesirable plant (e.g. thistle) populations over time.
Converting Distance to Density
Converting distances to plant populations starts by estimating the space occupied by a single plant and follows by calculating, how many plants fit in an area (m2 or per hectare or sq.ft. per acre). A simple assumption would be to consider the field as a set of squares, with the side of the square the same as the average distance to the plant. If the distance to the plant is 0.4 m (16’’), the plant occupies 0.16 m2 (1.7 sq.ft.) and there are 6 plants/m2 (0.6 plants/ sq.ft). From a management viewpoint, this is extremely useful. Do you want to know the amount of weeds, clovers or earthworm burrows in a field? Take a few steps and look at your feet. Measure the distance, estimate the area and calculate the population density. Doing math on the field might not be your idea of fun, so I made the following two charts to help in converting distances to plant populations. The first chart works for dense populations (number of plants per sq ft) and the second for sparse populations, where distances are measured in meters (or feet). While you could count species within a quadrant, you end up with skewed data if you have a plant that you want to measure that is outside the quadrant. If you want to do the calculations, here is the basic formula: Plant Density = Area Distance squared (Average of 4 distances measured from center point to nearest plant in each quarter) For example: Distance of point to thistle Quarter 1 = 2 inches Quarter 2 = 4 inches Quarter 3 = 3 inches Quarter 4 = 1 inch
This graph shows you the relationship of distance to nearest plant in inches to how many are in a sq ft. You then multiply that number of plants by 43,560 (number of sq ft in an acre). For example, if my average is 4 inches, then I average 10 plants per sq ft or 435,600 plants per acre.
This graph shows you the relationship of number of plants in an acre based on the distance in feet to nearest plant. Average is 2.5 inches, which is squared to give 6.25 sq.in. One square foot is 144 sq.in, so 144 sq.in /6.25 sq.in = 23 plants per sq.ft. One acre is 6,272,640 sq.in, so the plant density per acre would be 6,272,640 sq.in/6,25 sq.in = 1,003,622 plants per acre.
How to Sample
There are two better ways to determine the average distance than using a quadrant. One is to take four measurements from a center point (boot tip or dart point) and calculate the average CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
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Estimating Plant Populations by Measuring Distances CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
or width of my hand so I can use them to measure plant distance out in the field in case I don’t have a tape measure with me. In both methods it’s important to do many sample repetitions (“replicates” in statistical terms). Otherwise, the estimate will vary a lot, depending on Average distance from boot tip to clover in four quarters was 7.5 cm, so where you sample. there are about 178 white clover plants per m2. A decent cover crop, Walking a straight but also an indication of very poor seedling survival as 350 seeds line across the field were sown/m2. and checking the distance (See Figure 1 as an example). In this spacing every 10-50 steps to a total of 10-20 example if you measure distances of 3, 5, 10, samples will get results which are fairly reliable. and 12 cm for a total of 30 cm which would be The four quarter measurement method is divided by 4 measurements for an average of the more accurate, and does not require as 7.5 cm to the nearest perennial. much repetitions so you might only need to take measurements every 50 steps and only do 10 samples. In any case it’s useful to walk through the field, to give an idea of the variation in the field. Learning from the good and bad sites on a field will teach a lot about the properties of the field and the impact of management.
From Sampling to Calculating
The distance to the nearest thistle was 20 cm (8’’), so there are about 6 plants/m2 (0.6 plants/sq.ft) or 62,500 plants/hectare (26,136 plants/acre). The other method is to take the distance to nearest plant and multiply that by two, which gets you in the ballpark of an average measurement. This can be a quicker method. You can use either the dart throw technique or the tip of your boot as you walk. In the example in Figure 2, the nearest thistle is 20 cm so you would say the average distance is 40 cm as you multiple the measurement by 2. For an even quicker estimation, I have learned the different measurements of the length of my finger joints 6 IN PRACTICE
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thistles/hectare for the removal of individual plants (RIP) to work. Using well timed grazing, mowing and weeding, it’s feasible to drop thistle populations by 90% per year. If all goes well, next year there should be 6,300 plants/ha, after that 630 plants/ ha and finally on the third year there should be 63 plants/ha. These numbers can be converted to distances to plants and used to monitor, how well the control is working. The average distances should increase from 0.4 m to 1.3 m the next year, to 4 m after that and finally to 12 m (the distances to nearest plants should be half those). On the other hand, if you want to maintain red clover in a grass sward at a density of 200 plants/m2, it corresponds to a distance of 3.5 cm to nearest plant (or 7 cm average distance to plant). In that case, if the distance to nearest clover is 5 cm, the population is already 50% below target and needs to be managed better. If you sample across the field, you may find areas where clovers are growing better and areas where they are doing poorly. This provides additional information on soil quality at the different sites. Having this information greatly enhances your ability to improve management decisions regardless of the size of the land base you are managing.
Tuomas Mattila is a Holistic Management educator who farms and consults. He lives near Pusula, Finland. To learn more about these techniques you can visit the University of Idaho website at: http://bit.ly/2jHXFfa.
The monitoring approach can be used to develop targets for population management. Let’s assume you have a bad infestation of creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) on a field. The initial stand is 6 plants/ m2, or 63,000 plants/ hectare and you would want to get rid of it completely. Hand pulling individual plants is an effective way to get rid of thistles, once the population is down to a level where this is possible. In general My monitoring square just missed the thistle rosette. Does that mean terms, there should there are no thistles on this field? be less than 100
LIVESTOCK
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The Buffalo Guys—
Implementing Good Conservation Methods that Pay BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
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n the northwest corner of Kansas, a herd of bison grazes on prairie grass in a setting not too different from where their ancestors grazed hundreds of years ago. At the Beaver Creek Buffalo Ranch near Goodland, Kansas, Ken Klemm and his ranch partner Peter Thieriot call themselves The Buffalo Guys, raising bison for a growing niche market in which consumers enjoy healthy meat.
Implementing Holistic Management
Ken and his family moved to their current location in 1999. “Prior to that, I managed large ranches for absentee owners in Colorado. In 1988 I took my first Holistic Management course with Kirk Gadzia, when I was managing 157 sections of ground in the San Luis Valley. I began to apply Holistic Management to that ranch, and saw huge benefits to the land, wildlife and finances. We did some seminars in which we showed the results to people. Kirk helped me put those on, and Roland Kroos came to help, as well,” says Ken. “From there I went to manage another place south of Laramie, Wyoming, and applied the same Holistic Management principles and had good success. Then in 1999 we decided to go out on our own, and bought our own ranch here in Sherman County in northwestern Kansas,” he says. Starting with 320 acres, fences and stock water developments were put in place to provide the tools needed to effectively manage the grass and farmland—to ensure that the conservation of natural resources could be accomplished. The ranch now consists of almost 4,000 acres of high plains country. About 500 acres are farmed, with the balance in native prairie or recovered farmland. The ranch was almost exclusively short grass prairie when Ken started there, but has been transformed to mid and tall grass prairie with a wide diversity of forbs. No seed was purchased; the raw materials for transformation were lying dormant in the soil and only needed a chance to express themselves. Ken is the active manager of Beaver Creek Buffalo Ranch. It lies in the heart of bison range, with tremendous diversity of grass and forb species. “It is prone to drought, but we have been able to expand and grow in spite of the drought. Kirk helped me set up 7 monitoring stations on the ranch. All lands are informally monitored at least weekly and formally monitored and documented annually based on the system that he developed. All grazing is planned and recorded,” he says. “Kirk comes every year and we spend a day or more to go around to these monitoring stations. I could monitor them myself, but I value Kirk’s
opinion and views, since he does this all over the world. It’s just a good time to have discussions about Holistic Management and review what we are doing. I feel that it is time and money well spent,” Ken says. “We have been able to apply holistic principles to the land as well as our business. I credit Allan Savory’s work in allowing a city kid from Chicago to eventually become a ranch owner! This gave me the unfair advantage over our neighbors,” he says.
Research & Learning
Ken has learned a lot in his experience of managing this ranch so he wants to make sure that there are opportunities for continued learning and research. “We’ve had seminars here and we get people from a long way coming to these, but not many neighbors,” says Ken. “After this long, however, I do have a few neighbors who are seriously interested in
Ken and wife, Laurie, (front) with their buffalo sorting crew. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
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The Buffalo Guys
We moved to Kansas with that group of 100 head, and started our herd from there,” he says. When the Beaver Creek Buffalo Ranch enterprise began in 1999, the what we are doing, because they have been looking over the fence and market prices for bison plummeted and an epic drought had begun. “We watching. It remains to be seen, however, if they are willing to go against were forced to sell what were formerly $3,500 bison cows for as little as the grain and try it themselves. Like the old saying, most people would $200 each. The drought dragged on for years, ultimately killing almost rather fail conventionally than succeed unconventionally. That’s their 90% of the trees on the ranch and ending 100% of the dryland alfalfa choice, however, not mine. We just do it and then share as we can. The production in this valley.” people who are willing to adopt some of these ideas and grow along those Out of necessity, Ken found off-ranch work but also devised a plan paths, we help them. whereby the ranch could benefit from the great buyers’ market for low“We have put together a very small group of like-minded ranchers cost buffalo by starting a meat marketing company. The meat marketing within a 60-mile radius. We just had our first ranch tour and we plan on venture became known as The Buffalo Guys; with partner Peter Thieriot, doing it two or three times a year, so we can go to each other’s places and the ranch expanded sales to grocers nationwide as well as direct-tocan see and share the good, the bad, and the ugly. We can look at grass homes sales through the internet. This business still supplies high-value management and what is happening on the land. bison cuts to hundreds of thousands of consumers each year. “We also have some farm land which we’ve applied Holistic “Meanwhile, back at the ranch, properly timed grazing and appropriate Management principles stocking rates were to, with cover crops, strictly adhered to grazing, etc. This is despite the drought. marginal farm country, This tremendous so a lot of the cover drought actually crop literature and granted us the people’s experiences opportunity to purchase are on much better several neighboring farm ground in less ranches. As we learned brittle environments, to more effectively and it doesn’t apply to manage the meager us. We are learning precipitation amounts that we have to find we received, we were our own way. We’ve able to greatly expand been at it for about our land base and our 15 years, using cover bison herd size,” Ken crops, so we have a says. fairly good database “We spent several regarding what works very lean years, and what doesn’t. but held true to our We’ve developed a conservation principles soil-monitoring protocol and made sure that we While monitoring data is showing increased ground cover and species diversity, Ken is also specifically for our farm properly looked after pleased with a 40% increase in stocking rate compared to his neighbors. ground, so that we can our greatest resource – start to monitor that— the land. We believed just as we do our native grassland. We are starting to see some benefit that if we took care of the land that it would adapt, heal and ultimately take there,” he says. care of us again and that is exactly what happened,” he says. “The holistic approach led us to discover and implement land The great diversity in species that attracted Ken to the area is what management practices which have helped us thrive here despite the ultimately saved the ranch during the worst of the drought years. “The long-running drought. We have been able to increase our stocking rate. plant mix changed greatly in reaction to the drought, but we were still in The increase in forage producing capacity has brought tremendous value the sunlight conversion business as we continue to raise bison,” he says. for many wildlife species as well as increased water holding capacity Bison are a unique fit for this land and environment. “They are for the land. Additionally, we have greatly increased the plant species supremely adapted to this region and it seems that the ecosystem diversity and this, coupled with properly timed grazing, has made Beaver responds very positively to timed grazing. Modern fencing and handling Creek Buffalo an exceptionally sustainable operation, with respect to techniques, coupled with a solid meat market, has made bison ranching both conservation and finances. We have proven that good conservation possible and has paved the way for their profitable use in grassland practices do not cost; they pay,” says Ken. restoration projects involving huge swaths of North America,” Ken says. He has been passionate about bison, and wrote a chapter for the Developing a Bison Business original Bison Breeders Handbook as well as the newly published second Ken started out as a day laborer/cowboy on a large ranch in Colorado edition. He is also a sought-after speaker at bison conventions and has that had bison and worked his way to foreman, and then manager. judged several bison sales including the National Western Stock Show for “Then I worked a deal with the outfit south of Laramie, and my five years two years. of management expertise earned me a small cut of their bison herd. 8 Land & Livestock
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The Challenges of Grassfed Beef
somebody else’s. But in the grocery market you have just a little 3”-by-5” Ken also runs cattle as well as bison to grow his grassfed market. “We label on your product.” Some people don’t read much of the label, and just co-graze the bison with Spanish cattle. These are several types of cattle see that its grassfed. that trace their histories back to Christopher Columbus’ second voyage in “There is no policing, to determine whether it is really grassfed,” says 1493 when he brought the first cattle to this continent from Spain. Those Ken. “And now the USDA has decided to extricate themselves even from cattle went native everywhere the Spaniards went because they lost a the labeling of it, so it’s become the Wild West for grassfed beef claims. few here and there. Now these cattle are known as Longhorns, Criolle, Anything goes. That’s why our AGA certification is so important to us.” Corriente, Crackers, Piney Woods, etc. but they all go back to the same “There are some real challenges on the marketing side of it. If you think lineage,” says Ken. ranching is hard, the marketing is even harder! We started our meat brand “We use those cattle as our mama cows and use Charolais bulls and in 2000 and built our nationwide distribution channel for both the bison a few Angus bulls. The crosses are what we use for our grassfed beef meat and the grassfed beef,” he says. program.” This works very well because the hardy little Spanish cows are They started with the bison, but soon branched into cattle. trouble-free and can raise good calves bred to the beefier bulls. “Interestingly enough, the holistic principles are what spurred us to add “They wean a large calf, compared with their own body weight, and grassfed beef to our bison offering, for two reasons. On the ranch, it those calves make a very good quality eating product right off grass. We was evident that we needed more than one species of grazer. Everyone are AGA (American Grassfed Association) certified, in this meat program,” knows that on these lands there were huge herds of bison in earlier years. he says. But what is often “We have our own overlooked is that there brand, called Good were huge herds of elk, Land Grass Fed Beef ®, as well, and antelope. and are packaged for As we began studying retail—so this meat the land, it was telling is in grocery stores us that we were around the U.S. Our missing a species. two major distribution Some of those species channels are KeHE eat forbs and we have and UNFI for grocery a lot of invasive weeds stores. We also do here. The bison don’t wholes, halves and utilize those very well,” quarters, which people Ken says. can order from our website. We do home Diversity for delivery for those, Resilience & basically from the Front Marketing Range of Colorado So in order to through eastern address the need for Colorado and western multi-species grazing, Kansas,” Ken says. Ken explored other The Klemms use Spanish cattle as their mama cows and Charolais bulls for the cattle genetThere is a growing animals besides bison. ics for their Good Land Grass Fed Beef ®. interest in grassfed “We tried sheep, meat, including bison, but they can carry a but marketing grassfed beef today is a real challenge. “There is a lot of disease that’s deadly to bison, called malignant catarrhal fever (MCF). I foreign competition, and there is a lot of what I call ‘stupid money’ in the have been watching the science on that for about 20 years, and worked U.S. grassfed beef market. There are many people in the industry who with Washington State University to develop an MCF-free flock of sheep. are not producing very good grassfed beef but they have a lot of money We thought we could do it, but unfortunately failed. We had to liquidate the behind them. They are actually losing money but they don’t care, and keep sheep,” he says. throwing money at it—and it’s really hard to compete,” he says. “So then we brought in the Spanish cattle. They actually prefer forbs Another problem is that a lot of what is being called grassfed beef is over grass. When we turn them into a pasture, the first thing they do is hit not as good as it could be. If the consumer buys some that is tough or all the weeds like kochia and Russian thistle. These cattle are browsers, not very good in flavor, this gives grassfed beef a bad name. “The other more so than Angus and the other beef breeds.” These hardy Spanish factor that makes it very frustrating is that there is a lot of cheating going cattle were often wild, fending for themselves. They adapted to their on. I have a friend who is a feedlot operator and he’s sold several loads environment wherever they were, and ate a variety of things for survival. of cattle right off the feedlot to a supposedly grassfed beef processor. I “Those cattle fit that niche on the land, and also financially. Thinking imagine the processor just plugs his supply holes with feedlot beef when holistically and all the legs of the stool, you don’t want to be tied to just he is a little short of supply,” explains Ken. one market. Even though one market may be really smoking hot, you still “It’s a challenge on that side of things, particularly in the retail market, should spread your eggs out so they are not all in one basket,” Ken says. but not so much when selling wholes, halves and quarters because we “The cattle were a good fit for both aspects. Interestingly enough, we have a personal relationship with those customers. You can communicate suspected that when we introduced the cattle we would have to reduce more effectively about what the difference is between your product and CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 Num ber 172
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The Buffalo Guys
much, but is still quite tender and juicy when cooked properly, and has a nutritional statement very close to bison. I realized that from a marketing perspective, in the retail cases, this would be a plus. In food services, our bison numbers and stocking rate pound for pound, but discovered people don’t see what it looks like raw. If there’s not a lot of fat in it, they that we only have to reduce our bison stocking rate by about 40%. In don’t know the difference or notice, but in the retail case you do. In that other words, for every 1,000 pounds of beef we put on the ranch, we only situation it has to look different. It has to look like something that’s a have to pull about 400 pounds of buffalo off to make room for those beef premium product, and this does,” Ken explains. animals,” he explains. “So we got some Spanish cattle and did some slaughter tests. We “That other 60% is coming from plants that the cattle can eat that the found that yes, it was a great product, but those cattle don’t yield well bison don’t prefer. So these two species are very complementary on a enough. Everybody has to make some money on this or it doesn’t make grazing basis as well as a financial basis. In summer the cattle outdo the sense. That’s when we started crossing those cattle with modern muscled beef bulls. That cross created profitability for the ranchers (since we have other ranchers producing these cattle for our market) and made only a slight change in the quality of the meat, but not enough that anyone would notice in a side-by-side test. So this created the profitability that was necessary to sustain the business model,” he says. “Then we were able to plug these cattle into our processing, our processors and our packaging systems, distribution and marketing networks, and were able to grow that aspect. So this is how we got into grassfed beef,” Ken says. It’s a great fit for this part of the country and these cattle are a good investment. They cost less than a typical beef cow, and usually the first calf you take to slaughter will pay for the cow (purchase price and inputs). Within one or two years you have paid for the cow and all her expenses. These cows wean a higher percentage of their own body weight than other beef cattle, and also last longer. “We get about 18 years out of them. They are very A bison cow and her calf making good use of improved forage stand. similar to bison in that regard,” he says. It is interesting to watch the cattle grazing bison when it gets really hot, but in winter the inverse is true, because the with the bison. “We actually have some horses and mules out there, cattle do require a little bit of care. Generally, however, we just co-graze too, but not very many. When we go out to change pastures every two them and they get the same treatment. In the middle of winter we pull the to six days, we are dealing with several species. They all view the world cattle off, and if we have a blizzard they need a little bit of cover/shelter differently! I have learned how to use the cattle to get the bison to move, and they need a little bit of feed. These cattle are hardy, however, and and how to use the bison to get the cattle to move. We can play them off we only fed them 3 times last winter, and the bison we didn’t feed at all,” one another because they are almost like they are in competition. If you says Ken. move one group the other doesn’t want to get left behind.” They do not “On the meat side of things, we had another problem in that the bison intermingle at all and stay in separate herds, but they are always aware of supply was becoming (and still is) very tight, and the price is getting very what the other group is doing. high. We were losing some customers who just couldn’t afford it anymore “We have about 550 bison right now and 250 cattle, and 33 pastures or couldn’t get it anymore. So I reverse-engineered a grassfed beef on the ranch. Each pasture gets grazed twice during the growing season product to fit the marketplace. It took me about a year to get my mind and we utilize leftover feed for winter grazing. The only winter we had to around it. We were losing customers for our bison meat because we didn’t feed any hay because of shortage was when we had terrible drought and have enough supply, yet we had a distribution chain and a production there wasn’t any grass left. Another winter we had two feet of snow that chain through arrangements with meat processing plants for grassfed turned to cement and even the bison couldn’t root through it; a person beef,” he says. could have driven a pickup over that crust. So we had to feed hay for “We needed grassfed beef, and we needed to figure out which specie about a month that year. But generally they graze through winter and we would look the best, with dark red meat like bison, a good nutritional don’t supplement with cake or protein. They just get salt, mineral and statement, and a gourmet appeal. I’ve done a lot of business with 4 and water along with their grass,” he says. 5-star chefs on the bison side, and they often asked me if I had any Longhorn or Corriente beef because those are gourmet products and Livestock as Crop Insurance have a good taste. When you look at it, the meat looks a lot like bison The ranch has 500 acres of farm ground and this is used for growing because it is dark red, with a lot of red muscle cells. It doesn’t marble very cover crops, ensuring some additional winter forage. “We plant some 10
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crops that can be grazed during winter. We let the animals do the It’s nice to have a cash flow once in a while, so we plant wheat,” he says. harvesting and have found that this helps the soil quality, integrating a lot “At first we planted the modern wheat that has been crossbred many of biological activity with all the litter and manure,” Ken says. times to create a short variety with a stout stem, genetically tweaked “We used strip farming techniques for several years to stop the soil for grain production and to be able to use fertilizer inputs to create a lot from blowing and to retain moisture. We experimented with many different of seed head. The stalk is short and stubby and holds up very well and forage variety blends and found several that the animals relished and functions well with use of herbicides (to kill the weeds). But we don’t use that grew well. We never sold hay but instead grazed all of it right where herbicides or fertilizer. We end up with a good stand, but not a fantastic it stood and worked that abundance of organic matter back into the soil. stand, and wheat plants this short allow a lot of sunlight to the soil and we This jump-started the biological recovery of our farmland and made our get weed problems,” Ken says. ranch better balanced and more secure for winter forage needs. Even “I also got to thinking that if it’s this short above ground, it may also during the worst drought years, we only needed to feed minimal amounts be short below ground (with shallow roots), so how are we going to feed of hay during winter; grazing the farm crops helped us advance with our the microbes in the soil? So I found this turkey red wheat that people quit conservation goals,” he says. growing in the 1950s and it grows much taller. Ours is nearly shoulder “It has taken a long time, but it’s amazing what we’ve been able to high this year and it totally choked out the weeds. Any weeds that grew do, bringing this worn-out farm ground back to life. We’re now seeing were just spindly and starved for light. The ground also stayed moist much earthworms, high carbon count, and it’s starting to work. Our goal is to longer because it was shaded,” he explains. get the soil equal to or greater than the adjoining grasslands.” The animal Ken plans to take his backhoe out soon and dig up some plants to see impact helps with this. what the root mass is, compared to conventional wheat, which is right Yet without rain, it doesn’t work. “Even when we didn’t get rain, and across the ranch road from this stand, in the same soil type. “I think that had some crop failures, we’ve just held to our principles and found it from a sustainability basis, as far as growing your own nutrients on the was the right thing to do. When we did get some rain, it seems there is spot, keeping the weeds down, feeding the microbes in the soil, this taller biological residual that just springs to life. The soil is so complex and we wheat is what we need. If you consider the nutrition from fertilizer that can’t begin to understand it. There are things going on in soil that we can’t comes from a barrel of oil and pull that out of the equation, the modern put our fingers on, but when you use biological/ holistic principles and try to build biological life in the soil—and start feeding the soil just like you would feed the rumen of an animal through different crops—everything works amazingly well. You have to think about the soil environment and what those microbes need, and then you start to see success. It’s a long time coming in this part of the country because we are prone to drought, but once you get the biological cycle booted up again, it starts to become an ever-increasing circle,” he explains. There was some farm ground on the ranch that wouldn’t even grow weeds, when Ken first came. “We don’t buy any fertilizer or use any herbicides and manage all of it with grazing and cover crops yet a lot of that farm ground now is very productive. We do till a little bit, because in order to seed with no-till methods you have to use herbicides. We have found ways around using herbicides, using holistic principles, and we’re having pretty good success,” says Ken. Ken hires Holistic Management Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia as a consultant to help him Some of this is uncharted territory, in such a explore new ideas and analyze biological monitoring data. brittle environment, and a person has to figure things out by trial and error. “When I get on the internet and try to research particular problems, I usually find my varieties don’t work very well. So we have applied Holistic Management answers in the old farm literature from the early 1900s, before there were principles to this decision and are already very pleased with it,” he says. herbicides or the other modern tools that people have come to rely on. “Our yield will be less, but that’s okay because we don’t have any input People couldn’t get fertilization from a barrel of oil; they had to grow it in costs other than seed and machinery. This makes a huge difference. We place. This is where I am finding my help,” he says. don’t participate in a farm program so we don’t have any crop insurance. Crop rotations and heritage crops are two practices with which Ken For us, our crop insurance is livestock—which is what a farmer’s crop is experimenting. “We planted some turkey red wheat this year, which insurance has been for thousands of years. If it’s a good crop, we sell it. is a heritage variety that went out of vogue in the 1950s, and we utilized If it gets hailed out, the livestock eat it. If the market isn’t good, we just holistic principles to come to that decision. We use a four-year rotation on graze it before it starts to get mature. We did that with half our wheat crop our farm ground and plant fall and summer cover crops. We also dip into this year already. I did the math and determined that it was a wash (graze the commodity market and have the option to sell something every year. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 Num ber 172
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it or harvest it) the way the wheat prices were, and would make the same money. The plus with grazing is that it’s easier for the cows to harvest it than for me, and we are feeding the soil. This puts back a lot into the soil, and it’s amazing the benefit we get,” he says. “In the fields we grazed, we had the stock density high enough that the animals grazed only about half the plant and the other half is laid on the ground. The soil was totally covered, so we took a no-till drill and drilled a summer seed mix into those fields—seeding plants that will grow when it’s hot. This came up in June, so we are feeding the soil again,” he says.
Restoring Grasslands
Ken is also working on improving the soil on the grasslands and changing it back to what it looked like when there was more soil fertility and biodiversity of species. “When we got here, this was all locked into short grass prairie—blue gramma, buffalo grass, etc.,” says Ken. “Now
“It’s taken us awhile to learn how to graze this grass, in this environment. It was several years before I figured it out, because we moved from the mountains of Colorado where we were at 8,500-feet elevation. There were some different principles I had to learn, but the holistic markers that Allan Savory gave us—water cycles, mineral cycles, herd effect, etc.—helped me eventually sort it out and discover where I was making my errors, finding out what worked and what didn’t.” Ken notes that a person has to be flexible, and in this part of the country it’s mostly about the water cycle. “No matter whether it is farm ground or grassland, you have to start with the water. We had to change our paradigm on several things, but have come around to find a combination that is working well. You can never get the water cycle solved here, but you can improve it greatly, and after you do that you can go on to some of the other challenges—but water is the key,” he says. “When we come out of a pasture we’ve usually taken less than half the forage, generally about a third. We want the ground to remain shaded and we want the wind to stay off it during the growing season. During the winter we can come through and graze it down pretty short, though we
Cattle are grazed on heritage wheat that grows well in this part of Kansas with no herbicide or fertilizer. it’s all medium grass prairie; you have to really look, to find the shortgrass spots. We also have a lot of tallgrass like big bluestem, little bluestem, switchgrass and a little bit of Indian grass, and a lot of medium grasses. So this is why our stocking rate has increased. “The county average is about 10 acres per animal unit, just for the growing season, whereas our ranch is right at 6 acres per animal unit on a year-round basis. This is a huge difference, and really helps our bottom line. My banker loves me because he can see that our ranch is much more profitable than some of his other customers,” Ken says. “So now our ground is covered. We have some seeps and waterholes that were formerly dry and now starting to hold water again. We have more stockwater available than we did at first. Green up comes sooner than on ranches around us and we stay green later. When it turns hot and dry, everybody else’s grass burns up a week or 10 days before ours does. When we get rain, our grass snaps back much sooner. Our solar panel is much more effective and we are able to convert more solar energy into grass, and then turn that into meat and dollars, so it’s a virtuous circle,” he explains. 12
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don’t scalp it. We’ve genetically selected for animals that do well (good pregnancy rates and performance) with no inputs. Because we have this kind of animals we can go ahead and utilize this residual grass for winter feed and not have to supplement. We are growing the feed, and can use it in the winter.”
Education and Outreach are Key
Ken and his wife Laurie continually try to help educate the public about land stewardship and agriculture. “I have a Facebook page and do a lot of education in conjunction with our meat company—showing videos, pictures and talking about land management and responsible agriculture. We try to do a lot of education. Urban people are largely misinformed about where their food comes from and what it takes to grow things. When they hear the straight story, they are very receptive. Unfortunately there are some groups funded by misinformation,” says Ken. “We actively seek out opportunities to engage with people and educate. In small ways we hope to make a difference, and I think we do. We’ve found that there are alpha consumers, who research the things
they buy. If you are wanting to buy a vehicle or a piece of technology you are not familiar with, you often know someone who has one or knows a lot about that particular product and you can ask their advice. Those people are the ones we call alpha consumers. There are people like that in the food world, and if you touch one of them and give them the proper information, they can influence dozens of people,” he says. “Sometimes it doesn’t seem like we are doing very much, but it’s important for us to get out and tell a positive story, and not degrade our competitors or anyone else. It can be helpful to just show the pluses of what you are doing and let the consumers make their own decision about what they like or want. We find that our information is well received when we do it that way, and very effective,” he says. Each summer Laurie offers a “Prairie School” where local children are invited to the ranch for a full day of learning and hands-on experience. Activities include a range tour where plants are identified (and some even consumed) as well as learning how the grazing herds interact with the prairie in a mutually beneficial manner. The local Game Warden often participates, along with other local specialists as available. The purpose of the school is to get kids on the land and help them begin to understand the natural world and how human actions, if done well, can benefit it. Tours with foreign exchange students are a common occurrence as well. Beaver Creek Buffalo is now in discussions with the State of Kansas to research the possibilities of a public/private venture in which Beaver Creek Buffalo would develop a local state park, in conjunction with private land. This could provide a destination spot where visitors could view a bison herd and have opportunities to learn how the animals and plants create a functioning prairie. This could provide a great opportunity to relate the principles of conservation to the traveling public. Ken has served as Sherman County Commissioner since 2012 and is Chairman of the Board. This position has allowed him to bring his message of working, real-world conservation to a larger audience. For instance, Ken was involved in discussions with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) regarding listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC) and was a vocal opponent of the top-down, forced “recovery” effort imposed on land owners by the USFWS. As President of a 32-County Coalition that represented about 1/3 of Kansas and about 80% of the LPC population, he effectively conveyed a message that the private land owners, where these birds were weathering out the drought, should be viewed and treated as valuable partners in the preservation of this species instead of being subjected to the heavy hand of the Endangered Species Act replete with fines and jail time. Holistic Management Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia has worked with the ranch over the last 7 years and has been involved with monitoring the land health and grazing plan for the bison and cattle. “The results of our monitoring data clearly show the continuing improvement of the ecological health of the land and the commitment of the organization and its people to this goal. The outstanding health of the bison, cattle and wildlife on the ranch is plainly a reflection of land health and the ethics and hard work that have produced it,” says Kirk. “Recently I have been asked to serve with Ken Klemm on the National Bison Association Committee on Conservation Management. The Committee is charged with developing and implementing a program to encourage and provide assistance to other ranches who wish to develop conservation management plans for their properties. This effort will help amplify Beaver Creek Buffalo Ranch’s conservation efforts as well as provide a strong example of conservation values for the bison industry. “The ecological diversity of the land and conservative business management practices of the ranch have resulted in a strong resilience
of the operation. This resilience has in turn allowed the ranch to thrive despite the historic drought that has negatively affected so many agricultural operations in the region,” he says. In addition to all the conservation practices already discussed, Ken has also built wildlife-friendly fence and strategically kept certain stock water points functioning year-round to aid wildlife in this arid land. They’ve planted and replanted hundreds of trees for shelter belts around the home sites, creating and maintaining islands of refuge for many species, bringing even more diversity to these lands. “We have identified several keystone species, such as the Kit Fox, the Prairie Chicken and several grasses and forbs and actively manage lands in ways that will attract and keep their populations strong,” says Ken. “We have learned much about what a healthy, balanced land should be from studying these native keystone species. We are forever students of this complex web of life and realize that even after a lifetime of learning and service to this great gift of land we will still be lacking. It is our desire to pass on our knowledge to the next generation so they can continue to build where we left off. “Through timed grazing, proper stocking rates and ranchland infrastructure developments (stock water and fences), the scarce rain and snowfall received is effectively utilized. Our goal is to have every square inch of ground covered with growing plant material or litter, to minimize pooling and evaporation, end runoff and forever stop wind erosion. By conserving this most precious resource, water, we can direct its great power to building soils, creating usable plant material, increasing aquifer levels and restoring the natural springs of water that have been long gone. Effective precipitation management is the key in our region. We have been successful in accomplishing many of our goals even with a decade of historic drought. The increased precipitation retention that results in a rising water table, if practiced over a large area, would help restore a much depleted Ogallala aquifer and perhaps restore greater irrigation potential for some lands,” says Ken. “Our land management practices create a more stable business model that does not depend on large amounts of inputs. Input cost gyrations that can threaten a conventionally operated outfit are often not even a consideration for a land-based enterprise such as ours. No fertilizer, no herbicide, little tillage, little harvest expense (the animals do the work) and little equipment, put our resources into areas that have much better long-term returns. “We instead rely on creating what some have termed “solar dollars” —wealth created by the sun. This model benefits not only the families that rely on this land for sustenance, but the communities these families frequent with their consumer dollars. Economies, both personal and community, prosper best when revenues are steady and predictable. “Our effective management of the land and business resources has created a very resilient operation that has now weathered a market collapse and a drought that has spanned most of the last 16 growing seasons. Despite these often extreme conditions, the resiliency of our conservation model has proven that the land, the wildlife and the people who rely on the natural world can yet thrive in a fully sustainable and healthful manner. “Our ranch has hosted many seminars sharing our practices and giving others the chance to share theirs. We plan to carry on that tradition based on the belief that like-minded people, working toward a common goal, can achieve more together than alone. Our website, www.BeaverCreekBuffalo.com, offers free start-up consultation and we have mentored several young people, who were not from an agricultural background, who are now successfully ranching,” says Ken. Num ber 172
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Spring Creek Farm’s Grass Dairy—
Benefitting from an Improved Environment BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
T
he Stricker family has been farming in southeastern Pennsylvania (about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 10 miles west of Reading) for more than 100 years, and 5 generations. Greg Stricker is the fifth generation on this farm. “It’s always been a dairy farm and historically we’ve grown crops and dairied the conventional way. My grandfather was a grazer, however, turning the dairy cows out in large pasture for a week or so and then moving them to another pasture. This was in the 1950s through the 1970s. When my dad, Forrest, took over the dairy in the late 1970s he confined cows in the barn and pushed for high production,” Greg says. “He got tired of having to utilize more and more inputs like chemical fertilizers and higher need for stronger antibiotics, growth hormones, etc. He became convinced that God had created this earth to be sustainable without all those artificial crutches. Applying killing chemicals to soil was killing the beneficial soil life. In 1991 he started searching for biological methods of farming. By 1993 we started turning the cows back out on pasture and saw the benefits of that. In 1996 we stopped growing corn and any other row crops and turned everything into grass. In 1999 we certified the farm organic.” The land has become more fertile and healthy after changing from row crops to grass, and utilizing animal impact to benefit the soil. When farming conventionally, producing crops, the organic matter in the soil was down to 2% in 1990. By 2007, after improving grazing practices, the organic matter was up to 6%, which was a huge increase. The land improved and the pasture improved. The grass and alfalfa plants are healthier and more nutritious. For instance, in earlier years the alfalfa stems were hollow, whereas now they are solid and packed with nutrients.
Adapting Management
“We raise about 30 calves each year and our cull rate is down around 20%. The calves are raised on nurse cows, with 3 calves on a cow. They can suckle as many times a day as they want, and are raised on milk for about 6 months. They grow much better this way than on milk replacer, and we don’t have to milk the cows and haul milk to the calves,” Greg says. “When we learned about Holistic Management, we started trying to give the grass more rest, and more trampling of seed into the soil, these past 5 years. We are liking what we see, with quicker recovery, and thicker forage with more native grasses. “We’re still learning, and I don’t have a lot of advice yet for other farmers, but I feel like this year we are starting to get the hang of it. A person can make small changes and maybe carry more animals, or have more native grass coming in and some of these grasses have shorter
In 2011 Greg learned about Holistic Management from Holistic Management Certified Educator Ian Allowing for adequate recovery means that nutritional value and quantity of forage has Mitchell-Innes. They began to focus even more on their increased for Spring Creek Farm. family/farm goal: “To raise the healthiest food possible and to be good stewards of the land.” Greg and his dad (Forrest Stricker) are the main farm managers. His mother (Barbara) recovery. A person has to be flexible and learn as you go. and his wife (Stacy) help with the finances and with the egg business. “We always make plans, but I know that they’ll have to change in Spring Creek Farm markets broilers (raising about 400 chickens annually the next week or two, due to rainfall or how the animals respond to the for meat) and also has 200 laying hens on pasture as well as their main grass and what they are trying to tell you,” says Greg. His goal is to utilize enterprise of the dairy. Barbara and Stacy help clean and pack the eggs Holistic Management and planning even more in the future. and they have one full-time employee and 4 or 5 part-time employees. About 90% of the milk produced by their dairy is sold to a wholesale “Right now we are milking 130 cows,” says Greg. “They are Jerseys, company that processes it, and about 10% is marketed locally to Ayrshires and crosses between those breeds and Holsteins. We cheesemakers or through farmers’ markets and to customers who come to keep bulls from our own herd, from the best cows.” There are several the farm. “We have part-time employees who help with these sales, and it advantages to raising your own bulls, because you know the history and helps with our bottom line, with some extra profit for that milk,” he says. genetics of the mothers, grandmothers, etc. “Raising our own bulls and heifers ensures that they fit their environment. Their whole microbiome is Production Strategies set up for this land and our management. They develop natural immunities “We grow most of our own hay but we do purchase some. We don’t to whatever ‘bugs’ they are exposed to here. They grew up with this, and feed any grain to the cows; we are 100% a forage-based dairy. Our goal so did their mothers,” says Greg. The cows pass on their immunities to is to increase the forage production on our pastures, to be able to raise their calves, in the colostrum. more animals on this land—and capture more carbon and water. Raising 14
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animals on grass is so much better for the environment and increases our benefits to the environment,” Greg says. Spring Creek Farm grows their own heifers, on pasture. “We’ve found that a 40- to 60-day recovery period on the pastures is ideal for our heifer raising. We mob graze them, moving twice a day, and they do fine. The dairy cows are moved through faster, moved 2 to 6 times daily, depending on the season, from April until December, with a 30- to 45-day rest period on the pasture being ideal for them.” The shorter rest period keeps the grass in a more lush, vegetative state and doesn’t let it get as mature.
After the Strickers learned about Holistic Management they were better able to manage toward their farm goal: “To raise the healthiest food possible and to be good stewards ofthe land.” “Sometimes we use mowing equipment to keep the pasture vegetative for the dairy cows, so it doesn’t get ahead of them and get so rank. The dairy cows have a different requirement for energy and protein so we want the grass in a more vegetative state. In our climate we’ve found that it does take a little pruning/clipping to do that. If the cows haven’t eaten it off we just use a tractor and mower,” he explains. “In late May and early June we usually have to get it grazed/stomped down or cut, and then in August we clip again for weed control. Perhaps in the future our pasture grasses will be thick enough that we won’t have to do that; the grass may eventually crowd out the weeds even more,” he says. “We start with just letting the cows take care of the grass, and then if things don’t go quite right we may have to step in and tweak things a bit, like the mowing,” he says. About half the herd continues in lactation through winter. “There is more demand for milk through the fall and winter than during the spring and summer, so we have to be sensitive to our market and still produce milk during those times. Winter can be cold, so the cows spend nights in the barn whenever there is snow cover. We get about 30 inches of snow each year. Our low temperatures usually dip down to sub-zero a couple times each winter,” he explains.
stages of the pasture through the year. The molasses helps balance the cows’ diet when the protein in the grass is really high—such as in the springtime—or when the quality of the grass has dropped off in the summer. We feed more, or less, of a molasses product that balances the protein/energy requirements of the lactating cows, so it doesn’t get too high one way or the other. You don’t want that balance to be out of whack, for good milk production,” he explains. The molasses product is a thick, sticky liquid that’s fed in a big trough when the cows come in from the pasture. “We meter out what they need at that time of year, such as 1 to 3 pounds per cow per day. They all come to eat it at the same time, so they all get about the same amount,” says Greg. “The better your grazing management, the fewer extra inputs like this are needed, but it’s a tool we can use to balance things when necessary.” “They were also interested in our breeding program and genetics, such as what kind of cattle work best in a pasture-based dairy. They also wondered what we use for shade in the summer, and the heat tolerance of the cows. Heat is not much of an issue for us here. We feed more molasses to the cows when it’s hot--and then the heat doesn’t bother them so much. It’s just a matter of making sure they are not too high in protein. You really need the dietary protein/energy balance correct during hot weather (and then the cows won’t have to expend so much energy getting rid of body heat generated by protein breakdown). They don’t have to pant to stay cool, and are not impacted so much by heat stress,” he says. This kind of educational programming is a critical part of helping more people understand how these agricultural operations can improve land and animal health and the environment with good management practices. In turn, farms like Spring Creek can benefit from the improved environment and grow more nutritious food for their customers, adding more sustainability to the local food system.
Holistic Farm Tour
In 2014 Spring Creek Farm Dairy was part of a Holistic Management tour organized by HMI in collaboration with the Northeast Organic Dairy Producer Association (NODPA) for a group of Danish farmers who were interested in looking at holistically managed, grass-based dairies in the U.S.—in regions like Pennsylvania that have climate and weather conditions similar to Denmark. “They were interested in our grass management and how we graze cows. Like us, they have quite a bit of rain and cool weather, and they wanted to see what was working well for us, and maybe see some things they might want to try. They were especially interested in what kind of milk production we could get from grass, with no grain feeding,” Greg says. “I think it was also helpful to them to see how we feed some molasses supplement along with the grass, at different
Post graze residual shows a lot of grass being incorporated into soil surface by Spring Creek Farm cows.
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Land & Livestock 15
When Correcting Your Soil Costs Too Much—
Making Decisions about Building Soil Fertility BY NEAL KINSEY
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hat good is a soil test if it costs too much to follow the too much to achieve an excellent soil fertility level in the shortest period advice given? of time on your land. If growers cannot afford to follow the complete More often than not this is a major complaint concerning program, then spend the available budget where it will make the most fertilizer requirements, even from those who believe they difference for the crop being grown. In other words, request excellent soil should follow the recommended advice as closely as possible. recommendations in at least one area of your property so you can see the Provided the soil test properly represents the fertility level of the area difference in production and quality. This will help create more profit to in question, the first step to the correct answer to such a question is to invest back into one of the most important resources you have: your soil. determine what you as the grower has in mind to accomplish. Without The best area to start the program might seem counterintuitive in that understanding what is actually expected from the information on a soil it may actually be the higher producing fields. They will generally need test, it is possible that the best approach for the farmer or grower’s specific far less in terms of nutrients to reach excellent condition while the poorer situation is not what the soil consultant making the recommendations has producing fields can be quite expensive to get to that higher level of in mind. performance. If you can rate your field Kinsey Agricultural Services provides performance on a scale of 1-10 with 10 a soil worksheet which asks the grower being the highest producing fields, you to decide what kind of recommendations will generally find that your return on they want from us based on the type of investment will tend to be greater on the investment they are interested in making “8” field than on the “3” field. Be sure to in their soil. The recommendations they use the “comparing options” test to make can request are: Excellent, Building, sure you are paying attention to yield Maintenance and Minimum. and quality and how you can maximize Rebuilding soil can be initially the income from the fields that are expensive, especially where crops have producing well. been grown there again and again without Once confidence in the program has adequately replacing essential nutrients been built and proven to be worthwhile that have been removed. When growing on a smaller portion of land, there is crops for years on the same land without another option that some ranchers and replacing what is taken out year by year, it farmers choose in regard to achieving will usually cost quite a bit extra to try and optimum performance from each field. put it back all at once. How many years Instead of excellent, check the box for has it been, if ever, since needed sulfur the soil building program and ask that and micronutrients have been adequately all nutrients be prioritized according applied on soils that are still shown to be to the fertility needs of the crop to be sorely deficient? We see soils that have grown there. First, spend your allocated received manure or compost or small fertilizer budget on priority #1, then go amounts of various trace elements in to #2, and so on until your budgeted purchased fertilizers for years that still fit amount for that field is used up. In this into this category. way, to the extent that “soil feeder” types When funds are limited, does that mean of fertilizers can be applied to build Neal Kinsey taking soil samples. there is no other approach that could safely fertility instead of “plant feeders” used to be utilized based on what the soil test supply the same nutrients year after year, shows as needed? The needs are still there, but under the circumstances, the soil can be improved and the priorities adjusted as progress is made. which ones should provide the greatest advantage for producing the This allows spending the budgeted amount for fertility every year, but best crop? Most growers want an excellent soil. But playing catch-up on putting that money where it will make the most difference for fertility and what has been taken and not replaced for years can add significantly to consequent production improvements on each field. production costs. You may also want to experiment with different types of soil building That added expense is what causes most to start thinking more in practices to determine the best results for your operation. Some people terms of a minimum program of fertility. Yet the minimum program should find that soil amendments are the best route for them. Others find that only be considered when you have absolutely no other choice, and even cover crops followed with livestock grazing the crops can improve soil then, keeping in mind that it is only a very temporary solution. Otherwise, fertility quicker. Each operation is unique so talk with knowledgeable when using such a program, you are removing nutrients that are presently consultants and educators as well as considering what other producers adequate for producing the crop without replacing them. Depending are doing to get an idea of what might work better for you. on whether those levels are good or barely adequate could make a big difference in the condition of the next crop that needs to be grown there. To learn more about the types of soil recommendations that Kinsey There is still an additional choice that can be made when it costs Agricultural Services provides, contact Neal at neal@kinseyag.com.
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GRAPEVINE The
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people programs projects
N E W S F R O M H O L I S T I C M A N AG E M E N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Increased Production and Profit through Living Soil
In a recent article in GRAZE Magazine, there was an article by Gabe Brown about the soil tests from his farm versus those of a local organic farm that had high diversity and organic fertilizers, another farm that was no-till and low species diversity, and one farm that was no-till, moderate diversity and high synthetic fertilizer use. Gabe’s farm was described as no-till, high crop diversity, no synthetic fertilizer and incorporating livestock. The results were pretty interesting. Gabe’s soil showed 281 pounds of nitrogen, 1006 pounds of phosphorus, and 1749 pounds of potassium. His WEOC (Water Extractable Organic Carbon) was 1,095. Contrasting this was all the other production systems mentioned which at best (the synthetic fertilizer) was showing 37 pounds of nitrogen, 217 pounds of phosphorus, and 199 pounds of potassium. The WEOC was 262. The particularly interesting statistic is the WEOC because that measures the food that the soil biology eats. If the WEOC is high, your soil can cycle a lot of nutrients. Gabe’s WEOC was almost 400% of the next type of farming system. That’s a huge difference. And he’s able to accomplish this with less expenses.
Grazing is for the Birds
In a research project recently conducted by the Practical Farmers of Iowa, there is evidence that grazing disturbance improves bird habitat for such species as bobolink, dickcissel, grasshopper sparrow, Henslow’s sparrow, and the eastern bluebird. Holistic Management practitioner Bruce Carney was the farmer collaborator on this project. He grazes cattle near Maxwell, Iowa and his property is located near a 10,000-acre wetland and prairie conservation area. Working with researchers from Drake University between May and September of 2016, 9 bird counts were taken each week in each of the three research areas (restored prairie–conservation, perennial pasture– Bruce, and perennial + annual pasture–Bruce). Researchers recorded all bird sightings or calls within 10 minutes. The outcomes were impressive in that Bruce’s pastures had 27% more species and 94% more birds than in the conservation area, with the perennial pastures having slightly more birds overall than the perennial and annual pastures. In total, 285 birds were counted in the restored prairie, 553 birds in the perennial pasture, and 524 birds in the perennial and annual pasture.
Be the Change: Invest in Regenerative Agriculture
A recent article by Bryan Welch from bthechange.com featured HMI investor and Advisory Council member, Sallie Calhoun. Titled “Sallie Calhoun: Engineer Turned Soil Health and Sustainable Agriculture Investor,” this article focuses on how Sallie is investing in “dirt and regenerative agriculture systems” through her purchase and development of the Paicines Ranch where HMI just held its 2016 Gathering and investing in various regenerative agricultural businesses
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as well as non-profits like HMI who are training farmers and ranchers in regenerative agriculture. Through Sallie’s investment firm, Cienega Capital, (run by CEO Esther Park), Sallie has invested $21 million in regenerative agriculture Sallie Calhoun whether through farmland investment, land and operating loans, or food company investments. As Sallie noted: “It’s our strategy to use all of our forms of capital — investment, philanthropic, ecological and human — to work toward improved soil health. We think that’s the most valuable, most fundamental, investment.” Sallie has also noted: “To me there is probably nothing more important for us to do than to combat environmental degradation and climate change. In order to improve the environment, it takes good land managers and that is what HMI is doing. They’re out training good people who want to be good land stewards, who want to learn how to be able to do that. I think there’s no more worthwhile place to put your philanthropic money than in the practice of Holistic Management.”
HMI is Platinum
HMI is happy to announce that we have recently earned Platinum level status from GuideStar, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information. Platinum level status represents organizational transparency and accountability. In order to be awarded the Platinum Seal of Transparency, HMI provided GuideStar with contact information, financial information, along with our goals, strategies, capabilities, indicators, and progress. By providing this information in a transparent fashion, we are able to more effectively share our story with the world, while also providing our supporters with peace of mind when they choose to make a contribution to HMI.
Canadian Holistic Management Documentary an Inspiration
If you are ready for a “feel good” movie, get comfy in front of the woodstove and stream “Meeting Place Farm Film,” a documentary about Holistic Management practitioners and educators, Tony and Fran McQuail. This documentary tracks the development of Meeting Place Farm in Lucknow, Ontario from the early ’70s to present day and shares the management practices of the McQuails which includes organic production of apples, beef, pork, poultry, and vegetables. Not only do you learn about the farm, but also the efforts in bringing on and training the next generation of farmers in regenerative agriculture. You see the early beginnings and learn what can grow from focused individual action. To view it go to: https://vimeo.com/141973433.
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PROGRAM ROUNDUP Advanced Holistic Management Class in UK
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n November HMI co-sponsored an Advanced Holistic Management training with ReGenAg UK that was taught by HMI Certified Educator Tony McQuail from Lucknow, Canada and United Kingdom Holistic Management practitioner Rob Havard. 32 participants from diverse backgrounds who managed 7,467 acres came from around the United Kingdom to learn more about Holistic Financial Planning and Holistic Grazing Planning. There were farmers, of course – from those just starting or hoping to start, to ones with many decades of experience, but there were also conservationists, advisors, managers and consultants. Different participants enthused most strongly about different elements, from those whose biggest learning was about using Holistic Management to involve younger generations to those who saw how they could be more sure they wouldn’t run out of grass and budget capacity far better. However the thing which everyone seemed to universally enjoy was Rob’s farm tour where he showed how Holistic Planned Grazing works on the ground. They also greatly appreciated learning about Tony’s experience on his farm and how he has been practicing Holistic Management since 1995. Results from the post-course survey show: • 100% of participants intend to start biological monitoring on their land • 100% of participants were satisfied with the event • 97% plan to create or modify a grazing plan as a result of this course • 96% of participants intend to change management practices • 87% gained knowledge in determining viable enterprises for their farms
HMI Online Courses Deliver
HMI’s Online Learning Series is going strong in 2017, but we wanted to report on some late 2016 results from our Introduction to Holistic Management course in which we had 28 participants from the United States, Canada, Madagascar, Belgium, Namibia and Nigeria. This course focused on key Holistic Management planning concepts and principles to help participants manage their farm/ranch for the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and financial sustainability) and more effectively manage resources. 100% of the participants were satisfied with the course and 97% improved their ability to create a whole farm/ranch goal. Here’s what some of our participants had to say about the course:
Branden Schmidt
“The Introduction to Holistic Management course was a perfect starting place
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Branden Schmidt
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for me in my dream of becoming a bison rancher. As a person who did not grow up in ranching or farming and who has had very limited exposure to it, this course provided the perfect foundation of knowledge for having a sustainable and profitable operation that fits the life I want to have. I would highly recommend this course for beginners such as myself as the best way to gain insight into managing an operation which is every bit as important as finding somewhere to learn the practical skills I need. Phil and Julie have certainly helped me move towards making my dream a reality! I will be sure to use these practices in ranching and in life.
Rory Van Wyk
“Taking the Getting Started Introduction to Holistic Management Course with Phil Metzger helped my wife and I move from just talking about how Holistic Management could help our farm to actually writing a holistic goal for our fledgling grass-fed meat business. We used the decision matrix to help us evaluate what type of fencing to use as we replace the decrepit perimeter fencing on our farm. We had already looked at the purchase price of our different fencing options, but the testing questions also helped us evaluate maintenance costs, as well as energy inputs and how different types of fence might affect the neighbors who share property boundaries with us. Using the worksheets to break down larger tasks into manageable chunks and getting feedback from the instructor really boosted our confidence as we look to tackle larger decisions in the future. We are positive that the experience gained in this class will be a tremendous asset as we look to become more profitable AND improve the health of our land and community!” HMI also completed our Getting Started Holistic Financial Planning course with 16 participants from The United States, Namibia and Columbia. This course focused on key financial principles that helped participants learn how to work on their business, not just in their business. Participants were able to develop a financial plan and identify ways to implement and monitor that plan. 100% of the participants increased their ability to determine viable profitable enterprises for their farm/ranch and 95% increased their knowledge of how to increase their net worth. Here’s what one of the participants had to say about this course:
Madeline Rosenberg
“The Getting Started Holistic Financial Planning Course has made me more confident in planning the future of my business. Using the tools and worksheets, I’ve been able to identify which components of my process, from raising sheep to selling yarn, are hindering my profitability. I also test my ideas now, ensuring that they fit into my holistic goal as well as contributing to my income. The principles of this course have helped me design a future that will keep both my farm and my business sustainable.” Madeline Rosenberg
From the Executive Director —
The Tipping Point for Resilience BY ANN ADAMS
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ne of HMI’s Board members recently shared with me information presented by Dr. Kris Nichols of the USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS) and the Rodale Institute. She notes that while organic matter is less than 5% of the soil by weight, it controls/influences 90% of the processes in the soil and, therefore, what grows above the ground and how resilient that whole ecosystem is. I also spoke with an NRCS soil scientist who said that they were finding the 2% organic matter mark to be somewhat of a tipping point. If you can get your organic matter to that level then the soil functions considerably different if you have less than that amount because it is providing the critical sink to retain water and cycle nutrients. It made me think what else in life has that kind of return on
investment. Sure, there is the Pareto Principle in which 20% of your efforts yield 80% of your results, but this formula is even better. It suggests if we can get 2% of the soil functioning right, you will have a better shot at 90% of how that soil functions. Could that be true for humans and organizations as well? What is the 2% in humans that can create more resilience for a business or organization? I believe that 2% is one’s core values. If they can be identified and articulated, then using a holistic goal and the holistic decision-making process to consistently guide actions to be in line with those values will indeed influence 90% (or more) of the actions taken. I have seen time and again, families using this process to prosper and have a resilience that helps them weather the inevitable challenging times that come to all of us.
How Consensus-Building Works CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
holistic decision-making with our financial planning, our financial assistance program, and our land use plan. My consensus building work has been limited too. At a recent meeting, I was really feeling shut down, and when I don’t feel listened to with respect, my tendency is to bail. Since I have watched this pattern within me over the years, and know where in my past this tendency comes from, I have been able to make different choices. In the meeting, the urge was great to leave and not come back. However, that inner patience said to be still, realize that this work is important and significant to me, and that this time shall pass. I also reflected on the significant changes that were already happening because of my work in the past several months. I was still, and came back to the next meeting and things began to unfold. There has been significant advancement of the work, with grant funding coming, the work is expanding to the region, and life is going well even in just the past two months. The financial assistance program is using holistic testing toward a holistic goal to award recipients, the land use plan is establishing district policies based on the testing, we have hired a community gardener to begin raising food in our low/fixed income communities, our regional irrigation water distribution organization is in dialogue about managing holistically, I’ve been asked to facilitate a xeriscape conference to address the
reduction of water use in our river basin, a local pueblo is moving toward ranching holistically, and several other elements of my plan are being lined up for implementation. This has happened in a very relatively short period. These outcomes have happened because I have learned how to make conflict my friend so I could see and make use of opportunities rather than react to old patterns.
Beyond Lower Brain Function
Bob also shared that “Best Possible Outcomes are hoped for future outcomes, sometimes not previously experienced, but intensely imagined, with a presently experienced emotion and physical response. When people believe them, they affect their perceptions, beliefs, values and strategies. They tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies when strongly held.” Since I have been doing this work for over 25 years now, I have had the fortune to have had hundreds of successful outcomes when working with this process. I have a confidence that has come with using a process that allows me to create the condition where conflict is embraced as a tool for change by all. Bob also shared another important concept, which is the notion of “Possibility Thinking: An acknowledgment that both worst and best outcomes are present and inherent in each moment, up to, and often after the event. This balanced view allows the movement toward
desired outcomes.” For the mind to wrap itself around the balance of the lower brain functions (survival of self) and higher brain functions (good of the community), we need to learn to “let go” to allow movement toward our desired hopes. Bob also shared three phrases that guide me each day and have allowed me to move to a place where conflict is my friend. 1) To “let go” of fear, or simply, to “acknowledge” our fears; 2) To seek richness (by looking for all that we are grateful in each moment); and 3) To trust the process or greater power. The first step is a daily practice as fear is part of our lower brain function with the purpose of protection from threats, real or imagined. The second step for me started as a mechanical process of asking myself what are five things that I was grateful for. In the beginning, that was difficult. Now, it’s automatic and constant for me. The final step has come with this practice, which speaks to the notion that our “job” is to create intention. The greater power’s purpose is to figure out “how.” I am constantly amazed with the outcomes that emerge when you let that process unfold. These are the steps that have guided my journey to the point in life to accept conflict as my friend. I hope that you find some of these questions or process useful so that you too can learn how to embrace conflict so that you can create the best outcomes that you have identified for you, your family, or your community.
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Certified
Educators
The following Certified Educators listed have been trained to teach and coach individuals in Holistic Management. On a yearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with HMI. This agreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives and to seek out opportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management.
U N I T E D S TAT E S CALIFORNIA
Lee Altier *College of Agriculture, CSU
400 West First St., Chico, CA 95929-0310 laltier@csuchico.edu • 530/636-2525 Owen Hablutzel 4235 W. 63rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90043 310/567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com Richard King 1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 rking1675@gmail.com • 707/217-2308 (c) 707/769-1490 (h) Kelly Mulville P.O. Box 23, Paicines, CA 95043 707/431-8060 • kmulville@gmail.com Donald D. Nelson 11728 Shafer Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080-8994 208/301-5066 • nelson-don1@hotmail.com Rob Rutherford 4757 Bridgecreek Rd., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805/544-5781 (h) • 805/550-4858 (c) robtrutherford@gmail.com
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COLORADO
Joel Benson P.O. Box 4924 Buena Vista, CO 81211 719/221-1547 • joel@holisticeffect.com Cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 • 970/739-2445 (c) wnc@gobrainstorm.net Katie Miller 22755 E Garrett Rd, Calhan, CO 80808 970/310-0852 heritagebellefarms@gmail.com
NEBRASKA Paul Swanson 5155 West 12th St., Hastings, NE 68901 402/463-8507 • 402/705-1241 (c) swanson5155@windstream.net Ralph Tate 1109 Timber Dr., Papillion, NE 68046 402/932-3405 • 402/250-8981 (c) Tater2d2@cox.net NEW HAMPSHIRE Seth Wilner 24 Main Street, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) 603/543-7169 (c) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO
Ann Adams Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/263-8677 (c) kirk@rmsgadzia.com Jeff Goebel 1033 N. Gabaldon Rd., Belen, NM 87002 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com
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IOWA Torray & Erin Wilson 4375 Pierce Ave., Paullina, IA 51046-7401 712/260-6398 (Torray) • 563/419-3142 (Erin) torray@gmail.com • wilsonee3@gmail.com
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MAINE Vivianne Holmes 239 E Buckfield Rd., Buckfield, ME 04220-4209 207/336-2484 • vholmes@maine.edu
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MICHIGAN
Larry Dyer 1113 Klondike Ave, Petoskey, MI 49770 231/347-7162 (h) • 231/881-2784 (c) ldyer3913@gmail.com MISSISSIPPI
Sullivan *610Preston Ed Sullivan Lane NE, Meadville, MS 39653 prestons@telepak.net 601/384-5310 (h) • 601/835-6124 (c)
MONTANA Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle, Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862 406/581-3038 (c) kroosing@msn.com Cliff Montagne Montana State University 1105 S. Tracy, Bozeman, MT 59715 406/599-7755 (c) • montagne@montana.edu
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Kathy Harris Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252 kathyh@holisticmanagement.org NEW YORK
Leggett *6143Craig SR 9, Chestertown, NY 12817
518/494-2324 (h) • 970/946-1771 (c) craigrleggett@gmail.com Erica Frenay Shelterbelt Farm 200 Creamery Rd., Brooktondale, NY 14817 607/539-6512 (h) • 607/342-3771 (c) info@shelterbeltfarm.com Elizabeth Marks 1024 State Rt. 66, Ghent, NY 12075 518/828-4385 x107 (w) • 518/567-9476 (c) Elizabeth.marks@ny.usda.gov Phillip Metzger 120 Thompson Creek Rd., Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-2407 (h) • pmetzger17@gmail.com
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NORTH DAKOTA Joshua Dukart 2539 Clover Place, Bismarck, ND 58503 701/870-1184 • Joshua_dukart@yahoo.com OREGON Angela Boudro PO Box 3444, Central Point, OR 97502 541/ 890-4014 • angelaboudro@gmail.com SOUTH DAKOTA
Holmquist *4870Randal Cliff Drive, Rapid City, SD 57702 605/730-0550 • randy@zhvalley.com
For more information about or application forms for the HMI’s Certified Educator Training Programs, contact Ann Adams or visit our website: www.holisticmanagement.org.
TEXAS
Bellows *NorthLisaCentral Texas College
1525 W. California St., Gainesville, TX 76240-4636 940/736-3996 (c) • 940/668-7731 ext. 4346 (o) lbellows@nctc.edu Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy. 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com Tracy Litle 1277 S CR 305, Orange Grove, TX 78372 361/537-3417 (c) • tjlitle@hotmail.com Peggy Maddox 9460 East FM 1606, Hermleigh, TX 79526 325/226-3042 (c) • westgift@hughes.net Katherine Napper Ottmers 313 Lytle Street, Kerrville, TX 78028 830/896-1474 • katherineottmers@icloud.com CD Pounds 753 VZ CR 1114 Fruitvale, TX 75127 214/568-3377 • cdpounds@live.com Peggy Sechrist 106 Thunderbird Ranch Road Fredericksburg, TX 78624 830/456-5587 (c) • peggysechrist@gmail.com
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WISCONSIN Heather Flashinski 16294 250th Street, Cadott, WI 54727 715/289-4896 (w) • 715/379-3742 (c) grassheather@hotmail.com Larry Johnson W886 State Rd. 92, Brooklyn, WI 53521-9102 608/455-1685 • 608/957-2935 (c) larrystillpointfarm@gmail.com Laura Paine N893 Kranz Rd., Columbus, WI 53925 920/623-4407 (h) • 608/338-9039 (c) lkpaine@gmail.com
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associate educators provide * These educational services to their communities and peer groups.
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
AUSTRAILIA Judi Earl “Glen Orton” 3843 Warialda Rd. Coolatai, NSW 2402 +61 409 151 969 (c) • judi_earl@bigpond.com Graeme Hand 150 Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 3302 61-3-5578-6272 (h) • 61-4-1853-2130 (c) graeme.hand@bigpond.com Dick Richardson “Spring Valley,” 165 Ironbark Lane Frogmore, Boorowa NSW 2586 61-0-429069001 (w) • 61-0-263856224 (h) dick@dickrichardson.com.au Jason Virtue P.O. Box 75 Cooran QLD 4569 61-0-754851997 • jason@spiderweb.com.au Brian Wehlburg Pine Scrub Creek, Kindee, NSW 2446 61-2-6587-4353 (h) • 61 04087 404 431 (c) brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au CANADA Don Campbell Box 817 Meadow Lake, SK S0X 1Y6 306/236-6088 • 320/240-7660 (c) doncampbell@sasktel.net Ralph Corcoran Box 36, Langbank, SK S0G 2X0 306/532-4778 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net
March / April 2017
Blain Hjertaas Box 760, Redvers, Saskatchewan SOC 2HO 306/452-3882 • bhjer@sasktel.net Brian Luce RR #4, Ponoka, AB T4J 1R4 403/783-6518 • lucends@cciwireless.ca Noel McNaughton 5704-144 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6H 4H4 780/432-5492; noel@mcnaughton.ca Tony McQuail 86016 Creek Line, RR#1, Lucknow, ON N0G 2H0 519/528-2493 • mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca Len Pigott Box 222, Dysart, SK, SOH 1HO 306/432-4583 • JLPigott@sasktel.net Kelly Sidoryk Box 72, Blackroot, A B TOB OLO 780/872-9761 (h) • 780/875-4418 (w) 780/872-2585 (c) • sidorykk@yahoo.ca
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KENYA Christine C. Jost ICRAF, Box 30677, Nairobi 00100 254-736-715-417 (c) • c.jost@cgiar.org NAMIBIA Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii P. O . Box 23319, Windhoek 9000 264-812840426 (c) • 264-61-244028 (h) kandjiiu@gmail.com Colin Nott PO Box 11977, Windhoek 9000 264-81-2418778 (c) • 264-61-225085 (h) canott@iafrica.com.na
Wiebke Volkmann P. O . Box 9285, Windhoek 264-61-225183 or 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@afol.com.na NEW ZEALAND John King P. O. Box 12011, Beckenha Christchurch 8242 64-276-737-885 john@succession.co.nz
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SOUTH AFRICA Wayne Knight Solar Addicts, P.O. Box 537, Mokopane, 0600 South Africa 27-0-15-491-5286 +27-87-550-0255 (h) +27-82-805-3274 (c) wayne@theknights.za.net Jozua Lambrechts PO Box 5070, Helderberg, Somerset West, 7135 +27-0-21 -851 5669 +27-0-08-310-1940 Ian Mitchell-Innes 14 Chevril Road, Ladysmith, 3370 +27-83-262-9030 ian@mitchell-innes.co.za UNITED KINGDOM Philip Bubb 32 Dart Close, St. Ives, Cambridge, PE27 3JB 44-1480-496-2925 (h) +44 7837 405483 (w) pjbubb99@gmail.com
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22 ININ PRACTICE 22 PRACTICE 22 IN PRACTICE
March May // June h April 2016 2017 May / June 2016
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HMI 2017 HMI Online Courses
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2016 GATHERING
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To learn more and register go to: holisticmanagement.org/trainingprograms/getting-started/ Num ber166 172 Number
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Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
a publication of Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 USA
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DEVELOPMENT CORNER Leading the Way for HMI BY JENNIFER KLASS, DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
O
ne of the fundamental parts to a successful nonprofit organization is developing an effective Board of Directors. While the size of boards and the make up and governance structures vary from organization to organization, the board plays an essential legal and oversight role in any nonprofit. The Executive Director, paid staff, or volunteers typically handle the organization’s day to day management, but a strong Board of Directors is key in the success of the nonprofit by providing effective governance, vision, and organizational policies. They are also critical for philanthropic efforts. Board members play a large part in fundraising and nonprofits count on board members to spread the word about their good work, engage their networks to educate potential donors and investors, actively participate in fundraising campaigns, and make their own donations. This is true with HMI as well. With Dr. Danny Nuckols at the helm, our amazing Board of Directors are invested in creating awareness and passion for our mission and values. Comprised of members with expertise that range from sustainable land management, Executive Director Ann Adams enfarming and ranching, to joying an early morning conversafinance and development, our tion with Advisory Council member, Board of Directors exemplify Avery Anderson.
what a highly functional board should represent. HMI is also blessed with an additional team of leaders, our Advisory Council. This group acts as ambassadors for HMI, engaging their networks to help HMI fulfill its mission. Their efforts have allowed us to reach new audiences and provided us with new funding to help us deliver more programming around the world. We would like to thank the amazing HMI Board of Directors and Advisory Council for their passion, dedication, and support in leading our organization. We’d also like to thank all our supporters and donors who have also added their considerable resources to HMI’s efforts to create healthy land, healthy food, and healthy lives. Together we are making the world a better place for generations to come!
HMI believes strongly in the inclusion of Board perspective from our international members. Our international HMI Directors presented at HMI’s 2016 Gathering about how Holistic Management was expanding in their countries and regions. (Top left going counter clockwise: Kirrily Blomfield, Australia; Wayne Knight, South Africa; Gerardo Bezanilla, Mexico; and Kelly Sidoryk, Canada).
Board members Guy Glosson and Jim Shelton were on hand at HMI’s 2016 Gathering.
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