Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2017
In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International
NUMBER 175
W W W. H O L I S T I C M A N A G E M E N T. O R G
Regenerate Agriculture BY ANN ADAMS
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arlier this year there was an article titled “How A ‘Farm Bust’ Could Help Renew American Agriculture” on The Federalist website responding to an article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about how American Agriculture is headed toward a bust. The main cause for this bust would be the U.S. share of the world grain market is shrinking and the price of corn continues to drop. Of course, what that statement points out is the vulnerability of a commodity subsidy policy that focuses on a few key crops that have less to do with providing true federal food security than it does supporting large agribusiness. The article also mentions how these subsidies have resulted in the fewest number of farmers per capita that the U.S. has ever had before — another striking vulnerability. But what has even commodity grain farmers sitting up and taking notice is the statistic quoted in the WSJ that: “The U.S. share of the global grain market is less than half what it was in the 1970s. American farmers’ incomes will drop 9% in 2017, the Agriculture Department estimates, extending the steepest slide since the Great Depression into a fourth year.” So is this the time that conventional farmers will move from the industrial agriculture model with all its inherent risks? In the article, Holistic Management practitioner, Joel Salatin, is quoted as saying that the regenerative economy is beckoning but agriculture is slow to change. He also notes that his father was told to go industrial and he ignored that advice and the family has prospered. At HMI we teach farmers and ranchers a value-based decision-making process that helps them make critical on-farm/on-ranch decisions with financial, production, business, and strategic planning that supports their efforts in regenerative agriculture. Ultimately a farm or ranch that works to partner with nature and regenerates all
its resources will increase their chances of surviving the challenges of changing markets, weather, and the multitude of other challenges that agriculturalists around the world face. Having a combination of small diversified farms/ ranches that sell into local food markets as well as mid-size and large scale farms selling into the regional and national wholesale markets offer a greater potential for food security and a truly regenerative agriculture. As this article points outs: “Since 2006, local food marketing channels have seen substantial growth: Farmers’ markets have grown by 180%, Leah Gibson continues to grow her Texas reaching 8,200 nationwide. 7.8% of farms in the farm after learning Holistic Management in the U.S. are marketing locally, and local food sales Texas Beginning Farmer program. have reached $6.1 billion.” Another Holistic Management practitioner, Forrest Pritchard, notes his concern about the rising age of farmers and ranchers and how there isn’t more focus on training new farmers and ranchers for a regeneration of the U.S. agriculture system. HMI is proud to be addressing this need as we train new farmers and ranchers as well as help experienced farmers and ranchers transition to regenerative agriculture practices. We have many that come to us requesting scholarships and we provide more than $15,000 of scholarships a year because of the generous support of our donors. Together the Holistic Management network is working to regenerate agriculture so that we can create healthy land and thriving communities.
Agriculture, like any other industry, is influenced by many changes. Adaptation is key to success in 21st century agriculture. Learn how the Swikards from Five Dot Ranch successfully adapted to the changes influencing their operation on page 13.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Holistic Adaptation
How Sap Bush Hollow Farm Meets the Challenge of Cooperating Across Generations
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 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 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 SHANNON HAYES
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f there’s a romantic image that tugs at our heart strings as much as the thought of homegrown tomatoes, it’s the multigenerational family farm. In a culture that has spurned the union of the generations —that frowns upon the thirty-something living in his parents’ basement, mocks the new family who moves in with Grandma, offers condolence to the empty nesters who take in an aging parent, builds television sitcoms about the interpersonal conflicts between married couples and the in-laws, and peddles financial products to discourage elders from ever being a “burden,” the family farm has been America’s great exception to the now-expected independent nuclear unit. Farms proudly advertise the number of generations who have lived on the same land; signs are hung on the side of barns to commemorate the 100th continuous year of business within the same family; awards are handed out, stories written, legends passed down within rural communities celebrating the differences from father to son, mother to daughter. And in an era when the rest of the country is discovering that breaking ourselves into nuclear units is coming at an ecological, financial and emotional cost, the multi-generational family farm feels like the last cultural example we can turn to as a reminder of what might make for a viable future, whether the multiple generations are in the city, the suburbs, or on the land. But this week I heard three painful stories about the tensions among the agrarian generations. One young family, indebted over $500,000 in an effort to take over the family farm, is being crippled from making sustainable changes on the land by both excessive financial burdens, and a lack of physical and emotional
Bob, Shannon, Ula, and Saoirse staffing the Sap Bush Hollow Farm Market. support from the older generation. Another family with children, who’d invested several years in building an organic enterprise on the family farm and buying out the parents, is finally abandoning their dreams and is trying to find land elsewhere, because the inter-generational conflicts were insurmountable. And a third couple, who moved back to take over the family farm a few years ago, has just moved out again, their efforts at reviving the land having met too much resistance. Their marriage is on the cusp of breaking up, too. I know my generation can be a nuisance. We want everything instantly. We grew up with little to no training in financial literacy. We learned that controlling expenses wasn’t as critical as earning a big paycheck. And when the big paycheck never showed up, we were sold a bill of goods that we could afford more debt than was realistic. At the same time, we’re questioning how hard we want to work. We don’t ubiquitously buy into the idea that logging 80 –100 hours of labor in a week is the best way to take care of family. And to add to matters, we’re expressing a lot of annoyance at the detritus bequeathed to us by our parents and grandparents: depleting fossil fuel reserves, excess carbon in the atmosphere, polluted water, environmental toxins, lost
FEATURE STORIES
LAND & LIVESTOCK
NEWS & NETWORK
How Sap Bush Hollow Farm Meets the Challenge of Cooperating Across Generations
From Pharmacist to Farmer— Richards Family Farm and Livestock
Grapevine................................................................ 16
You Might be a Manager If…
Five Dot Ranch— Surviving Housing Development Pressure
SHANNON HAYES........................................................................ 2 DAVE PRATT................................................................................. 4
The Importance of Monitoring— How Do You Know Where You Are?
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS......................................................... 8
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS.......................................................13
JEFF GOEBEL.............................................................................. 4
Beyond the Family
ANGELA LOVELL.......................................................................... 6
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September / October 2017
Program Round Up.................................................. 17 From the Board Chair.............................................. 19 Certified Educators.................................................. 20 Marketplace............................................................. 21 Development Corner............................................... 24
topsoil, nutrient-deficient foods, and the chronic illnesses that ensue from these things. At the same time, the older generations have their burdens, too. The 401Ks that seemed so cushy a few years back aren’t quite so robust. The vision of “golden years” spent golfing and playing tennis in sunny Florida have been replaced by fears over medical expenses and the humiliating prospect of lost independence. It’s hard to be generous with grown children when you feel insecure yourself. ….Especially when those kids enter the scene with crazy ideas about changing how the farm is managed, questioning the lifetime decisions of the elders; or they contrive new-fangled business plans for ventures that seem risky. I moved back to my family’s farm in 1996, at the age of 22. While I spent a few years in graduate school, I came home every weekend and summer, and have been an active part of the business since that time. In the 17 years I’ve been involved with Sap Bush Hollow, I fell in love with a man, convinced him to move here to start a life together, began a family, and bit by bit have grown more deeply into the family business. Bob and I realized early on that my parents were too young and vibrant for us to simply “step in and take over,” and our different skill sets and personalities have required that we find unusual ways to blend with the family business. Some of our livelihood from the farm comes from actual labor, some of it comes from our own entrepreneurial ventures. We don’t live in the same house as my parents, which has its benefits and drawbacks. It isn’t all butterflies and rainbows here, that’s for certain. We have arguments, we storm off, hang up on each other and occasionally sit down and have some good cries. But after nearly 20 years, we’re still here, still working together on this business; still in agreement that this family farm offers the best possible life for all of us. Along the way, there’ve been a few lessons and practices that have really made a big difference in the viability of our intergenerational cooperation: 1. The stated goal of the business. Posted on the wall of the farm office is a piece of paper, typed up maybe 25 years ago. Mom and Dad wrote it to express their goals and dreams. And the number one goal at the top of the page reads: We want to create a business that one or both of our children would want to run. It’s not saying that the kids have to take it over. It’s just saying that the quality of the venture needs to reflect the needs and desires of the next generation. Thus, every decision they make on that farm gets tested against this
top goal. As the next generation, I have a sense of security that my thoughts and ideas matter, that Bob’s and my quality of life is critical to the success of Sap Bush Hollow. 2. No one “owns” the land. I remember the day a neighboring farmer drove into the barnyard to talk to Mom and Dad about the financial potential of signing a lease to allow hydro-fracking on our land. Dad shrugged his shoulders and said he Ula and Saoirse are a part of the farm team at Sap couldn’t help him. “It’s not my land,” he said. Bush Hollow Farm and learning how to cooperate “Isn’t your name on the deed?” across the generations. “Doesn’t matter.” He pointed to Saoirse and Ula, then about 5 and 2, who were all else. As the parents, this makes Bob’s and tumbling across the front field. “It’s not mine. It’s my job a lot easier. We don’t feel as though theirs.” our fidelity to the family business is questioned And that’s the tone around here. None when we need to honor our commitments to of us owns it. It is forever owned by the next our children. The person who leaves farm work generation. Whoever has their name on the to prepare the daily meal, teach the kids, or deed is a temporary steward. Thus, while Mom maintain the home is as valuable as the one and Dad are counting on the farm to sustain making hay. them as part of their retirement, the land is not We didn’t start out in our family venture a source of retirement income. It is a resource knowing all these rules for success. Over the for each successive generation. When Mom and years, we’ve grown into them, and a lot of the Dad made a choice to buy a farm, they weren’t lessons were learned the hard way, through buying a retirement asset. They were securing emotionally trying experience. I’d be a fool a resource for the family and its subsequent to suggest that these were the only keys to generations. success, and I’d be even more of a fool to argue For Bob and me, this means we’ll never that, because of these attributes, our farm will “own” the land, either. We derive benefit from be “sustainable.” No one ever really knows the the resources it offers, and it is our job to bridge answer to that question. All I can say is that, for to the next generation, and to help make sure 17 years, life has been good. So good, in fact, Mom and Dad will be able to be comfortable in that I can say I am happy where I am, and that their retirement, without having to sell that land. everyone in the Sap Bush Hollow family seems 3. Avoid debt. to share the daily intentions to continue the Keeping the farm in the family is a lot quality of life we have. easier when the bank doesn’t have a lien Certainly, these words cannot salve the pain on the property. At Sap Bush Hollow, we’ve of those three farm families I mentioned earlier. been masters at diversifying our income with What’s done is done. We’ve entered an era that small ventures that are not capital-intensive, asks us to un-learn the last 60 years of cultural which keeps us in control of the money and conditioning, and to reclaim wisdom from out of debt. And all of us are pretty skilled at generations that are nearly gone. It isn’t easy, living on the cheap. One of the many benefits and our lessons are hard-won. But hopefully we is that there is a lot less stress between the will hold onto the re-discovered wisdom this generations. Interestingly, since thrift and time, pass it along to our children, and enable frugality is a defining quality of our family each successive generation to grow up culture, we find it easy to be generous and comfortable walking sustainably on this earth. trusting with each other. No one worries about someone else wasting money. This article was first printed at On 4. The most important “product” is the Pasture (www.onpasture.com), an online next generation. grazing resource. Shannon Hayes is the There is an agreement across the family author of several books, including The that Saoirse and Ula are number one. This Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook and Radical means that homeschool is not squeezed into the Homemakers. She and her parents, interstices between loading cattle and chasing her husband and daughters operate pigs. The teaching space and time is sacred. Sap Bush Hollow Farm, Store & Cafe in Family meals are of paramount importance. Upstate New York. Shannon blogs about Adequate rest to allow for a calm, happy family her family farming adventures weekly at: life is critical. And their safety matters above TheRadicalHomemaker.net. N um ber 175
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You Might be a Manager If… BY DAVE PRATT
Editor’s Note: While Dave wrote this for ranch managers, I believe that what he writes is true for anyone in business. ost “ranch managers” aren’t managers. They don’t do the work of a manager, they don’t produce the results a manager would produce and they aren’t paid what a manager would get paid. The result isn’t just poor management. Most American ranches aren’t managed at all! Every business has three levels of issues. The first set of issues revolves around ownership. Owners are responsible for defining owner value and charting the strategic direction of the company. The next level, management, concerns itself with developing plans to implement the strategy and deliver owner value. The third level is labor. Labor does the work
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outlined in the plans. I was reminded of these different roles at last month’s Executive Link Conference in Big Sky, Montana. Following presentations by E-Myth coaches, in which they made the distinction between entrepreneurs, managers and technicians, we visited the Flying D ranch. At the Flying D we met with two highly effective managers, Mark Kossler and Danny Johnson. (When Mark first attended the Ranching for Profit School and joined Executive Link, he was the manager of the Flying D. He now manages all of the ranches in the Turner network, totaling about two million acres.) Their remarks about strategic and tactical planning, developing relationships within the ranch team, with customers and with regulators, highlighted the difference between what real managers do and what most people we call ranch managers do.
The Importance of Monitoring—
How Do You Know Where You Are? BY JEFF GOEBEL
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he late Dr. Edward Deming often would be heard saying “What you measure is important!” When I worked for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, spending farm bill monies and indicating the number of “acres” or “feet” or “numbers” of practices are what we are graded upon in our performance appraisals. We never would get graded on whether land improved successionally, or retained more water in arid regions, or stored more carbon, or increased biodiversity. But, which of these criteria will get us the results we want? Also, with these entities, we were only focused on natural resource management (assumed through implementation of practices), so we never checked to see if a rancher or farmer was more economically prosperous or the family was “happier.” The country of Bhutan developed the concept of “Gross National Happiness” to help them assess if their country was indeed becoming happier, as opposed to the Gross National Product, which measures the market value of all the products and services produced in one year. Again, we must look at what is important to monitor and what are we trying to change. If we want to foster change, then we need to change the structures in our lives, much like 4 IN PRACTICE
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changing the form of a watershed. The structure of the watershed is designed to take a drop of water from any point within the boundaries of the watershed, predictably, down the path of least resistance. The water will eventually end at the mouth of the watershed. If we want other results, we need to change the “structure” of the watershed to get water to go in a different direction. In humans, these “watershed structures” are our core beliefs, which affect our behaviors, strategies, and actions. Self-awareness of where we presently are, is critical for change. Robert Fritz (author of The Path of Least Resistance) says a healthy understanding of our present situation is critical before we can even understand where we want to go. It’s the relationship between an accurate understanding of our present situation and where we desire to go that allows us to move to our desired outcomes. Dr. Deming used a process for his quality management work that he borrowed from his friend and colleague, the late Dr. Walter Shewhart. The learning process has four steps— Plan, Do, Check, Act. The end result is the ability to continually, if one follows these steps religiously, move toward a more improved outcome. In Holistic Management, the “plan” is
September / October 2017
A more accurate title for most ranch managers would be “foreman.” A foreman is the person who oversees work and ensures that it is done according to the plan. The manager is the person who creates the plan and orchestrates the team. You might think the characteristics and responsibilities of someone managing over 50,000 animals on 2,000,000 acres would be a lot different than someone working at a smaller scale. But regardless of scale, an effective manager needs to plan, delegate and communicate.
Planning
The plan the manager creates shows how owner objectives will be achieved. Planning includes projecting livestock performance and describing how the grazing resources
based on a Holistic Goal or Holistic Context. The “check” part is about the active feedback loop that comes from good monitoring toward your desired outcome. However, whatever monitoring protocol you decide to use, what is really important is that this work is done by the manager. The knowledge needs to be known and understood by the one managing. The “Act” part of the Shewhart Cycle cannot happen if the awareness of the current situation is not understood by the one with the power to make change. I have discovered over the years that one of the weakest areas during the journey of change is the act of monitoring. If we are not monitoring, how do we really know that change is happening? In holistic decision-making, there is a strong understanding that due to the complexity of human and ecosystem processes, we must assume our decision-making is inaccurate. Consequently, if we don’t monitor, we won’t know if change is really happening or how we should adjust our strategies and actions. There are a number of natural resource management monitoring protocols. For those who have direct influence on the land, the more you can quantify changes such as amount of bare ground or composting litter, the more you can understand and analyze criteria that reflects the soil surface’s ability to support healthy ecosystem function like water infiltration and nutrient cycling (carbon sequestration), and the improved resilience that comes from more
will be managed to support that performance (and produce other wildlife and landscape objectives). The planning includes projecting enterprise gross margins, profit (or loss) and cash flow and shows how labor will be deployed through the year.
Delegation
Most managers got promoted because they excelled at doing the technical work they now manage. It is natural that many find it tempting to continue to do most of that work themselves. But effective managers delegate that work, knowing that the cost of doing the technical work themselves is too high. To delegate effectively, they clearly define the results they want, document processes that produce those outcomes and hold people accountable for using those processes and producing results.
Communication
If the biggest job of a manager is planning,
plants and diversity. Financial management monitoring is also important. The holistic financial management process is a tool to “make things happen,” versus watching “what happened.” Accounting is the primarily accepted method of measuring our finances. However, accounting is about tracking expenditures already completed. Holistic financial management is about looking at the ability to navigate toward a desired financial (and social/cultural and ecological) outcome. There is also the important work of measuring human change. I employ various techniques in my consensus building work such as using “adaptive learning” at the end of significant events like a meeting or a conflict resolution process. Adaptive learning asks each participant two questions, 1) how did you feel about the experience and 2) what did you learn that will help us be successful, resolve the conflict, resolve the impasse…? The “feeling” question is important to help people reduce anxiety that may exist at the end of an event so that they can actually shift their brain’s focus from “lower” brain to “higher” brain thinking. Higher brain thinking is where we can draw on experiences to learn and find meaning in each moment of life. I often also do an evaluation process by having the group reread a desired outcome created months or even years earlier and ask two questions. 1) What is the evidence that the desired outcome is occurring? 2) What do we still need to do (strategies and actions) to
the most important skill is communication. Effective managers know how to communicate the plan to owners and employees, and listen to concerns of both with empathy.
Our Challenge
One big constraint we face in ranching is that our ranches are too small to justify hiring qualified people for each position … although it could be that our ranches are too small because we haven’t hired qualified people for each position. We often wear all of the hats (ownership, management, labor) in the business ourselves. That makes distinguishing one role from another difficult. Difficult, but no less important. Many ranches don’t have a strategic plan or an operating plan. They don’t prepare a budget unless the bank makes them. They don’t set goals or targets and, if they do, they don’t monitor the results they get against those targets. They don’t define employee roles,
continue fostering the desired outcomes? I also have groups “move” in describing their shift. I do this by placing 10 chairs against a wall, labeling them from 1 to 10. I ask the group to stand in front of the chair that best represents where they were in reference to their desired outcomes before we started our work. Next, I ask them to stand in front of the chair that best represents where they are now, after our consensus building work. Finally, I ask them to stand in front of the chair that best represents where they expect they will be in one to five years. Typically, after the consensus building work, the group will move from lower numbers, to mid-level numbers to finally, high numbers, often exceeding the limits of the numbered chairs. Every time I do this activity, the group forms a bell-shape (or normal) curve. A normal curve reflects that standard deviation is part of the norm, and this understanding allows people to be more tolerant of those at the extremes. The physical activity of moving as an individual and group also stimulates mental activity about change. If it’s important to measure ecologic, economic, and social/cultural changes, what do you need to do to move forward? My suggestion
effectively delegate or hold people accountable. The most common reason I hear for the failure to manage is that we don’t have time. We are too busy doing the technician’s work. The result is that we often do things right without knowing if we are doing the right things. I think there is something even bigger at work. I don’t think most ranchers know how to manage. And how could we? No one ever taught us. Dad showed us how to build a brace, put up hay and vaccinate a cow. He taught us how to grow crops and raise cattle. He never showed us how to plan or delegate or communicate. Imagine the difference it would make if someone in your business had these skills. Is your business being managed? Take this Manager’s self-test at http://bit.ly/2gYtFeD to see if your ranch has a manager.
Dave Pratt runs Ranching for Profit and can be reached at: pratt@ranchmanagement.com.
Pasture Monitoring. is to realize the importance of monitoring, first and foremost. Secondly, select methods to measure change that are easier to do. If it’s difficult, the path of least resistance could cause you to drop off after one or two cycles of measurement. “Keep it simple” is a pretty good standard in my book. Learn to be “curious,” and get out and “listen” to the elements of your desired outcomes. Make it fun! Perhaps a social event is in order?
Jeff Goebel is an HMI Certified Educated and has partnered with numerous individuals and professionals from diverse organizations, public and private sector institutions to support and implement the consensus work globally. He can be reached at: goebel@aboutlistening.com. N um ber 175
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BY ANGELA LOVELL
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our years ago, Tom and Margaret Towers were facing a dilemma that’s becoming increasingly common for farm couples as they move into what are politely called their senior years. The Towers knew they couldn’t continue to manage alone forever, and they also knew they wouldn’t want to leave the farm near Red Deer, which they’d spent a lifetime creating. And while their children love having a connection to the farm, they were away pursuing successful careers. “Our kids are doing other things, but the land is important to them and we wanted to keep the land in the family,” says Tom, who established Tamara Ranch in 1967 with his wife, Margaret, about a mile from his great grandfather’s original homestead. “We needed to find somebody who could manage the place,” says Tom. “But it was important that they had the same philosophy as us.” It wasn’t only the kids they were thinking about. Like others, they were thinking about themselves too, and about their lifetime’s commitment to the land. Surrounded by large-scale grain farms, the Towers figured that if they sold their land it would be swallowed up, becoming just another cluster of undifferentiated fields in a much larger crop production enterprise, and they couldn’t bear to think that the things that made their land special might be lost, or that all the work they had put into building soil health, improving the grasslands, increasing biodiversity and retaining natural habitat might be undone. “We love our land. We’ve been on it for 50 years,” says Margaret. “But what were our options? We wanted to stay on the land, but we didn’t know how to still make an income off the land without selling or renting it.”
Needing Land to Rely On
Meanwhile, not too many miles away, Blake and Angela Hall were struggling to find a longterm land rental agreement that was stable enough to allow them to grow their grass-fed beef business. After a year of university, Blake was having a hard time finding the right direction for his life. He had spent a couple of years participating in youth volunteer exchange programs in Canada and Burkino Faso, and had set two goals for himself; to learn how to build a house, and to grow food. “I figured there was probably no 6 IN PRACTICE
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harm in learning those two skills whether they led me into a career or not,” says Blake. “I was 20 years old, and not tied down by family or debt.” Blake spent a summer in Ontario with the CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) program that taught him about growing food, and decided to stay in Ontario to start a carpentry apprenticeship. He obtained his journeyman’s certificate five years later, but it was that first summer Angela and Blake Hall and Tom and Margaret Towers. on the farm that stirred a passion for agriculture. wanted to do with these cattle, and what he When Blake moved back to Alberta in 2011 wanted out of life,” says Margaret. “We could he bought his first small herd —30 head of see his love for the land and the passion for mixed pregnant cows and young steers. He what he was doing. He wasn’t just playing at also took a meat cutter’s course at Olds College farming, he was really serious.” where he met his future wife, Angela, another The cattle were such good animals, Tom “townie” with no farm experience, who Blake wondered why Blake was selling them, and describes as his happy farming accomplice. when he answered that he needed to pay his winter feed bill, Tom and Margaret wanted to help. They purchased some of the female cattle and agreed to keep the calves to sell back Tom Towers was looking to to Blake. retire, but wanted to ensure From there it was a natural progression to ask Blake if he wanted to bring his herd to the their farm would live on. Blake ranch and manage it. “We could see that he Hall wanted to farm, but didn’t needed some permanence, somewhere he put his roots down, raise these animals have the equity. With the help could and keep his business going,” said Margaret. of legal agreements, an outside The Towers suggested a long-term plan to manage 400 acres of their land and also facilitator, and a commitment to offered to let Blake and Angela move into the open communication, each is modular home on the next quarter on a rent-toown basis. Photo Credit White Creek Ranch Photography
Beyond the Family
reaching their goal.
The Agreements A Fateful Meeting
The Halls and Towers crossed paths in 2012 when Blake answered Tom’s ad on Kijiji for grass-finish type cattle. When they got together, Tom and Margaret immediately sensed and liked Blake’s outlook, even though he’d grown up in the city. “We were really impressed with this young man, and we started chatting about what he
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The Towers and Halls each sign a yearly Farm Services Agreement, which provides mutual protection for all parties and is an umbrella cover for all of the enterprises that operate independently on the ranch. Tom and Margaret signed an additional five-year Scope of Work (SOW) agreement with Blake and Angela which covers the dayto-day activities that they share on the ranch. “This working agreement gives us the ability
to bring Blake into the family operation, and allows him to become a part of it rather than a renter. We, in turn, have the confidence of a long-term relationship with the ability to mentor and impart what we have learned over the last 50-plus years,” says Tom. “We share similar philosophies and can work toward shared goals for the overall progress and success of Tamara Ranch.” Importantly, the SOW provides Blake the opportunity to ranch with no fixed costs in land or mortgage payments. Blake runs his cattle with the Towers cattle on 400 acres and pays them an animal day rate while they pay him a per-head day rate for looking after their cattle. This year, the grazing herd comprised 150 head of cows, calves, yearlings and fats, of which Blake owns about 60 per cent. They share costs for hay, straw, salt and mineral based on percentage of ownership of the herd. “Blake buys our fat beef at a fixed hanging rate, and markets all the fats, including his own, through his company Prairie Gold Pastured Meats,” says Tom. “He pays us a percentage of gross on lamb and pork sales.” The Towers custom graze a neighbour’s yearling replacement heifers and breed them for him, for which they’re paid on a per-headper-day basis. They reimburse Blake for the management of them, which includes daily moves and health care. Tom and Margaret still manage the remaining 640 acres which grazes cattle from a local Hutterite colony. The Towers could just rent their land, but would lose the ability to sustain it in the manner they’ve worked towards for the 50 years they’ve owned it. “The simple rent from the farmable land would pay us about what we are getting from the cattle sales and grazing,” says Tom.
Hiring a Facilitator
Even though Blake and Angela hit if off immediately with Tom and Margaret, they were still cautious about jumping in with both feet. “It’s often the human element that leads to a breakdown in the partnership, whether it’s family or not, so we really took our time to decide,” says Blake, who ended up taking the same Holistic Management course that the Towers had taken in the ’90s. “I’d seen a lot of farms that were successful, their marriages were intact, they had good family lives, and their common thread was Holistic Management,” Blake says. Over that winter the two couples agreed it would be a good idea to hire a facilitator to help them with goal setting and to develop a strong communications strategy, something they knew
would be important if their relationship was to grow and flourish. They invited Kelly Sidoryk, a certified Holistic Management educator from Lloydminster to come and help them out. Sidoryk’s role was to help each couple set goals and create their own vision, which she then helped to bring together to form a larger vision that would work not only for the whole operation, but also for all the people involved. “This is hard work (for them) to do,” says Sidoryk. “It’s harder than building fences or making a financial plan, because you really need to sit down, and be open and communicate your wishes.”
For Angela and Blake, just as for Tom and Margaret, success hinges on their openness and mutual respect. “We have all got to be financially sustainable,” Tom says. “You need transparency.” “I really admire the Towers and the Halls for being able to create something unique,” Sidoryk says. Focusing on goal setting and communication at the start made it easier in the long run, Blake agrees. “That’s when everything is good, and everybody is happy and excited. ” “Inevitably things arise, and you can’t set up a communication framework reactively,” he adds. “As things come up, we’ve got the respect for each other, and the understanding that we can address those things, and it’s been successful so far.” The communication strategy isn’t anything fancy. It’s as simple as sitting down together over coffee every Monday morning, talking about what’s going on at the ranch, and sharing ideas to tweak the management, or discuss any small disagreements or grievances that arise. Blake says he feels lucky to have such a good relationship with the Towers, because he’s seen many of his peers from family farms whose succession planning hasn’t gone anywhere nearly as smoothly, and he’s fairly confident, having met the Towers’ children, that he’ll be able to work with the family for years to come. Margaret and Tom had no doubt that their son Todd would hit it off with Blake, and vice versa, and they also knew that their desire to
see the farm managed according to the ideals that Todd shares with them would hinge on their relationship. “Todd has always loved the farm, and is totally in sync with what we have done here and the last thing he wants to see happen is the land pass out of the family,” says Margaret. “Todd and Blake are developing a great relationship. They have a similar philosophy, and they truly respect each other.” Blake and Angela direct market grassfinished beef to private customers in Red Deer and Calgary under their own Prairie Gold Pastured Meats brand. “We have our animals butchered, and we deliver our beef directly to our consumers,” says Blake. “There’s no way that, as a small producer, we could have gotten a start in agriculture if we were trying to get into commodities. With direct marketing we keep our entire margin, and set our own price rather than take whatever price is being given at the auction mart.”
At the Bank
As with many young producers starting out, it’s difficult to walk into a bank manager’s office and ask for an operating loan when you have little or no equity built up to back it. The Halls had to be creative to finance their operation. They run a herd share program — similar to a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) arrangement, where customers purchase a share in the live animal that will provide their meat. This provides upfront revenue and a reasonably stable cash flow through the season. “It is really the only way we were able to build the business,” says Blake. “When I was starting I was literally laughed out of lenders’ offices.”
A Farm ‘Incubator’
Interestingly, Tom and Margaret’s arrangement with Blake and Angela has morphed into a kind of “incubator” system which is helping other young people achieve their farming dreams too. They now also rent a seven-acre plot of land to Blake’s brother-in-law, Mike, who is running a successful CSA venture which employs up to five local people. They also have an agreement with another young couple, Sven and Nikki, who raise pastured poultry on their land in the summertime. Tom and Margaret know what they are doing goes against the traditional retirement plan of selling off the land or re-mortgaging it to the next generation. “We are trying to give the next generation of young farmers the opportunity to grow food, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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LIVESTOCK From Pharmacist to Farmer—
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Richards Family Farm and Livestock BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
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pessimism among farmers. Many people were saying we shouldn’t try to farm,” he says. “It was unfortunate that people were in that state, but we continued on and decided to give it a try for a couple of years —to see if there was any potential here. If there was, we wanted to farm. If not, we would move on. We did feel there was lots of potential, so in 2002 we bought some cowcalf pairs. We thought we would get into the cow business as well as grain farming. Then in January 2003 we took a Holistic Management class,” he says.
arry Richards is seeing positive results from Holistic Management on the farm where he grew up, near Bangor, Saskatchewan. He and his wife, Lynn, and three children (Rebekah, Evan and Caroline) are making it work without any outside input. “This was always a family farm, homesteaded in 1902 Learning to Work by my grandfather. My mother and with Nature father farmed here, then I went Holistic Management has been away to university and became a big help for Garry in learning to a pharmacist. I was gone from understand how to work toward the farm for about 15 years, then improving land and pastures. returned home with my wife near “Most of the conventional grain the end of 1999,” he says. farmers in our area need to He and Lynn met in Africa learn more about actual land where they both worked at a management. Most of them don’t mission hospital in Kenya. She have any idea about what a water was originally from Alabama, cycle is, or a mineral cycle,” and didn’t have any background says Garry. These are unfamiliar in farming. “I went to Kenya terms and they don’t understand from Alberta, where I owned a soil health. pharmacy,” says Garry. “I sold “They might know a few terms it and went to Kenya, and that’s like organic matter, but they are where Lynn and I met. We ended focused on a ‘recipe’ approach up getting married in Nairobi to farming —thinking that if they before we came back here to the just put the right ingredients family farm.” together and put it in the ground, Evan, Lynn, Caroline, Garry, and Rebekah It was always a mixed farm, spray this and spray that —and and then in the mid-1970s his hope it turns out well, rather than father sold all the cattle and went to a straight grain farm. “Thus I didn’t being proactive. They think that if you have this certain problem you grow up with any livestock, except a few horses. I had only been home do this remedy, and if you have that problem you do that, rather than periodically to help with combining or seeding, so I had not been actively being pro-active with rotations and trying to optimize soil health. Holistic farming. When my wife and I came back, we thought we would come Management is a very foreign concept to many farmers, but some are home and see if there was a future in farming. We wanted to see if we coming around to seeing it,” he says. could make a living without subsidizing the farm long-term with our offPeople are used to managing just one crop, rather than trying to farm income. I was a pharmacist and my wife is a nurse, and it would have manage everything as a whole. “The class we took in 2003 was wonderful. been fairly easy to work off the farm to generate some income to help We didn’t have all the traditional paradigms to hold us back, because we keep things going, but that wasn’t really our goal,” says Garry. hadn’t been back on the farm very long. We weren’t here long enough to “We wanted to see if we could make the farm sustainable on its own develop very many patterns or bad habits! It was ironic because the cows and have a good quality of life--and not be running back and forth from we bought were all due to calve in January because that’s when most town. We grain farmed for a couple of years and it was really a difficult people calved at that time (January, February and March).” The typical time for grain farming; it was barely break-even and there was a lot of thing to do was build a calving barn with a corral, and live with those cows
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while they calved. lot of chemicals like fungicides, and our crops are healthy. We don’t have “At that time we were pregnant with our first child and we were out to depend on chemicals as much,” he explains. there calving cows and taking the Holistic Management class. Lynn was “The soil is healthy so we get a healthier plant that’s more able to about 7 months pregnant and the challenges really reinforced the fact that fight off disease. I truly believe that the grain we produce this way is what we were trying to do was insane! It was a lot of work, fighting nature. much more nutritious and the grass/forage being produced is much more That winter it happened to be minus 40 degrees for a long time. So the nutritious. So whoever eats it —whether a cow or a human —will be much Holistic Management course was very timely.” healthier as well,” says Garry. Garry and Lynn took the course with Holistic Management Educators “We are starting to see this, and see the things we are able to do Don and Bev Campbell. “We learned so many things. We were able in regard to increases in profit through using our cattle in the grain to form a group/club after that, with other farmers who had taken the production cycle —just by getting some grazing days here and there. course, and our group still meets. Some It’s interesting what we are seeing, members have moved on, and some new because of the soil health, and we’re ones have come, but we still meet on a trying to extend our growing season. fairly regular basis.” It’s easy to do this on perennial pasture, Another important event in their lives because it grows as soon as it can was listening to Gabe Brown speak, in in the spring, and grows until it gets 2007. “He was here at a local grazing covered with snow, but on the grain conference. After I heard him, I realized I fields and cultivated land that’s harder should try some of those ideas. In 2009 to do. We are able to extend things we planted our first cover crop cocktail a bit, however, so we now have land and we’ve grown some ever since. That that is photosynthesizing for more than was another big step for us. Today we 200 days a year now, whereas on a continue to try different things every year conventional grain crop it might only be in that mix. Some years we farm a little green for 70 to 80 days,” he says. more grain, or a little less. The farm has This extension of the growing season become much more resilient, with a lot contributes to soil health, and in the less risk,” says Garry. end contributes to profitability. “We are “Hopefully we also have a better finding that our profit margins are wider. quality of life. The kids are older now so Our net profit on a per-acre or a per-cow we are able to use the farm as a tool to basis has gotten bigger. We are also teach them —not only land management able to manage risk better, and the farm and holistic kinds of principles, but to is much more resilient. We have many also instill our values, and what we feel more options now, because some of is important morally, along with a love the crops we seed can be combined for the land.” There is no substitute for or grazed, or we can make feed out of After hearing how Gabe Brown was integrating cocktail a farm or a ranch as a good place to them.” They can be used for whatever seeded cover crops, Garry implemented that into his grain raise children. works best, in terms of what Mother fields and has found that his grain crops are healthier and “We also home school, so it works Nature decides. If a crop is damaged by more resilient. very well. This gives us flexibility and bad weather, the cattle can eat it. a little more time because the kids are “We also have a choice, depending not having to ride the bus and do all the rest of the things involved with on markets. If the market for grain is good we might be better off to going somewhere else to school.” Having school at home is more flexible, combine that crop that year, with more net profit, and we’ll still have efficient and beneficial. enough forage. That’s a great option, but sometimes weather makes it “We talk about the components of Holistic Management: healthy land, impossible to harvest it the way we might want to do it. If we have oats healthy people, healthy profits and we are starting to see some of these lying out there in a swath that can’t be harvested, my cows can graze it. things become a bigger reality. I remember talking to Don Campbell about Just the fact that we are able to have a much more stable business plan grass and he said that you manage for what you want, rather than what reduces the stress level —and we can have a better quality of life.” There you have. Keep doing the simple principles as they were meant to be is more flexibility and several options, and a person is not locked into done, and things will take care of themselves. Now we are seeing our land something that could be disastrous if it doesn’t work. become healthier, and beneficial changes in soil health. We are trying to “If we were straight grain, or straight cattle, there would be some bad quantify some of those things with numbers and soil testing and a bit of times. The diverse enterprise mix really helps. With some of our cows science. Some things are just subjective, however, regarding how the soil we also diversify, raising some grass-finished beef to sell. That’s where looks, whether it looks aggregated, with better water infiltration. We are our open heifers go; they make really good beef. We feel good about the starting to see some differences,” he says. beef we sell, because we know it grew up here, for its whole life, and it’s “We are kind of an island here. A lot of the neighbors are full-bore healthy. This system suits the people who believe they don’t want any conventional and many of them are growing just grain. We are starting to kind of antibiotics or hormones in the raising of their meat. We can assure see a difference between our management and their management. We’ve them about the way it was grown, and the nutrition it’s been getting,” been very wet here for a number of years and we can see how our land is says Garry. soaking up the moisture better. Our grain crops are better. We don’t use a CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 Num ber 175
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The whole family enjoys the quality of life on their farm, and a more resilient farm. “Our margins are wider because of what we are doing, and our low input —whether it’s grain or cattle. The profitability is higher on a per-production unit basis. I see nothing but great opportunity in the future for this type of agriculture, whereas with conventional agriculture it’s kind of like whipping a dead horse,” he explains. “If we were straight grain in a conventional system we’d have to keep squeezing everything we can out of this land, and it’s always just year to year without much effort spent to improve the land. People doing conventional farming are using more chemicals, spraying more, and most of what they are doing is having a negative impact on soil health, going the wrong direction in a downward spiral. It’s getting to the point where a person can’t squeeze any more out of that land. It’s unhealthy, and costing much more to produce a crop,” he says. “Regarding opportunity and outlook, I think the holistic approach is fabulous for an integrated farm that focuses on soil health and a diverse enterprise mix. I think this approach has a very bright future, and I think it’s important for our children. If they decide they want to farm, they have a very good option.” With these goals a person can leave the land to their children in better shape, and just keep improving things for the next generations. “Unfortunately, that approach is rare today on a lot of farms. Holistic Management has been a huge help for us, just in the way we look at things, see things, and our management —whether the financial side of it or the land management. When I give soil health presentations and share what we are doing on our farm here and how it’s working for us, I share
many of those Holistic Management principles. A lot of these farmers don’t know about a water cycle or a nutrient cycle; this is a foreign language. They can tell you about all the new fungicides and herbicides, etc. but as far as being proactive and trying to regenerate the land (or even make it sustainable, let alone regenerate it) is a very foreign concept. It may take some really tough economic circumstances to make a lot of those people change, and probably a lot of them won’t change; they will just quit. This is sad, because we are losing too many people in agriculture. The next generation doesn’t have that opportunity and has only seen stress and struggles. It’s not an easy business.”
“I think the holistic approach is fabulous for an integrated farm that focuses on soil health and a diverse enterprise mix. I think this approach has a very bright future, and I think it’s important for our children.”
To understand Holistic Management principles— to mimic nature and to realize that the wealth is in the land —can make a b ig difference. “The land management part of it, the financial management part, the importance of quality of life, and our entire holistic goal is what makes it work. When you have a goal and can judge everything you do by that goal, whether it will take you closer to the goal or farther away, is huge. I don’t know what percentage of farms today have a written goal, but it’s a tiny percentage of the ones I know. Without a goal, it’s kind of aimless, and they just do what they have done in the past. Sometimes the older generation is not very open to change,” says Garry. This makes it hard when some of the family is wanting to change and some are not. “Sometimes when I am asked questions at the end of a presentation, a lot of people will ask how I started doing this, and what my dad thought of this. They want to know how they can maybe start doing this on their own farm with their dad or their parents or family, or whoever they are farming with. These question periods almost turn into a counseling session on communication and how to work on these problems,” he says. This issue is all part of the challenge. “When we took the Holistic Management class and our goal was to mimic nature, and we wanted the cows to calve in May/June and lick snow in the winter, this was vastly different from how my father did it. When he had cattle, they put them in the barn every night. I just said to him, ‘Let’s try it. A lot of people are doing this and it’s worked. If it doesn’t work, we’ll change.’ He was willing to go along with it, and so that winter we had the cows out licking snow for water, doing more foraging on their own. A few weeks turned into months and at the end of the winter he just shook his head and couldn’t believe how good those cows looked. I give him credit because he was open minded enough to go along with our ideas and was willing to change. He stood back and watched as we moved the cows all the time, and had lots of grass, and were going Garry has worked to develop a low-input, high margin system which includes winter into pastures four-feet tall. The cows were going in and bale grazing and trusting that the cows will perform well licking snow. tramping down and “wasting” all this grass that many people feel should be made into hay. He watched us
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doing this, and after a few years he could see that it works,” Garry says. “Now with the cover crops, that’s another new thing, but we are seeing that the improved soil health is paying dividends in our grain crops. We are getting high yields and healthier crops, with less expense and more profit.”
Make the Cow Fit the System
Garry also has been working to create the right kind of genetics to support his low-input system. “Our first group of cows was a Limousin Charolais cross. They were the wrong kind for grass-based, low-input agriculture, but they did fairly well. I didn’t know anything about cattle, and still have a lot to learn, but we realized we needed to find the right type of cow in order to make this really work. One person we use for nutrition advice, after I described what we were doing here (and that we had developed the farm to Garry worked to develop a low-input cattle herd. He now has a pretty straight Angus herd be low input and most profitable —with best quality of and is starting to use some Tarentaise and some Welsh Black and Galloway to add more life and improving the land) said we needed to find a hybrid vigor. cow that would work in that environment and system. We needed to make the cow fit the system rather than make the system fit the cow. It was a different way of looking at it, because we get together more. In the summer, however, we do like to get together most people change whatever they have to —in regard to feeding, etc.— and do some touring on members’ farms and ranches. In the winter we to prop up cows.” get together for a potluck, and often the person hosting the meeting When you do that, however, those cattle are not very self-sufficient or will present a teaching topic. It might be a gross margin analysis on sustainable. “You are working for the cattle instead of them working for something, or some Holistic Management principles, or sometimes just you. In the end we looked around for some other genetics and started something of interest or educational,” Garry says. using some New Zealand grass-based stock, including some Angus and “This also provides a social aspect, eating a meal and visiting, or Devon. A grass-based ranch near here had a dispersal sale, and we doing something for fun like skeet shooting. We may just sit down for a bought some purebred Black Angus from them. We started a purebred presentation or exercise that someone wants to have us go through.” This herd and continued on with it, and use grass-based genetics. We produce provides a variety of experiences, and many opportunities to share. most of our own bulls now, so we know how they will perform. We know “All of us in the club find ourselves just a little bit different than the the mother and let the system sort things out,” says Garry. conventional mainstream farmers, so it’s nice to get together with other “The main trick is simply to cull hard and work toward the goal. people who are on the same page and like-minded and encouraging. They Sometimes the ones you think are the best don’t turn out to be what you may ask a question about why we are doing this or that, and we try to thought. The ones that just quietly do their job year after year may be learn, together,” he says. This provides a positive atmosphere and these better,” he explains. families realize they are not just out on their own trying to do these things. The genetic part is important, and now he’s trying to do more with There is community support. some hybrid vigor. “Our cow herd now has become pretty straight Angus Holistic Management is the path he has chosen and strongly believes so we are starting to use some Tarentaise and some Welsh Black and in, but he also wants to emphasize that it’s not just a walk in the park. “I Galloway to add more hybrid vigor. That’s one of the few free things a used to go to the meetings and it sounded so good and so easy, and by breeder can utilize. We are trying to do a little bit of crossbreeding while and large it is, but a person does need to keep the balance in mind,” says still maintain a large percentage of our own Black Angus genetics.” Richards. The enthusiastic portrayal doesn’t give the whole picture about being out there all the time, in all kinds of weather, working with the land Building Momentum and Comradery and cattle and all the things you have to do. But if a person is committed to “It’s interesting that there is now more awareness among soil this way of life and enjoys it, they take the bad with the good. If the good conservationists. They have their annual conference every January always outweighs the bad in your own mind, that’s what counts. and last year I presented at their conference. This year Gabe Brown is “The pros easily outweigh the cons, but for someone just getting presenting, and I am on a panel discussion. Blain Hjertaas (a Holistic started and getting into it, they need to go into it with their eyes open. Management Certified Educator here in southeastern Saskatchewan) will With our club, for instance, everyone was just so gung ho (and we still be one of the speakers there, talking about Holistic Management. In these are), but now we realize it wasn’t quite as easy as we were thinking it conferences we have made a huge leap ahead, as a breakthrough,” says would be, when we started,” he says. A person must have the necessary Garry. A few more soil conservationists are now understanding the value commitment to keep going, and that’s what will make it work. of Holistic Management. “It takes a lot of thought and effort, figuring out the cattle genetics that The club that he and several other couples formed early on continues work in our system, the different mixes for our cover crops, the rotations to be a source of help and encouragement. “It’s changed over the years, and grazing plans to develop. 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bad, but sometimes it does become a bit overwhelming! Some people have fallen by the wayside or they are not doing it quite the way they started, but for us the Holistic Management has proven to be a blessing and we are thankful for that,” says Garry. Garry also believes that it is important to share about Holistic Management with the children, the next generation. They also attend the meetings and conferences. “These meetings are a family thing, and depending on what the meeting is about they may or may not hang around what we’re doing. They may go do their own fun things together. But on a tour they will be right there with us. Our kids were just being born when we took the course in Holistic Management, so they grew up with it, as did many of the other kids in these other families. They absorb a lot,” says Garry. “These kids are amazing. In March we have a western Canadian Holistic Management conference, and this year it was in Manitoba. The location moves around between Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. We went this year, and they host a kids’ component, which is a great educational tool. The person this year was teaching the kids about soil microbiology and the kids were giving him answers —and he said he had to jump up to the 18-year-old level, even though these kids were age 7 to 13. He couldn’t believe how much these kids already knew!” They are learning a lot as they grow up on these farms. Plus when they are putting up fence, moving cows, managing grass, they see a purpose. “It’s neat to see, because some of these families now have their second generation taking the Holistic Management course,” says Garry. “Where these kids will go, who knows? It’s a great background for them.”
Creating a Family Farm
Working the farm is a team effort and everyone is involved. Rebekah is 13 years old, Evan is 12, and Caroline is 10. They have become very good help. “It’s been a challenge to find employees to fit our system, who work well in this kind of system, so it’s a blessing to have family involved. My father is 83, but he still enjoys helping, too. He is a grain farmer at heart, so he does some of the field work. He’s still a huge help,” says Garry. “Lynn is no longer a nurse, and I am no longer practicing pharmacy. Lynn is a teacher and a mom. She is also our go-for when we need things, and helps on the farm as well. The name of our operation is Richards Family Farm and Livestock Ltd and it is truly a family farm. I am grateful not only for my own family here, but also my parents and grandparents and their efforts,” he says. When his grandparents came to this area to homestead in 1902, this was one of the first homesteads; the region hadn’t been settled yet. “My parents, aunts and uncles were involved in the farm growing up, and that’s the reason this farm is still here. We are grateful for all their efforts.” It’s a family history and legacy and he and Lynn want to keep it going. “Hopefully we will see our kids want to continue. At this point they are interested in the farm and all three of them say they want to farm, but we don’t know what they will actually end up doing. But at least if they can see a farm holistically—healthy land, healthy people, healthy profits—they will have a good farm, but more importantly a good life.” This is a positive thing, and a farm background can help a person be successful in any career they might choose. Agriculture today is not easy, but Garry is hoping that his children will be able to see a future in it. He also hopes that the holistic approach will give them more chance to do so; in many conventional situations it can be more difficult and many young people can’t get started into it. “Hopefully we can find another way, and I think there are others like us who are making progress in this direction,” he says.
Beyond the Family CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
it’s amazing how many young people want to do that,” says Margaret. The model of bigger, bigger, bigger isn’t able to draw those young people back, she says. “We believe in a re-generative model of agriculture that goes way beyond sustainable, which allows these young people to manage smaller plots of land without having to worry about a big debt hanging over their heads.” The bigger picture should also be kept in view, she adds. “They (Blake and Angela) are growing food for local customers, creating employment and keeping small, rural communities viable and strong.”
Becoming Mentors
Through the process, of course, the Towers have had to accept change, they’ve had to get to know someone almost as well as they know their own son without having had a lifetime to spend with him doing that, and they’ve had to learn how to offer advice without smothering. “You have to mentor in a way that you allow the person to feel like they’re not being controlled, that they have the ability to make their own decisions,” Margaret says. For an arrangement like theirs to work, there needs to be transparency, honesty, good communication, and flexibility, but you also need to change your mindset, Tom finds. “Farmers and ranchers have survived by being independent thinkers, but with a deal like this, you’ve got to change your
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thinking to interdependence.” You also have to be prepared to discuss some tough issues, he adds, and one of them is finances, which even many farm families dance around. “We’ve all got to be financially sustainable so we have a lot of those kinds of conversations. We have shared costs, and separate costs, and we have an understanding of what all of those are,” Tom says. “You need transparency with finances.” Although Blake would love to own land one day, he accepts it’s not likely to happen. “Land prices around Red Deer are so inflated beyond agricultural production value that I just can’t see us being able to own this place without me taking a high paying job in town for the rest of my career and that defeats our whole purpose,” he says. Blake knows their relationship with Tom and Margaret is special and that it is because of them that he and Angela can pursue their goals of owning their own home and having financial autonomy while farming full time. But there’s something in it for Tom and Margaret too, allowing their agricultural legacy to live on, and giving them a chance to retire as gracefully as they farmed.
This article is reprinted by permission from Country Guide at: https://www.country-guide.ca.
Five Dot Ranch—
Surviving Housing Development Pressure BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
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he Swickard family has been ranching in California—producing grain and livestock —since 1852, and is now working into the 7th generation. Todd Swickard is 6th generation, raising natural beef and marketing a branded product, and some of his children are helping with the business.
to work there much longer, and he had a passion for the cattle business, so he started looking for another ranch to buy. He found a ranch in northeastern California, near Susanville, in Lassen County.” Margret was pregnant with Todd at the time, and ordered by her doctors to stay on bed rest. The first time she actually saw the ranch was when Todd was two months old. Silicon Valley Ranch Their Five Dot Land and Cattle Company was started there in 1959 The original family homestead was in the Santa Clara Valley, which with 200 registered Hereford cattle. This is where the ranch headquarters has now become Silicon Valley. Todd’s great-great-great grandfather are located today. The name of their branded meat product comes from Andrew Swickard this ranch his father came to California by purchased. “That sea, sailing from New was the brand that Orleans via Cape came with the ranch. Horn in 1852. At that Five brothers had time there was very owned it at one little overland travel time. The brand is across the western 5 dots, positioned half of the country. like the pattern of Andrew Swickard, dots on dice. My his wife Susannah, dad took that brand and their two children and expanded the homesteaded in the operation. Some valley upon their of the neighboring arrival in California. ranchers were selling It was there that out and he was able their son Harvey met to take advantage of and married Isabel that so the ranch kept McQuene, whose growing as we went family had come along,” says Todd. to California from “We are located Indiana via ship, where the Cascades, The Swickard family is all involved in the family business with the 7th generation hard at work in crossing the Isthmus Sierra Nevada the business. of Panama on foot. Mountains and the Later, Harvey, Isabel and their eight children expanded the family ranch’s Great Basin all come together, on the east side of the mountains. This is horse breeding operation to supply the booming city of San Francisco good cattle country,” he says. with transportation. Harvey and Isabel’s son John eventually took over the ranch and Building a Natural Beef Herd married Mary Ellen Cothran. Her family had come to California by wagon In 1994 Todd took over the daily operations of the ranch from his train in 1859, leaving Kansas with 1,000 head of cattle. Only 250 head father Jack. Since then, Todd and his wife Loretta have maintained a survived the journey. predominately Angus cattle herd, and they developed a natural beef John and Mary Ellen’s son, John Abraham Swickard, and his wife program in 2006. Evelyn Boeger later took over the ranch and had two sons, Jack and Tom. “We still have mostly Angus cross cattle and produce our own bulls. In 1949, Jack Swickard (with guidance and direction from his father) at We were unable to find anyone producing the kind of bulls we needed age 15 became one of the youngest purebred cattle breeders in the nation that would sire the kind of cattle we want for our beef program. So we and the youngest commercial breeder in the Santa Clara Valley. started an artificial insemination (AI) program and have been producing Later Jack married his wife Margret and was joined by his brother and growing our own bulls. Most purebred breeders sell bulls that are too Tom in the day-to-day operations of the ranch. “My dad and his brother big. We are in high desert country and need cattle that can get around and developed successful cattle, haying and farm operations. They actually rustle their own feed,” he says. had three crops besides the cattle and hay —prunes, apricots and Their cattle are primarily Angus but have been crossed a little bit with walnuts. However, after the war ended, a big four-lane freeway (Highway Herefords, Senepol and a composite. “We got some composite bulls 101) was put through the middle of the ranch. Houses started coming in all from Steve Radakovich in Iowa who breeds a composite created from around it, and our family didn’t have any choice but to move,” recalls Todd. Red Angus, Hereford, Senopol and a small amount of Barzona. This all The valley was becoming too urbanized for ranching. “What used to adds some hybrid vigor and helps downsize the cattle in our herd. These be the family ranch is all city now. My dad could see that it wasn’t going CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 Num ber 175
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Five Dot Ranch
sold wholesale to local restaurants and markets as well as through their own store in Napa which houses a butcher shop and restaurant called the Cookhouse. Fresh meat is sold through that store. “My wife has about 60 cattle can use the country and do well in our conditions; they are hardy different accounts —restaurants and small grocery stores, so this keeps and efficient. We certainly get a benefit from the crossbreeding and try to her busy doing all the marketing.” match the cattle to the environment where they are. We have some pretty To keep a constant supply of beef for their customers, the ranch has tough country,” Todd says. 3 different herds of cattle, with different calving seasons. Varying calving The cattle run on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest seasons also help match the cattle to their environment. “One herd stays Service allotments as well as private land. “We run on three different year round on leased pasture in the Bay area, so this gives us a consistent Forests and have quite a bit of BLM, and some private leased land as well, supply, ready to harvest at different times. One of the main things our with cattle on about 700,000 acres. With our efficient cattle we are able to customers want is consistency in a year-round product,” says Todd. minimize hay use in the winter. The cattle can manage to keep grazing. The cattle are raised predominantly on grass, and finished for a short We used to feed about 2 tons of hay time in the ranch feed area in per cow during winter, and we have Susanville. “We try to minimize the some cattle now that don’t get any number of days on supplemental hay at all. On average, we are now feed, but we do feed for about 90 feeding about half a ton per cow days to get the consistency. Most of per winter.” the feedstuffs are grown on our own Whenever they do feed hay, they ranch but we do buy some barley. try to feed it on ground that needs We also use some rice bran, which more litter and fertilization. “We feed is a by-product of the rice industry in areas that needs some help for here in California; it works nicely in the soil. Depending on the area, our feeding program.” sometimes we harvest our hay a The meat is sold in many high little late so that the hay incorporates end restaurants and grocery stores. the seeds. Wherever we feed the “They really like our product and hay, it becomes a seeding process, the consistency of it. We debated and this works very well.” The cattle frequently whether to go with a The Swickards are constantly adapting their management in order operation works with Nature instead 100% grass fed product, but for to accommodate each person/agency’s management philosophy. of against her, and it is amazing customer satisfaction (which we They have to juggle many different species of wildlife including what you can do with cattle to feel is highest priority) we’ve opted sage grouse, tiger salamanders, Carson wandering skipper improve the land and forage. to continue using a short finishing butterflies, and Canada geese. “You really see the difference, in period on a mixture of forage and the increased productivity, if you can manage it right and do some things grain. Due to taste tests, and catering to our chefs, we’ve stuck with this like that to take care of the soil. This helps ensure more plants and plenty route. We just try to minimize days on feed. We hold all the yearlings of cover for the land. Productivity of the land is so much higher this way, over; they are usually harvested at about 24 months of age. We take them than it is under traditional season-long use or using it the same season slowly; we don’t push them at all,” he says. This is also healthier for the every year,” Todd says. This is where Holistic Management helps people, cattle. to understand how this all works. “With the three herds, we are constantly weaning calves, processing them and moving yearlings around, as well as the cow herd,” Todd says. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
Building a Beef Brand
When the Swikards first began to market natural beef, they started selling their product at farmers markets. This opened the door to acquire a permanent location at the Oxbow Public Market in Napa, California in January 2008. “We started our branded beef program at that time, since we needed a way to more effectively market our cattle,” he says. A branded niche product seemed the best way to go. “California is an expensive place to do business, so we were forced to go a different direction in 2006 – 2007 when cattle prices were really low. Then came the recession. California is probably the most expensive place in the world to do business, with high electric costs, minimum wage, taxes, fuel, etc. Ranching is traditionally a low margin business and it got to the point where it wasn’t working. We decided to market the cattle in the Bay area at Napa. My wife headed that up, so now we are selling beef back into the Silicon Valley that we had to move out of, so at least those folks are now our customers!” Some of their beef is sold to people at the headquarters of Google, Air BNB, and several places in San Francisco and Santa Clara. Five Dot Ranch sells only beef from cattle owned and raised on their ranch. It is 14
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Learning to Manage Complexity
Todd’s parents, Jack and Margret, were introduced to Holistic Management when they went on a Western Livestock Journal tour to Africa in the early 1970s and met Allan Savory. “My dad began using some of those practices and was one of the first ranchers in this area to start planned grazing,” says Todd. “I continued to incorporate these practices, and this is the main reason we are still in business today. We were able to weather some of the challenges by taking care of the soil, all the vegetation, etc. In our line of business we are producing food and can keep the landscape in relatively natural state. We try to work with Nature, even though we have to deal with many different state and federal agency people and private owners that we lease ground from. Each of them has different priorities and objectives and it’s a constant juggling act,” he says. “We have to be very flexible and change all the time. We must accommodate each person/agency’s management philosophy. We also have to juggle many different species of wildlife, taking care of sage grouse, tiger salamanders, Carson wandering skipper butterflies and so on.
“It keeps changing, according to the attitude and philosophy of the individuals within the agencies we have to deal with,” he says. With a change in personnel there can be a big change in requirements or how they are interpreted. “It takes a lot of communication and work to try to accommodate all this, and we also have to continually do an education process because many of those folks are not familiar with Holistic Management. We have to re-educate, as new people come on board, so they can understand where we’re coming from,” Todd says. This all takes effort and coordination to keep everything running smoothly, and the ranch functioning optimally. The ranch has about 70 employees right now, counting the people who work on the beef marketing side and the restaurant. There are many jobs, and it all goes back to one holistically-managed ranch —supporting all these people and generating livelihoods for many families. “We have to extract every bit of value that we can, from The Five Dot Ranch focuses on value-added products to maximize profit in the what we produce. We sell beef jerky, hot dogs, bones and all expensive production area near urban California. the offal from the harvested animals. My daughters are working on things like CSA boxes, and every marketing tool that we can positive, and make some good come from it,” says Todd. “We’ve had to utilize,” says Todd. reduce numbers somewhat, however, because of the drought, and it’s Holistic Management provides a foundation, and he feels it has kept been a challenge. We’ve had fires, and lost a couple of BLM allotments the ranch in business. The holistic view helps in all aspects of life, and not to fire. Traditionally we have a lot of different permits, and take a non-use just the grazing and cattle management. “It helps us put the whole picture on some of them each year. This gives us a flexibility to accommodate together. This what we constantly try to do. We took several of our cattle drought or fire, and to take care of the plants and soil. We don’t want to managers to the Holistic Management conference in San Francisco last overgraze and sometimes we’ll go 18 months or even two years between year, and now they are doing some things on their own with the cattle that uses —before we graze it again —if a certain piece needs a longer are helping the ranch, the soil, and the environment. recovery period. Everything needs lots of TLC in the drought and it’s not “We also do ranch tours for some of our employees who work in our the time to push it. We lighten up the grazing and keep enough flexibility restaurant in Napa. They come up here and tour the ranch to see what is so that we always err on the safe side.” The goal is a constantly moving going on and visualize how it all starts. Some of our customers in that area target, and takes a lot of effort to move toward it. (Napa and San Francisco) also come tour the ranch, so they know how it “This operation is so land-extensive, with multiple allotments and so all fits together. It’s a great education for people from urban areas, just to many competing land uses that we have to work with (various agencies, see where their food comes from and how it all works. In the city, people recreation, wildlife needs, and so on). We have to try to balance it all. It’s are insulated from actual food production; they get their information from not like a factory where you can be isolated and insulated in a little box television and off their iPhones! They need a better look,” Todd explains. and just do your own thing without being affected by so many outside There is always someone at the ranch to host these tours. “Our forces. We are constantly juggling, working with people, the weather and daughters Kaitlin and Kirby help with the tours, and handle the social the environment, and all the issues that go with it,” he says. media end of things. We do a monthly newsletter that goes out to social media,” he says. Family Business Interaction with the public and the consumers is good for everyone. Todd and his wife Loretta (Lori) have four children. Daughters Kirby “It’s good for our business and it’s good for our customers to understand and Kaitlin are working full-time for the business. They have both how food production works, and how the cattle business and grazing graduated from college and one is working on beef sales full-time and the fits into the picture as well.” It’s also helpful to get some feedback from other is helping on the business side of the ranch. Daughter Lindsay is consumers to understand their perspective and what they want. currently a high school agriculture teacher in Santa Rosa and son Logan is Working with people, the land, cattle, nature, weather, the varying still in college. He plans to come back and work in the family business. seasons, etc. makes ranching a balancing act. “We have to do a lot of “We’ve encouraged all our kids to go out and work in various locations adaptation in our operation; no two years are the same—working with the before they come back to the ranch. This gives them good experience agencies, weather conditions, and so on. We’ve had a really bad drought and they are more ready to decide what they really want to do. If they for seven or eight years, and the past two years have been particularly come back, it’s because they want to, and not something they feel they bad, so we have to constantly change things,” Todd says. got forced into. It would be a voluntary decision. Lori and I have always felt “Every winter we sit down and come up with a new grazing plan and philosophically that this is very important. All of our kids have done that, try to fix any problems we had the previous year. We always try to move so far.” forward. Sometimes we can actually take advantage of drought. If we get The family business has always been a team effort. “We are starting into a situation where we have to haul water, we haul it to a place where into our generation succession planning, and going to a seminar on this traditionally the cattle wouldn’t go.” Water can be used as the attractant to with the kids. We try to stay current on planning. It’s always good to learn get them there, to use that area. new things and we encourage our children to continually keep changing “Even if something is a hardship, a person can often turn it into a and adapting to our world. It is changing fast!” Num ber 175
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GRAPEVINE The
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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
HMI Advisory Council HMI is excited to announce the addition of new members to our Advisory Council. The Advisory Council serves HMI as strategic thought leaders, and are comprised of members who are collaborators and catalysts for action representing their specific knowledge area and network. They serve as ambassadors and advocates for HMI as they engage in their professional activities. The new council members are: Alisa Gravitz, Greg Judy, Allen Williams, and William Burnidge. Read more about the other Advisory Council members at: https://holisticmanagement.org/about-hmi/.
Alisa Gravitz
For nearly 35 years, Alisa Gravitz has led Green America, the national green economy organization. Green America develops marketplace solutions to social and environmental problems with a key focus on climate, sustainable agriculture, fair trade and Alisa Gravitz responsible finance. Green America operates the nation’s largest green business and consumer networks. Ms. Gravitz is a leading expert on how families and businesses can “go green,” saving money and resources. She is also a nationally recognized leader in the social investment industry. She authored Green America’s acclaimed Guide to Social Investing, with over a million copies in print and the popular Guide to Community Investing. As part of Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions, which focuses on transforming supply chains, she also co-chairs innovation networks on carbon farming, sustainable agriculture and clean electronics. Ms. Gravitz’s board service includes Ceres, Positive Future Network, Network for Good, Non-GMO Project and Underdog Foundation. She earned her MBA from Harvard University and her BA in economics and environmental sciences from Brandeis University. Green America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Greg Judy
Greg Judy and his wife, Jan, run a grazing operation on 1620 acres of leased and owned land in Missouri. They use Holistic High Density Planned Grazing to graze cows, cow/calf pairs, bred heifers, horses, sheep, pigs, and stockers. They direct market grass-fed beef, lamb and pork. Greg wrote NO RISK RANCHING, Custom Grazing On Leased Land in 2001. In 2008 Greg wrote a second book COMEBACK FARMS, Rejuvenating Soils, Pastures and Profits with Livestock Grazing Management. Greg has given numerous talks and schools all over the United States on the benefits of Holistic High Density Planned Grazing, leasing land, multi-species grazing, custom grazing and wildlife management. The Judys hold Holistic High Density Grazing Schools at their farms teaching the principles of HHDG. Greg quit his off farm
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job in 2009 and is now a full-time rancher and consultant.
William Burnidge
William Burnidge
William Burnidge is an integral leader in both The Nature Conservancy’s Colorado state program and North America Agriculture program. As the Sustainable Grazing Lands Program Director for Colorado, his work involves building and testing tools to improve conservation, business and quality of life conditions on commercial cattle ranches. William also strives to define and improve incentives that advance sustainable practices. Integral to his job, William collaborates with NGO, agency and beef value chain partners to share and support proven tools and approaches that advance sustainable grazing goals. Among his many career accomplishments, William’s successful 10-year management of the Conservancy’s 14,000-acre Fox Ranch as both a nature preserve and a commercial ranching operation has positioned him as a well-respected and sought-after expert on the integrated management of grazing lands. In 2017, William —in addition to his Colorado program work —began working as a Sustainable Grazing Lands Coda Fellow for the North American Agriculture Program. He is providing much-needed insight and technical guidance to promote the use of conservation planning among key players in the beef supply chain to achieve significant environmental, social and economic benefits. Since joining the Conservancy in 2005, William’s list of accomplishments include advancing the sustainable use of the Ogallala Aquifer in Colorado, protecting vital lands in northeast Colorado with conservation easements, and helping shape renewable energy strategies for the Colorado state program and the North America region. He also managed the Conservancy’s relationship with the Colorado State Land Board, providing technical guidance for its energy development programs, support for management of its large ranch assets, and input to its stewardship programs and policies. Prior to joining the Conservancy in Colorado in 2005, William worked in consulting and with the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development to advance large corporate sustainable development projects. He earned his MBA and MS in Environmental Policy at the University of Michigan and his BS in Wildlife Management and Biology at the University of Wisconsin —Stevens Point. Outside of work, William enjoys life in Colorado with his lovely wife and two delightful daughters.
Allen Williams
Allen Williams is a 6th generation family farmer and founding partner of Grass Fed Insights, Standard Soil, Soil Health Consultants and Soil Health Academy. He is also a partner in Joyce Farms, Inc. He has consulted with more than 4200 farmers and ranchers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America on operations ranging from a few acres to over 1 million acres. Allen pioneered many of the early adaptive grazing protocols and forage finishing techniques and has spent the last 15 years refining those. He is a “recovering academic”,
having served 15 years on the faculty at Louisiana Tech University and Mississippi State University. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Animal Science from Clemson University and a Ph.D. in Livestock Genetics from LSU. He has authored more than 400 scientific and popular press articles, and is an invited speaker at regional, national, and international conferences and symposia. Major areas of research and business focus include soil health, cover crop/livestock integration, adaptive forage & grazing management, high attribute pasture-based meat production, and alternative marketing systems. Allen and his colleagues specialize in whole farm and ranch planning based on the concept of regenerative agriculture. Their approach creates significant “value add” and prepares the landowner for multiple enterprise/revenue stream opportunities that stack enterprises and acres. This approach allows for enhanced profitability and/or investment value. They routinely conduct workshops and seminars across North America. He is featured in several of the Carbon Nation film series, “Soil Carbon Cowboys” (www.soilcarboncowboys.com) and has a recently released book co-authored with Teddy Gentry, Before You Have A Cow. Allen is a regular contributor to GRAZE and Stockman GrassFarmer and has written articles for the Organic Broadcaster and many other publications. Several of his presentations and webinars can be found on the Pasture Project website at www.pastureproject.org. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Grass Fed
PROGRAM ROUNDUP Open Gate Updates HMI has been busy through the summer with Open Gates around the world. Here’s a rundown on what’s been going on.
Green Gate Farms, Austin, Texas
On April 29th 50 participants joined hosts Erin Flynn and Skip Connett for this Open Gate. HMI program manager Peggy Cole started the day and Erin and Skip shared how they used this 5-acre urban farm and their 35-acre river Goal setting demonstration at farm near Bastrop. Green Gate Farms. Peggy Sechrist, Holistic Management Certified Educator briefly explained the Holistic Management practice and was assisted by Certified Educator Katherine Ottmers. Also speaking was Ronda Rutledge, Executive Director of the Sustainable Food Center in Austin and Edwin Marty, Food Policy Manager for Austin. Also speaking were Robert Maggiani with the
Exchange and the Mississippi Sustainable Agriculture Network, is a Core Team Member of the Pasture Project, and Co-Investigator for Team SoilCarbon. He also serves as an officer in the Starkville Civitan Club and is active in his local church.
In Memoriam
It is with great sadness that HMI learned of the passing of Bill Burrows from Red Bluff, California this summer. Bill was born and raised in Red Bluff and was married to his wife Kay for over 50 years. After graduating from UC Davis with a Master’s Degree in Agriculture, he spent 34 years working at and developing the Shasta College Ag and Natural Resources Department, incorporating Holistic Management into the curriculum as a Holistic Management Certified Educator. He also served as a Tehama County Fish & Game Commissioner and was Bill Burrows involved in the local Coordinated Resource Management Plan for the Sunflower Flats area in Tehama County, integrating Holistic Management into that plan. He also opened his ranch each year as part of annual stewardship day of learning and monitoring. Bill will be remembered for his “can do” spirit, his stewardship and his lifelong learning attitude.
National Center for Appropriate Technology and Katie Jolander from the Farm Service Agency. Thanks to FSA for their funding of this event and our additional collaborators: Austin Edible, Austin Water, Texas Center for Local Food, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Council for Healthy Food Systems, and Center for Environmental Research.
Rough Stone Ranch
46 participants from the Navajo Nation, Flagstaff area, Colorado, Northern New Mexico and California attended Rough Stone Ranch Day, on May 18th. The majority of the day was spent discussing the
Ernest Diswood explains about Rough Stone Ranch range conditions and grazing practices.
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challenges and successes experienced by hosts Ernest and Edwina Diswood on their 7,000 acre ranch south of Farmington, New Mexico. The day began with a short introduction to Holistic Management International by HMI Programs Assistant, Stephanie von Ancken and HMI Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia asked everyone to give a short introduction. Because of the Navajo’s strong connection with nature, a lot of conversation was had about the linking of agriculture and culture. HMI Certified Educator Cindy Dvergsten also talked briefly about her
Paicines Ranch staff explain grazing practices and infrastructure development on the ranch to course participants. Navajo Churro sheep program outside of Dolores, Colorado. Allen McKrain of the Estancia FSA office and Mark Bentley from the Aztec office, Melissa May from the San Juan Water and Soil Conservation District, and Kendall Hicks, NRCS Assistant State Conservationist for Field Operations all spoke about their programs. After lunch the Diné College Land Grant Office Team gave a demonstration of their new ultrasound equipment for preg checking. HMI thanks FSA for providing funding for this program, as well as the Diswoods, who opened up their ranch and their home to program staff and participants. Thanks to our other sponsor, The Stockman Grassfarmer, and to our other collaborator The Navajo Grazing Lands Committee.
California Land Management Course
The Paicines Ranch in California graciously hosted HMI’s 6-day series of Whole Farm/Ranch Land Management workshops from March through April of 2017. The 15 participants included a diverse array of ranchers, farmers, and a few who support agriculture, or would like to begin managing land themselves. The classes were taught by HMI Certified Educator Richard King with assistance by educator Doniga Markegard. Participants learned how to develop a management inventory and a holistic goal/ context, and then begin to test/check decisions with that in mind. Richard required everyone to submit their draft work to make sure they understood the principles and how to begin putting on paper the resources they manage and the life they wanted to live. Richard emphasized that ‘practicing managing holistically’ means ‘just do it’,
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because nobody manages complexity perfectly. On the other hand, we can all manage much better with the Holistic Management framework with our skills improving over time. The ecosystem process and biological monitoring session emphasized how nature works and how to read the land. The group was introduced to the ‘Rancher-to-Rancher’ method of monitoring change, using a simple transect with a few plots that can be revisited and re-photographed to record changes in soil surface cover, functional species diversity, and biological decay. The simple data sheets (or app) are complimented with two photos and the qualitative grading of ecosystem processes in that quadrant. (See www.soilcarboncoalition.org) During the planned grazing workshop everyone in the class used a planning control chart to develop a growing season plan for a fairly complex ranch. Why you plan for plant recovery, and adapt to changing plant growth to then adapt grazing periods became apparent. Much time was spent on understanding the math calculations and everyone particularly enjoyed the field exercises of calculating animal days per acre and the utility and power of that tool. The long-term ideal land plan workshop was fun too, particularly when helping a rancher in the class brainstorm possible infrastructure layouts. And at the end of the workshop, the common closing response from participants was ‘we need to keep getting together, because we learn so much from each other.’ Although this HMI course series had just been completed until HMI’s holistic financial/business planning occurs this fall, the group wanted to continue meeting. A day at three different ranches in June, July, and August was immediately planned before class adjourned. HMI would like to thank The Christiano Family Fund for providing funding for this program and to the Paicines Ranch staff, the TomKat Ranch and Educational Foundation, the San Benito Working Landscapes Group, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, and Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District. Some of the results of this Whole Farm/Ranch Land Management Training are as follows: • Increased ability to assess recovery periods 100% • Increased ability to assess forage quantity 100% • Intend to create or modify a written grazing plan 100% • Intend to create or modify a written whole farm plan 100% • Intend to use biological monitoring on farm/ranch 100% • Increased ability to make complex decisions on farm/ranch 100% • Increased confidence in creating a written whole farm plan 100% • Increased ability to monitor farm/ranch ecosystem health 100% • Overall course satisfaction 100%
Getting Started Online Courses HMI has been busy with numerous online courses throughout the spring and summer. Besides our usual offering of Grazing Planning, Land Planning, Financial Planning, and Introduction to Holistic Management, we have also been collaborating with New Agrarian programs across the country by offering online training for young farmers and ranchers who are currently involved in internship or apprenticeship programs. We have also were able to offer a Spanish Holistic Financial Planning for the first time. Thanks to the Thornburg Foundation for funding both the New Agrarian program and the Spanish Financial Planning.
From the Board Chair—
Organic Production, Ecology and Biodiversity BY DANNY NUCKOLS, PhD
What was once a seemingly counterculture experiment, eating organically has now become almost mainstream, as consumers become more aware of the positive environmental impacts resulting from a holistic approach to agricultural production. While taste and personal health remain prominent reasons for why people buy organic, more of us are beginning to recognize that our eating behavior has systemic implications for not only a healthy, resilient economy, but also the planet’s environment. Of course, our knowledge base is nowhere complete, as shown by the fact that most Americans are unaware of how the industrial part of our food system’s infrastructure depends upon people’s tax dollars to support farm programs passed by Congress and implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As Dana L. Jackson states in her piece, Food & Diversity, (found in The Farm as Natural Habitat), “…farmers receive direct payments for growing certain commodities, such as corn and wheat. Farmers produce high yields using the tools of industrial agriculture — genetically engineered seeds, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and large, sophisticated field equipment —which cause surpluses that drive prices below the cost of production. As a result, the taxpayer makes up the deficit by paying subsidies to farmers. These subsidies then enable producers to pay the agribusinesses supplying the chemicals and machinery needed for high yields. Agribusiness always lobby Congress for farmer subsidies because it’s a pretty good deal for them to have taxpayers guarantee their profits each year.” In opposition to the above industrial system —a model that never addresses the feedback loops found in the biosphere —holistic land management is meant to reconnect food systems with ecosystems, while cultivating and maintaining profit-centered farms and ranches, all without the aid of taxpayers. In particular, there are numerous advantages for the environment that are derived from organic farming and ranching, as opposed to conventional agricultural practices. For instance, industrial food production batters terra firma and shortens its soil life, making it difficult to transform organic substance into soil fertility. Organic systems generally increase soil organic matter and soil biology, with chemical inputs proving otherwise. As Meg Howe explains, “Productivity begins to wane, and attempts to bolster it with increasing chemical inputs (common advice from farm consultants) has a similar effect to flogging a dead horse.” Similarly, millions of years of evolution have created natural ecosystems for animals, plants, and microbes, but the contemporary, dominant agriculture network have destroyed the intricate nature of farm and rangeland. And with regards to air pollution and climate change, Farhad Nejadkoorki’s studies have shown that, “A major theme in organic practices is to operate in tight nutrient cycles to minimize losses to air and water reserves. There is a reduction in air pollution not just from the lower carbon footprint but also from the absence of chemical sprays which get into the atmosphere.” Indeed, since synthetic chemicals are not used in organic food production it steers clear of soil and water pollution. Wastewater pollutants invariably result from chemicals and fertilizers. Although many more benefits could be cited that pertain to organic
production and holistic land management’s relation to a healthy environment, ultimately, the lessons we are absorbing seem always to go back to the importance of conserving and enhancing biodiversity, by which we mean the “variability among living organisms from all sources, including inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which these are a part. This includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems” (Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992, Article 2). Biodiversity means protecting and preserving the stock of genetic material discovered in natural ecosystems. As the Food and Agriculture Organization contends, organic farmers (I would add holistic land managers) are both custodians and users of biodiversity at all levels. At the gene level, traditional and adapted seeds and breeds are preferred for their greater resistance to diseases and their resilience to climatic stress. At the species level, diverse combinations of plants and animals optimize nutrient and energy cycling for agricultural production. At the ecosystem level, the maintenance of natural areas within and around organic fields and absence of chemical inputs create suitable habitats for wildlife. The frequent use of under-utilized species (often as rotation crops to build soil fertility) reduces erosion of agro-biodiversity, creating a healthier gene pool —the basis for future adaption. The provision of structures providing food and shelter, and the lack of pesticide use, attract new or re-colonizing species to the organic area (both permanent and migratory, including wild flora and fauna (e.g. birds) and organisms beneficial to the organic system such as pollinators and pest predators (www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oa-faq6/en/). Obviously, much more could be said in this regard; but needless to say, these are some of the foundational underpinnings found in HMI’s mission.
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1-800-748-9808 • www.stockmangrassfarmer.com N um ber 175
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Certified
Educators
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COLORADO 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
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KANSAS
Bill Casey 13835 Udall Road, Erie, KS 66733 620/423-2842 • bill.caseyag@gmail.com MICHIGAN
Larry Dyer 1113 Klondike Ave, Petoskey, MI 49770 231/347-7162 (h) • 231/881-2784 (c) ldyer3913@gmail.com MISSISSIPPI Preston Sullivan 610 Ed Sullivan Lane NE, Meadville, MS 39653 prestons@telepak.net 601/384-5310 (h) • 601/835-6124 (c)
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MONTANA Amy Driggs 1551 Burma Road, Eureka, MT 59917 208/310-6664 • adriggs@ldagmachinery.com 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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NEBRASKA Paul Swanson 5155 West 12th St., Hastings, NE 68901 402/463-8507 • 402/705-1241 (c) pswanson3@unl.edu
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NORTH DAKOTA Joshua Dukart 2539 Clover Place, Bismarck, ND 58503 701/870-1184 • Joshua_dukart@yahoo.com
WISCONSIN Heather Flashinski 16294 250th Street, Cadott, WI 54727 715/289-4896 (w) • 715/379-3742 (c) grassheather@hotmail.com Larry Johnson 453 Woodside Terrace, Madison, WI 53711 608/957-2935 • 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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U N I T E D S TAT E S Tim McGaffic P.O. Box 1903, Cave Creek, AZ 85327 808/936-5749 • tim@timmcgaffic.com 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
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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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.
ARIZONA
NEW YORK Craig Leggett 6143 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
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 Kelly Boney 4865 Quay Road L, San Jon, NM 88434 575/268-1162 • kellyboney_79@yahoo.com 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 Kathy Harris Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252 • kathyh@holisticmanagement.org
OREGON Angela Boudro PO Box 3444, Central Point, OR 97502 541/ 890-4014 • angelaboudro@gmail.com SOUTH DAKOTA Randal Holmquist 4870 Cliff Drive, Rapid City, SD 57702 605/730-0550, randy@zhvalley.com
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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 Deborah Clark PO Box 90, Henrietta, TX 76365-0090 940/328-5542 • deborahclark90@sbcglobal.net Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy. 380, Snyder, TX 79549
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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. associate educators provide * These educational services to their communities and peer groups.
I N T E R N AT I O N A L AUSTRALIA Judi Earl “Glen Orton” 3843 Warialda Rd. Coolatai, NSW 2402 61-409-151-969 (c) • judi_earl@bigpond.com Paul Griffiths PO Box 186, Mudgee, NSW 2850 612-6373-3078 paul@holisticmudgee.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 PO Box 341 Balhannah SA 5242 61-0-42906900 (c) 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
September / October 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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THE MARKETPLACE
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Visit us at www.shadehaven.net
(855) 247-4233 N um ber 175
h IN PRACTICE 21
THE MARKETPLACE
The Porta Reel System for Temporary Fencing Geared Reel 3:1, TA280 • Save time by 3-way transmission • Special eye for well-directed wire routing • Impact-proof plastic guarantees durable use • Heavy-duty steel crank arm • Up to 600 m plastic polywire or about 200 m tape
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TwinMountainFence.com • San Angelo, TX • (800) 527-0990 • En Mexico: 01-800-640-3156
2018 DATES!!!!
Holistic Management Trainings
CORRAL DESIGNS
“Bud Williams” Livestock Marketing & Proper Stockmanship
February 5-10, 2018
with Richard McConnell & Tina Williams
Albuquerque, New Mexico with instructor Kirk Gadzia
Learn how good stockmanship can make your livestock handling experiences enjoyable, easier, and more profitable and how livestock marketing based on today’s price (no crystal ball) can help you realize your profit goals.
Introduction to Holistic Management February 5-7: $495 Advanced Training Session (Requires prior attendance at intro session.)
February 8-10: $495 Comprehensive Holistic Management Training February 5-10: $895 Remember, profitable agriculture is not about working harder— it’s about making better decisions!
Pasture Scene Investigation
Information and Registration:
By World Famous Dr. Grandin Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals The wide curved Lane makes filling the crowding tub easy.
Includes detailed drawings for loading ramp, V chute, round crowd pen, dip vat, gates and hinges. Plus cell center layouts and layouts compatible with electronic sorting systems. Articles on cattle behavior. 27 corral layouts. $55. Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59. Send checks/money order to:
GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS
www.rmsgadzia.com
Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator
2918 Silver Plume Dr., Unit C-3 Fort Collins, CO 80526
Resource Management Services, LLC Bernalillo, NM ~ 505.263.8677 kirk@rmsgadzia.com
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970/229-0703 • www.grandin.com
September / October 2017
Twin Butte, AB - Oct 10-13, 2017 Melfort, SK - Oct 18-21, 2017 Springfield, MO - Feb 12-14, 2018 Southern CA - early in 2018 "I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. It's quite a lot to retain, but man, what an eye opener! Already seeing the benefits from this class, and it only ended Friday!" — Cooper www.handnhandlivestocksolutions.com info@handnhandlivestocksolutions.com 417-327-6500
• New Livestock and Land Performance worksheet
THE MARKETPLACE
Graeme Hand Certified Educator
• Enterprise design to lower risks and costs while reducing your workload • Financial planning to keep money in your bank • Systematic framework to determine recovery and animal impact on each your land • Clear, unambiguous, proven definition of perennial grass recovery that increases ecosystem function • Early warning indicators of animal performance • Focus on perennial grass leaf emergence rate-basis & science of planned grazing • Including Multi Species Cover Cropping and Pasture Cropping in your grazing plan • Our training uses the latest research on reducing barriers to adoption (www.CBSM.com) to increase your success
Mobile: +61418532130 Email: graemehand9@gmail.com Website: www.handfortheland.com
Phil Metzger
Order online www.acresusa.com or call toll-free 1-800-355-5313
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT® CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
Over 35 years of hands-on experience Over 30 years farms, of hands-on with individuals, small experience businesses with individuals, farms,and small businesses, and groups of all types sizes, including and groups of all types and sizes. facilitating workshops, training, and one-on-one teaching. • Goal setting Improved decision making •• Goal setting Financial planning •• Improved decision making Grazing planning •• Financial planning Land assessment assessment •• Land Biological monitoring monitoring •• Biological Group&Facilitation •• Land Infrastructure Planning Let me help you maximize profits, regenerate your land and improve your quality of life. Freeinitial initial phone phone consultation. consultation. Free Contact Phil Phil at at 607-334-2407 607-316-4182 or Contact or pmetzger17@gmail.com. pmetzger17@gmail.com.
Kids On the Land, Inc.
Want to learn more about A unique environmental program designed managing holistically?
to teach children about the region where they live, connecting them to the land RICHARD KING and a more sustainable future. Petaluma, California HMI Certified Educator Savory Institute Accredited Field Professional California State BOF&FP Certified Rangeland Manager M5 SRM Certified Professional in Rangeland Management CP99-53 35 years of practicing Holistic Management
• Helping individuals, families, businesses, groups, agencies since 1975 • Workshops or field tours • Resolving conflict and creating consensus • How to create a win/win/win with the land/ Kids On the Land is ready for an appearance people/money you manage in your school district. • Outdoor, office, or classroom learning Peggyyou Maddox cansound comeplans help your host • Helping develop or provide landowner school get started. feedback on yourand plans • Investigating •root cause of problems Make a donation • • Ecological processes and Offer your land as a site monitoring for a KOL program • Will tailor programs to your needs
• Become a volunteer Executive Director – Peggy Maddox Give me a call: 325/226-3042 peggy@kidsontheland.org (707) 217-2308 cell http://kidsontheland.org rking1675@gmail.com
KINSEY A
How many animals truly receive feed that has been grown with correct nutrients added to the soil? 95+% of all pasture and hay soils we test do not have the fertility required to provide the animals that eat it with even close to good nutrition. What about yours? You can only manage what you correctly measure. Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.
For consulting or educational services contact:
Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.
Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. 297 County Highway 357 Charleston, Missouri 63834
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Sp O •S •P •L •W M •
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s, Inc. gricultural Service
E? R U T S A P E S N E D NUTRIENT
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Ph: 573/683-3880, Fax: 573/683-6227 www.kinseyag.com • info@kinseyag.com
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Nonprofit U.S POSTAGE
PAID Jefferson City, MO PERMIT 210
Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
a publication of Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 USA
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
please send address corrections before moving so that we do not incur unnecessary postal fees
DEVELOPMENT CORNER Supporting HMI From The Workplace is Easy! BY JENNIFER KLASS
D
id you know that, every year, billions of donor dollars are gifted to charities through workplace giving campaigns? Workplace giving is an easy and efficient way to make tax-deductible donations to charities through payroll contributions. Whether your organization is big, medium or small, you can work to benefit your community by providing a workplace giving option to your employees. It’s a simple way to provide employees with a vehicle to donate to an organization whose mission they agree with — such as HMI. While workplace giving was designed to assist in supporting the mission of your favorite non-profit, other benefits exist as well. For example, workplace giving campaigns offer the convenience of automatic payroll deductions without losing the tax benefits of charitable giving for the employee. Since employers often match employee contributions —which we always love to see —workplace giving provides the organization with the opportunity to directly influence the philanthropic culture within the workplace. Even a small biweekly pledge from an employee makes a great impact when the employer matches it. At HMI, we are pleased to say that 100% of our staff, Advisory Council and Board of Directors contribute to our mission to educate people in regenerative agriculture for health land and thriving communities. Our team knows the most important thing is to communicate our dedication to HMI’s vision where lands and communities flourish through the practice of Holistic Management and communicates it, not only through our work, but our decisions to give personal gifts. A prime example is Kelly Curtis, HMI’s Director of Finance and Operations, who has given to HMI, via payroll deduction, for 11 years. Kelly says “It’s been my great pleasure so serve as HMI’s Director
of Finance and Operations for the past 11 years and to also support the organization as a donor. HMI’s mission is so important to me personally not only because I see it as an ethical responsibility of all people to care for the land, but as a Christian I believe stewardship of our natural resources is one of our foremost spiritual The Curtis Family: Ty, Kage, and Kelly callings as well. I was heavily impacted recently as I read Joel Salatin’s newest book, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs. In his book, Joel speaks very directly as to how church leadership has been largely derelict in imparting to the church body the importance of the stewardship of our land, air, water, food —the creation we’ve been given to care for and the creation which is currently in crisis. It has been true of my own church experience that critical issues such as reversing land degradation; supporting producers of responsibly sourced, healthy foods; and other behaviors that reduce our carbon footprint have been addressed in the peripheral, if even at all. I have come to realize that the mission of HMI means that not only is HMI doing work that I am passionate about as a citizen of the planet, they are serving as a ministry I feel compelled to support as a Christian. I have recently shifted a significant amount of my giving to HMI and in doing so, I believe strongly that I am investing in the regeneration of the resources we’ve been given.” Are you interested in improving local food quality and strengthening local economies by participating in workplace giving to support HMI? If so, HMI can work with your company to help determine which workplace giving campaign choices reflect your team’s interest. For more information on workplace giving please contact me, Jennifer Klass, HMI’s Director of Development, at 505-304-1976 or Jenniferk@holisticmanagement.org. I will be thrilled to assist your organization in taking the first important step in creating greater philanthropy at the workplace and assisting HMI’s important commitment to our communities. I do it! You can too!
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