ANN ADAMS

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Round River Resource Management— Caring for the Land & Mentoring the Next Generation of Agricultural Professionals

BY ANN ADAMS

Louis Martin didn’t grow up on a ranch, but currently he is the CEO and general manager for Round River Resource Management, LLC and oversees management of two ranches: the Brett Gray Ranch (50,000 acres) near Rush, Colorado and the Lyme BX

Ranch (25,000 acres) near Pueblo, Colorado. There is some complexity to these ranches as he works in collaboration with the Colorado State Land Board (SLB),

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and investors like the Lyme Timber Company as well as other stakeholders to help meet the desired outcomes. In addition, Louis has spent time developing an apprenticeship program for Round River Management so he can teach the next generation of agricultural professionals how to successfully achieve their goals and prepare them for work in the agricultural industry.

“With John as a mentor, I was able to see the possibilities and opportunities that existed in ranching. Even though, I was frequently discouraged by friends, family and others to not go into agriculture, because it was so difficult to make a living, I decided to go to Texas A&M University and major in Animal Science to become a ranch manager.

A Well-Rounded Education

While Louis didn’t grow up on a ranch, he did have some mentoring from other relatives. “I first became interested in ranching as a child growing up in Fort Worth, Texas and going to visit my grandparents and uncles who farmed and ranched near Brownwood, Texas,” says Louis. “I always enjoyed going down there and spent many summers helping out. I loved the outdoors, the livestock, the wildlife and all of the diversity and the fact that things were ever-changing.

“Then I got involved in 4H, showing some sheep. My family then bought a small piece of property in the country near Crowley, Texas, and I began showing cattle and started developing a small herd of registered Polled Hereford cattle. We were very successful in the show ring, and I was very interested in the business aspect of it as well. In high school, I worked summers baling and hauling hay, and had the opportunity to work for a very successful rancher John Merrell in our area, who was also the Director of the Texas Christian University Ranch Management Program. After taking over the Brett Gray in 2008, there were only 40 paddocks on the 50,000-acre ranch. Louis and his team have developed over 130 paddocks with an improved water infrastructure to support planned grazing, working to improve upland rangeland and riparian areas. “Shortly after I started my degree plan, I quickly realized that to be a successful ranch manager it would take much more than an Animal Science degree in production agriculture. I then started to look at options and started taking as many courses as possible outside of my degree plan including courses and training in business, accounting, economics, agronomy, range science, wildlife management and others so that I could have a well-rounded and balanced experience and education. “In the summer of 1979, between my sophomore and junior year, I had

the opportunity to work as a student worker for the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Center. I continued to work there as a student worker through my senior year, moving up to a foreman’s position. Then shortly after graduation while I was working on my master’s degree, the manager’s position became open and I applied and was hired as the General Manager.

“There we had three breeds of registered purebred beef cattle (Hereford, Angus and Brahman) as well as a commercial x-bred herd of cattle, we grazed stockers and fed cattle for slaughter. These cattle were all used for teaching and research for the university. During my time there I continued to work on my master’s degree, again in Animal Science, but followed a similar pathway as my undergraduate program, again trying to find balance and a broad perspective. During my tenure as Beef Center Manager, I had the opportunity to work with all aspects of beef production and ranch management. In addition, I had the opportunity to work and collaborate with many leaders in the agricultural industry who served as mentors as well.

“It was during this time while at A&M while I was working on my master’s degree and while managing the Beef Center that I first heard of Allan Savory, Stan Parsons and Holistic Resource Management in the mid-1980s. While their ideas and the principles they advocated where highly controversial at the time, based upon my experiences and observations, their ideas made perfect sense to me. It was then I became a student of Holistic Management and began my first attempts at practicing Holistic Management. I continued trying to refine my Holistic Management skills and managing the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Center until 1998 when I left the University to pursue other opportunities.”

Holistic Implementation & Results

Louis took all that he had learned and began applying his knowledge and experience to a variety of ranches. In 2001 he accepted a position to manage a large, very remote, public lands ranch (450,000 acres) in eastern Utah near the Colorado border. “My time there included the 2002 drought, and we adopted our grazing planning to a herding situation, to more effectively utilize available forages, and create longer recovery periods,” says Louis.

“In addition, we early weaned calves to reduce nutritional stress on the cows and began working to moving calving season from February to a May calving season. Due to some of the management actions, we were able to increase the stocking rate by 30% and achieve a 90% conception rate that fall, all during one of the worst droughts on record and reduced operating expenses and production cost by 25% in the first two years of Holistic Management there.”

But while Louis was able to increase production, reduce cost and increase profitability during his two years of Holistic Management there, he was unable to change the culture that quickly and was asked to leave in 2003. “Even though I was asked to leave and had to depart from there before my job was completed, it was a blessing in disguise,” says Louis. “My family and I landed in Colorado to manage a large ranch (29,000 acres) for a family (Frasier Farms) that had been involved in Holistic Management for over 25 years. This was a great opportunity. The family understood Holistic Management, the business was successful, and they were good to work with.”

Then in 2007 the real opportunity presented itself: the Colorado State Land Board and the Nature Conservancy collaborated to purchase and protect the Brett Gray Ranch. This ranch is a very unique and historical piece of property for eastern Colorado, first founded in 1873 by the Thurlow Land and Cattle Company. “From an ecological standpoint, the ranch has a large spring fed stream that begins on the ranch and runs 11 miles through the ranch,” says Louis. “The stream is fed by many springs located along the riparian area, in addition, there are over 200 playas located across the ranch. It was because of the size, history and the ecological features, the SLB and TNC wanted to be sure it was well managed in a way that would protect and regenerate the natural resources located on the ranch.

“In the fall of 2007, the SLB and the TNC sent out a Request for Proposal to lease, manage and regenerate the natural resources of the ranch. This was the opportunity I had dreamed of. I submitted a proposal to the Frasier Family to create a land management business that would submit a management proposal to lease and manage the Brett Gray Ranch. That was how Round River Resource Management was created.

“I named it after the metaphorical river described by Aldo Leopold in his essay “Round River” in The Sand County Almanac. The river flows endlessly into itself, circling around and around in a never ending circuit symbolizing the flow of life as energy streams from the soil into plants, then into animals back into the soil in a continuous circuit of life.

“Round River Resource Management is a land and livestock management company that manages ranchlands and livestock. We custom graze livestock (yearlings, cow/calf) to utilize them as a tool in a planned intensive grazing system designed to improve the ecosystem processes, regenerate our rangelands, and protect and improve our riparian areas. We are also building our own herd that is Global Animal Partnership (GAP) certified. We take them up to finishing, but they are finished elsewhere.

“Aldo Leopold became a big influencer for me when he wrote The Sand County Almanac. ‘The Round River’ essay really hit home. It tied back to what I had learned and studied in college and what I had learned and studied with Holistic Management. I knew if I ever get my own

“The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, ‘What good is it?’ If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of eons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” –“Round River” in The Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.

place, I was going to name after that idea of the Round River. I also read the Holistic Management textbook three times and it reinforced these concepts and explained how to manage with the ecosystem in mind.”

Louis knew he needed to move beyond the university approach to natural resource management where there was a focus on one piece of the puzzle without looking at how other things that are impacted by those decisions. What I had seen and observed told me there were all these relationships and Holistic Management was a tool to help manage those relationships. After reading the book, I began to implement those practices. When I first started I hadn’t received formal Holistic Management training. When I moved to Colorado I went to a day, then allowing the paddocks to fully recover before coming back to graze again.

“When we first moved on the Brett Gray it took us a while to figure out our system. We had about 40 paddocks and watered out of the riparian areas. The cattle congregated and degraded the riparian areas and some areas away from the riparian zones weren’t grazed at all. We were down to a few species and there with limited diversity. But then we developed a water system and began splitting up some of the larger paddocks that were 2,500 to 6,500 acres in size. We went from 40 paddocks to 130 paddocks, but there is still half the ranch still to develop. We’ve managed to get most paddock sizes down to a 500 acres average size. We graze once during the growing season and then once during the dormant season. We graze yearlings for 140–50 days and we work for 300+ days of recovery in riparian areas.

“There are also 15 monitoring sites across the ranch. Over the years there has been a huge decrease in bare ground and an increase in litter cover and our stocking rate is going up. We have gone from 70% bare ground to 70% litter cover. TNC is monitoring wildlife and bird species and they are starting to identify rare species on the ranch that weren’t there before. We developed the water system for what they thought the stocking rate would be. We tried for three years running 1,300 AU, but weren’t able to achieve it. We were only able to run about 1,000 head. But now that our systems are in place we’re up over 1,600 AU and have forage for 600–800 more, but we’re too limited with water and are currently developing plans to improve water availability.

Louis and Round River also manages the Lyme Ranch which is 60 miles away and is privately owned by the Lyme Timber Company. Their intention is to improve and then sell the ranch with a conservation easement. TNC is involved in the monitoring of the ranch.

Louis began managing the ranch in 2014. The infrastructure was very poor with 1-¼ inch PVC filled with sediment as part of a 40-year-old water system. The stocking rate was about 400 AU/annually. The production wasn’t good because there had been continuous grazing, so they switched to dormant season grazing with adequate recovery.

“We let it rest and had a water system developed that was designed to handle 1,000 AU. The Natural Resource Conservation Services (NRCS) helped with design. The NRCS asked Lyme Timber to sign a waiver because they didn’t think the land would ever handle1000 AU. So we began management in November 2015 and had 400 AU’s. As

Increasing stock density has allowed Louis and his team to put more litter on the ground at the the Brett Gray as can be seen in these pre- and post-grazing pictures taken in August 2017. Stock density was at over 500,000 pounds/acre. Average graze period was 14.5 hours. They provide as much as a year of recovery before coming back to some areas.

Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia’s Holistic Management class twice which gave me more perspective, and in 2005 I heard Allan Savory speak in Niobrara, Nebraska.

“What Holistic Management has helped me with is the power of observation and the interrelation between different aspects. I don’t go through all the process every time, but being able to understand things through the system approach it offers. I remember one time right before I was leaving the university, I was doing some consulting on financial planning. We had workshops and were doing financial analysis. There were three ranches owned by one family in three stages of development, with one using Holistic Management. After doing the analysis on $85/hundred weight cattle pricing two of the ranches were just breaking even. But, the holistically managed ranch had reduced input costs and had a$35/cwt profit margin on their cattle. That was another eye opening moment for me.

“Also, having a written grazing plan helps with the grazing implementation. Holistic Grazing Planning simplifies everything. You know how much forage you have and how much you have ahead and you don’t get caught not know what’s going on. During my work on the Brett Gray I have seen dramatic improvement in our rangelands. We’re closing in on achieving climax species on the ground compared to what we had as we look back over old data. Back then we had five key grass species. This year we had all 17 desired grass species. We’ve been able to accomplish that through planned grazing sometimes concentrating over 2000 yearlings on as little as 2.5 acres and moving them four to five times

we were able to develop the water system (it was completed in April 2016), we’ve been able to increase the stocking rate to over 800 AU’s and have doubled carrying capacity. We also designed a fencing system that has allowed us to move from 13 paddocks to 38 paddocks. This ranch was more degraded than the Brett Gray, but we’re seeing a lot of improvement. The predominant grass species are sand dropseed, galleta, and sacaton. There had been 80% bare ground and most of the plants were annual grasses and forbs like kochia and tumbleweed. We’re seeing increased root structure but there hasn’t been a significant change in plant diversity yet.

“The things we’ve accomplished on these ranches are really exciting, to see how we’ve been able to shift our rangeland toward the climax plant species and the improved production and biodiversity has been amazing. I figure it takes five years to really make changes. It takes one to two years to learn the system and determine what you have and the third year you implement the changes and the 4th and 5th years you begin to see the results. We’ve been on the Brett for nine years and it just keeps getting better and better. It’s really exciting to see that change.”

Site Description: Salt Meadow R069XY030CO # Grasses & Grass Likes

1 Alkali Sacaton 2 Switchgrass 3 Prairie Cordgrass 4 Alkali Bluegrass 5 Vine Mesquite 6 Big Bluestem 7 Alkali Cordgrass 8 Canada Wildrye 9 Inland Saltgrass 10 Indiangrass

# Grasses & Grass Likes

11 Little Bluestem 12 Slender Wheatgrass 13 Foxtail Barley 14 Green Muhly 15 Scratchgrass 16 Baltic Rush 17 Nebraska Sedge 18 19 20

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2017

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X X X X X X X This site description for the Salt Meadow paddock on the Brett Gray shows that from 2008 to 2017, the management improvements have resulted in an increase in perennial species from 4 to 16 even on this challenged salt meadow pasture.

The Rewards of Mentoring

While Louis is rightfully enthusiastic about the results he has achieved on the land, he is just as excited about the apprentice program he has to provide the opportunity for young agrarians to learn and participate in all aspects of ranch operations and enterprise development. He also works to develop an appreciation for conservation and sustainable ranch management practices. During the six-month program, apprentices get hands-on learning opportunities such as: grazing planning and management; rangeland monitoring; general maintenance of equipment and facilities; livestock handling and health management; enterprise budgeting; and animal nutrition and reproduction.

While he has his own intern and apprentice programs, Louis has also begun to provide mentorship for the Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program (NAP). He had four interns and apprentices over the summer and one was a NAP position. One of his apprentices has stayed on and is moving into a human resources position to help manage the intern program. Louis is also looking to hire two longer term apprentices and then two shorter

term apprentices. Louis has interns for three to six months and then offers a two-year apprenticeship on a rotating basis. The apprentices start by supervising interns. “Ideally my goal is to move them through the intern and apprentice positions and then have permanent positions to offer them,” says Louis. “I try to maintain a long-term relationship with them. “I started out getting most of my interns through all the surrounding agriculture schools—connecting with Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Colorado State University, Wyoming State University, and New Mexico State University. Then I started advertising in other places and also joined NAP. Some of the apprentices do not necessarily have a background with animals or agriculture, but show a strong interest and desire to learn. A lot of the applicants are ecologically-based in their studies and interests, but I’ve even had an English major. It’s often easier to work with people who have limited ranching experience because they are frequently more open minded than someone who is from a traditional ranching background. Their abilities are more about their vision and desire to learn; they have some goal of what they are looking for. There is often a lot of romanticized views about the work, but those apprentices will frequently become disenchanted pretty quickly. Good communication skills are important to me, and I can see their ability through their cover letters and answers to the questionnaire we ask them From 2008 to 2017, the management improvements have resulted in an increase in perennial species from 4 to 16 even on this challenged salt meadow pasture. to complete. Their response is the first weeding before they come for an interview. They need to be able to articulate what they are looking for and have a plan to try to get there. “My interest in teaching others is based on my own personal CONTINUED ON PAGE 14