Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019
REGENERATE 2019 BY ANN ADAMS
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s you read this issue of IN PRACTICE, the New Year will be fast upon us or have begun. I am grateful for all the people and organizations in our network that made 2018 such a successful year. In particular, I am still replaying memories from the REGENERATE 2018 Conference we helped host on October 30th–November 2nd in Albuquerque, New Mexico with the Quivira Coalition and the American Grassfed Association (AGA). We had over 600 people attend that conference (the largest group of people to attend an HMI conference in our history). I believe that conference is a reflection of where the regenerative agriculture movement is heading (to see pictures and read more about the conference, turn to page 14). It was such a big success that HMI, Quivira, and AGA have already begun talking about a joint conference for next year. We also want to hear from our HMI community about other locations where you’d like to see future conferences or regional meetings as we work to meet the needs of our growing and diverse community. I welcomed people to the REGENERATE 2018 conference by acknowledging that at the heart of regenerative agriculture is our reliance on healthy soil for life and our commitment to engage with, learn from, and tend this precious resource. I quoted Wendell Berry from his book The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture: “The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” But soil can only be the great connector of lives, if we work to understand it and make it part of our community, building
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relationships with it. That is the task of the Holistic Management community—sharing our experiences and inviting others into this circle of soil stewards who view life and engage with the world holistically. It takes a lot of work to put on a conference like REGENERATE 2018, but I think there is such value in bringing people together to not only learn from each other, but to be inspired, and build relationships. I hope that each of you take the opportunity to attend some conference in this coming year. (The Western Canadian Holistic Management conference in Russell, Manitoba is coming up on February 1–3, 2019—see HMI’s website.) I know I left the REGENERATE 2018 Conference filled with new ideas, new hope, and renewed passion for the work ahead of us. As 2018 draws to a close I’ve been thinking of the question that the great poet Mary Oliver asked: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?” It’s not a
question I think about every day, but it is one I think of every time I come to a conference like REGENERATE 2018 or when I talk to the farmers and ranchers and funders and see the passion they have for this work and the incredible dedication they have for the land, the communities they are connected to or for whom they feel responsible. These people remind me that we do have choices and opportunities to make a difference in our own lives and the lives of those around us—in our homes and communities—the lives on top of the soil, and in the soil and water. Our “one wild and precious life” is inextricably bound with the precious and wild lives of all those in our circle of influence. So as you begin this new year and explore all the opportunities to regenerate your land, family, businesses, and relationships, I ask you, as well, to consider the question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?”
21st Century Agriculture INSIDE THIS ISSUE While any industry must deal with change, the 21st century is a time of great change for agriculture as we come to terms with burgeoning populations, extreme weather, changing markets, new technology, and new information about the connection between agricultural practices, soil health, and human health. See how the Chamberlin family (page 3) and the Branvold family (page 7) are adapting their practices and management in the 21st century.
Windy Oaks Grass-fed Beef
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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 Kathy Harris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Program Director Carrie Stearns . . . . . . . . . . . . Communications & Outreach Manager Stephanie Von Ancken . . . . . Program Manager Oris Salazar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Program Assistant
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Walter Lynn, Chair Wayne Knight, Vice-Chair Avery Anderson, Secretary Gerardo Bezanilla Kirrily Blomfield Kevin Boyer Jonathan Cobb Guy Glosson Daniel Nuckols Robert Potts Jim Shelton Avery Anderson-Sponholtz Sarah Williford
from different places on the property, and they scored 163 and 161. Our custom mineral mixer couldn’t recommend a mineral supplement for our spring forage. Even our summer forage, bahia, tested at RFV of 94 and an early stand of bermudagrass had an RFV of 103. (A score of 100 is considered very good.) We’ve been amazed at the quality, density and growth of our forage, and dung beetle activity is evident. I look forward to seeing more earthworms. “In our first year, Betsy Ross’ Sustainable Growth, Texas, company applied a treatment of compost tea to the entire property. Combined with improved grazing management, I believe it has made the difference in our forage. Having quit, cold turkey, all chemical inputs to the land and animals, I found weed control to be a challenge. After several years of shredding proved ineffective in changing anything more than aesthetics, I decided to let the weeds and grass grow up together. The jump in RFV has occurred since I decided to let the weeds do whatever it is they were designed to do. Upon reading Joseph A. Cocannouer’s, WEEDS Guardians of the Soil, I suspect that the intermingling of roots and transfer of minerals among roots is partially responsible for the dramatic increase in the RFV of my
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 © 2019 Holistic Management® is a registered trademark of Holistic Management International
Kay has found with compost teas and improved grazing management she has been able to increase the relative feed value of her forage from poor to excellent in a period of three to four years.
current forage.” Right now with the 25 mama cows/calves and their yearlings and finishers, Kay has about 60 animals on her 200 acres. She’s running 2 herds with one grazing area for the cow/ calf operation and the other grazing area for the stockers and finishers. As her daughter comes on board they are diversifying through adding enterprises like chickens and goats, and eventually sheep and pigs. “Our current vision for the farm is to graze enough herbivores to keep the land healthy,” says Kay. “We are moving toward permaculture/ agroforestry/silvopasture to keep our woodlands healthy and make them productive, too. There are volunteer oak and elm saplings in the pastures now, along with a variety of thorn and legume trees. I keep my stocking density light so the animals don’t stay long enough to destroy those saplings.” Kay has been selling her meat through the Grassfed Livestock Alliance (GLA), which sells to Whole Foods, but is now beginning to develop a direct market, with her daughter’s help, selling wholes, halves and quarters. Kay and her daughter are also vending at a local farmers’ market. “HMI has helped me find a like-minded network,” says Kay. “Some of us who took the training still get together and share ideas. My daughter has also taken the course, which allows us to stay on the same page, speak the same language, and understand each other. We donate to HMI because we believe regenerative agriculture is the most important activity on the planet for human survival. We have the means in agriculture to produce clean food, and regenerate our soil at the same time. I am very concerned about climate change and the poisons we eat, drink, and breathe every day. If we don’t get a handle on our environment and food systems, the day will come when not much else will matter. I haven’t seen anything that addresses these issues as practically, and in such an encompassing way, as HMI and Holistic Management.”
FEATURE STORIES
LAND & LIVESTOCK
NEWS & NETWORK
Ted Chamberlin Ranch— Exploring the Emerging Carbon Farming Market
GBT Angus— 21st Century Farming in Saskatchewan
From the Board Chair.............................................. 11
What is Sweat Worth?
Russ Wischover — Rehabilitating a Farm in Iowa
ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 3 DAVE PRATT................................................................................. 6
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS......................................................... 7
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS.......................................................12
Program Round Up.................................................. 14 Case Study—Flying Diamond Ranch...................... 20 Certified Educators.................................................. 21 Market Place............................................................ 22 Development Corner............................................... 24
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Ted Chamberlin Ranch—
Exploring the Emerging Carbon Farming Market BY ANN ADAMS
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he Chamberlin Family from the Santa Ynez Valley, California is committed to improving rangeland health through sequestering carbon. They are improving the soil water holding capacity by applying compost and using planned grazing while finding profitable business models in challenging times. For that reason their enterprise mix includes the development of a Carbon Farm Plan which consists of 12 different practices recognized by the National Resource Conservation District (NRCS) for increasing the amount of carbon in the soil. The Chamberlins are focusing on two of the practices, planned grazing and applying compost to degraded rangeland.
Carbon Farming Initiative
Working through the NRCS in collaboration with many agencies including, The Cachuma Resource Conservation District, California Carbon Project, CalPoly University, Carbon Cycle Institute, Community Environmental Council, LegacyWorks Group, Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District, Santa Barbara Foundation, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Extension, UC Santa Barbara, and the USDA
NRCS, the Chamberlins have implemented a pilot project for monitoring and measuring the change in soil carbon on their ranch. A quarterinch application of compost was applied to the NRCS test sites in November 2017. The site saw a 16% increase of forage Two generations of Chamberlins are now involved on production the first the Chamberlin Ranch. year with a rainfall of 25 inches. The second year produced a 25% increase of Initiative to spread compost on 60 acres this forage production with 11 inches of rainfall. (The fall. These larger sites will have differing terrain average rainfall is 15” and the past seven years and soil types to see how they respond. The have been the driest in recorded history). The soil organic matter is about 2% and applying a Chamberlin Ranch is one of 15 test sites spread quarter inch of compost requires about 34 cubic throughout California to further test the theory yards per acre. of compost application. There are two recent Adding compost potentially captures 1.49 reports written for California’s Fourth Climate Mg/acre/year of carbon. The goal is in ten Change Assessment reporting on finding a years to “treat” 428 acres/year for a carbon “detectable and significant net increase in soil sequestration of 638 Mg/year. The models carbon storage” from this practice. (1) suggest this one time application should last up The current NRCS compost test site is only to 30 years. Due to topographical limitations, a few acres in size. In collaboration with many the Chamberlins can spread compost on 4,300 of the same agencies, the Chamberlins have of their 8,000 acre ranch. After 30 years this embarked on a bigger project and were awarded would sequester 30,000 Mg of carbon which a $200,000 grant by the California Healthy Soils is the equivalent of emissions from 30,000 cars annually. With an $8/metric ton price on the carbon market, that equates to $240,000, plus all the attendant increases in productivity and resilience on the range. The need to scale compost application is one of the variables being explored in these pilot projects.
Planned Grazing
As the Chamberlins have shifted to planned grazing they are seeing more Coast Live Oak seedlings as well as perennial grass plants that stay green even in August (the dormant season).
The second item from the Carbon Farm plan is the practice of planned grazing. “We have a lot of annual grasses and forbs (i.e., ripgut, foxtail, wild oats, and filaree) as well as some perennial grasses like purple needle grass,” says Russell. “During our dormant dry season, we leave 400–800 pounds of residual matter and want to trample it down to cover the soil. During the growing season we aim to rotate through each pasture twice while eating the top third of the plants. I noticed with this way we have more biodiversity. We have at least a thousand oak tree saplings which historically have not been able to get established. We CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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also have greener and more perennial grasses throughout the summer. “If we can graze down the ripgut during the growing season, it allows the wild oats to grow through for summer forage. In non-grazed areas it’s all ripgut. With planned grazing we have wild oats that are five to six feet tall,” says Russell. The increased forage and diversity results have been monitored and shared through the NRCS as well as California Rancher to Rancher Project. “The Rancher to Rancher trial site has helped us understand grazing impacts which is encouraging and is showing significant forage increases by using increased stock density,” says Russell. As noted in the Chamberlins’ Carbon Farming Plan: “In addition, total estimated
This is the amount of residual that was trampled by cattle to prepare the compost treatment area in 2016.
In 2014, the first Rancher to Rancher Project trial baseline monitoring was done to document the results of continuous grazing on an area that received almost 8 inches of rain. In 2015 after planned grazing and a similar rainfall there was a substantial increase in forage. additional water storage capacity associated with soil carbon increases on Chamberlin Ranch resulting from implementation of the Ranch Carbon Plan are estimated to be 859-acre feet of water (280 million gallons). This is a significant quantity of additional water storage capacity yet represents an increase of less than 1.3 inches per acre for the 8,000-acre Ranch. This analysis is assumed to be conservative yet reveals the potential significance of even small increases in soil carbon storage for overall ranch dynamics.” Russell Chamberlin has dedicated the last seven years to using Holistic Management as a tool to improve the sustainability of the landscape. “I constantly think about how I can
keep all that rainfall that does fall on our ground and improve the soil through carbon farming,” says Russell.
Ranching as a Whole
There are now two generation of Chamberlins involved in the ranch. “My grandfather, Ted Chamberlin, started the 8,000 acre ranch in 1929,” says Russell. “My father, Willy Chamberlin, managed the ranch for 20 years, followed by my uncle, Fred Chamberlin. Now we have most of the family members active in the management.” Russell, his sister, Ann Chamberlin, and cousin Cinna Schilling attended a Holistic Management Whole Farm/Ranch Business
In a second Rancher to Rancher Project trial, the area on the left was grazed at high stock density (middle) leaving a great deal of residual. With a good rain year in 2017 (over 25 inches of rain), the forage increase was impressive. 4 IN PRACTICE
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a given year. We tend to use the historical stocking rate of 15–20 acres/cow, and have changed our business model to improve profitability of the ranch.” “We used to farm 600 acres of oat hay and 70 This fenceline contrast photo shows the acres of summer Sudan difference in forage quantity and quality grass. We were putting it between a non-grazed area (15 plus years) up and doing windrows for on the left and the planned grazing area on the cattle to graze. Farming the right. expenses were getting too November 2017 ¼ of an inch of compost was applied. planned grazing, improved finances from holistic expensive so in 2014 we financial planning, and improved team dynamics decided to lease out the and management through holistic decision Planning (WFRBP) Course at the TomKat Ranch dryland hay farming and the irrigated ground in Pescadero, California. “We took the WFRBP because Ann and Cinna were focused on the finances of the ranch and thought it would be a great introduction and it would help us come together to look at the ranch as a whole,” says Russell. “My cousin Mary Heyden, uncle Fred Chamberlin and aunt Sarah Chamberlin are also involved with the daily running of the ranch. Holistic Management has helped with our decision-making. The “Cousins” (Gen 3) spent a weekend at the Paicines Ranch to discuss our values, goals and dreams. This then led us to create a Mission Statement which guides our strategy and management decisions.” According to Russell the ranch “runs a cow-calf operation as well as stocker and replacement heifers. We can run 350–500 head total. The amount varies Collaboration is key when you are developing pilot and research projects. depending on how much rain we get in
This photo was taken in February 2017. In the front left of picture is an area where compost was not spread. To the back right is where compost was spread. There was a 16% increase in forage in that area.
to vegetable farmers. Those decisions allowed us to have cash income and be able to focus on improving the rangeland grazing. Those decisions also have resulted in a huge decrease of expenses” says Russell. The Chamberlin family has seen improved range conditions through holistic
making. As they engage with their collaborators in these trials and pilot projects they are also engaging more ranchers, environmental groups, academics, scientists, NGOs and the media in spreading the word that good land management improves the carbon cycle in the land for the benefit of all. (1) “Increasing Soil Organic Carbon to Mitigate Greenhouse Gases and Increase Climate Resiliency for California” prepared by L.E Flint, A.L. Flint, M.A. Stern, A. Myer, W. Silver, C.F. Casey, F. Franco, K. Byrd, B. Sleeter, P. Alvarez, J. Creque, T. Estrada, D. Cameron, 6. “Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential of Composting and Soil Amendments on California’s Rangelands, 1” prepared by Whendee L. Silver, Sintana E. Vergara, Allegra Mayer Num ber 183
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What is Sweat Worth? BY DAVE PRATT
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often ask audiences at schools and workshops if anyone pays themselves what it would cost to replace themselves. Very few hands go up and those that do are usually attached to the arms of Ranching For Profit School grads. Many justify not paying themselves a fair wage claiming that their ranch isn’t profitable enough to pay them. If your ranch isn’t profitable enough to pay yourself and other family members a decent wage, then it isn’t profitable at all. Fair wages, paid or unpaid, must be deducted as an overhead cost to calculate profit. Most family ranches, regardless of scale, are subsidized with free or underpaid labor. There is nothing wrong with subsidizing your ranch if that’s what you want to do. But shouldn’t you at least know the extent to which you are subsidizing it? To know that, you’ve got to include the full cost of labor. That means showing what it would cost to hire someone else to do all of the work you currently do. Here’s how we figure the wage you ought to show on the books. If you are like most owner/operators you have a lot of different jobs on your ranch. At times you are the CEO and should be earning $100 per hour. Other times you are the hired hand, earning $15 per hour. These are minimum wages for these positions and assumes you are also getting a benefits package that includes housing and health insurance. At the Ranching For Profit School we suggest taking two mornings a week to work ON your business as CEO or business manager. The other 80% of the time you work IN your business as a hired hand. Do the math: $100/hour x 4 hours x 2 days/week x 52 weeks a year = $41,600 $15/hour x 32 hours/week x 52 weeks = $24,960 $41,600 + $20,800 = $66,560 If you’re spending two mornings a week working on your business, and the rest the time working in it, $60,000–$70,000 is probably in the ballpark of what you ought to be paying yourself or at least recording on the books. Of course, underlying these calculations is the assumption that you are a competent CEO and are worth $100/hour when you are working 6 IN PRACTICE
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on your business. There is an easy way to know if you are worth $100/hour. If you are taking two mornings a week to work on your business and the business still can’t afford to pay you, then you should probably question your competency.
Fair wages, paid or unpaid, must be deducted as an overhead cost to calculate profit. Compensating “Free” Labor
Most family ranches are subsidized with free, or underpaid, family labor. Sometimes the difference between what family members get and what it would cost to hire someone else to do the work they do is made up with the promise or expectation of sweat equity. But sweat is not a recognized form of currency and people counting on sweat equity usually have a grossly exaggerated idea of what their sweat is worth. This often leads to serious disagreement and disappointment. If you are going to count on sweat equity and want to avoid the inevitable misunderstandings that happen when it comes time to cash in on your sweat, then you’d better start actually counting it. How many hours? For how many years? At what rate of pay? With what interest on the unpaid balance? I mentioned the perils of relying on sweat equity in a workshop recently. I suggested we stop using the term sweat equity and call it what it really is, “deferred wages.” My comments apparently struck a nerve with one 30-something rancher. He approached me after the program and asked if I could help him calculate what his sweat was actually worth. He said that he’d come back to the family ranch after college 10 years earlier. He’d been drawing a low wage and banking on sweat equity. As is usually the case in family ranches, there was no formal agreement documenting exactly what his sweat was worth. He was being paid $25,000 a year, but his compensation package included a nice home, a vehicle and insurance for his family. All-in-all a compensation package worth well over $50,000. “Maybe I’m not as underpaid a I thought I was,” he said. I suspect that he was probably being underpaid somewhere between $10,000 to $20,000 a year. I showed him that for every $10,000 he’d been underpaid, he earned 0.1%
January / February 2019
equity in his family’s $10,000,000 ranch. ($10,000 ÷ $10,000,000) x 100 = 0.1% I showed him that over the previous 10 years, compounding interest at a rate of 3.5%, he’d earned a whopping 1.2% equity stake in the ranch. Like a lot of young ranchers returning home, he hadn’t ever thought about how much his sweat was worth but had assumed that it would add up to a lot more than that. Sometimes sweat equity isn’t just about compensating someone for the work they do. It’s about acknowledging the sacrifices someone may have made, foregoing other opportunities to come back to the ranch to support the family. If there are several kids in your family, but only one has invested time and energy working on the place and has shown a desire to continue the business, it may be fair to give them an equity position. After-all, as succession planning advisor Don Jonovic points out, fair doesn’t necessarily mean equal. Having these kind of conversations at the beginning of new work arrangements helps families reduce the challenges of disappointment and disagreement later.
People counting on sweat equity usually have a grossly exaggerated idea of what their sweat is worth. When determining deferred wages remember to consider: • How much time • Rate of pay • Value of compensation package/perks • How much interest on balance due But whether sweat equity is a substitute for a paycheck or acknowledging a sacrifice, we need to be clear about what we are compensating and its value. We need to convert assumptions and expectations into agreements. We need to figure out what our labor is worth. We need to document the value of our sweat while we are still sweating.
For more on documenting the value of sweat equity watch Dave’s video at: https:// ranchmanagement.com/what-is-sweatworth/. This article was part of Dave’s ProfitTips series which you can find at: https://ranchmanagement.com. You can also visit Ranch For Profits Youtube Channel at: ranching4profit.
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“The course Ralph taught set us up with more knowledge of what Holistic Management entailed,” says Trevor. “I was already interested; a seminar that I’d gone to seemed to make sense, telling about some things I thought we could adopt into our program. From there I used the internet and YouTube to start educating myself about using cover crops, BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS etc. But before we went to the Holistic Management course, it seemed like we were the only ones trying to do things like this, except for maybe our revor and Cheryl Branvold raise registered Angus cattle on a neighbor Ralph,” he says. farm near Wawota, Saskatchewan that’s been in Cheryl’s family “It seemed like we were out here on our own. I didn’t realize there since it was settled in 1888. “Some of my family came here from were a lot more people out there who’d been doing this for a lot of years, Ireland and ran a general store in Wapella, which was then the with good success stories. After taking that course things snowballed closest town—the last place where the train tracks went,” says Cheryl. The from there, and now it seems like I can’t get enough information. Holistic family settled here and started farming. Management helps satisfy my need for knowledge.” “Our kids are the 6th generation of our family to be on our farm. Over He and Cheryl had already started to try to improve their soil and the years it was a mixed farm with grain and cattle. My great uncles pastures with bale grazing. “We adopted that practice as soon as we went were on this farm before us, and my out on our own, because we’d bought mom and dad have a different place an old tractor and loader that would nearby,” she says. do the job to get the cattle fed, but “My great uncles were getting it became a daunting task in tough older and ready to retire from farming, winters with a lot of snow—trying and after Trevor and I got married we to feed the cattle every day. So we moved here to take over this farm. jumped on the chance to start either Trevor already had a herd of cattle so swath grazing or bale grazing instead we came here with some of his own of hauling feed out to the cows,” says cows and some of the cattle we were Trevor. leasing from his mom and step-father,” They soon started seeing the she says. other benefits, with added fertility, “We’ve been here since 2003,” and more lasting benefits to the land. says Trevor. “I grew up at Kisbey, “There was also some savings in Saskatchewan, where my mom and equipment costs and diesel fuel. So step-father had a farm with grain and now we’ve been trying to find ways cattle.” After he finished school he to bale graze in all our pastures, with came back and stayed at the farm at not only our cow-calf pairs, but also Kisbey during the winter months to the cows in the fall after we weaned calve the cows. He also worked at a the calves. We’d have bales set out grain farm for a while, near Wawota, in the fall for them, and also for our Cheryl, Carter, Trevor, and Brett Branvold and that’s how he met Cheryl. sale bulls,” he says. Not having to feed the hay frees up more time to spend time with their A Holistic Transition two boys, going to their hockey games in the winter. It also frees up more “Our neighbor down the road is Ralph Corcoran, a Holistic time in the summer because they are not out there making hay all day in Management Certified Educator,” says Cheryl. “He invited us to take the the tractor. “We purchase most of our feed now because we’d seen that course he taught. He was gathering together some local couples that our hay land was depleting and we had to add fertility to it. We got away might be interested, and asked us to join them. We took the course from from making our own hay and sitting in a tractor all summer,” Trevor says. him in 2010. Our farm operation was already moving that direction with Now they are trying to transition into raising more of their own feed spring and summer calving (no longer calving in late winter) and rotation again, but in a system where it stays in the field as a summer crop, or CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 grazing,” she says.
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grazing a cover crop. That way the nutrients stay there and are not taken somewhere else when a crop is harvested and hauled away. “We want to do whatever we can do to keep the fertility and not mine it off our land,” he says. “We don’t want to be sitting in a tractor for hours and hours,” says Cheryl. “We discussed this with some of the people at our Holistic Management conference recently. This is not our idea of enjoyable ranching or farming. Some people enjoy that, but we don’t want to do it. I feel it takes a lot to wrap your mind around this, when all your neighbors are out there putting up their own feed, especially on a year like this when hay is a little bit scarce and expensive,” she says. “There’s a bit of stress when you think about the fact you are grazing all your feed—on land that would have been hay ground—and everyone else is making feed for winter. You just have to stick to your guns and make sure you stick to your plan. We want to continue to do things the way we’ve chosen to do them, to improve the quality of our land over time. Holistic Management does help with quality of life, with the people that make up your family unit. We decided to make sure this is always our priority,” Cheryl says.
motivation and drive to be improving our land and our soil (with some goals), and just going out day to day doing whatever we needed to do to feed the cows or whatever, it would become boring over time. Then a person would lose interest. It’s crucial to have the motivation,” she says. “It helps us to see and know that we are rebuilding this land, especially when it’s been in my family for as long as it has been. The first people who owned this land were my family, so it seems right that we should go back and repair it, and make it better for the next generation, so it can stay in the family.”
Growing Awareness
Cheryl and Trevor also learned that having a learning community is another key component of having a good quality of life and keeping inspired about doing what you are doing. There can be fun and excitement in trying new things and creating innovations to keep improving the land—and realizing there are some options you might not have thought about earlier—especially when you have others with whom you can discuss these ideas. “We are a little bit of an island, on our own, in amongst traditional farms. We don’t have the advantage of having everyone else around us doing the same things we are. But we still have technology that enables us to keep educating ourselves. We can watch Gabe Brown or other educators Enjoyable Farming on YouTube and see some other Considering quality of life in people who are relatively close to farming is also critical to farm us (not half a world away) doing sustainability. “We have two boys things that are inspiring. Then we The Branvolds work to graze as much of the year as possible using and hopefully they will decide to stay don’t feel like it’s such a huge leap bale and swath grazing. They also practice winter weaning with their here and ranch, as well,” says Trevor. and such a risk to try these things, older calves. “We see that we need to improve the because there is a community of land, for them, and leave it in better shape than it was. Otherwise farming like-minded people out there. You just have to keep yourself involved in is just a continuous battle. I think there are some better ways around this that community and keep yourself educated and motivated,” Cheryl says. problem so you don’t always have to be on a faster and faster treadmill,” Trevor and Cheryl see the Holistic Management community like a big he says. support group. “It’s a big motivator to go to these seminars with like“We want our kids to see that it can be enjoyable and profitable,” minded people,” says Trevor. “This reassures you that you are not the Cheryl says. “It’s no fun to think Mom and Dad sure hate what they do, only person that does things this way or enjoys doing things this way. It’s so that’s not what I want to do! And we don’t want the boys to begrudge inspiring to interconnect with other producers who are on the same level, this farm because Mom and Dad can’t ever get away to do anything. So and being able to share ideas,” he says. we’ve tried to make it possible to enjoy and love what we do. There are Cheryl says they recently sat down together and did their grazing plan always some difficult times, and times when you can’t go and do what you for this year and will be putting in cover crops once the ground is ready want to do, but we want to have it set up so that most of the time we enjoy this spring. “We will transition some grain land that my parents have been the farming and the kids can also take part in it and enjoy it, as well,” she farming. We are trying to grow our land base,” she says. explains. Then it may be something that they will want to continue with Trevor says that the more he hears about nutrient-dense food, such after they grow up. as required by high-level athletes who need really healthy fuel for their “With a lot of young people today, their parents or grandparents have bodies, he feels that this idea has spilled over into the general public. proved to them that it was too hard or too risky,” says Trevor. The younger There is more interest in what farmers are doing in growing the food. generation doesn’t want to have to work that hard or so constantly. “Holistic Management is definitely a whole system and it helps us see how “They may be forced off the farm, or have no interest in it because the ability to produce food for people can have such an impact on their things are done in certain ways—and they believe that’s the only way health and their performance (if they are athletes),” he says. it can be done—and they don’t want to be a part of it. This is very sad,” “Treating the land in a more responsible manner and looking at the he says. whole system and how it affects the people you sell your product to Cheryl thinks that part of what keeps the farm exciting and fun is that seems to be a growing realization among more and more farmers, almost their family is constantly motivated to improve. “If we didn’t have that becoming a tidal wave. We are realizing how all of this fits together. 8 Land & Livestock
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For me this is very reassuring and we feel we are doing the right thing. February. We are still trying to figure out what the best timing would be for When people in cities are becoming cheerleaders for organic production, weaning, because it’s still extremely cold weather, and the cows are still and starting to know what regenerative agriculture is about, this is nursing calves when it’s cold.” encouraging. More people are realizing the effect this can have on soil One of the things they had to get away from was winter calving, since health and how it affects their health,” he says. it’s hard on newborns in this weather. The older calves, however, do very “Up until the last few years I always kind of questioned whether we well wintering with their mothers. “This year we tried a new thing for us, were going down the right path. We’ve seen lots of benefits for ourselves, providing a creep area for those calves. It’s not for feeding grain, but an but we were not sure how that equates to the long term/longevity of not area where they can get away from the cows and eat higher quality hay. only our ranch but also society as a whole. Now it seems more blatant; the Often for the cows we utilize a straw-based ration and grain pellets, and more I read and search things out, the more I realize that the public, and the calves do better with higher quality protein,” he says. the people who are not on farms, are starting to understand (sometimes “We can also bed them in the creep area during severe weather if even more fully than some of the people in agriculture) how important it is we have to, but we have enough bush around that they generally have to look after things properly,” he says. adequate shelter. It’s clean out there and they can go off with their mothers Cheryl says they are hoping that as they change over more land into the bush,” he says. and regenerate some different pieces they may start finishing grass-fat The creep area they used this year was the home corral that the cattle beef to direct market rather than just backgrounding the calves. “This is come into for water and pellets. “We just put a creep gate in the gateway something we’d like to do, just into one of our pens—a pen because we eat our own beef that is about 200 feet by about and we know how good it is. 350 feet in size. We put the hay The grass-fattened animal is bales and bedding in there for the meat we want to consume the calves and it worked very and want our customers to well. The calves can come and enjoy. The genetics of our go as they wish. The other cattle are now at that point benefit was that when we where they are ready, so we wanted to wean them, we just just need to get our land base closed the gate when we fed and our management system the hay to the calves, and they prepared for doing this as were all in there. The calves well,” she says. didn’t know anything different “Nutrient-dense food until they wanted to go back to is a bit of a tag line for us: their mothers and the gate was healthy land, healthy animals, closed,” he says. and healthy people. This is This was very stress-free our goal.” weaning; the calves were in a The Branvolds sell their two-year bulls via online auction and have found it familiar place with familiar feed, reduces the stress for them and the bulls. Winter Weaning and hadn’t been stressed by Trevor and Cheryl have been raising purebred Aberdeen Angus ever being sorted. The cows were nearby, right through the fence. This was just since they were married. Trevor’s family had commercial cattle when he a different way of fence-line weaning and it worked very well. was growing up, and he became interested in Angus at an early age. Trevor and his mom and step father established the herd together, but Online Sales Trevor was the one who wanted to get into the purebred business and The 22-month old bulls are sold in March. “We used to have a live calved the first bunch of purebred Angus cows in 1993 when he was 16 auction sale, but now we sell them online,” says Trevor. “We utilize online years old. bidding sites to host the bidding, and this is where we place all the bull lots “Before that it was mixed breed commercial cows, but I didn’t have for people to view ahead of time. On those sites we have our introduction much to do with that part of it. It wasn’t until we got the purebreds that I and description of every bull. We keep updating all the information on started getting involved in the cattle side of things on my parents’ farm,” weights, scrotal measurements, and any other pertinent information,” he says. says Trevor. When his family started the purebred program they named it GBT “We just call it a private treaty sale but the online bidding makes it more Angus. The G stands for Gerry (Trevor’s stepfather who passed away last fair for everyone to have a chance at a bull they want. We post videos on year), the B for Betty (Trevor’s mother who remains interested in the cattle each bull and a link people can click on to see what the bull looks like as and is often a helper at branding and moving cattle), and T for Trevor. he moves. This is better than just a photo,” he says. “When Cheryl and I got married we took our herd of purebred cows It’s easier for buyers to bid on the bulls at home and not have to travel and brought them up here to Wawota to her family farm in 2003,” he says. to a sale that time of year with possible bad weather and bad roads. “Currently we run about 150 pair and market two-year-old bulls. We “We’ve had really good luck selling our bulls this way and it’s a low-stress calve in May and June so we hold those bull calves over and sell them in way of doing it—for us and the bulls. We don’t pen the bulls; they are March just before they turn two. Our winters are cold and at first we battled just out in their paddock with a bale of hay, and we don’t have the added early calving 25 years ago, but Holistic Management showed us that we expense of preparing a sale facility or hiring an auctioneer or ring men, or don’t have to do it that way,” says Trevor. paying someone to haul our bulls to an auction site,” says Trevor. “We switched to May–June calving and this year weaned our calves in CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 Num ber 183
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GBT Angus
for breeding our cows and heifers, but we also draw semen on all of our herd sires so that we can AI with them as well--in the event that there are too many females for that bull to physically breed. This also ensures “This type of sale is cost-saving and we can pass that saving along a planned mating if we specifically want one cow bred to a specific bull to our customers. We don’t necessarily need to get as much for a bull as (as we run multi sire pastures). We have had disappointment in the past someone does who conducts a live sale. This is our 6th year doing it this with AI sires that don’t meet our standards-especially with feet and leg way and it seems to be well-received by our customers,” he says. structure. It’s much better for us to see them in person in order to put the This change was a bit daunting at first for some of the ranchers who trust in them to add their genetics to our herd, and we generally just AI to are not computer literate but the online sale has proved to be a good our own herdsires,” she says. option for them. If they are interested they can always find a friend or The biggest reason that the custom-graze cattle are kept separate family member who can help them with the computer aspect or do the from their own cattle is for biosecurity and disease prevention. “This is bidding at a neighbor’s place who has a computer. especially important because we are selling purebreds and want to be “It’s been interesting, because some of our customers who don’t use sure they are healthy,” Trevor says. “You don’t always know the health computers (and despise computers) are still following with us because history of the custom-graze animals. Last year we brought in some cattle they’ve bought our bulls in the past. They often comment how interesting that were just another rancher’s herd, but usually they are purchased or fun it was, doing it this way, and it was easier than they thought it cattle from an auction market, and there’s risk for sickness. We try to keep would be.” that risk away from our herd,” he says. The other enterprise the Branvolds started 3 years ago is custom To help them enhance their grazing Trevor and Cheryl have spent the grazing. “We needed to do something past two years making many with all the extra grass we have, improvements in the pastures, now that we’ve been implementing a installing a lot of shallow different grazing strategy. We custom pipelines for summer grazing. graze about 400 yearlings from May “I bought a couple of 300 gallon until October but they are generally in poly tanks and welded skids different pastures than our purebred on them for ease of moving cows and calves,” Trevor says. them around,” says Trevor. “We just have riser pipes along the Grazing Strategies pipeline, every 200 meters, “We move our cattle daily if we so that any of our cattle on can, but we have some pastures the tame pastures that we’ve with a lot of bush. About 60% of our developed don’t have to walk land is tame pasture and the rest is more than about 300 meters to native, with a lot of bush. We have fresh water. As we move them some areas that we can’t have high along into new pasture, we stocking densities without doing a lot of move the water trough as well,” clearing for fence lines or developing The Branvolds have worked hard to improve their grazing he says. new water sites in those locations,” practices—leaving at least 50% residue and working on It can all be done at once, he says. These pastures are part of short graze periods. moving the cattle and moving the rotation, however, as the cattle are the troughs. “It’s not a daunting moved around. task that way and seems to work very well. By the time we take our poly “We do try to keep our numbers quite high in each pasture, even in wire down and let the cattle into the next paddock we can move the water those larger areas, so we can have a better impact on the land with a trough and put up the next day’s poly wire, and it takes minimal extra time bunch of cattle on those sites. Often these are big enough paddocks to do it,” he says. however that the cattle have to be on them for a week or two at a time. The grazing there is not as controlled as the other areas of tame grass Family Friendly Farming where we can move the cattle every day or every two days,” says Trevor. Trevor and Cheryl have two boys—Brett (13) and Carter (10). They “We try to leave more residue than we graze. In our country it seems are a lot of help on the farm and enjoy working with the cattle. “Recently like it’s better to leave more residue behind. Our goal is to leave at least Trevor was away, hauling some equipment, and we had to get the bulls 50% residue after grazing, on the daily moves. The fences are all high run through to get some weights on them and scrotal measurements, in tensile and poly wire, just single strand, and it works very well,” he says. preparation for the bull sale—to make sure they are capable and ready “The custom-grazed yearlings are kept separate in their own rotations to breed. It was a holiday week and the kids didn’t have school, and had but we run our own yearlings with our cow herd. The only cattle that have a friend from town staying here visiting. The three boys got to help bring their own pasture are the sale bulls. The rest of our yearlings—the steers the bulls in, weigh them and do the scrotal measurements! It was a little that didn’t make bulls, and any feeder heifers or replacement heifers that bit of an education for the town friend, but the boys were good help,” we own—are run with the cow herd. We try to keep them grouped up as Cheryl says. much as possible for more impact, with fewer groups to look after and Both boys are involved with hockey, and both of them—and Trevor— move,” he says. like to motocross race. “Once hockey season ends, we start into the Cheryl says that all the cows are bred together in multi-sire groups. motocross. We go a lot of weekends doing that, in the fair weather “We rarely AI and if we do, it’s usually to our own bulls. We use them months. To be gone on those weekends we try to set things up with our 10
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cow herd so we can have two days off and do what we love to do, and then get back and work hard for five days so we can go do it again,” she says. This is part of the balance and mix that creates a great quality of life. “In past generations people often thought that if they had cattle they couldn’t go anywhere and that they had to always stay home and take care of the cattle. If you live your life like that, in this day and age, I think you will come to begrudge that this is what you do for a living. We try to find a way to manage things so that we have a balance,” says Cheryl. With the grazing operation they usually move cattle every day and sometimes twice a day, but there is also some flexibility. “We want to be flexible enough to be able to do the other things that we love to do, too. We love to tend to our cattle and be ranchers; this is our livelihood and our passion, but it’s good to be able to have fun, too.” When they were first married, Cheryl worked
Making time for family outings—including the Branvolds’ passion for motocross racing—is key to a good quality of life at GBT Angus.
From the Board Chair BY WALTER LYNN
Dirt to Soil—One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture
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By Gabe Brown Published by Chelsea Green
abe Brown’s new book, Dirt to Soil, just became available in October 2018 and it is a pleasure to write this review. The ten chapters of this book reinforce why Gabe is such an apostle to help a reader implement regenerative agriculture on their farm or ranch, regardless of size. Dirt to Soil helps us understand the Browns and what has driven the family to be one of the USA’s most resilient agricultural producers. Gabe shares his story about the changes in his life to become a world advocate for the agriculture he believes in so strongly. Plato has a quote—“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Gabe had four consecutive years of adversity, 1995–1998, which created a financial hardship that strained Gabe’s family and banking relationships. It was those challenges that helped Gabe dig deeper and learn the farming practices and philosophy he has today. Gabe and his family’s philosophy is—“We believe that the quality of the food we raise depends on the quality of the soil on which it is grown or raised. Our belief is that if we have healthy soil it will provide for clean air, clean water, healthy plants, healthy animals, and healthy people. Our soils are much more resilient than they once were. They now harbor billions of life forms that in fact ‘feed the food’ we raise. Soils that are biologically active produce foods that are higher in vitamin and mineral content and when we eat these foods, these vitamins and minerals are passed on to us. These soils are also able to store more carbon and water which has a positive impact
off the farm as a veterinary technician for 10 years. “I also worked another job for quite a few years, as well as, in an interior decorating business. We finally got to the point that we realized we could possibly afford for me to work from home, and get back to what I had trained for, as a veterinary technician. We were improving things enough that we I could work at home rather than work for somebody else,” she says. “This is my second winter at home. I quit working off the farm and slowly transitioned into working here, helping move the custom yearlings that we graze in the summer. I had left the veterinary industry and for 4 years just worked in interior design and furniture sales, and I needed to get back to what I was passionate about. I am very passionate about our farm and trying to improve it—taking what Holistic Management is about and putting those ideas to work here. I wanted to be able to commit to it wholeheartedly,” says Cheryl.
on the environment.” In the Brown family journey, Gabe was touched by some very special people that fostered change to their operation including Canadian Holistic Management International Certified Educator, Don Campbell. In the winter of 1997–1998 Don made a statement that was like a light bulb going off in Gabe’s head. Don said, “If you want to make small changes, change the way you do things. If you want to make major changes, change the way you see things.” This was a key to how Gabe’s family started digging their way out of the hole they were in and to develop a multigenerational business, which now includes 17 enterprises. For example, Gabe articulates why he changed their bull seedstock enterprise. Calving was not in sync with nature. Listening to industry experts, the ranch was always working cattle--vaccinating, worming, doctoring, ear tagging, hauling, and artificially inseminating. Then there were registration papers, photographing the animals, developing the sales catalog, and marketing the bulls. With all these tasks, Gabe stepped back and realized how many tasks were taking him away from what he enjoyed—his family. This precipitated him to change their beef production model. When Gabe shares his story it encourages the reader to think about all the tasks that do not have to be done when a farm or ranch mimics nature. A reader can make similar changes in their life to have a more holistically managed lifestyle. The Brown family has freed themselves from those tasks to focus on better family and community relationships, profit per acre versus yield, and a phenomenal land resource. I highly recommend this book for your winter reading list. It prods one to think differently and consider a paradigm shift towards a freer and more meaningful life.
To learn more about Dirt to Soil, visit Chelsea Green at: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/dirt-to-soil/
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Russ Wischover—
Rehabilitating a Farm in Iowa BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
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hen he retired from his career at the University of Illinois (as herdsman on a swine research farm, taking care of the breeding herd), Russ Wischover purchased a 120-acre farm in southwest Iowa near Bedford, right on the Missouri line in 2011. The farm was to be his retirement career as he focused on taking on a played out farm and bringing it to life with Holistic Management.
third summer—switchgrass started coming up all over the place,” he says. “The native warm season grasses are kind of special to me. When I saw the switchgrass coming back I realized something good was happening. The environment had been changed for the better, to allow the native plants to start coming back.” This past summer he had a botanist come out to the farm. “She specializes in prairie plants and in two days’ time, looking at just a couple very small areas on the farm, she identified more than 50 native prairie plants. That was exciting and I am really tickled about that,” he says.
Bringing Life to the Soil
“I became interested in Holistic Management after reading the Stockman Grass Farmer; that’s where I first heard about it. I started reading books about this, including Allan Savory’s book Holistic Management. Then I stumbled onto some classes that were being taught at Hastings, Nebraska so I drove over there for the formal training,” he says. All of his farm is now in permanent pasture. When he bought it, about half of the land was crop ground and the other half was in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and it had nothing done with it for a long time. “The CRP contract expired just as I bought this place so I started grazing the whole farm,” says Russ. He planted the crop ground with a standard pasture mix that included cool season grasses and legumes. “I’ve been rotational grazing the whole farm and trying to implement Holistic Management principles to the best of my ability, and it’s going well. Much of this ground was very ‘dead’ and had not had any animal impact for at least 25 years. It had been in CRP for that long, and before that it was crop ground—otherwise it wouldn’t have been eligible for CRP,” he says.
This last summer when Russ had a botanist to his farm she identified more than 50 native prairie plants.
“This is what sold me on Holistic Management. I came out here, walking around on this place to look at it, and found that it was mostly bare dirt. It hadn’t been touched in 25 years and wasn’t growing much at all. I got the local NRCS agent out here and he looked around and shook his head and said, ‘I don’t know what to tell you’. I got Allan Savory’s book that winter and read it, and when I got to the part where he talks about overrested ground, that was a perfect description of my farm! He could have been standing here looking at this piece of ground when he wrote that chapter. I realized this was exactly what was going on here,” says Russ.
Growing Diversity
The next summer Russ started moving cows through that “dead” pasture and now it’s coming back nicely. “It didn’t come back as quickly as I’d hoped, but there’s steady improvement. The first couple of years were frustrating, however, and just about the time I was ready to give up—the 12
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Russ Wischover raises Murray Grey cattle, St. Croix sheep, and Haflinger ponies in an effort to use multi-species grazing to improve the land health and productivity on his Iowa farm.
“Everyone talks about restoring prairie and saving prairie, but I feel like we need to be able to put a value on it; you have to justify saving it, in today’s world. I am grazing my cattle and sheep on it and the plants are doing well. The tonnage isn’t as much as you could get from ‘improved’ pastures but I am seeing a lot of other benefits. My animals have stopped eating mineral since they’ve been on the prairie pasture,” he says. The pasture itself seems to be meeting their needs now. “I tell everyone that the two people running this farm are Allan Savory and Dr. Fred Provenza. They have been the biggest influences in what I do, and I try to follow the principles I’ve learned from them. I asked Dr. Provenza if he thought that was why my cows quit eating mineral and he said it seemed to be the only possible explanation. I am very excited about what’s happening here,” says Russ. Russ was pleased enough with his progress that he agreed to host a field day at his farm in August 2017 and that’s when the botanist was checking on the native plants in parts of the pasture. “I showed everyone from PFI (Practical Farmers of Iowa) what I was doing here and we had a good turnout, with 50 people. These pastures are not where I want them to be yet, but they are definitely going in the right direction.” Part of Russ’s strategy is bringing nutrients onto the farm with the hay he buys, rather than removing soil nutrients with harvested crops or hay. “I don’t make any hay here because I don’t have enough acreage to do that. I buy hay and feed it on the pasture; the hay is the only soil amendment or fertilizer that I add,” he says. The hay and livestock add the organic matter and fertilizer needed for improving the soil. “I haven’t been very good about taking soil tests or documenting the improvement but a person can walk around and look at the pastures and see that there’s a lot more life out there now. There’s less bare ground
every year, and the plants are vigorously growing,” he says. The NRCS agent who came out to look at it when Russ bought the place was also at the field day last August and he could see a big difference. “To facilitate the grazing, I used an EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) grant from NRCS to build a pond and install a pump station, and put in a water line that goes to all corners of the farm,” says Russ. He also uses portable fencing with poly wire. Russ can also tap into the water line to utilize portable water tanks for his grazing management. “I buried about a mile of water line from my pump station, and I can move a portable plastic tank with the animals every day. I have frost-free hydrants on that water line, spaced around the farm, but it’s very low-tech. I simply use a garden hose from the hydrant, with a float on the end of it in the plastic tank.” This works well during his grazing season because he’s not moving cattle through those pastures during the middle of winter. “In the winter I pick an area where I’m going to feed hay, and set up a 300-gallon tank for the cows, fill it with the garden hose once a day and then shut the hydrant off and drain the hose. It’s low-tech, high labor, with very little monetary investment, but it works every day. One winter we had really cold weather (polar vortex) for so long, all my neighbors with their fancy frost-free waterers were all froze up. Mine was the only water system still working. I spent a lot of time breaking ice every day, but that was something I’d already intended to do. I am retired, so my 120-acre farm is my full-time occupation. If it takes me two hours to break ice for the cows one day, it’s not like I have to go to work or be doing something else,” explains Russ. “I haven’t pushed my grazing season too much; I’m not grazing very early in the spring or late into the fall. Last year I turned the livestock out on pasture the last week in April and grazed until mid-November. Some people here graze year-round, and that would be a wonderful goal for me at some point, but I’d have to cut back on my livestock numbers to do that. I’d have to do the math and push some figures to see if I would make more money with less animals and not have to buy any feed,” he says. “I am still giving the grass quite a bit of time in the spring to get a good start, and leaving more residue over winter than I need to. I like bringing the hay in and putting it out in the bad spots where the pasture needs more fertility,” he says. “I am overstocked for grazing this farm year round, so I feed hay in the winter and the hay provides more fertility for the soil. I can justify buying the hay this way; I don’t need fertilizer. It’s obvious to me that the ground improves faster after you put the hay on it, with some serious animal impact over the winter.” The hay residue and manure/urine from the livestock really helps the soil.
Multi-Species Grazing
Russ brought some cattle with him from Illinois when he moved to the farm at Bedford and purchased some sheep. The cattle he brought with him are Murray Grey, and he’s trying to build up that herd. “A cow herd builds slowly, however, compared with the sheep. The Murray Grey tend to be very efficient grass cattle and mine are doing quite well, but like every breed you have to select for what you want. I look for the smaller-framed, thickset cattle that are grass type and I’ve been very happy with their performance,” says Russ. The sheep are proving to be very profitable, compared with the cattle. He bought 20 ewe lambs (St. Croix sheep) four years ago and will have 100 lambs this year. He is considering eliminating the cattle and just raising sheep. “It would be easier to graze year round with the sheep and make the same amount of money. The income difference between the cattle and the sheep is incredible, with more profit per acre with the sheep.
There are studies that show one animal unit of sheep will produce five times the income of one animal unit of cows. On a small acreage it makes a lot of sense to raise sheep instead of cows,” he says. He markets the lambs through a local sale barn. “The purebred St. Croix (a hair sheep) are not really suited for direct marketing in a mainstream American market. If there was an ethnic population nearby I could probably sell the smaller hair breed lambs into that, but in our area there is no direct market for them. I make enough money with them at sale barn prices, however, so it works for me. Direct marketing is a big job and I’m not into that aspect,” he says.
“I tell everyone that the two people running this farm are Allan Savory and Dr. Fred Provenza. They have been the biggest influences in what I do, and I try to follow the principles I’ve learned from them.” For breeding stock, however, he’s had a pretty good market for the registered animals. “The past three years I’ve been keeping all my ewe lambs but I have people lined up on a list for ewe lambs, and I’ve sold a lot of rams. Almost half of my lambs are going for breeding stock,” he says. His calves the past two years have been sold directly to a grass finisher. “I don’t do any finishing myself because then I’d have to market them. Some years I’ve just taken the calves to the sale barn and have done all right with them there, too. I mainly market my animals the easy way.” The sheep and cattle currently run together in the grazing system, along with some draft ponies. “Draft ponies are my hobby and I have several of them. The mares and foals go out in the pasture with the cows and sheep. I am trying to have multi-species grazing. I had goats for a while but they didn’t cooperate! They were impossible to contain and wouldn’t stay in the pasture segments with the other livestock. Essentially I told those goats that this was all about controlled grazing and if I can’t control you, you have to go! So I got rid of the goats.” The ponies have been a hobby for many years. “I bought a Haflinger mare in 2001 and now I have 20 ponies,” he says. Many of his ponies are crossbred. “I got hooked up with a guy who raised Belgian ponies, starting them from a cross using Shetland ponies and Belgian draft horses. I have a lot of his bloodlines now in my pony herd, mixed with my Haflingers. The draft ponies and the Haflingers are actually very similar and the mix works very well,” says Russ. The ponies have been useful on Russ’s farm. “I don’t have a tractor or very much equipment of any sort, so the first couple years before I put the water system in, I hauled water to the livestock in the pastures with the ponies. I put them to work, figuring they should earn their keep somehow!” At this point in time Russ’s venture into Holistic Management mainly entails the changes he’s made with his grazing systems and pasture improvements. It’s still a work in progress. “There is no question that the holistic principles influence all of my decisions. If you study this system, it gives you some great tools to work with; you don’t look at the whole world the same way again,” says Russ. Num ber 183
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PROGRAM ROUNDUP REGENERATE 2018 Conference
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e were so pleased with the turnout at this year’s conference, REGENERATE 2018, that we were lucky enough to co-host with the Quivira Coalition and American Grassfed Association in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 31–November 2, 2018. We had a sold-out, 600+ crowd buzzing with energy and eagerness joining together on this mission to regenerate land by changing farming and ranching practices.
opportunities. This session did earn the title of Most Rowdy as there was lots of engagement, participation, learning to do by doing. In addition, our Regenerative Grazing Workshop was sold out and highlighted the work of the folks at Green Fields Farm as well as Louis Martin of Round River Resource Betsy Ross Management and a host of Certified Educators including Ben Bartlett, Cindy Dvergsten, Kirk Gadzia, Wayne Knight, Roland Kroos, Guy Glosson, and Brian Luce. Thank you to all the attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, donors, speakers, volunteers, and the staff at Hotel Albuquerque for making it such an amazing experience! If you weren’t able to make it, you can view videos of the REGENERATE conference at the Quivira Coalition Youtube channel.
NM Regenerative Ag Farm Tour 2018
O 2018 Conference Of particular interest to the Holistic Management crowd were talks by Holistic Management producers and educators Will Harris from White Oak Pastures, Georgia; Jonathan Cobb from Green Fields Farm, Texas; and Deborah Clark from the Birdwell-Clark Ranch, Texas. The Sisters of the Soil panel
Will Harris included Nicole Masters, Betsy Ross, and Christine Su who kept the crowd entertained as they explained how soil functioned and the need for
14
Jonathan Cobb good grazing management to keep soil health active after using soil amendments and inoculants. HMI’s Effective Facilitation breakout session was a great collaboration with tons of learning, networking, and energizing
Deborah Clark Land & Livestock
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n September 23rd six South Valley farms opened their doors to the public for the first HMI Regenerative Agriculture Farm Tour. 90 participants explored Speakeasy Gardens, Chispas Farm, Valle Encantado, Ironwood Farm, Whole Heart Farm and the Gutierrez Hubbell House Farm. 100% of participants reported learning something new about regenerative agriculture from the farm owners and managers they met. Valle Encantado, owned and operated by Joseph Alfaro, is one of the original Agri-Cultura Network farms in the South Valley. Joseph is a cofounding member of the network which provides local families with produce through their community supported agriculture (CSA) program called La Cosecha (the harvest). Sixtyfive percent of families receiving weekly food shares do so at subsidized rates. Berenika Byszewski runs SpeakEasy Gardens, a one-acre farm Casey Holland (left) greeting visitors located in the at Chispas Farm. historic don Telesfor de Armijo property which was part of the Atrisco land grant. They grow vegetables, herbs and flowers for the local community and are committed to organic, sustainable and Holistic Management practices for cultivating high-quality, year-round crops.Tour visitors were shown Berenika’s current projects where she is increasing ground cover and creating wildlife habitat. They were also encouraged to pick their own bouquet of marigolds and sunflowers. Ironwood Farms is a 20-acre farm just a few hundred yards from
the Rio Grande River. They grow chemical free food going beyond typical organic practices to ecological methods and permaculture concepts that build soil health, integrate livestock and support native wildlife. Their off-grid strawbale farmhouse is energy efficient and they also have a solar-powered pump and a “John Dear” tractor that runs on fryer grease biodiesel, and a wood-burning steam engine. Whole Heart Farm is an urban farm/market garden in the heart of Albuquerque. The property had been used as a small CSA farm for 8 years and changed management in January of 2018. High rotation beds with high value crops is a goal, along with building systems to be more efficient and profitable while focusing on soil health. Joshua Shelburne is the owner and manager of Whole Heart Farm and has been farming for five years working with the Agri-Cultura Network. Originally he thought he would be a “part time” farmer but he is excited to be living on the farm property and has made it a full-time endeavor. The Gutierrez-Hubbell House (GHH) is a cultural and historical museum surrounded by public open space and farmland. The Grow the Growers Program (GTG) is a comprehensive farm training and business acceleration initiative designed to attract new and emerging farmers into professional food production. The Program participants manage the farm at the Gutierrez-Hubbell House and explore and test different regenerative agricultural techniques. The GTG grows food that is distributed to 350 local families through La Cosecha. Proceeds are returned to the Grow the Growers program to support future cohorts of interns. Chispas Farms is located in the heart of Albuquerque and on the edge of the South Valley along the Bosque. The farm has been in production since 2001. Certified organic in 2006, Casey Holland and Ian Colburn began farming at Chispas in 2017. They specialize in growing over 120 varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables and use regenerative practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, integrated pest management, seed saving, and lots more. We created a small evaluation so attendees could give us feedback on the event. The feedback we heard the most was “do this again, loved meeting the farmers and seeing how they work with the land!”. When you know your farmer, you can feel good that your dollars are supporting local small business. These farms carry local support even further by sourcing their supplies as close to home as possible, helping to create community and working together to regenerate the land they farm. Thanks to Leigh and Charlie Merinoff for funding this event and to all our collaborators: edible Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, UNM Sustainability Studies Program, Quivira Coalition, City of Albuquerque Open Space, One Albuquerque Parks & Recreation, Open Space Alliance, National Young Farmers Coalition, Zendo Coffee, Street Food Institute, Desert Oasis Teaching Gardens, Pop Fizz, and Humble Coffee.
Colorado Open Gate Update
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ver 20 people from Colorado and New Mexico enjoyed a sunny fall day at HMI’s Open Gate learning day near Cortez, Colorado. Attendees gleaned insights as they learned about the long-term and short-term benefits of Holistic Management in small scale livestock operations. Arriola Sunshine Farm has been practicing Holistic Management for over 20 years whereas Cedar Mesa Ranch just started implementing Holistic Management in 2017. The day began at Arriola Sunshine Farm owned by Cindy
Dvergsten, an HMI Certified Educator, and Mike Rich, a retired NRCS conservationist. Cindy provided an overview of Holistic Management and Mike provided an overview of the farm and how they have managed their land to increase soil health and productivity. They have had several enterprises over the years including a market garden, laying hens and beef, but now are focused on conserving NavajoChurro Sheep, an endangered breed. Their focus is on quality breeding stock, grass finished lamb and raw wool for specialty markets. As they toured, participants learned about how Cindy and Mike use holistic grazing planning and decision making to reduce labor and increase productivity. Using primarily the tools of grazing and animal impact they have steadily increased health and productivity in their irrigated pastures over the past 25 years. The land has not been plowed for over 40 years. Soil organic matter increased from 1.7% in the mid-1990s and now is 4–6%. Recent Haney soil analysis on their best paddocks indicate very high respiration rate and overall soil health with a nutrient value of $173 per acre. In comparison, on recently acquired pastures with less than 5 years of Holistic Management, the soil health was average and total nutrient value was $82 per acre. Carrying capacity has increased from 13 to 45 sheep days per acre on five acres with a six-month growing season. Production has increased from less than two tons to as high as 4.5 tons per acre. Today they use 10 major pasture divisions and implement temporary electric fence to subdivide based on needs of the grass plants, animals and available labor. They graze three to five days per move and allow CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
In Memoriam
It is with great sadness that HMI learned of the passing of Neil Dennis of Redvers, Saskatchewan on November 4, 2018 at the age of 69. Neil was a well-known Holistic Management practitioner and consultant and spoke all over the world about his onfarm research and pushing the boundaries of high-stock density grazing. His creativity, sense of humor, and passion for the land were contagious. He readily admits it was his wife, Barbara, that encouraged him to go to his first Holistic Management course. He was convinced it wouldn’t work and set about proving that when he returned to Sunnybrae Acres. To his surprise and delight, he found that Holistic Planned Grazing was the key to turning around his farm. Neil’s efforts to improve land health and create systems that ease the management of large herds were captured in Peter Byck’s film Carbon Cowboys. Neil is survived by his wife Barbara Dennis and his children Brad, Boyd and Neila. Our condolences to the Dennis family. He will be missed! CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
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Program Roundup
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45–60 days recovery. Cindy explained how planned grazing favors a diverse pasture that has two major grasses, two types of legumes and a several forbs. “Weeds are not a problem when you turn them into meat worth $14.00 a pound,” she said. Manure is spread each fall. Hay is fed in the winter on the pasture to enhance animal impact. Mike demonstrated how he clips and weighs to determine available forage in each paddock and to monitor utilization. He leaves adequate residue to feed soil life and protect soil. One participant shared “I am really excited about the increase in soil organic matter. I am keeping in mind that soil testing is important for monitoring and reporting, right from the start of any grazing plan or soil management project.” This year the farm experienced a D4 – Exceptional Drought, receiving less than half of the average rainfall. Irrigation water was cut off seven weeks early and the farm still has ample forage to graze the full season and into winter. Realizing early in the year the implications of severe drought, they stockpiled hay while prices were still low. Unlike many who are destocking, Mike and Cindy feel confident about their ability to make it through the winter and at least half of next season without destocking should the drought continue. Challenges at this point for Mike and Cindy are around labor. To make handling sheep more feasible, decisions to invest in a turn table for hoof trimming and a shearing stand passed their decision testing. Previously they hauled manure out to the field by hand. Now with increased stock numbers and less physical stamina, they invested in a four-wheeler and manure spreader. Walkways and facilities are planned for efficiency. They also invested in additional handset pipe which significantly reduced irrigation labor. They made their pens predator proof, so they can leave their sheep penned for short breaks away from the farm. Lunch time provided participants with an opportunity to network. One participant shared “I was impressed with the minimal infrastructure required for the scale of the operation. I am also very impressed at the minimal import of feed in your setup and what that aspect of grazing does to the finance and sustainability part of a business.” In the afternoon, the group toured Cedar Mesa Ranch operated by Kendra and Andrew Schafer. Both have degrees in agriculture and have seen first-hand conventional agriculture practices in action. Kendra’s family has run sheep and cattle in the Mancos Valley for generations, although she has never been actively involved in the family ranch. Andrew is a first-generation farmer/rancher. The couple was introduced to Holistic Management in a 2017 course taught by Cindy in Mancos, Colorado. Since taking the course they have furthered their self-taught education on sustainable farming practices and staying as in tune to nature as possible. Andrew and Kendra raise Navajo-Churro sheep, Angus cattle, and pasture raised laying hens. Genetics is important to them, they select for animals that do well in the arid Southwest climate, animals that adapt well to their environment, and thrive well on their own with little human interference. They market their grass-fed and finished meats directly to consumers as well as sell meat and wool products at local farmers markets. The afternoon tour took place on 120 acres of leased ground that has been under Andrew’s management for eight years. In previous years, the land was used for conventional hay production. Andrew
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grew tired of making so many trips across the field to make hay. He knew there had to be a better way of feeding livestock. After some research they decided they were ready to ‘kick the hay habit’ and focus on grazing livestock year-round. In the spring of 2018 they liquidated all the hay equipment. In the winter months, they will still feed hay but for the past few years have been working towards reducing the number of days they feed hay. The end goal is to stockpile enough feed to allow the livestock to graze year-round and not depend on machinery to do the harvesting. In the growing season, they move animals daily using electric net for the sheep and single poly wire for the cattle. Both shared with the group, “We have seen such amazing results, even in just the first full season of using Holistic Management. When you use a combination of high animal impact- hoof action, droppings, and urine, in a short duration, 24 hours or less, with a good recovery period, the regrowth is astounding. Being in the meat business, it is very important to us to have our animals eating the most diverse and nutritious grass throughout the entire growing season.” Daily moves also help with parasite control. Andrew gets asked a lot what they do to manage weeds. His answer is always the same, “We try not to look at a weed as a weed, it is a gift from nature, generally germinating in a place nothing else will grow.” They let the plant initiate soil life, then try to plant something else there to outcompete it. Kendra noted “We also use the tool of animal impact to disrupt the lifecycle of the plant rather than spraying chemicals or plowing. We know all these plants add to the overall diversity of plant offerings for the animals, and in many cases, it is volunteer green feed that comes up on its own. Holistic Management has really helped us in our business decisions, both in the field and in the office.” A special thank you to the Ballentine Family Fund for making this event possible, and to our hosts, collaborators, and outreach partners: Arriola Sunshine Farm and Cedar Mesa Ranch.
Colorado Whole Farm/Ranch Land Management Program
I
n September and October, HMI partnered with the Sunfire Ranch near Carbondale, Colorado to host an HMI Whole Farm/Ranch Land Management course. Attendees included owners and managers from diversified farms and ranches located in the local area, the front range of Colorado, California, and Oklahoma. All shared a desire to improve their ability to be adaptive, manage resources wisely, and implement regenerative agricultural practices. The number of acres they manage totals 8,732. Topics covered included Holistic Decision Making, Grazing Planning, Early Warning Biological Monitoring and Land Planning. Cindy Dvergsten, an HMI Certified Educator was the instructor. Mike Rich, retired NRCS conservationist and long-time Holistic Management practitioner assisted. The course featured a guest presentation on sage grouse habitat management by Terri Schultz of The Nature Conservancy and Retta Bruegger from Colorado State University. Jason and Alex Sewell, sixth-generation owners at Sunfire Ranch, are the remaining descendants of the Thompson family that settled in Crystal River Valley. Jason was introduced to Holistic Management in 2015 when he attended a Whole Farm Business Course sponsored by HMI and taught by Cindy Dvergsten in Montrose. Through implementing
never fully understood how to use the Holistic Grazing Planning Chart. Now he sees great value in how the chart organizes a large amount of data on one page and serves as a monitoring tool. Other attendees included Meadow Barn Ranch at Snowmass, the Mountain Primal Meat Company near Basalt, Erin Kiley from PastureMap, and The Farm Collaborative, a non-profit educational farm near Aspen. Participants appreciated the resources provided as well as the opportunity to network and form relationships—all important ingredients to success. Thank you to the generous support of Martha Records and Rich Rainaldi in making this day possible. Thanks also to the Grasslans Charitable Foundation for their support and to our collaborators: Sunfire Ranch, The Nature Conservancy, Resiliency Lands, and Colorado State University Extension—Livestock and Range.
Whole Farm/Ranch Land Management Program participants learned how to observe biological monitoring indicators as well as learn forage inventory assessment techniques. Holistic Management, Jason’s business model aims to show how young farmers and historic lands can be paired to create innovative resilient food systems for the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. The ranch hosts Wild Mountain Seeds managed by Casey Piscura whose passion is to develop vegetables that perform in the cold mountain valleys of Colorado. He also produces a wide range of vegetables that sell through the Basalt Farmers Market, and to local grocers and restaurants. Casey and his partner benefited from setting their holistic goal and then using it to guide decisions about prioritizing how they will grow their operation. Sunfire Ranch also raises water buffalo which are milked to produce cheese. Jason is working with Connor Coleman, a land management consultant, to create a conservation easement for the ranch and strategies to reclaim long rested and previously overgrazed uplands. Two other participants, Lance and Brett Wheeler from Rafter W Ranch near Simla, Colorado who raise beef cattle, poultry, eggs and lamb, found that learning to test decisions towards a holistic goal helps them to stay objective. They also forged a relationship with nearby Johnathan Tuller, manager at the Flying B Bar Ranch, who also attended the workshop. Johnathan had been introduced to Holistic Management when he worked on the Chico Basin Ranch in the early 2000s. Although he is very skilled in cattle management and grazing, he Key Outcomes
% of Participants
Intend to complete or modify a written whole farm/ ranch plan as a result of this course.
91%
More confident in your ability to make complex decisions on your farm/ranch as a result of today’s class.
100%
Intend to conduct biological monitoring on your farm/ranch as a result of this course.
91%
Overall satisfaction of the event.
100%
New York Beginning Farmer Program On May 16, 2018, 11 participants from varied backgrounds and experience levels completed their Holistic Management Beginning Farmer/Rancher training in New York. Seven of the participants were “Pro Farmers” from the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, the organization that co-sponsored this training. The diversity brought by other students in the class made for fruitful discussions and learning, including
Beginning Farmer Program participants spent three sessions on farm learning through peer to peer and experiential learning. sheep enterprises, grazing public lands, identifying best use of newly purchased lands, and identifying property to buy. The first seven sessions were held at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub for the classroom portion of the training. There students created a Whole Farm Inventory and a Holistic Goal to guide their future decisions. They studied time management and decision testing while creating a Time Management Plan to ensure all the tasks for every enterprise could happen without crowding or overlap. They created a Holistic Financial plan and learned how to plan for profit. The last classroom session focused on marketing and business planning where students learned about different marketing strategies while CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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Program Roundup
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Student Profile
“The Beginning Farmer/Rancher course with HMI was transformative for me. I’m blessed with visions for the world around me, but had no previous training in creating goals and processes to realize those visions. The holistic goal and the decision making processes are tools that have changed how I work. I especially enjoyed learning alongside peers who were likewise empowered to bring their visions to life. Many fond memories from the field days! I have applied my training to manage a community farm in Albany, New York. The farm is a steward of over 80 acres of greenspace situated in an urban environment. There, intensive rotational grazing is utilized to restore plant diversity and soil health. The training has also driven me take the first steps towards my personal goal of privately owning land in Upstate New York for the purposes of farming and land conservation.” —Melissa Parade, BFR Student 2018
Key Outcomes
% of Participants
Overall satisfaction with the course
91%
More confident in your ability to develop a Whole Farm/Ranch Goal
89%
More confident in your ability to identify logjams, adverse, and weak links factors on your farm
73%
creating Business and Marketing plans. The students also learned about communication methods and effective management and leadership behaviors. The first on-the-land learning day was held at Sapbush Hollow Farm where participants learned how to create landscapes and infrastructure for maximum ease and productivity. They created a Holistic Land Plan and learned how to implement it in conjunction with the financial plan. The Holistic Grazing session was held at Heather Ridge Farm. Students toured the property and saw first-hand how animals impact the land and explored grazing implementation as well as learned how to create a Holistic Grazing Plan. The final session, on soil health, was held at Clove Valley CSA. Students learned about ecosystem processes and the effect different tools have depending on the climate. They were taught to read the land
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and create a Biological Monitoring Plan that will provide information for better decision making. The course was a great success with productive conversation shared by the diverse group and everyone in the course earned their certificate. Instructors for this program included HMI Certified Educators Phil Metzger, Elizabeth Marks, and Erica Frenay, and HMI Coordinator and Whole Farm Planning Trainer, Sarah Williford. Participants responded to the question about what were some of the most important things they had learned with some of the following comments: • • • • •
Developing a written whole farm/ranch goal Developing a business/strategic plan Record keeping Determining profit upfront and capping expenses Effective communication with farm workers and management team • Determining the number of animals my land can support for grazing • How to improve the ecosystem health of my farm Thank you to the generous support of our Sponsor, The Hudson Valley Farm Hub, for helping to make this program possible.
New Mexico Grow the Grower Program
H
MI has been pleased to partner with the Bernalillo County Open Space and New Mexico State University (NMSU) Extension to provide Holistic Management training for The Grow the Growers Program, a comprehensive farm training and business acceleration initiative designed to attract new and emerging farmers into professional food production. The program participants manage the farm at the Gutierrez-Hubbell House in Albuquerque’s South Valley. The 2018 group is made up of ten first-year interns and three second-year interns. The first-years work together on one plot of land implementing their newly learned regenerative agriculture techniques, while the second-years farm their own plots for market and La Cosecha, a local CSA program where 65% of families receiving weekly food shares do so at subsidized rates. Holistic Management International facilitated three 2-day intensive courses for the Grow the Growers Program participants; Introduction to Holistic Management Whole Farm/Ranch Planning, Holistic Cropping Planning, and Holistic Marketing and Business Planning. Kathy Harris, Certified Educator and Programs Director at HMI, taught the introduction module March 7 and 8th, 2018. This course focused on key Holistic Management planning concepts and principles to help participants manage their farm/ranch for the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and financial sustainability) and more effectively manage resources. Participants were excited to learn how to improve their ability to observe, understand, and make decisions based on what they can control. The group was eager to learn more about soil health and how to improve the health of their land. When learning how to create a holistic goal they dug deep into values identification and were able to recognize a number of common values throughout the group. They used these
values to create their holistic goal for the program. The class learned about on-farm decision testing and practiced with a case on getting a new tractor, comparing it with getting a smaller, less expensive and more versatile piece of equipment. Through these new skills participants now have the knowledge and tools to improve their ability to work with nature and to increase productivity. On September 12th & 13th 2018, HMI Educator Sarah Williford taught the Holistic Cropping Planning Module, helping participants begin to draft a successful holistic crop plan. They began with a review of their Whole Farm Resource Inventory and Holistic Goal and talked about how a holistic crop plan is directly related to and reliant on both of these foundational documents. Sarah Williford taught the course remotely from her farm in New York while HMI Program Manager Stephanie Von Ancken facilitated the session. The participants in Albuquerque were able to interact with her in real time through video conferencing. When the participants went outside to draw a map of their plots Sarah was able to accompany them and get a virtual tour of the land! Key learning points and outcomes of the workshop were: • • • • • • •
Key crop planning principles and guidelines Ecosystem processes & soil facts Tools for Managing Ecosystem Processes Farm Ecosystem Strategies Crop Rotation and Sequencing How to develop your Holistic Crop Plan in 4 steps Bio-monitoring techniques and General Monitoring of actions taken
Along with the lecture, there were six activities that the participants completed to help guide them through the first four steps of creating a holistic crop plan. The final session, on November 7th and 8th, was focused on Holistic Marketing and Business Planning. HMI’s Executive Director and Certified Educator, Ann Adams, was the trainer for this two-day program. The first day was focused on working through the Holistic Financial Planning process and particularly focusing on numerous examples of how to develop a gross profit analysis for a variety of enterprises to determine levels of profitability. Combined with using the Holistic Management decision testing, this process has helped many producers determine the most appropriate enterprise mixes for their farms. Many of the program participants are required to develop proposals for their use of field space in this incubator farm, so this course was timely in helping them develop their proposals. They also discussed how they could set up effective recordkeeping systems. The second day focused on marketing and business planning principles and practices, building off of the financial information that participants had developed from the previous session. In particular, participants worked through developing an elevator speech for their business as well as determining SMART goals for marketing, infrastructure development, and business systems. Participants said they found the templates for business, marketing, and financial planning very helpful in getting them prepared to take their business to the next level. Participants found the HMI program to be necessary to building a strong foundation moving forward and liked that the program was tailored to a farm business with “lots of great templates to use” and
“information that applied to all aspects of future farm businesses.” Participants felt their greatest learning experiences from the training program were: • The Holistic Management framework and goal setting • Learning more about the business aspect of farming • Identifying what I can do to improve my business, management and marketing skills • Vision analysis • Marketing & Business planning • Building market plans for income and expenses • Balancing tasks and managing my time on the farm • This course has opened me up to a lot of new concepts pertaining to farming. • This training will help a great deal in my quests to become a successful farmer • Thank you for providing this. Great opportunity to increase business proficiency • Thank you for your contribution to our beginning in the farm world When participants were asked what they would do with what they have learned, they said: • Move forward into the ag community as a new farmer; making strong plans, keeping good records, and sticking to my goals to be successful • I plan to incorporate many of the topics I have learned in the class • Step by step analysis of developing a well thought out business plan to obtain financial help. Use SMART goal sheets and create a better vision of my farm for the long term. • Practices and incorporate the tools taught • Use the charts given in the business section to decide if certain crops are valuable enough to grow • Continue to study and use these tools as I move forward in my business Thank you to the Thornburg Foundation for making this program possible, and to the Bernalillo County Open Space and NMSU Extension as well as all the Grow the Growers 2018 interns who are working to create a more regenerative local foodshed. Key Outcomes from Program
% of Participants
Overall satisfaction with all three courses
100%
Intent to change management practices as a result of this training
100%
More confident in your ability to make complex decision on your farm/ranch
100%
Increased ability to create a whole farm goal
100%
How to increase your farm’s/ranch’s net worth after the course
100%
Increased ability to assess ecosystem health
100%
Increased ability to begin a crop plan
100%
Increased ability to improve soil health
100%
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CASE STUDY
Looking to the Future
Flying Diamond Ranch—
Earning $50/hour on a Cattle Ranch BY KEVIN ALEXANDER WATT
T
he Johnson Family began practicing adaptive planned grazing on their ranch after attending a Holistic Resource Management workshop with Allan Savory in the late 1980s. Their goal was to increase the health of their ranch and animals and lower spending on costly inputs by mimicking the grazing behavior of native migratory herds of buffalo, antelope, and deer.
The Johnson family has done a lot to make sure that the people on their ranch are thriving too. Though intergenerational transfer is a huge challenge for many agricultural operations, the Johnsons approached this issue with the same practicality and innovative spirit they apply to land and livestock management. They have been eager to grow in new ways in order to provide opportunities for their children and their spouses to find meaningful and rewarding careers on the ranch. As the 6th generation of Johnsons is born, the ranch business is growing by leaps and bounds—expanding beyond the original 25,000 acres of Flying Diamond Ranch to an additional 25,000 leased acres in Colorado Springs and Castle Rock, Colorado.
This case study is used by permission and first appeared on the TomKat Ranch website at: https://tomkatranch.org/casestudy-flying-diamond-ranch/ . TomKat Ranch is an 1,800 acre grassfed cattle ranch in the San Francisco Bay Area working to inspire the transition of 1 million acres of California rangeland to regenerative management.
Implementing Change
The biggest changes they have implemented on their ranch include increasing herd density and adjusting their grazing timing so fields get time to recover. Portable electric fencing and a distributed water system (funded in part through a grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) helped the Johnsons shrink their average paddock size from 1,500 acres to 300 acres. Each paddock is now grazed no more than 7 days (the regional average is about 180 days) and allowed almost a full year to recover and grow.
Seeing the Benefits
The Johnson family.
These changes have led to significant benefits for the ranch, its animals, and the business including a dramatic reduction in bare ground, increased forage production and vegetation diversity, reduced runoff, improved groundwater recharge, and more wildlife. Further, increased forage productivity and improved utilization have increased the stocking capacity of the ranch by approximately 25%. Working closely with nature and carefully monitoring livestock performance, operational costs, and ecological function has revealed other opportunities as well. While most producers in their area calve in the fall to maximize the time calves can grow before going to auction, this strategy comes with costs that the Johnsons are now eager to avoid. Fall calving requires ranchers to supplement feed so nursing mother cows can meet the needs of their calves over the winter when forage is typically low in nutritional value. Seeing this, the Johnsons began calving in the spring. The change synchronized the nutritional demands of the mother cows with a plentiful forage season, mild weather, and an abundance of wild prey to reduce calf mortality. Though this change reduced the size of calves at the auction, the family saw only a small loss in revenue (approximately $20/calf), and the loss was ultimately dwarfed by the combination of feed savings and increased profit from having more live calves to sell.
20 IN PRACTICE
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January / February 2019
Highlights
30 acres per animal unit is the stocking rate the Johnson’s have achieved with high density/ long recovery grazing and better forage utilization. Before practicing adaptive planned grazing they required 40 acres per animal unit. ~0 calves are expected to be lost each year to predation and inclement weather since switching their calving season to the spring. Surprise late-season storms may still cause some mortality, but calf loss from predation or weather is almost nonexistent on the ranch The Johnsons no longer allow coyotes to be shot on their land. 1,200 cow/calf pairs and 800 yearlings now make up the Johnson’s herd. They have grown their business nearly 50% each year for the past 3 years. $25/hour is the minimum rate the cattle business pays to the members of the family that own/operate it. This can go as high as $100/hour during particularly successful years and usually averages around $50/hour. Since 1907, the Johnson family has stewarded the Flying Diamond Ranch in Kit Carson, Colorado. Their success over the past 100 years has grown out of a tradition of holistically caring for the productivity and long-term resilience of their family, animals, and land. In the early 1990s Scott and Jean Johnson began practicing adaptive planned cattle grazing on the ranch and have since expanded their business, improved the health of their land, grown the size of their herd, and created rewarding opportunities for their children to join in and take ownership of the business.
Certified
Educators
The following Certified Educators listed have been trained to teach and coach individuals in Holistic Management. On a yearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with HMI. This agreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives and to seek out opportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management.
U N I T E D S TAT E S ARIZONA
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 Rob Rutherford 4757 Bridgecreek Rd., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805/544-5781 (h) • 805/550-4858 (c) robtrutherford@gmail.com
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COLORADO 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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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 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
Ralph Tate 1109 Timber Dr., Papillion, NE 68046 402/932-3405 • 402/250-8981 (c) Tater2d2@cox.net NEW HAMPSHIRE Seth Wilner 24 Main Street, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) 603/543-7169 (c) • seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO Ann Adams Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252 • anna@holisticmanagement.org Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/263-8677 (c) • kirk@rmsgadzia.com Jeff Goebel 1033 N. Gabaldon Rd., Belen, NM 87002 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com Kathy Harris Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252 • kathyh@holisticmanagement.org
NEW YORK Erica Frenay Shelterbelt Farm 200 Creamery Rd., Brooktondale, NY 14817 607/539-6512 (h) 607/342-3771 (c) info@shelterbeltfarm.com Elizabeth Marks 1024 State Rt. 66, Ghent, NY 12075 518/828-4385 x107 (w) 518/567-9476 (c) Elizabeth.marks@ny.usda.gov Phillip Metzger 120 Thompson Creek Rd., Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-2407 (h) pmetzger17@gmail.com
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NORTH DAKOTA Joshua Dukart 2539 Clover Place, Bismarck, ND 58503 701/870-1184 • Joshua_dukart@yahoo.com OREGON Angela Boudro PO Box 3444, Central Point, OR 97502 541/ 890-4014 • angelaboudro@gmail.com SOUTH DAKOTA
Holmquist *4870Randal Cliff Drive, Rapid City, SD 57702 605/730-0550 randy@zhvalley.com
TEXAS Lisa Bellows North Central 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
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Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy. 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com Tracy Litle 1277 S CR 305, Orange Grove, TX 78372 361/537-3417 (c) tjlitle@hotmail.com Peggy Maddox 9460 East FM 1606, Hermleigh, TX 79526 325/226-3042 (c) • westgift@hughes.net Katherine Napper Ottmers 313 Lytle Street, Kerrville, TX 78028 830/896-1474 • katherineottmers@icloud.com CD Pounds 753 VZ CR 1114, Fruitvale, TX 75127 214/568-3377 • cdpounds@live.com Peggy Sechrist 106 Thunderbird Ranch Road Fredericksburg, TX 78624 830/456-5587 (c) • peggysechrist@gmail.com
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WISCONSIN
Heather Flashinski *16294 250th Street, Cadott, WI 54727
715/289-4896 (w) • 715/379-3742 (c) grassheather@hotmail.com Larry Johnson 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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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) graemehand9@gmail.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 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 Tony McQuail 86016 Creek Line, RR#1, Lucknow, ON N0G 2H0 519/528-2493 mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca Kelly Sidoryk Box 72, Blackroot, A B TOB OLO 780/872-2585 (c) 780/875-4418 (w) kelly.sidoryk@gmail.com
NAMIBIA Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii P O Box 24102, 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
FINLAND Tuomas Mattila Töllintie 27, Pusula, 3850 +358 40 743 2412 tuomas.j.mattila@gmail.com
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 Ian Mitchell-Innes 14 Chevril Road, Ladysmith, 3370 +27-83-262-9030 ian@mitchell-innes.co.za
KENYA Christine C. Jost Box 30677, Nairobi 00100 773/706-2705 (c) • 703/981-1224 (w) cjost@usaid.gov
NEW ZEALAND John King P. O. Box 12011, Beckenha Christchurch 8242 64-276-737-885 john@succession.co.nz
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Num ber 183
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TTHHEE MMAA RR KK EE TT PP LL AA CC EE
Resource Management Services, LLC
CORRAL DESIGNS
Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 Pasture Scene 505-263-8677 Investigation kirk@rmsgadzia.com www.rmsgadzia.com
How can RMS, LLC help you? On-Site Consulting: All aspects of holistic management, including financial, ecological and human resources. Training Events: Regularly scheduled and customized training sessions provided in a variety of locations. Ongoing Support: Follow-up training sessions and access to continued learning opportunities and developments. Land Health Monitoring: Biological monitoring of rangeland and riparian ecosystem health. Property Assessment: Land health and productivity assessment with recommended solutions.
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May / /June 2016 2019 h January February
22IN IN PRACTICE 22 PRACTICE
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pointed me to HMI’s Beginning Women Farmers & Ranchers Program in Texas. I took the course in 2012, which provided the nuts and bolts I needed to create and fulfill my vision for the farm. It gave me a Windy Oaks Grass-fed Beef— pragmatic strategy on how to make the farm work for our family. “The most helpful part of the HMI training was how to set up a HEALTHY LAND KEY TO HUMAN SURVIVAL grazing system which feeds the soil as well as the animals. In the ay Allen is a fifth-generation Texas rancher managing Windy beginning, I was managing 60 angus cow/calf pairs on 125 acres with Oaks Grass-fed Beef near Canton, Texas. With her daughter one center fence, and another 80-acre parcel with no interior fencing. now interested in entrepreneurial sustainability, the sixth Now, we use electric fencing and move the cattle, roughly, every three generation is coming on board as well. “My father joined the days through 20 large paddocks, with up to 5 sub-paddocks each. USDA after having served as a Marine in WWll & the Korean Conflict. We’ve also added chickens following the cattle in an egg-mobile, He served as a government lender for rural development five days a broilers in a chicken tractor, and just acquired our first, trial goats to week through the Farmers’ Home Administration, currently Farm Services manage our briars and brambles. Administration, then worked at the ranch on weekends.” says Kay. “The financial planning portion of the HMI training was critical for “When I was a child, we came back to our family property in Van me. I started from scratch as a businesswoman. My daughter, with a Zandt County on weekends, even though we lived in various towns degree in business management and Queen of the Spreadsheet, is and cities around the state. Upon our parents’ passing in 2011, my also an HMI alum and is very helpful in this area, as well as marketing sisters and I inherited the ranch, part of which has been in the family and everything else. since 1839, a land grant from the Republic of Texas. My father knew “I found HMI’s emphasis on setting holistic goals, which encompass agriculture before it was dominated by big machinery and synthetic all aspects of my life, to be realistic and liberating. It takes the chemicals, received a Master’s degree in it, and was part of the postcompetition out of the different aspects of my world. We all live in war agricultural revolution. He managed, however, to straddle the fence several, if not many, roles: spouse, parent, business owner, community between biological and chemical agriculture. member, friend, relative, etc. HMI’s decision making matrix allows me to “My involvement in regenerative agriculture began with The see at a glance how all the different areas of my life will be affected by Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. I knew I my choices, and how my larger life informs my wanted to continue my family’s farming tradition, business decisions. but was searching for a humane, healthy way “Although we still have much more work to to do it. Growing up looking over my dad’s do in creating and fine-tuning all areas of our shoulder at the practices of conventional ranch sustainable, healthy, humane food production management, Pollan’s descriptions of industrial business, I’m pleased with the results from our agriculture and factory farming were familiar, grazing. When I first started grazing 7 years and his book introduced me to another way to ago, all of our forage samples indicated our soil produce food. and Relative Feed Value (RFV) was poor. By “The first summer after Dad died I went to a the third and fourth years, some of our forage grass-fed beef conference in Texas. John Taggert To continue to improve soil health and was testing fair, and a few samples were good. of Burgundy Beef and Betsy Ross of Sustainable biodiversity the Allens are adding chickens When we sent in the spring forage sample of Growth, Texas, were featured speakers, and to follow the cows for natural pest ryegrass this year we got an RFVs of 169! I was they threw open wide the doors to regenerative, control and fertilization as well as goats to skeptical, so I sent in 2 additional samples humane, healthy food production. Betsy Ross naturally address the briars and brambles. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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