Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
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Health From the Soil Up BY ANN ADAMS
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recent docu-series now on the internet is called the Farmer’s Footprint. You can learn more about it and watch the first episode of the series at: https://farmersfootprint.us/. The focus of the documentary is to educate the public about the grassroots regenerative agriculture movement that is addressing the pressing problems of soil erosion, water pollution, diminished soil health and nutrition of the food grown on that soil, and the health issues that arise from the amount of pesticide and herbicide that remains in the food as it makes its way through the food system.
Young Agrarians INSIDE THIS ISSUE Any healthy population needs a diverse age representation. In every country there is grave concern about the aging population of farmers and ranchers. But in the regenerative agriculture community there are many people working to get young agrarians on the land to bring new ideas and energy. Read about the work of Wian Prinsloo and Lydia Carpenter of Luna Field Farms on page 6 and the Hicks efforts to develop a succession plan for their farm on page 11.
In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International
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The first episode features Holistic Management practitioners Grant and Dawn Breitkreutz who manage the 950-acre Stoney Creek Farm near Redwood Falls, Minnesota and who won the 2016 BEEF Trailblazer Award. It also features HMI Advisory Council member Allen Williams who does a great job explaining how farmers like the Breitkreutzs have shifted their practices and are a great role model for other farmers who feel like they are stuck in a broken system that leaves them with no profits (usually losses), a diminished natural resource base to steward, and work that they feel conflicted about (spraying pesticides and herbicides that poison the food and water). More and more scientists and doctors are recognizing the connection between soil health and the nutritional quality of food, as well as the negative impacts on health because of how a crop or product is raised. One school of thought is to remove ourselves from actually raising food in the soil (hydroponics or laboratory-raised meat) because humans should be removed from nature given our propensity toward extractive use of it. But at HMI, we believe that humans cannot be removed from nature because we are a part of nature. Our task as Holistic Management practitioners is to partner with nature and develop symbiotic relationships with all the biodiversity we can nurture, so that we not only heal the land, but we also grow and support healthy food, and develop thriving families, communities and economies. These critical conversations will be at the forefront of the 2019 REGENERATE Conference that we will host with The Quivira Coalition and the American Grassfed Association as we collaborate to convene ranchers, farmers, environmentalists, land managers, scientists, medical professionals, nutritionists, students, teachers, and others for four days—November 19–22, 2019 in Albuquerque, New Mexico—to explore ideas of Health from the Soil Up. As a state of complete well-being, health can describe everything from soils to economies. Health of people, animals, plants, and the whole
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planet are fundamentally connected. At its root, the source of health is in the land; it provides food, medicine, (bio)diversity, tradition, and home. Regenerative agriculture embodies a shift away from extractive practices, and toward holism, prevention, and proactivity. The systemic connections between food, medicine, plants, animals, soil, and climate impact the health of people and planet. The enormity of these systems and their relationships can inspire and be daunting—but ultimately we all play a role and have responsibility in how they function and contribute to health. How do we reconnect and learn from existing knowledge, practices, and experience about the intrinsic connections between health and nature? What can food production and land stewardship teach us about health and its cycles? How do we engage with the land in ways that heal and nourish soil, our bodies, wildlife, communities, economies, and the climate? How do we adapt agriculture for healthy, regenerative food and medicine systems into the future? If you are interested in these questions and want to network with hundreds of inspiring regenerative agriculture advocates from around the world, I encourage you to set the time aside to come to this conference and attend the workshops. We are in the process of confirming the speaker line up for this conference, so keep your eye out for updates on this conference and for registration in July at: https://quiviracoalition.org/regenerate/ I hope to see you all there!
The Hard Soft Skills of Regenerative Ranching
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . Director of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Communications & Outreach Stephanie Von Ancken . . . . . Program Manager Oris Salazar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Program Assistant
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Walter Lynn, Chair Wayne Knight, Vice-Chair Avery Anderson-Sponholtz, Secretary Gerardo Bezanilla Kirrily Blomfield Kevin Boyer Jonathan Cobb Guy Glosson Daniel Nuckols Robert Potts Jim Shelton Kelly Sidoryk Sarah Williford
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT In Practice (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by: Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: hmi@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2019 Holistic Management® is a registered trademark of Holistic Management International
FEATURE STORIES The Hard Soft Skills of Regenerative Ranching
ARIEL GREENWOOD................................................................... 2
LOGJAMS— The Sacred or the Obvious
TONY MALMBERG....................................................................... 3
LAND & LIVESTOCK Luna Field Farm— Producing Pasture-Raised Meats in Manitoba Regeneratively
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS......................................................... 6
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BY ARIEL GREENWOOD
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that haven’t found a way to make peace with wild things. I’m startled by the things we don’t question and the details we don’t discuss, like how the kind of fencing we use makes a big difference for the passage of wildlife or what happens to cows when their social bonds are regularly broken. There’s a lot about farming and ranching that can break the bonds between people, too. The moral calculus can be exhausting. The heart is bad at math. But I stay in this work because I’ve seen that I can accomplish more through participation than protest—and there really is so much more to be done.
hat does it mean to be a farmer in the twenty-first century? Maybe we all settle on a particular scale of interest. Some farmers among us begin with the double-dug square foot garden and from there dig deeper yet, plumbing the nearly atomic levels of plant genetics and soil microbiota—little things, but with big implications. I revere their attention to detail, and the rich symphonies of food-producing-art that are their farms and gardens. For others, only the broad sweep of rangeland will satisfy. I started farming at sixteen, and worked on diversified vegetable farms all through college. But in time, my gaze shifted from garden to grassland. I took up grazing for the same reasons some Ariel Greenwood identifies as a “holistic grazier: one who grazes folks take up dance animals with the aim of not only producing food but also rehabilitating or music or sculpture: landscapes, an agrarian who seeks to re-member I was desperate to ecology in agriculture.” participate, viscerally, and hopefully beneficially, with nature. We graziers act within ecosystems—we More than a decade has passed since I throw our animal weight around—while also started farming, and these days I identify as a being acted upon. This second part of the holistic grazier: one who grazes animals with contract is critical; to manage an ecosystem is the aim of not only producing food but also also to be managed by it. Ranching requires rehabilitating landscapes, an agrarian who decision-making when all one has to go on is seeks to re-member ecology in agriculture. a question and no answers. It requires holding At times, the interests that drew me to hopeful vigil as we watch nature alchemize ranching pull me right out the other side. My those choices into something unforeseen, love for wildlife, for trophic complexity, and for wondering all the while if we really belong in the chaos sometimes leaves me feeling at odds with place we’re occupying. the command-and-control factions of ranching In its various gestures, agriculture has
Glen and Doreen Hicks— The Challenging Question of Succession
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS.......................................................12
CASE STUDY JT Land & Cattle— New Grazing Strategies Improve Cattle and Land Production
ANN ADAMS...............................................................................15
NEWS & NETWORK From the Board Chair.............................................. 19 Certified Educators.................................................. 20 Market Place............................................................ 21 Development Corner............................................... 24
made a mess of otherwise intact hues of horses, dogs, leather, ecosystems. Within the last century, and soil. There are some newer the marvel of synthetic nitrogen tools too, like solar pumps and catapulted the planet into a boom electric fencing. But this era that relieved us of some problems poses novel challenges. Some while creating many others. That experts feel that most rangeland boom is beginning to bust, and in the United States is degraded, the fallout is everywhere. We’re with declines in soil carbon, long overdue for agriculture that organic matter, biodiversity, internalizes the costs long billed to and ground cover. The kinds of others, and this means a practice of grazing that may have been just accounting thus far unforeseen. fine in a more stable climate may The work of those of us calling be insufficient in a changing one. ourselves holistic graziers, or If nature is always active, we some version of the same, must must be proactive. “We graziers act within ecosystems—we throw our animal weight encompass more than the given Good grazing can contribute around—while also being acted upon. This second part of the contract is ranches we’re grazing. We must to deep-rooted perennials, critical; to manage an ecosystem is also to be managed by it.” be mindful of every dimension ground cover, and a litter layer— long discarded from the work of agriculture: people. For my part, I’ll pursue a pastoralism all features of a landscape able to hold on to soil the politics of the pasture, the costs of that unsettles and a wildness whose trophic web come drought or deluge. Graziers may be the doing business, and the lives on the line. If has threads stretched across prairies by people. best people to tend land at a scale wide enough twentieth-century agriculture pushed us to As we rocket along into this century, the to match the depth of our perils as we face a divorce, ranching in this era must be an act politics of the prairie are changing as rapidly as changing climate, and we have to step up our of reconciliation. the weather. Virgin grassland is still falling to game. For my part, I’m a woman of European pavement and plow, but the fuzzy lines between But even the most soil-centric practices can heritage working in a stripe of pastoralism that rancher and cowboy, lord and peasant, are lack something fundamental. There is a lot of has been at times used to subdue land and being scattered and redrawn. Today, many who talk these days about new and better ways to people. The debts I owe precede my birth. But can afford to buy land come from industries farm and graze. There is hope that by better with careful alliances made with the life-giving that don’t necessarily lend themselves to the tending plants and animals, we can reverse power of cow dung and perennial grass roots, I management of the complex and convergent the trends of degradation on rangeland for the hope to be making deposits long after I’m dead. systems of soil, water, animals, and people. Can benefit of all life. Depending on one’s intent, grazing domestic someone effectively manage a system if they’ve But I’m concerned that the growing cattle can help land to be wild again, and never been managed by it? excitement over regenerative agriculture, and despite how the tool of livestock agriculture has A lot of ranching in this era looks like it did the increasing public valuation of prairies and at times been used, it can also liberate land and a hundred years prior, with the humble earthen grasslands, may be ignoring something more CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
LOGJAMS—
The Sacred or the Obvious BY TONY MALMBERG
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ur highest marginal reaction moment happens, when we find and eliminate a logjam. Make it a point to set time aside at the beginning of your planning cycle, each year, and root out your logjam(s). Often unrecognized for a long time, logjams lurk beneath your consciousness sucking creativity, money, and our social influence. Often, one finds the logjam in the last places we would ever look—the sacred or the obvious. How can we rethink logjams and look at this most potent component of the planning process differently?
Of Pride and Prejudice
My grandfather ruled the ranch with an iron hand. Everyone toed the line and did things his way; or else. In fact, there was a saying around our Nebraska’s Sandhills neighborhood, “There is a right way, a wrong way, and the Malmberg way.” Another neighbor said a cow’s nose would bleed if she even looked at a Malmberg fence. As a youngster, I actually took pride in that statement, thinking the Malmberg way was even better than the right way. However, this behavior paves the way for tradition snuffing our human creativity. We stop thinking. Mindless rote-action, based on doing what we are told cordons the imagination and flexibility needed to empower decisions at the soil surface. A common thought in the agriculture community has a saying: “The 1st generation puts the place together, the 2nd generation keeps it together, and the 3rd
generation loses the place.” I suspect the first generation develops an action, or a practice, that works very well in a time and place if you will. The second generation repeats what has been working and forms a habit. Reasons begin to fade. The third generation often bows to the tradition and forgets to think about “why” we do what we do. In my case, strict adherence to the “Malmberg Way,” had me on the ropes and in bankruptcy in my ranch family’s 3rd generation, in the 1980s. I can see how this general rule of thumb could be created by an attitude of “my way or the highway.” The patriarch lays it out, based on their life experience. The patriarch’s kids hold it together, with some equity and maybe not too much having changed. The grandkids come in with a sense of entitlement, pride in whom they are, and prejudice against CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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others’ ideas. We are running on auto-pilot down a track to disaster. Farms and ranches surviving family ownership beyond the 3rd generation are more often the exceptions than the rule.
Exceptional
The exceptions think differently than the run of the mill ranchers. My neighbors on our Wyoming ranch were in the 5th generation. They talked about Tennyson, Emerson, Kipling, and other philosopher sages. Their cows came first. Not everyone was created equal. By that, I mean that in this family, you didn’t stay on the ranch just because of blood. The ranch couldn’t support everyone, and they honored that, without prejudice. Do you get the theme? It’s about ideas, the future, and something more substantial than self. The exceptions learn that there are at least two ways to get something done and consciously remain open to a different way. The exceptions don’t paint themselves in the corner of one philosopher, one method, one religion, one business plan, and fall into the insanity of doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. The exceptional encourage curiosity, thinking, and adapting. Not doing what I say.
Evolution or Revolution?
Maybe we can come at our logjam backward, just as we see symptoms on the landscape and follow them back to the root cause of the problem. Lots of bare ground, standing dead plants, and erosion are symptoms of overrest. This calls for a grazing plan to interrupt rest. Could it be the same for a social or financial logjam? Are we working with anyone that surrounds themselves with “yes men/women?” Do we see any racism, sexism, or abuse of power? Does anyone demand only one way of doing things? Is confirmation bias a recurring event? Do we see anyone rooted in absolutism; you are either for me or against me? Do we see someone relying on blame rather than asking how they can change their behavior? The financials are least likely to confront an unknown logjam. We have tried and true ratios tracking debt/assets, current ratio, return on assets, and others keeping us informed of our liquidity, solvency, and leverage. However, we might have a logjam in how we are entering our numbers and whether we are getting our books done promptly. Keep a conversation open with your banker and accountant for warning signs. 4 IN PRACTICE
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They won’t let a logjam sneak up on you. “My brothers, seek the council of one another, for therein lies the way out of error and futile repentance. The wisdom of the many is your shield against tyranny. For when we turn to one another for the council, we reduce the number of our enemies. He who does not seek advice is a fool.” —Kahlil Gibran Asking questions can help us identify logjams in our social and ecological realms, too.
Pivot
Environmentalists and ranchers have been at loggerheads for years. We have been talking past one another when we both value abundant grass, clean water, and community in a rural setting. Talk about a logjam! The ranching and environmental community on the upper John Day River made a pivot. Rather than putting the river in prison, the Blue Mountain Land Trust proposed to include grazing. The ranchers proposed planned grazing and monitoring ecological health. The landowners and the land trust wish to reconnect the uplands, critical to recharging springs, groundwater and river flow. This effort builds on the Grand Ronde Model Watershed’s river restoration project on the Wallowa River that included livestock grazing, too. These projects highlight a fresh look at river restoration. Regenerative Ranching has moved beyond the innovators and early adopters, tipping into the Early Majority stage of the Adoption of Innovation Theory, and rapid change. Let the waterfall begin. Andrea and I stepped into this refreshing atmosphere, as we opened the Holistic Grazing Planning course, initiated by the Blue Mountain Land Trust.
Leanin’-In
Andrea was brought in to develop ecological outcome monitoring transects for the project. The Blue Mountain Conservancy crew, the Warm Springs Tribe staffers, the couple owning the ranch and one long-time Holistic Management practitioner neighbor brought local experience to round out the class. As we went around our opening circle, we heard how these people effectively rooted out logjams in their lives—leaving jobs without passion, looking past fish to the uplands, managing grazing and monitoring ecosystems, and a multi-generation rancher still looking to learn better grazing management. Here was a circle of courage. We began with the ever-present mantra: “We cannot manage complexity because complexity is self-organizing”: The best we can do is to
influence the self-organization processes to move towards more diversity and complexity— the first missing key—Holism. The people in this circle were already there, i.e., a common desire to reconnect rivers to floodplains, reconnect floodplains to uplands, reconnect grazing to management, reconnect management to monitoring, reconnect common values, and reconnect finances to resilience. For three days we weaved a tapestry of context in this place on the upper John Day. This crew wasn’t talking past one another, but leanin’-in.
Identifying Logjams
The long-time Holistic Manager was part of this and brought perspective to everyone; especially me. An upperclassman, he attended his first Holistic Management training in 1984, three years before me. After many seminars and instructors with Holistic Management and Ranching for Profit, he had been thwarted in completing a meaningful Holistic Grazing Plan for 34 years. Yet, in the spirit of that multi-generational rancher, here he was, asking questions, again, trying to make sense of grazing planning. He was in a logjam, but unlike most of us, he knew it and was leanin’-in. We probed, exchanged questions and posited alternatives. It came down to his frustration in needing to plan fast growth grazing periods. His complex operation included more than 100 pastures, six or more herds, an AI program, and a beef-finishing program-all of this in the Blue Mountain’s coldest (-50 degree), shortest, growing season in Oregon. I have never managed anything of this complexity but I know that Holistic Grazing Planning has been designed to manage complexity over space and time. The hard part is focusing on one step at a time and making it relevant to your context. We can’t get caught cutting and pasting others’ experience into our context. Shared stories can add perspective to our experience and help unearth logjams. We can’t tell people what to do. We don’t know their context, but if we are honest about our personal experience they might catch a clue to unraveling their dilemma. So, I simply told this upper classman a story of a logjam I encountered on our sagebrush steppe ranch in Wyoming.
Owning Your Context
In the late 1990s, I had an average recovery period of 180 days. I knew that our bare ground was increasing, I knew that residuals were declining, but I thought I was doing everything right. The Holistic Management gurus drilled into
us that we could not tolerate overrested plants. in Wyoming’s recorded history. After 6 years of and did things a little differently than his family We needed to keep them grazed so we didn’t drought, our recovery periods went from 180 had in previous generations. Regenerative block sunlight from the growth points at the base days to 570 days. Most importantly, our stocking Ranching took a step toward the early majority of the plant. rates were 80% of baseline as the BLM cut most with his actions. As a newbie Holistic Grazing Planner, we neighbor permits to 50 and 25%. Monitoring Ron Cunningham, the county extension got stock densities up, grazing periods down, showed that our ecosystem process was agent in Lander, WY, got my attention when he and we grazed a pasture and took it all. We had still functional.” told me that most ranchers have ten years of good June rains, and the pasture regrew a lot of My story caused something to click with experience that they repeat 5 or 6 times. The forage. I went to my BLM range con and told him the upperclassman. He clearly identified a implication defies the nature of adaptation and that we needed to go graze this regrowth, or the logjam that had kept him stymied for years. change. A third generation could be repeating growth points would be blocked from growing A week later he reported that he was well on something learned a hundred years before! That the next year. He rolled his eyes and said, “You his way to creating his first Holistic Grazing slapped me in the face and kept me digging after have used it this year, let it be.” I didn’t. We went Plan. The difference? He’s using the Holistic that blind logjam. I have consciously worked to and grazed it again to get the evil overrest out of Grazing Management Aide Memoir to manage step into a new faction of ranching every 7 to the way. and influence the complexity of his ranch, not 10 years. It was that theme that carried us into the somebody else’s. Those insecure blame and point fingers. 2000 grazing season with Those insecure don’t see increasing bare ground, but their relevance and therefore, I heard a presentation at the cannot think someone else Colorado Holistic Management could contribute. Those gathering that gave me pause. insecure need certainty so Bottom line: Low-production brittle bad that they go all in on one environments will benefit from way, the silver bullet. This sets longer recovery periods than highus up for denial, confirmation production brittle environments. bias, and blaming, rather than That was the clue that helped me practicing the core of Holistic unravel my dilemma. Management: ”Ask how must Holistic Management was I behave to create my desired spawned in the high production future?” No room for blame. brittle environment of Rhodesia/ A recent article in On Zimbabwe. One hundred or more Pasture by Don Ashford, “The stock days per acre required Best New Years Resolutions frequent grazing periods to keep for Farmers and Ranchers” The Holistic Grazing Planning class convened by the Blue Mountain Land plants open to sunlight. On provides introspection. This Trust to help ranchers and environmentalists develop grazing plans that work Wyoming’s sagebrush steppe, article asks us to think about for everyone. ten stock days per acre couldn’t what went well and what could choke off the sunlight in several years. In this Bottom Line—Holistic Grazing Planning can be better. It’s a variation on a way to identify environment, the struggle lies in accumulating be a powerful tool in managing OUR context. adverse factors in our annual planning and could enough plant material to feed a cow AND cover expose a logjam. It’s a way to create disturbance the soil surface. The context, or the definition Find Your Logjam from the inside out rather than letting of overrest, and what it looks like, varies on Logjams are often grounded in insecurity. disturbance come from the outside in. By looking different landscapes. My first step back from bankruptcy was listening at both the good and bad, it helps us balance I asked the class to think about this to others. One of my neighbors encouraged me our investigation. This is good in that we don’t in the context of managing their whole to go out with the Bureau of Land Management want to throw out all of our traditional practices. under management. (BLM) and see what they are looking at, as They are there for a reason. Let’s just check in they worked on an Environmental Impact on occasion and make sure those reasons still Mimic Nature Statement (EIS). This was different advice apply to our evolving context. Holistic Management’s missing keys guide us than I had received from the general ranching Empowering decisions at the soil surface on how to mimic nature in our specific context. community and it broadened my perspective and means looking for ways the sacred and the All of the grasslands of the world evolved with confidence. obvious are obstructing our path toward creating large herds of ungulates on the move. Not After implementing Holistic Grazing Planning, our future resource base. Find ways to interrupt meaning to oversimplify, but a high stocking rate the neighbor’s son asked me what I was logjams happening to us. It is better to initiate landscape will have many more animals in an looking at on the ground. I talked about the soil revolutionary change than to be dragged through equal space than a low stocking rate. By nature, surface. I don’t know if he got much from that, the knothole of evolutionary change. both have large herds. By math, the lower but he boosted my confidence. (That same stocking rate landscape’s herd will revisit the multi-generational curiosity looking beyond the This article was first published as a same space less often. one-and-only way.) He didn’t drink the Holistic blog on Tony’s website at: https://www. I concluded my story, “As we increased Management Koolaide, but he did build some holisticmanagement.guide/blog/2019/1/18/ recovery periods, we were in the worst drought more pastures, put in some stock water tanks logjams-and-the-sacred N um ber 185
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LIVESTOCK Luna Field Farm—
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home. I was happy raising chickens; I was never interested in TV games or things most young people are doing at that age,” he says. He continued raising poultry and farming after he and his mother and sister moved to Winnipeg. While still in high school he was doing landscaping for a couple who had a five-acre property just outside the BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS city. The second year of working for them he asked about renting an old barn on their little farm. It was originally a dairy barn that had been ian Prinsloo and Lydia Carpenter came from very different converted into a horse barn by the previous owner, and at that time was backgrounds but shared the same dream. Together they sitting empty. are following that dream, utilizing Holistic Management to “It was a perfect place to brood chicks. I started my chicks in the loft of grow pastured poultry, lamb, pork and beef for a growing that old barn. My business grew from there. From the age of 18, I studied customer base on their farm near Belmont, Manitoba. during winter months and farmed on rented land during the summer. Initially I focused on pastured poultry but dreamed of one day raising Farming In the Blood sheep on a mixed-livestock farm,” he says. Wian immigrated He wanted to Canada as a young to gain more teenager; his family experience, so he had been in South called a few farmers Africa since 1667, for to see if he could thirteen generations. work for them. The “My ancestors left year after high Holland before it was school he worked called Holland. All on a sheep farm of my grandparents outside Winnipeg. “I grew up on a farm or always tried to work farming, or growing for a farmer that I their own food. thought I could learn Agriculture was in one something from, and way or another a part often I was given a of their lives, but my few acres to use, or grandparents left the rented a few acres farm,” he says. for my poultry. My “I grew up in enterprises always the city; my mom had to be portable, immigrated to Canada since I was working Lydia Carpenter and Wian Prinsloo with their stock dogs. from Pretoria as a on various farms,” single mom with me says Wian. Over the and my sister because she needed more security than what she was next few years he had the opportunity to raise chickens, turkeys, ducks, able to have in South Africa. She is a pharmacist and moved to Manitoba pigs, sheep, goats and cattle and it took about a decade to really get through the provincial nominee program. For as long as I can remember I started and purchase some land. always wanted to farm, and graze livestock. I knew this was what I wanted “Since the spring of 2012 Lydia and I have been farming together, to do, but I didn’t get to have any experience on my grandparents’ farms raising much of our livestock on pasture using Holistic Planned Grazing. because they had all left the farm as young people.” I’ve found self-directed study, trial and error, mentorship and the direct “I started with chickens in the city, while we were still in South Africa. application of attained skills to be the most rewarding learning tools,” By the time we left Pretoria to come to Canada, I was 15 years old and he says. had about 300 layer hens, supplying eggs to a school, and an old folks’ “You have to find a niche and make sure it is portable, until you find
Producing Pasture-Raised Meats in Manitoba Regeneratively
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a place you can buy. I think a lot of young people make the mistake of sinking their money into something that’s not portable, or something they can’t walk away from,” Wian says. Lydia also grew up in a city (Winnipeg) but was very interested in food systems and rural living. “I was always interested in agriculture. While I was a student at the University of Winnipeg I studied Environmental Science and Geography where I took an interest in systems ecology and soil sciences (nutrient cycling). Later I earned my Master’s in Natural Resources Management with a research focus on rural livelihoods and gender. My studies have taken me to Mexico and Brazil where I gained increased understanding and appreciation for agrarian livelihoods and small-scale agriculture. Through my learning and farming experience I came to realize that pasture-based farming and food production are viable livelihood activities for young people in Canada.” At the time she met Wian she was doing her masters research, getting her degree in natural resources. “Farming allows us to work together, problem solve, learn from others, learn from our environment, and provide our community with healthy food. I am challenged every day to make decisions that impact how we care for land, animals, family and friends,” Lydia explains. “In our aspiration to farm as part of our livelihood we have received tremendous support from family and friends. We are very privileged to have had the ongoing support of many local farmers and community members.”
Of all the people who have helped us along the way, probably 90% of them have had something do with Holistic Management; either they have taken a course, or they are active practitioners, or they’ve gleaned some things from Holistic Management training and have implemented that in their own farms,” he says. Holistic Management creates a very open, supportive community. If you want people to farm, especially people coming from backgrounds where they can’t access the traditional resources people usually start their farming career with, Holistic Management is a helpful tool. “The Holistic Management practitioners and the Holistic Management community should feel good about this. We are very fortunate that we’ve been helped through this network,” Wian says. Lydia says that many of the people in this community and in their network have an interest in succession—concerned about who will be taking over their farms and continuing on. “Here in North America I think we are going to see a lot of land change hands over the next while and the big question is how can we create models for succession on our farms and ranches. Wian and I are not from farm families and we were lucky to discover and find our own ‘farm families’,” she says. “I think it was crucial for us, early on, to become a part of a community and start working at it. We found 80 acres of land we could rent together, and went on from there. From the very start we were trying hard to make it work, and people recognized that we had neighbors helping us. They could A Holistic Community see that we needed a tractor to plow us out Wian took his first course in Holistic when it snowed, or a mix mill, or some other Management in 2010, while he was still farming equipment. We tried to be very gracious about by himself at Pilot Mount, Manitoba, about the their help, but we felt so lucky!” Wian and Lydia have an egg subscription time he met Lydia. The course was hosted service where their buyer club customers locally and taught by Don and Bev Campbell of Developing Collaborative purchase a subscription for a certain number Meadowlake, Saskatchewan. Relationships of eggs delivered every two weeks and the Lydia and Wian met at a barbecue for Wian started his first farming venture on customers pay their subscription six students and volunteers involved in a field the outskirts of the city, on just an acre of land. months in advance. course called Living Rural Communities, Then he had a chance to move to three acres, through the University of Manitoba in 2010, and started farming together then 5 acres, then 20 acres, then 80. The trailer house that he and Lydia in 2012. lived in on those 80 acres was pretty spartan, but they made it work. In a “Looking back through old notes, I realize now that I must have figured real sense, they were pioneering. into some of his initial Holistic Management planning,” Lydia says. “Part “We kept moving, as opportunities arose,” he says. All of their of his holistic goal was to have me included in the decision-making (of the infrastructure was portable, for various reasons. From a land management farm as a business). We’d only recently met, but he had it in his mind that perspective, portability makes sense, to give the land a chance for if we were going to do this together, we were both going to be participating recovery, but it also makes sense for getting started because they were in the decision making.” It was always a team effort. just renting land and had no permanent place. “I didn’t have any agricultural experience yet, but we were thinking “We had portable infrastructure for the poultry because we were about this, and the holistic mindset really helped us in the beginning. We moving them around a pasture,” says Lydia. “We weren’t always at a had both decided that if we were doing it together, we would be partners in place long enough to see the long term benefits to the land, but our the farm business as well as in life. This was pivotal, because we both felt management was very intensive. We were working very intensively on really invested in this venture,” Lydia says. small tracts of land, often with multiple species. We had poultry and might “When you start out the way we did, you need to be careful and smart be grazing sheep over the same land, raising pigs, moving them every day with your decisions, but you also need to be a little bit lucky and have a and feeding them on the land. The land where we’d run poultry and then good network of people to help you,” says Wian. “We have been really bale grazed sheep responded with amazing production,” she says. fortunate that way; a lot of people who have been in touch with Holistic “We live in a very forgiving part of the world with decent soils. We are Management in one way or another have been our foundation of support. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 Num ber 185
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Luna Field Farm
everything we could into things that would produce a yield,” Lydia says. “We focused on purchasing livestock, and in 2012–2013 we bought our first cattle.” on what people would consider marginal land, but it grew amazing forage. They stayed on the 80-acre property for 2 years and then needed more I photographed all of it; one of the things I love to do is take pictures. We land and more security. “We couldn’t access more land in that situation could see the differences, even after being in a place for only two years. and our lease was not very secure,” Wian explains. They could not get Granted, it may have been abused and you might see results faster than if a long-term deal for that place, which made it difficult to do some of the it had been managed well already, but we could definitely see it.” grazing plans and land development they wanted to do. “We realized we needed more pasture,” says Lydia. “The land around us was all in crops so we knew that expanding our pasture area was not an option. We met another Holistic Management practitioner and he offered some land to rent. We moved our farm venture about 20 miles, to his place, renting a quarter section of land. We were also helping him a little with some of the custom grazing cattle he was doing,” she says. That arrangement worked well, because they could run their poultry, hogs, sheep and a few cows on that place. “We also got to experience working with cattle on a larger scale. We were helping move 200 pairs and got to work them on horseback—which we had never done before. We have stock dogs, and got to work our dogs, and this was a good learning experience for us, too,” Lydia says. Still, they didn’t have secure tenure. They had a 3-year rolling lease and were living in Most of Luna Field Farm cattle are Luing—a Scottish breed that is very hardy and a house on that ranch, but still looking for a well adapted to finishing on grass. place of their own to invest in. Another holistic “We’re also interested in the people aspect of Holistic Management manager, Iain Aitken, who knew they were looking for some security, had and looking at the farm as a whole system, but we became excited about just moved from Alberta to Manitoba and purchased a ranch that consisted the concept of landscape scale management. We thought that if we could of two homesteads—two quarter sections that each had a house and farm do this on a larger scale, why just do it on 40 acres if we could improve yard. He and his family lived in one and he sold Wian and Lydia the other. more land. We wanted to grow the farm so we could feed more people, “This took place just over a year ago, and this is where we are putting but there was also the idea that we could improve the landscape using down roots,” says Lydia. They’ve worked on renovating the house and cattle, sheep, poultry and pigs and see beneficial changes to the land,” making improvements to their quarter section. Lydia explains. They wanted access to more land, to see what they They named their place Luna Field Farm, the name inspired by their could accomplish. livestock Guardian Dog Luna, who faithfully guards their flock of sheep. “Then we bought a quarter section and we are also renting about 1,000 “She is our true shepherd,” says Lydia. acres in addition to the land we are buying,” says Wian. “We are truly In addition to the quarter section they are buying (and working with putting down roots in our current farm. We are here to stay. We are taking Iain, who sold it to them), they secured a lease on 1,000 acres nearby. It is advantage of previous generations’ forethought and now we are building mostly grazing land, with some wetlands, only seven miles away from their this yard and enjoying it for ourselves, and hopefully the next generation own farm. They often haul the cattle back and forth, but also trail them can benefit from it, too,” he says. to and from those grazing acres. This has given them the opportunity to It was a slow process at first, however. “After Lydia and I met and expand their herd. decided to farm together, we realized we needed to accumulate a little “We’d never be able to go out and buy that much land,” says seed money. I left my rental arrangement where I was raising poultry, pigs Wian. “For most young farmers starting out, it’s not realistic to go from and sheep, and moved back to the city. I liquidated my livestock, which maximizing stocking on a quarter section to make that jump to 1,000 at that time amounted to 20 pigs, 20 ewes and a flock of layer hens,” acres, when the only money you make comes from farming,” he says. he says. They still don’t have enough cattle to stock the additional land but they They worked in the city (Winnipeg, Manitoba) for a year, and lived in were able to take advantage of this opportunity to lease it. “We run some Wian’s mom’s basement. Then they got a lease on 80 acres just south of our cows together with Iain and he needed some additional grazing land of Brandon, and started farming together in 2012. They were both still as well, so we work together,” Lydia says. This gives them a chance to working off farm, to get started. He was working for Crop Insurance and build their own cow herd to the point where eventually they can utilize all Lydia was working in Brandon, doing multiple jobs including teaching. that grass. Wian was taking care of the farm chores, along with his job. “In the interim our neighbor Iain is helping us. He is also a Holistic The lease was just a year-to-year arrangement. “We wanted to invest Management practitioner, so we are on the same page; we don’t have 8 Land & Livestock
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conflicts about how to manage the land, and we are able to learn a lot from each other, and seek advice from each other. We are very lucky, in that regard,” she says.
Developing a Grass-Finished Cattle Market
the consumer’s minds. We have a good following on social media and we talk about how we manage our farm—not just focused on grass and cattle, but also the importance of planned grazing and the culture of this type of agriculture. Many people are really interested in that sort of thing,” Lydia explains. Wian says many people are starting to realize the important role of agriculture. “This is the one thing that humans do that has the largest impact on the biggest areas of land. Grasslands are diminishing, however. Humans have nearly settled and farmed every grassland in the world. The biggest threat to grasslands here is the plow,” he says. “People are becoming aware of what the consequences are, on a local scale, and one of the rewarding parts of our business is that we get to interact with people who may not normally be aware of what’s happening out on the landscape. They perhaps were not aware of what’s happening, but they do really care. We have a great group of people who buy from our farm. We service about 150 to 200 families on a regular basis, who we see every two weeks, plus some that buy meat occasionally,” he says. “It’s just the two of us working on the farm so we don’t have time to sell our meat at farmer’s markets,” says Lydia. “We have a bit of seasonal help, and we also work with Iain, but it’s hard for us to imagine standing all day at a farmer’s market stall. With our buyers’ club model I have a live order form on our website, updated for each upcoming delivery. Customers can access an order form any time, and we also mail a newsletter. People submit their order form to me and I make up the orders,” she says. Everything they take into the city has already been pre-ordered. They don’t have to bring any extra, and don’t take any back home again. “We come into the city and our customers meet us at one location. We sometimes add an additional location or two, but they travel to us and
Wian and Lydia selected cattle that would grow efficiently and finish on grass. “We use purebred Luing bulls, raised by our neighbor Iain Aitken. He has the largest herd of purebred Luing cattle in Canada,” says Wian. This is a Scottish breed that is very hardy and well adapted to finishing on grass. “We started with a mix of breeds. The first cows we bought were Jerseys because we wanted multi-purpose cattle. We were milking two Jersey cows for the house and breeding them to Angus bulls and raised Jersey-Angus crosses. Then we bought some belted Galloway cows that were bred to Simmental and Angus bulls. Now, however, our cows are mostly Luing crosses,” he says. “We sell a lot of grassfed beef,” says Lydia. “Before Iain moved here he was selling a lot of grassfed beef to the Alberta market. This breed finishes very nicely on grass and we needed something that would reliably finish on grass but still have a heavier carcass than some of the other grassbased cattle breeds. The Luing cattle are hardy but heavy and do well in our climate, so this is the direction we are going with our herd.” The calves they raise are all finished on grass, to be direct marketed as beef to their meat customers. “We only shipped one yearling this year that didn’t fit our program; he wasn’t going to be a good grass-fed animal so we just sold him as an 800-pound yearling,” says Wian. The rest will all go to the direct market customers. Currently there is more demand for their beef than they can fill. “We are still buying some additional calves, from Iain, to meet our needs. Our retail market currently is about 30 animals,” he says. The beef is a seasonal harvest because these animals are finished on grass during July, August and into late fall. Some of the meat is kept for inventory, but most of the beef is sold during those months. Most of the meat produced on their farm is sold through a buying club model. “We do a little with restaurants but mostly sell direct to consumers,” says Lydia. “We take orders and then deliver into Brandon and Winnipeg and our surrounding rural area. We deliver it all, which takes a little time and effort; we deliver meat every two weeks and this includes eggs and other poultry products as well as pork and some lamb. Our grass-finished meat is harvested in the fall, and this is also when we do most of our chickens, so this is the really busy delivery time for us. “Our business has done well enough, with Wian has developed a farm that allows him to build his cow herd as he can afford to while custom increasing numbers of customers, that we felt grazing cattle for others. He and Lydia have found that their efforts in using cattle to improve land we could expand our land base to raise more health usually shows results within two years. cattle. Now we are both on the farm fulltime, and since we are first generation on this land we are still building the farm. meet us at a specified place. This is very efficient because we don’t have We feel we can do this, however, because we are capturing a lot of the to run around the city delivering,” she says. consumer dollar, with a reliable market,” she says. In winter it can be quite cold, so the order pick-up window closes Word of mouth has been the most important way that new customers after one hour. Customers only have an hour to pick up their order. “In find out about the meat. “Many people come to us because they want to January for instance we deliver the meat every second Saturday afternoon support local farms, but the management of the farm is also important in CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 Num ber 185
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Luna Field Farm
boy, raising poultry and selling eggs and meat to family and friends. “I just cold-called people and tried to sell them some chicken. I built up a decent following of customers, selling about 1,000 chickens annually. After Lydia between 2 and 3 p.m. (the warmest part of the day) at a residential and I met and started farming together, that’s when the business really drop-off spot. We are doing this outdoors, from our vehicle, without a roof took off. Having two people really helped,” he says. over our head. It is not practical to move all the product from the vehicle Lydia took over the computer/website/marketing end of it. “It would be indoors, so it’s very busy during that hour. People line up to get their very difficult for one person to do all the production, marketing and admin; order,” Lydia explains. it really helps to have a team effort. I was working off farm for awhile Sometimes people walk by and wonder what’s going on, because this because we had to generate some cash flow, but ultimately we realized takes place on a residential street and here are all these people waiting that marketing was a job of its own,” she says. in line. For the most part, their customers love it, because they get a “I thought that if I could pay myself—if the farm could pay me, to chance to see and market—we visit with some of might see some the others who are exponential growth, waiting. It becomes a and that is exactly social event. what happened. “They may have It was too hard come from a nearby to focus on the neighborhood and marketing when I they don’t mind was having to go waiting in line off farm to work, talking with friends. but it was going to Sometimes we try stretch us (and it to think of ways we took a bit of a leap could make it more of of faith) for me to a social event; maybe stop working off we should serve farm. We decided coffee! In the summer to try it, however, to we have a longer see if it would work,” window, usually 1 she says. ½ to 2 hours, but it She was also is still very busy,” involved with the Wian and Lydia also pasture hogs to sell with their beef, lamb, poultry, and eggs. she says. production end of it, “It’s hard for us to take time to leave the farm, but we can certainly take but once she was able to dedicate a lot of her time to marketing and trying an afternoon to do our sales for two weeks. People are accustomed to to get it going (with customer service, regular deliveries, etc.) it was a big the system and it works very well. With the eggs, we have a subscription step forward. program so people don’t have to order every two weeks. If they pre-order “We are big on customer service, and relationship marketing,” says eggs they can just pay for six months of delivery in advance. Those Wian. “With our business, we try to provide a really high standard of individuals just get a reminder about their egg delivery and they can customer service. It’s difficult, when you start, to commit to the regular always add on products—beef, pork, etc.—but they know they are getting scheduled pickup, but this also propelled us forward toward our goal their two dozen eggs. We can preschedule all of our deliveries and know because people could rely on us being there every two weeks, and they that we have product to take to town,” Lydia explains. were able to access the products they wanted. Instead of aggregating The eggs are on a subscription program and the meat is butchered orders and delivering them sporadically, this gives people a sense of and processed at a facility located about 30 minutes from the farm. “It’s dependable schedule,” he says. very handy. This aspect of direct marketing is often a challenge, so we are “Early on, I was going by myself because we didn’t have any children very happy to have a slaughtering facility nearby; we are glad to pay them yet,” says Lydia. “Fortunately we have some family in the city that we can to do the custom butchering rather than having to do it ourselves. It also stay with. I would take my car, and when I did the math I knew that it was helps the young families who run that shop and we want to promote rural hardly worth it, but we had a plan and knew that we had to keep doing businesses,” she says. this,” she says. “We let our customers know that they are also supporting these “The buying club model, as opposed to the farmers’ market model, people. When they buy locally they are not just supporting the farm, but all really works for us. I knew that if I took a product in, it was sold already. these other businesses that are involved with getting the product ready to I didn’t have to peddle it. All of the ordering is done on line or by phone, market,” she explains. It all helps create a healthy rural community. with an online order form.” “We feel we have a really good relationship with our butcher facility and Now they have their young son Alastair, and they just bring him along they are often willing to try new things. We sometimes do new sausage when they market the meat. “My mom, or some other family member will recipes, for instance. One of the guys grew up on a farm and they do a often come and watch him while we sell the meat,” says Lydia. “If we don’t great job,” she says. have someone to take care of him during that hour or two, some of our Together Lydia and Wian have had a lot of experience direct marketing. patrons love to take turns taking care of him! We never have to worry that Wian was already direct marketing from the time he started farming as a we can’t get things done--because we have all these people there waiting 10
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for their order and they all want to hold him, and he is just fine with this.” Their young son enjoys the attention, and also enjoys going with them, whatever they are doing. “He can almost walk now, and is almost ready to move cattle, and it won’t be long before he is helping us move poly wire!” she says.
on down the road,” he says. It’s a matter of paying it forward. “This is part of our thinking, as well. Holistically, I think this is the next step for our business, and one that we are working on—figuring out how we can actively recruit and support young people who want to do this, especially when it comes to management of ruminants in a grassland ranching scenario,” he says. The Joy of Agriculture Lydia says part of their mission is to continue to see what tools they Wian and Lydia enjoy the variety of the work that this type of farming can use to keep improving the land and bring more people into the requires. One of Wian’s passions is training stock dogs. “I like working equation—and share this experience with people. dogs and I’d like to figure out how to get more time to work my dogs. We Wian says that as they continue to gather information, data and keep about 50 ewes and we justify them evidence about restorative aspects of partly as a way to train the dogs. We do multi-species adaptive grazing, they see direct market some lamb but we also keep more opportunities for young people in the sheep to start dogs on,” he says. farming. “The more that crop farmers Currently Wian and Lydia have two can start to think about incorporating females that work as often as they cover crops—to graze—the more they need them. “We are starting to get good can improve their farms. They really enough dogs that we are thinking about need people with skills and energy to breeding one of our females. We’re manage livestock on large pieces of not sure we really want to get into this land,” he says. business, however; it’s a lot like the horse “Around here, people are generally business,” he says. farming at least a quarter section or The dogs are part of the enjoyment more. The average size farm is about of working with their animals on the farm, 1,000 acres. We see this as a huge and Wian and Lydia have many things to opportunity, for young people to have enjoy. “We were doing a presentation at some livestock and help these crop an event called Farm Focus and someone farmers. If a person enjoys working with asked, ‘Don’t you need some time off? cattle, we need to find ways to facilitate How are you going to manage to keep the regenerative aspect of crop farming, running the farm if you never get time off?’ getting a livestock rotation into crops,” I wasn’t even sure what to say, because I Wian explains. couldn’t really understand the question,” “If a person can see a way to buy a says Lydia. water tanker and some portable fence, “I thought about it afterward and they could help a farmer (who knows realized that we really didn’t need ‘time nothing about cows) to turn a cover off’ because we enjoy what we are doing. crop into a revenue-positive or breakI understood what they meant, but it even venture to improve the land. The just didn’t seem to apply to us. Just the person bringing in the livestock would Wian has been raising pastured poultry since he was week before, we’d been on a cattle drive, need to have the skills to handle 100 or 15 years old. Luna Field Farm now provides year round moving our cattle, and we had a young 200 cattle, minimum.” Portable water pasture-raised meats to approximately 200 families in the guy from Calgary, Alberta with us, who and portable fencing could make this Belmont, Manitoba area. had never done this before. Afterward he arrangement possible. was so amazed and said, ‘You guys get to do this? This is the best fun!’ Lydia says they want to figure out ways to demonstrate these things Some people get paid to take people on cattle drives.” and create opportunities to show how this could be done. “These are “Our work is our pleasure. We get to drive cattle, work with our dogs, ideas we are thinking about, and see opportunities that could be taken ride quads or hike out across our pastures, so why would we ever want to advantage of by young people starting out.” go anywhere else?” She and Wian are passionate about what they do and This is very rewarding, and despite the challenges of having an intern their vocation is their avocation, so why would they need a vacation? program, this is why they keep their commitment to it. “We want our farm “Some people need a vacation from their job, but we don’t. Maybe they to continue being a place where people can learn some of these skills,” need to get some dogs! Our work is really all we ever want to do. Vacation says Wian. “Even to expose young people to this way of doing things can for us is like going to the city (to sell our meat) and watch people for two be helpful. I did the university thing and in hindsight I can’t say it was a hours and then realize that we need (and want!) to go home. That was complete waste of money, but it was a lot of money to spend to figure out enough of a break from the farm, and we are glad to get home,” what you don’t want to do in farming.” she says. It was great for networking, however, to know where to find information, or to be able to contact the people who might have the information you Sharing the Knowledge want, but overall he feels the university route is not that beneficial if you Wian says that the folks who helped them get started didn’t do it for already know what you want to do and where you want to focus. You are payback. “We will never be in a position to really pay them back for what better off to intern with someone already doing it. they did for us, in our lifetime, but we can help some other young person CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 Num ber 185
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Glen and Doreen Hicks—
Finding Group Support
But the Hicks were struggling to make it all work when Glen heard about a Holistic Management course. “I thought we could change our grazing system and have a better outcome if we did a better job of grazing. Of course, Holistic Management is a lot more than grazing, but that was the part that got me interested. I soon found that it also involves BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS the whole picture—people, land, money, etc.” says Glen. Glen took the Holistic Management course in November 1998. “We’d seen it advertised in the paper,” says Doreen. “We were weaning calves oth Glen and Doreen Hicks came from farm backgrounds and when we saw the notice about it, and didn’t pay any attention because we always knew they wanted to farm. Glen had five older brothers thought there was no way we could go. The course started on a Saturday, and the family farm in Manitoba was managed by two of them. and that evening we went to an agricultural dance. We were talking with a After Glen grew up, he was working on construction jobs as a friend there, who had attended that first day of the course, and she said, welder. “When Doreen and I got married I decided to come home and ‘You guys have to go to this!’ Glen and I talked it over and decided that I work on the farm. It was less money, but farming is a good life and that’s would stay home and do chores and Glen would go that next day. It was in what we wanted to do,” says Glen. a town about 20 miles away.” “We chose quality of life over money. I worked by the hour for my two Two years later, in 2000, another course was offered and they went to brothers for a long time. Eventually one of my older brothers retired and my other brother bought him out, but was then killed in a farm accident just that one together. “Then we took another course, so we’ve been in three different groups. We still attend one group with three other farm/ranch a year later. Doreen and I inherited the family farm in that tragic way.” couples, but the The farm was other two groups homesteaded by have folded. Only Glen’s grandfather about 10% of these in 1884. At the time groups continue Glen’s brothers going through the owned it, the years,” she says. farm was run in a The small group conventional system. they still belong “I grew up during to meets monthly. what I call the Green “There are many Revolution—farming different aspects to with chemicals and Holistic Management fertilizer. When and the social Doreen and I took aspect is a part of over the farm it wasn’t it,” says Glen. “We very profitable. We share ideas, and made a living but because this is a it was a struggle little unconventional to make mortgage you don’t always feel payments,” he says. comfortable talking The farm at that Glen and Doreen Hicks about these ideas time was 1,300 acres, at the coffee shop, and sometimes people don’t want to hear them, so it’s with 160 cows and a small feedlot for finishing the calves. “We took them easier talking with like-minded people who understand what this is about. to market after they were finished. This was what my family had been The key, for me, was how it changed the way I thought about things,” doing and we carried on with that plan. Our cattle were turning forage into he says. dollars,” he says. “I was a conventional farmer and Holistic Management focuses “The only cattle we bought were bulls,” says Doreen. “We kept our own on goal-setting so I had to change my thinking. This has made all the heifers and developed cattle that worked for us. We bought Beefbooster difference in the world, for us.” bulls from Calgary, Alberta and just ordered what we needed. We didn’t When all three brothers were still working together they had 1,300 go look at them; we just phoned and told the breeder to send us the ones acres. When Don retired, Gordon had signed rent agreements with him. we wanted,” she says. The Beefboosters were hybrid bulls, selected Glen and Doreen honored those agreements after Gordon died, but for hardiness, fertility and the traits a producer might want—in three eventually let the rented land go and were down to 800 acres. “This size categories (bulls to breed heifers, bulls that sire daughters with maternal farm worked a lot better for us, because we were doing it all ourselves,” traits, and bulls for terminal crosses for optimum beef production). says Doreen. “This was a perfect fit for our program, but very unconventional for “We didn’t change our cattle management very much when we started our area,” says Glen. “We live in a farming region and it varies from very Holistic Management because we were already calving in the summer by good farm land to not-so-good farm land, and our family farm had some good land and marginal land. That’s why the cattle were a good fit, utilizing that time. That’s not something most people do—farmers here typically some of the marginal land as pasture. We farmed and sold grain as a cash calve in February when it’s cold. They have big calving barns and have a bed in the barn and sleep there at night. We calve our heifers in the yard crop and produced beef as a cash crop,” he says.
The Challenging Question of Succession
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the end of March and through April, and the older cows calve on pasture in May and June,” she says. “We were farming a lot of our acres. Our region and climate can grow corn so the system we inherited from my brother was one where the main feed for the cattle was corn silage. It’s a very productive crop but very input-intensive. Our cattle feeding system was based on corn silage but that’s a lot of work. When we got to be 60 and 65 years old, with a minimum of hired labor, it got to be too much work doing the farming,” he says.
“There’s a little café in Ninga and we went there for lunch one day and a 12-year-old girl named Josie had put a sign up that said “Will do bicycle repair’. There are not very many bicycles around our area so when we came home Glen commented that he thought Josie wanted a job. So we hired her for the summer and she mowed grass and did odds and ends for us that first year. Then gradually she worked into becoming a summer employee.” Josie knew nothing about cattle, but was very willing to learn. She’d never been on a farm. “The last year that she worked for us, however, she was handling most of the daily chores herself. She’d go out with the quad Low-Stress Livestock Handling and move the cattle. If there was a sick one she could bring it into the At that point they made a decision to seed the farm land to grass, sell yard all by herself, so we were very proud of her.” She had an interest in the cows and the machinery and quit farming. “We then custom grazed animals but also didn’t have any bad habits about handling them. 450 head for other people for the next 12 years. We got along well with “She’d never done it before and we could teach her the way we wanted those folks and it worked very well for us,” Glen says. her to handle them,” says Glen. “A person might think that inexperience On the 800 acres they had 45 pastures, with cross-fencing (mostly would be a huge disadvantage but it was actually an advantage.” electric fences). The cattle were moved almost every day. “We had two Sometimes people have really bad cattle handling methods that they fairly large pastures we called our holiday pastures,” says Doreen. “One learned the wrong way and it can be hard to retrain them. was 120 acres and the other was 70 acres. If we wanted to go away for “With the 450 head we’d grazed through summer, we could load more than a day, we them all out in one could put the cattle day, the first of into one of those September, when larger pastures. If a the owners came friend came to look to get them. The after things, it was just last two years we to check the water custom grazed, and make sure it was Josie brought the working. We had a cattle in from the shallow-buried water pasture and put line and water troughs them in the corrals in all our pastures,” for loading them the she says. next day. One time With this type of we were in Winnipeg system you don’t want for medical 450 cattle all coming to appointments so drink at once because she did it all herself. that may challenge The next time, we the system. The other had friends visiting pastures were just us, so we just kept seven to 15 acres, visiting; we sat on Glen and Doreen developed a low input grazing system that helped them develop a beef enterso the cattle were lawn chairs and had prise they could run even during their later years. close enough to water a beer, while Josie that they could come whenever they wished—one or two at a time or went out and got the cattle, and brought them in for us,” he says. small groups—rather than all coming to drink at once. “That makes a big “She was very interested in cattle and would have readily taken difference if your water is coming into a trough from a pipeline. If they all over our place when we had to retire, but financially it would have been go to water at the same time, it’s not adequate. But in small pastures they difficult for her. Now she is at university, studying to be a veterinarian. We generally feel comfortable enough to walk to the trough and have a drink probably had an influence on her choice of career.” She enjoyed animals, and go back to grazing, and tend to just go one or two at a time, and it and in the spring would buy orphan calves and pail feed them at the ranch, works,” Glen says. and sell them in the fall. “We had Dylan Biggs come to our place three times, demonstrating One day Josie and Glen were taking one of her sick calves to the vet low-stress livestock management, and that was one of the best things we and he suggested that maybe she might want to become a veterinarian. ever did,” says Doreen. “She told me that day that she’d gotten her report card from school and I “Education is the key,” says Glen. “We used low-stress cattle handling was asking questions about her grades. She had gotten 98% in preand moved the cattle daily. We used a quad to move them, and the cattle calculus. That’s when I said she should become a vet! That’s really all I learn immediately. They are curious and smart, and as long as you don’t said, but that’s her goal today,” he says. threaten or abuse them they will trust you and are easy to handle and move,” he says. Succession Challenges The person they hired for summer help was a young girl. “We live on But thoughts about succession were still on Glen and Doreen’s the outskirts of Ninga, which is a small village of 45 people,” says Doreen. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 Num ber 185
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Glen and Doreen Hicks
drained or broken; it must stay in native pasture. They are honoring that agreement; they have cows of their own and they will use those acres for grazing, and the rest for farming, growing silage and grain crops.” minds.“There came a point, when I got to be 73 years old, that even the Glen thinks the biggest problem with Holistic Management is trying to custom grazing seemed like too much responsibility. We had a good find a way to pass the land on to someone who will continue the holistic young person who worked with us in the summer, and that was very practices. “We’ve talked to quite a few people about this,” says Doreen. helpful, but we just decided it was time to quit,” Glen says. The problem “The Holistic Management convention was in early February but we didn’t was that there was no family member available to carry on the farm. go this year. Most of the people doing this are younger than we are. The folks in our Holistic Management group are also saying, ‘What are we going to do?’ What’s the next step after we can’t do this anymore, and how can we hope to have it continue? There are very few people out there to do it.” It’s hard for young folks to get started in agriculture today. “In our region the price of land is high enough that someone hoping to farm or ranch would have big problems trying to pay for it. This is the big challenge. Even though we’d like to help someone get started we swept that hope aside and sold it to the neighbors. We know them and know that they are trying to carry on farming with the younger generation and we can see that’s going to happen,” she says. Farmland in their area sells for $2,000$3,000 per acre. “The only way someone would buy 800 acres is if they already own $10 million worth of land, or already have a lot of money,” says Glen. “You could take a chance and try to find someone who wants to get started, and subsidize them, but we chose not to do that,” he says. “There are some young people out there who would possibly try, but it’s a real struggle with mortgage payments on land that’s worth that much money. This is the big dilemma for agriculture. Our solution—and I am not sure it was the right choice—was to sell it to our neighbors,” he says. “I am wondering now if the position Doreen The Hicks were trained in low-stress livestock handling by Dylan Biggs and were able to easily and I found ourselves in (wanting to pass the move their cattle daily as part of their grazing management. It also helped them to be able to hire land to someone who would care for it the way help who could also easily move the animals which improved the Hicks’ quality of life. we did and manage it holistically, but unable to He and Doreen have two girls, Janelle and Amy, and they have find a way to do that) is fairly common. I am wondering if there are a lot of professional careers elsewhere. “They are very happy with their jobs people out there who are trying to figure out the next step,” he says. and both have families (we have four grandchildren). They talked it over “You get to a certain age and Holistic Management has been good when we decided to retire, and decided that they are not coming back to to you, and you want it to continue. I understand land management, but take over the farm. I think they made the right decision, for them, so we who will do it after me? What’s the next step? This is a huge question; decided to sell the farm,” Glen says. how do we find someone who is interested in farming? The folks in “We feel very fortunate that when we came here (after Glen and I Holistic Management don’t talk about this very much. The last two years were married) that we were able to buy six acres across the road from the that I went to the conventions, there were many people about my age, ranch to build our home on,” says Doreen. “Now that we’ve sold the ranch and maybe what we went through is the elephant in the room for Holistic we don’t have to move--and we are within walking distance to Glen’s Management,” Glen says. workshop on the ranch,” she says. “It wasn’t a hard decision for me, to sell the land, since our children “We sold it to neighbors who farm, so it will probably go back into were not going to come back to it,” says Doreen. “It wasn’t my family farm, crops, growing corn. They live a mile away. Their family runs a 6,000although I worked on it for 50 years and loved it. I realized the time had 8,000-head feedlot and they grow a lot of corn. We sold it to the younger come for Glen and me to retire. Probably the biggest reason we ended generation on that farm,” says Doreen. “We have a conservation up selling the cow herd (and started custom grazing yearlings instead) agreement on 260 acres out of the 800 acres we sold, which can never be was that I had a kidney transplant and wasn’t able to do as much as I had 14
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before. I still continued feeding for a while, but wasn’t as good as I used to Doreen says she has a little different feeling about the ranch than Glen be!” (She was on dialysis for two years before she got the transplant.) perhaps, because she didn’t grow up on it, but she always felt that the “The transplant went well, and I’ve had no trouble these past 14 years, land belongs to Nature, rather than to people. We get to use it and take but we did sell the cows and grazed yearlings. After we had Josie helping care of it, and hopefully leave it in better shape than we found it and then us, I kind of backed out of these chores, but then Glen had some health pass it on to someone else—who will hopefully take good care of it. “Yet problems, and it was time to retire. so many people, especially farmers, tend to say, ‘This is my land and I am “This farm/ranch had been in the Hicks family for many years and never going to leave this farm.’ The holistic view perhaps gives people a several generations but sometimes there just isn’t a way to continue it that little broader look at the land.” way. Our girls could see our dilemma but kept saying, ‘You have to sell it, Dad, or do something, because it’s time for you to slow down.’ Janelle said Creating Resilient Land it was going to leave our family name someday so it might as well be us That broader look meant creating a resilient landscape not only for choosing the buyer.” the Hicks but for future generations of farmers on that land. “Land is very Financial backing, to buy additional land, is the tough part. “If you are forgiving,” says Doreen. If the new owners of their farm ever decide to just going to buy something that’s worth that much money, you have to make raise livestock instead of crops, the land will bounce back again if they payments on it,” says Glen. “It can be a lifelong commitment. My goal choose to use livestock to help regenerate the cropland. here was to sell our place to someone who would continue using the land Of their 800 acres, 500 was conventionally farmed, with chemicals the way we did—and this can include farming because we did that, too. and commercial fertilizer. “When we quit farming, we seeded it all down to Grazing is the nicest use, however, and healthiest for the land. I always grass,” says Glen. “At the end of the 12 years that we used it for grazing, said that during our last 12 years there I had the best job in the world. I we were growing good grass that was two feet tall. We get 14 to 16 like cattle and I love that way of life. It’s the best job, in my opinion, but inches of rain during the summer and it can be very productive. We were it doesn’t pay enough money to buy land that’s worth $2,500 an acre,” growing excellent grass with no inputs, just cattle adding their manure and he says. trampling effect. The micronutrients regenerated and fed the grass.” “We have colonies of Hutterites here,” says Doreen. “They have bought some of the land around us and paid a lot of money, more than what we got for our land, but the way they treat their land is different, and we decided to sell to our neighbor instead.” “When you raise cattle you actually have two businesses—the livestock business and the land business,” says Glen. “It was helpful to me to see the world that way. Of course it’s been a lot easier to make money in the land business in the last 10 years; the price of land keeps going up. Yet if you plan to buy it as an investment, you can afford to buy it because it will be worth seven percent more next year!” “When we were buying chemicals, fertilizer and more and more machinery, Glen used to say that the money we spent was all going to Ontario and then the people there became rich enough that they could come here and buy our land at higher prices!” says Doreen. The Hicks have been able to increase forage production on their pastures “Some of them bought land just to look at, even during low rain years. or to have a summer home,” says Glen. Before they were married, Glen bought a quarter section in what they called “It’s not that we’re in favor of having a big feedlot, like the neighbors the bush for $3,500 total. In the past five years, some people have paid down the road, but they spread the manure from that feedlot back over $80,000 and $100,000 for this kind of land, just to put a cabin on it and go the fields, and are getting to the point where they are using very little there on weekends. commercial fertilizer anymore,” Doreen says. “One of the questions we ask ourselves with Holistic Management, that “They also have a nutrient transfer going on, bringing in more nutrients still applies to our lives today, even though we are no longer on the ranch, for their soils from the land around them that grows the grain they feed to is how do we want our lives to be. That’s the people part of the Holistic their cattle. Then they spread the manure on their own place, along with a Management puzzle, and that’s still there in our thinking, even though we lot of straw,” Glen says. are no longer doing land management. It still involves goal-setting, and a They haul hundreds of bales of straw in, from neighbors who grow person in my position, at 75 year of age, still needs goals. I still need to grain, up to 20 miles away. This is also transferring more nutrients onto the understand how I want my life to be. Our Holistic Management does not land. “This works, but is very expensive,” says Glen. “We did that when we end when we sell our farms or ranches. The land management part has had our small feedlot, and its very labor intensive and very expensive to ended for me, but managing money and goal setting and how I want my take the feed to the cattle and then haul the manure away. It’s easier for life to be are still there,” he says. CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 N um ber 185
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CASE STUDY JT Land & Cattle—
New Grazing Strategies Improve Cattle and Land Production BY ANN ADAMS
“I
t wasn’t easy finding our ranch, but after a lengthy, determined search, a few false starts, a lucky break, and an impulsive willingness to take a chance, we came upon a good one,” says Jim and Carol Thorpe who have owned JT Land & Cattle near Newkirk, New Mexico since the spring of 1999. “It was big enough without being too big: we thought a middle-aging couple— once they knew what they were doing— should be able to handle it with occasional help from neighbors and day cowboys. It was just below the usual snow belt but not too far into the sweltering saunabelt. It was reasonably close to markets and supply centers. It felt remote, but was just a couple miles from These pictures demonstrate the ‘pavement.’ In the benefits of a different management middle of ‘nowhere,’ approach. The grazing enclosure it was a couple hours (above) was put up in May 2000 about from everywhere. It was 50 yards from a windmill; it shows in one of the predictably the overuse typical of a site so close “higher rainfall” areas of to water. In the summer of 2000 the New Mexico.” Thorpes divided this pasture into three. Jim felt that the The second picture from October 2004 ranch was actually shows marked recovery after a few quite well looked after years of managed grazing. by the previous owners and managers, but they have found room for improvement over the years. While the ranch had been stocked relatively moderately, there had been several herds each with their own “home areas” on the ranch consisting of three or four pastures, rotated seasonally. Areas near waterpoints tended to be overused, with under use farther away. Numerous dirt tanks and diversion structures were mostly effective in capturing and utilizing storm flows off the surrounding rimrock. Woody species (juniper, mesquite, cacti) were over-abundant in many areas (a Jornada survey of the ranch Ecological Sites and States described much of it as “Shrub Invaded Grassland”). All told, JT Land & Cattle includes approximately 8,000 acres of
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deeded lands, 4,000 New Mexico State Land Lease, 500 acres of private lease, with the majority of the land in Guadalupe County, and about 360 acres in San Miguel County. The average rainfall is 14.5 inches and the reported regional stocking rate is 43 acres per AU. Their 12,500 acres should nominally be able to support nearly 300 AU per year. Because of the rimrock and other unusable area, they actually plan for 11,000 acres in their grazing plan. Through their ongoing learning about improved grazing strategies the Thorpes have been able to run an average of 256 total AU (cows, yearlings, bulls, horses) per year, trending less during dry periods.
Learning the Basics
In retrospect, Jim says the first five years were a steep learning curve and they continue to learn more each year. “The Cow-calf Handbook was our ‘Bible,’” says Jim. “Our copies of Beef Production and Management Decisions (Taylor), Range Management (Holecheck), and Savory’s books on Holistic Management are well-worn, properly highlighted and plastered with bookmarks. “I found a widespread skepticism towards ‘Holistic Management’ and other Silver Bullet systems. I’d often hear of good ranches that had been ‘ruined’ by these new practices – gone broke, and was urged to be very careful. But, even among ‘traditional’ ranchers there had long been recognition of the benefits of occasional rest for pastures and that some form of ‘rotation’ could be helpful. We concluded that even if, in fact, these conservation practices weren’t any better than conservative conventional practice, at least the ranchers were paying much closer attention to what was happening on the land under their care at both micro and macro levels; had more detailed knowledge about natural processes, had better monitoring and more “tools in the toolbox” which could only lead to better management.“ (And twenty years later, it has been reassuring to see what had once been an outlier approach has almost become conventional wisdom.) Upgrading infrastructure for easy handling and With that improved grazing implementation has been a huge perspective, improvement to allow for better grazing utilization Jim explored and longer forage recovery. a host of resources to get the help he needed. They have had HMI Professional Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia consult with them as well as many knowledgeable local NRCS and County Extension personnel. In addition, they have pursued numerous educational opportunities through New Mexico State University (NMSU), Society for Range Management (SRM), National Grazing Lands Coalition (NGLC), National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), New Mexico Cattlegrowers Association (NMCGA), Quivira Coalition and Holistic Management International (HMI) tours, meetings, publications, experts, and networks.
Implementing Grazing Strategies
In their exploration of best grazing strategies for them to implement,
Jim found the grazing management decisions and practices that have helped them the most was increasing their cross fencing and water development to improve their grazing flexibility. Much of these improvements have been done with NRCS EQIP contracts. This improvement in infrastructure has allowed them to control their grazing and provide lengthy recovery periods for forage so they can improve the land’s productivity and resilience (they shoot for a 60-day recovery in the growing season and may extend that to 90 days in drought). These improvements helped them move from 15 paddocks to 33 which vary in size from 20 to 1460 acres with the majority in the 300–400 acre range. This allows them to have grazing periods of 14–60 days. Due to its particular basin and rimrock topography, the basin lowland flats and swales are often “flood irrigated” during the monsoon season, and previous managers developed an extensive network of well-designed structures to capture, store and spread storm flows. After hosting a Quivira Coalition road “water harvesting” workshop led by Bill Zeedyk, the Thorpes worked with Steve Carson This picture was taken May 2018 (Rangeland Hands) to plan outside the panel exclosure and shows and install new structures the typical heavy use in this productive and repair/maintain existing swale 100 yards from a water point. ones and construct onerock dams; recently they tested some Keyline contouring on sparsely vegetated alluvial slopes. They have also invested extensively in brush control, focusing on juniper and mesquite. First inspired after a tour of research plots at the NMSU Corona Range and Livestock Research Center, they have worked with the NRCS and NMSU specialists to treat, in the aggregate, several thousand acres with both individual plant and broader scale approaches, the goal being to begin reclaiming some degraded areas and, more importantly, prevent grassy “savannahs” from crossing over a threshold into a brush dominated state. “Rangeland trees provide valuable shade and shelter, but dense mature thickets not so much.” And from their participation in the (disappointingly) short-lived Chicago Climate Exchange Range Carbon Credit program, they learned that, in semi-arid ecosystems, well managed grasslands sequester more carbon in the soil than woody species. Lastly, they have also learned low-stress livestock handling from trainings provided by the Quivira Coalition with training by Guy Glosson and the NCBA Beef Quality Assurance Program. Besides facilitating the practice of rotational grazing, this type of livestock handling reduces both animal and human stress. Based upon ADA estimates, forage is allocated among paddocks and herd moves are planned using HMI grazing charts and The Grazing Manager planning software developed by Texas A&M’s Mort Kothman (and, disappointingly, no longer available!) which tracks and models local forage growth curves, forage demand, and pasture productivity; when actual utilization is compared with that which was predicted, the productivity estimates can then be adjusted. In keeping with the principles of adaptive management however, implementation is flexible, and changes to the plan are often made based upon precipitation
and current conditions, especially localized rainfall and current cattle nutritional needs (lactation, breeding, or “dry” periods). After a first season of keeping the first-calf heifer pairs with the main herd to insure some pastures got a bit of rest, the heifers ended up with a disappointing 60% breed back rate. Now, during the growing/breeding seasons, they have two main groups, the main cow herd and a smaller combined first-calf heifer and replacement heifer group. During dormant and calving seasons, the main herd is usually subdivided for better monitoring of calving, but recombined at branding. “The heifers get first go at the best pastures and are put on ‘weed patrol’ on the young tumbleweeds, kochia and pigweeds that spring up around the Headquarters traps and pastures which stay palatable and nutritious before they make seed,” says Jim. “These young cattle are moved and handled frequently which generally engenders a compliant disposition. Being in a smaller group means they have greater selectivity and their breeding and rebreeding rates are now averaging 90% on a 50-day breeding period. After selling a first set to a NMSU Corona heifer This picture was taken August 2018 development research after significant recovery, even with project, the ranch often 50% of average precipitation. sells both replacement quality heifer calves and bred replacement heifers to ranchers in the region. Under Carol’s watchful eye (aided by her clipboard with extensive lists and reports generated by the CattleMax Herd Management software), the original mixed Brangus-Angus cowherd has become primarily Angus with some Hereford influence. She knows the history of her cows, and selects the replacements (and buys bulls) accordingly. Marketing is also not neglected. “To learn how our calves performed once they left the ranch, we participated in the NMSU Ranch to Rail Program and retained ownership a couple years in the Bradley Natural Beef Program,” says Jim. “We joined the Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance (SWGLA), attended Country Natural Beef recruitment meetings, and direct marketed a few open heifers (after 45 days of corn supplement – we like the flavor!), but overall have decided that the uncertain risks of retained ownership, coupled with the additional skill sets and time commitments required for successful direct marketing, were enough to keep us content with focusing on producing good calves. After selling these a number of times on the video auction (and once over the internet), for the last several years we have pooled with a larger neighbor (with compatible cattle) to deliver our calves to a well-respected branded program: Premium Natural Beef (powerpluscattle.com).” Jim readily admits there are many challenges to ranching in New Mexico. There is a great deal of variable precipitation in time and space throughout the ranch that makes planning difficult. That is why he prefers to plan conservatively and have that forage reserve. He also acknowledges (after nearly twenty years of inevitable wear and tear) that there is a limited availability of knowledgeable and skilled labor for ranches and feels lucky to have a family that can come help from time to time. He has also found water delivery to a larger herd during hot
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summers to be a challenge and has had to invest in increased water infrastructure to address these needs. Again working with NRCS, the older, aging water distribution system has been steadily upgraded, expanded or replaced with additional pipelines, drinkers and well upgrades (including solar), building both redundancy and reliability into the system. Some old rusty steel tubs have been “restored” with a new fiberglass “skin,” and new storage tanks have a dome top to counter evaporation. “There is a tension in optimizing what is ‘best’ for the land and what is best for the cattle,” says Jim. For example, higher stock densities for too long can negatively impact animal performance and the land. You have to know when to move the animals to get the most benefit for the land and the animal. Ultimately, you must keep experimenting and learning to gain the experience and know what the right decision is for you and your ranch.
Getting Results
As part of the NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program, they have been collecting cowpie samples for analysis of crude protein and carbohydrate levels by Texas A&M’s Grazing Animal Nutrition Lab. Over time Jim was able to create a nutritional profile of their pastures through the seasons, information that helps him fine tune his grazing plans as well as the winter season and drought protein and mineral supplementation strategies. Improvements in their nutritional management have contributed to improved weaning weights (for steers
from 500 to-600#), rebreeding rates (95%), and a tighter calving season (70% in 21 days, 90% in 60 days). Key indicator species, such as side oats gramma, plains bristlegrass, vine mesquite, western wheat and winterfat have increased, while less common species like Canada wild rye and White Tridens now appear with greater frequency. “Our ‘riparian’ swales are thickening with fluffy grass seed heads,” says Jim. “We’re seeing more young plants, more seed heads, less bare ground for the tarantulas to prowl across and the dung beetles to roll around on. Willows are starting to edge out salt cedars at the north water gap. Grasshopper eating wild turkeys are gobbling in the horse pasture, migrating ducks linger on the stock ponds, and we have a Red Tail nesting near the house.” He adds, wiuth a hint of humor, “We even host an unofficial ‘Vulture Sanctuary’ in our cottonwoods – they arrive every April Fools’ Day, and depart after shipping in the fall.”
Grazing Into the Future
The Thorpes are twice recipients of the Guadalupe SWCD “Conservation Rancher of the Year,” “Excellence in Range Management” from NM SRM, and co-recipients, with the San Juan Ranch, of the Quivira Coalition Clarence Burch Award. “Being a part of the ongoing conversations on conservation, the future of agriculture, climate change, the merits of various grazing strategies, and the community of dedicated practitioners has been stimulating and rewarding,” says Jim. “After nearly twenty years we feel that, whenever that time finally comes, we actually will be leaving this piece of the planet in a better place than when we came to it.”
The Hard Soft Skills of Regenerative Ranching CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
fundamental—the human systems at work. From what I’ve seen, many outwardly progressive-seeming farms and ranches across the country are plagued with internal strife between employees and family members. Resentments build, stress grows, and systems break down. It’s as if the living ecosystem is beholden to the ecology of our relationships. Intergenerational trauma, unspoken resentment, and a simple and woeful lack of shared skills in resolving conflict will hamper the very progress we so desperately need. Maybe it’s this piece that agriculture has most neglected and is in most need of restoration—the complexity of the human spirit. Much of agriculture scales because there is more physical work to do, yet along with those bodies come hearts and minds. Only when agriculture addresses not only the integrity of its soil but also its social systems can it be truly regenerative. The visible ecology is beholden to the ecology of our relationships. Whether families, agencies, companies, or nonprofits, the internal fractures of land-managing organizations are writ large across the landscape. Overgrazed land, eroded gullies, forgotten equipment—these are all symptoms of how decisions are made, and how well people are working together. If twentieth-century agriculture was complicated but reductive, a regenerative agriculture of the twenty-first century requires us to be complex and inclusive. We have to restore to the conversation what has been excluded. New technologies that help us harvest grass and track 18 IN PRACTICE
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our animals all have a part to play, but the most important technology will be relational. We have to re-learn how to handle conflict, how to make agreements and requests, how to negotiate time to restand recover. For me, being an agrarian in this era means improving my stock handling and grazing planning, so I can better tend land on the brink. But it also means I have to double down on the “soft skills” that are the hardest to practice—sharing my feelings with others, negotiating for the needs of people on my team, creating equitable contracts, resolving conflict, and being accountable for my mistakes. Without these skills, my work on the land won’t last long or go far. Those of us who make our living on land have the most to lose and also the most to contribute during a period of climatic instability. When harmony is found within the families and teams that are making decisions on land, we can begin to see landscapes on a plane of continued recovery—sequestering carbon, hosting wildlife, storing water, and feeding people. Only when agriculture addresses not only the integrity of its soil but also its social systems can it be truly regenerative. This matters now more than ever.
This essay was originally published by the Center for Humans and Nature as part of their Questions for a Resilient Future series: What does it mean to be a farmer in the twenty-first century? at https://www. humansandnature.org/revisiting-a-geography-of-hope
From the Board Chair BY WALTER LYNN, HMI BOARD CHAIR
As the March winds are blowing, I’ve been thinking about the phrase “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb,” and reflecting about the meetings and interactions I’ve experienced this winter as a soil health advocate and HMI board chair. The Midwest farmer is approximately thirty days from planting the 2019 spring crops. What will impact their decision making for the 2019 business plan? One specific seminar is of special note for me in January. It was the Conservation Cropping Seminar (CCS) here in Illinois. Over 400 attended in three different locations. The roadshow speakers were David Montgomery, author of Growing A Revolution—Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, and Ray Archuleta, the “Soil Guy” and inspirational retired NRCS agronomist. For me the power of Holistic Management is the triple bottom line benefits—environmental, economic, and social benefits. During that seminar I was very much aware of how the social or people piece because David and Ray challenged the mindset of each attendee at CCS. Ray noted a quote by Gabe and Paul Brown from Bismarck, North Dakota—“The greatest roadblock in solving a problem is the human mind.” At times, a quiet attendee could hear a pen drop in the meeting room because of a challenge to a paradigm. The examples cited were from the Palouse and Seattle in Washington State and the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico to North Dakota. That seminar made me think about what factors hold a farmer or land manager back from implementing a strong soil health system regardless of the situation. We should note the application of soil health principles apply not only to row crops systems, but forage-
Luna Field Farm
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Lydia says that part of their holistic goal is to create a space, a farm that provides a meaningful livelihood for people but also can demonstrate that it’s possible. “We are doing it, but we want to make the statement that we can always improve, always do better. We want to create a welcoming space where people can learn something.” “We do have inputs because we don’t grow grain but do feed grain to poultry and hogs. One of the challenges for some of the grain farmers when trying new things (and not have access to livestock) is that they don’t have a way to utilize or sell the grain from an alternative crop. One of the goals for our farm is that we can extend this vision to what kinds of things we bring onto the farm to help other people meet their goals,” she says. “We were talking recently with a friend of ours who is a grain farmer and he said, ‘If I grew this intercrop (something new that he wants to try) would you buy it?’ Of course it could be fed to livestock, but he needs to know he has a market for it. We were thinking about how this could be part of our goal; it is within our vision for the landscape—which includes his grain farm and not just our own ranch,” she explains. In this way Wian and Lydia want to touch and heal as much land as they possibly can. They want to participate and support these kinds of interactions and arrangements with other farmers, to help each other and try new things. That is the outcome of truly regenerative agriculture.
based systems, and even the backyard garden to name a few agricultural systems. Some of those factors might include: • Is there peer pressure from neighbors, family, and community? • What will my landlord think? • Do I have the personal knowledge to implement a soil health system? • Am I too “old” to change my system? • My Dad did “it” this way. • Who can I talk to implement, discuss, and support my ideas? • My input salesman is my best friend. • I will be labeled as an environmentalist. • A close friend confides and says, “the farmers in the restaurant think you are nuts.” • What are their fears of changing? • Is there an ignorance one does not want to contend with about change? We all have constraints as to why we cannot implement the next phase of a soil health system for our farm or land. But I think it’s important to consider what constraints are self-imposed by our own volition. I would offer the adoption of the five soil health principles are transformational to world agriculture and food production systems for our families and nearby communities. Not only can our minds be a roadblock to adoption, but our hearts must be a part of what we need to transform for the goals of better land, more nutrient-dense foods, better human health, cleaner water, and better air quality. The key to transformation is finding the individuals’ “why” to create a better world for our grandchildren, like my granddaughter Eloise, and future generations. That’s what motivates me to continue to learn and change my practices. What’s your motivation?
Glen and Doreen Hicks
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
the cattle to do the harvesting (and manure spreading) on their own, and the cattle would rather be out grazing, and put the manure where it’s needed. “The last year that we ran yearlings for custom grazing, we produced $140,000 worth of beef on 800 acres, which was the highest we’d ever done. The land had been gradually increasing in production, and surprisingly, rainfall was not the biggest factor. Our rainfall varies from 8-20 inches on different years, and you’d think that would have a big effect on the amount of forage. “That last year we didn’t have a lot of rain, but the forage was there. Healthy grass is a hedge against drought. When we quit farming and seeded everything to grass we were trying to develop a natural system, and we felt good about our success. I proved to myself that natural systems can produce a lot of forage.” While many farmers and ranchers hope they can transfer their land to family or to people who have similar production practices and agricultural philosophy, a successful transition is a daunting task given land prices and the small pool of young agricultural producers ready to invest in regenerative agriculture. But using Holistic Management, the Hicks took steps to protect some of their land through a conservation easement as well as find neighbors to keep the land in agricultural production for the next generation. N um ber 185
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Certified
Educators
Kathy Harris
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.
Cliff Montagne *Montana State University
Lee Altier *College of Agriculture, CSU
Chico 530/636-2525 • laltier@csuchico.edu
Owen Hablutzel
Los Angeles 310/567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com
Richard King
Petaluma 707/217-2308 (c) • 707/769-1490 (h) rking1675@gmail.com
Kelly Mulville *Paicines
Bozeman 406/599-7755 (c) • montagne@montana.edu NEBRASKA
Paul Swanson *Hastings
402/463-8507 • 402/705-1241 (c) pswanson3@unl.edu
Ralph Tate
Papillion 402/932-3405 • 402/250-8981 (c) tater2d2@cox.net NEW HAMPSHIRE
707/431-8060 • kmulville@gmail.com
Don Nelson
Red Bluff 208/301-5066 • nelson-don1@hotmail.com
Seth Wilner
Newport 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) 603/543-7169 (c) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO
Rob Rutherford
San Luis Obispo 805/544-5781 (h) • 805/550-4858 (c) robtrutherford@gmail.com COLORADO
Joel Benson
Buena Vista 719/221-1547 • joel@holisticeffect.com
Cindy Dvergsten
Ann Adams
Holistic Management International Albuquerque 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org
Kirk Gadzia
Bernalillo 505/263-8677 (c) • kirk@rmsgadzia.com
Jeff Goebel
Dolores 970/882-4222 • 970/739-2445 (c) info@wholenewconcepts.com
Belen 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com
Tim McGaffic
Dolores 808/936-5749 • tim@timmcgaffic.com
*Calhan
Katie Miller
970/310-0852 • heritagebellefarms@gmail.com
Bill Casey
KANSAS
Erie 620/ 423-2842 • bill.caseyag@gmail.com
Larry Dyer
MICHIGAN
Petoskey 231/347-7162 (h) • 231/881-2784 (c) ldyer3913@gmail.com
*Meadville
MISSISSIPPI
Preston Sullivan
601/384-5310 (h) 601/835-6124 (c) prestons@telepak.net MONTANA
Roland Kroos
20 IN PRACTICE
Judi Earl
AUSTRALIA
NEW YORK
*Shelterbelt Farm
Erica Frenay
Craig Leggett *Chestertown
970/946-1771 • craigrleggett@gmail.com
*GhentElizabeth Marks
518/828-4385 x107 (w) • 518/567-9476 (c) elizabeth_marks@hotmail.com
Phillip Metzger
Norwich 607/316-4182 • pmetzger17@gmail.com NORTH DAKOTA
Joshua Dukart *Hazen
608/665-3835 • joshua_dukart@yahoo.com OREGON
Angela Boudro
Central Point 541/ 890-4014 • angelaboudro@gmail.com
Henrietta 940/328-5542 • deborahclark90@sbcglobal.net
Guy Glosson
Snyder 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com
Tracy Litle
Orange Grove 361/537-3417 (c) • tjlitle@hotmail.com
Peggy Maddox
Hermleigh 325/226-3042 (c) • westgift@hughes.net
CD Pounds *Fruitvale
214/568-3377 • cdpounds@live.com
Peggy Sechrist
Fredericksburg 830/456-5587 (c) • peggysechrist@gmail.com WASHINGTON DC
Christine C. Jost
Washington DC 773/706-2705 • christinejost42@gmail.com WISCONSIN
*Madison
Larry Johnson
608/665-3835 • larrystillpointfarm@gmail.com
Laura Paine *Columbus
920/623-4407 (h) • 608/338-9039 (c) lkpaine@gmail.com
Tony Malmberg
Union 541/663-6630 • tony@holisticmanagement.guide SOUTH DAKOTA
Randal Holmquist *Mitchell
605/730-0550 • randy@heartlandtanks.com TEXAS
Bellows *NorthLisaCentral Texas College
Gainesville 940/736-3996 (c) • 940/668-7731 ext. 4346 (o) lbellows@nctc.edu
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.
*
These associate educators provide educational services to their communities and peer groups.
Ralph Corcoran
Coolatai, NSW 61-409-151-969 • (c) judi_earl@bigpond.com
Langbank, SK 306/532-4778 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net
Graeme Hand
Blain Hjertaas
Dick Richardson
Brian Luce
Franklin, Tasmania 61-4-1853-2130 graemehand9@gmail.com Tungkillo, SA 61-4-2906-9001 dick@dickrichardson.com.au
Redvers, SK 306/452-7723 bhjer@sasktel.net Ponoka, AB 403/783-6518 lucends@cciwireless.ca
Jason Virtue *Cooran QLD
Tony McQuail
61-4-27 199 766 Jason@landlifeeducation.com.au
Lucknow, ON 519/528-2493 tonymcquail@gmail.com
Brian Wehlburg
Kelly Sidoryk
Kindee NSW 61-2-6587-4353 (h) • 61 04087 404 431 (c) brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au CANADA
Meadow Lake, SK 306/236-6088 • 320/240-7660 (c) doncampbell@sasktel.net
h
505/225-6481 • katherineottmers@icloud.com
Deborah Clark
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Don Campbell
Bozeman 406/522-3862 406/581-3038 (c) kroosing@msn.com
*Las Vegas
Katherine Napper-Ottmers
Brooktondale 607/539-6512 (h) • 607/342-3771 (c) info@shelterbeltfarm.com
U N I T E D S TAT E S CALIFORNIA
Holistic Management International Albuquerque 505/842-5252 • kathyh@holisticmanagement.org
May / June 2019
Blackroot, AB 780/872-2585 (c) • 780/875-4418 (w) kelly.sidoryk@gmail.com FINLAND
Tuomas Mattila
Pusula 358-407432412 tuomas.j.mattila@gmail.com
NAMIBIA
Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii
Windhoek 264-812840426 (c) • 264-61-244028 (h) kandjiiu@gmail.com
Colin Nott *Windhoek
264-81-2418778 (c) • 264-61-225085 (h) canott@iafrica.com.na
Wiebke Volkmann
Windhoek 264-61-225183 or 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@afol.com.na NEW ZEALAND
*Christchurch
John King
64-276-737-885 • john@succession.co.nz SOUTH AFRICA
Wayne Knight
Mokopane +27-87-550-0255 (h) • +27-82-805-3274 (c) wayne@theknights.za.net
Ian Mitchell-Innes
Elandslaagte, KZN +27-83-262-9030 • blanerne@mweb.co.za
THE MARKETPLACE
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855-247-4233 N um ber 185
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THE MARKETPLACE
THE Well-known bison ranching pioneer Ken Klemm, and internationally-recognized Holistic Management consultant and educator Kirk Gadzia, offer a unique opportunity to learn cutting-edge management practices and a behind the scenes look at a well-established bison and cattle ranch in Northwest Kansas.
Holistic Management Ranching Seminar Sept. 24-28, 2019 Location: Beaver Creek Buffalo Ranch Goodland,KS Information and Registration: This year we offer two tracks packed-full of information and hands-on experiences. ken@thebuffaloguys.com (651) 336-9498 RSVP by Sept. 2, 2019 (Class size is limited.) Sponsored by: The Buffalo Guys and Beaver Creek Buffalo Co, LLC Rogers from FL writes:
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h
May / June 2019
CORRAL DESIGNS
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farm/ranch planning planning • Integrated whole farm/ranch Design/Permaculture Design Design • Keyline Design/Permaculture Assessments • Resilience Assessments Speaking • Tailored Workshops and Speaking Experience • International Experience
Group Facilitation Individuals // Groups Groups // Organizations Organizations •• Individuals Co-creative Participatory Participatory Group Processes •• Co-creative •• Opportunity Opportunity Mapping Mapping / Strategic Planning •• Holistic Goal Vision Workshops Vision Workshops
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THE MARKETPLACE
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How many animals truly receive feed that has been grown with correct nutrients added to the soil? 95+% of all pasture and hay soils we test do not have the fertility required to provide the animals that eat it with even close to good nutrition. What about yours? You can only manage what you correctly measure. Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.
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Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.
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N um ber 185
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DEVELOPMENT CORNER Why I Support HMI BY BEN BARTLETT
H
Ben & Denise Bartlett ave you ever seen a rainbow or a sunset that was so unique and so fleeting, that you just wanted to Holler Out “COME and SEE THIS?” When we see something special or experience something that has a big impact on our lives, its human nature to want to share it. That’s how I feel about Holistic Management. Allan Savory’s idea of managing holistically was a decision-making system that brought together one’s quality of life, what you would do to pay the bills, and how you would be remembered by your family and community. Using three decision making filters is unique to Holistic Management. Using this decision-making system has allowed my family to sort the urgent from the important, the valuable from the busy, and, most importantly, has been the tool we use to define where we want to go and if we are doing things to take us in that direction. When many people think of Holistic Management they think of grazing or financial planning. When you have a holistic goal and realize you are part of the planet’s four ecosystem’s processes—biological community, water cycle, mineral cycle, and energy flow—it’s only logical
that you would “plan” your grazing program to include these factors. When you realize that your quality of life, profit making endeavors, and legacy are all tied together, you need to have a “financial plan” to get where you want to go. I really don’t know why Holistic Management isn’t taught in grade school. The world could use some good decision makers. I said that when something is fleeting, it makes you motivated to share it with as many people as possible. Holistic Management is in a book and it will last forever—right? Not really. Wisdom in books is read by few and put into practice by even fewer. The one downside of Holistic Management is that you have to “practice” it, to make it work for you. That’s why organizations like Holistic Management International are so critical. HMI teaches Holistic Management, keeps Holistic Management true to its principles, and champions Holistic Management benefits. You wouldn’t have this IN PRACTICE to read if we didn’t have HMI. The practice of Holistic Management has been of great value to our farm and family. I want to share the power of Holistic Management with everyone and to help make this happen we donate to HMI. I often hear that “things need to change”, be it prices, politics, or policies. YOU can be the beginning of that change by helping HMI to bring the power of Holistic Management to more people.
Ben Bartlett is a Holistic Management Certified Educator and practitioner and owner of Log Cabin Livestock in Traunik, Michigan where he runs cattle and sheep.
The Bartletts own and manage Log Cabin Livestock.
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