#187, In Practice, September/October 2019

Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019

The 5 Core Principles of Health—

Symbiosis is Key

BY ANN ADAMS

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oil Scientist Dr. Christine Jones wrote an article for the Ecofarm Daily titled “Soil Restoration: 5 Core Principles” in which she notes how our food’s nutrient level has decreased by 10–100% over the past 70 years because of decreased soil health. She also notes that there are numerous practices that can help us improve soil quality. All of these practices use the power of photosynthesis through plants and the animals that eat them. The key to remember is that without photosynthesis there would be no fertile

Low-Input Agriculture INSIDE THIS ISSUE Low-input agriculture is key to being able to create a profit more consistently with challenging markets and weather. Learn how the Siebs (page 8) and the Nixes (page 11) have developed low-input production systems to create profitable farming operations.

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

NUMBER 187

topsoil to feed those plants. It is a symbiotic relationship known as the “Plant-Microbe Bridge.”

Dr. Jones notes that 95% of life on land resides in the soil and the energy for that life is derived from plant carbon—the microbes in the soil are fed by the liquid carbon coming from plant roots. In turn, those microbes increase the availability of minerals and trace elements to insure the health of their host plants. This symbiosis results in health for all including the animals and humans eating those plants. Biologically active soils do not exhibit compromised nutrient levels because 85–90% of the plant’s nutrition is “microbially-mediated.”

Again, the Plant-Microbe Bridge is key.

Five Principles for Soil Restoration 1. Green is good —and year-round green is even better The more plants growing more of the year with more area of leaf to capture sunlight, the more photosynthesis occurs. In other words, how many inches of “solar panels” do the plants have for how much of the year? As Dr. Jones explains, the importance of green is more about productivity and photosynthetic potential of these plants than their actual biomass. As just explained, the relationship with the microbial community influences that potential. For example, mycorrhizal fungi can significantly increase photosynthetic rate.

2. Microbes matter As mentioned earlier the Plant-Microbe bridge is critical to the healthy function and productivity of the plant and the soil for storing nutrients and water. These microbes are the “worker bees” that are actually creating health out of nutrients. Any system that is focused on health and regeneration has to take into account how the nutrients are feeding these “minilivestock” which in turn feeds the bigger bodies of plants, animals, and humans.

3. Diversity is indispensable Each plant and soil organism has its unique blend of chemistry, properties, and roles to play.

The greater diversity of plants and animals,

W W W. H O L I S T I C M A N A G E M E N T. O R G

the more robust the system. Dr. Jones notes that the myth of monocultures being more profitable is not true because of the additional inputs needed to support their supposed high production. Likewise, the plants are extremely vulnerable and have low resilience to pests, diseases, and weather challenges.

4. Chemical use can be dangerous I would define this principle as “Feed the system”. While Dr. Jones focuses on how chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides damage the natural systems, she also articulates the value that living soils can provide the natural system. For example, she notes that researchers have shown that “mycorrhizal fungi can supply up to 90% of plants’ nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) requirements.”

5. Avoid aggressive tillage Dr. Jones notes that tillage appears to be a quick fix to soil problems which are created by lack of deep-rooted living cover. But tillage leads to depletion of soil carbon and other nutrients as well as vulnerability to erosion. It also destroys all the beneficial micro-organisms and invertebrates (like earthworms) you want working for you in the soil.

In the end, we are all “light” farmers. Some of us do this work through raising food and fiber.

Others use the products raised to create other products and services. Ultimately, we must all support the Plant-Microbe Bridge through understanding these five principles and making choices to increase the strength of that bridge.

Bean Hollow Grassfed—

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 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

“I was introduced to Holistic Management before I started farming. I was introduced to Allan Savory in the mid-‘80s when he was collaborating with the Rodale Institute doing research. In some of my advising work I learned more about this approach through people like Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia. In 2012 we

BY ANN ADAMS started a local grazing group and we got some ichael Sands had been in funding support and had a series of courses agriculture for much of his with HMI Certified Educators Ian Mitchell-Innes, professional career, working Ben Bartlett, and Seth Wilner. We worked internationally and domestically in through the different planning processes like community-based economic development and the grazing planning, goal setting, and decision sustainable agriculture. But at the age of 65 testing. It was very useful and it was nice to he decided to retire and become a beginning have the different perspectives from the different farmer, farming the 200 instructors. It gave me acres (110 in pasture) the understanding that of Over Jordan Farm in Holistic Management Rappahannock, Virginia is more than just a nestled up against the grazing system.

Blue Ridge Mountains “While there were about 60 miles from the all kinds of technical District of Columbia. He pieces like the grazing leases the farm (owned chart and grazing by his wife and her planning that were siblings) to run Bean really useful, I found Hollow Grassfed, With the most important the right timing and piece is the whole some initial training in concept of goal setting Holistic Management, and developing that he saw the potential for information as a creating a pilot project group/family. I’m a Michael Sands in his area that would classic male head of help others see the way in which they could use household. My wife has her own business. My grazing to improve land health and economic natural inclination is to set my own goals without viability for local agricultural businesses. incorporating life and family goals into my business goals. That inclination was called into Business Management Key question early in the game. Now including those “Our first animals arrived in 2013,” says other pieces is the most important thing. I still do Michael. “We run a 100% grassfed lamb and some consulting with other farms and I realize beef business with Angus/Red Devon beef how much stress some of these individuals are stockers and Katahdin and Dorper sheep. I in and how it places the whole family under that wanted to see what we could do about the stress as well. The wife knows things aren’t overgrazed pastures that were here, so typical good but she hasn’t been in the discussion at a of this area, which leads to poor soil health and deep enough level to really be a partner, so her reduced farm profitability.” response is more reactive.

Improving Economics & Soil Health through Grazing

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FEATURE STORIES

LAND & LIVESTOCK

NEWS & NETWORK

Bean Hollow Grassfed— Improving Economics & Soil Health through Grazing

Grazing Naturally

Readers Forum........................................................ 18

ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 2

Trio Angus— Improving Production through Drought and Fire

ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 4

DICK RICHARDSON..................................................................... 7

Dog Tale Ranch— Developing a Profitable Low-Input Sheep Operation

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS......................................................... 8

Nix Ranch— Writing Less Checks with a Low-Input System

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS....................................................... 11

2 IN PRACTICE

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September / October 2019

Program Roundup................................................... 19 From the Board Chair.............................................. 20 Certified Educators.................................................. 21 Marketplace............................................................. 22 Development Corner............................................... 24

Research on this project was recorded in the fall and spring on four different transects with soil samples sent to Cornell University and the University of Maryland.

“In our family we have a basic agreement about the farm. There is a whole lot of technical stuff in which my wife has very little involvement.

But, we have a conscious agreement about what areas she wants to be engaged.

“For me, Holistic Management is just good management; it’s what any good business should be doing. Yet many people aren’t doing this kind of management. In our county, the average operation is a classic cow/calf operation. They set stock on an average of 500–700 acres. The business model is shipping out weaned calves to private buyers or sale houses. People who make a living are making a living because there are no land costs. On a cash basis, they are better than breakeven but not really making money. They are making do.

The businesses are run as a family tradition and they are resistant to change because they can survive. The ones who are wanting to do it differently are those that have have hit a wall.

“There isn’t a huge local market, so there’s

not a lot of support in that effort or direct marketing. But there is growing awareness of the importance of good land stewardship. The Chesapeake Bay watershed is one of the first environmental communities to focus on how nutrient management on cropland affects soil health and water quality. We are now looking at the pastures and how our degraded pastures are a major contribution to phosphorus going into the bay.

“Now there are environmental groups looking at how technical services and marketing support for farmers would help to shift land management practices. If producers see a market change (even 20%) of their production that market incentive would have a dramatic effect. In the past six months several groups like the American Farmland Trust and the Piedmont Environmental Council has committed $2 million to grassfed beef and lamb. This understanding is helping people look at the connection between pollution, human health, and animal health. It’s also encouraging collaboration and getting groups to talk to each other to better solve these problems.”

conservation concern and seven VWL target grassland or shrubland species. Common butterfly species, such as Cabbage White and Orange Sulphur, were abundant, but they also observed rare Variegated Fritillary. Butterfly population health and diversity are a strong indicator of plant diversity. Likewise, with bee surveys, common sweat bees were most abundant, but they also found the proficient orchard pollinator bees of family Megachilidae and the at-risk/species of concern Bombus fervidus (Yellow Bumble Bee).

“There were a number of challenges with the CIG research, but overall we saw an increase across the board on the property,” says Michael.

“I didn’t push the carrying capacity, but I did extend my grazing season. We increased the number of animals by 10%, and we moved from

On-Farm Research

In an effort to capture data about what changes occur with improved grazing, Michael collaborated on a Conservation Innovation Grant with the Piedmont Environmental Council to improve his watering and fencing systems (developing 9 permanent pastures), plant native warm season grasses (Big Blue Stem and Indian Grass), and develop a grazing plan that would include multi-species grazing with a single herd. Using polywire he creates smaller (2–4 acre paddocks) that he grazes for one to three days and gives 30–50 day recovery periods.

He is now able to stockpile fescue for winter grazing and does winter bale grazing to continue to improve soil health. The end result is improved profitability from a loss in 2014 to profitability in 2017. Other key partners included the Virginia Cooperative Extension, Culpeper Soil & Water Conservation District, the USDA NRCS Culpeper Office and Virginia Working Landscapes.

The research project also included four transects in which soil monitoring showed improvement in soil biology and organic matter while bird and pollinator surveys performed by the Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL) recorded 43 breeding Bean Hollow Grassfed raises Katahdin and Dorper sheep in bird species, including 10 of the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Warm season annuals planted to improve soil health and then grazed by sheep. having to feed hay for over 100 days down to 45–60 days. In 2018 we had an absurd amount of rain, so our fields were not as productive because they were under water. They still looked good, but we had to feed our stockpile and hay more. So overall we saw all these improvements, but we had enough ‘noise’ in our grazing system that we couldn’t claim statistical significance.

“Likewise, three years is a short time to measure things. I’ve continued on with Cornell soil health including organic matter. We’ve found that our organic matter has increased up to 5.5%. Before, we were averaging 4%. Also we are using the University of Maryland for active carbon fraction, and we are working with the Virginia Working Landscapes on monitoring bird and pollinator habitat.

“Our original hypothesis was that we had more birds because we had planted warm season grasses to help with summer grazing slump. We planted Big and Little Bluestem and Indian grass. From a production perspective CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

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Trio Angus—

Improving Production through Drought and Fire

five years.

Then in 2016 they met Dick Richardson who was involved in a field day near them. “It was really interesting,” says Matt. “We had been

what practices people are trying on the other farms. It’s really helped us.

“What got us interested the most was what Dick said about how we could get more

BY ANN ADAMS

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n the past two years Matt Cherry & Shelley Piper of Trio Angus have had to deal with challenges of biblical proportion. In February 2017 the Sir Ivan Bush Fire roared through and burned all 1,700 acres. Then they continued to have drought conditions for the next two years. Luckily at that time they had just begun to learn about Holistic Management from HMI Certified Educator Dick Richardson. The result? This year, despite, still being in drought, they have 25% more forage production on their land than they did before the fire.

Switching to Planned Grazing

Matt and Shelley purchased the farm and stock for Trio Angus from Shelley’s parents in 2012 near Cassilis in New South Wales, Australia. Their main business is raising and selling seed stock cattle. Shelley grew up on the family property and Matt had grown up nearby. They both went off to university and further studies. Shelley went on to be a Project Manager for a feed yard and worked for the Angus Association. Matt also worked in a feed yard and was a livestock marketing agent. “But, it was always our dream to come back to the family farm and run our own business,” says

From left to right: Shelley, Owen, Eli & Matt. running a set stocking operation, and doing a rough rotational grazing program, nothing structured. Dick’s way of talking and thinking about all aspects of the environment really made us think about what we could be doing.

So we got involved with a bit of a working group

Trio Angus raises seed stock Angus.

Matt. “We had to wait for the right opportunity.”

It was a two-year transition when they decided to buy the farm. First, they leased and then they set up the paperwork as they paid for the farm and the purchased the seed stock over 4 IN PRACTICE

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with eight other farmers from the area. We’ve been meeting quarterly and we generally meet together on one property with Dick. We do a rotation with picking a different property each time. We learn from Dick and the group and

September / October 2019

performance out of our native grass. We always had lot of rank, mature grass that we couldn’t get the cattle to eat. As we worked on that, we also learned about soil health and biodiversity.

We hadn’t been educated in these aspects of grazing, so we began to look into more of these aspects of the land and how it was influencing the forage. But Dick really helped us understand the importance of having different patterns of use for each paddock. We had patterns of using the same paddocks in the same way, and he made us think about changing it up for the health of the land and the animals.

“The difference was amazing. We’ve had a rough run with the bush fire and bad drought.

But even through that period, we’ve been able to lift production and have our cattle in good health. We’re really excited at the gains we’ve been able to make. Previously we were on the track of replacing our native grasses with Lucerne (alfalfa) and introduced temperate and subtropical grasses, which would have been very costly. Instead we’ve been focused on having bigger mobs and smaller pastures to get more out of our native species, which has cost us very little in the way of wire and some water.”

That 25% increase in production has come despite currently being at 70% of annual rainfall for over two years.

“The neighbors have been interested in

what we are doing,” says Matt. “When our allow a paddock like that to get to the height of bit as they have 160 cows currently. They run grazing group has toured our property, they a cricket ball (approximately three inches) then a total of 450 head all year. These numbers can’t believe the change we are getting. We are to graze to the height of a golf ball (one inch). are working for them as even through the dry just implementing the grazing strategy that Dick This grazing works well for us in our 25-inch season they’ve been able to keep their ground has suggested. We lease 600 acres across the rainfall. Groundcover is not the issue for us. cover. “We’ve had similar numbers from when road from us. Originally it was five paddocks, We have more issues of utilization of grasses. we started despite the drought and bush and we’ve got it so we have 12 paddocks now, The other paddocks might get four weeks for fire,” says Matt. “Sure, there’s still room for about 8–30 ha (25 acres) improvement. Right now we each, where we can now run are tackling the water system. a single mob of dry cattle all We’ve been busy upgrading year because we have two fencing and water by putting different calving seasons. in underground water, poly We have four to five mobs in pipe and 20 troughs. From total now, which is half the there we’ve been able to split number we used to have. We paddocks with one permanent can see the benefit of smaller electric fence wire for internal paddocks and moving the fencing and keeping the animals more frequently, but existing external fence. we don’t want to move every “We’ve found incredible day. So that means they labor efficiencies with our spend three to seven days in water investments,” says a paddock. We have 80–100 Shelley. “Before we were cows in a mob or 50–60 bulls, spending so much time on weaners, heifers, etc. maintaining our old water “We’ve been following system. Now we’ve upgraded Prior to the fire and planned grazing, much of the lovegrass was underDick’s “Grazing Naturally” to solar panels and have utilized and was creating a mono-culture of grass. Now, with planned grazing pattern of use as part of a sensors at all the bores and Matt and Shelley are seeing a lot more plant diversity and have increased grazing plan he’s helped us tanks so it saves a lot of production by 25%. set up. He told us to pick one labor with everything being paddock as a priority paddock automatic. We were spending in the rotation. We number that half of day a week on water number 1 and then number the and now we don’t really have other paddocks from there. In to do anything. Our system is the growing season, when that set up to handle a potential number one paddock, reaches capacity of 1,000 head. And 1,000–1,200 kg/ha (900–1,000 the water is better quality with pounds/acre), then we go in and the troughs instead of drinking graze it again. We then go on to out of dirt tanks. Now we have graze the other paddocks in the two wells and Dick gave us same sequence until the number advice on positioning these 1 paddock is ready again. We water points to help us make might graze that first paddock the best investment.” eight times, other paddocks will “Every three months Dick be grazed less times and we checks in with us and we might not graze some at all and go over our grazing plan for Even in the dry season there is good production despite the two-year leave them for a stockpile.” the property. We crunch the drought. You can see the post graze on the right side of the picture and the In this way, Trio Angus’ numbers and he checks our pre-graze on left. recovery period varies depending work and asks questions. on the rain and the desired We’ve been using the Maia influence on a given paddock. During the recovery or even five weeks. For example, we Grazing software, but we’ve just got going growing season, the recovery period averages only got to Paddock # 3 but then we headed on it. It’s a great tool! We’ve started to use it around three weeks. “We talk about having a back to Paddock #1 because it was time to be to document our grazing chart and to predict landscaping event on a paddock, where we grazed. During the dry season we went through our base forage on rainfall and stocking rates. may graze it hard to stimulate root growth, but all of the paddocks only once and with this We’ve only been doing it this year. We knew we work to still maintain ground cover,” says system we’ve been able to grow a lot of bulk for the information, but we didn’t know how to use Matt. “So we may pick Paddock #1 because the winter. We want to really mix it up for each the software. We put our previous year’s data it needs improving because it is the least paddock, so we can get the plants to experience in and then we are adding as we go along. The productive. All the other paddocks revolve different pressures.” greatest value is that Maia is a lot quicker with around Paddock #1. Dick’s benchmark is to Trio Angus’ stocking rate is down a little a CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Num ber 187

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Trio Angus

how the land is responding, but it’s so easy to we wouldn’t have been able to capitalize and keep doing what you are doing. Some of our maintain production the way we have and his neighbors are coming to the end of their careers help has been really valuable. Really what he the math so you can get that info very quickly. so they are less interested in changing. We’ve taught us to do was to match our stocking rate Being able to project where you are headed to learned we have to keep challenging our way of to our carrying capacity. If you don’t do that, the figure out how you will stock and destock lets thinking, and ask ourselves what could we be land suffers. If you do that, everything begins to you make use of opportunities. We can also doing and why are we doing it. We’ve got on so work better and the land responds in the rain. share the data with Dick more easily.” well with Dick as he always keeps you thinking.

“Our vision for the farm is to work more with “We were just like everyone else. We hadn’t nature rather than against it and aim for more Moving Forward really been looking to change, but we got perennial pastures and a grazing system that Matt and Shelley have been excited by the hooked. We got some information from that supports that. We have a couple soil types— results they’ve been able to achieve with these field day and then we made a few little changes sandy and basalt. The sandy soil has consol new practices. “In the past, we were treating a and got some big results. Now my father is and lovegrass. I hate that grass because it experimenting. He had a matures so quickly, but it’s been one of our couple of paddocks and tried best assets through the dry due to its ability to fencing it into some smaller maintain cover and respond quickly to small paddocks and found the cattle falls of rain. It really gives a lot of production, did well and always had feed but it has to be managed as it gets rank. That in front of them. Now he’s was one of the best things about the bush going to experiment with some fire. It burnt off the rank stuff and gave us a permanent pastures. clean state.

“We are also passionate “With Dick’s help and planning we were able about sharing this information to manage the lovegrass and the amount of with other young farmers. grazing was unbelievable. We’re growing more We held a young farmers’ dry matter now and keeping it from going to breakfast in the middle of the seed. We’ve seen changes in species, and the The impact of the fire shows still after two years drought and had 60 people new species are spreading more, and are more particularly on the improved pastures. The fire came attend. Some people from our obvious to see. The other species are coming in through and burnt the right side of this pasture. Due to farmers’ group also came. We to fill in since the lovegrass has been grazed lack of ground cover there are still challenges with low introduced a few conversations more—clovers, herbs, and annual grasses as organic matter and low water infiltration rates. about how we are handling the well due to getting access to more sunlight. The drought and are going to have fire made us realize that there are opportunities lot of symptoms like spraying weeds or putting a farm tour to get more people in the district on in every situation. The drought and fire has on fertilizer to make paddocks productive,” says board and help share the information. helped us make us more resilient.”

Matt. “But with the planned grazing we’ve been “In a nutshell, since the fire and drought, able to reduce inputs. That has meant massive we’ve really had to watch our grazing To learn more about Trio Angus visit their savings. We don’t use fertilizer or herbicides management. Without Dick’s involvement website at: www.trioangus.com.au as much anymore as we don’t need them.” Those changed practices means an annual savings of at least $10,000–20,000 for Trio Angus.

Even Dick Richardson has been amazed at what Matt and Shelley have been able to do in such a short amount of time. “We just pick up the simple things we can do,” says Matt.

“We quickly realized, the number one resource we need to focus on is our people. We felt we were limited by our education and so we focus on education and look at ideas that challenge our way of thinking.

We think we can make even more changes in the future.

“We had to learn how to recover from the bush fire that hit us in 2017.

Other neighboring properties have Paddock moves happen every 3–5 days and are made easy with new fencing and water infrastructure been slow to respond after that fire. which has helped improve labor efficiencies.

They can see what we are doing and 6 IN PRACTICE

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September / October 2019

LIVESTOCK

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Grazing Naturally

BY DICK RICHARDSON

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olistic planned grazing was originally developed based on the old science that soils build from the top down and building masses of soil surface litter is the secret to soil health. However we now know this is not true. Soil is built by biological activity living off root exudate from green actively growing plants. Old litter at soil surface inhibits this process if too thick and plants whose growth rates are slowing down or becoming less vegetative no longer feed the rhizosphere as much as before.

Planned grazing was built around using recovery periods based on the recovery rates of plants results in lighter grazes when plants grow quickly and less and less active plant growth across a growing season. The subsequent stagnation in biological activity leads to less soil development and poorer quality feed production. People perceive the magic bullet to fix this issue to be very high stock densities that further compound the problem by increasing soil surface litter and stressing the animals. This is a lose-lose scenario.

grazing method. This strategy covers many of the natural variables and Venter and Drewers found it to result in high levels of change, sustained over time with higher stocking rates and good animal performance.

Note in the Venter-Drewers table that the “short-graze height” in the “priority paddock” is measured as “sole height” and the herd is returned when growth begins to reach “toe height”. “Also note that this heavy utilization only happens for one season or in Year 5. The grazing pressure drives photosynthesis, speeds up the mineral cycle, increases plant basal size and thus reduces plant spacing. Although such pressure can result in plants appearing to be over grazed, it is for only the one season in five and the total 5-year succession results in soil and plant health improvement.

Reference: “Benefits of Multi-Paddock Grazing Management on Rangelands: Limitations of experimental grazing research and knowledge gaps,” Grasslands by Richard Teague et al, 2009 describes Venter and Drewers grazing system.

Grazing Naturally Method

Dick Richardson’s Grazing Naturally method (Table 2) is a modification

Venter & Drewers Grazing Method

Scientists Venter and Drewers developed and tested a variable grazing strategy in South Africa that comes close to fitting with the variation and extremes of nature.

A fire treatment is included in this strategy. The method is based on a 5-paddock or 5-zone plan (multiple paddocks divided into 5 zones). Over a period of 5 years, each paddock or zone, is repetitively, heavily grazed, then used less and less until rested completely in the 5th year. The rest year commences with a wet season and ends with a burn prior to the break of the following wet season.

Prior to the burn, the paddock is used for a light graze, e.g. calving cows.

The rested and burned paddock (or zone of paddocks) becomes the priority or repetitively, heavily grazed paddock the following year. (Table 1) presents the Venter and Drewers

Table 1: Venter Drewers Method: 5-Paddock (or zone) Plan for a single mob / herd during Growing Season or Wet Season

Table 2: Grazing Naturally Method: 7-Paddock (or zone) Plan Growing Season or Wet Season CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

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Land & Livestock 7

Dog Tale Ranch—

Developing a Profitable Low-Input Sheep Operation

BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

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orking with nature, not against her, has always been my motto. I am an avid fan of natural rhythms of farming and ranching,” says Arlette Seib, who with her husband Allen has a 1,600acre sheep farm near Watrous, Saskatchewan.

“We actually started on a very different path than the one we are currently on,” she says. They purchased the land in 2004—where they are now raising sheep—but at that time it was crop land with only a few parcels of native prairie.

The Seibs train Australian Kelpies to help them manage their flock of 575 ewes.

“We started out crop farming and it only took a couple years for us to become buried in debt, with a work load that was overwhelming.

We began to wonder what we were doing this for. We had city jobs at the same time so we were working off the farm plus running the farm into the ground with what we were trying to do,” says Arlette.

“We realized we needed to change something, or we would not do well farming and probably were not going to stay together as husband and wife. We were not enjoying what we were doing, so something had to change.”

When they moved to the farm, she had dogs. “I’ve had dogs all my life, and at that time I had a border collie and was eager to buy a few sheep just to be able to work the dog. I bought five sheep in the winter of 2005 and played around with them and my dog. I very much enjoyed those sheep and started thinking about getting a few more sheep,” she says. By 2007 they began to turn some of the farmland into grass and they now run 575 ewes.

Shifting Gears

At that same time she was working in the College of Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. “I was always seeking agriculture information and I found several Holistic Management books including Allan Savory’s big textbook. I began to soak up all of this type of information I could find.

It was a combination of finding the information and looking at these five 8 Land & Livestock

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September / October 2019

wooly animals in front of me; I decided to give this grass-based approach a try,” says Arlette.

Dog Tale Ranch is hilly and rough. There is still some native prairie in this region because it was too rough to break up and farm. “Why this was ever crop farmed is beyond us, because it really is land that was meant to be grass,” says Arlette. “Once we put that piece of understanding into place, we realized why the crop farming was not working on this parcel of land.

“Suddenly it seemed silly and foolish to be doing this. There were a couple of programs we were able to take advantage of through Ducks Unlimited Canada because the area we are in has many potholes and wetlands, with good habitat for waterfowl. Ducks Unlimited has an interest in saving some of these wetlands and grasslands. This organization was eager to help us get switched over to grass. We did that, and our entire land base is now grass. We have no farming/crop equipment. We got rid of the machinery we had and now we just own one little, old tractor.”

Arlette and Allen grow their own hay, but it is harvested on a custom basis, by a neighbor who cuts and bales it in exchange for half the hay crop for his cattle. “We worked out some simple arrangements like this that allow us to maintain very minimal equipment and run our farm with very low input. In some situations we just have to make it work because we don’t have equipment available to us when we need it, such as to get all the fencing done,” she says. One of their goals is to limit winter feeding to 110 days or less and done as bale grazing to add nutrients to the soil.

There were no fences at all on the property since it had been in crops. “We’ve had to beg and borrow some equipment to get some jobs done, but we’ve been able to do that, and maintain a low input/ low cost method. We were still trying to get out from under a huge debt load and go a different direction,” Arlette explains.

When she learned about Holistic Management she started reading more about it, and began this new path with self-education and then some courses. “I found some books and then snooped around online and one thing led to another. I found out about a couple conferences that were being held in our province, so Allen

Lambs on pasture. and I attended those. We didn’t do any intensive multi-day workshops under Holistic Management, but we did the weekend conferences to soak up knowledge and listen to other people,” she says.

Eventually they found an agriculture group in their own region where there were a few other people who were thinking similarly. “We could get together with them and they had a couple leaders, and we attended those

groups for about two years. This helped us quite a bit because those folks know we are producing the kind of ewes we want to retain in our flock. had a similar mindset and we could discuss ideas and grazing plans,” You find out pretty quickly whether they have a good maternal instinct or Arlette says. not, and that’s what we seek. Our flock has developed into hardy, easy Arlette enjoys reading so she was picking up many books by Allan keepers. These ewes live on pasture year round and raise their lambs on Savory, Gene Logsdon, Joel Salatin, Charles Walters and others, and pasture,” she says. those books are still on her bookshelf. “Having the sheep was a little The flock lambs on pasture from mid-May through June. “Our method different because there was not a lot of information about doing this with of pasture lambing is drift lambing (moving the group frequently to new sheep, so we just had to navigate through this learning experience,” says pasture), which allows a single shepherd to manage the flock during Arlette. “Sheep are a bit different to handle than cattle and prefer different lambing. We dock tails and castrate male lambs by banding,” she says. forage plants, and it’s different in terms of how hard they graze, how late The Corriedale is a docile breed so this cross makes the sheep less they graze, etc. It was trial and error, learning as we went, but the basic flighty, and also produces nice wool fleeces. “This breed also lends a principles are the same.” bit more flocking instinct to the herd; the Clun Forest sheep can be very Allen and Arlette have had sheep now for 13 years. In the beginning, independent. Because of predators, we need our sheep to stay together as they were growing the flock and establishing fences, they used a lot as a flock. They are also easier to manage,” says Arlette. of temporary fence and netting. “We had some strips set up to do strip “We do not feed grain, pelleted feed, or creep feed. We keep the grazing and during lambing I was doing a lot of rotations to keep the sheep grazing as long as is suitable for grass health. We utilize stockpiled sheep moved to new, clean areas as they lambed. Today, however, we forage and swath grazing when grass begins to run out. As we go into don’t use much fencing. our coldest winter months We’ve changed our we feed a grass/alfalfa hay fencing infrastructure to which is rolled out on the a more woven-wire style. ground. We provide plenty We’re doing that on the of feed during cold months perimeter and using less since we are not offering any of the temporary fence that other supplemental feed,” you have to haul around,” she explains. she says.

She feels that a good Currently they are not mineral program is very doing a lot of intensive important in helping keep management just because the flock healthy. “We of the cost of this type follow the program laid of fencing. “After a while out in Pat Coleby’s book, I realized that with the Natural Sheep Care, with sheep, the temporary adjustments made for our fencing it took to graze a place and for the sheep. large flock was pretty labor Our deworming protocol is intensive to haul around to selectively deworm just The Seibs run a Clun Forest Corriedale cross that has good maternal instincts and and set up every second the individual animals who do well on pasture. or third day. We now have need treatment. The last the place fenced into quarter sections and some of those are broken down whole-flock deworming treatment was back in 2007, when we switched to into 80-acre parcels. This has become much more manageable, to just our current mineral plan. We are convinced that focusing on the ewe flock put the large flock into one of those parcels. If I wish, I can always put a rather than on maximizing lamb production is why we have a flock of ewes temporary fence across the 80-acre pasture and cut it down to 40,” she that require very little in the way of routine treatments. If the ewes are well explains. Given that Allen works full-time off the farm, they need to be kept, the lamb crop will be good.” careful about production systems that require too much labor.

She and Allen have a few cattle but just enough to raise their own beef.

They have debated about whether to add more cattle, and this may be Breeding for Pastured Program another option to look at, sometime later.

The flock has evolved along with the grazing management. Their sheep are a commercial wool breed. “We started with North Country Co-Existence with Wildlife Cheviot/Clun Forest cross ewes and then added a few purebred Arlette has Australian Kelpie stock dogs, though she had border collies Corriedale ewes. We have kept the Clun influence but diminished the when she started. “I use either breed and use them a lot on pasture Cheviot influence. What we have right now are Clun Forest Corriedale moves, lambing checks, bringing the flock in for sorting or moving rams crossbreds and we really like those two breeds. The maternal instincts around. The dogs are also very useful at shearing time,” she says. in the Clun Forest is a benefit because we are lambing on pasture,” “These dogs have a nice working life and cozy up to us on the couch Arelette says. afterward. They are like our family. We are just two people here, so for “We are hands off, so they have to do it on their own. We do check the most part the flock needs to be managed by one of us, or two of us at them, and help a ewe in trouble, but they do not come into barns; there most. The dogs are very valuable for helping us; otherwise taking care of are no buildings here. The flock we have now has really good maternal the sheep would be a lot more time-consuming and probably cause us a skills, and those skills are tested on pasture. There are no jug pens to hold lot of anguish and upset! them to their lambs or allow a shepherd to easily interfere. In this way we CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 N um ber 187

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things still happen that are stressful, but it’s not as constant. I think back to when we started, when we were crop farming with such a huge debt load, and the realization that we couldn’t do it—and wondering if this was “The other dogs we heavily rely on are our livestock guardian dogs all there was. I think it is important to ask ourselves these questions. because we are out on the prairie with predators. We don’t have very “I hear a lot of farmers and ranchers say they love Nature; it’s where many large predators like wolves or cougars in this area, but we have they live—it’s their backyard. But I don’t think many of us truly grasp the plenty of coyotes. We’ve heard of an occasional big cat, but we’ve never concept of what it is to appreciate Nature and coexist and help Nature seen one or had a problem with them. Coyotes, however, can be really rather than constantly changing things. When this mind set starts to shift bad for sheep.

I think we will see some good things happening. Right now most farmers “The guardian dogs are remarkable and I find them more fascinating and ranchers view Nature as a commodity, to help them meet their bottom than the stock dogs. They taught us the whole concept of coexistence line,” says Arlette. (with wildlife and predators). When we first got the guardian dogs it took She and Allen have seen some very positive results of their holistic trial and error and heartache to learn how to use them and arrive at a efforts on their land. “Now we’ve been through a couple of climate place where we had the right number of dogs and the right balance. It’s changes. We had some decent weather years when we started, and a steep learning curve, but it’s been great planted the grass, so the new grass to finally get there and to see that this is established well. Then we had some years what it looks like and feels like when using when this place flooded, and that’s when these dogs. we began to transition our fencing. At first “Our goal is not for the dogs to be out we had high-tensile electric fencing, but that there killing coyotes; they just need to be here didn’t work with the wetlands and flooding. so that the wildlife can be there. The dogs’ The sheep were just going everywhere,” she presence is enough deterrent and this allows says. for coexistence. The wildlife can still pass That forced their transition into different through our place and be in certain areas. fencing and now they really like their new They can be over here for instance when the methods. “You think that some things are flock is over there, in another pasture, and really detrimental and wish they weren’t then they can switch places. happening, but you realize there is a “This really opened our eyes to what solution and maybe another option you coexistence really means. We don’t have hadn’t thought about and you just need to to kill everything that plagues or pesters us. find it,” says Arlette.

There are other ways to approach it, and this She feels this is one of the small has also spilled over into other areas of how miracles of Holistic Management and we might approach different aspects of what the holistic approach. “Once you view we do. everything as a whole you start to look for “I find that we can learn a way to work with different reasons, different solutions, and what is here, and how best to utilize it. We keep yourself out of the negative. have a certain type of land and have to find “Another aspect is the whole picture, the best use for it, and learn what animals we which includes money. We’ve done fairly might graze here, rather than trying to change well financially now and have erased the The Seibs use livestock guardian dogs the land or the animals.” debt. This was a huge accomplishment (a mix of Anatolians, Maremmas, and Akbash) for us and gave us satisfaction—and also to protect the flock from coyotes so they can Working with the Land puts a person in a very different frame of co-exist with the wildlife.

Arlette acknowledges that there is mind. Working with Nature works in so pressure for farmers to maximize production from farmland in a way that’s many different avenues of your life. It really helped us feel like we were unsustainable. “It’s partly due to the high cost of land and having to make accomplishing what we wanted to do.” our use of it profitable and sustainable, but in many instances farmers and Arlette and Allen’s plan is to continue with their current production ranchers have erased Nature entirely. This is the new agriculture and it system, but they keep debating about whether to double the size of the baffles me,” says Arlette. Somewhere down the road this bites us when flock (and push their grazing management forward). “We keep wondering we take Nature out of the picture because we create a debt we can’t repay if this is where our real desire and passion lies or do we just maintain unless we correct it again with a balance of livestock and plants. A person what we have,” says Arlette. “What we are doing now is very manageable. can’t just crop the land forever and assume it will remain productive.

We waver back and forth every year on what we should do but for right “Agriculture is right in the middle of that huge debt right now, and now we are just maintaining what we’ve got and enjoying it.” Just as feeling that crunch. I am sure that some people are wondering if we can Holistic Management helped them develop their current business model, turn this around. I am hopeful, realizing we’ve got to turn it around. Some the Seibs will use it again to help them make their next decision about of us are doing it on a small scale. It can be done, and it is very satisfying how they want to manage their land and animals in a way that is to do it—perhaps because we look at things a little differently now. The sustainable for the land, the animals, and their family. work balance is there, and we are not overtaxed and over-stressed,” Arlette explains.

To learn more about Dog Tale Ranch and Arlette’s wool business, “It’s not like we don’t have any stress. There are certainly times when visit woolstoneprairie.com.

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Nix Ranch—

Writing Less Checks with a Low-Input System

BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

T

raditional farming/ranching on the family farm in south central South Dakota had become a struggle for Brett Nix (third generation) when he was trying to make a living doing what his parents and grandparents had done. Eventually he made the change from crops to grass—resulting in fewer expensive inputs, healthier soil, and a more satisfying lifestyle.

Brett’s grandparents, Walter and Vivian Nix, homesteaded a farm just south of the little town of Murdo, south of Interstate 90. “My grandmother was instrumental in helping them survive the tough times during the 1930s; she went to work at the State House in Pierre to bring in some income, living there for a while. My father, Richard, from the ages of three to six lived with her there at a boarding house, and they came back periodically to the farm. Life was not easy for them,” says Brett.

“When we started to plant all of our farm acres back to grass, we started with the farthest fields—the ones that you couldn’t see from the house—and worked closer and closer to our home place. We thought we could do this in three years but it took almost six years. We left the fields along the road, from our place to town, leaving them until the very last, so that dad would have time to adjust and ask questions as to what we were trying to accomplish.”

“My grandfather later told my dad that he didn’t want to sell him the place because he said he couldn’t make a living out here. So my dad went into the service and then came back and bought a neighboring place, because all he ever wanted to be was a farmer/rancher. He and my mother, June eventually did buy my grandparents’ place also, and added more land along the way.”

Brett joined his parents on the ranch in 1979. “I’d grown up here, working on the ranch. After I came back, we continued adding acreage to our land base, and had a typical status quo, high-input operation. It was the modern way of farming, working from dawn until dusk and beyond. My parents were extremely hard workers and back then you could advance quite a ways with hard work and making a few good decisions,” he says.

“This is still true today, but it’s more difficult; our decisions have to be even more well-thought-through, and our hard work has to encompass a lot more creative thinking and strategizing and not just the sweat of our brow,” says Brett.

Crisis Brings Change

Farming with his parents, Brett was using the “normal” farming/ ranching methods, until the late 1990s when they started to no-till the crop land and added a few more crops. “We’d been growing wheat and doing summer fallow rotation with some sorghum and feed crops in the mix.

When we started the Richard and Brett Nix have no-till we intensified our learned a lot together about transitionrotations and added ing to a low-input grazing operation. sunflowers, and more Keeping an open mind about how to grain sorghum. We also reduce input and partner with Nature had livestock, running was the key. between 300 and 400 cows along with our farming,” he says.

The seasonal work overlapped almost year round. “We were working an extreme amount of hours and it was challenging, but we didn’t know any different. We were starting to realize, however, that it wasn’t a lot of fun anymore.

“In 2008, when prices and inputs skyrocketed, it drove us to a crisis point financially. We were already to the breaking point work-wise. I think it often takes a crisis to make a change.” The financial challenges forced a look at other options, to try to survive.

“We were calving in February and March, into April. All our cows had to go through the barn. This was very labor intensive, but for a while all our kids were involved and we had a lot of help for the night watching and barn cleaning. As our kids started to graduate and go their own way, we had less help. Some did stay, but it was still a tremendous amount of work.

I could see that this was not going to be sustainable,” Brett says.

“Our son Christopher was helping us. He was married and had one child by then, but practically living out here. I didn’t like what it was doing to him, work-wise and taking him away from his family. It just didn’t seem like a very good way of doing business, even though our wives helped and were supportive.”

One day, during a storm, Christopher was bringing calves into the barn, and Brett asked if he could handle things for a bit, and went to have a conversation with his own father, who was probably in his mid-70s at that time. “Dad still helped with the calving, too. We sat down and I asked him if he knew why we were calving this time of year. He sat back in his chair, took a sip of coffee and said he had to think about that a moment. I just sat there and waited, and then he said one of the reasons was that we wanted to be through calving before we started to farm in the spring—to not be doing it all the same time. We also wanted our calves to be big enough to sell by the first of October. I told him that I could see his point, but thought CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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we could take care of those two items and maybe make some changes,” says Brett.

The challenge of calving that early, along with the financial crisis at that point in time were probably the two main things that tipped the scale and started them thinking about how to do things differently. “Probably some people had already planted the seeds of change in our minds. We’d done a complete ranch inventory with the NRCS, in one of their programs they were doing, trying to help farmers and ranchers better manage their resources. The banking side of the crisis was another issue,” he says.

“We had good records and were good with our numbers and bookkeeping. We could see things weren’t very good financially. We pooled our efforts; we had created some good relationships with the people we worked with; it had always been important to us to have good relationships with everyone on our team, even then. We contacted an individual that I was good friends with, from the Farm Service Agency and another good friend from Farm Credit.”

Farm Credit took all of their records and information and crunched it through the main system in Omaha. “They sent back a detailed report, and we went through that, to help define what our problems were. We were spending a lot of money on inputs of all kinds. We took a hard look at the size and scope of our business, and the dollars we had invested in equipment.

This was the beginning of a big change for us,” he says.

A New Direction

He also went to a couple of Holistic Management workshops. The first one was with Josh Dukart in 2012. “I also went to one put on by Randy Holmquist a couple years later. These holistic workshops really helped us to understand we were living in and managing a whole ecosystem where every decision had an effect on other parts of the world we were living in.

We were challenged to ask ourselves what we wanted our lives and land to look like.

“Education became very important to us. We were already trying to make some changes and one of the first things we did was move our calving season. We went right from February-March into May-June. We didn’t transition; we just bred the cows later for the next year’s calving. We

When a person is open to or looking for ways to change, it’s amazing how doors open.

“We sat down with one of the creditors, and my parents, to try to figure things out. We were in an unwritten partnership with my parents, each of us about 50%. We’d been doing some things that weren’t financially healthy, like saying; Brett and Lori Nix worked to transition their croplands to grasslands to reduce risk and increase ‘You pay for half of this and we’ll pay for half’ the resilience of their land so drought is not such a challenge for them. yet the money still all had to come out of the same kitty, on the ranch. After defining some knew we couldn’t calve in cold weather anymore because it was limiting of these things, we talked about Lori and me completely taking over the farm and my parents moving into an advisory role. There were some tears the number of cattle we could run; we could only calve out as many cows involved in this conversation. It was difficult, but we had developed a great as we could run through our barn,” he explains.

“If we could move away from that constraint, we could increase our relationship with my parents and they did want to see our ranch continue stocking rate, and we did. I studied this out for more than a year before we into the next generations, but they could also see that financially it wasn’t made that change, however. We didn’t want it to be a failure,” he says. working well,” Brett says.

This necessitated a few more changes, which included sorting off and “They agreed to make necessary changes, so we started the transition. selling 40 cows that wouldn’t do well in the later calving season, calving We separated the operation and formed a written partnership for the land, at pasture. “We had good records on all of them, and knew which ones to which separated the land from the livestock. My wife and I then leased cull. We took those cows out of our herd and didn’t breed them that next the whole operation from my parents. At that point, things really started to year, because I knew they wouldn’t work in the new system.” These were change,” he says. cows that needed some kind of help at calving, either because of an udder Soon after that, Brett went to a Ranching for Profit school in Abilene Texas in 2012 and a follow-up school in Rapid City, South Dakota in 2015. problem (and the calf needing assistance for the first nursing) or poor 12

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mothering ability (not wanting to mother their calves for the first 12 hours) saying, ‘Well, I think so, if it rains, harvest goes well and we get this price or some other reason that someone needed to be there when they calved. or that.’

“We had a short discussion as whether to put a bull with them and sell “Everything depended on everything going just right to make a profit. them as bred cows to add some value to them, but then asked ourselves “We wanted to get out of that situation— wanted to be in control of our ‘Would we want to be the person to buy them?’ So we ran those cows finances and start making our own financial decisions.” without a bull until we could wean their current calves and then sold them Drought was always an issue. “Looking back, I think we probably as open cows,” Brett says. created some of our own drought situations with our management styles After they started calving in summer, they realized this was a good in the farming and grazing. It became important to us to drought-proof our decision, and calving was enjoyable. “We also could see that we were place. We set up a drought plan that is very extensive. It’s not fun when matching our cows’ peak demand for forage to the peak growing season. we have drought, but now it’s survivable. We’ve found that since we’ve We didn’t have very many problems, but did discover that some of our had that plan in place, and the more that we stick by those principles, we cows were milking too heavy; we had a few udder problems. We had to have less problems with drought—because of our grazing management change our genetics a little as we went along.” and keeping our stocking rate adjusted to our grass and moisture Moving into this transition and looking at things more holistically, the situation,” says Brett. family set goals and asked themselves what they really wanted their “When we started to look at the whole picture we could see how one lives to look like—now, in five years, in 10 years, or 20 years. “We also decision affected another; it is all interwoven with the relationships, the looked at what we wanted our ranch to look like 50 or 100 years from now, finances, the livestock, and the land. One of our goals was to have all because it’s not just our lives, but also the next generations. We answered these things be healthy, and then we had to define what ‘healthy’ was. We those questions, and also realized we are sunlight asked what we wanted brokers, soil builders, our business to look like, plant managers, rather and our land and our soil,” than just farmers or says Brett. ranchers,” he says.

“We were still farming “Today we sell beef as about 3,000 acres at that grass-fed, drug-free and point, and didn’t like what natural. We presently sell we were doing. When the majority of our product you go to no-till you into the commodity have to use chemicals market but are looking for and fertilizers because avenues to sell closer to this was just part of that a consumer market. We system. There are some have not used chemicals people trying to change on our land or livestock the no-till system to be for about five years. We more regenerative, and use biological methods that’s great, but we didn’t and some mechanical want to wade through that. means to control some So we made a decision to undesirable plants, though plant all our acres back to our livestock graze most The Nix family worked diligently to cull their herd so that they had high performing cattle grass to have something plants on our land,” Brett that work well on grass and our worm resistant. green growing on our land explains. as many days out of the year as possible and have it in the best condition The decision to raise cattle more naturally took a few changes. They to utilize the early spring wet snow and rain,” he says. decided they didn’t want to pour the cattle anymore with dewormers or This was a really big change, so it took some time to think it through. insecticides. “We just quit doing that, cold turkey. Some people advised It wasn’t a quick decision. “When we went through the holistic process against just quitting suddenly, but we’d already changed our grazing of trying to determine what we wanted our lives to be like, crop farming practices, and that helped.” When cattle are no longer eating the plants just didn’t seem to be the right fit for us. We wanted a simpler life,” down to the roots, they are not picking up many worms because the worm Brett explains. larvae are on the lower part of the plants (having crawled there from the Another motivating reason for change was that they felt they needed to eggs passed and hatched in manure). And when cattle are moved to new be better stewards of the land. “We are responsible for it and wanted to be pasture after grazing one portion for a short time, they leave most the doing something better with this land resource that God has entrusted to worm and fly load behind. By the time they come back again (after a long us as caretakers. For many years we had been mining it, so to speak, and recovery for each pasture), most of the worm eggs/larvae and the horn it was time to reverse that process.” fly larvae in manure were left behind and have perished—due to dung They sat down and talked about it and laid out what some of their goals beetles activity and not having a new host to ingest them. were, in terms of family and trying to minimize stress. One of the things “We did some culling in our herd when we quit using dewormers and they’ve added to these goals has been more education. Education has insecticides. Occasionally there’d be a cow or two that just didn’t hold been instrumental in the changes they have made. up or do well in our system, so those went to market, but as we changed They also wanted to stop writing out big checks. “Lori would sometimes a lot of other things in our system, those issues have become minimal,” ask me while paying bills if this was all going to work out. I’d respond by CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 N um ber 187

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seeds for thought.”

His father would think about these things and maybe a few days later he’d say there might be something to it and it might work. “I wanted to Brett says. honor my mother and father and not make them feel like what they had Early on, they had an extensive heifer development program, weaning done for years was wrong, but that many things have changed over the the heifers and feeding them to grow to a certain size before breeding. years and what used to work isn’t working as well today,” Brett says. It “We don’t do any of that anymore. It didn’t match with our goals, which took a little strategy and gentle persuasion to get his dad on board; Brett was to quit writing unnecessary checks.” Today the replacement heifers knew everyone had to be on the same page, for this to work smoothly. The grow naturally, on grass and minimal harvested feed. Nearly all of the team had to all be working in the same direction. heifers are exposed to the bulls. The ones that conceive generally make It was a gradual transition. “When we started to plant all of our farm good cows and the ones that don’t get pregnant stay in the stocker group. acres back to grass, we started with the farthest fields—the ones that you The calves stay on their mothers through winter. This makes winter chores couldn’t see from the house--and worked closer and closer to our home easy and calves stay healthy. place. We thought we could do this in three years but it took almost six “In our old system we usually fed between six and seven months of years. We left the fields along the road, from our place to town, leaving the year, and it’s hard to make that work, financially. Now we are down to them until the very last, so that dad would have time to adjust and ask less than three months questions as to what of feeding cattle with we were trying to a tractor and we are accomplish.” Brett still decreasing that says. each year. We have “The fields we a responsibility to our drove by every day, livestock, however, we were still doing and are prepared no-till and farming to feed them when them with cover necessary. We do a crops. This was one lot of bale grazing with of the things we’d our rotation, trying to planned—to plant leave as much ground cover crops on all cover and nutrients on of our farm ground the land as possible. for three years We try to graze our minimum, putting grass upward during fences around them summer and graze it and water sources, downward during the so we could graze dormant season (fall them before we put and winter),” he says. those areas back to “We stopped buying grass.” This helped The Nix family have improved their pastures by reducing their grazing periods to three to five chemicals, fertilizer and restore soil health days and allowing recovery periods of up to 18 months. seed and paying for and fertility before large amounts of crop they planted grass. insurance. We were putting such expensive inputs into those crops that “Our soil, after so many years of cropping, had very little fertility. There we thought we needed the crop insurance. Looking back, our livestock was no life left in this soil because we’d been using chemicals and salt/ should have been our crop insurance as they could have eaten and added urea-based fertilizers. It would grow a monoculture crop if we used the value to a failed crop. We also stopped paying for repairs, because we right fertilizer. We had to jump-start it with the cover crops and animal were selling the machinery--the things that rust, rot and depreciate. The impact from grazing the cover crops, and that was a really good move,” repair bill, fuel bill and labor bill went down, and our sinking ship started to he explains. come up again in the water,” says Brett.

“We’d been planting cover crops and putting cattle on the fields and my dad watched that and liked it, and what it was doing for the soil. One The People Factor day he said to me, ‘Shouldn’t we be getting the rest of these fields planted Brett knew they needed to have their family on board to make it work, back to grass pretty soon?’ He was ready for the complete transition, so I including his parents. “We wanted to be sensitive, however, and do things told him that yes, that’s a good idea.” in a certain way to help them make the transition,” says Brett. “My mom Lori was also starting to inquire as to what the plan was for completing was on board from the very beginning but Dad needed a little more time. the planting portion of this transition. “We were doing too much of the old We’d throw out an idea and let him think about it awhile. One of our daily while trying to implement the new. She actually pushed us to finish all of rituals has been that I’d have coffee with my parents most morning at the plantings that summer. She helps us keep our compass headed in the about 6 or 6:30 a.m. and I’ve done that for years as they just live across right direction,” says Brett. the road. So in our time together, I started to introduce some of these new “As we began our transition we didn’t want to get our ship upside ideas. We’d talk about these a little bit and if there was a little hesitation on down, financially speaking. One of our goals was to finance a big part their part I’d just say, ‘Well, it might not work anyway,’ but this planted the of our transition with the sale of our farm machinery,” he explains, “We 14

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were able to start selling machinery in the early stages of our transition to finance putting in fences, water lines and grass plantings.”

“One of our sons started a fencing business because of this transition.

This has turned into a really good business. We hired our son to do the first 15 miles of perimeter fence, although he didn’t get all of our fence built before he started doing custom work. People would stop along the road where he was working and ask if he would build fence for them. The fencing enterprise for some of our family members was a nice offshoot from the transition from farming to grazing.”

When they started selling off the machinery that was no longer needed for farming, they were pretty ruthless, and determined to not be very attached to any of it. “We wanted to be sensitive towards dad and visit with him about what we wanted to sell next as he had a lifetime of history with it. This transition was a little bit like planting the field by the road last.”

During the transition, they used their own no-till drills to plant grass seed, mixing oats with the seed as a carrier to put grass seed through the drills. “One day dad asked me if we maybe should be selling those drills pretty soon, because we hadn’t used them for a while and probably didn’t need them anymore. So I said, ‘Yes, let’s do that.’ We have one rented crop field left so I just rent the county drill to plant that field,” Brett says.

About that same time, his dad asked if they really needed the other big tractor anymore. He’d come to accept parting with all the farm machinery.

This gradual process made the transition easier for Brett’s parents, and they got to be a part of that decision-making. “In the past few years my dad’s favorite saying has been, ‘We should have done this years ago.’

Or he might say, ‘This is the best thing we ever did.’ So now at the coffee shop, he talks positively about the changes rather than worrying that we did the wrong thing.”

The local NRCS helped with many of the decisions regarding what to plant, how much of it, etc. “We used NRCS programs on a couple of plantings, and also the Fish and Wildlife Service on one of our more diverse plantings. We tried to do most of the transition financially on our own,” explains Brett.

“Along the way we tried to look for silver linings in the things that didn’t work like we expected they would. When something doesn’t go quite right, we look to see what we can learn from it. Usually there is something positive, even in the negatives.”

Moving Forward-One Decision at a Time

Over the years Brett notes that they haven’t changed their goals or mission statement very much. “We still ask ourselves ‘why’ about everything—why do we do it this way,” says Brett. “This question is what started to drive some of our changes—like the day I went to visit with my dad to ask why we calved in February-March, in the wintertime. Along with why, we also ask ourselves how we can solve our problems without spending money or diminishing resources.”

The other question they ask is, “Will this take us closer to or farther away from our goals?” Brett says, “This is probably the biggest driver for us, in helping us in the decision-making process. We ask whether our actions are really addressing the root problem or just a temporary fix to the problem. We want to figure out the long-term results of this action.

Every decision that we make, we try to move things forward---whether it’s our land or our lives,” he says.

“We create a grazing plan but we don’t really have a system. We just have a few principles that we try to stay with. We don’t want to have our cattle on any piece of land for more than three to five days if we can help it, because after that length of time the grass they’ve grazed is starting to regrow. We don’t want the cows to take a second bite once it starts to regrow, so this drives some of our grazing management plans. We try to

plan, monitor and re-plan as needed,” he explains.

During calving, frequent moves are a bit of a challenge because it’s best for the calving cows to not be moved that often. “This past year I actually gave them five pastures to calve in for two weeks because I wanted to see if it would help the quality of life for our cows and their babies. We don’t have much labor involved with our calving anymore, however, though I do go out and make a circle every day, to make sure the water tanks are full, and I enjoy seeing the new calves. Moving them every two or three days during calving season is something we are still thinking through and trying to figure out how to best address that issue,” he says.

“We already had a lot of permanent cross fencing built, before we started this journey. I am thinking that possibly we might have too many permanent cross fences and we could have more flexibility and success with temporary fence, especially during the calving season. My dad, who is on our district Soil Conservation board (and has been for 51 years) has always been very progressive about grazing management. So we’d already done a lot of cross fencing and were doing some rotational grazing. This was certainly helpful, but didn’t advance the grass as much as what we are doing now. Today some of our land gets a full year of recovery, and some gets 18-month recovery,” he says.

“We are in a somewhat brittle environment here, though not as much as some folks. Our rainfall averages about 17 or 18 inches per year, which is borderline for brittle environment, but most of that moisture comes in only about three or four rains. We might get a three-inch rain and a 2.5inch rain, etc. but there can be a lot of dry spells in between.

“All of our land I would consider marginal farm ground, but some of the most marginal land we’d already planted back to grass years ago, and put up hay on it. Now we graze it, rather than hay it. We purchase about half of our hay needs and graze what used to be hayfields. Some of the land gets twice-over grazing—once early and once later on in the year. That has worked on some of it, advancing the soil health and biology, and some not so much. It’s trial and error. We still have much to learn.”

Brett tries to change the season of use every year, and this is why a certain piece of land might have a year of recovery, and sometimes up to 18 months of recovery. It’s hard to change the season of use without either shortening it to six months or lengthening it to 18 months. “We decided that we’d try a longer recovery period, especially on some of our untilled native pastures,” he says.

Brett became a director for the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition.

“They’ve put a lot into my life and this is a way to pay it forward. They put on many great events. They invite people like Jim Gerrish, Kit Pharo, Dave Pratt, Gabe Brown, Greg Judy, Josh Dukart, Roland Kroos and many more, to come speak. When people ask me how they can improve their land I tell them to get educated, go to the right events, and read,” says Brett.

He also recommends attending Holistic Management workshops.

“They’re shorter than some of the schools and sometimes easier for people to attend. One-day meetings are mainly introductory, but the twoor three-day Holistic Management workshop/schools cover most of the foundational principles, in a short time, and can have a great impact. It’s good to keep going to these, to refresh yourself and become encouraged again, and stay creative. I always come away with a few nuggets of information that I hadn’t discovered before.

“We are so thankful that we didn’t have to learn all of this the hard way.

It helps to get ideas from other people and not have to make all the mistakes ourselves. We’ve made plenty of mistakes, and share those with others as well. We are continually changing to make our lives, our land and our resources better. And we want to continue educating ourselves and our children along the way.”

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Bean Hollow Grassfed

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it’s worked well. The biologists were interested in it for a grassland bird habitat. They thought they’d see higher use of this habitat by birds like meadowlarks and sparrows. But I think those birds actually used the cool season grasses more, probably because of the more diverse habitat after grazing. Warm season grasses provide winter habitat because of the seed from those warm season grasses for a feed source.

We also found we had more pollinators attracted to the greater diversity of plant species.”

The planting of warm season grasses not only improved the wildlife habitat but it also helped address the concerns of Piedmont pastures being dominated by Fescue KY31, which decreases animal performance during summer months.

With improved grazing management, forage has increased in productivity for the livestock and also as wildlife habitat.

Building a Profitable Business

So how do you quantify the value of these results? For Michael it meant an increase in animal units per acre from 0.17 AU/acre in 2013 to 0.5 AU/acre in 2016 for an almost 200% increase in forage production. There was a 33% increase in overall soil health on pastures, with a 1.5 % increase of organic matter in the old hayfields and a 1% increase of organic matter in one pasture. In addition, there was a 30% decrease in compaction in the pastures and 25% decrease in the hayfields.

“Local farmers are noticing when I have grass and they don’t,” say Michael. “I’m grazing my previous haylands now because it makes more economic and environmental sense. I can buy hay at $90/ton and I can’t make hay for less than $200/ton.” With more land to graze, Michael can keep his animals in grass longer which means he buys half the hay he used to per animal unit.

Currently Bean Hollow runs about 100 ewes and up to 250 lambs and 20–30 beef animals 16 IN PRACTICE

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(feeders or heifers). Michael uses a neighbor’s bull to breed his heifers and sells them as bred heifers. Luckily he has four USDA processing plants (two of which are Animal Welfare Approved) within an hour’s drive that he can use although he usually has to book two to three months out.

Michael doesn’t buy from the sale barn and finishes his cattle at 22–24 months at a little over With frequent grazing moves, the Gator helps pull all 1,000 pounds. He’s also begun to portable infrastructure including mineral feeder, water trough, run some pigs as well. and fencing.

“I have one small pasture lot that we divide with polywire and cost-share grazing infrastructure through his then we move the pigs into woodlots that we increased net revenues. Michael has also are developing and clearing,” says Michael. honed his production system such that he “We don’t know if there will be enough mast uses a Gator to pull portable water troughs, for them, but we also have neighbors who step in posts, polywire reels, and a mineral have organic orchards and they have interest feeder so he can set up paddocks very quickly, in using livestock to clean the orchards after in as little as 40 minutes for daily moves. Or, harvest. Because we have high deer pressure he may take two hours on the weekend to set our neighbors already have electric fencing up a series of paddocks for the week. These around the orchard.” These heritage breed systems are important for the next phase of his pigs (Tamsworth, Old Spots, Large Blacks, business—succession. and Berkshires) add diversity to the animals “When you start farming at 65 you need to landscaping and stewarding the land while also develop a model and business that someone diversifying Bean Hollow Grassfed’s offering to else can take and run with it as part of the their customers. succession,” says Michael. “In addition to my “In 2018 we direct marketed 50% of the son Wil and his wife Giada working part-time, meat and we are increasing that amount to we have a young local woman working as an 75% in 2019,” say Michael. “We just opened a apprentice. Potentially one of them can take farm store as well and we are working on short over the business or I may sell the business to chain wholesale accounts. We have also added another younger operator. In the meantime, we another enterprise. My son and daughter-in-law have done other things like protect the land with now sell our brats and sausages from a food a conservation easement.” truck with a significant mark up over our frozen Ultimately, the Sands family wants to keep retail meat price.” this working land in production with a business that can help sustain someone’s livelihood as well as provide all the ecosystem benefits that such lands offer for the community and wildlife around them. The research project they were involved in was to encourage area livestock farmers to consider how land management can improve soil health which results in improved productivity and profit. With that focus, Bean Hollow Grassfed is now feeding their community a number of different healthy meats that are Animal Welfare Approved, while bringing the next generation back to the land.

Part of the mission of Bean Hollow Grassfed is to educate consumers on the connection between regenerative agriculture and healthy food so the farm offers educational field days.

Within the first two years of developing Bean Hollow Grassfed, Michael was able to pay off the original $20,000 investment in the

September / October 2019

To learn more about Bean Hollow Grassfed, visit https://www. beanhollowgrassfed.com/. To see the full case study and view the video of this project go to: https://www.pecva.org/ourmission/working-farms-and-food/improvingpastures/1249-a-case-study

Grazing Naturally

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of the Venter-Drewers system to avoid regular use of fire to drive an animal-reliant rather than a fire-reliant community. While Venter-Drewers use fire to prepare a rested paddock for priority grazing, Grazing Naturally uses grazing to prepare a paddock for a spell, a Sabbath. Thus, the priority grazed paddock (or zone) becomes the Sabbath paddock. After a one-year spell, this paddock does not become the priority paddock as in the Venter-Drewers method, it is the least-utilised and grazing gradually increases over six years, becoming the priority paddock, prior to another Sabbath. As with Venter-Drewers, priority paddocks are grazed until short, though not as short, i.e. down to the toe of the boot (or golf ball), not the sole. It is grazed again when the grass is ankle height (cricket ball). In the northern tropics, it is better to at least start by measuring low by using a beer can on its side and high by the can standing upright.

The Grazing Naturally method reverses the paddock selection sequence of the Venter and Drewers method. Fire can be used in the Grazing Naturally method, during the growing season while livestock are present in the paddock. Burning takes the form of patch burning nongrazed unpalatable grass through the paddock (or zone). Such treatment may be more necessary in the first years of implementing this grazing method. We have people practicing this from the far North east tropics of Australia with 2.5m (100 inches) of rain down to the Southern central coast where some of these lands are in very marginal rainfall conditions with

rainfall to 250mm (10 inches).

Venter & Drewers System

Priority Paddock/Zone: Burn after break of dry season (storm season) i.e. commencement of the wet season – effectively creating ‘green pick’.

Graze as soon as the grass reaches toe height; graze short and as often as regrowth allows (8+ times); graze until you can see the sole of your boot from the side and return as soon as it starts to hide your toe.

2nd choice after priority paddock – return to priority paddock as soon as the grass reaches toe height or move on to next choice (3rd).

Stock Number Note: If getting to 4th paddock more than once, a stock reduction should be considered. If not reaching the 3rd paddock, an increase in stock number should be considered.

Sabbath: Rest for 12 months (or 10 to 14 months) – no grazing through the growing season; Graze while waiting for next season to break i.e. calving. Then following a burn this paddock becomes the priority-paddock at the break of season in Year 2.

Grazing Naturally System

Priority Paddock or zone of paddocks: Graze short and as often as regrowth allows (8+ times); graze until you can see a beer can lying on its side and return when you cannot see a beer can standing upright.

Note: This paddock / zone becomes the Sabbath paddock / zone in Year 2. Always move from the priority to paddock / zone 2.

2nd choice paddock / zone after priority paddock: return to priority paddock / zone as soon as it gets to beer can height or move on to 3rd choice. Note: This paddock becomes the priority use paddock or zone in Year 2.

3rd to 6th choice paddocks – used progressively as needed until priority paddock / zone requires grazing again.

Figure 2: Venter and Drewers Method: Non-Growing or Dry Season: Previous Growing Season Use of Paddock or Zone

Figure 3: Grazing Naturally Non-Growing or Dry Season: Previous Growing Season Use of Paddock or Zone

Stock Number Note: If getting to 5th paddock / zone more than once, a stock reduction should be considered. If not reaching the 5th paddock, an increase in stock number should be considered.

Sabbath: Rest for 12 months (or 10 to 14 months) – no grazing through the growing season; can use for calving in the late dry season. This paddock or zone becomes 6th use paddock at the break of season in Year 2, i.e. is the least used in Year 2.

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Reader’s Forum

Investing in Soil Health is an Investment in Our Community

BY KATHY KAESEBIER

M

y family has been farming in Illinois as far back as anyone can remember. Farming supported my parents and grandparents and generations before them. In recent years, then, I’ve wondered why, when we’re farming twice the acres they did, my husband and I need off-farm jobs to make ends meet. The answers we’re discovering are coming from a surprising place: the ground under our feet.

First, let me step back a few years. We were having some unusual problems with our soil that no one could explain, and when a friend suggested we sign up for an intensive soil health training course, we jumped at the chance. The course gave us a new and comprehensive understanding of the soil microbiome and strategies for strengthening it, while addressing our disease and weed pressure challenges.

We started planting cover crops—20 acres at first, and now on every acre possible where we practice full soil health measures. We’re testing our soil for active organic matter and we adjust the nutrients we add accordingly.

And we’ve diversified, a lot. Besides corn and soybeans, today we’re also raising wheat, a few cattle, Katahdin sheep, meat and layer chickens, and honeybees.

Our yields are steady, we’re saving money and we’re having more fun farming than we have in years.

But what we’ve learned is bigger than our farm. As modern farming practices separated crops and livestock, farmers were encouraged to buy more inputs from chemical and seed companies. Farmers became reliant on recommendations from retailers and big agricultural companies. In recent decades, farmer incomes have stayed flat while agribusiness profits have skyrocketed.

The impacts of not keeping our money in our communities are clear: small farms have gone out of business and our downtowns, schools and churches are struggling.

And here’s where we find the answer to my question: investing in soil health is an investment in our community and our local economy. On our farm, our cover crops—and now our animals—are saving us money on inputs.

We spend far less on fertilizer and we’ve limited insecticide, fungicide and seed treatments on the fields where we practice soil health. That’s more money in our pockets. The livestock will bring us additional income and they’re keeping us busier than ever. Bringing animals back to more farms would create muchneeded rural jobs. We have a strong farmer community who are generous in sharing their on-farm experience and knowledge with us, which helps us know better what our fields need and how to provide it more naturally.

There are so many benefits to improving soil health, but there are many uncertainties

Grazing Naturally­ Non-Growing or Dry Season:

Depending on the number of paddocks available, the Grazing Naturally method can work on a four to seven-year cycle, though a seven-year cycle is preferred. If only three paddocks are available, then one of the paddocks can be wet season spelled, one treated as a priority paddock in rotation with the other. The paddock used as priority is spelled the following wet season. When paddock numbers exceed seven then paddocks can be divided into zones of paddocks.

Where multiple mobs are run each mob can have its own set of paddocks.

In any method of grazing, it is advisable to avoid stock densities getting too high, to avoid fouling of forage and to allow animals to choose when and how to graze. For example, animals graze into the wind to avoid reduction of forage intake by emission of plant toxins (e.g. tannins). High densities can be used with heavy landscaping events. The ideal graze period for animal performance is two to three days.

h

Kathy and her husband, Rick, are Holistic Management practitioners farming in Elkhart.

This opinion editorial was first published in The State Journal-Register: https://www.sj-r. com/opinion/20190419/guest-view-investingin-soil-health-is-investment-in-our-community.

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when considering a change like planting cover crops. We also sell crop insurance, so we understand the importance of managing risk— and there is a tool that can help Kathy and Rick Kasebier mitigate the risk of this transition.

Iowa piloted a program last year giving farmers a $5 discount on crop insurance premiums for every acre planted with cover crops. We need a similar program in Illinois, to make farmers more comfortable when adopting cover crops. The proposed program here has broad support from farm and conservation groups.

On an individual field, cover crops improve the soil, save money on inputs, and often give a yield bump on the next crop. Widespread planting of covers, along with introduction of more grazing animals and other measures to improve our soil health, will yield benefits for our whole state and region.

September / October 2019

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of the Holistic Management framework.

In a world beset with so many challenges, it is very exciting and motivating to be involved with the Holistic Management community where there are very powerful positive stories of success. These stories provide hope and practical solutions to healing our degraded landscapes, our depleted food systems and our human psyche. We humans correctly blame ourselves for pollution, extinctions and degradation. However, we can now, through better decisions, be part of the solution to past errors. We can build vibrant ecosystems, healthy environments and healthy relationships. I see HMI as being a key in fostering and empowering this growing community of success.

Collaborations, training and sharing are what have sustained HMI. This passion to share, refine and improve what Holistic Management can do for ecosystems, communities and individuals is why I remain involved with and support HMI.

Wayne Knight is a beef farmer near Mokopane, Limpopo Province, South Africa

PROGRAM ROUNDUP HMI’s Online Courses Support International Learning

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Holistic Financial Planning Course Results

MI’s Online Holistic Financial Planning course had 32 participants from Germany, Canada, Australia, the United States, South Africa and the Netherlands. This course focused on key financial principles that helped participants learn how to work on their business, not just in their business.

Participants were able to develop a financial plan and identify ways to implement and monitor that plan. The participants were very excited to learn the key economic analysis tools for improved financial decisions for both annual budgets and for long-term investment. 100% of participants were satisfied with this course and would recommend it to others as well as learning how to develop a holistic financial plan.

Featured Participant: Pamela Myllymaki, Stanford, MT, USA “The class not only helped me learn a lot more about my numbers and what to do with that information, but at the same time how to assess my goals and accomplish my goals with using my numbers.”

O

Ranch by Design Texas Workshop

n May 2 and 3, 2019, a sold-out crowd gathered in Dumas, Texas at the Blue Ranch to learn about planning water and fencing infrastructure to facilitate more effective land and livestock management. Professional Certified Educator Deborah Clark, of Birdwell & Clark Ranch, led the workshop covering all aspects of Holistic Land Planning, working with participants on many examples of land maps.

The group spent both afternoons at Blue Ranch, with ranch manager Mike Turner leading a tour so participants could see firsthand the water and fencing infrastructure, historical sites on the ranch, and forage improvements achieved by their grazing management. Craig McCloy, son of Blue Ranch owners Rex and Susan McCloy, led a highly informative “show and tell” session on the materials and equipment he used and the successes and challenges he experienced while installing the water

infrastructure at Blue Ranch.

Clint Rollins, NRCS/GLCI Grazing Lands Specialist, talked about the services his agency offers and did a brief explanation of forage assessment. Later Thursday afternoon, a panel took questions from the group on topics as diverse as quail habitat, managing sheep and goats, the usefulness of ‘weeds’, and including horses in your grazing plans.

Friday afternoon included demos of fencing and water products from Punchy Cattle Company and Tank Supply, Twin Mountain Fence, United Fiberglass, and Justin Rader’s home-made portable water trough. 90% of the participants were satisfied with the course and 83% increased their knowledge on how to prioritize land/infrastructure developments investments.

Thank you to our Funder for this workshop, The Tecovas Foundation, and to our collaborators: Texas A&M Agrilife Extension, Moore County Agri-Life Extension Service, Moore County Community Center, USDA-NRCS Moore County, Texas Parks & Wildlife, West Texas A& M, 100th Meridian Ranching, and NRCS/Grazing Lands Coalition Initiative.

Lastly, thank you to our Sponsors: Twin Mountain Fence, Punchy Cattle Company, Capital Farm Credit, United Fiberglass, Inc, Cactus Feeders, Jack Seed & Supply, and Ozark Hills Insurance. A special thanks to Rex and Susan McCloy for allowing access to their beautiful Blue Ranch, and to Craig McCloy for his informative presentation.

Full Heart Farm Day

On May 31, 2019, twenty-five people gathered at Full Heart Farm in Ledyard, Connecticut to learn about regenerative agriculture.

Participants, a majority of whom were young women farmers, received an introduction to a number of topics including: holistic financial planning, improving decision making, improving land health (through monitoring of ecosystem processes functioning) and soil health.

Full Heart Farm owner, Allyson Angelini, gave a brief history of the farm to start out the day. Full Heart Farm was started in the spring of 2012 using the principles of holistic financial planning and holistic land management.

The overgrown, previously un-farmed parcel was converted into productive crop land by rotating pigs (to clear overgrown areas and rocks) and chickens (to build fertility). Each season the farm has evolved to fit the needs of the farm family, as well as the changing market for local foods. The farm currently raises specialty vegetables and cut flowers on about an acre of crop land for a 100-person CSA and a handful of wholesale accounts.

Participants spent the morning inside the barn learning why it is important to have a financial plan, filling out a priority expenses worksheet, practicing holistic decision testing and hearing from Jiff Martin and Dina Brewster speaking on University of Connecticut Extension and Connecticut Northeast Organic Farming Association CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

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Program Roundup

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(NOFA) Programs respectively. A delicious lunch was provided by The Rolling Tomato Pizza truck featuring Full Heart Farm produce as toppings. During lunch, Sarah Kubik (USDA, FSA), informed participants about the programs they have available to help farmers be financially successful. The Connecticut NRCS Rainfall Simulator was also a big hit demonstrating water infiltration, advantages of cover crops, and improved soil health.

After lunch the group headed outside to tour the property. In the field, participants joined discussions on soil and land health, crop rotations, and general agronomic practices on a small vegetable operation. Many participants were interested in balancing farming and family while maintaining farm profitability. These discussions, led by Allyson Angelini and HMI Certified Educator Phil Metzger, benefited from the input of other experienced Holistic Management practitioners in attendance including Sherry Simpson and Art Talmadge. Most participants were interested in specific farming practices, such as mulching or weed control and a lot of practical information was shared by Allyson Angelini. Later in the afternoon Phil did a brief biological monitoring demonstration and Kip Kolesinskas, a soil scientist, discussed maintaining healthy land and soil.

The day ended back in the classroom where Monique Bosch, of Wiggle Room, showed the group soil samples from Full Heart Farm under a microscope and gauged soil health by looking at the visible, microbial life in the soil.

A big thank you to Allyson for sharing her farm with us and to our funder, FarmAid.

From the Board Chair

BY WALTER LYNN

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n the upper Midwest, the crop plantings have been challenging for the farmers this season. For this month, I have a quote to ponder, no matter where you live in the world.

In 1938, the author Sterling North declared, “Ardently as I have scanned the writings of Europe’s half-pint Napoleons I find but one undoubted truth uttered between the two of them. Each has said in effect, ‘It takes a rich land to support a democracy.’ Every time you see a dust cloud, or a muddy stream, a field scarred by erosion or a channel choked with silt, you are witnessing the passing of American democracy. The crop called Man can wither like any other.”

In Springfield, Illinois, where I live, normal annual rainfall is 37.43 inches. As of the end of June we were 10.5 inches above the normal of 18.5 inches. This excess has helped to bring about the prevented planting acres; they are basically defined as the failure to plant an annual crop with the proper equipment by a specific date for a specific region for crop insurance purposes. The Bonnet Carre’ spillway on the Mississippi River above New Orleans is opened for the second time in 2019, the second year in a row, and longest period on record (110 days as of July 15).

The spillway is the last possible release point for river water before New Orleans. The watershed draining through New Orleans is 32 states and two Canadian provinces.

When I converse with Illinois seed dealers in my network, this is a record year for replanting of corn and soybeans. The municipal water supply lake in Decatur, Illinois is being dredged for a cost of $92 million.

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September / October 2019

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Texas Soil Health Workshop

he Texas Wildlife Association hosted a Texas Soil Health Short Course held on April 23-24, 2019 in Victoria, Texas. HMI was one of the sponsors for this event, and several presenters shared their Holistic Management experiences and learning, including HMI Certified Educator Deborah Clark of the Birdwell-Clark Ranch. There were over 180 people in attendance. On the first day, four busloads of attendees toured different farms/ranches. The first stop was a large production no-till commodity farm which is on a quest to improve the soil health and make money. Chad Hahn had several trial plots with experimental cover crops and shared what was working, not working and thoughts for future trials.

There were also demos on site showing the importance of water filtration as well as a soil pit. The afternoon ranch tour was to Mitchell Cattle Ranch, a long time Holistic Management practitioner who shared what he’s learned over the years.

Other speakers included Dr. Richard Teague and Dr. Jamie Foster with Texas A&M AgriLife, Dr. Steven Lukefahr with Texas A&M University Kingsville, Chad Hahn with Hahn Farm, Howard Book of Book Farms, and livestock producer Vance Mitchell of Mitchell Cattle Company. The day ended with a speaker panel to address questions from the audience. There were many present who came to see “what all this soil health is about” and the program gave those who are ready to explore these practices and opportunity to learn from those who have experience to share.

This workshop was held in partnership with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Texas Wildlife Association, and hosted by the Goliad and Victoria Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

Local road commissioners are cleaning the road ditches of sediment; then the farmers continue to farm to the ditch bank to get every acre next to the ditch or spray herbicide on the ditch bank.

The examples presented are just a few illustrations relating to a broken water cycle. Dr. Jerry Hatfield at the National Laboratory and the Environment in Ames, Iowa comments the 2% difference in soil organic matter between 4% and 2% gives a farmer five more days of available water for a crop. What is this extra time worth in August to a corn farmer?

Gabe Brown on their family ranch in Bismarck, North Dakota has a water infiltration rate of 30 inches per hour. This is unparalleled compared to the neighbors.

We need to delve into the root causes for the incomplete water cycle and see past the symptoms. The crops planted late and related challenges have rendered a situation now requiring the water that has flowed to the Gulf of Mexico.

We need to think on several questions: • Are there better crops?

• Why are streams silty and full of sediment?

• How effective is my water cycle on my own ranch or farm?

Adopting the concepts of soil health and regenerative agriculture provides a possibility to create a better ecosystem to more effectively use the available water in your state or region. HMI and its Certified Educators offer training and educational resources that many farmers and ranchers have found helpful for increasing the resilience of their farms and ranches.

Please let us know how we can support your regenerative agriculture journey.

Long live the soil!!

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.

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

707/431-8060 • kmulville@gmail.com

Don Nelson

Red Bluff 208/301-5066 • nelson-don1@hotmail.com

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

Dolores 970/882-4222 • 970/739-2445 (c) info@wholenewconcepts.com

Cliff Montagne *Montana State University

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

Seth Wilner

Newport 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) 603/543-7169 (c) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO

Ann Adams

Holistic Management International Albuquerque 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org

Kirk Gadzia

Bernalillo 505/263-8677 (c) • kirk@rmsgadzia.com

Jeff Goebel

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

Bozeman 406/522-3862 406/581-3038 (c) kroosing@msn.com

*Las Vegas

Katherine Napper-Ottmers

505/225-6481 • katherineottmers@icloud.com

Deborah Clark

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

NEW YORK

*Shelterbelt Farm

Erica Frenay

Peggy Maddox

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

Hermleigh 325/226-3042 (c) • westgift@hughes.net

CD Pounds *Fruitvale

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

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

Joshua Dukart *Hazen

608/665-3835 • joshua_dukart@yahoo.com OREGON

Angela Boudro

Central Point 541/ 890-4014 • angelaboudro@gmail.com

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.

I N T E R N AT I O N A L Judi Earl

AUSTRALIA

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 Mount Pleasant, SA 61-4-2906-9001 dick@dickrichardson.com.au

61-4-27 199 766 Jason@landlifeeducation.com.au

Lucknow, ON 519/528-2493 tonymcquail@gmail.com

Brian Wehlburg

Kelly Sidoryk

Don Campbell

Meadow Lake, SK 306/236-6088 • 320/240-7660 (c) doncampbell@sasktel.net

Colin Nott *Windhoek

264-81-2418778 (c) • 264-61-225085 (h) canott@iafrica.com.na

Wiebke Volkmann

Ponoka, AB 403/783-6518 lucends@cciwireless.ca

Tony McQuail

CANADA

Windhoek 264-812840426 (c) • 264-61-244028 (h) kandjiiu@gmail.com

Redvers, SK 306/452-7723 bhjer@sasktel.net

Jason Virtue *Cooran QLD

Kindee NSW 61-2-6587-4353 (h) • 61 04087 404 431 (c) brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au

NAMIBIA

Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii

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

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

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

Num ber 187

h IN PRACTICE 21

THE MARKETPLACE

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:

The key elements I learned have given me a great perspective on how I’m managing my ranch. This course is a must!

22 IN PRACTICE

h

CORRAL DESIGNS

Tracy Litle

By World Famous Dr. Grandin Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals The wide curved Lane makes filling the crowding tub easy.

Includes detailed drawings for loading ramp, V chute, round crowd pen, dip vat, gates and hinges. Plus cell center layouts and layouts compatible with electronic sorting systems. Articles on cattle behavior. 27 corral layouts. $55.

Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59.

Send checks/money order to:

GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS

2918 Silver Plume Dr., Unit C-3 Fort Collins, CO 80526

970/229-0703 • www.grandin.com

September / October 2019

Holistic Management Certified Educator

Learn the principles of Holistic Management that can regenerate and sustain profitable farms, their families and communities.

361-537-3417 tjlitle@hotmail.com Orange Grove, Texas

THE MARKETPLACE Canadian Holistic Management for Non-Brittle Environments Ontario, Quebec and Maritimes Tony McQuail HMI Certified Educator

RICHARD KING Holistic Management® Educator

Contact now for upcoming courses

Assisting people with: • Land health assessment • Growing soil health & biodiversity • Problem solving & creativity • Planning complex situations holistically • Monitorng to stay on course • Building consensus • Finding blind spots • Sound policy development • Improving quality of life

mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca meetingplaceorganicfarm.on.ca 519-528-2493 Lucknow, ON

Certifications with HMI, SI, SRM, Calif. BOF

INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS OR WORKSHOPS

(707) 217-2308 cell or (707) 769-1490 rking1675@gmail.com

Evaluating Soil Fertility for Wine Grapes A three day advanced workshop presented by Neal Kinsey

Course features 100 new and different examples of winegrape soils from the various countries and grape-growing areas of the world including the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand,Canada and South Africa.

All samples have been analyzed using the Kinsey/Albrecht System of soil analysis; course features specific tests to establish desired nutrient levels for winegrape production. The basic foundation for determining each nutrient required to achieve excellent soil fertility is provided as a specific formula. Each formula is expressed and completely explained by subject covered, and is included as a handout in each participant’s workbook, thus providing how to calculate answers for each example used for the course.

January 20, 21 & 22, 2020 The Delta King, Sacramento, CA. Cost: $1500/if one person per room— includes program & lunch daily, plus full breakfast and accommodations at the Delta King Riverboat Hotel ($1200 per person includes all of the above if two attendees per room.)

Course only including lunch and breaks— $900 for previous clients or $1200 all others.

Soil pit demo weather permitting.

Cost: (includes lunch). $150 each for course participant & family members. $350-includes tour plus one night’s lodging. $250 (tour only) for all others.

Optional “Vineyard Soils”Tour

January 23 optional tour from 8am–4pm for course participants who would like to visit area vineyards utilizing our testing and fertilization program. Soil tests showing initial fertility levels and current changes will be utilized

For consulting or educational services contact:

Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. 297 County Highway 357 Charleston, Missouri 63834

Ph: 573/683-3880, Fax: 573/683-6227 www.kinseyag.com • info@kinseyag.com

Num ber 187

h IN PRACTICE 23

Nonprofit U.S POSTAGE

PAID Jefferson City, MO PERMIT 210

Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.

a publication of Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 USA

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

please send address corrections before moving so that we do not incur unnecessary postal fees

DEVELOPMENT CORNER Over Two Decades with Holistic Management

BY WAYNE KNIGHT

A

s a young boy I remember my farming parents discussing rangeland with old guys. They argued about the reason for brush encroachment and pulled at old grass tufts. On bare patches of soil they chipped at the crust and talked about animal’s hooves breaking the surface, chipping it and planting seeds in where the animals trod. They talked about fencing and water supply to achieve animal density.

Hilary and Wayne Knight These “old guys” were Allan Savory and Stan Parsons. They made a big impression.

With my studies completed, I visited and worked on U.S. ranches to learn about high-density grazing in a different environment. I was eventually called back to the family farm. Once back home, I thought I knew all there was to know about high-density grazing. My dad, who let me bump my head hard, gave me the space to really mess things up. I lumped herds together to achieve density, threw in the heifers for good measure, and didn’t think about bull numbers or cattle condition. I was determined to fix the ranch’s ecology, and density grazing was the answer. Any experienced rancher will realize the outcome—thin cattle, poor conception rates and poor cash flow. A wreck from a whole lot of enthusiasm and arrogance, and not a stitch of holism.

In 1998 my father encouraged me to attend a Holistic Management training with Dick and Judy Richardson. My then fiancé, Hilary, attended with me. Much of the theory covered in the training was familiar, but the planning and holistic goalsetting and decision making were very exciting new methods and concepts. We were very excited about the first module of training and looked forward to the following training sessions.

At the time our country, South Africa, was a fledgling democracy.

With the turbulence came financial risks. My father had bought an additional farm to spread drought risk. Interest rates shot up to 26% in 1997. We were hemorrhaging financially. I had wrecked the cash flow with cattle density and grazing mistakes, and we were battling to make payments. With all the stress came conflict. My father and I fought as we defended our personal ideas before we used our combined holistic goal and applied the decision-making questions. With the holistic goal and decision-making process, we achieved breakthrough. We were able to make tough decisions far more effectively. Instead of defending positions, we were seeking the best solution to the defined problem. It may seem trivial to read about it, but this change of focus made a huge difference to our ability to think creatively and collaboratively.

With the holistic financial planning training and a dose of creativity, we were able to slash expenses by cutting back to only essential expenses. We surprised ourselves! We didn’t think it was possible to cut what we did without negatively affecting the businesses. The combination of the decision-making process and the “mechanism” to focus on collaboration, rather than defending individual ideas, was extremely powerful! Holistic Management is the reason we are still on the land today.

Our business, through using Holistic Management thinking and planning, together with our support from our community of Holistic Management practitioners has been extremely rewarding. Learning, sharing and observing and experiencing the power of Holistic Management has been extremely rewarding, too. I have particularly enjoyed how my conviction that Holistic Management made sense during our early years of having faith in the processes, has been backed up by research and observations of success in varied climatic and latitudinal environments across the world. Likewise, it is reassuring to see the growth in the understanding of soil micro-organisms that matches Savory’s early observations, that the management of the soil’s surface is critical to the health of an ecosystem.

There is now so much wonderful research to back up our experience and observation. Working examples of the power of symbiosis and mutually beneficial relationships between plants, microbes, grazing animals, predators and humans are now numerous and comprehensive in supporting the holistic success of the application

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