Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019
Creating Healthy Communities BY ANN ADAMS
I recently read an article written by Wendy Millet, the Executive Director of Tomkat Ranch in their e-letter. TomKat is one of our key collaborators and a funder, and they are doing a wonderful job of engaging their local community at critical points of need, like school lunches, as well as supporting and engaging in strategic initiatives such as research that has helped develop easier ways to measure the amount of soil carbon using a combination of on the ground sampling and global satellite imagery. Wendy notes that “in ecology, natural communities are described by their diversity,
Connecting People to the Land INSIDE THIS ISSUE Connecting consumers to the land is a critical strategy with 98% of Americans playing that role in the food system. Learn how Grassburger is connecting with consumers on page 3 or Fozzie’s Farm is engaging the next generation on the land on page 4, or the Farm to Table approach at Peculiar Farm on page 19.
In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International
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productivity, equitability, and relationships. In well-functioning communities, different players fill a variety of niches and the whole is strengthened and made more resilient by the synergies that are created…[it] describes co-existence and interrelatedness.” Wendy also talks about community reciprocity and how we must continue to welcome new perspectives, capabilities, and participants to the work at hand. What struck me when I read her article is how we have communities within communities or wholes within wholes. In the Holistic Management framework, the intent is to increase the health and effectiveness of the “parts” of the we focus on what we have been able to achieve, whole by better understanding the relationships acknowledge what we already have, and and synergies within a system. We know that determine together key desired outcomes, that timing is critical in a grazing system—how long articulated common ground begins the process to stay and how long to stay out. While there is a of recognizing and building on the relationships great deal of complexity within that system, the that are already there. We are hard-wired to goal is also to engage that complexity to better solve problems so we look to the problem more support ecosystem function. readily than the opportunities. Yet, regenerative Yet even on the family level, and more outcomes come from articulating those desired so on the community level, the complexity outcomes and creating systems and processes of human systems can seem overwhelming. that engage human creativity as well as the What leadership and communication tools help different points of view that come from the us better manage that complexity and create diversity of human life. relationships that strengthen the community, The concepts of multiple intelligences, Myers even when you have perceived “pests” in Briggs personality tests, and Five Hats thinking the system? are among many of the techniques we know If we look at an issue like thistles or that help us recognize and better utilize human snakeweed, we know that many people utilizing diversity. Likewise, the efforts of numerous social holistic planned grazing have made remarkable CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 progress in their landscape goals by changing their perspective on the Ways to Create Healthy Communities “problem species” and recognizing 1. Make time for relationships—family and the value that the species bring by community engagement covering bare ground or providing 2. Define common ground nutritious forage from their tap roots. 3. Listen Certainly we have judgments about 4. Help each other certain species being lower value, 5. Share your knowledge, experiences, and skills but when graziers stop focusing 6. Invest in your community and its businesses on what they don’t want and start 7. Eat together focusing on what they do want, 8. Work together that’s when their grazing systems 9. Celebrate milestones together can become regenerative. 10. Celebrate diversity If we can change our family and community engagements so that
Investing in our Neighbors
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
FEATURE STORIES Investing in our Neighbors
WALTER LYNN.............................................................................. 2
Changing the World, One Burger at a Time
ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 3
Fozzie’s Farm— Connecting People and the Land
BY WALTER LYNN, HMI BOARD CHAIR
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hen I explain the Holistic Management framework to someone I tell them that Holistic Management is a values-based, decision-making framework that integrates all aspects of planning for all key considerations: • Social • Economic • Environmental In this article, I’d like to focus on the social considerations and, specifically, on the concept of interdependence and a critical need to think about our relationships for the long-term. Stephen Covey wrote: “Interdependence is a far more mature, more advanced concept. If I am physically interdependent, I am self-reliant and capable, but I also realize that you and I working together can accomplish far more than, even at my best, I could accomplish alone. If I am emotionally interdependent, I derive a great sense of worth within myself, but I also recognize the need for love, for giving, and for receiving love from others. If I am intellectually interdependent, I realize that I need the best thinking of other people to join with my own.” I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept of interdependence because of the rise in farmer suicide and how it has impacted me personally. The CDC reports that the suicide rate among farm workers has jumped 34% from 2000 to 2016. Suicides among farmers are 1.5 times higher than the national average, and could be higher because some farm suicides could be masked as farm-related accidents, according to the CDC. We know that emotional isolation is a key factor in someone committing suicide. On January 6, 2019, a high school classmate of mine became a statistic for the CDC. He farmed and our families on my Mother’s side of my family go back over 100 years. His death was a shock to the rural communities in two counties in Illinois and his network of friends and family. Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Dividends— How One Farm’s Focus on Soil Health Helped Make Row-Cropping Viable...& Fun
NEWS & NETWORK
LAND & LIVESTOCK
Case Study—Peculiar Farms.................................. 19
Making the Transition to Profitable Ranching
Certified Educators.................................................. 21
BRIAN DEVORE........................................................................... 7
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS......................................................... 9
ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 4
Cachuma Ranch— Raising Heritage Cattle and Ranching for Wildlife
Growing Pasture and Trading Cattle— Flexibility Key to Success
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS.......................................................14
ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 5
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We also know the impact of loan delinquencies and farm bankruptcies on our rural families and communities is one of the factors in those increased suicides. For perspective, the US Farm Debt Sector debt is at a 30-year high, as reported by the USDA Economic Research Service in July 2019. How does that financial pressure influence farmers’ decision-making about their options for production systems, possible enterprises, and help to address the feelings of guilt, shame, or low-self worth that can accompany financial challenges? At a recent Soil Health event, I had a PowerPoint slide that asked, “What is a social constraint for you or your neighbor that keeps you from adopting Soil Health on a farm?” We completed three flip chart pages of responses. Several attendees were emotional about their responses, but the opportunity to share those constraints helped us to better understand each other and what we are feeling and what motivates us to change. These kinds of conversations are crucial so we can build the relationships that reach past isolation and judgment for long-term benefits to our communities. As Dwayne Beck of Dakota Lakes Research Farm in Pierre, South Dakota recently told me, “We need to think about our current decisions and what their impact is 600 years from now.” How often do we think that long term with our relationships? Can we invest in our own relationships now to better address the challenges we face? Can we offer help to our neighbors and community members who we see are struggling? I encourage you to review your personal holistic goal or your purpose in life. What would your purpose be if you had no financial resources? Who could you talk to if you found yourself in that situation? Holistic Management International and our Certified Educators are available to help with planning support for you and your family to create the life you deserve. Please reach out to us or someone in your community to start the conversation. In that way, you can be there for someone else in need in the future.
November / December 2019
Program Roundup................................................... 17 Grapevine................................................................ 18
Marketplace............................................................. 22 Development Corner............................................... 24
Grassburger—
Changing the World, One Burger at a Time BY ANN ADAMS
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ave you ever wished that there was a fast food restaurant with clean food so you could experience that convenience without having to ingest food you would normally avoid just because you are traveling? That was the constant dilemma that Ed and Jess Kileen faced and one of the reasons they started their first Grassburger restaurant in Durango, Colorado in March 2014. Their vision behind Grassburger came from the fact that two of their three sons had severe food allergies. While some issues can be challenging at home it makes traveling a nightmare. They found that one food they could get from restaurants when traveling was hamburgers because they are rarely processed, while other foods have all sorts of additives. Of course the challenge with eating a lot of burgers is they knew the meat was conventionally raised with GMO grains and soybeans as the main food source. They kept saying to themselves, wouldn’t it be great if there was a restaurant that served grassfed burgers? In that journey they not only learned a lot about the restaurant industry, they also realized they needed to learn more about the grassfed cattle industry which led them to one of HMI’s Planned Grazing Workshops. Ed had been in marketing and real estate and when they decided to move out to Durango they were ready to take on a new business. When Jess suggested getting a ranch, Ed (who had grown up in rural Wisconsin dairy farming community) said he knew agriculture was a tough business and didn’t want a job that required a 365/24/7 commitment. “So, what did we do?” asks Jess. “We opened a restaurant that required us to be committed 365/24/7. It wasn’t until 2018 that we finally got a manager at the Durango location so we could begin to really scale the business.” In the meantime, they had added another Grassburger restaurant in Albuquerque in March 2016 and have just opened a second Albuquerque location in March 2019 given the interest and traffic of the first store. The Kileens have thought hard about the business model that provides clean food while also being profitable enough that they can offer a living wage of $9–15/hour for their employees. “We wanted to be able to offer a healthy, humane protein in a family friendly
environment,” says Jess. “The HMI seminar really helped us focus To get their grassfed beef they have on the challenge of growing grass, taking care partnered with the Mobley family who produce of the land, and creating a profitable ranch. grassfed animals in New Mexico and source The intricacies of that work really came to light other animals through local producers they for us as well as the amount of time it takes know who also raise grassfed animals. In turn, to get the animal to market in a place like the the animals are processed at a family-owned Southwest versus someplace like Missouri. The processing plant near Amarillo, Texas that has seminar also helped us understand how logical a commitment to low-stress livestock handling. a regenerative process like holistic planned These aspects of the values chain are important grazing is and the need to going back to working to the Kileens and their customers. with Nature. “People are concerned about where the food “We understand that there was positive intent is from and how it’s been raised,” says Jess. originally for GMO efforts to make plants insect “Most restaurants can’t tell you the information resistant and those sort of traits, but ultimately if about their ingredients. We can and we feel the pursuit of profit outweighs the values behind that is an important piece of what we offer the product then things go wrong and spiral and supports our mission. For example, they out of control. We learned about how genetics sourced a Montana wheat non-GMO bun as part can make a difference to support regenerative of their mission to provide GMO-free goods. grazing. That’s the kind of adaptation that can “We felt it was really important to attend create a positive outcome. We need to focus HMI’s grazing seminar that Kirk Gadzia taught at the JE Canyon Ranch in Colorado in the winter of 2019 because we wanted to better understand what the producers had to deal with and the challenges of raising quality grassfed beef,” says Ed. “If we are going to be able to scale this restaurant concept then we need to understand that part of the value chain. “That seminar helped Cody Wilderman, Jess Kileen, and Ed Kileen us understand just how of Grassburger challenging it is to raise beef like what we want in the arid Southwest. We’ve on natural systems not just profit systems. And, been really luck to partner with the Mobley yes, there is still a lot of need for education for family of Springerhill Ranch who does the producers, food suppliers, and consumers. That aggregation for us. All the beef we are currently effort toward advocacy is part of our mission. using (approximately 25,000–30,000 pounds “There’s a divide between the gourmet and of beef/restaurant/year) is from New Mexico commodity fast food burger in the restaurant ranches and the cattle are 100% grassfed and business. People try to put us in the gourmet grass-finished. As we scale we may end up camp, but we have a unique product. There are using beef from Colorado and Texas as well. very few restaurants out there trying to source Springerhill uses Caviness Beef Packers out of the supplies and ingredients like we are. Amarillo for the processing. This is a family“For us success is the ability to fulfill our operated plant that prides itself on its humane larger mission of having a market so that any handling of animals. rancher who wanted to be paid for regenerative “Our hope is that as we grow this business practices had a premium market for their cattle. we can create a market for even more grassfed The more we can invest in creating demand for beef to get even more ranchers growing this this type of product, the more cost effective we product. A big part of Grassburger is more can make the model, then the more ranchers than just burgers and fries. We want to look at can get into this market and make a profit. the supply chain and educate those involved “We have to find the right price point where producing this product about the opportunities we can support these sustainable practices and as well as the consumer and why they need to pay our staff a living wage. We aren’t trying to support this kind of production and product. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 N um ber 188
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Fozzie’s Farm—
So we need to provide experience, training opportunities, youth education, and research as part of our programming.” MLC’s mission is to partner “with our community to connect with, conserve, and BY ANN ADAMS enhance southwest Colorado’s agricultural, scenic, and recreational lands and wildlife habitat n 2016 Fozzie’s Farm, located in Lewis, for today and future generations.” Developing Colorado, was donated to the Montezuma Fozzie’s Farm as an educational and community Land Conservancy (MLC). One of the first venue was a natural progression to that mission things the MLC board did was to convene when the land was donated to MLC. But, a group of local experts to help them create with a small budget they had to find a good the vision for Fozzie’s Farm as well as some of collaboration with a grazier who had the same the strategies for making that vision a reality. values of education and land stewardship as One of the local experts was HMI Certified MLC. The answer among their 20 local partners Educator, Cindy Dvergsten, who helped teach the was Ken and Kathy Lausten of Cachuma Ranch Holistic Management process to the decision(see accompanying article). making team of this 83-acre educational farm. “In the past we had cut some hay and sold it The outcome to raise revenue has been the for the farm,” development of a says Jay. “But strong collaborative Ken and his programming effort holistic grazing that resulted in planning was a hosting 750 youth better choice. and 200 adults He’s been able at Fozzie’s Farm to create positive since 2017. impact from the “We reached grazing, and he’s Fozzie’s Farm Lewis 5th Grade out to Cindy to
Connecting People and the Land
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help us with thinking holistically and creating a sustainable financial plan for the farm,” says Jay Loschert, the Outreach and Education Coordinator for MLC and the Farm Manager for Fozzie’s Farm. “We had to figure out how to make the farm solvent and profitable. As a small non-profit we can’t afford to bankroll the farm. At this time, the farm is not a source of revenue for MLC, but it does break even. During those initial meetings we came up with some ideas and we still meet quarterly. “The people we drew from the ag world included our local Soil and Water Conservation District, farm financial experts, and a landscape architect who did a site analysis for us. We involved a lot of stakeholders including a local grassfed beef operation because we lease the pasture to them. In this way we put together a decision-making team. Cindy trained us in Holistic Management in those initial meetings. We created a holistic goal which has gone through several iterations. Ultimately the core value was ‘Connecting people back to the land and inspiring them to make a difference.’ That’s been my mantra and it came from the holistic goal. “We know we need more farmers and many of the farmers are at retirement age, so we need to get young folks to step up. This lack of farmers has a huge implication for land owners. 4 IN PRACTICE
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the use of voluntary conservation easements. But they also have focused on connecting these communities to place. Their Community Conservation programs “use land as a canvas for positive youth development, building leadership skills, and exposing youth to careers in conservation helping to ensure that the next generation is ready to continue this critical work.” “We work to make sure the educational programs we offer are teacher-driven,” says Jay. “We want to make sure we are complimenting what they are teaching in the classroom. If they are talking about water then we may bring in the local ditch rider and learn about irrigation. We also engage them in wildlife projects. For example, we installed six raptor perches to help with the prairie dogs in the pastures. We also have bluebird and bat houses and we talk about the importance of biodiversity. We connect this learning with state standards. “Our long-term vision is to have a dropdown menu that teachers can choose from. It’s been great to have a place for other organizations in the community to help with youth outreach. It gives them an opportunity to do this kind of outreach. We’ve also connected what we are doing with the Soil & Water Conservation District’s efforts and the Colorado State University Agricultural Research Station. They are more than increased his happy to come stocking rate and provide their (almost doubling information for our it) while using programming. the animals “It’s really been to control remarkable to see vegetation. Ken the connections is really excited between people in about keeping the community organic matter through the Fozzie’s Farm programming provides environmental on the farm. programming at and agricultural training for youth throughout With his Holistic Fozzie’s Farm. We Southwest Colorado. Management are working with the training he’s worked to increase the paddocks school to farm program and we have people from three to eight. come from the therapeutic horseback rider “Our grazing lease with him is the farm center. All these partnerships come out of revenue and that pays the utilities and other building and weaving together the fabric of our irrigation costs. However, the other revenue community. Additionally, we are connecting stream includes our small education center producers to one another and connecting them which we use to host field trips and workshops. to consumers and technical experts. Seeing We rent that out to others including private those human connections happen was part of parties. Also, above the classroom is living the intention of Fozzie’s Farm, but we didn’t quarters for the farm manager so we get rental expect the impact and how transformational it payments as well.” was. I see kids’ faces light up and kids wanting to Founded in 1998, MLC has worked with come back, and I see that as success. We really 75 families to protect 45,000 acres of open need to focus on the social aspect to help with space, wildlife habitat, public access trails, land stewardship and conservation. That’s the and agricultural lands throughout Montezuma, real impact we have for people to connect to one Dolores, and San Miguel counties through another within the agricultural canvas.”
November / December 2019
Cachuma Ranch—
Ken had grown up ranching in Santa Barbara County, California. He went through the beef production program at Colorado State University and continued to look at how he could ranch. When they were introduced to Criollo cattle they really liked how low-maintenance they were and what good mothering abilities they had. BY ANN ADAMS “It’s pretty amazing to see them work,” says achuma Ranch is located in Ken. “It’s fairly rough country we have them on, Dolores, Colorado, with rangeland in and it’s seen the impacts of overgrazing. Our Disappointment Valley, about 40 miles properties in the valley have experienced a lot to the north. This 2,400-acre family of cattle and sheep impact and a lot of erosion ranch is dedicated to fostering a lifestyle that from that grazing pressure. On top of that, honors Western ranching heritage and cultural there’s a lot of alkali soils and Mancos shale. So values and raising cattle in a way that reflects that means there’s been tons of runoff. In fact, the natural environment. The ranch is owned salt is a major issue in Disappointment Creek, and managed by Kathryn and Disappointment Creek Wilder, her son and daughter is the biggest salt contributor in-law, Ken and Kathy Lausten, into the Dolores River which and their children. They are 7th is the biggest contributor generation livestock ranchers of saline into the Colorado and currently three generations River. We want to see what are working side-by-side every we can do to reduce that day to ensure their land stays level of erosion. healthy and productive. “We own 2,400 acres Criollo cattle is the genetic and the remaining land base for Cachuma Ranch. we manage is from three The Criollo cattle were leases. We work to graze introduced to the Americas by the herd by working them Columbus and have history up and down the valley in the American Southwest depending on the seasons. dating back to 1598. They are When we first started considered a heritage breed we saw only a few grass and are under study by the species, but now we are Livestock Conservancy. Ideally seeing more—blue grama, Grandma Kat, Lacey, Ken, Lucas, Kathy, and Uncle Ty adapted to their environment, galleta, and alkali sacaton work together at Cachuma Ranch. these small-framed cows at the low elevation, express many ancient cattle and needle and thread, characteristics and intelligence that allows Their management team continues to learn wheatgrass, and Indian rice grass at the higher them to thrive on their rugged rangelands. The about and realize the benefits of practicing elevation. We are also able to use the browse Criollo produce excellent grassfed and finished Holistic Management. They strategize to (greasewood, fourwing saltbush, and sage) beef, which the ranch sells at local farmers combine herds for maximum animal impact, plan as a good forage source.” They have worked markets and one butcher shop. The ranch is their grazing according to the recovery needs to divide some of the pastures into 160-300 still in the early stages of building their herd of the grass and maximize animal performance. acres, but given the terrain, they often rely on and establishing their market for grass fed beef. They practice traditional herding and livestock the cattle’s natural instincts to move through Practicing Holistic Management has helped handling as well as implement new fencing the valley. them with making sound decisions. solutions. Their ranch story, the ways they Ken’s mother, Kathryn, helps to keep cattle The Laustens have pieced together operate and how they relate to the public has further up in the valley from November 15th to approximately 14,000 acres of leased and been influenced by their holistic goal. Perhaps June 15th. This part of the ranch is wilderness deeded rangeland that they manage throughout the most important is their choice of cattle, as so daily checks are not always possible. Given Disappointment Valley. Cattle are moved to the they feel their Criollos have an important future the available browse, the cattle are able to upper portions of the valley where they graze in the Southwest and the next generation of switch to that forage when the big snows cool-season perennial grasses and a variety of ranchers in their family. happen. Even bred heifers can put on weight browse. Mid-winter the cattle are driven to the during that time because of the ability to browse. middle valley, again grazing and browsing the New Business Model In these bigger pastures they use water and salt same types of grasses and shrubs. Cattle are Ken and his family moved to the Dolores to locate the animals. then moved again to the lower valley where they area in 2012 from northern New Mexico. Ken Luckily, all the leases are located close graze warm-season perennials grasses in the and Kathy were both from working family together (except for Fozzie’s Farm). They do lower elevations during calving, which lasts from ranches and they met in northeast New Mexico. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
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late March to mid-May. They return to irrigated pastures at Fozzie’s’ Farm in Lewis, Colorado in June at the start of summer where they stay through mid-November. Because Cachuma Ranch owns and leases pasture and rangeland, they were a natural fit when the Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC) was looking for someone to take on a grazing lease at Fozzie’s Farm in Lewis, Colorado. They have formed a solid partnership with MLC to improve and restore productivity to the farm. They finish their heritage cattle on irrigated pastures at Fozzie’s and utilize holistic planned grazing and semi-permanent electric fences to graze a combined herd of cow and calf pairs, yearlings, and 28-month-old finishing steers.
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course helped me learn more about grasses and grazing—like the importance of recovery periods. The course also helped me have better have different herds including 35 pairs as well conversations with my husband. I understand as yearlings and two-year-olds they have kept more what he’s talking about and why he’s doing for their finishing programs (they finish at 30–36 what he’s doing. I’m more aware of what we are months). While the home place has some trying to do together with the ranch. Cindy is so irrigated pastures, the land is used mostly for hands on so we had a lot of support. horses. They have 25 acres for finishing steers “The course also helped us to see other on crested wheat and browse. issues. We already had our holistic goal, but “The Criollo are very gentle and smart,” says now we began to define some of our common Ken. “When they come into a new area they will goals—like keeping our kids in a ranching culture graze within a quarter of a mile of where we’ve and passing on a functioning ranch business so placed them. Then each day they move further they expand it if they want to. We want to leave out.” They have to watch the pastures because the land better than we found it. Our kids are the wildlife is taking more forage than the cattle learning from what we are doing. Our daughter, and they have to accommodate who is six, was telling us those needs given land owner about grass and soil health interest in wildlife numbers. and and how roots hold the Because browse is more soil in place. It’s cool to hear than half the cattle’s diet, a six-year-old telling you this they can make do with limited kind of information.” grass grazing. Cachuma Ranch The Lautsens combine all neighbors are also beginning the herds for the summer for to take note of and be a total of 50 SAU and take interested in Cachuma’s them to Fozzie’s Farm for grazing practices. “We are a the summer growing season. modest size model and we Leases like the one with want to show how we can Fozzie’s Farm has allowed make it work financially,” them to scale up numbers says Ken. “We are working which they have done by on a way to put together keeping replacement heifers a branded beef program and purchasing bulls. They that is viable for this type of are at Fozzie’s from June land using heritage cattle. 15th to November 15th. There Eventually we want to have The Criollo cattle are a heritage breed that can do well on the rough they have smaller pastures all the cows on the rangeland rangeland that constitutes much of Cachuma Ranch. They also finish well on with semi-permanent electric and then finish 100 yearlings the pastures they lease from Fozzie’s Farm. fencing. The average grazing at Fozzie’s to maximize the period is 6–10 days using eight finishing capacity there.” pastures averaging 4–14 acres. In 2017 they beef is lean, but we have fat grassfed beef that “We talk to the people who we have leases did a bit more fencing so they could work on 40 cooks up easier. The Criollos don’t get backfat with,” says Kathy. “We hear from the land to 50-day recovery periods and still get three like British cattle, but it does marble. We are owners about how much they see the rangeland selections during the grazing season. selling about 12 animals/year, and we’ve been has improved. They are really excited because “We had a lot to deal with the first couple of doubling the amount sold each year. We just there are more grasses, less bare ground. We years,” says Ken. “We started grazing in 2016 started selling wholesale to butcher shop and we graze conservatively and are changing the and had a lot of prairie dogs and needed to are really trying to scale to 40–50 animals.” grazing season for each area to work with improve the water system so we could increase Ken had taken Holistic Management training nature. For example, we recently acquired production. In 2016 we were grazing 32 AU and with HMI Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia a deeded property that had been traditionally now we are up to 50 AU, but it could handle number of years back. When Cachuma Ranch grazed during March and April, which is during more. We are also working with planting cover got the lease for Fozzie’s Farm they began the dormant season. We believe that years of crops in the spring and fall. I think we could working with Cindy Dvergsten. At the same time, dormant season only grazing has led to a lack of have 70 AU at some point soon.” Cachuma Ken’s wife, Kathy, took a Whole Farm/Ranch stimulation and primarily old plants. We would Ranch adjusts their monthly SAU totals as they Business Planning course with Cindy, which was like to see if grazing mid-summer during the pull off animals for harvest. Animals are weighed an additional support for their business. growing season would encourage plants to send in the spring and fall and average daily gains are “I’m a ranching wife,” says Kathy. “Any kind out rhizomes and create new plants. We are 1.6#/day. of business knowledge helps me contribute. now seeing antelope winter on our place, and Each spring and fall Cachuma Ranch has I was really excited about what I learned in it’s great to see wildlife reentering habitual a meeting with MLC board members to come the course. I grew up on a ranch, but the rangelands.” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
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up with a plan for the summer, and then they budget for the number of animals to be run, the lease rate, and costs for planting the cover crops. The cover crops at Fozzie’s Farm are a shared responsibility and Ken gets a reduced lease rate for the equipment he shares. The local conservation district provides the no-till drill. The cover crop (mostly oats or mixes like peas, buckwheat, wheat) is donated. The cattle graze the cover crop before it goes to seed. The average weight that Cachuma is aiming for with their finished animals is 925-1,000 pounds. The Criollos’ rate of gain really slows down as they start to marble and reach their mature weight. “We have had decent success at the farmer’s market,” says Ken. “A lot of grassfed
November / December 2019
Short-Term Gains, LongTerm Dividends—
How One Farm’s Focus on Soil Health Helped Make Row-Cropping Viable...& Fun BY BRIAN DEVORE
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he economic benefits of building soil health are a balancing act between immediate payoff and delayed gratification. In an ideal situation, the source of those quick profits will set the foundation for a longer-term investment that pays dividends. For example, Dawn and Grant Breitkreutz recently showed a chart full of financial information during a Land Stewardship Project Soil Builders’ Network workshop in the southeastern Minnesota community of Preston. The top of the chart showed the immediate return they got by adding wheat to their corn-soybean rotation. The wheat itself was pretty much a breakeven proposition for their farm, which is in southwestern Minnesota’s Redwood County. But by having a crop in the rotation that is harvested in August, the Breitkreutzes were able to get a multispecies cover crop mix planted early enough that it was well established by fall. That provided excellent grazing for their beef cow herd in November and December. Once the cost of seeding the cover crop was subtracted and the feed value of the grazing was added in (plus money made from selling wheat straw), the farmers estimated their net gain was $87 per acre. Not a bad short term-gain on investment. “But this is the part about paying it forward that’s hard to consider if you’re just starting into this—that’s the gains that follow,” said Grant. The lower part of the chart tallied “delayed gains/savings” for the following crop year. When they went to plant corn on that same land the following spring, the Breitkreutzes were able to reduce the amount of fertilizer and herbicide they used as a result of the increased soil health benefits grazing cover crops produced a few months before. In addition, they were able to plant hybrids that lacked the expensive “stacked” traits normally needed to fend off pests and disease. Grant and Dawn feel their soil biology is so high that their pest cycles have been broken. The result: the “delayed” savings
was $103 per acre. “So, after wheat, we can show a $190 an acre net gain, after costs,” said Grant. “That’s really hard to explain to a banker, because they just look at January 1 to January 1. It’s not about bushels, it’s about net dollars per acre. That’s key, that really changed our thought process.” It’s also hard to quantify economically benefits such as the Breitkreutzes’ ability to get in the field under wet conditions when their neighbors’ field equipment is stuck up to the hubs. Or being able to produce a profitable crop and good forage even in a drought year. That’s because they have been able to, in some cases, quadruple organic matter levels over the years, which has greatly increased their soil’s ability to soak up and store water. Part of the reason farmers like the Breitkreutzes have a hard time explaining their
their beef cattle. It seemed like their pastures were constantly overgrazed and prone to drought, making them more reliant on stored forages, which can be expensive to produce or buy. They were working harder than ever, and their financial situation and quality of life were suffering. Dawn said they even considered quitting farming. “I didn’t want to go work in town,” she said. In around 2003, the Breitkreutzes began utilizing managed rotational grazing in a serious way, rotating their cattle to allow the grazing paddocks to recover while spreading manure and urine evenly across the soil. They started with one 47-acre pasture that they broke up into nine paddocks utilizing cost share funds from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. In the past, this was a pasture that never seemed to be able to grow grass taller
Dawn and Grant Breitkreutz way of making money via a typical profit and loss statement is because the resource that is at the core of their enterprise has a lot of complex, hard-to-understand components. “The number one resource concern you should be looking at is fixing the soil biology,” said Grant as he flashed another slide showing a neighbor’s crop field swamped with water and full of wheel ruts, despite the fact it had been tiled. “You can fix these things, biologically.”
Doubling Down
The Breitkreutzes admit that soil was not their number one resource concern when they started looking at ways to significantly change the way they farmed back in the early 2000s. Their main goal was to provide enough forage—both grazed and harvested as hay—for
than six inches. Through rotational grazing, they were able to double the number of grazing days they got off that pasture, and then double it again, all the while controlling weeds like bull thistles. The couple modified the system and now utilize mob grazing, which crowds more cattle into paddocks for shorter periods of time before they are moved—often at least once a day. Such a system can leave behind as much as half the forage present in the paddock, which allows it to recover while building soil health. Dawn showed a slide of a pasture that at one time could only handle 16 to 18 cow-calf pairs during a grazing season. “Through managed grazing and putting water in strategic places, we now run 55 cows for 180 CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
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days on this pasture, and we eliminated fertilizer and herbicide,” she said. Another crop field on their farm long gave them headaches: it had light soils, which made it prone to drought, and it was full of rocks, creating tillage problems. “We would collect insurance on it three out of five years,” said Dawn. “We couldn’t get anything to grow on it.” The soybeans they grew there had cyst nematode problems, so they planted it to alfalfa for hay production to break up the pest cycle. Four years into the alfalfa planting, grasses started coming up, so they decided to stop haying it and grazed it. Dawn showed a slide of the 21-acre field: a variety of grasses and forbs were thriving. “It’s one of our most productive fields on our farm now,” she said. As the soil has revived, so has the diversity of their grazing areas—one pasture went from three species of grasses to over two dozenplus. The farmers did not seed those extra species—they say it comes from creating the right environment for a variety of plants to thrive by carefully balancing periods of disturbance and rest. And that diversity pays off in the form of pastures that are more resilient and productive for a longer period throughout the year.
Lessons Applied to Row Crops Dawn makes it clear that she is no fan of row-cropping. It’s hard on people, equipment,
and the land; she’d like to see the whole farm planted to grass. Grant concedes that rowcropping is still a major part of their farm’s enterprise mix because of peer pressure, even though he’s not a fan of the toll it takes on the land either. “Our current model of farming—it took me awhile to get brave enough to say this, but I say it all the time now—it tells us to kill everything,” he said. But both farmers feel they have been able to make row-cropping a better fit for their farm economically, agronomically, and environmentally by borrowing ideas from their rotational grazing enterprise—namely, relying on diversity above and below ground 365-days-a-year. That’s why they’ve integrated multi-species cover crop mixes into their no-till corn and soybean system. They utilize mixes of legumes, small grains, and brassicas that include as many as nine different species in a planting; they’ve also experimented with a 12-way mix. Grant said rather than competing with each other, getting the right mix of cover crops seems to create a mutually beneficial soil environment. For one thing, the Breitkreutzes like the variety of root depths they get with various cover crop species. Different depths provide different services for the soil. “Some can harvest nutrients, some can take care of compaction, some are for erosion control,” said Grant as he showed a photo of a pit that had been dug on their farm. It displayed how several years of cover cropping had enriched a spot where road work had left a gravelly substrate a dozen years before. The
Grassburger
farmers encouraged workshop participants to follow the principles of soil health: armor the soil, minimize soil disturbance, utilize a diversity of plants, keep living plants and roots on the land all year-round, and, when possible, integrate livestock. “We graze every acre we farm, every single year,” said Grant. “There’s something in that cow’s gut as far as biology that helps kick that soil biology in gear.” As the financial charts they shared during the workshop indicated, using soil health as a pivot point for integrating crops, livestock, and grass is paying off economically. And it’s also given the couple more control over a way of making a living that’s often buffeted by the vagaries of weather, markets, and input prices. That pays dividends in another important way. “It makes farming fun again,” said Dawn.
Reprinted with permission from the Land Stewardship Letter, the official publication of the Minnesota-based Land Stewardship Project (www.landstewardshipproject. org). Brian DeVore is the author of Wildly Successful Farming: Sustainability and the New Agricultural Land Ethic (2018 University of Wisconsin Press)
Give it a Listen
Episode 132 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast features Grant and Dawn Breitkreutz talking about how their grazing system is improving the economic and environmental health of their farm: www. landstewardshipproject.org/posts/podcast/451.
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compete with the gourmet burgers with their 100% Angus or natural claims that side step the fact that what they are selling is conventional beef. We have a unique proposition that we stand behind and our customers are supporting. “Our mission is: Ethical Eating, Sustainable Practices, Darn Healthy and Delicious. We want to be active participants in the communities where we have restaurants. We have people who have come to us and want us to franchise the brand to them so they can open a Grassburger in Phoenix or some other city. We aren’t ready to do that. We want the quality control so we can protect the brand and the values that are behind the brand.” That vision of focusing on the whole supply chain of grassfed meat that can be scaled and provide a premium market for good graziers growing healthy food is what helps Grassburger accomplish their mission and help to change the world one burger at a time.
Regenerative loops. My work is most gratifying in that regard. “I guess once a teacher always a teacher. I’m always connecting with people who aren’t prime candidates for Holistic Management, but who are ready and eager to learn about our ecosystem and how they can engage with it. I talk with them about the bee houses and how bees are important pollinators. There are a lot of ‘aha’ moments for people as they see how the bees are working to pollinate the plants I have. I love to interact with the public this way.” Cathy says she supports HMI because of the training we offer to those farmers and ranchers wanting to learn regenerative agricultural practices. “In the back of my head I still want to be a farmer,” says Cathy. “I love what HMI does. My path took me in a different direction, but the work being done at HMI remains important to me. We need to transform our food system to a regenerative one. HMI’s work is imperative to that end.”
To learn more about Grassburger visit their website at: https://www.eatgrassburger.com/
To learn more about Wallflower, visit https://www.facebook.com/ Wallflowersantafe/
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Traditionally we always calved in January, so we don’t think much farther than that.”
BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
Transitioning to Holistic Management
B
“I took one of the Holistic Management finance courses about setting rett Wright ranches near Cushing, Oklahoma on 800 acres up profit centers for different parts of your farm. After that I went to of leased land. He has been raising cattle a long time, but several local one-day workshops. I also participated in a Podcast on switched to planned grazing in the fall of 2017. “That winter I working cattle that discussed Holistic Management,” he says. became interested in finding information on how to do things “I’m in my 50’s and had always done things a certain way, but when a bit differently, trying to find a different way of looking at things—in a I started seeing other guys doing things differently, I started questioning more holistic view,” some of the ways Brett says. I was farming, “We are a cowand could see calf operation, but new potential,” we keep the calves says Brett. through winter as “I’m still putting yearlings and sell up a little hay, them the first part however, because of the next year. In I can’t see myself the fall of 2017 I getting completely strip-grazed some away from feeding Sudan grass I’d hay. We only feed planted, and was about half as really impressed much as we used with how well those to, however. In the calves did on that past we’d spend pasture. It was the most of our time first time they’d doing something seen an electric with hay. We were fence—a single either planting strand—and we something to were able to keep grow to make them on a small hay, or harvesting area,” he says. hay, or feeding “We were hay or storing it The Wright family (from left to right): Abbi, Elizabeth (Koln’s wife), running about 100 or hauling it. A Koln, Sara, and Brett. head on a half-acre person doesn’t at a time, and realize how the moving them once a day, sometimes twice a day. It put a lot of manure focus gets skewed because we don’t always think about these things, but on that field, which really helped it, because we plant it every year,” says sometimes the cattle fall second in our efforts because we are so busy Brett. The planned grazing made a big difference. working on ways to feed them, even though that doesn’t make sense. “Often we get into situations in life where we realize things are not Just changing our focus to look at what these different things affect can working well but we don’t even think about the fact that we made the be a help in looking at the bigger picture,” he says. decisions that resulted in something not working. Calving in January is “It brought to light some of the problems we were having, as well as an example. It’s a lot of work to keep the calves from freezing, but we some of the things we were doing right. It helped us, in the long run, on didn’t think about the fact that we chose that breeding/calving season. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 Num ber 188
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more grazing areas, and producing meat. “Those pigs were more profitable than the cattle, by quite a bit! I sold one to a custom butcher and kept the other, and the meat was some of the best we’ve ever eaten.” “I am continually being challenged in the way I think and the way I do things, and HMI had a lot to do with this, making me do some real searching about what I was doing and why. It got me questioning what we had always done. One thing I am trying to do now is incorporate my horse a little more into this management,” he says. “I move cattle every day, and still have two to three groups at any one time. I am trying to get the breeding/calving seasons all back into one, but right now I don’t have that accomplished yet. Moving two or three groups of cattle each day, I am using a Polaris side-by-side to haul all my step-in posts and poly wire,” he says. The next step is to try to get enough reels so he can set up at least five days’ worth of moves ahead of time on one paddock. “Then I could actually use my horse to do the moves. I’ve noticed that being out walking or riding, I see and hear a lot more than when driving a motorized conveyance. I see things more closely and know what the insects are doing, how the cows are, etc. You can hear and see so much more. Right now my horse is just sitting in a pen, doing nothing,” he explains.
getting our priorities right.” He grazed some steers and weaned calves on some leftover hay ground that was sorghum-Sudan grass. “I was still planting monocrops (only one species) and working the ground. Those cattle did really well on that grass for about a month in the fall. It’s a warm-season grass so the frost killed it, and I had to wait about two weeks to make sure it was safe to graze, and then put the cattle back on it. Even though it was brown, they gained a lot of weight,” says Brett. “I was impressed with how well they did, and began to watch what people like Gabe Brown were doing—some of the folks who were pioneers in doing some of this—and I was reading some of the things Jim Gerrish had written. I took the HMI course on financial management that winter, and the biggest thing I got from that was the profit analysis. They give you work sheets to look at different enterprises to see if they would pencil out for you. I had a lot of ideas about what I would like to do with some of our cropland, because we always grew hay and then left the ground fallow and then hayed again. I looked into doing some cash crops between hay crops, but when I went through those work sheets and crunched the numbers, it would not pencil out,” he says. “You’d think that you could figure these things out on your Developing own, but the work sheets list Effective some ideas about different Infrastructure expenses that you’d incur that Brett notes that starting you might not think you would out, especially with holistic incur. This helped me a lot, in planned grazing, there was gaining a wider view.” a lot of infrastructure they Some of the things he had to establish, putting in thought would be profitable water lines to the various definitely were not, and some paddocks they were setting of the things he thought he up, and cross-fences, would never try turned out to perimeter fences and hot be some of the most profitable wires. “There was a lot to he’d ever done. “Last summer think about, and I’m sure and fall we tried pigs. We only I probably did some of it With a focus on soil health, Brett’s pasture is diverse and productive with got two, because we are a wrong,” Brett says. forage standing four feet high. cattle operation. I bought two While some producers feeder pigs and thought that let cattle do a lot of walking worst come to worst I would just butcher them when they grew up and back and forth between the feed and the water tank or pond, Brett we’d keep all the meat,” he says. prefers to have the water closer. “With a big group it helps if they don’t Wright decided to try them on electric fence and move them often have to travel much. I have a couple places where the paddocks wagonenough that they couldn’t root up everything. He put them in a wooded wheel out from the center and have the water tank in the center, and the area that wasn’t feasible to graze with cattle, to let the pigs knock out the areas near the water—for at least 20 feet out from the tank—is denuded underbrush. They cleaned up those places really well, and every time he of forage because all those cattle are going to water at the same time.” moved them he planted some cool-season grass in those areas. The pigs Brett bought some solar pumps, but made the solar setups himself served several purposes, clearing out the understory of brush, creating and put the system together, and ran about six miles of water lines from 10
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various stations. Those stations pump water to different valves so he have all the cows calve in April–May. Earlier, he had three different sets can move a portable tank around. “One thing I learned is that the fill rate of cows. “I help my father-in-law and rent all of his places as well as my makes a huge difference. If it takes three hours to fill a tank, you need a own, so I combined his cattle with mine last November. He always left big tank, so the cattle never run out of water,” he says. his bulls out year-round and had a year-round calving season, and I had “You also need enough solar power to keep the pump going, and three different calving seasons—spring, late summer, and fall. Looking this took a little tweaking, but I think we have it figured out now. We are back on this, it was poor management on my part. I’d maybe have a cow focused on managing the grass, whereas we never looked at that before. that didn’t breed up in the spring group so she’d go into the fall group We used to just turn cattle out on a certain acreage and they managed to get another chance. I should have just culled that cow, because she the grass themselves. That first year, going into the warm season native wasn’t very fertile,” he says. grass (nothing that I planted), letting those cows all graze a small area at “If you have 25 head and 24 of them are breeding up and calving like a time and then moving, I tried to follow the take one-third and leave two- they are supposed to, and one doesn’t, obviously it’s not a herd-wide thirds rule on how much grass nutrition problem. That one was there, and I was really cow may not be what you amazed—watching that grass want.” So now he is keeping come back.” all his heifers, and putting “I grazed it once and then them with a bull. He keeps went back over it a second the ones that breed up time. Most of the forage quickly and sells the rest. was summer annuals like “I think it was Johan bluestem. I was debating Zietsman who said you can’t about whether to go over it look at the outside of a cow again; by then it was June and tell what kind of a cow and I’d been over it twice. I she will be. They need to had plenty of places to go sort themselves. Some may with the cattle, onto different look like dinks but when they crops that we’d planted, so get to 15 months old they we didn’t go back over that may surprise you; when you pasture again. But, I probably put them with a bull for 60 should have because some days and they end up bred, of it oxidized later and wasn’t they go into the cow herd. If really usable again by fall. Here is an example of Brett’s fencing system and the pre- and post-graze on they breed back and have a You learn these things as you a pasture recently seeded. second calf, usually they are go,” he says. good cows. In contrast, some of the ones that look the best at an early age can disappoint you. Those Business Planning Key will look a lot better on someone else’s place!” he says. As Brett started questioning different aspects of his business, he Changing his grazing practices helped make culling easier. “Some of realized the importance of planning. “One of the biggest changes for me the cows aren’t going to do as well when they have to manage more on was working on the business end of it,” says Brett. “I was raised to think their own. When you spend nearly all of your time in a feed truck, and that a person needed to be out doing physical labor—that the physical the cattle come to the truck for hay or some 41% protein cubes, and then work is where you get your value. To sit in an office at my desk and suddenly they have to go out and do all their own hay harvesting and you spend half a day trying to plan the grazing and where those cattle will cut down on the amount of cubes, the ones you were propping up show be in six months and what they will be grazing is a challenge. You really up pretty fast. We culled some, and also cut down our cow size. If you have to think about it,” he says. were to ask me earlier what our cows weighed, I thought they averaged Often it seems like wasting half a day doing all this planning, but Brett about 1,200 pounds. Some of the ones I sold were a lot bigger than that! I realizes that if he plans it right, it saves a lot of time and is a lot better sold one recently that weighed 1,500 pounds. So we’re trying to cut down for the cattle. “In my mind, a win-win is if it’s good for the cattle and good to more moderate frame size on our cattle,” says Brett. for the family, and good for the land. If you can at least get two of those “I think Gabe Brown had a bigger influence on me than anyone else. situations that are positive, you are making progress and accomplishing He talks about thinking outside the box and looking at why we do what something,” says Brett. we do. This has been a big challenge for me, but it brought to light a lot of “We used to have a set stocking rate for each pasture. We’d rent things we were doing that were just tradition rather than wisdom.” maybe 160 acres and depending on the grass we’d put 25 to 40 cows Good stock-handling procedures are also important when dealing with on it, and then that was basically their place; they stayed on that piece of livestock. Wright tries to teach his cattle to drive and to follow. “They are ground year-round. We brought them hay and cubes when they needed now so used to me being out there, that when it’s time to separate the feed, and never moved them. They went wherever they wanted to on that calves off at weaning, it’s really easy. I just open the gate, and they are particular area. To go from that kind of management to having 80-some used to moving every day, so I can just step in front to block a calf and let pairs on one acre at a time is quite a leap!” he says. the cows through.” Brett does most of the cow moving and sorting by himself. “My Developing a Productive Herd daughter is a college student and I call her our ranch intern. She comes At this point Brett is still working on adjusting calving seasons to CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 Num ber 188
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I was amazed at how well they did and how easy it was. Those calves were already used to being moved, so after a week had gone by and the mamas were no longer coming up to the fence, I moved the calves to a new pasture, just like I moved their mamas. They just followed me,” home on Fridays and works about half a day with me. I often save all the he says. things that I need two people for, to do on those days when she can help “Probably the hardest thing for me is planning when and where to do me,” says Brett. it because it needs to be a pasture where there’s at least 200–300 feet of fence between the cows and the calves to give adequate space for them Fence Line Weaning Success to come up to each other along the fence. I typically wean about 40 to 50 Wright started fence line weaning last year. “I had read Jim Gerrish’s calves at a time. They must be able to get nose to nose with their mamas book on MIG (Management-intensive Grazing) and started doing that type of grazing in the fall of 2017. I also started reading everything I could and lie down near each other along the fence, paired up,” he explains. The calves are then content and not very upset. find on soil health and some of the early farming practices, and came “The biggest thing when moving the animals and planning for weaning across fence line weaning. I had tried this earlier, but not with electric is having the cattle close to where you will be coming to an area that will wire. I did it just by putting the cows on the other side of a fairly short work for this, when the calves are to the age you want to wean them,” area of steel fence panels. Some of the cows came up to those panels he says. and swung their rear end around so their babies could reach their heads The calves are used through the panels and nurse,” to being moved daily, but he says. another key is having the Those were small pens and cows with them that first the calves were walking the day, in the paddock where fences and not eating much. It you plan to leave the calves, was also a change in their diet before you sort them off. and it took a while for them to Then the calves are not adjust. It wasn’t an ideal way in a new environment for to wean. weaning. “Always in the “I’d heard about someone past, we had to move them who did it with electric fence to a new place, where we and thought I might be able to could have the steel panels do that, because I’d already to make a pen, and give been grazing the cow-calf them a bunk feeder—and pairs and they already knew a feed they’d never seen about electric fence; the calves before. This was more were raised on it,” he says. stressful and we’d always “At weaning time I let the get some sick ones. They cows and calves into some Brett is in the process of getting enough fencing so he can set up a five days were walking the fences fresh-growth Bermuda grass worth of fencing at one time to allow for flexibility in his schedule. and looking for mama,” that was lush and green. I put says Brett. them all in there together for “We could make them eat, by strategically placing feeders where they a day, on 10 acres. They are used to being moved every day, so the next had to walk by them, or driving them up to the feeders. They might take a day I just opened the gate to the next piece. They were all standing there few bites and then leave again, and lose weight for the first two weeks,” ready to go, and I let the cows filter out. I stood in the gate and stopped he says. It’s a lot easier to keep them eating, and content, if they are still the calves. The cows are used to walking past me so they went on out. I on pasture and eating the forage they are accustomed to. shut the gate and they were separated,”says Wright. “Looking at what’s best for the calf, and a holistic approach, the fence “There was a little bawling that first day; the first 48 hours is probably line weaning is better,” says Brett. “If you change one thing you often the toughest, but we had no problems at all. After I let the cows out, the end up changing a lot of things. Right now we are working on getting our calves went back to the middle of their pasture where the grass was still calving more in sync with Nature, moving all our groups to calve in Aprillush—about 250 feet from that fence. Some of the mamas hung around May. Then you have to look farther down the road and wonder if you are and some went off to graze.” going to be weaning in the snow, or whether to leave the calves on the The next morning he made the mistake of thinking he had to feed the cows longer. You want good weather and good grass for weaning. This calves. “That was how I was used to doing it. I took a bucket down there fence line method really works for low-stress weaning, and you can sure and realized I didn’t want to feed them right by the fence because that see the difference on the calves.” would be too enticing to the cows. I took it out in the middle and rattled it and got the calves to follow me, and when I started pouring it out, one Grazing Instead of Haying of the cows saw me and jumped those wires and came, too! I ended up As Brett has begun looking at other areas to improve profit, the haying just leaving her with the calves, so one calf didn’t get weaned, but I really came under scrutiny. “Another thing HMI helped me look at was my didn’t need to feed them. Those calves never missed a beat; they kept haying. Unless I were to have a hay enterprise and do custom haying, right on grazing,” he says. trying to be profitable, I really don’t need to be in the hay business. It’s “I didn’t weigh them in and out, to know how much they gained, but costly to have the machinery, and it’s not something I want to do. The they kept eating and they looked good and I never had any sick ones.
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upkeep on equipment, the labor and time, fuel costs, etc. is taking away from things I need to be focusing on,” he explains. Planned grazing and different management allowed him to cut his feed and hay bill about in half last year. “Total moneywise it wasn’t cut in half because I traded some of that hay for multi-species cover crops; instead of spending the money on hay I spent it on seed. I still came out with less money spent, and fewer inputs, but I’m still not yet where I want to be,” says Brett. Brett wants to establish more perennial forages on some of his land so he won’t have to plant every year. “Then I won’t have as much expense. We started no-till, so we can keep the earthworms and all the biologic activity that goes on underground (all the things that can get messed up with tillage). I also don’t like to use any spray, since we raise honeybees. Some of our acres are weedy, but if you catch the weeds young enough, cattle will eat them—and many weeds are high in protein and very nutritious,” he says. “One thing I tried this year was bale grazing. I’d fed unrolled hay, but had never done bale grazing. We had some hay of questionable quality, and a lot of land that is questionable quality. So we positioned all that hay out there in the fall and used poly wire to give the cattle only a day’s worth at a time. Each day I moved the cattle I spread some cool season grass seed in a ring around those bales. So the cattle grazed the hay, tromped the seed in, added manure, and now you can see every spot we had those bales! I need to take a photo of that so I’ll know where to place bales this year, and improve the areas we didn’t have bales before.”
Sharing Experience
Brett and his wife Sara have two children, a son, Koln, and a daughter, Abbi. While the children don’t live on the farm, Sara helps Brett with some of the day-to-day cattle moves, but also with planning. “Sara is good help with the cattle or whatever I’m doing, but I think she helps
me most with the planning and looking at the bigger picture, or adjusting to changes,” says Brett. “She is removed enough from the day-to-day workings of the farm that she can be more objective than I am. She might mention an idea that I’d never thought about, and this helps me a lot. She doesn’t really have to try to think outside the box because she is already outside the box.” “I tried to set up our farm plan to work whether or not we included our children. When my wife and I first wrote a business plan, we used a template off the internet that was 27 pages long, with many questions. I did soul-searching about that plan and wrote it as if I would be doing the farm totally by myself and not require any help. I figured that if I had to hire someone I would hire someone outside the family. In that way, I don’t feel like my kids are obligated or saddled with this farm. But on the other hand, I think we are profitable enough that we could do an enterprise analysis to see if we could add pigs or sheep or some other facet if a child wanted to stay and do their own part in this farm.” That opportunity for others to take over is a result of Brett’s exploration and change in management practices to improve soil health and decrease expenses. Brett acknowledges he had a lot of questions when he first started with all the new regenerative practices he was considering. “It’s quite a change, but I was able to call people and reach out by e-mail for help. There are also many resources on the web. I was able to learn a lot and get many of my questions answered, and a lot of people reinforced my decisions to tell me whether something would or would not work. These are people who had my best interests at heart and were trying to help me out,” he says. Now Brett wants to be able to do that for someone else. “This is all fresh enough in my mind—just being a year and a half into this—that I remember the questions I had. If people want to contact me to ask questions, probably the best place to get hold of me is www.ispeakcow.com where I post my blogs,” says Brett.
Grazing Planning Software Helps Planning Moves Brett Wright uses MaiaGrazing, the Australian-developed software for grazing plans, to aid in moving his cattle around. This is a computer program that inputs parameters about the specific area, type of soil, forage plants and grasses. This information gives a baseline for stocking rate, amount of dry matter in the forage, etc. It can list the paddock moves due today or overdue, based on the current grazing plan. A person can check a summary of current herd locations, days in the paddock, paddock rest days, and forage taken so far, and look at the upcoming paddocks according to the grazing plan. In this way the software helps a producer to make decisions about whether to move the cattle sooner or later. MaiaGrazing uses algorithms to determine suggested optimal stocking rate and makes it easy to manage a ranch’s stocking rate to maximize production without eating into forage reserves. The result is higher profits, improved land and pasture quality, and resilience to drought. It also gives a rainfall summary; you record your rainfall and can see the current 365-day rainfall, the current month’s rainfall and the last rainfall event. “If I get 1/10 inch of rain, this program computes how much dry matter/forage this amount of moisture will grow,” says Brett. “I put in the rainfall events, and it calculates how much time I get to spend on a particular piece of ground. All my paddocks are viewed by satellite, on the computer, and on my phone, so I can take that to the field with me. This has been very helpful because I don’t understand a lot of those things and don’t have the confidence to always make the right decisions. Trying to start out making grazing plans, I felt incompetent, so I am using this program as a crutch. It builds a history for my farm as I go, so when I move a group of cattle this goes into the computer and it recalculates for the next move.” MaiaGrazing records what an individual farm can do and then uses this information to forecast future performance based on expected future stocking rates and rainfall scenarios. It’s not a static view of feed versus livestock which quickly becomes out of date. Instead, it forecasts future scenarios by taking into account the cumulative effect of past grazing activity on the farm and the climatic conditions experienced. To learn more about MaiaGrazing go to: https://maiatechnology.com.au/.
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Growing Pasture and Trading Cattle—
Flexibility Key to Success
grass and have cattle,” says Erik.
Taking It to the Next Level
“What inspired us to really go after this was when we were at a workshop in Wheeler, Texas where we got to spend four days with Ian rik and Mary Beth Tucker have been ranching in Colorado for Mitchell-Innes. Over the years we’d been trying to do various things, and it many years as they have explored different enterprises to find a was finally starting to show. Last year started out terribly dry, but the grass type of ranching that works for them. Mary Beth is staff support that we’ve really been working hard on was growing nicely. It withstood for Colorado State University, Crowley County Extension, but is the drought very well. It was one of those surprises—something that also involved in the ranching operation. Over the years they have found actually worked!” that they can improve the soils on their managed land through improving Erik and Mary Beth decided that this was what they wanted to pursue, their grazing management. Likewise, they have found that sell-buy and decided to double down on their ranching efforts and make the marketing can create good profit—good enough that they can now finance biggest and best progress in their lives. “When we got back from that their cattle purchases without bank loans. workshop in Texas I decided to do multiple day moves with the cattle. We started to make a lot of progress. Ranching in a Rain We were trying to aim for cattle Shadow performance but now aiming also While Erik has known about for grass. We run stocker cattle Holistic Management for 30 years, and I consider everything stocker it wasn’t until more recently that cattle, that can be bought, traded he really began to explore the or sold at any time,” he explains. possibilities of stock density and His current inventory is steers, more frequent grazing moves. heifers and some pairs. “We Thirty years ago Erik met Allan bought some cheap thin cattle Savory and was introduced to to put out on pasture. We have these ideas that made him question been studying stockmanship and conventional ranching practices. marketing as best we can and are “I understood what he was talking wide open to just about anything about, but he was asking more with cattle. We want them out questions than I had answers for, on pasture as much as possible and answering questions I hadn’t so we move them twice a day,” thought of. It all started to make says Erik. Erik has been increasing his stock density and cattle moves to more sense as I went along with “We’ve studied ruminant increase soil health and pasture productivity each year so he can run our ranching, and then I detoured function and it’s pretty similar to more animals. off into commercial cattle feeding. soil function. We can work on I owned several places and rented those two things at the same time. some additional places and built grazing cells, and I understood what that When we need cash we trade cattle, and try to grow grass, and it works meant,” says Erik. fairly well. We use the sell-buy method, and buy anything that looks like “After I switched to cattle feeding I did that for 20 years. Then 10 years it might make some money. We’ve bought stockers and lots of pairs—for ago we decided to go back to grazing cattle. We had a customer who was ourselves and for a customer. This year the pair prices were anywhere interested in planned grazing, and he was talking about that. This reignited from $300 to $900 a pair higher than they were last year so we’ve been our interest in it, and we’ve been doing that ever since. buying more yearlings to put on grass.” “We had some degraded land in Crowley County and this seemed a This method gives the flexibility to buy what’s undervalued or suitable place to start. It would be a way to try to improve that land. One discounted at the moment and later make a profit. “We’ve had some cow of the problems in this county is that it’s mostly dried-up formerly irrigated herds of our own and also for customers. We do anything that looks like it crop land. The former owners didn’t revegetate it. We live in kind of a rain fits,” he says. shadow; everyone else around us might get a good rain—maybe 11 or 12 “The main reason we are having a good year this year is because inches of rain annually--but where we are it’s more like six to nine inches. we had a few tenths of an inch of rain at some good times. It seems that Some years we’ve had as little as two inches and sometimes as much as we don’t have any set weather patterns anymore, and no guarantees. 21 inches, and neither of those extremes work very well. We’ve been in The composition of this degraded land, and the weeds, changes all the a persistent drought for nearly 20 years. We either have bare ground or time. One year the pastures might be 80% Russian thistle, which after we’ve got kochia, Russian thistle or knapweed,” he says. a certain point of maturity is not palatable to cattle. Then this year we “We manage about 2,000 acres and if you gathered up all the sacaton, have nearly 80% really good kochia. It is pretty palatable at nearly every sand drop and galleta grass it would probably consist of only two or three stage of growth. With planned grazing and higher stock density grazing acres of grass. We tried cover cropping and no till, and when it rains, that it can work well; the kochia is really a pretty good plant because it is high works pretty well, but we don’t get enough rain to adopt a farming plan that in protein when green and growing and retains quite a bit of nutritional works consistently. So we moved away from farming and custom services value throughout the winter. It lends itself very nicely to planned grazing (we were doing anything that we could, for a buck, for a long time) and systems,” says Erik. sold all our farm equipment. We’ve been concentrating on trying to grow
BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
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Adapting to Weather Challenges
it can be a train wreck if you can’t do things right. If a person is able to move in and out of cattle deals, and can have the flexibility to get into and out of any situation, it works. Our journey has been somewhat difficult, but it is getting better and better all the time,” he says. “We have some significant friends we rely on and they are a great help. There are not very many people who understand or even like what we are doing; it’s a new concept for a lot of people. I’ve tried to figure out what would work to get people interested in doing things this way, but if people are comfortable doing what they are doing, they are not going to change. Economically things were miserable for us for a long time. We had to do some things we didn’t want to do just because that’s what paid the bills. Eventually we collected enough money to go out and buy our own cattle when we sold our farm equipment, and things started working better,” says Erik. “We are happier now, and doing more, making smaller amounts of money more consistently. We don’t have big fuel bills or expensive tractor repairs. If we want to sell cattle we can do that nearly any day of the week and by private treaty on Sundays. “We have a unique operation, and it’s hard to really describe it because there are so many components that we’ve put together. I am simply a firm believer in grazing, stockmanship, and marketing and the more we can gravitate toward those facets of cattle raising, the more we will have a unique business with a lot of flexibility. We would also like The Tuckers use a sell-buy marketing process to create good profit on purchased to take this show on the road sometime--maybe to where it low-value animals, selling them when they become over-valued. rains frequently--and get some different ideas, but we are still debating. We know that Crowley County needs a lot to get it to germinate and sprout, and then the weather turned hot and dry. It never rained enough to get any of the kochia weeds going, so suddenly our cover cropping just created bare ground! “However, we are in a good straddle position with the cattle—with our feed yard and our own private and partnership cattle, plus our partner and private pasture cattle—we are able to transition from one to the next. Last year it was great, and the years before that with smaller herds it worked out well. This year it is working out very well and this seems to be exactly what I want to do. We are still way behind on rain and moisture but we have 80 to 90% ground cover with kochia and other forbs so we are going to make progress grazing cattle and moving pastures every day. It could be completely different next year, however, if we don’t have any moisture,” he says. Erik wants to have as many cattle as he can, all the time, but he also has a destocking plan. “We are selling cattle all the time when they become overvalued. When prices are good we sell, and then move on to the next deal. While Erik has found cover crops to do well in some years, the return This creates really good cash flow for us, and we’ve also on this investment has been sporadic. learned how to sell our stockmanship skills and our pasture development skills and are very happy with what we are doing. We just wish we’d started doing this many years earlier, except that done to improve the soils and pastures. We are probably the worst place I’ve become a lot ‘smarter’ and capable of handling more problems than I in the world!” was back then. He and Mary Beth have thought about trying to help educate other “I put my philosophy together a long time ago, thinking that proper people and have hosted several workshops for people in and around grazing, proper stockmanship and proper marketing could save the world, Crowley County, but attendance has been poor. “I’ve met a lot of people even if it’s just my world. Those are the three things that have made our who are either ‘farming’ the government and making that pay, or else life here much better. Economically, ranching is very sound, but financially CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 Erik has noticed over the years that the higher the stock density, the more the soil starts to respond. Even if there is some bare ground it will start next year’s growth. “Some of the cover cropping we tried to do didn’t work. We tried to find the best all-around time of year to plant, and it might work well one year but not the next. One year, wherever we planted cover crops (oats and triticale and some brassicas) there was enough moisture
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Growing Pasture and Trading Cattle
rather work with other people who like to do what we like to do. We partner with them, become the managing partner, and take care of everyone’s cattle. If anyone wants to join in with us we make a plan that will work. As they have a lot of money and their cattle are more of a hobby than their long as we can keep the cattle in one big herd, and graze them properly, it livelihood,” says Erik. “We’ve tried to make a difference, but there are not works out perfectly,” he says. many people who care that much to know what they don’t know. I have He personally prefers to buy high-risk cattle because they are tried to figure it out, and we’ve tried to build committees and groups. We inexpensive. With good stockmanship and nutrition, the high-risk cattle can talk all day and half the night to people who are interested, but not work nicely. “High-risk cattle are just anything that nobody else wants. very many of them really get on board. We would rather gravitate toward We can buy those cattle and take good care of them and they make a the people who are doing similar things, who we can learn from, and have substantial amount of money,” he explains. good conversations, especially with some of the people in Texas. “We are also soil-health conscious. We don’t use any dewormers or “We are trying to develop what we are doing more and more here in pour-ons. If we have cattle that are really not responding well on pasture, Colorado and I think we will make a bigger effort. There are some really we just pull those into the feed yard and either warm them up or finish good holistic managers up here and them and move them out. We are holistic thinkers. We are all very really trying to restore our soil. busy doing things and we just need “There are a lot of things we to get together more often and try don’t use on our cattle. The only to create some positive things. standard things we do when we This will be one of our next step buy new cattle and bring in is give goals. The main thing that makes them a shot of Multimin (which us successful in our own operation, includes the important trace however, is that we are selfishly minerals they need) and brand pursuing Holistic Management, them. We just make sure they at this point, making it work. We have adequate energy throughout can’t really dabble with it on other the grazing period. If the protein people’s qualifications. You have to level gets too high in the forage, take it and make it your own, and we always have a good energy go where you can with it.” source for them, and try to move to new forage twice a day. We Making Ranching Pay try to move in the morning and Erik is clear that ranching can evening and use electric fencing. Due to poor soils, previous management, and sporadic rainfall, much be economically viable but it takes We try to be with our cattle as of the pastures that the Tuckers manage are filled with forbs like rigorous planning, implementation, much as we can. I really enjoy kochia and Russian thistle—which can all be used as good forage and marketing—just like any being out on my piece of the Great for raising cattle. other successful business. “We Plains with my cattle.” don’t borrow any money for cattle anymore,” says Erik. “Many bankers don’t understand how our program Ongoing Learning works. I talked to several bankers a couple years ago and told them what I Erik is always open to helping anyone who is interested in learning wanted to do. What I really wanted was to buy some short-term thin cows about Holistic Management. “We enjoy making new friends,” he says. because we had a lot of rough forage pasture that would have worked “We welcome anyone who wants to come and visit or give us a call. Many nicely to put some weight on them. My plan was to add some weight, people have been a big influence on us and have given us a lot of help— condition and quality to those cattle and resell them in 60 days. All three starting back when I met Allan Savory and went to Ranching For Profit bankers I talked to concurred in thinking that this was a good idea, but with Stan Parsons. Jim Howell has also been a really good friend, along they were too worried about the market. They wondered what I would do with Ian Mitchell-Innes, Kirk Gadzia, Emry Birdwell, Deborah Clark, Tim if the market went down. I told them I would just buy more cattle if the Steffens, Wally Olson, Tina Williams, Richard McConnell, Eunice Williams market went down. That’s what a person should do when any market goes and many others. Their help has made all the difference in the world and down—buy more cattle while they are cheap.” we want to pass this on and inspire other people. There are people who But the bankers didn’t understand that philosophy. “They wanted me call us and a lot of people who go through Extension and talk with Mary to buy a load of steers instead, and finish them. I felt that was a really bad Beth, but most of them are just looking for some kind of easy answer or idea because when the market goes down on fat cattle there’s not much magic bullet. you can do with them. On the cows, however, if the market went down “People ask what kind of grass they should plant. But if they don’t have and I had good cows, I could sell those good cows and buy a lot more any soil structure to work with, they should not plant anything. It is very cheap cows.” different for each place. I made a commitment to look at this area where “Thin cows at the time I wanted to buy them were priced at $300 and we are, with degraded land and a lot of cattle availability and potential the steers were $800. The steers were too much investment and too much feedlot space. I’ve been looking at everything, for a different angle, and gamble. I proved it on paper, but that wasn’t what the bankers wanted me realized that we are probably in a pretty good place and pretty good to do. So I got tired of asking the bank and worked on some other deals time right now because we’ve finally had some moisture. We are doing on our own because we know we can make money with cattle. Working everything we can to grow pasture and trade cattle! with the bank just doesn’t work for us so we moved away from that. We’d “We learned some tough lessons on forage residue management and 16
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our planned grazing has really helped us out on that. We decided to go to at least twice-daily moves due to the fact that you can lose residue very easily. Certain times of year we have 70-mile-per-hour sustained wind. We don’t want to make very many grazing mistakes. “On our grazing plan, when we look at it from a brown side and a green side, and fill in all the little columns, you can get a fairly good idea of what you can do. You also need to have a destocking plan and incorporate that with a stock flow plan and it makes good sense. On a cash flow analysis basis we figured out what kind of cattle numbers we should have, and we keep up with the sales at the sale barns and buy cattle as much as we can, to keep the balance,” he says. “We may also go back to using more sheep and goats. We’ve had some in the past and enjoyed working with them and they are also profitable. So
PROGRAM ROUNDUP NM Low-Stress Livestock Handling
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n June HMI partnered with Socorro, New Mexico rancher, Mark Cortner, and HMI Certified Educator Guy Glosson to offer a LowStress Livestock Handling Clinic at the Socorro Rodeo and Sports Complex. Guy Glosson, a long time student of Bud Williams, has also been the Ranch Manager at Mesquite Grove Ranch for the past 29 years. Ten participants from New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Colorado joined Guy and Mark, as well as HMI Program Manager Stephanie Von Ancken to learn about the history of LowStress Livestock Handling including Bud William’s principles of stockmanship and the experience of Whit Hibbard. Before participants had Guy Glosson explaining any contact low-stress livestock principles. with the animals Guy demonstrated with diagrams the animal’s flight zone and how our movements as “predators” into this zone affect the animal’s movement. He explained how the fulcrum of the animal is the shoulder and if you
we are just thinking about doing more with what we’ve got,” says Erik. Erik can see progress on what they’ve been doing with the land itself and finds it rewarding. “It has been a personal revelation which makes me happy and drives me to do more of what I want to do and less of what I don’t want to do. It all boils down to being in the right place at the right time for the right reasons. What we are doing with our own cattle, with our own grazing is all a part of that. It’s better than anything we’ve done before and we’re starting to get comfortable. It’s what I’ve been working toward, my entire life, but I didn’t know what it was. Now that I am out here and seeing how this is working, we are getting along really well,” he says. “I have read many articles in IN PRACTICE that helped me get to where I want to be, so I thought it was interesting that I could maybe do the same for someone else.”
move towards it and then back away they will move forward but if you move towards the animal in front of the shoulder the animal will most likely turn around. He said the animals learn quickly and become more comfortable responding to pressure by finding ways to relieve it through movement which can be controlled by the rancher. He instructed participants to apply pressure by walking towards the animal’s shoulder and then take it away by walking towards the back and then turning around in a triangle pattern which pushes the animals forward without any other verbal or physical cues. Guy also showed some video clips of Bud Williams and Whit Hibbard that demonstrated how to move cattle along a fence, how to pass them through a 4-foot-wide gate, and how to calm them down by running them. After the classroom demonstrations the group was eager to get outside and meet the animals. The participants sat outside the corral as Guy began running the animals up and down the fence using the bodymovements he had just taught in the classroom. Then each participant had a chance to practice moving the cattle up and down the fence on their own. After everyone succeeded they moved on to the next task, moving the cattle up the fence and turning them at the corner, then to moving them half way up the fence, turning them and moving them around a big blue plastic barrel Guy had set out on the opposite side of the arena. In the afternoon participants divided themselves up into groups of three and learned how to move as a team applying pressure on each side as well as in a zig-zag pattern behind the animals to move them through two blue barrels placed 8-feet apart that mimicked a small gate. The next day was mostly spent in the arena with more hand-on practice. Classroom time included a talk on Holistic Planned Grazing and how it ties into Low-Stress Livestock Handling before one more final livestock handling task in which all participants were successful. Thank you to the Thornburg Foundation for their support of this program.
Event results: Topic
Participant Percentage of Improvement
The basics of low-stress livestock handling
89%
Low-stress principles for processing & shipping
89%
Techniques for handling calves & moving/gathering cow/calf pairs
78%
How-tos for successful health check, pen riding & working singles
78%
Holistic Grazing Planning & how to improve land health
56% N um ber 188
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GRAPEVINE The
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people programs projects
N E W S F R O M H O L I S T I C M A N AG E M E N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L
HMI Learning Sites
The interest in Holistic Management continues to grow as our community continues to expand. So we’re creating a network of geographically dispersed learning/demonstration sites that are long-time Holistically Managed working operations. They provide public access to their operations to give them the opportunity to observe Holistic Management in practice and learn how to increase the productivity and profitability of farms and ranches. HMI Learning Sites have met all requirements to formally partner with us on sharing Holistic Management with the public. HMI also provides curriculum and outreach support to these sites for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders in the regenerative agriculture community. LEARNING SITE REQUIREMENTS Are you interested in learning how to become an HMI Learning Site? Please review the following requirements. • Yearly cost is $150/year. Documentation of planning and monitoring required annually. • Demonstrated training in and practice of Holistic Management (Must have completed at least 3 modules in formal Holistic Management training). • Must be willing to represent the ideals of Holistic Management & formally partner with HMI. • Must be willing to host Open Gates, workshops and/or individual field tours and/or be willing to share research, monitoring, studies, articles, blogs, etc. with HMI for sharing with the larger public. • Share data you have collected annually in the form of copies of: 1. Grazing or cropping plan (production plans), and 2. Monitoring data (you can use your own monitoring or planning forms you have developed for your own purposes), and 3. Holistic goal, and 4. Any professional activity (ie. Number of field days, number of people visiting your farm/ranch, on-farm/ranch research data, other educational programming, etc.). WHAT YOU RECEIVE AS AN HMI LEARNING SITE: • Website Listing • Promotion of your Holistic Management events on our web calendar or promotions on HMI social media • HMI will promote your learning site through case studies, success stories, guest blogs, or IN PRACTICE articles • Discounts on Holistic Management Curriculum • Permission to reprint Holistic Management Curriculum for Programming • Free Holistic Management promotional materials • Opportunities to be involved in grant-funded programs If you would like to submit an application, please fill out the following document by completing the HMI Learning Site Application at https://holisticmanagement.org/hmi-learning-sites/.
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White Oak Pastures Carbon Efficiency Study
A recent press release by General Mills highlights the findings from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) report they commissioned from Quantis, a respected international research firm. The LCA on beef raised by White Oak Pastures included all energy and environmental impacts at all stages of the product’s life cycle as well as handling of waste. They used soil samples and modeled data from 2017 to determine White Oak’s Will Harris overall greenhouse gas footprint. The White Oak Pastures LCA study demonstrated that increasing organic matter in the soil and increasing soil health through holistic grazing practices actually results in more carbon stored in the soil than the cattle emit. In fact, the net Kg CO2-eq emissions per Kg fresh meat from White Oak Pastures was -3.5. In contrast, the Beyond Burger (based on their own LCA) has net emissions per Kg of 4. Likewise, the study showed that the White Oak Pastures’ beef has a carbon footprint 111% lower than a conventional US beef system. Moreover, White Oak Pastures’ integrated system is 6 times more carbon efficient than the equivalent amount of carcass weight produced in the average North American beef system. .
In Memoriam
It is with great sadness that HMI reports the passing of Doug McDaniel on August 15th. Doug and his wife of 21 years, Gail Hammack, have been long-time supporters Doug McDaniel of HMI with Doug serving on HMI’s Advisory Board and Gail serving on HMI’s Board of Directors. The Wallowa Valley has been Doug’s home for over 83 years and his family is one of the original founding families who settled in Wallowa County. Doug lived in Lostine, Oregon and worked in a local dairy as a teenager and then as a logger while he attended Oregon State University. Eventually he started DMcD Corporation which grew from a small logging operation into a respected company employing over 100 people. When Doug left the logging and construction industries, he owned and operated a successful cattle business, learning about and implementing Holistic Management. Doug also had a passion for many outdoor sports including hunting, fly fishing, hiking, and skiing. Besides serving on HMI’s Advisory Board, Doug was also one of the founding members of Wallowa Resources and was a resource to his community in so many ways. He will be missed!
organic calves for finishing and I have that option through the co-op.” Dollahite has steers and heifers coming in around 18–20 months old. They weigh 900 pound when they arrive and he finishes them to 1,200–1,300 pounds. This can take six to nine months. He purchases these animals for $1,100 and sells them retail at $2,400 (processing is covered by the customer or the wholesaler). His biggest expense is the Peculiar Farms— utilities for the well which can run as much as $1,000/month in a highproduction season. With equipment and seed costs, his gross profit on the cattle operation for direct marketed animals is $1700/acre. Dollahite has the cattle pastures divided into three-acre paddocks. BY ANN ADAMS Depending on season and size of cattle, the cattle may be in a paddock for three days to two weeks. He aims for a recovery period of 28–42 homas Dollahite and his wife, Amanda Duran, have been days. Since there is permanent fencing and water drinkers on all of finishing cattle on 60 acres of irrigated perennial pastures at his paddocks, moving the animals is as simple as opening a gate and Peculiar Farms in Los Lunas, New Mexico since 2011. During letting them through. Labor needs are minimal so the cattle operation is that time they have developed their finishing enterprise so they a one-man show. Adding 2,000 meat chickens that move with the cattle can finish approximately 100–120 animals per year. They have grown only increases the gross profit per acre further. the direct marketing of their products so that currently they are selling The 200-foot, 10-inch well, installed along with drip irrigation under approximately 25% of their animals in a retail market and 75% through permanent pasture in 2014, was a major investment for Dollahite. He the wholesale market of La Montanita Coop. had begun with a perennial cover in 2011 but found the flood irrigating In addition to challenging with no their numerous farm guarantee of when or products—beef, turkey, how long they would geese, ducks, pigs, eggs get water. Using an and vegetables, they NRCS EQIP Grant, also began a farmstand his well produces 500 and then a restaurant, gallons/minute and the Europa Coffee and Tea drip irrigation is placed Bakery, to sell more of on three-foot centers, their products direct to one foot underground. the consumer. In just This way he can drill a year, the demand his annual covers into for product has grown the perennial cover of so that they now also clovers and grasses offer a Farm to Table that he planted from experience for farm Peaceful Valley. He dinners and catered drills summer and weddings on the farm winter annual mixes as well as a European that he purchases Grass-finished cattle are sold direct to consumers or to wholesale Farm Stay through from Greencover customers via the Sweet Grass Co-op brand. The cattle are grass-finished Air BnB. Seed. These mixes in six to nine months. Dollahite is part of include sunflowers, the Sweet Grass Co-op okra, mustard, and which is a cooperative of family-owned ranches located throughout buckwheat for summer forage. For winter forage, his mix includes a Colorado and New Mexico. Ranchers in this cooperative raise their kale-turnip cross and grains like winter wheat. animals humanely and on pastured forage and in a way that improves While there is additional costs with the well, Dollahite believes he land health. Originally Dollahite was involved in the whole cattle wouldn’t be able to scale his operation the way he has and raise the cycle, but he quickly learned that the niche need he could fill was to quality of beef consistently without it. Having access to reliable water consistently finish animals on his irrigated pastures because of his year round means he has the opportunity to buy in more animals reliable water and the year round warm weather. and raise them in a manner that is good for the land and good for the “It’s worked really well for me to be a part of the Sweetgrass Coop animals. He doesn’t have to buy in hay like his grandfather did so he is and purchasing the calves through the cooperative. I get a consistent saving on his feed costs. calf crop throughout the year and I know the genetics are good—these Prior to 2001, these pastures were in Kentucky fescue with an animals will produce on grass finishing. I also have different ranches average paddock size of 20 acres. Dollahite’s grandfather would drill to work with and I know how the animal has been treated which is winter wheat to provide additional forage for the winter. When Dollahite important to me. To work with a group of producers who have the same added the drip irrigation it took a while for the fields to establish. ethics means I can offer the kind of product I want. It’s hard to source CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
CASE STUDY
Grass Finishing Cattle Year Round on Cover Crops in New Mexico
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Peculiar Farms
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He installed the drip in stages and found that the one that has had three need for amendments. The soil is only amended by cattle and chicken years to establish is really coming into production. manure that is spread by the animals themselves. Additionally, in some “It takes about three years for a new field to get established,” says fields, Dollahite adds some trace minerals as a foliar spray once a Dollahite. “Because the drips are on 3-foot centers, the seeds germinate season. first near the emitters. Over time, as those plants get stronger root Dollahite has been selling direct to the consumer through a “Whole systems and we have Cow” program since more organic matter on the starting his farm in 2011 soil, other seeds further through an internet-based away from the emitters marketing system. A begin to germinate and year ago, Peculiar Farms the field has filled in. For started their farm to table that reason, we haven’t restaurant, Europa Coffee been pushing with adding and Tea Bakery. From a lot more animals. We its humble beginning of want the root systems to coffee, tea, and pastries get established.” The drip and farm produce and irrigation has also resulted meat sales, the restaurant in a 40% reduction in water has grown rapidly as usage. people want other With the fields coming choices. The interest in into full production, full service meals and Dollahite has seen at catered weddings along least a 10% increase with a host of other valuein production, so he’s added food products decided he’s going to means that more profit take about 7 acres out of can be made from all the Thomas Dollahite wants to pass on a legacy of good land stewardship to his son. cattle production and put it farm produces and less Cover crops to keep more land covered year round is part of that legacy. into vegetable production product that needs to because the demand for diverted into wholesale his produce through his restaurant is outstripping current supply. channels. As the customer base grows so does word of mouth about the Peculiar Farms has always been no-till. Dollahite’s grandfather looked farm products for sale and the opportunities for private sales. at nature and saw that the areas with grass weren’t being tilled and While trained labor forces in rural areas is a critical concern for many were a perennial system. He decided it would be best to imitate Nature. restaurant managers, Dollahite has not had that issue. “We manage Dollahite has continued with that process and found that it reduces his thirteen staff who do the cooking, serving, and a host of other duties,” says Dollahite. “We keep them busy year round with a variety of duties and they are an amazing staff. We had to grow to get new products fast enough to keep people satisfied. They wanted more seating and different Creating Healthy Communities types of food, varied items, and tours. It definitely has been a challenge to CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 scale up quickly enough for the interest.” Clearly what Dollahite has developed resonates with his customers— justice organizations have helped many of us learn how prejudice, specifically the farm to table focus and his passion for growing quality stereotypes, and institutionalized racism, sexism, heterosexism, food through sustainable agriculture. “You have to have to have a passion etc limit not only the potential of the oppressed but of society as for what you do,” he says. “You need to look at what you have, what type a whole. of situation you are in, and what is your land capable of doing. If you All of these challenges and opportunities are a part of the aren’t passionate about your work, it’s hard to do it well. I talk with farmers regenerative agriculture community. Last year at REGENERATE who are doing things that aren’t really right for their location. If you are 2018, Deborah Clark of the Birdwell-Clark Ranch, talked about the trying to do it for a buck it won’t really work. It has to feed you.” “Big Tent.” How do we engage as much diversity as possible in But market interest is not the main driver for Dollahite’s interest in the regenerative agriculture community to better serve the many sustainable agriculture. “I think I should be a good steward of the land,” needs of each of our communities as well as the global community he says. “From a biblical perspective, I believe we have a responsibility. with whom we are also bound? I’m also giving to my children something that they won’t have to clean up, When I think about the many holistic goals I’ve read that giving them something of quality and more productive than when it was reference community, there are some key takeaways for me. given to me. I guess it started with my grandfather’s ethics. But, I also did These practices may seem incredibly simple and yet they also archeology in Israel, and I learned there about how to do things with take courage. I encourage you to consider how you can limited water and it caused me to think outside of the box.” incorporate these practices in your life and in your community. 20 IN PRACTICE
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November / December 2019
Certified
Educators
The following Certified Educators listed have been trained to teach and coach individuals in Holistic Management. On a yearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with HMI. This agreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives and to seek out opportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management.
Guy Glosson
Napper-Ottmers *LasKatherine Vegas
505/225-6481 • katherineottmers@icloud.com
*Brooktondale
NEW YORK
CALIFORNIA
*College of Agriculture, CSU Lee Altier
Chico 530/636-2525 • laltier@csuchico.edu
Owen Hablutzel
Los Angeles 310/567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com
Richard King
Petaluma 707/217-2308 (c) rking1675@gmail.com
*Paicines
Kelly Mulville
707/431-8060 • kmulville@gmail.com
Don Nelson
Red Bluff 208/301-5066 • nelson-don1@hotmail.com
Rob Rutherford
San Luis Obispo 805/550-4858 (c) robtrutherford@gmail.com COLORADO
*Montana State University Cliff Montagne
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 402/250-8981 (c) tater2d2@cox.net NEW HAMPSHIRE
Seth Wilner
Newport 603/863-9200 (w) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO
Ann Adams
Holistic Management International Albuquerque 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org
Joel Benson
Kirk Gadzia
Cindy Dvergsten
Jeff Goebel
Buena Vista 719/221-1547 • joel@holisticeffect.com Dolores 970/882-4222 info@wholenewconcepts.com
Bernalillo 505/263-8677 (c) • kirk@rmsgadzia.com Belen 541/610-7084 goebel@aboutlistening.com
Tim McGaffic
Dolores 808/936-5749 • tim@timmcgaffic.com
*Calhan
Katie Belle Miller
970/310-0852 • heritagebellefarms@gmail.com KANSAS
William Casey
Erie 620/ 423-2842 bill.caseyag@gmail.com
Larry Dyer
MICHIGAN
Petoskey 231/881-2784 (c) ldyer3913@gmail.com MISSISSIPPI
Preston Sullivan *Meadville 601/384-5310 (h) 601/835-6124 (c) prestons@telepak.net
MONTANA
Roland Kroos
Bozeman 406/581-3038 (c) kroosing@msn.com
Kathy Harris
Holistic Management International Plano 214/417-6583 kathyh@holisticmanagement.org
Erica Frenay
607/342-3771 (c) info@shelterbeltfarm.com
Craig Leggett *Chestertown
Theresa J Litle
Elizabeth Marks
Peggy Maddox
Phillip Metzger
CD Pounds *Fruitvale
970/946-1771 • craigrleggett@gmail.com
U N I T E D S TAT E S
Snyder 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com
Hermleigh 325/226-3042 (c) • peggy@kidsontheland.org
Chatham 518/567-9476 (c) elizabeth_marks@hotmail.com Norwich 607/316-4182 • pmetzger17@gmail.com
*Hazen
Orange Grove 361/537-3417 (c) • tjlitle@hotmail.com
214/568-3377 • cdpounds@live.com
Peggy Sechrist
Fredericksburg 830/456-5587 (c) • peggysechrist@gmail.com
NORTH DAKOTA
Joshua Dukart
701/870-1184 • joshua_dukart@yahoo.com
WASHINGTON DC
Christine C. Jost
Angela Boudro
Washington DC 773/706-2705 • christinejost42@gmail.com
Tony Malmberg
Larry Johnson *Madison
OREGON
Central Point 541/ 890-4014 • angelaboudro@gmail.com
608/665-3835 • larrystillpointfarm@gmail.com
Union 541/663-6630 tony@holisticmanagement.guide
Laura Paine *Columbus
608/338-9039 (c) lkpaine@gmail.com
SOUTH DAKOTA
Randal Holmquist *Mitchell
605/730-0550 • randy@zhvalley.com TEXAS
Bellows *NorthLisaCentral Texas College Gainesville 940/736-3996 (c) lbellows@nctc.edu
Deborah Clark
WISCONSIN
Henrietta 940/328-5542 deborah@birdwellandclarkranch.com
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
Coolatai, NSW 61-409-151-969 judi_earl@bigpond.com
Graeme Hand
Ralph Corcoran
Langbank, SK 306/532-4778 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net
Blain Hjertaas
Franklin, Tasmania 61-4-1853-2130 • graemehand9@gmail.com
Redvers, SK 306/452-7723 bhjer@sasktel.net
Dick Richardson
Brian Luce
Mount Pleasant, SA 61-4-2906-9001 dick@dickrichardson.com.au
Ponoka, AB 403/783-6518 lucends@cciwireless.ca
Jason Virtue *Cooran QLD
Tony McQuail
61-4-27 199 766 Jason@landlifeeducation.com.au
Lucknow, ON 519/528-2493 tonymcquail@gmail.com
Brian Wehlburg
Kelly Sidoryk
Kindee NSW 61-0408-704-431 brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au CANADA
Don Campbell
Meadow Lake, SK 320/240-7660 (c) doncampbell@sasktel.net
Blackroot, AB 780/872-2585 (c) kelly.sidoryk@gmail.com FINLAND
Tuomas Mattila
Pusula 358-407432412 tuomas.j.mattila@gmail.com
NAMIBIA
Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii
Windhoek 264-812840426 (c) • 264-61-244028 (h) kandjiiu@gmail.com
Colin Nott *Windhoek
264-81-2418778 (c) • 264-61-225085 (h) canott@iafrica.com.na
Wiebke Volkmann Windhoek 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@afol.com.na
NEW ZEALAND
*Christchurch
John King
64-276-737-885 • john@succession.co.nz SOUTH AFRICA
Wayne Knight
Mokopane +27-82-805-3274 (c) wayne@theknights.za.net
Ian Mitchell-Innes
Ladysmith, Kwa-Zulu Natal +27-83-262-9030 • blanerne@mweb.co.za
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TTHHEE MMAA RR KK EE TT PP LL AA CC EE
Resource Management Services, LLC
CORRAL CORRAL DESIGNS DESIGNS
Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 Pasture Scene 505-263-8677 Investigation kirk@rmsgadzia.com www.rmsgadzia.com
How can RMS, LLC help you? On-Site Consulting: All aspects of holistic management, including financial, ecological and human resources. Training Events: Regularly scheduled and customized training sessions provided in a variety of locations. Ongoing Support: Follow-up training sessions and access to continued learning opportunities and developments. Land Health Monitoring: Biological monitoring of rangeland and riparian ecosystem health. Property Assessment: Land health and productivity assessment with recommended solutions.
with Richard McConnell & Tina Williams
Learn how good stockmanship can make your livestock handling experiences how livestock marketing based on today’s price (no crystal ball) can help you realize Holistic Management Certified Educator
Tracy Litle
By World Famous Grandin By World Famous Dr. Dr. Grandin Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals The widecurved curvedLane Lane makes The wide makes filling tubtub easy. fillingthe thecrowding crowding easy.
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Send checks/money order to:
GRANDIN GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS
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2918Fort Silver PlumeCO Dr., Unit C-3 Collins, 80526 Fort970/229-0703 Collins, CO 80526 www.grandin.com 970/229-0703 • www.grandin.com
May / June 2016 h November / December 2019
22IN IN PRACTICE 22 PRACTICE
“Bud Williams” Livestock Marketing & Proper Stockmanship
May 25-26the — 2principles Day Stockmanship Learn of only, Dickinson, ND Holistic Management that
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pril 2013
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HMI at 505/842-5252 or go to our online store at www.holisticmanagement.org/store/
THE MARKETPLACE
Phil Metzger
or
Order online www.acresusa.com or call toll-free 1-800-355-5313
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT®
CORRAL CERTIFIEDDESIGNS EDUCATOR
A unique environmental program designed to teach children about the region where they live, connecting them to the land and a more sustainable future.
JEFF GOEBEL
By World Famous Dr. Grandin Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals The wide curved Lane makes filling Over 35 years of hands-on experience the crowding tub easy. Over 30 years of hands-on with individuals, farms, small experience businesses with individuals, farms, small businesses, Includes detailed forsizes, loading ramp, and groups of all drawings types and including and groups of all types and V chute, round crowd pen, dipsizes. vat, facilitating workshops, training, andgates and •hinges. Plus cell center layouts and one-on-one teaching. Goal setting layouts compatible with electronic sorting Improved decision making •• Goal setting systems. Articles on cattle behavior. Financial planning •• Improved decision making 27 corral layouts. $55. • Grazing planning • Financial planning Low •Stress Handling Video $59. LandCattle assessment • Land assessment checks/money order to: Biological monitoring ••Send Biological monitoring Group&Facilitation •• Land Infrastructure Planning GRANDIN
Let me help you maximize profits, regenerate LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS your land and improve life. 2918 Silver Plumeyour Dr.,quality UnitofC-3 Freeinitial initial phone phone consultation. consultation. Free Fort Collins, CO 80526 Contact Phil Phil at at 607-334-2407 607-316-4182 or Contact or 970/229-0703 pmetzger17@gmail.com. pmetzger17@gmail.com.
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Kids On the Land, Inc.
Helping People Solve Complex Problems ✦ Increase profitability
Kids On the Land is ready for an appearance ✦ Effective conflict in your schoolresolution district. with diverse issues Peggy Maddox can come help your host ✦ Successful achievement landowner goal and school get started. by overcoming limiting beliefs • Make a donation Large planning and •✦Offer yourscale land holistic as a site for a KOL program effective implementation • Become a volunteer Executive Director – Peggy To learn more,Maddox contact: JEFF GOEBEL • 541/610-7084 325/226-3042 goebel@aboutlistening.com peggy@kidsontheland.org www.aboutlistening.com http://kidsontheland.org
Agriculture Consulting
Graeme Hand Helping farms and communities Certified Educator through the holistic • We make sure Holistic lensyouofcananadopt ecologist Management by focusing on your barriers to adoption Educational Programs • •Enterprise re-design to lower risks and while reducing your workload •expenses Group Process Facilitation • Systematic process to determine recovery •and Group and Individual Consultation animal impact on your land • Clear, unambiguous, proven definition of perennial grass recovery that increases Specializing in: ecosystem function • Organic vegetable production • Early warning indicators of animal & •land performance Season extension • Including Multi Species/ Cocktail Cover •Cropping Passive insolar yourgreenhouse grazing planmanagement • •Our training the latest research on Local fooduses systems barriers to adoption •reducing Whole Farm Planning with Holistic (www.CBSM.com) to increase your success ®
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Number 162
IN PRACTICE 23
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
N um ber 188
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Nonprofit U.S POSTAGE
PAID Jefferson City, MO PERMIT 210
Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
a publication of Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 USA
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
please send address corrections before moving so that we do not incur unnecessary postal fees
DEVELOPMENT CORNER Once A Teacher, Always a Teacher
C
athy Semrod is a self-avowed educator. She began her career as a high school English teacher in Sarasota, Florida. “I hate to admit, I had no idea about our food system or soil health or gut health. And though I always had an affinity with nature and walked, ran and biked, I didn’t have a particularly healthy lifestyle. I was eating at McDonald’s every other day and was completely naive about where and how our food was made.” Cathy said. “I was teaching an AP English class and I selected Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I didn’t know to the full extent what was in it and certainly didn’t know how it was going to change the trajectory of my life. I was just hoping to stir ideas up with my students. That book changed my life and gave me an understanding of our food system and the destruction caused by the industrial food system. It was so eye opening and heart breaking to read. I had no idea what was happening to workers in farms and factories or to animals and our soils. And once you Cathy out front of the new have that kind of knowledge you can’t Wallflower store. be in denial. I’ve never had fast food again. I realized what I was supporting when I bought that food, how I was contributing to a system that was poisoning the planet and hurting animals and the soil and our health. “That started me on my journey of learning how we could grow food in a way that was good for the planet. In that exploration I discovered Permaculture and got excited about how we could grow food and use water and other resources sustainably. I learned how we can turn around the industrial food system and make a difference. In the process I learned about Holistic Management. I also became really interested in soils and trained at Earthfort in Corvallis, Oregon and in various workshops including ones with Elaine Ingham. “After I took my first Permaculture class in 2008, I moved around the
Wallflower products. country with a trailer and took Permaculture courses at Oregon State University. I was intent on having a farm and getting a keyline plow. I did this for eight years.” In 2013 Cathy took her first introductory Holistic Management course. “At that time I still thought I was going to farm. The decision-making process has really stuck with me, and I’m always looking for that logjam that is holding me back, or keeping me from moving forward.” Cathy noted it also helped her make better decisions and determine her next career step. Cathy also noted that she has used the process to help her with an outdoor living and garden boutique, “Wallflower” she started in 2017 in Santa Fe. “My vision for Wallflower has always been to use it as a way to educate others about nature and how we can make a difference by learning about it and engaging with it.” The Holistic Management course Cathy took also focused on ecosystem function and health. “The class reinforced how we need to observe nature to understand it, to interact with it. It’s a huge part of what I’m doing now.” In the last year Cathy realized that location was a major logjam for her business. She couldn’t grow the business if people couldn’t find her. “My location was keeping me from getting bigger,” she says. Cathy needed a larger space to fulfill her vision for Wallflower. “With my new location I’ll be able to have the space to show people bird and bee houses and add more products to help get people outside and engaging with our ecosystems that support us. It is a small ripple in the big ocean of transitioning humans to being more supportive of systems that sustain us, but, through my store, I feel sometimes that I am connecting with the folks who are outside the Holistic Management, Permaculture, or
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