Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
MARCH / APRIL 2020
Holistic Management, The Troxler Effect, and Willful Blindness BY ANN ADAMS
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uring the holiday break I went with my grandson, Isaiah, to the children’s museum in Albuquerque called Explora. One of the exhibits was a spinning wheel that was there to demonstrate “The Troxler Effect.” In essence, you could spin a wheel that had alternating red and white lines below a Plexiglas surface upon which you could put various objects. The idea was to focus on the objects and in doing so, the red and white lines would disappear on the spinning wheel. This effect is named after a Swiss philosopher named Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler who noticed this phenomenon in 1804. The cause for this effect is the retina becoming desensitized to stimulus that has become unchanging. Also,
Holistic Land Regeneration INSIDE THIS ISSUE The land regeneration goals of Holistic Management practitioners are usually tied to increasing ground cover and perennial grasses. Read about the efforts of and results on the Tomkat Ranch on page 4, the Lazy M Ranch on page 5, or Greenacres on page 24.
In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International
NUMBER 190
according to the museum docent, this effect is part of the brain’s efforts for efficiency. We pay attention to that which is novel (therefore potentially dangerous). Once we become accustomed to the stimulus, it fades from our memory so our brain doesn’t get overloaded by all stimulus being equal. In this way, what is “known” disappears. The need for the brain to prioritize what it focuses on makes perfect sense, and we know that mindfulness and conscious behavior can influence what the brain focuses on. But, with our busy lives how can we be sure we are being observant to the stimulus around us without narrowing our attention so much that important stimulus “disappears?” I believe Holistic Management provides such a tool for this prioritization through the holistic goal. It creates the “big picture” vision that keeps us focused and paying attention to information that either is helping us create that desired outcome or moves us away from it. It allows us to engage in a holistic thought process rather than a reductionist approach that can result in a narrow focus that leaves out other parts of the picture. Margaret Heffernan author of Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril explains that we ignore information, from our loved ones, investors, or politicians, because of the cognitive limits of our brain: “Whether individual or collective, willful blindness doesn’t have a single driver, but many. It is a human phenomenon to which we
W W W. H O L I S T I C M A N A G E M E N T. O R G
all succumb in matters little and large. We can’t notice and know everything: the cognitive limits of our brain simply won’t let us. That means we have to filter or edit what we take in. So what we choose to let through and to leave out is crucial.” Again, the holistic goal is a vital filter that fulfills the role of determining what we filter or edit through our big picture lens. It helps us avoid the “known blindness” of the Troxler Effect, seeing that which is familiar while focusing on the critical objectives we need to accomplish to move us toward our holistic goal. Because our holistic goal encourages us to pay attention to any information that will help us move toward our vision and values, looking at all the tools available to us to create the outcome we want, we are less susceptible to the willful blindness that can occur when we are focused on what we don’t want.
If you are curious about your response to the Troxler Effect, you can view an example by visiting the webpage: https://www. sciencealert.com/crazy-new-optical-illusionbreaking-internet
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The Power of Holistic Management—
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
The Time is Now BY PHILIPP MAYER
wife, Niina, and moved to Finland, where we later took over my wife’s family farm in March 2015. Now I was running a farm in a land that in many ways was still unknown and strange to me. There was the natural environment that was
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS Walter Lynn, Chair Avery Anderson-Sponholtz, Secretary Gerardo Bezanilla Kirrily Blomfield Kevin Boyer Jonathan Cobb Guy Glosson Ariel Greenwood Colin Nott Daniel Nuckols Breanna Owen Brad Schmidt Jim Shelton Kelly Sidoryk Sarah Williford
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT In Practice (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by: Holistic Management International 2425 San Pedro Dr. NE, Ste A Albuquerque, NM 87110 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: hmi@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2020 Holistic Management® is a registered trademark of Holistic Management International
y first memory is about the beautiful and diverse alpine meadows at my parent’s dairy farm in Austria. I was standing at the edge of one of our hay fields, which for me was a jungle made of violet, white, yellow flowers and grass. I remember the excitement when I walked into it hearing the insects buzzing. Soon after the farm takeover my father started to intensify milk production and started to produce silage instead of hay. Slowly the biodiversity dropped and there were little flowers and insects left. With the intensification not only diversity was decreasing but also our family’s quality of life and my own interest in agriculture. Altogether I studied 11 years of agriculture. First there was five years at a higher agricultural Philipp Mayer and his wife, Niina, took over Mantere Farm in school and then six years more South Finland in spring 2015. Philipp has finished the HMI at the University of Applied Life Practitioner Level Training in summer 2019. He was then Sciences in Vienna and the accepted into HMI’s Certified Educator Program. Mantereen University College for Agrarian and Tila is Europe´s first HMI Learning site. Environmental Pedagogy. My main studies were Organic Agriculture and Agricultural completely different than what I was used to. I Teaching and Advisory. I was taught how to did not know the language well enough; I did produce, how to get the most out of inputs, not understand the social environment, I did not how to market products and how to transfer have good networks to support me, and also my knowledge. But I was never really taught how skills as an entrepreneur were not yet fully up for to partner up with nature, how to create a the task. balanced, flexible, resilient and profitable farm We had about 120 ha (300 acres) of arable enterprise and certainly not how to aim for a land, 22 milking cows and about the same balanced life. number of heifers and calves, some farm At the end of my studies I fell in love with my tourism, a cowshed that was too old to shed any
FEATURE STORIES
LAND & LIVESTOCK
NEWS & NETWORK
The Power of Holistic Management— The Time is Now
Graze the Prairie— Creating a Successful Grassfed Business on Leased Land
Program Roundup................................................... 19
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS......................................................... 8
From the Board Chair.............................................. 20
Deep Root Ranch— Growing Grass and Changing Minds in South Dakota
Certified Educators.................................................. 21
PHILIPP MAYER........................................................................... 2
Increasing Perennial Grasses at Tomkat Ranch
ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 4
Lazy M Ranch— A Regenerative Agriculture Experiment
ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 5
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HEATHER SMITH THOMAS....................................................... 11
Grapevine................................................................ 20
Marketplace............................................................. 22 Development Corner............................................... 24
animals, too much work and no money at hand. We knew that something had to change. We had a vision of a farm that would provide our family a good life and steady income, while taking good care of our environment. We did not want to sacrifice our family life, marriage and health to the farm like both of our parents had done. We did not want the farm to run us; we wanted to run the farm. We had many fresh ideas but there was still something missing.
was true, good, and beautiful to me, but rather to improve not only our circumstances, but also stuck with my peers and enjoyed my status as a theirs. I understand my zone of influence and “normal” farmer with a somehow innovative and by doing so could improve my positive impact open spin. on my direct surroundings. I practice leading In 2018 after seven years of hard agricultural by example as this is far more powerful than work, learning a new language, adapting to complaining about circumstances that are not in a new culture and taking care of my family, our sphere of influence. I had to confess to myself, with some reluctance, that I was depressed and burned out. I realized that I compromised for too long and had injured my integrity. The Road to Holistic This was the year where I decided to Management put all my chips on the table. I stopped Tuomas Mattila, a friend, fellow organic waiting for the right time and made it farmer and Holistic Management® Certified the right time. I finished my Holistic Educator introduced Holistic Management® to Management® practitioner level training us in 2016, one year after our farm take-over. in 2019. I stopped grain production the We had just stopped milk production and started same year after yielding my best harvest to raise Highland cattle. We became part of his without the use of a plough and only two learning group and started to work with Holistic weeks without plant cover. I sold all my Soil health takes center stage at the Mantere Farm. Management®. The principles, practices and major grain production equipment and The well-being of plants, animals, humans are all processes that we learned about rang true to did not renew the rental contract for the based on the health of our soils. A farm enterprise´s us. We started to create our holistic goal, a grain dryer. I bought fencing material and long lasting success is dependent on its healthy soils. management inventory, and engaged in financial built a water trailer so I could considerably and grazing planning. We did what we thought improve our grazing practices. The decision-making testing questions help we could do with the time we had, but did not In autumn 2019 I got accepted into HMI’s us to take decisions in an informed, balanced yet explore and utilize Holistic Management´s Certified Educator Program and applied to and rational way that still takes our felt sense full potential. be a Finnish Agricultural Adviser. At the same into the equation. By doing so our decisions are time, I received our HMI more effective and efficient. Learning Site status, an Holistic Management® Financial Planning honor that we will humbly has helped us to identify our log jam, adverse try to live up to in the factor, and our enterprises weak links. We years to come. constantly decrease our production costs (-40% comparing 2015 to 2018) and constantly Holistic increase our profit before taxes (+48% Management comparing 2016 to 2018) and our net worth IN PRACTICE (+7% comparing begin to end of 2019). It has Holistic Management® helped us to eliminate unprofitable enterprises has helped me to take (e.g.: grain) and to create new ones by using responsibility not only for our creativity and unfair advantages (e.g.: travel our farm enterprise but agency). By applying Holistic Management® my life here in Finland in Financial Planning we are able to develop our general. I opened a new farm towards our future vision while making a chapter and began to fair profit. tell my story. It changed All this would not have been possible by Holistic Planned Grazing has helped to achieve good herd my perspective and let using financial advisory services as they too performance in a drought year while improving plant cover, plant me engage into a new often work with common assumptions and diversity and water infiltration. exiting and promising politically tainted motivations. The human factor I just was getting a feel of what it meant to be agricultural paradigm. I took control over my and insight view of the unique farm enterprise a farmer in Finland and was not yet fully ready farm by managing it adaptively in partnership is missing. Too often advisory services are still to go against the grain. I just had learned all the with nature. Additionally, I feel blessed to be built on top down power dynamics and see dos and don´ts and was not ready for a new part of an inspiring global network of qualified the farmer as ignorant actor that needs to be paradigm, possible conflict and explanations. people with an uplifting and innovative but educated, rather than an expert of their farm So, I kept growing grain as it was custom, even still grounded, science-based, and realistic enterprise in search of expertise to lift their if it was unprofitable and consumed our soil’s perspective on what it means to be a farmer. enterprise to the next level. Holistic Financial fertility and a big share of my time—time that Practically, Holistic Management® has helped Planning fundamentally is based on the I could have spent with my family, in the office us to create a common vision in which wellexpertise, inside view, and creativity of farmers working on my business, and at our pastures being takes center stage. We want us, our soils, and does encourage them to take responsibility improving our soils. I did not prioritize on what animals and customers to be part of this vision CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 N um ber 190
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The Power of Holistic Management
there was no need to cut weeds as they were consumed by the cattle and over-seeding will be reduced if not eliminated by 2020, which saves us money and time. There is still plenty of room for improvement, and we look forward to different experiments.
Increasing Perennial Grasses at Tomkat Ranch
determine how the ranch’s land management practices influence water, soil, birds, and plant communities. TKR is located in a Mediterranean climate and the bulk of their precipitation (averaging 29.5 inches annually) falls during the cool months of late fall through early spring. Their grasslands are dominated by annual non-native grass species, with some native perennial grasses, mostly purple needlegrass and California oatgrass. The ranch is 1,800 acres with ~800 acres of grazable rangelands and the rest steep landscapes dominated by brush or forest. On its rangelands, TKR runs around 100–150 animal units that include cow/calf pairs, stockers, and
will increase our farm size by 30%. Testing the decision and knowing that we have all the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 tools to manage the land regeneratively and financially made us even more secure that rather than to trust in often incompletely renting the fields will bring us closer to our informed outsight opinions. future vision and helps us to create the farm of Holistic Management® Grazing our dreams. Planning has helped us to lift our Biological monitoring has grazing to a new level. When we brought me back to the ground also started in 2015, desirable plants mentally. It made me feel connected in our paddocks were overgrazed with the nature again and in a new and weeds overrested. As a result, way. I felt dopamine levels rising ecosystem health of our pastures when smelling chocolate-cake-like was suboptimal - the land was healthy soil. It became clear to me degenerating. We had a lot of bare how connected we are to soil and ground, weeds, and no balanced age the web of life it inhabits. I learned composition of the desired plants. tools to evaluate the health of the Our grazing season was about two ecosystem processes surrounding weeks shorter, animal performance us, and I am able to monitor what worse, even if our stocking rate kind of influence our management was lower. We did over-seeding in has. As a result of this powerful spring and had to cut the overrested experience I will increase the weeds once or twice during the number of transects on our farm in ® Holistic Management has positively changed the way Niina and grazing season. Philipp see their farm enterprise and the opportunities that come with 2020. I also took a Kiss the Ground In 2019 I did our first Holistic it. The holistic goal has given them a common vision in which well-be- soil advocacy course to improve Grazing Plan and we started to my understanding on soil health. ing takes center stage and the testing questions help them to make move our cattle ever day using Further, our learning site educational balanced decisions that are more effective and efficient. electric fence to subdivide our old program will have a heavy focus on paddocks. We increased our stocking rate by The Holistic Land Planning Process soil health that will allow people to experience about 20% compared to 2018. At the same time, has made us see our farm from a different farming from the healthy soil up. we reduced bare ground and weeds and saw perspective. Zooming out made totally new Thinking about the future, I envision green desired young grasses and legumes germinate. thought patterns possible and brought new meadows, insects buzzing in the fields, cows The power that lays in succession become long-term solutions to the table as it clarified grazing year around while expressing their full true to us. Our animals performed better, and our vision. Further it showed us how powerful cowness, customers enjoying our products and their behavior changed. They were calmer and it is to involve a group with its brainpower services, and us living a meaningful life. In my fully focused on grazing, keeping their heads into a planning process and made us aware thoughts I go back to the days of my childhood, down. In autumn and earlier winter, our pastures of helpful concepts such as Keyline design towards my first memory standing at the edge of showed a healthy green color due the balanced and Permaculture. the hay field. I understand now that this memory distribution of dung and urine. Water infiltration After completing the land planning process, was always with me for a reason. It should be improved. We noticed more birds in number we confidently engaged into negotiations the blueprint for my future farm and Holistic and diversity than the years before. Additionally, about renting 40 ha fields (100 acres) which Management is the tool that helps me build it.
BY ANN ADAMS
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omKat Ranch (TKR), near Pescadero, California, is a working grass-fed cattle ranch and learning laboratory focused on researching and sharing the benefits of regenerative ranching. They have partnered with Point Blue Conservation Science, previously known as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, to provide the rigorous research necessary to 4 IN PRACTICE
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Tomkat Ranch has increased their stock density to 100,000–150,000 pounds/acre which has improved their forage composition. CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
Lazy M Ranch—
A Regenerative Agriculture Experiment BY ANN ADAMS
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n 2013 Shawn Howard was ready for a change. He had worked in the construction industry for 17 years, but when the construction company he had been working for left town, he bought a local coffee shop, Elevation, in Taos, New Mexico that was for sale. But as a man who likes to work with his hands, he also needed a bigger project—a 230-acre ranch in nearby Angel Fire, New Mexico. During the first six years of this
A great deal of bare ground in May 2016 on the mountain meadow, sub-irrigated pasture as a result of cattle and elk overgrazing. regenerative agriculture experiment, Shawn has seen some great forage production improvement that makes him continue to explore how he can improve ecosystem function on the Lazy M Ranch. The property had originally been sub-divided for development into 10-acre ranchettes. As luck would have it, the company who owned the development needed to sell it as part of their bankruptcy so Shawn purchased the property. He then had to vacate the subdivision to return it to agricultural land. This was an important step in protecting the land and saving it as agricultural land that could be used to grow food. “I wanted a project that let me work with the land and I wanted a blank slate,” says Shawn. “In 2014 I started building three miles of outside 8-foot high fence to make the whole place elkproof. Every weekend or day off I came to work on the place. My ultimate goal was to watch
things grow back because this ground had been hammered by cattle, elk, and prairie dogs. I grew up in Alaska, so I only knew about open range and I needed some help. I was watching some videos online and I saw Allan Savory’s TED Talk. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. I finally understood the principles of rest and stock density.” In 2016 Shawn reached out to HMI for some help in developing a grazing strategy for the 2016 growing season (mid-May to the end of September) with a long-term focus on: 1. Regenerating bare ground, with a focus on the area between the main ranch road and the perennial creek 2. Bringing back the native grasses 3. Increasing the productivity of the land
A closer look at the bare ground on the mountain meadows in 2016.
The stream banks through the property were getting undercut because there was little vegetation to hold soil or slow water in this picture taken May 2016. grow grass again. And it did take some time. I’ve had to learn patience working with the land. It’s like with the cover crop. I was told by Greencover Seed not to expect much in the first year after you plant. But, by the third year there is an explosion of growth.” Prior to the installation of the 8-foot elk proof fencing, 100-150 elk continuously grazed much of the property, resulting in large patches of bare ground, and an environment conducive to prairie dogs. This was on top of the historic use of the ranch for 200 yearlings during the growing season.
Grazing Strategies
Given Shawn’s commitment to regenerate Shawn had already set up a lease his land, and a willingness to put time agreement to have 35 stockers (average weight and resources (such as hay, fencing and 500#) to be delivered on May 12th. They had watering supplies), the grazing strategies not been handled much and had a large flight zone and would need to be trained to electric fences. Likewise, Shawn had already installed the 8-foot perimeter elk fencing to prevent wildlife overgrazing. Over half of the acreage was bare ground or severely degraded land with unpalatable forage. HMI’s Program Director, Kathy Harris, told Shawn that with proper care and time the land would come back. “I didn’t This picture shows the amount of bare ground on the mountain believe her,” said Shawn. meadows portion of the property. “I couldn’t believe that bare ground would ever CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 N um ber 190
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Lazy M Ranch
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discussed included: • Hay needs for the herd, leaving some residue, at an average of 10 bales (60# bales) a day for about 60-70 days for a total of 36,000-42,000 pounds (a total of 60,000 pounds were purchased and fed during a three week period) • To provide intense animal impact on an approximately 33-acre area of mostly bare ground, the appropriate paddock size is about 60’ x 300’ per day, moved daily. While Shawn varied the dimensions as needed, he did move daily and kept to this
approximate amount of space. This extra time allowed for more recovery and growth time for the grasses along the perennial creek. • Grazing across the creek in small strips in an upstream manner to provide the cleanest water for the calves and get some animal impact on streambed cutting. This resulted in the stream banks having more of a slope and less of a steep cut with more opportunity for new grasses to take hold and mature. • Graze areas of grass with the goal of ”take half, leave half”. In this way, Shawn looked to make sure he wasn’t seeing a lot of bare ground and that there was good
forage residual. Shawn used permanent electric fencing to create four main pastures from which he could develop smaller pastures with temporary fencing with a single hotwire fence with step in posts. He then made daily moves to increase forage utilization and herd effect while allowing for full recovery of the property for a full year before the area was grazed again. Efforts were made to protect the stream given the severe cuts already evidenced from heavy run off cutting through the soil. Shawn continued to learn as much as he could over the next couple years as he continued the same cattle lease. “Over the last four years I’ve read 20 books about regenerative
This area was one of the more productive areas of the mountain meadows in 2016. Notice shortness of forage.
Note the amount of vegetation in 2019 holding soil in place on stream banks. Likewise, stream bank cuts have been improved with cattle creating a slope for vegetation to grow.
Upper portions of the property had some older grass, but most of the forage was closely grazed in 2016.
While not all cover crop germinated in the spring of 2019, much did come up adding carbon and root mass to the soil for subsequent crops.
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agriculture,” says Shawn. “What I got clear about is how you’ve got to hold onto the soil and it will sequester the carbon and help with water retention in the soil. I didn’t have any pre-conceived notions about ranching so I was an open book.” In May 2019 Shawn felt the grass needed more time, so he changed his grazing lease for the cattle to come in September for two months. “That way I could really let the roots grow more.” says Shawn. “I’m the one that moves the cattle every day and hauls water since I haven’t gotten the water system in yet. When I get a well put in, I’ll be able to have more water for the animals. Right now we are limited.” Shawn had been hauling 500 gallons of
water a day for the 35 steers that he had been running. He has a temporary electric fence set up which he can do while the water is filling in the water truck. It took a total of 40 minutes a day to move everything, but with a new water system he has recently put in this amount should go down to 20 minutes/day. Also, in November 2018 he drilled in a cover crop mix with triticale and another one with cereal rye, legumes, and brassicas. He wanted to jump start the soil biology and add more biomass along with the weeds that the cattle have learned to eat as they had originally not had as much grass to eat. While elk had been a challenge in the past with as many as 500 overgrazing the ranch,
with the elk-proof fence that has not been an issue. However, prairie dogs continue to denude the area, even heavily grazing the cover crop in certain areas. Shawn is excited to see the coyotes coming back (perhaps one prairie dog deterrent). He notes that he used to shoot them but now understands they are an important part of the ecosystem. Shawn is committed to experimenting with other techniques and learning what works and what doesn’t in this arid environment. He’s pleased that the grasses have come back and is eager to reduce bare ground and create a landscape that would be used to grow local food and for others to learn about regenerative practices.
Cover crops of triticale, rye, and clover responded well in some areas along with an explosion of meadow brome grass in July 2019.
This picture contrasts to the 2016 mountain meadow picture. While there is still bare ground, there is a great deal more forage available for cattle.
This picture taken in July 2019 shows some of the mountain meadow area that has not been intensively grazed or had cover crops drilled has still gained from removed elk pressure so that native forbs have been able to establish.
While Shawn has been able to fence out elk, he can’t fence out prairie dogs. However, while they are keeping the grasses grazed closely, there is still ground cover around their holes. N um ber 190
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Graze the Prairie—
Creating a Successful Grassfed Business on Leased Land BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
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eith Long didn’t grow up ranching, but early on chose it as a career. “My parents lived in town, but my grandfather had a farm. We spent a lot of time there, when I was growing up. I didn’t have as much interest in agriculture and cattle during those years, however, until I went to college. I decided to major in animal science and graduated from Kansas State University, and then did my masters studies at Colorado State University in animal genetics,” he says.
“I realized I needed to do something different, and by that time I was ready to go out on my own anyway. I came to Kansas to work for a ranch near Sedan, Kansas and that lasted a couple years. Then in 2012 my wife and I were able to get a lease here on Pete Ferrell’s ranch where we are now, just south of Beaumont, Kansas, for our own herd, and have been utilizing Holistic Management for all our decision-making processes and especially the grazing,” says Keith. Linda also took Kirk Gadzia’s six-day class Holistic Management class, and they both went to the J.E Canyon Ranch three-day workshop in 2019. “The first time, with Kirk, was when I realized this was what we should be doing,” says Linda. “Keith said that I’ve been holistic-minded my whole life, but just didn’t have a term for it. This was an eye-opener for me. My background is in the hotel and restaurant business, and even before I went to Kirk’s class we had decided to start direct marketing beef. I’d made a big transition from the hotel and restaurant business, to work with Keith full-time and this was a lot of fun,” she says. “I have also been taking HMI’s Distance Learning courses and I have become a Certified Holistic Management Practitioner and we are an HMI Learning Site.”
Grazing Planning to Improve Pastures
Keith and Linda are leasing about 2,400 acres and use a holistic grazing plan to improve pasture productivity. “We use the HMI Grazing Planning software that Ralph Tate developed for our program. At the beginning of the growing season, which is roughly May 1st through the end of October, we have a plan in place. In April we plan our moves through the whole season, moving backward so that we will be sure to have the cattle in the right place at the right time,” Keith says.
Keith setting some of the temporary electric fence they use to create 120 paddocks. Keith managed part of the Bell Ranch in New Mexico for a number of years, and while he was there he was part of several meetings looking at changing the grazing programs about 20 years ago. “We ended up contacting HMI to see if we could get someone from that organization to come out to the ranch and help us go forward with our grazing program. At that time we weren’t thinking so much about Holistic Management, but Allan Savory was still there doing schools at Albuquerque, so he and a couple other guys flew out to the ranch on several occasions. We had meetings with all the ranch crew, and Allan gave us his power point presentations,” Keith says. “This is how I got an interest in Holistic Management—the whole process and not just the grazing. It involved goal setting, financial planning, etc. This made more of an impression on me than it did on a lot of the guys who worked there, and I took hold of those ideas and have been utilizing them ever since,” he says. Then in 2007 the owners were talking about selling the Bell Ranch. 8 Land & Livestock
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The Longs are breeding their cattle for maximum grass-based genetics. They have a combination of Black and Red Angus, British White, and Murray Grey. “During the growing season we generally make two rotations through the whole cell. The first rotation, depending on rainfall of course, takes
about 60 days, and the next rotation is about 120 days—for our 180-day growing season. The first time around, when the grass is growing fastest, we move the cattle every other day. We have 90-acre paddocks that we split up with temporary electric fence. The second time around we make those temporary paddocks a lot smaller and move them every day, with a lot more paddocks, which basically means 121 paddocks,” he explains. In October or early November they estimate how much forage they have left, for the dormant season. “Once we have that figured out, we plan our dormant season grazing moves, according to what we have available.” This varies a lot from year to year, and weather conditions. Keith notes there are multiple benefits to the way they graze and why he is willing to move so much fence—including more stock days available, more plant recovery, and healthier swards. “Because of the planned grazing, the forage species now have a chance to express themselves more visually,” says Keith. “A lot of them are forbs, like hairy aster, aromatic aster, wild quinine, scurfpea, and lead plant to name a few. All the ragweeds are larger, taller and more robust, and while the cattle don’t eat all of them, they all provide seeds for quail and other grassland birds. We have almost no bare ground, and that can be quantified through our bullseye data the past five or so years.
building and removing fence, it is two to three hours a day, but I often put up multiple paddocks some days, so some days I just roll up one strand and go on. My longest run here is only about 3,000 feet, so it might be more time consuming if your runs are longer.
Linda checking on the Long’s cattle which are gentle and used to daily moves. “The economic benefit is the ability to run more animals on the same amount of land. We are running around 80 stock days to the acre on a year round basis, without much hay.” Keith estimates that if he combines his growing and dormant season grazing numbers his average stocking rate for the year would be 6.25 acres per SAU year round. In that area, the average stocking rate is 10 acres to the animal, so with planned grazing Keith and Linda have increased their stock density by 60% over the area average. Even with this increased stocking rate, the Longs are leaving a lot of forage behind. Keith thinks that they could easily reach running over 400 animal units in the future. In addition, they are getting 4 pounds a day of gain in the spring with the current system they are running as they aim for close to 30,000 pounds of stock density by the second time they are going through the paddocks. Based on stock days per acre calculations they are also achieving over 3,500 pounds of forage grown per acre. With a healthy forage stand they can graze almost year round with some protein supplement while their neighboring operations are often feeding hay every other day for 150 days during the winter.
Grass-based Genetics
Pasture and soil health is important to the Longs who formally monitor their pastures at least once a year. “A lot of people do ask about how much time it will take to move fence. I usually answer by telling them that all my cows are in one place and I can check them in 15 minutes, and then ask them how long it takes them to ride multiple pastures hunting for cows. But as far as actual time
The main herd is cow-calf, but there are always some stockers, with yearlings and long yearlings, to produce grassfed beef for market. “We sell grassfed beef and grassfed lamb. We have a leader-follower situation where the cows and calves follow the finishing steers in the rotation. The two-year-old steers are getting the best grass—in front of the cows a paddock or two. They are two years old before they go to the processor,” says Keith. The cows are mostly high-percentage Red Angus with some Hereford in the background. “We have a few Black Angus cows as well, but they are mostly Red Angus crosses. For years we used nothing but Red Angus CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
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Graze the Prairie
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Multi-Species Grazing
The Longs added sheep to their program in 2017. Currently the sheep are on a separate place, however, about 60 miles south of the cattle. bulls on our cows then thought we were getting too much Red Angus “Linda’s son and his wife take care of the sheep. The only reason that they blood in the herd. are separate is because there are some bison grazing the ranch next to “About four years ago we bought some British White bulls and used our cattle. Sheep carry a virus called malignant catarrhal fever and even them for a couple years, and then we added some Murray Grey bulls. So though it doesn’t affect the sheep, they can transmit it to bison, and it can right now we are using British White and Murray Grey bulls on the Red be very serious in bison. Unfortunately there are bison right across the Angus cross cows. We’ve added some of those British White and Murray road from where our cows are, and this is why we don’t have the sheep Grey heifers into the herd, but not that many yet.” with the cows,” Keith says. The goal is to keep selecting for efficient grass-based genetics that “At the end of 2019, those bison are supposed to be gone somewhere finish well on grass. “We don’t feed them any grain, but they get an alfalfa else, and then we can put our sheep out with the cows, and manage them cube as a supplement in the winter. Other than that, they are wintering on native prairie grass. If we do get a lot of snow that covers up the grass, we together. They will just stay with the cows and be little woolly cows. At this do have access to some hay we can feed them, but we try not to feed very point in time we only have about 25 ewes, but when we bring them here to go out with the cows we will ramp up the sheep numbers and have at least much hay through the winter. We are trying to select for cows that can do 100 to 150 ewes,” he says. it on their own and don’t take a “We don’t start lambing until lot of inputs. It’s just the two of the first of May. The weather us, my wife and I, taking care of is usually pretty decent by the the cattle,” he says. time we get to May. The ewes They don’t have any fulltime we bought were Dorset crosses, help—just occasional day-help and we’ve been using nothing when needed—so they want but hair sheep (Katahdin) rams. trouble-free cattle. “When they If we had 800 or 900 ewes, are calving I go out and check the wool business might make them once a day, but we don’t sense, but with just a handful of watch them at night. Even the ewes we are sticking with the heifers have to calve on their hair sheep because the meat is own, and fortunately they do. The Longs checking cattle and pastures with friends and family. good. These crossbred lambs We don’t have much trouble have a mild flavor—and not the with them,” says Keith. gamey taste that a lot of people associate with lamb. Our customers really The cows are still calving a little bit earlier than he wants them to. like our lamb so this is a good cross,” Keith says. “They start about the first of April, with a handful coming early (end of March). I’d rather back it up a month and calve in May, but that means Expanding Direct Marketing turning the bulls out with the cows in the middle of July when it is really Linda is in charge of the direct marketing for their grassfed beef and hot—temperatures above 100 degrees and humidity at 70%. There’s no lamb. “We use social media and e-mail a lot, for marketing purposes,” perfect time, so we’ve made a compromise and calve in April.” It probably she says. “We also sell directly through two farmers’ markets in Wichita takes a little more feed than it would if they waited until May to start year round.” calving, but the compromise works. Currently Linda is working on their website and changing the platform Weaning is generally in December—usually sometime between for their online store. “This will hopefully be more effective for our direct Thanksgiving and Christmas. “We do fenceline weaning, which is fairly marketing. I am also going to offer pre-orders at the farmers’ market, and low stress. We don’t sell any calves at weaning, so we are not in a big bring the meat to surrounding areas for two drops per week,” Linda says. rush to wean them. The weaned calves are not kept in pens; we run them This simplifies the meat pickup for their customers because they live so on native range through the winter—forage that was left over from the far away. growing season,” he says. “Wichita is our closest city, but it’s still an hour away, and we can’t “The 2-year-old steers that we are trying to finish for grassfed beef expect people to drive clear out here to buy their meat so we take it to are sent to central Kansas for winter and they go onto some cover crops (more nutrient-dense forage) at a farm. We bring them back about the first them,” she explains. “There is a huge local food movement going on right now and we are of May and finish them on native pasture during the peak of the growing season. Usually by the first of May we have some pretty good green grass glad to be part of this. It’s kind of fun to watch how people are becoming more educated about the difference between industrial agriculture and coming on,” Keith explains. They are working to have 1100-pound steers small farms and grassfed businesses. More and more consumers want when they market them. some kind of connection with their food, knowing where it comes from, Some years are better than others, but this area of Kansas has more along with the health benefits.” reliable rainfall than New Mexico or some other western states. “We’ve With this growing market for local food, the Longs are in a good had some dry years, but drought for us is still about 12 to 13 inches of position to continue to increase the animals they are running and sell into rain.” Average rainfall is considered 37 inches. that market as they create a successful grassfed enterprise on The cattle are handled with low stress methods, and they move and leased land. handle easily when they are being moved this often.
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Deep Root Ranch—
Growing Grass and Changing Minds in South Dakota BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
D
oug Sieck and his wife, Merilee, live in north-central South Dakota, not far from where he grew up. “We are about 25 miles from the North Dakota border and about 10 miles east of the Missouri River. There is a lot of variety in the soils and terrain in this area. I grew up on a mostly farming operation with a few cows. Where I currently live, we have some pasture there. It’s hilly, rugged land that is not conducive to farming, but makes good native pasture,” he says. That’s why Doug has been working to turn most of his cropland back into grassland. That transition has also led Doug to learn more about how to make winter work easier so he can sustain his ranch longer as well as be more profitable.
“We ended up selling the place in 2007 to Basin Electric. This changed my situation from being in debt to having some capital to work with. Doing the typical rancher thing, I turned around and bought another place, so I was back in debt! It was good debt, however; it was land debt. I was fortunate to be able to buy the land just before land values went up. I got to farm and run cattle during a time of good prices—when a person really had to screw up to screw up! But I still wanted more grass and less farm ground; I was still planting cropland back to grass,” he says.
The Courage to Change
About that time, Doug went to the South Dakota Grasslands Coalition (SDGC) Grazing School in Oacoma, South Dakota. “I thought I knew quite a bit about grazing and cattle, but came away from that school realizing there was still a lot more to learn,” says Doug. “I discovered that there is
Starting Over
The farm where Doug grew up was fairly small. He went to college and came back and started helping his parents. “There was never quite enough there for all of us,” says Doug. “In the early 1990s I started a little welding business out of our shop, to help make ends meet. The welding was working, but the farming at that time was eating up all the welding money. “I got to thinking about this. At that time, I wasn’t making very much money farming and wasn’t making very much money with grass and cattle. I realized that if I wasn’t going to make very much money in agriculture, I would rather try to make money doing something I liked.” Because he enjoyed the cattle, he started planting more of the cropland back to grass, with the intention of running more cattle. In terms of farming, he doesn’t mind planting and harvest, but doesn’t like spraying and buying all the necessary inputs. He started converting cropland back to grass in the mid-1990s, doing a little each year. It was a 3,000-acre operation and he planted about 1,000 acres back to grass and some alfalfa-wheatgrass combinations. “Many farm and ranch stories have a twist in them that people don’t talk about very much,” says Doug. “The twist on mine was that in about 2006 my dad approached me and told me that Basin Electric wanted to buy the place to put up a coal-fired power plant. We had a decision to make, but it wasn’t really a hard one at that time. The place had been in the family since my great-grandfather bought it, but it wasn’t paying the bills. I was already thinking I would probably have to switch to something else.
Merilee and Doug Sieck a lot more to this picture that I don’t understand and didn’t know about. Before I went to that school, I had a pasture setup that was divided, and ran the cows through there rotationally during summer. Then at the end of the year I’d just open the gates and let them have all of it, and kind of shot myself in the foot doing that. “At the grazing school one of the things I came away appreciating more was the value of rest in the grazing plan. I also came away with the ability to make a grazing plan and to understand the reasons behind it. The SDGC really got me thinking.” About that same time the South Dakota No-Till Association sponsored a bus tour to North Dakota, to tour the Burleigh County Conservation District’s test plots. “They didn’t have the Menoken Farm yet, at that time, but they had some test plots and I got to meet Jay Fuhrer,” says Doug. “We also went out to Gabe Brown’s place and it was in the early fall. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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I remember him standing in a warm-season cover crop mix that came up to his chest. He said they were planting these cover crops and buying less fertilizer and less chemical and had all this vegetation. That really appealed to me.” The tour included another farm near Linton, North Dakota. Seeing these examples planted seeds in his mind. Many of the changes he’s made that have improved soil health on his place can be attributed to the ideas he picked up there. “They gave me the ideas and the courage to make those changes,” says Doug. “I came back from that tour the last week in September. The first week in October I planted winter triticale and hairy vetch in a soybean field we’d just combined. So 2007 was my first stab at this cover crop idea. I also threw in some turnips just because they sounded kind of fun.” Doug was one of the first farmers in his county to plant anything like that. “When I went into the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office to certify
to make enough changes on my own place that I could appreciate being around groups of people thinking along those same lines.” He went to that Holistic Management school and it further influenced how he did things. When he came home from that school he started moving his cows every day. “I don’t do that anymore, except for certain times of the year. I move daily when grazing standing corn and sometimes when grazing high yielding warm season cover crop mixes, but the rest of the year I do move them frequently. Ian Mitchell Innes taught the school and said people could make great increases in production by moving cattle every day—more production with the same number of cattle and same acres of pasture—and I was interested in that enough to try it,” he says. He did that in one series of pastures for five years but didn’t see huge increases in production like Ian talked about, but did see some benefits. There was more plant diversity and an increase in some of the native plants like big bluestem, and more of it going to seed. The big bluestem spread, and more Indian grass appeared—expanding from one small area into a couple acres. It is now scattered around in more places and keeps
Doug learned the value of cattle grazing corn from HMI Certified Educator Terry Gompert. Winter feed costs can be 50 cents/day per cow.
those acres, they said, ‘You planted WHAT?’ They had to scramble to figure out how to classify that crop. They weren’t quite sure how to handle that, those first few years, and made a lot of phone calls to classify it the way they needed to. Now, however, if you have a field of cover crops, they know what it is! Those years were educational and fun,” he says. Then in 2009, he got a postcard from the SDGC. They were sponsoring the Holistic Management school, and it was in Oacoma again. “I was kind of leery about going, because when I thought about ‘holistic’ I pictured farmers in floppy hats and bib overalls,” says Doug. “I was hesitant to go, but I went because I had a lot of respect for the SDGC. I felt that if they were sponsoring this, it might be worthwhile. I’d already started 12
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growing. The long rest periods were helping make physical changes in the pasture. “I was still planting more cropland back to grass and alfalfa. Then two years ago it was really dry here. I didn’t have to sell any cows; I just kept rotating them through the grass on the home place—which is a couple miles from the Lowry pasture—but rotating them through the grass and the cover crops I’d planted, and was able to give what used to be my main pasture a year off. We didn’t graze it at all, that dry year. At the end of the year, looking back on that, we realized this was pretty significant,” he says. “Granted, we were grazing some acres of grass that we didn’t have before (land that used to be in crops, that we’d planted to grass) but this
was still a dramatic change. A few years earlier if we’d had a year that dry, we would have been out of feed and selling some cows,” he says. The change in grazing management gave those pastures more resiliency in dry years. “My production hasn’t doubled or tripled like Ian talked about at that school, but we have increased production maybe 15 to 20%. Maybe I didn’t do it right. When I first did daily moves I was more desperate to
Cover crops have come a long way since Doug began experimenting with them in 2007. Now his neighbors are using this soil fertility practice and Doug is excited about learning other techniques to improve the profitability of his cattle operation. prove that it would show increased production so I grazed it down quite a ways. I had confidence that I could graze it hard and it would come back OK if I gave it a whole year off for recovery. It did come back OK, but I wonder if it would have come back better if I’d grazed it lighter.” Today he uses three- to seven-day moves, on average moving the main herd of cows about every four days. On the home place he is grazing patches that he used to cut for hay and are now planted back to grass. “The cattle seem to be doing OK, but I also changed how I feed during winter. I kept hearing about bale grazing but was hesitant to try it because it seemed like the cows would waste a lot of hay,” he says.
a sled to move the poly wire. If there was quite a bit of snow I could get around pretty well with the snowmobile and it worked, but sometimes the sled would tip over. So then I bought tracks for the 4-wheeler and that made it much easier. Snow is not an issue and I can also chug through mud or water pretty well,” says Doug. Doug continued to bale graze, and it was handy sometimes being able to put out several weeks’ worth at a time. “Meri and I had some health issues three winters ago and were going to be down at Sioux Falls quite a while,” says Doug. “We had snow, so I called a couple neighbors and they brought their loaders over. I took my stack mover and tractor and carried stacks out to them and they helped me set up a month’s worth for bale grazing because we didn’t know how long we were going to be gone. We just poly-wired that area in half, to give the cows two weeks’ worth at a time.” Sieck feels that bale grazing has improved the soil and production in those areas. On the dry year a couple years ago, it was easy to tell where he’d been bale grazing. “There was green grass about knee high in those spots, whereas 15 to 20 feet away where there had been no bales, it was significantly drier and the grass not so good,” he says. The litter and nutrients (urine/manure from the cattle) in that 30-foot bale circle where the cows were eating helped the soil, and that much additional organic matter also helps hold more moisture. The nutrients and moisture stay there instead of running off, which also helps with water quality issues. “We still do the bale grazing and also graze corn,” says Doug. “About 12 years ago Terry Gompert made a swing through the northern part of the state on a tour sponsored by the SDGC. I listened to him at Mobridge and the next day went over and listened to him again at Ipswich (the next tour stop) because it takes a couple days for things to sink in. We don’t get to hear people that think like that, very often. One of the things Terry talked about was grazing standing corn in the winter, and doing one-day moves, like I used to do with the pastures in the summer. “Terry told us we could do this for about 50 cents per cow per day for winter feed; it’s very reasonable. He said there is just as much corn stover in a field as there is corn grain and the math is easy. You just estimate how many bushels per acre you have out there and allocate the day’s
Frugal Winter Feed
Doug was going to North Dakota as often as he could, to participate in tours, whether it was summer or winter. “There were some folks at those tours who came from North Dakota and Canada, and the Canadians are way ahead of us on bale grazing—and frugal winter feeding,” says Doug. “They make it work, in harsh conditions. Gabe Brown was talking about bale grazing; he’d been doing it, and putting out a weeks’ worth of hay at a time or 10 days’ worth. We also ran into a guy from Canada at one of those meetings and talked with him at lunch afterward. He was telling us that he puts out a month’s worth of hay at a time. If he needed to feed his herd three bales a day he would put out 90 bales for the whole month and it worked out fine. “I came away from that tour thinking that if this guy could go for a whole month, I could certainly put out enough bales for five to seven days and see what happens. I started doing that, but wasn’t committed enough to place them all out there ahead of time in the fall before snow came. It still proved to be a good time-saver, not having to go out and feed cows every day.” Doug has cattle in fields that used to be cropland, for winter grazing, and sets a week to 10 days’ worth of bales out there. “This works really well until we get a lot of snow and then I wish I had taken them all out there in the fall! When I first started doing this I bought a snowmobile and
Doug has been working to convert most of his cropland to grasslands to reduce risk and increase the resilience of his land. The cattle are grazing a warm season cover crop as part of that transition. feed so the cows are getting 10 pounds of corn per day and that will give them enough corn stalks to supply the roughage they need. He said the cows are still going to be hungry because this doesn’t give them as much roughage ‘fill’ as they are accustomed to when eating pasture or hay, so you need good fence (electric) to make it work. Cows are used to CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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or a circle. “All too often some cow just follows you down the line and walks on it all and takes a mouthful with each step,” says Doug. “Pretty soon she’s getting 20 pounds of corn and the one at the back of the herd is only getting three pounds. I found that if I went in a circle or dumped it continuously in two lines, there was less of this problem of several cows chasing you down the line.” Doug feeds his cows this way for about a month during the winter. For part of the winter he can replace 75% of the hay portion of their diet with corn. Instead of feeding four bales of hay per day he can feed one, and feed corn for the rest of the ration. “I thought about that when they had all those fires in Oklahoma and we were sending truck-loads of hay down there,” says Doug. “A person could haul more corn and less hay. “My stress level has gone way down; I used to worry whether I had enough hay put together for winter. The worst hay year we’ve ever had, I’ve still been able to have enough hay to feed my cows because I could feed corn and hay all winter. On a dry year, I can make one phone call and have a semi-load of corn delivered to my yard that afternoon or the next day, when it is really hard to find hay. “To feed the corn you’d probably have to buy an auger, but you don’t need to buy a bin. You can build a temporary bunker out of a dozen round bales, pile it in that bunker and just scoop it into the feed wagon with a loader bucket. You could figure out what one bucket load weighs and figure out how much you’d need for a certain number of cows. There’s always a way to make it work, and lower your stress level!”
eating about 40 pounds a day (3% of their body weight) and you are only giving them 20.” At first they will be walking the fences until they adapt to this change. “You can’t do this with cows that are not used to electric fence; you can’t just kick them out on that corn or they will break through the fence. If they aren’t used to a hot wire you need to set up a trainer fence near your water source before you do this. Then when they mill around they bump into it and learn to respect it. “You also need to introduce corn into their diet gradually. Start out with about 5 pounds per cow per day and increase it 1 pound per head per day until you get to 10 pounds,” he says. “It only took me 10 years to try the corn for winter feed. I left about 20 or 30 acres unharvested, that first time. I left 30 rows, then combined about 12 rows, then leave 30 and combine about 12. I did some math and it worked out that I needed about half an acre a day for the cows, so I combined perpendicular to the rows, every 80 or 90 yards. So before winter set in I had a nice checkerboard pattern set up. It worked very well. The winters weren’t too rough and the cows did well. I supplemented the cows with protein; every 3 or 4 days I’d take a couple bales of alfalfa out to them to supply the needed protein to balance that diet. You also need a really good mineral program on this kind of feed. If they just have corn and corn stover, they don’t get Profitable Cattle the nutrition and minerals they’d Another change Doug have with a more varied diet. If made when he put more of his you skimp on mineral the cattle place into grass was to buy are more likely to have a few more low birthweight bulls, for easier problems, like foot rot.” calving. “We used to calve the Doug realized that if cattle end of March and calving was could utilize standing corn for a bit rough, so we changed it winter feed in the field, they would to the middle of April, but that also do well anywhere—like in a time of year we still had snow pasture next to trees for winter and blizzards,” says Doug. “So shelter—just having 10 pounds we went to the first of May and of corn and 10 pounds of hay. that was working pretty well “I leave my calves on the cows Doug learned about bale grazing from Canadians who put bales until this year; it was hard with all winter. I wean in March when out for the whole winter. all the late winter storms. Most calves are about 10 months old. of the time the later calving It’s nice to not have to use a feed makes it more pleasant, but it does require some changes; if you are used wagon every day, but I needed to figure out how to feed the corn,” says to selling 600-pound calves in November it won’t be the same.” Doug. Doug decided to try smaller cattle after reading some of the articles At one of the North Dakota trips a guy was talking about supplementing written by Kit Pharo--who talked about how a semi-load of smaller calves his fall calvers to flush them before they were bred. “We talked about can give you a bigger check than a semi-load of bigger calves. “They using a gravity wagon and trying to figure out an easy way to open the bring more dollars per pound,” says Doug. “A semi-load is 50,000 pounds. door at the bottom,” says Doug. “One guy was talking about using an If a 500-pound calf brings $2 per pound and you are selling a semi-load electric motor, and another guy suggested using the deal on the back of of 500-pound calves, it would be $100,000. If you sell a semi-load of a combine for dumping the trash piles. I got home and was talking with 600-pound calves at $1.80 per pound, you are only getting $90,000 for another neighbor and he said, ‘What’s wrong with just using a rope and those calves.” a spring?’ So I took my gravity wagon and put another door inside the Moreover, a cow eats about 3% of her body weight in forage, and the door—like an old grain bin door that you slide up and down. I built it out of smaller cows eat less feed than the larger ones. A person can run more steel and put a couple springs on it off a screen door to pull it shut, and a cows on the same pasture if they are not so big. “You could run 100 rope and pulley system that I could pull on and open the slide door from 1,500-pound cows or you could have 150 1,000-pound cows and they’ll the pickup. Sometimes I use a tractor and sometimes I use a pickup. I eat the same amount of total feed,” says Doug. “You’ll not only have more have an electric auger in a bin and just time it to fill the wagon with one calves, but also get more dollars per pound when you sell them. day’s worth of corn.” “You don’t want the calves too small, however, or the feedlot guys Doug tried different configurations, like five-gallon amounts in piles, won’t want them. I sold my steers a couple years ago to a guy in Iowa and dumping it in a long line, but found it works best in two parallel lines 14
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who didn’t want to buy them again because he said they weighed only 1,450 when they finished and they want calves that will finish at 1,550 pounds. He didn’t really know if he made more money on those bigger calves (since he hadn’t figured how much they ate or the cost of gain), but he gets a bigger check per calf and he likes that. Most people buying feedlot calves want calves that will finish at a bigger weight, so we may have to straddle the fence. Maybe we don’t want 1,000-pound cows but perhaps they should weigh about 1,200 pounds rather than 1,700 or 1,800-pounds,” says Doug. Doug raises many of his own bulls now, to have the genetics and frame score he wants, but when he does go to a bull sale he has to be careful to not get the ones that have big weaning weights. He wants a smaller, wider cow, and he doesn’t want heavy-milking cows. They require more feed and may not breed back as readily—with more open cows in the fall, especially if you leave the calves on the cows all winter. In the end, however, the ranch conditions help select toward the genetics you want because only the fertile, good producers stay in the herd. “We still bale graze and still feed corn during winter, but I am going to step up my mineral program,” says Doug. “I don’t really worry about whether I’m going to feed the corn out in the field (grazing standing corn) or out of a feed wagon, but it’s easier to have them grazing it. We plan to still keep moving cows every three to five days. This works pretty well. We use a lot of poly wire, and if there’s a hayfield or a pasture I want to graze and the fence isn’t very good or there isn’t a fence around it, I just run poly wire and the cows respect it.” When cattle grow up around electric fence they are “trained” to it from the time they are babies. He doesn’t have much trouble with wildlife tearing down the fences, but occasionally during deer season it happens— when deer from out of the neighborhood come through his place. “I am grateful that we don’t have elk. We had a moose come here this spring and it just walked through all the fences,” he says. Usually there are no problems, however, and he’s had good luck with the poly wire. “I like the plastic step-in posts or the posts with the orange loop on top and the pigtail posts because there’s nothing to short out on those. I can put them into the ground without getting off my 4-wheeler and even tap them into frozen ground when I’m going across corn fields in the winter. My cows graze my cornstalks and the neighbor’s field. At first the neighbors worry about compaction with cows out there, but it’s not a problem because I move them every five days. They get a new 30 acres each move, in that quarter section of corn, and don’t stay in the first areas. I can use those posts all winter long and get them into the frozen ground,” says Doug.
Paying it Forward
Doug wants to make things easier in the future, so he can continue doing this work longer. “I thought that planting cropland back to grass would make a huge difference in my work load, and it has,” says Doug. “I no longer have to worry about combining wheat, and instead of having 300 to 400 acres of corn, I just have 200 acres of corn to combine. But when you plant cropland back to grass, you need more cows. You don’t get rid of the work; you just have a different type of work. “We’ll just keep tweaking it, but it’s good. One of the things that has really made a difference for me was being affiliated with the SDGC. I ended up being on the board of directors for three years because I felt I owed them a lot. While I was on that board, Jeff Zimprich (head of the NRCS in South Dakota) approached the board and said he would like to start a soil health coalition; he wanted us to help him get it going and model it after the SDGC. We thought that has a good idea because we were all concerned about soil health and we were doing the things that the
Soil Health Coalition is doing now. “We had an organizational meeting in Pierre, South Dakota and invited folks from the South Dakota Cattleman’s Association, South Dakota Department of Ag, South Dakota State University, NRCS and farm organizations (corn and soybean growers, etc.) and about ten producers who were already doing the kind of things that we thought soil health coalition people would do. “We started the SD Soil Health Coalition about three years ago. They needed a chairman and decided I would be a good choice. For a while I was on both boards, which was a good ‘marriage’ because a lot of partnerships were happening that helped the Soil Health Coalition get going. I eventually stepped off the SDGC board reluctantly, because I didn’t have time for both. “Now the SD Soil Health Coalition is flying and doing very well. NRCS
A semi-load is 50,000 pounds. If a 500-pound calf brings $2 per pound and you are selling a semi-load of 500-pound calves, it would be $100,000. If you sell a semi-load of 600-pound calves at $1.80 per pound, you are only getting $90,000 for those calves. and others are partnering with us. We went from it being just a couple of us and Judge Jessup, the coordinator with the SDGC, putting events together and putting in lot of time, to now having a full-time coordinator, four soil technicians, and a communications coordinator. “We put on our 4th annual SD Soil Coalition Soil Health School in September 2019 and had 30 producers attending that 2.5-day school. They were learning about the importance of keeping the ground covered (whether pasture or cropland), the value of mulch on the soil, and the value of not disturbing the soil any more than you have to (no-till). They are also learning the value of long rest periods in rotation grazing; we try to emphasize the grassland component in everything we do, if we can. “Our coalition is growing at a fantastic rate, and today just about every magazine you pick up has articles about soil health. We are getting people to think about this and make some changes in their operations. “When I first started rotating cattle and using poly wire, there was a little bit of that being done, but today there are more neighbors doing this. When I first started doing cover crops there wasn’t much of that either, but now we see a lot of that. The important thing is to get a few people to start doing something and it can evolve from there. The guy from Canada who generously shared his bale grazing methods, putting out a month’s worth of bales at a time, gave me the courage to try it for a week at a time. Whatever we can do to bring people together and share ideas will help others. “These 30 producers who are going through a school, whether it’s the SDGC grazing school or the SD Soil Health Coalition’s soil health school, will start building a base of people who are thinking like this. We plant these seeds in their minds, explain these things, and they start looking at it more closely.” Now Doug can share ideas with the neighbors, and try new things. They’ve showed him some new step-in posts and some new electric gate handles that he’s now using. There’s always more to learn and share and he wants to help spread the good ideas that have helped him. N um ber 190
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grass-fed finishers. TKR employs a range of tools to guide decision making on the ranch including Holistic Planning, Conservation Planning, water infrastructure and use audits, and Carbon Farm Planning. Among its many goals, the grazing program aims to: 1. Increase soil organic matter and carbon sequestration. 2. Increase native and perennial grass cover to an average of 20% across the ranch’s rangelands. 3. Support and protect riparian and grassland-nesting birds and any other sensitive species. 4. Restore diverse and resilient grasslands where there is significant encroachment by coyote brush, fir trees, or invasive eucalyptus. Point Blue Conservation Science (PB) began working as on-site science partners for TomKat Ranch (TKR) in 2010 to collect baseline ecological monitoring data before TKR began its switch from continuous grazing to adaptive planned grazing. While the grazing management is adaptive, typical stock density averages around 100,000–150,000 pounds per acre and grazing periods range from one day to one week in each paddock, providing plants with at least 70–120 days of recovery. Excitingly, in the years following the switch to planned grazing, PB’s ecological monitoring has noted a dramatic increase in the detectability of native and perennial grasses from 8 of 75 fields in 2011 to 70 of 75 fields today. Additionally, 67% of the soil monitoring points on the ranch meet or exceed NRCS soil compaction goals and the ranch’s average water infiltration is measured around 9.8 inches per hour. In 2018, TKR completed a Carbon Farm Plan (CFP) in collaboration with the San Mateo Resource Conservation District, NRCS, Carbon Cycle Institute, and PB Improved ground cover has resulted in less bare to explore ground since 2014 and invasive weeds at an practices that all-time low. could increase carbon sequestration on the ranch. The CFP provided many recommendations and it was up to the TKR Land & Livestock Team to select which had the greatest potential to serve the ranch’s diverse goals. For instance, recommendations to plant carbon-sequestering hedgerows and trees in some of the ranch’s rangelands interfered with goals to increase populations of ground-nesting grasshopper sparrows that need open treeless areas to thrive. Instead of hedgerow planting, TKR’s team decided to focus efforts on applying rangeland compost, seeding rangeland plants, and extending/restoring riparian forests. Additionally, in 2020 TKR began efforts to extend their planned grazing program into brush-dominated areas on the ranch using small ruminants to eat and manage coyote brush, mitigate fire risk, and encourage greater plant diversity and soil cover in these areas. 16
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In 2011 there was only 8 out of 75 pastures that had perennial grasses.
In 2013, 58 out of the 75 pastures had perennial grasses.
By 2018, 70 out of the 75 pastures had perennial grasses, despite the fact that from 2011 to 2018 there were several drought years. However, there was a wetter than average winter in 2017–2018. Perennial grasses have more than doubled in some pastures.
Greenacres Foundation
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24
all grass fed beef has the same ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3. This tends to indicate that not all beef labeled “Grass Fed” is 100% grass fed. This study is being expanded for another two years during which cattle will be raised in a controlled environment so specific management and feeding protocols can be tested against nutrition outcomes in the final product alongside economics of weight gain. At Greenacres we are investing in regenerative agriculture and in health from the soil up. Perhaps our greatest investment is found in our Tale of Two Farms—the original Greenacres, a 600-acre farm that has been a grass farm since 1949 and in multi-species grazing since 1990, and the 2018 450-acre farm that is just starting the conversion from industrial farming to regenerative farming. Looking at both farm’s soil, you can see significant differences in key measures. The original grass-focused farm has great soil and the new
With a six-inch hardpan on the Lewis Farm, it is not surprising to see that infiltration rates on Greenacres are 207% faster than on the Lewis Farm.
The 60+ years of grass-based practices on Greenacres has resulted in a 445% difference in microbial respiration (soil life) versus the Lewis Farm which has had no-till monocropping with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that damage soil health.
Integrating cover crops and livestock are two key tools that Greenacres is using to improve soil health on the new farm they are converting to soil health practices.
Perennial pasture mean more roots in the soil to sequester more carbon. Greenacres has 127% more soil carbon than the Lewis Farm.
soy farm is depleted. Beyond the soil test data, the soy farm has a hard pan at about six inches and water does not penetrate or absorb. It runs off. The management of the two farms over the last 20 years explains the difference: the original grass-focused farm followed Holistic Management principles, multi-species grazing, and grew soil. The new soy farm followed industrial agriculture practices of no-till beans year after year with application of chemical fertilizers and Roundup® (Bayer Corporation herbicide). In all of these measures of soil, the grass-based soil exceeds the soybean ground. For soil health, management matters. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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Greenacres Foundation
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
We started collecting data intensively in 2016 on Greenacres. Over the last three years this regenerative grazing operation has seen carbon in tons per hectare increase by 22% at 25 to 40 cm under the ground. This should be relatively permanent carbon sequestration. In addition, over this three-year period, water infiltration on Greenacres has improved. In 2016 the infiltration rate
Greenacres Farm (Indian Hills)
Lewis Township 2018 Farm
60 years in pasture
Previously in tobacco
Follows five principles of soil health
In soybeans the last 20 years
Holistic planned grazing
No livestock
Multi-species grazing since 1990
No diversity or soil cover with living plants only during growing season
Cover crops
No-Till and Roundup® pastures, no cattle, no grazers, no natural carbon sequestration and no us. Greenacres is investing in health from the soil up and regenerative agriculture because our data says regenerative agriculture is the best path forward. And, that’s why we have also provided scholarship funding to HMI to train the next generation of regenerative farmers and ranchers. By educating the next generation of farmers and consumers in regenerative agriculture practices we make sure our current investments continue to pay dividends going forward to the natural resources upon which we depend.
Greenacres pasture continues to improve under holistically planned multi-species grazing.
was 1747 seconds per inch of water. By 2019, the rate was 406 seconds per inch—a 330%+ increase in the rate. These measures indicate that improvements from regenerative agriculture do not stop after 60 years. In 1949 Mr. Nippert converted a spent corn and bean farm to regenerative agriculture and our goal is to repeat his work on the 2018 Farm but do so with extensive data collection. By following the principles of soil health: 1) minimizing soil disturbance associated with an annual system; 2) getting our soil covered year round with living roots; 3) adding diversity to soils that have seen only monocultures for decades; and 4) getting grazers into the system to jump start the nutrient cycling—we hope to create a healthy system from the soil up. Our first step was to introduce cover crops. Next come cattle and grazers. Throughout each step we collect lots of soil samples. The Tale of Two Farms is our latest investment in regenerative agriculture and soil research, and it comes at the right time. Regenerative graziers today are Davids caught between two Goliaths—Industrial Ag and Plant Protein. Industrial Ag has been around but the new Plant Protein Crowd has declared war with the CEOs of Beyond and Impossible stating their goal of no animal protein by 2035. Imagine what that means: no 18 IN PRACTICE
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Carter Randolph is the CEO of Greenacres Foundation. You can learn more about Greenacres at: https://www. green-acres.org/
Greenacres pasture continues to improve under holistically planned multi-species grazing.
PROGRAM ROUNDUP 2019 REGENERATE Conference
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n November 19–22, 2019, HMI co-hosted the 2019 REGENERATE Conference with the Quivira Coalition and the American Grassfed Association (AGA) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over 500 people attended the conference. This year’s theme was “Health from the Soil Up.” Presenters included Fred Provenza, Nicole Masters, Grant and Dawn Breitkreutz, Michael Graziano, Glenn Elzinga, Cory Carman, Roland Kroos, Cooper Hibbard, Carter Randolph, Peggy Sechrist, Graeme Hand, Blain Hjertaas, Kelly Sidoryk, and Joel Benson, among many other wonderful speakers. The HMI/AGA social, sponsored by Greenacres Foundation and Tomkat Ranch Educational Foundation, was attended by over 200 participants. Over 500 attendees traveled to Almost all the pre- and post- Albuquerque to participate in the 2019 conference workshops were REGENERATE Conference sold out as people learned about Beef Butchery, Farmland Transition, Keyline Design, Supply Chain Primer, Energy on the Ranch, Veterinary Homeopathy, Soil Health and Quality Food Production, and Profitable Regenerative Grazing. Our thanks to all our sponsors for their support of this event. Please save the dates for November 17–20, 2020 for the 2020 REGENERATE Conference.
Lowry Range Workshop On November 13–14, 2019, twenty-five people from five states and various state agencies and farm managers from private ranches attended the Lowry Grazing Workshop near Denver, Colorado facilitated by HMI Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia. The course provided participants with a mix of classroom grazing planning principles and seeing these principles in practice on the land at the Lowry Ranch. The program focused on key grazing strategies, implementation and all the steps necessary to create a holistic grazing plan. The first day participants covered the principles of Holistic Planned Grazing, key guidelines for grazing planning, and actually began developing a grazing plan. In the afternoon the group traveled to Lowry Ranch and worked with Nick Trainor, who holds the grazing lease at Lowry Ranch. The participants did a forage measurement exercise and learned how to calculate animal days per acre.
The second day participants learned about grazing strategies for improving land productivity and how to implement and monitor a grazing plan. They also completed their work on their grazing plans they Nick Trainor leads a discussion of were developing. holistic grazing planning at the Lowry Range in 100% of Colorado. participants intend to create or modify a grazing plan as a result of this program and have increased their understanding of the value of grazing planning. Likewise, 100% of participants were satisfied with the course. Thanks to our funders Martha Records and Rich Rainaldi, as well as our sponsors, The Stockman Grass Farmer and Trainor Cattle Company.
Online Learning Update HMI’s Online Learning Series Getting Started Introduction to Holistic Management course had 39 participants from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Portugal, and Senegal. This course focused on key Holistic Management planning concepts and principles to help participants manage their farm/ranch for the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and financial sustainability) and more effectively manage resources. Participants were excited to learn how to improve their ability to observe, understand, and make decisions based on what they can control. Through these new skills participants now have the knowledge and tools to improve their ability to work with nature and to increase productivity.
Featured Participants:
Gena Pinheiro, São Miguel, Azores “One of the biggest things we gained was a paradigm shift. We no longer see ourselves as farmers, but rather stewards of the resources that have Gena Pinheiro and João Mendonça, been put into our care owners of The Farm by Âmago resource managers. The course gave us an introduction to understanding how nature functions and how we could harness that understanding to better care for our resources. Before this course, we didn’t always take the big picture into account before making decisions and now, it’s always center stage. Our hope is that we can continue building on the plethora of tools we’ve acquired through this course, to not only improve our personal and farm life, but also help others do the same.”
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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
ND Leopold Award Winner
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ongratulations to Gene and Christine Goven of Turtle Lake, North Dakota for winning the 2019 ND Leopold Conservation Award®. The Leopold award is given to private landowners who inspire others with The Govens their dedication to land, water and wildlife resources in their care. In North Dakota, the $10,000 award is presented with North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition, North Dakota Association of Soil Conservation Districts and the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association. Gene has been a long-time Holistic Management practitioner and agricultural innovator. He has participated in many research projects with North Dakota State University, including how grazing practices improve wildlife habitat and water infiltration. He has also provided leadership and mentorship to many area graziers for over 30 years. He is a founding member and past chair of the North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition.
Kansas Leopold Award Congratulations also to Ted Alexander of Alexander Ranch in Sun City for being awarded the 2019 Kansas Leopold Conservation Award®.
From the Board Chair BY WALTER LYNN
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n the prior issue of IN PRACTICE, I shared each person has a story; it may be someone from a meeting, conference, or Open Gate. The story gives us the possibility of understanding the person’s “why.” In this musing, I will share my “story” on why I believe in regenerative agriculture. When I was in high school in rural central Illinois, my classmates predicted, published in our school paper, I was going to be a forest ranger in the Redwood Forest in California. My classmates in our class of 20 students came to this conclusion because of the 4-H projects and camps I attended. Dad and Mom also instilled a land ethic in their son. Dad looked to the Soil Conservation Service routinely to plan a waterway or terrace a field. He was always looking to improve the farm’s grass pasture. He and Mom stayed with more diversity on the farm versus the neighbors and peers in the community. But in my senior year of high school, my mother chatted with me and asked that I look into becoming a CPA. I started college with this specific goal in mind. When starting college, there were four personal goals to be accomplished during the next four years— obtain an accounting degree in order to sit for the CPA exam, obtain a commission in the US Army using my alma mater’s ROTC program, obtain an internship, and graduate in four years. When I received my diploma, all goals were attained, plus I had a J-O-B, 35 miles from my home.
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h In Kansas the $10,000 award is presented annually by Sand County Foundation, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts and the Ranchland Trust of Kansas. Ted Alexander Ted took over the Skinner Family Ranch in 1984, taking on the challenge of making a living on overgrazed land covered with invasive Eastern Red Cedar trees. He used beef cattle with planned grazing and infrastructure development to increase animal impact and herd effect to improve soil health and the increased growth of desirable forages and improved water quality in creeks. With an improved water cycle, springs and intermittent streams that had been dry for decades began to flow again. Now with his son, Brian, they continue to evolve the ranch and its conservation practices to improve ranch profitability and wildlife habitat. Nearly half of all known reptile and amphibian species in Kansas are found on the ranch, including the threatened red spotted toad. Rare species from pallid bats and Arkansas darters to Lesser Prairie-Chickens have all made a comeback on the ranch, with over 160 plants documented (compared to an average of 100 or less on other area ranches). Alexander Ranch has also displayed resiliency since recovering from the 2016 wildlife that burned 450,000 acres in Barber County. Ted mentors university students and young ranchers, and was a founding member of the Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition. He received the National Private Lands Stewardship Award from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 2011. I practiced as a CPA for over 40 years, seven years for a large regional firm and 33 years in my own firm. I still do some limited consulting, currently. My maternal grandmother died in 1978 and I used an inheritance to start my firm and break from the larger firm. Our team developed an agricultural niche for our firm. The scope of our boutique firm reached from California to South Carolina and Texas to South Dakota. We prided our services in the differentiation we did as a firm. For example, many firms only want to prepare the taxes for a farm or ranch, but we helped our clients to prepare accrual financial statements to track changes in net worth and deal with lending requirements. Fast forward to my interest in soil health and regenerative agriculture. One long-term client would bring me the Stockman Grass Farmer. I would attend their conferences in the late 1990s. In Fort Mitchell, Kentucky my name was drawn from a fishbowl for an HMI course. In 2012 in Gainesville, Texas, I chatted with Walt Davis during an Elaine Ingram event sponsored by the Dixon Water Foundation. Meeting Walt started the conversation about the concept of “Biological Capital.” Practicing as a CPA, I have to confess, it took over 30 years to realize a farmer or rancher cannot have long term economic returns without biological capital. We each need to think about the context of how we have gotten to where we are today. Remember the core pieces to our Holistic Management framework—social, economic, and environmental. Meeting Walt Davis in person was a “game changer” for me—a powerful social connection. My granddaughter is another one—that’s why I have some passion for ON PAGE 20 Regenerative Agriculture and the promise it holdsCONTINUED for future generations.
Certified
Kirk Gadzia
Educators
Bernalillo 505/263-8677 (c) • kirk@rmsgadzia.com
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.
CALIFORNIA
*College of Agriculture, CSU
Chico 530/636-2525 • laltier@csuchico.edu
Owen Hablutzel
Los Angeles 310/567-6862 go2owen@gmail.com
Richard King
Petaluma 707/217-2308 (c) rking1675@gmail.com
Doniga Markegard
Half Moon Bay 650/670-7984 Doniga@markegardfamily.com
Kelly Mulville *Paicines
707/431-8060 • kmulville@gmail.com
Don Nelson
Red Bluff 208/301-5066 • nelson-don1@hotmail.com
Rob Rutherford
San Luis Obispo 805/550-4858 (c) robtrutherford@gmail.com COLORADO
Joel Benson
Buena Vista 719/221-1547 • joel@holisticeffect.com
MONTANA
Roland Kroos
Bozeman 406/581-3038 (c) • kroosing@msn.com
Cliff Montagne *Montana State University
Bozeman 406/599-7755 (c) • montagne@montana.edu NEBRASKA
Paul Swanson *Hastings
402/463-8507 • 402/705-1241 (c) pswanson3@unl.edu
Ralph Tate
Papillion 402/250-8981 (c) • tater2d2@cox.net NEW HAMPSHIRE
Seth Wilner
Newport 603/863-9200 (w) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO
Ann Adams
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
*Meadville
MISSISSIPPI
Preston Sullivan
601/384-5310 (h) 601/835-6124 (c) prestons@telepak.net
*Las Vegas
Katherine Napper-Ottmers
505/225-6481 • katherineottmers@icloud.com NEW YORK
Erica Frenay *Brooktondale
Guy Glosson
Snyder 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com
Kathy Harris
Holistic Management International Dallas/Fort Worth 214/417-6583 kathyh@holisticmanagement.org Orange Grove 361/537-3417 (c) • tjlitle@hotmail.com
*Chestertown
970/946-1771 • craigrleggett@gmail.com
Elizabeth Marks
Peggy Maddox
Hermleigh 325/226-3042 (c) • westgift@hughes.net
Chatham 518/567-9476 (c) elizabeth_marks@hotmail.com
CD Pounds *Fruitvale
Phillip Metzger
Peggy Sechrist
214/568-3377 • cdpounds@live.com
Norwich 607/316-4182 • pmetzger17@gmail.com
*Hazen
Christine C. Jost
701/870-1184 • joshua_dukart@yahoo.com OREGON
Angela Boudro
Central Point 541/ 890-4014 • angelaboudro@gmail.com Union 541/663-6630 tony@holisticmanagement.guide
WISCONSIN
*Madison
Larry Johnson
608/665-3835 • larrystillpointfarm@gmail.com
608/338-9039 (c) • lkpaine@gmail.com
SOUTH DAKOTA
Bellows *NorthLisaCentral Texas College
Washington DC 773/706-2705 • christinejost42@gmail.com
Laura Paine *Columbus
Tony Malmberg
Christina Allday-Bondy
Fredericksburg 830/456-5587 (c) • peggysechrist@gmail.com WASHINGTON DC
NORTH DAKOTA
Joshua Dukart
Randal Holmquist *Mitchell
Edgewood 512/658-2051 christina.alldaybondy@gmail.com
Henrietta 940/328-5542 deborah@birdwellandclarkranch.com
Theresa J Litle
Craig Leggett
Holistic Management International Albuquerque 505/842-5252 ext 5 anna@holisticmanagement.org
605/730-0550 • randy@heartlandtanks.com TEXAS
Gainesville 940/736-3996 (c) • lbellows@nctc.edu
For more information about or application forms for the HMI’s Certified Educator Training Programs, contact Ann Adams or visit our website: www.holisticmanagement.org.
*
These associate educators provide educational services to their communities and peer groups.
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Cindy Dvergsten
Dolores 970/882-4222 wnc@gobrainstorm.net
Belen 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com
607/342-3771 (c) info@shelterbeltfarm.com
U N I T E D S TAT E S Lee Altier
Jeff Goebel
Deborah Clark
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
Balhannah, 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 306-236-6088 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 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 • ian@mitchell-innes.co.za
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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.
May // April June2020 2016 h March
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“Bud Williams” Livestock Marketing & Australian Holistic Management Proper Stockmanship and Regenerative Farming Tour with Richard McConnellwith & Tina Williams (In conjunction Savory Network Gathering)
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.
Includes drawings for loading Includesdetailed detailed drawings for loading ramp, round crowd pen, pen, dip dip ramp,VVchute, chute, round crowd vat, gates and hinges. Plus cell center vat, gates and hinges. Plus cell center layouts compatible with with layoutsand andlayouts layouts compatible electronic sorting systems. Articles on electronic sorting systems. Articles on cattle behavior. 27 corral layouts. $55. cattle behavior. 27 corral layouts. $55. Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59. Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59. Send checks/money order to:
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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
1, 2020 can make Learn howMarch good29-April stockmanship your livestock handling experiences • Visit case-study properties covering an assortment of enterprises and size 2ha to 2000ha howoperations livestockfrom marketing based on today’s • Receive first-hand information about price (no crystal ball) can help you the manager’s & owners’ story, their realize production systems, products and marketing • Learn about a range of management May — 2systems Day Stockmanship and25-26 production covering Holistic only,Management Dickinson,and NDplanned grazing, permaculture, pasture cropping, Keyline development, May 30-June 1 — 3biodynamics Day Marketing/ organic certification, and more Stockmanship, Wawota, SK • See how these farms are more resilientalso in theto face of changing Coming Alberta, Wyoming, climatic conditions and Iowa! Tour Leader Glen Chapman, Savory Institute Field Professional To learn more and register go to:
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Order online www.acresus or call toll-free 1-800-355-
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT® CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
Over 35 years of hands-on experience Over 30 years farms, of hands-on with individuals, small experience businesses with individuals, farms,and small businesses, and groups of all types sizes, including and groups of all types and sizes. facilitating workshops, training, and one-on-one teaching. • Goal setting Improved decision making •• Goal setting Financial planning •• Improved decision making Grazing planning •• Financial planning Land assessment assessment •• Land Biological monitoring monitoring •• Biological Group&Facilitation •• Land Infrastructure Planning Let me help you maximize profits, regenerate your land and improve your quality of life. Freeinitial initial phone phone consultation. consultation. Free Contact Phil Phil at at 607-334-2407 607-316-4182 or Contact or pmetzger17@gmail.com. pmetzger17@gmail.com.
Services, Inc.
? E R U T S A P E S N E NUTRIENT-D
How many animals truly receive feed that has been grown with correct nutrients added to the soil? 95+% of all pasture and hay soils we test do not have the fertility required to provide the animals that eat it with even close to good nutrition. What about yours? You can only manage what you correctly measure. Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.
For consulting or educational services contact:
Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.
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
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Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
a publication of Holistic Management International 2425 San Pedro Dr. NE, Ste A Albuquerque, NM 87110 USA
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DEVELOPMENT CORNER Greenacres Foundation—
A Tale of Two Farms and Investing in Regenerative Agriculture BY CARTER RANDOLPH
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Site and conducting research in house and with university partners. Our research investments include working with Dr. Pat Keyser of the University of Tennessee to see if we can find an economical way to introduce warm season grasses which generally require a few years to establish. We are planting nurse crops so we can graze the pastures while the warm seasons establish their root systems. This study is taking place on a new farm we bought in 2018 and has just begun. We are also working with Dr. Jason Rowntree of Michigan State to determine what grass finished beef is and what are the best practices to get a high-quality meat. The first study is complete and was published in Meat and Muscle Magazine. As you can see from the chart below not
n 1949 Louis Nippert acquired the Greenacres Farm which was a spent corn and bean farm. He wanted to improve the soil so he planted grasses and introduced Black Angus cattle to act as buffalo and build the soil in the way the prairies had been built. The anecdotal evidence is that this approach worked but little actual data was recorded. This was our first investment in regenerative agriculture and focused on health from the soil up. In 1990 we altered the grazing model from cattle only to multi-species adding sheep and poultry to our farm. In 1988 we added an education component and in 2018 we had over 30,000 school children visit for organized lessons in environment, Greenacres funded grass finished meat study shows wide range of Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio—as much as a regenerative agriculture 1300% difference indicating wide range of grass finished beef production practices with attendant nutritional and the arts. In 2019, we variation as well. furthered our investment in Regenerative Agriculture by CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 becoming an HMI Learning
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