Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2023
Evolving Regenerative Agriculture with Safe to Learn Trials BY ANN ADAMS
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was reading a recent book review by Maria Popova about Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success on the Brainpickings website. In this book, Dr. Dweck, a psychologist from Stanford, articulates that there are two basic mindsets that rule people’s lives and their definitions of success. People tend toward either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. In essence, someone with a fixed mindset believes that you come into this world with a certain amount of intelligence or talent once we become an adult. A person with that mindset also believes that success is measured against a certain standard and the inability to achieve that standard signifies a failure. They tend to avoid challenges or give up easily if there are obstacles.
Healthy Land, Food, & Lives INSIDE THIS ISSUE Healthy land is the foundation for healthy raising healthy animals and crops. Holistic Management is a great tool for helping people to create not only healthy land, but healthy lives and prospering businesses as can be seen in “A Holistic Approach to Marketing” on page 3 or “Holism and Health” on page 4.
In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International
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They may feel threatened by others’ successes and may not be willing to listen to other people’s constructive feedback. On the other hand, someone with a growth mindset believes that one can always expand their intelligence, wisdom, or other talents. Success is not a static concept, so if they are not able to succeed initially, they are more likely to see challenges as a potential for growth or learning rather than a failure. These people have a desire to learn so they may persist when confronted with obstacles and are focused on how they can gain mastery of a particular situation. They are more likely to see lessons they can learn from in the success of others and are more likely to listen to and learn from critical feedback. The field of psychology has shown through numerous experiments that there is great power in what you believe, both consciously and unconsciously, that influences our behavior and, ultimately, our results. Dweck’s experiments provide proof for that hypothesis and she notes: “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.” I believe this is a skill we want for ourselves and those around us as we face our challenging times. One of Dweck’s experiments to discern if a child had a fixed or growth mindset was to offer a four-year-old the option of redoing an easy jigsaw puzzle or try a new harder one. The fixed mindset child would repeat the puzzle they knew versus the growth mindset one would want the new one. Her experiment suggested that from an early age, a child will show his/her predilection in this way. Dweck also used brain-wave analysis to see how people’s brains responded to feedback they received when answering difficult questions. The fixed mindset people did not “receive” information that would help them improve because if they weren’t “correct” they had “failed” and it was if they couldn’t hear it. However, the growth mindset people were taking in all information to continue to learn even if they got the answer right.
W W W. H O L I S T I C M A N A G E M E N T. O R G
The good news is that we can encourage more of a growth mindset approach if we encourage people with telling them they worked hard rather than just “being” smart or fast, etc. when they complete a task. When people are praised for their effort to improve, they are more likely to move toward a growth mindset approach. In fact, Dweck’s research showed that 90% of students praised for their effort will want to take on a more challenging task. And, they are more likely to persist at that task if they don’t perform as well because they understand it is about putting more effort in and not because they don’t have some innate ability, and that effort will lead to increased learning and skill.
Encouraging Regenerative & Holistic Experimentation
After reading this book review, I had a deeper understanding of how people perceive success, and it got me thinking about our focus on “safe to fail” trials. I realized that the wording of these onfarm/on-ranch experiments could potentially turn people off from performing this kind of exploration. We may believe that anyone who is practicing regenerative agriculture must have a growth mindset, but I don’t think that is true. Many people are moving to regenerative agriculture because of wanting to do the “right” thing or perhaps because they are motivated by greater profit margins or lower risk, better quality of life, or less exposure to harmful chemicals and management practices that are not family-friendly. None of those motivations immediately indicate that a regenerative agriculture producer is inherently interested in experimentation. In fact, the interest in consultants who can create a crop or grazing plan for producers would indicate that some of these producers do want the “recipe for success” to make a successful transition to regenerative agriculture. Who can blame them? Likewise, some people might assume that all holistic managers are by nature part of the “growth” mindset camp since Holistic Management is an adaptive management system CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Evolving Regenerative Agriculture with Safe to Learn Trials
Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives.
®
In Practice
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many examples of holistic managers who have experimented with business cooperatives, direct marketing, creative transfer planning options, organizational structure, and the list goes on. These experiments within the social realm have inspired huge successes for businesses and the families and communities that are necessary for them to be successful. The same is true for people who experimented with various animal management practices like low-stress livestock handling or “inherding.” In all these cases, the key to a successful trial is knowing your data points before the trial and after the trial. What are your early warning indicators? What signifies progress or a positive outcome that is of great value to your management team? Regeneration.org defines regeneration in this way: “Regeneration puts life at the center of every action and decision. It applies to all of life—grasslands, farms, insects, forests, fish, wetlands, coastlands, and oceans—and it applies equally to family, communities, cities, schools, religion, commerce, and governments. And most spectacularly to climate.” This all-encompassing definition of regeneration, is what should be at the heart of regenerative agriculture. I hope we can all engage in change and experimentation through the lens of “safe to learn trials” in all aspects of regenerative agriculture. In doing so, we are more inclined to bring along those who might be considered “risk adverse” or “mainstream” or even “conservative.” Together we can create businesses, government programs, educational tools, families, and communities that are working together to evolve regenerative agriculture from a niche practice and market to an ever-evolving cultural arena where everyone has a place at the table to learn and contribute, and from which we all reap the many benefits that regenerative agriculture offers.
that includes a robust feedback loop which includes the idea of “assume you are wrong.” We found that phrase didn’t sit well with a lot people and changed it to “assume things will change and you will have to adapt.” While people gravitate to aspects of the Holistic Management Framework that most resonate with them, many practitioners still struggle with using the decisiontesting process and challenging their assumptions or adapting their plans. Seeing yourself as one piece in a very complex living system rather than the master of your own destiny is a very hard paradigm to shift. The humility of the beginner’s mind even if you’ve been practicing for 20 years can be challenging to maintain or conjure up. Given that most people don’t like to “fail,” regardless of how they define failure, I think we will be better served to encourage on-farm/onranch experimentation as “safe to learn” or “safe to take your business to the next level.” Anything to help people remember that experimentation and adaptation are key components to developing systems and practices that work in your unique whole from the “best practices” we have read about. The value of what we have been calling “safe to fail trials” is that they encourage people to move out of their comfort zone and assumptions of what they think they know, like: 1. What will happen with this stock density? 2. We don’t have enough animals to maintain that stock density over all our land. 3. We don’t have the infrastructure to support that kind of stock density over our land, etc. Those trials have often given producers a very clear biological response from the land that makes them consider: “How could we create this effect on more of our land? The high stock density or cover crop or even broadcast garden trials I have read about get more coverage as “safe to fail trials” than the
To read the full book review of Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Maria Popova go to: https:// www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/caroldweck-mindset/
FEATURE STORIES
LAND & LIVESTOCK
NEWS & NETWORK
A Holistic Approach to Marketing
Pure Pastures Farm— Supporting Community with Healthy Food While Regenerating Land
Program Round Up................................................... 19
CHRISTINE MARTIN.................................................................... 8
Market Place............................................................. 21
Parker Creek Ranch and Soilworks— Accelerating the Regenerative Agriculture Movement
Development Corner ............................................... 24
a publication of Hollistic Management International
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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 © 2023 Holistic Management® is a registered trademark of Holistic Management International
ASHLEY PIERCE.......................................................................... 3
Holism and Health
PEGGY SECHRIST....................................................................... 4
Book Reviews
ANN ADAMS................................................................................. 6
HEATHER SMITH THOMAS ......................................................13
How To Know What to Feed the Livestock in Your Soil
NEAL KINSEY.............................................................................17
2 IN PRACTICE
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Certified Educators................................................... 20
A Holistic Approach to Marketing BY ASHLEY PIERCE
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arketing is a challenge for even the most sophisticated business. Holistic marketing is unique in that it takes your context and future vision into account, as well as financial planning. The Flockery, run by Kate Batchelder in Cherry Valley, New York direct markets lamb, mutton, wool products, eggs, and poultry. Products are sold from a farm stand on the property, via word of mouth, and from social media marketing. Although the farm does sell all their product eventually, it is often a slow and arduous process. They wanted to improve this, have more communication with customers, more options for selling products, and to better communicate their story. Kate and her husband had real need to improve their marketing. They were finding that they had inventory left at the end of the season, and with two young children and recently purchasing a large tract of adjoining land, they needed to take action to reach their goals. Kate felt comfortable with the production aspect and was solid in both the resource and product conversion, but her weak link in her chain of production was market conversion. When I first met with Kate, we began with a check of the holistic goal and future vision, key elements to planning anything holistically. We discussed her resource base, which included not only her farm resources like land and infrastructure, but also who in her network she could lean on or learn from. Although the farm does have an Instagram and Facebook page, both were underutilized, mostly because of a dislike of using these platforms. Because of this dislike, we first talked about other ways that she could market that were more in-line with her desired approach. Could farmers markets, festivals, flyers, posters, or an ad in the newspaper better serve the farm? Discussing these options further, Kate concluded that although some of these options would be easier for her, they would not likely help her reach her target market.
Identifying Your Customer
Prior to our meeting, I had asked Kate to take some time to think about her target customer and work through an ideal customer worksheet. In this she identified a few key things about her customer, which included a person who is:
● 35–50 years old ● Have a family ● Be either male or female ● Focusing on the areas of Schoharie, Otsego, and Cooperstown, NY ● They would ideally purchase her product weekly ● She would like to market to them at a farmer’s market or festival or at her farmstand, or her home ● The hobbies or interests they have include: ○ Cooking ○ Outdoor activities ○ Climate activism ○ Art ● Purchase meat on the weekend ● Purchase seasonally: June-September, November ● Cultural values include a disagreement with how conventional food is raised/ produced ● Her ideal customer is a person who wants to cook food with quality ingredients and is eager to invest in local food
be easiest to reach via social media. Kate renewed her interest in and the importance of activity on various platforms. Now that we had a plan in place and foundation to build from, we talked about modelling successful pages or accounts that were like what she had in mind for her farm. Kate should not copy these accounts, but can use them as inspiration for her work, to view what works and what doesn’t on other pages, the style of photos, videos, and writing used, and conversely what she didn’t like. The next step would be setting goals for outreach, how often she would post, what outcome she wanted from posts (mostly sales, to engage with customers, to gain a larger following, etc.), and then to reevaluate on a regular basis.
Articulating Your Story
Kate also spent time to identify the story she wanted to tell customers. How would she set herself apart from those she may be modeling on social media, from those in the community, and from cheaper and potentially easier to access products? To work through
Kate Batchelder with part of the flock. Photo credit: Flockery
Identifying Distribution Channels
Now that she knew who she was marketing to, she had to think about how to reach this customer. After more thought, she realized that although an ad in the paper, flyers, etc. may draw their attention, they would likely
this process, we completed a value proposition worksheet. The Flockery’s key identifiers and the story they want to relay include: ● We believe we are meeting these needs/ wants for customers: ○ Animal had an excellent life CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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Holism and Health BY PEGGY SECHRIST
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s an HMI Educator for 30 years, holism has become one of my mental filters—the way I look at life. That makes me a bore at social gatherings, always wanting to point out how everything is connected. I had to learn how to curb that desire (lol). However, it has served me well when studying human health which has always been a secondary interest of mine. About seven years ago it became apparent for my personal health that I needed to travel less. More time at home allowed me to begin formal study of Ayurvedic Medicine. Over 5,000 years old, Ayurveda is the oldest form of holistic medicine in the world and originated in India. Ayurveda is Sanskrit for “the science of life”. Ayurveda utilizes food, lifestyle habits, and herbal medicines for healing and maintaining good health. My studies have been a fascinating and rewarding journey with striking similarities to Holistic Management. Holistic Management and Ayurveda share the same two principles. The principle “Nature Functions in wholes” also applies to the human body. Similar to ecosystem processes, the various systems of the body such as cardiovascular system, respiratory system, endocrine system, etc. are all interacting with one another, exchanging information and aiding in functions. Nothing functions entirely on its own. Therapies in Ayurveda take this into account. Where the principle of “Understand Your Environment” brought new awareness to our attention about the spectrum of the brittleness scale, Ayurveda brings to our awareness the concept of dosha. This concept organizes the fields of energy in the body and in the environment into three types—Vata dosha, Pitta dosha, and Kapha dosha—Sanskrit terms that have no English translation. Applied to the body, these doshas represent psychophysiological response and pathological changes. Like a fingerprint, every human has a unique ratio of these three doshas. This ratio is called your unique constitution and has a profound influence on how each body operates and responds to stress. Thus, in a similar way that knowing where your land lies on the brittleness scale is important to choosing management actions, so too knowing your unique constitution helps a person know how to choose actions that are best suited for them. Most of us already recognized that the same diet, remedy, etc doesn’t work the same for
4 IN PRACTICE
everyone. The concept of doshas takes us even deeper into the influence of factors such as where we live, seasons of the year, stages of life, lifestyle habits, and types of food and their effect on our health and wellbeing. The Holistic Management practices are also essentially the same for Ayurveda. Just alter the practice “Aim for Healthy Soil” to “Aim for a Healthy Body” and they all apply. Let’s take a look at these.
Aim for a Healthy Body
As holistic practitioners, we make it a priority to choose actions that will enhance soil health knowing that healthy soil is the foundation for a thriving operation. The crazy thing is that we don’t do that for our own bodies or for our mental health! We usually know what is good for us in terms of food choices and stress management, but we ignore it to meet a deadline or to check off our to-do list. Try asking yourself this question before eating or adding another project to your list: “Will this make me stronger and/or more relaxed or weaker and more stressed?”
Consider All Tools
Peggy Sechrist
Define What You Manage
Ayurveda begins by identifying your unique constitution as well as your current state of health—this means your current state of imbalance. No two people are the same. What is healing for one person may cause imbalance in another. This idea shouldn’t surprise us holistic practitioners; and underscores the need to understand the human constitution. Once you know your constitution and current state of health, you can begin to choose foods, habits, therapies (if needed) that are a match for you.
State What You Want
We know that a written holistic goal creates an inner compass that guides even our unconscious actions. Wouldn’t you want that too for your state of health? Becoming very clear about how you want to feel and what you want to accomplish with a healthy life is a vital part of creating personal well-being.
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As a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner I have harbored a bias against western medicine. That is until my own condition required a cardiac ablation surgical procedure last year. Then I was thankful for this western form of treatment. There still are many western medical options that I would not choose, but it’s in the best interest of the individual to keep an open mind, consider all tools available, and assess each one against values just like you do with your ranch or farm management decisions.
Test Your Decisions
Not all the decision questions will apply to managing for a healthy body. But the first and highest priority question sure does. Get to the Root Cause! This is a key concept in Ayurvedic Medicine. Without treating the root cause, the imbalance is not resolved. An Ayurvedic assessment may take two + hours in order to identify the root cause. The long assessment also allows for the practitioner to understand the whole physiological and mental environment of the client that is so critical to developing a personalized healing protocol.
Monitor Your Results
You know that feedback loop we talk about in Holistic Management? Well, your body gives you feedback all the time—in the form of symptoms. Those little nagging and annoying catches, shooting pain, headaches, eye strain, indigestion, along with a hundred other little
symptoms that we ignore. Those symptoms are your early warning signals that something is out of balance. It is true that in the West even doctors often ignore the little symptoms. In Ayurveda they are taken very seriously because when you catch something early, you correct it easily. When it advances, then we find the condition much more challenging to correct and restore. Do you want to be as proactive managing for good health as you are for managing your ranch or farm? Then don’t ignore those early warning signals and find a practitioner who knows what they are doing. Let me conclude with a word about congruence. In the Holistic Goal/Context,
after forming the value statement, we identify systems and behaviors that will support the values. This act of matching our actions to our values, we know, has a profound effect on our quality of life. Imagine, then, what that means to your body! Each cell in the human body has an innate intelligence. When you make choices that are not in alignment with maintaining good health of the body, the body knows. You are sending it conflicting messages—you think you want good health, but you don’t act like it. If you are in a diseased condition, nothing could be more important than sending your body the message “Yes, I want to heal and I will respect your needs for healthy function”. My own clients have been rewarded by the
A Holistic Approach to Marketing
several weeks since the meeting and she has turned a 180 in her presence on social media, posting excellent pictures, videos, and written content on a regular basis, as well as interacting with potential and current customers. Creating a plan, committing to that plan, as well as evaluation and replanning are all now her in wheelhouse, and items she feels comfortable with. We Kate found that a throwaway trampoline is a great mobile shade also spent time structure for her flock. Photo credit: Flockery talking about this being a process—things will go wrong, but established farms in the area who already have learning from those mistakes and adjusting for a strong market presence. This analysis is the future are key! Safe to fail is also a concept meant as a fact finding and thought-provoking we talked about. We came up with some ideas process that helps you to better understand your that would present little risk, but give her an business and where you lie in the competitive idea of whether the model or idea would be field, as well as where you can improve, where successful in the future. In a safe to fail trial, it you are doing well. is exactly that, safe to fail! These concepts all The Flockery has one last obstacle: helped give her more confidence going forward confidence in their social media presence. This with an increased marketing presence. is a more difficult issue to address directly. The internet and social media are potentially Ashley Pierce is Project Manager for the intimidating places. With a firm plan in place and having her “why” active and in the forefront Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Program and an HMI Whole Farm/Ranch Trainer. She can of her mind, Kate did leave feeling more be reached at: ashley@dga-national.org or confident in her ability to get things done and 518-265-2658. being more active in her marketing. It has been
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○ Produce high quality animal protein ○ Fair price ● We are really in the business of: ○ Demonstrating that regen ag can create delicious meat ○ Grassfed is delicious pasture-based meat ○ Giving our animals the best life possible ○ Improving our land ○ Supporting local businesses ● We absolutely promise these benefits to our customers: ○ I’m not getting rich ○ Taste is superior ○ Animals impact actually improved soil, plant, and local wildlife
SWOT Analysis
Kate also completed a SWOT analysis, or a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis. Strengths and weaknesses are those things that are found within a person or organization. Where is the farm already succeeding and how can that be leveraged? Where can they use more work, where is the weak link? The opportunities and threats section is relating to those things that are external to the business. An opportunity in her case is the acquisition of new property, that a state agricultural college is a nearby source of farm labor, and that the area is very wealthy. Threats for the farm included that there are others in the area who are selling the same products for less money, that grocery stores can almost always beat her prices, and that there are more
new lifestyle practice of choosing the foods and habits that contribute to health, not to stress and disfunction. Once again, we see that the holistic framework can be applied to another area of life—the human body. My hope is that you gained some insight from this article that will help you align your behavior with your desire for good health. Then enjoy your good health to the fullest!
Peggy Sechrist is a Holistic Management Professional Certified Educator and Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner. She can be reached at: peggysechrist@gmail.com or 830/456-5587.
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Book Reviews BY ANN ADAMS
The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Curiosity: Farmers Discovering What Works By John King; Succession Ltd, 2023; pp.185
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ohn King is a longtime HMI Certified Educator who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has contributed numerous articles for HMI’s publication IN PRACTICE and has written for such publications as ACRES USA and The New Zealand Farmer. This year, he took the plunge and published his own book titled, Curiosity: Farmers Discovering What Works, which is a compilation of the articles he has written over the years about the key insights the farmers he has worked have had in their regenerative journey. John grew up on a farm in Southland and has traveled and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. He also graduated from Lincoln University with a Masters in Agricultural Science. He also earned a diploma in Adult Teaching and Learning from the University of Canterbury. After John became a Holistic Management Certified Educator he developed a number of farmer peer-to-peer networks as well as offering Holistic Management training programs. What I’ve always appreciated about John’s writing is his ability to get to the “details” and numbers of the results of farmers’ experiments. Curiosity is set up to highlight over 50 farmers and their operations. Each case study averages 3–4 pages and ends with an “Eco-profits Observations” bullet list of what the key insights were for each article. These farmers come from all over New Zealand with a variety of enterprises. Even if you live in a very arid environment and think these farmers’ experiences are not relevant to your situation, I encourage you to read this book. The lessons learned from these on-farm experiments are worth a read just to encourage your curiosity and creativity if nothing else. For example, the article on John and Emily McRae chronicles how John’s health issues and depression about the state of farming started him down the regenerative agriculture path and breaking from the confines of conventional operations. In turn, he was able to show his accountant the greater profit per acre he was getting with his pastured eggs than his cattle enterprise. That thinking then led to a 50-km Bike Glenhu bike path, which now includes an Artisan Lane where businesses rent small studios to cater for family members who don’t ride bikes. I also loved the article about Rick and Peter Cameron who set aside 12% of their farm’s gross income to invest in equipment and
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development necessary for on-farm research. The best purchase they ever made was purchasing livestock scales so they could remove the guesswork from their research trials to see how their practices affected their livestock’s weights. They found that 70% of the projects based on industry information that they tried over the years actually failed. They also discovered when using a penetrometer on various fertilizer trial areas that where they had applied a superphosphate they had a 300 psi reading (compaction that prevents root penetration and inhibits water infiltration), where they had much better readings 50 meters away where no fertilizer had been applied. Whether you are learning about how oxygenating trough water resulted in one farm’s cattle eating 20% less dry matter and leaving higher post-grazing residuals to grow more grass (Rit and Sara Fisher), or how steers on a 46-day recovery reached market weight sooner than those on a 21-day recovery protocol (Dave and Shelley Campbell), or the difference in pollinator presence on multi-species crop fields vs a mono-crop field (William and Gerald Innes), you will not be short on quantifiable results that will get you thinking about your own on-farm/on-ranch research trials. Moreover, these articles of creativity and collaboration permeate Curiosity and make you question what else you could be developing on your property. If you have found yourself bemoaning the many challenging aspects of what you are doing or where you are located, I encourage you to get yourself a copy of Curiosity and get a dose of inspiration. Curiosity can be purchased on Amazon.com for $25.
A Lifetime of Learning By Don Campbell
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ifteen years ago, I headed up to Canada to observe Don Campbell teach a Holistic Management course for six days. The way Don taught that course blew my mind and changed the way I have taught producers ever since. If you have been struggling to understand how to implement Holistic Management, look no further than A Lifetime of Learning by Don Campbell. This new free e-book is now available for download from HMI’s Store. The book is a compilation of Holistic Management Canada newsletter over a 10-year period, much of which was penned by Don. This 242-page e-book provides information and examples over Don’s long history as a rancher in northern Saskatchewan about how to survive and thrive through droughts, BSE, floods, changing markets, succession, and so much more. If you want to better understand the nuances of a gross profit analysis or how to better market your animals and a host of other Holistic Management practices and principles, download a copy today. Thanks to Don for sharing his knowledge and experiences so others can learn how to implement Holistic Management wherever they live.
The Maddox Legacy
more money than we were with the largerWe work with the third grade like they were framed animals,” says Joe. entomologists then as naturalists in the next “We think about Holistic Management in grade, then teach them about the water cycle In turn, NRCS has taken notice of KOL, nearly everything we do and how much it has in the next grade. What I learned from HMI’s awarding Peggy Maddox and lead volunteer helped us through Kathy Dickson the NRCS 2015 Conservation the years,” says Teachers of the Year Award. Peggy also won Peggy. “It changed the Conservation Educator Award for Area 5 our lives and we of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of still use it. We Texas in 2023. think about it all the time. At this Quality of Life is Key point in our lives, Today Joe and Peggy live near Hermleigh, we think about Texas on 25 acres. Joe continues to run cattle quality of life and with his son, Dalton. They have continued trying to be frugal to put Holistic Management principles into so we don’t have Some of the KOL participants doing the work of an entomologist practice, which has seen them through the to be dependent during insect lab activity. drought that West Texas has faced. “By being on someone else. on top of what was going on the pasture, Joe “We were so afraid of getting in a bind like gathered up the cattle and sold early last year in the ‘70s, so we never got into debt. When we bought our new place, we didn’t have to have a loan. We own our property so something can be left to the kids and grandkids. It comes through testing what we are going to Peggy Maddox and Kathy Dickson do because we want receiving the 2015 Texas NRCS to spend as much time Conservation Teachers of the with our family and Year Award. having so many of them close by is great. Certified Educator Training Program and “In 1989, part of our living and working with Joe, is that it’s been holistic goal was that important to connect those kids to where we wanted a family they are and help them learn about their vacation every other environment and history. With that knowledge, year. This is the year they can perhaps create some sustainability. we should be planning You need to know about something before you for our family vacation. can love it. It’s also been so gratifying when When we started there I taught in HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer were just six adults Program to see the women in that program and one baby so it was coming into their own and I could share my really easy to plan. story as well and help them. We’ve been able Now there are 20 of us. to influence so many lives and we hope it has For the last six weeks created a ripple effect.” we’ve been trying to It is those relationships with others and the figure out a date with land that also makes Joe appreciate Holistic six grandkids and four Management. “I remember the classes we took great grandchildren and remember Allan and the other people we Three generation of Maddox ranchers: Dalton Maddox, with one on the way. met, the teachers and ranchers, and I won’t Mason (Dalton’s daughter), and Joe. We wouldn’t have made ever forget the nice things we went through and got a good price,” says Peggy. that effort if not for Holistic Management and because of Holistic Management,” says Joe. Dalton now leases the 69 Ranch from Kathy our holistic goal. “The people and relationships you build and Dickson and Dalton leases a couple of the “Holistic Management has also emphasized the people we still connect with has meant so pastures to Joe for his cattle. “With the drought for me the importance of ongoing learning. much to us and it’s been fun.” we’ve reduced our herd size and we’re also With the work I’ve done with KOL, it’s been To learn more about Kids on the Land going to smaller cows, like 1000-pound cow, so really important to me to be able to show visit: https://kidsontheland.org/. I could run a lot more cows and we are making how everything in nature works together. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24
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LIVESTOCK
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Pure Pastures Farm—
Canyon Lake came into play. The Moorman family owns 2,000 acres in Canyon Lake and were looking for a land manager that would be responsible for the land, the infrastructure, and the livestock to regenerate the landscape. Maggie shares, “We went through a courtship period while we were discussing BY CHRISTINE MARTIN the job. We got to know the eremiah and Maggie Eubanks and their two boys Moormans and moved their ranching operation from Stockdale, they got to know Texas to Canyon Lake, Texas in order to manage and the Eubanks. become part owners with The Moorman family of Pure And during this Pastures. Using Holistic Management practices to regenerate courtship, we the Texas Hill Country land, they have used cattle, sheep and added direct to pigs as tools to stimulate the ecosystem functions, and these consumer sales animals are then a source of nutrient dense meats to feed the to the manager local community. responsibilities, Bearing in mind the convenient access to healthy meats together with a within their community, the Eubanks shifted from selling at part ownership in farmers’ markets to an on-ranch store and local deliveries. This Pure Pastures.” convenience brought on the need to enter into partnerships The Moorman with other producers to meet the demand they couldn’t provide family and the from their landbase. Eubanks felt it was important that Collaborating to Create Pure Pastures everyone was on Jeremiah and Maggie Eubanks and their two sons. Jeremiah and Maggie the same page and the boys started from the start, homesteading on their 10 so they developed a holistic hoal for Pure Pastures. acres in 2015, while both It was important to both families, they “create a worked full-time jobs. They community and ecosystem that makes the ranch raised pigs, chickens, eggs better, makes our lives better, the food is better, that and a few cows, whose there’s more connectedness between the rancher and products’ they sold to friends the customer” says Jeremiah. To work towards this and family and eventually goal, holistic and regenerative principles and practices sold to customers at the are used to steward and operate the ranch. “We get New Braunfels and The a lot of our customers that are thanking us for what Pearl (in San Antonio) we’re doing to produce the food we make available.” farmers’ market. states Jeremiah. During 2019, with the Maggie is responsible for the direct-to-consumer goal of expanding their land aspects of the business, while Jeremiah is responsible base so they could increase for the production and land management. Pigs on the pasture rooting to jumpstart the production and eventually At the time of the move to Canyon Lake to manage regeneration of the soil while depositing a lot of fertility leave their full-time jobs, Pure Pastures in October 2019, Maggie and Jeremiah with their manure. Jeremiah and Maggie leased were still selling at farmers’ markets. Maggie shares, a small parcel of land across their 10 acres and were in negotiations to “We were actually the same distance to the farmers’ markets, just coming purchase 50 acres 15 minutes from their homestead. At about the time from different directions. Where we were before was very rural and we the negotiations were falling apart, the opportunity to manage the land in really didn’t have that many customers in that area. Most of our customers
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were at the farmers’ markets in San Antonio and New Braunfels. So, transitioning our customers was not a big deal. “The bigger transition was when we changed the name and rebranded to Pure Pastures. I sent out an email, and made a few posts on social media and customers were confused about what was going to happen, and if it was still us, so that look a little damage control. The name change was a much bigger deal at the farmers’ market. For a long time, I would put up both banners (old ranch name and Pure Pastures) because people are not good at change. If a vendor wasn’t there, and I moved over one spot, customers would walk right past me to look for me at my regular booth and find another vendor and leave without looking for me.”
Marketing Changes and Product Availability
with produce). We started off with 20 members and have now grown it to 110 members. “Without products, we don’t make sales to pay the bills. But lack of consistent inventory will drive a customer to look for someone who does have consistent inventory. Animals don’t have a vegetable turnaround--it’s not like I can plant a pig and have it ready to harvest in six weeks! It was hard at first. With the demand brought on by the Covid pandemic right as we were settling into the new ranch, we struggled. Pork was scarce because we couldn’t purchase good quality feeder pigs from anyone, but luckily we have several ranches that we know and trust that can source good quality lamb and beef, so, we could bring in weaned and ready to process animals that allowed us to support the demand before we could increase our own production. Eggs are the exception. We still can’t produce enough eggs to meet the demand. It was definitely a little bumpy but fortunately, it was bumpy for all of our fellow direct to consumer producers so it’s not like we were dropping the ball and the rest had heaps of inventory to sell.”
The official name change occurred in January of 2020, and then in March of 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything. Maggie states, “Everything shut down. That was the start of us weaning Addition of Store Front and Deliveries off from farmers’ Given the time required to attend a farmers’ market, and the market. The Pearl consequences of the pandemic, Maggie shares, “we started farmers’ market in playing with the ranch store on Sundays. The Pearl farmers’ San Antonio shut market used to be Saturday and Sunday, but after the pandemic, down, but the New The Pearl held their farmers’ market on Saturdays only. We Braunfels market had a building on the ranch with easy access to the road that was deemed we could quickly refit to be a store, so we decided to open up essential and on Sundays to see if customers wanted to come out and shop stayed open. But from us. It started slowly but they did come to the ranch to shop. at that point, we Sheep being dropped off in a pasture to graze pastures Jeremiah keeps reminding me that people need things to do weren’t selling at and browse the shrubs and trees adding to the grazing during the weekend. They are looking for chances to recreate. New Braunfels diversity on the land. They are looking for a destination to have a nice drive to. They farmers’ market bring the family, because we and it’s a nice time had just moved, and we had all this work together. So, driving to do on the ranch. Farmers’ markets are an hour from Austin great exposure for new direct to consumer or San Antonio to producers. We wouldn’t be here without doing come shop at the farmer markets- it’s a great way to start a store is something customer base. But there’s a time commitment they look forward to. to do farmers’ market- packing, loading, driving, “Then the attendance at market, loading back up, driving customers started home, unloading. So, we started questioning asking if we could what we were going to do if we didn’t have open on a Saturday farmers’ markets to sell our meats and eggs. because it was “We started doing deliveries when the more convenient farmers’ market shut down. We had a lot of for them. At the customers that were scared to go outside, and time, May 2020, the news was full of stories about fights in the on Saturdays I was grocery stores for ground beef, and limits on selling at The Pearl purchases. So, we promoted the deliveries as Livestock guardian dog protecting the 225 sheep on the ranch that farmers’ market and a safer option: place your order online, pay for produce the lambs that will be converted to meat for customers. Jeremiah was selling it, and we will deliver your order and leave it by at the New Braunfels’ farmers’ market. Market sales at New Braunfels had your front door. No contact required. fallen enough that we decided that we would drop New Braunfels, and “We also started our Prime Membership Club, a VIP buying club, Jeremiah would handle the shop on Saturdays, and I would take care of because we were running out of products and our customers were the shop on Sundays. Not too long after we decided to open the ranch worried about securing their food. The customer pays $100 per year as a store on Saturdays and Sundays, both The Pearl and New Braunfels membership fee, and they get first access to all products, new inventory started charging customers for parking when they attended the farmers’ or bulk orders, 10% off any product, free delivery, a free T-shirt and free market, which the customers weren’t happy about, so many started access to any ranch tour. It was a way for us to secure the funds as an CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 investment into our business (similar to Customer Supported Agriculture Num ber 2 11
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in retailing their products. We initially thought we could source livestock from one operation, but we have learned that we need several sources to mitigate production risks from the producer and to meet our production needs.”
coming to the ranch store to buy their proteins. The store really started taking off, to the point that we hired a part-time employee to go to The Pearl on Saturdays so that I could man the store and Jeremiah could work Processing Livestock Headaches Many producers experienced difficulties with getting their livestock on the ranch. processed during the pandemic due to limited capacity and an increase “I trained the part-time employee for a month, and then let him sell in processing demand. Maggie shares, “We had been using a small at The Pearl, while I sold at the ranch store. Two months later, we used processor, state certified, who handled our HMI’s Decision beef and pig processing for long enough, and Testing Questions and we moved enough volume with them, that decided not the sell when the pandemic hit in 2020, they informed at The Pearl because us that we had preferential treatment with sales were falling them. Unfortunately, because of the higher off and sales at the volume going through the processing plant, store were picking up. their processing quality went down. They also Additionally, the partdidn’t communicate their struggles well, and time employee could they should have said no instead of taking work the ranch store on more than they could handle. They were which would allow having staff issues, their equipment wasn’t us to take a day off! able to handle the volume they were trying to The store was really do, the facility was built in the 1930s so they rocking and rolling, couldn’t handle the size of the cattle they were and in June of 2022 processing (they couldn’t hang half a steer we started opening Pure Pastures meats and eggs, together with products from local carcass and it had to be quartered). on Fridays, so we are artisans and farmers made available to local community at “In the beginning I liked their artisanal now open three days their ranch store. looking links that were all different sizes a week. We still do and you could tell it was handmade, but as production grew, I got tired deliveries and our part-time employee is now making the deliveries. We of having to adjust the pricing on the website on every different batch deliver within 50 miles of the ranch so the route is north towards Austin on because they couldn’t be consistent on the link sizes. Sometimes there Wednesday and south towards San Antonio on Thursday. were three sausage links in a package and other times there were five “One of the advantages we have both for the deliveries and the ranch links in a package. Since we list prices by product weights, customers kept store is that aside from having Austin and San Antonio relatively close to freaking out that we us, the urban development from both those cities has were changing the grown so much that we are surrounded by suburbia. prices all the time, We have producer friends that are more rural that when in reality have found that their customer base is not local as it was the same the local customer has chickens or has a relative that price per pound, raises beef they can purchase a side of meat from. Our but because the customer either commutes to Austin or San Antonio, or weights varied, the works from home, and has the disposable income to listed prices on spend on regeneratively raised proteins.” the website would Matching Production with change drastically. Sales Projections “We were very As demand for their products grow, Maggie shares, lucky to have “we’re still working on matching production to sales availability and projections. It’s harder to do this because of the ranch’s could process current condition and the climate we’re experiencing. as much as we We’re not at a point where we can say we’ll ramp up needed to, but production because we can carry twenty more momma we lost a lot of cows next year. That’s not an option for us right now. money on animals Additionally, hay prices are a limiting factor. Pigs are that were not cut Jeremiah and Maggie Eubanks, co-owners and managers at easier to ramp up because we feed them a ration and properly. They did Pure Pastures in Canyon Lake, Texas. they are pretty drought proof, but they are also very what they could destructive and we don’t need that destruction on all the ranch. So, what to make it better--for the last year we processed with them, we didn’t pay we’ve been concentrating on is finding leases to have access to more the full processing fee because of the discounts they gave us due to their land, as well as making relationships with producers we can trust that mistakes. I took 25 lambs to have them processed, and I didn’t get any will ranch regeneratively, produce a quality product and have no interest lamb chops back, which is the most desired cut and where you make all 10
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your money. Despite the mistakes, the processing plant didn’t fix anything in their processes. As bad as it was for other producers looking for processing slots, we were one of the lucky ones. We didn’t have to drive all over the state for any available slots we could find. “Since then, a new processing plant opened up in Uvalde, Texas that is USDA certified so we can ship our meats out of Texas. They can do value added, they are a bigger plant and they are new so have the most up to date equipment. They had been doing a great job with processing, but a recent change in management is now challenging us. One of the managers who left was the sausage and value-added guy. Luckily, they had our processes and recipes in the system so we can still get what we did before, but it’s keeping us from getting any new value-added product, like lamb sausage. There is no perfect processing plant! “We’ve discussed bringing the processing in house, whether it’s to build a processing plant to process our own and open it up to others or have someone else kill (heavily regulated) and we cut the meat, and do it at a scale that we need. We can’t figure out how to make it profitable or feasible. It’s a topic we discuss quite often. Of all the lost arts, butchering is disappearing. It would be great to create an industry to attract more interest in butchering.”
of 40 pastures, and nine miles of water lines to all those pastures. The fences have been laid out based on topography, roads, brush lines, and are all different sizes. Much of it on rock. It was tough work!” Another project the Eubanks are working on is erosion control. “We have just started addressing erosion on the drainages and washes on the property. We are using the cleared brush at the bottom of the drainages and washes to catch silt and water. We’ve also started using rocks. We hired a consultant, Molly Walton, who helped us develop a plan on where to build the rock structures on the ranch to help control the erosion and raise the water table,” shares Jeremiah.
Forage and Drought Learning Opportunities
To address previous overgrazing and overcropping, they tried drilling in cover crops to grow forage for the livestock on many of the pastures, but it hasn’t amounted to much forage. “We could get it to germinate, but couldn’t get much yield out of it,” says Jeremiah. “Our soils are pretty used up as they were fields that had been plowed consistently and cropped heavily for many years and the lack of timely rain hasn’t helped.” Much of the property is made up of shallow soil over bedrock, so for the moment, cover cropping has been put on hold. Land Management Since October 2019 when Improvement Projects the Eubanks started managing Both Maggie (in her the property, they have been responsibilities with the direct-toexperiencing a lower-thanconsumer enterprise) and Jeremiah average rainfall forcing them (in his land and livestock production to work under drought-like management responsibilities), conditions, which has allowed are using Holistic Management. for many learning opportunities Jeremiah states, “it gives us a as they manage their livestock way to look at the whole. It all has and grazing. to work together. The land, the “Last summer we received community, the finances are like consistent rains and did grow pieces of the puzzle that all need to grass but we didn’t get any rains fit together.” during the fall.” says Jeremiah. Installed rock structure in drainage areas reducing erosion and increasPure Pastures is located in From October of 2021 through ing coverage and grass diversity. Comal County in the Hill Country of September of 2022, they have Texas with an average rainfall of 35 inches with the majority occurring in received 19 inches of rain, of which five inches occurred during the month May-June and September-October, allowing for two grass growth seasons. of September 2022. “We moved the livestock through the grass we grew The property had previously been farmed and grazed conventionally. last summer, and when we ran out of grass, we decided to sacrifice a Before the Eubanks arrived at the ranch, the Moormans had started pasture and dry lotted the cattle and the sheep in a 100-acre pasture and clearing the abundance of cedar trees on the property mechanically to fed them hay,” says Jeremiah. “The hay was unrolled, so as they trampled provide more space for grass to grow and allow for more water infiltration, it, their hooves were also seeding and creating litter, and their manure which has continued. The prominence of cedar trees in the Hill Country and urine was more concentrated. This let all the rest of the property rest is thought to be the result of fire suppression and overgrazing over the and recover, so when we received the five inches of rain in September, last century. we noticed much more significant grass growth on our property than our To date, almost 400 acres of the ranch has been cleared and seeded neighbors.” When asked how they made the decision to purchase hay with native grasses. Jeremiah shares, “The seeding has been hit or miss. or consider other destocking, Jeremiah stated, “It really boiled down to In some places it has done well, and in other places not so much. We looking at the numbers. At the time, feeding hay was the only option. It have had good luck with allowing the seeded cleared area to rest, so was either buy hay or sell the livestock. It was all about the timing. I had going forward we will seed the clearing, unroll hay bales and allow the been waiting for the Corriente cows to calve because I knew I wasn’t going livestock to graze while also trampling the hay and seed into the soil, and to get much for them bred. I wanted to get the Corriente/South Poll calves then let the cleared area recover for at least one year.” on the ground and sell them as pairs because I’d get more for them. About In order to be better able to use livestock as a tool to affect changes to the time they finished calving, everyone else was destocking, the long the landscape, the Eubanks and the Moormans’ first project was to install lines of trailers full of cattle at the sales barns hit the news, and prices fence and water to subdivide large pastures to allow for adequate recovery tanked. Because they were Corrientes, they were already going to take after grazing and provide water. Jeremiah shares, “We installed 19 miles a big dock on the price, and with everyone else selling, they were worth CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 of electrical fencing increasing the total of pastures from seven to a total Num ber 2 11
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from raising calves that we’ve bred, born, and raised on the ranch to meet customer demand for regeneratively raised meats. When we do bring in stocker cattle, we do vet them to make sure that they meet our protocol, nothing. So, we fed out the cows until we weaned the calves, and then we but nothing is guaranteed. Thankfully, Maggie (who is responsible for processed them into ground meat to reduce the forage/hay demand. We customer relations) has done a wonderful job educating our customers have a lot of ground beef now! and being completely honest about our struggles, so our customers “The problem is that we didn’t act fast enough with our drought plan. understand and support us through these critical times. Our customers just We played into the rancher’s optimism, ‘It’s going to rain next week. want to know and trust their source of meat. There’s 40 percent chance of rain’ mindset, but that 40 percent chance “We have been in growth mode, and every month sales increase, and of rain never materialized. So, we need to do a better job next year of we plan for more growth, but eventually we will run out of acreage if we planning drop dead dates based on the amount of rainfall. For example, if rely 100% on our acreage to raise everything. We are going to have to buy we don’t have X number of rain by the end of May, we are going to sell X in more animals. It’s inevitable. We want to develop future partnerships number of animals, or we are going to find another ranch to custom graze where we can trust that our same production protocols will be used to them, or other options.” raise the meats and products, partners that can finish cattle for us or supply us with calves or supply us with finished beef. There are many Balancing Production Through Partnerships producers out there that don’t want to do any of the marketing so we hope With the increase in the demand for their meat, the Eubanks have to find them to collaborate with.” been expanding the number of livestock so they have more production Holistic Management’s framework advocates that there are six tools and can therefore available to manage our ecosystem. bring in more income. One of these tools is grazing and animal “We started with the impact. When asked which of the livestock Moormans’ 30 head currently being used on Pure Pastures of Corriente cows, ranch is the best tool for their landscape and we brought in 25 and ecosystem, Jeremiah shares, “The sheep, 32 pigs, and sheep are absolutely the most well cattle,” says Jeremiah. adapted and the most profitable of the “We bought in a South three livestock we have. We have so Poll bull to breed and much browse material and much of our saved some heifers property is rocky and hilly. We leverage that were half Corriente the destructive nature of the pigs on areas and half South Poll. where we need their rooting to jumpstart We also bought in Red the regeneration of the soil. They put Angus heifers and down a lot of fertility with their manure Corriente and Angus cattle and Dorper sheep on the ranch. stockers after vetting and we feed them on for similar protocols--grassfed, grass finished, no hormones, the ground, so what no antibiotics. The stockers were brought in so that we could feed doesn’t get eaten graze them and put them into our meat production quicklygets decomposed into -we processed them over a six-month period. The stockers the soil. The cattle got us going with the meat production together with some have their place and open cows that went to ground beef.” Preferring the Red contribute to changing Angus for their landscape, they now have two Corriente the environment quicker, cows, and the half Corriente and half South Poll heifers/ but definitely the sheep cows, together with the Red Angus heifers. On the sheep are more beneficial to side, they purchased 200 ewes and kept back some of the ranch. the ewe lambs. After processing and death, today they’re “We will always have grazing 225 ewes. sheep and cattle on “Earlier this year we started discussing expanding our the ranch, and we are chicken layers and duck flock for eggs as that’s one of the looking at partnering first products customers ask for,” says Jeremiah. “But it with someone to raise Foggy morning with the cattle. didn’t really pencil out for us, so we are looking to outsource the pigs in the future. the eggs by finding someone to raise the chicken and duck eggs the We’ve been able to grow because we do have all these proteins available. way we want. We would buy the eggs from them and resell them to our Our customers like that we’ve become a one stop shop.” customers.” The Eubanks recently found an egg producer to partner with Staying True to the Holistic Goal to supply them with eggs for their customers. When asked if given all they’ve accomplished and learned since Given that meat sales are Pure Pastures primary source of revenue, they started managing Pure Pastures in October 2019 whether they’ve balancing forage demand to forage production with customer demand for modified their holistic goal, Maggie shared. “I don’t think we’ve redefined meat during drought conditions has been a challenge. “Whatever animal you sell off, you’re foregoing future greater revenue,” says Jeremiah. “Yes, the holistic goal. It’s very important for me personally that we don’t lose CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 we receive some revenue at the time of sale, but it puts us further away 12
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Parker Creek Ranch and Soilworks—
Accelerating the Regenerative Agriculture Movement BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
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ravis and Mandy Krause have had many enterprises in their holistic journey. Travis was raised on his family’s ranch in south Texas, near a town called D’Hanis 50 miles west of San Antonio. They both came from a long line of farmers and ranchers, and the Parker Creek Ranch has been in Travis’ family since 1846. “Like many legacy farms and ranches, over the years the acreage diminished—being split with heirs. The end result was a 400-acre ranch,” Travis says. He and Mandy are committed to regenerative agriculture production and creating healthy habitats for livestock, wildlife and people. As stewards of the land, their goal is to produce nutritious products for their community while designing and managing systems that will benefit the environment and future generations. Mandy is a fifth-generation farmer and grew up on her family’s citrus farm in McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. “I never planned to go into agriculture; my interests were in wildlife conservation,” she says. Mandy and Travis met at Texas A&M University and graduated in 2008 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and then worked as biologists and educators. It was several years later that they got married and decided to go back to the land.
of broilers and laying hens in the fall of 2010. I moved back to the ranch full time soon after and continued working as a conservation educator. We married in 2012 and now have three sons, Jack, Max, and Eli.” They built their own processing facility since no one in that area was processing livestock. “We figured that if we were going to raise animals we needed to have our own facility. My incredible mother-in-law supported us in everything we did. She helped us raise, move, catch, and process birds, etc. We chose broilers to concentrate on because of their quick return on investment, and because the land we are on is a very harsh and brittle environment,” she explains. “We only get sporadic rainfall and have heavy clay soils. There had been a lot of overgrazing and compaction. We couldn’t make it work with just cattle so we thought we’d try the broilers. We did that for more than a decade, raising lots of chickens. In our facility we could produce any kind of poultry so we started raising quail, guineas and turkeys for
From Biologist to Farmer
“Travis and I enjoyed the Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences program and were ambitious to do meaningful work,” says Mandy. “Travis came from a ranching background, but we didn’t have immediate plans to ranch. After we graduated, he The Krause Family (in back from left to right): Mandy (holding Eli) and was conducting research in India for the Bill and Travis (holding Max) with Jack in front. Melinda Gates Foundation and I was working as a seasonal field technician. “I took a position at the Welder Wildlife Foundation in south Texas as Thanksgiving. We’d do about 1,000 turkeys each year. We also had laying their Education Coordinator. That’s when I became very excited about hens; they had the best profit margin and they were a little more fun teaching and connecting people to nature. I enjoy teaching a variety of because we didn’t have to process them. ages and interests. As an educator, it’s always been important for me to “I was a vegetarian, which was hilarious! But I loved the land so much first learn what interests and excites my audience, so I connect in a way and believed in the idea behind using livestock as a tool to improve the that is relevant to them. land.” It worked; the land improved and transformed tremendously during “Travis called from India on day, 5 a.m. my time, and said he’d been those early years with their management techniques. reading the book Pasture Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin. He said he was “We’d build one structure after another. Everything was pasture-based ready to come back to the ranch and wanted to experiment with raising and we moved it around the farm. It was very labor-intensive, but we were poultry to supplement the cattle income.” very young, energetic and excited,” says Mandy. While working in India, Travis was influenced by pioneers like They direct-marketed everything they raised, going to farmers’ Masanobu Fukuoka, Bill Mollison, Joel Salatin and Malcom Beck. He markets. “I felt like it was Christmas morning every time I went to the decided that pasture-raised poultry would be well suited for the land and farmers’ market because I loved interacting with the people. I could see was inspired enough by Joel Salatin’s book to embark on this new—and that this was the answer, with people connected to the land!” says Mandy. uncommon to south Texas—enterprise. “Going to those markets very week and interacting with our customers “I was surprised by his decision but knew he meant it. Sure enough, was the highlight, for me. We were also selling our products to restaurants CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 the next month he moved back to the ranch and started with the first group Num ber 2 11
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and expanding our grass-fed beef operation. We were improving that, as well. We did pigs for a while but decided that was not for us, but really settled into doing grass-fed beef and pasture-raised poultry and focused on perfecting these enterprises for our land.” Making relationships with the customer base, gaining that trust and forming a community with like-minded people and partners has been very satisfying even though it was extremely challenging. “We had issues with labor, and it was important for us to train new people. We did the WWOOF program (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms and had at least 10 WWOOFers come and live with us,” she says. “We trained them, and had lots of fun. We also had some interns who became permanent employees. Some of them went off to start their own businesses, and this was really fulfilling for us to be a part of. “We decided that we enjoyed consulting; as we became older and had been doing this long enough, we saw that people were really catching onto regenerative agriculture. When we started, no one used that term; it was called sustainable agriculture.”
A Different Approach to Agriculture
of years. This was the beginning of my journey into all of this,” Travis says. “I decided to give it a go, since our ranch was a small acreage compared to most cattle ranches in our area. Mandy and I decided to move to the ranch and start a direct marketing business. We had a small herd of cattle and began to practice holistic grazing with them, and started to build the infrastructure we needed. We also focused on poultry at that time, and tried some pigs, and were a multi-species operation. “We did that until about two years ago. By that time, we’d built it up to about a million dollars gross revenue business, and then decided we were burned out—from COVID overworking us. When everyone else was stuck at home, we were the busiest we’d ever been! “We had finally developed a great business, and an imaginary 9-to-5 job; in the early years we were really working hard and putting in way too many hours. We started having children and were working too much. We wanted to set up the business to where it was more of a 9-to-5 job, not only for ourselves, but also for our employees, so we weren’t all overworking ourselves. “We finally started making a profit about five years into the business. The key to making that profit was taking a Holistic Management financial planning course in 2011, and learning how to do the books, learning about gross margins, etc. and understanding where to focus our time and effort. “Then we chose to close down the direct marketing business, primarily based on a financial decision. Beyond the burnout we’d experienced working extremely long hours during the pandemic, it was more of a financial decision because we really couldn’t see the long-term value in what we were doing. We were not creating or building true wealth or increasing our net worth. We were not building a business that we could
Travis’ passion for regenerative agriculture was partially born out of having experienced the numerous challenges and disappointments of conventional agriculture when he was young. Travis’ dad had a big economic loss during the 1980’s commodities crash, which left a sour taste in his mouth about agriculture. “I grew up watching my dad lease a lot of land, running cattle and using very conventional management and a set stocking rate,” Travis says. “I was raised like everyone else in that period and was advised by my dad to not come back to ranching. He wanted me to pursue something else, and it wasn’t a big enough ranch anymore to make a good living, the way he ran things.” Even though Travis went on to other jobs, he had the advantage of the good things that come from a ranch background. “You develop a love for the land, the livestock, people, and the culture that exists around the ranching community,” he says. “Early on I thought I would never go back to the ranch, but began redeveloping a passion for agriculture. Mandy and Travis enjoy the opportunity to experiment on their ranch with different land I knew I couldn’t come back to management practices as they use the skills they have gained to help scale ranching the same way my dad did it. regenerative agriculture. I knew there must be a better way. “At that time there weren’t very many books on things like regenerative sell someday; it was a business that is hard to replicate, and we were not making enough profit to buy land or other assets that would increase our agriculture and Holistic Management, not like there are now, and the net worth. internet didn’t have nearly as much information on those topics back then. “We actually used the holistic framework to decide to close the I read some books by Joel Salatin, and decided it was time for me to come business! It did not meet our goals as a family, or our long-term financial home." goals. We were in the middle of a drought, and could tell that the financial Travis moved back to the ranch and was also working a few odd aspect of the business was putting too much pressure on the ecological jobs around the area. Then he was invited by a friend to attend a 3-day balance of what we were trying to do—not only with our own property, but workshop by Ian Mitchell-Innes. “My friend, Gerry Shudde had been our leased property as well.” practicing Holistic Management and raising grass-fed cattle for a number 14
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The Next Step
comes to grazing, we’ve taken a step beyond normal grazing planning and rangeland monitoring. We are very data-driven and have developed some unique tools to understand forage supply/demand and how to optimize that and balance it to achieve our economic goals and ecological goals.” One thing Travis feels the team has done well with, and which he focuses a lot of time and energy on, is the people side of it. “We use the three-legged stool analogy: people, economics and ecology. We place a lot of emphasis on team building and taking good care of the folks we work with—improving their proficiency in whatever job they have in our organization,” says Travis. “We learn to match the livestock to the landscape, and match the grazing principles to the landscape and the livestock class that we are grazing—there are many things we learn along the way. “The big take-away for me, over the years, is to not be afraid of change. The popular thing right now is shifting our paradigm. I also think a big part of it is that it takes time and experience to really understand how these systems best function—beyond the ecology and even the business system. “We really focus on the economics and the ecological goals. What we have built over time are tools to help us collect data on those two things and use the data to establish key performance indicators and baselines to help us be better decision-makers. “I think it’s really important to begin to gain a deeper understanding of those key performance Travis teaching some visiting school children about Parker Creek Ranch. indicators and how to use them to make this company does is lease large ranches for grazing livestock, using decisions. A lot of this goes beyond the normal Holistic Management regenerative practices to improve soil health, biodiversity and sequester course work! carbon. Regenerative agriculture creates nutritious, healthy food and “A lot of the course work I’ve done over the years with HMI and increases soil carbon content. Ranching for Profit has been very valuable to my growth and learning Soilworks was started by Ed Byrne and Lew Moorman. They how to better understand the ranching business. It’s very challenging, and developed a passion for the regenerative movement while building people need to acknowledge that ranching is a very challenging business! software companies at Scaleworks using commonsense business It has a lot of moving parts that don’t always go the way you expect them principles. The goals of Soilworks include better and healthier food for to. You might create the most robust economic model you can think of, people, restoring plant and animal diversity, regenerating soil to store and it most likely won’t turn out the way you modeled it. This creates a lot more water and carbon, and more profitable family farms. The company of inherent difficulty, and makes decision-making hard for some people. It offers regenerative grass-fed beef to consumers, sourced from dedicated can be difficult to get investors interested or enough access to capital.” regenerative ranchers who focus on raising healthy, happy cows. “I still work at this company; I am an associate in San Antonio, and also A Living Laboratory Travis has transitioned Parker Creek Ranch from a business to a place the CEO of one of their companies called Grazinglands. We are a scaled where he can experiment without the stress of making a living off the grazing operation here in south Texas; we lease big ranches and practice land. “Now I treat our own place more like a living laboratory than I do a Holistic Management on those ranches, with cattle,” Travis says. business. We play around with new things and experiments. We’ve done He uses the Holistic Management framework to help guide his some sub-soiling (breaking up the soil, usually going about 12-18 inches decisions, even beyond the land. “It has helped me with personal deep, to allow increased water movement, better aeration of roots and decisions and business decisions. It’s been an interesting journey, and I access to additional minerals and nutrients for plant growth) and keyline am not afraid to make changes. One of the first things we do in managing plowing to loosen the soil and we’ve kept track of how that turned out. these big ranches is understand that there are many decision-makers. We’ve created a lot of water catchments, like leaky weirs in the creek, and First are the landowners, and their goals for that property. I also deal have experimented with different grass plantings. with investors and general partners in my business—the Grazinglands “Our ranch is now just our living laboratory and a good place to raise team—and the people who actually operate the ranches. There are many our family, versus coming home to another job. It’s a little more relaxing. I decision-makers involved in this process. don’t need another job! With Parker Creek Ranch, it was a team effort with “We use many Holistic Management techniques, and other teambuilding and decision-making platforms to decide how we are going to best me and my family—my wife Mandy, my mom (who was still alive at that CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 manage each property, to meet the goals we’ve decided upon. When it Since then, Travis expanded into a new business. He’d been doing some consulting on the side, and when he and Mandy decided to close down their Parker Creek Ranch, he started working for Soilworks Natural Capital in San Antonio, from the home office—the Venture Equity Fund. Soilworks is a Public Benefit Company and its mission is to accelerate the Regenerative Food Movement by helping launch scalable, repeatable businesses that fuel the regenerative economy. One of the many things
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Parker Creek Ranch and Soilworks
facility five years ago for doing broilers and were just doing the beef and laying hens. We didn’t miss doing all those broilers. It had given us the experience we needed to really understand how difficult it is for a producer to make it work, especially when trying to do things the right way— time) and a limited number of employees. We had from 2 to 4 employees focusing on the health of the land and the functioning of the ecosystem, at a time." The area where his home ranch is located is very dry. “Our land is very keeping everything in balance. That was always our personal goal, and sensitive to changes. This was a big lesson that I learned. There is a huge when we started trying to make it more financially profitable there is always that delicate balancing act. Then you go through a drought and all difference in the way you manage and handle brittle versus non-brittle the unpredictability. environments. You have to be very careful, because you can do serious “We knew the risks, getting into it, and knew it would always be that damage that could take many years to recover, on brittle landscapes. way. Then during the pandemic things changed even more. Our income Sometimes it’s not just about time; you may also have to bring back some stream, where we were marketing all our products (farmers’ markets, organic matter, which could be very expensive,” Travis says. restaurants) completely changed. We had to innovate very quickly, so “That was the big lesson we learned out here, over the years. One we started a home delivery business. There was a huge demand (since of our major problems was lack of organic matter. When we first moved people were not going to back to the ranch, we the grocery stores). We had both studied wildlife were going door-to-door fisheries sciences and delivering all our products both came at it from an in San Antonio. We were ecological mindset. I took even buying and selling soil samples in 2009, and our friends’ and partners’ sent them off, and the products. results showed that there “We were buying was not even a single honey, pasture pork, pasture with more than etc. and reselling it. We 1% organic matter, which were the delivery service; is very low.” we went from being He took samples producer-direct marketers again in 2017, and by to being a producer/home then had gotten some delivery service. That of those pastures up to grew quickly. We missed 5% organic matter, which the farmers’ markets, but was a big improvement. then other opportunities "I am not sure if it was came along and we because of our rotations jumped on those, like the with the cattle or poultry consulting, and Travis is or the combination of very excited about this. both. We didn’t use any The Krauses enjoy raising their children on the ranch so they can learn about the land We began doing some inputs. That was one and animals as a family. side projects and they thing I was dead set on; developed into where we are now. we were not going to apply any fertilizer or organic fertilizer or microbes. “We are really happy with these other opportunities because this We were going to do it naturally with the animals. We didn’t have the land could not sustain that kind of pressure. Now we can scale back our money to do it any other way!” production here and go back to looking at what our goals really are and During that time, he also did some subsoiling, even though he realizes that a person shouldn’t do that too much. “Maybe one time is enough, on a how we are going to achieve them. We have the time now, without having to focus so much on having to produce and market. For example, we pasture, and then leave it alone for a decade,” he explains. recently re-seeded more ground. A Space to Grow & Learn “Everything out here is an experiment, to us. We have been planting Travis and Mandy and their children still live on the family ranch. “We this field back to native grasses since 2011, a little as a time, as our love raising them on the homestead,” says Travis. He and Mandy enjoy finances allowed. I went through the HMI financial planning course and we being on the ranch, as a family. Jack is 8, Max is 4, and Eli is a year old. looked at our top priority investment. “They love roaming around out here and catching critters and doing all That course was one of the best things we’d ever done. It taught us the things we do at the ranch, working cattle, etc. We try to keep them how to look at our finances in a different way, and focus money on our engaged, as much as they want to be. Jack is really starting to grasp the top priority investments. A big one was increasing our biodiversity on the things we’re doing. We can tell that growing up out here is starting to have ranch, for the benefit of wildlife and livestock and ourselves. an impact on him,” says Travis. “We want our kids to love this land; we don’t want them to feel “Live changed a lot for us when we had our kids,” Mandy says. “The burdened by it, so that’s our goal. We’ve been re-seeding, harvesting meat processing and marketing that we’d done before was too much to grass seed from the native grasses that have done well in our continue. That was a good chapter in our lives but we decided we were environment. We now have a lot of native grasses established. We had CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 ready to do something different. We closed the doors on our processing CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
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How To Know What to Feed the Livestock in Your Soil BY NEAL KINSEY
T
rue science begins with observation, but in these times whose observations can you safely trust? Why not consider observing the basic requirements for improving feed production and nutrition for yourself, on your own land, and most likely for a lot less money than it costs for someone else to do it for you? In seven years of randomized, replicated research on the Bradford Research Farm, University of Missouri/Columbia correcting soil nutrients based on the use of soil chemistry has been shown as a necessary influence before the soil has the greatest possibility to attain the necessary soil structure, and particularly the ability to hold needed amounts of water and air. Soil biology alone does not insure that needed environment—shelter, feed, water and air. All four must be adequately provided to encourage the proper abilities and activities of the living organisms for soil biology to thrive. What farmer or rancher thinks their livestock can always fend for themselves and without any help provide the utmost in possible production and income? At times adequate feed, water or shelter can mean the difference between profit and loss, or even worse—life or death. Why would anyone consider needed livestock in our soil would be any different? Should optimum benefits provided from biological life in the soil be expected to provide the utmost results without the proper living conditions? As an example, many farmers and ranchers have noticed that the use of products to stimulate soil biology, including microbial populations, only work best when sufficient calcium and phosphorous are present in those soils. The clay particles in the soil are influenced by the effects of chemistry as well as by the effects of biology. Both need to be correctly considered and supplied. And because soil chemistry has a great influence on the amounts of air and water each soil contains it has a significant influence on all life in the soil. Air and water are the two most critical needs for all life to survive, including all life in the soil. These both need to be correctly supplied for the greatest benefits to and from the soil biology, beginning with the plant root and all those organisms that help support optimum plant growth from the soil. Soil organisms may live there, but they only thrive and achieve the best results under the environmental conditions that are best for them. Researchers point out that the aerobic zone (as deep as a fence post will rot in each soil) is the most important environment for soil life and building humus. The term “aerobic” means relating to, involving, or requiring free oxygen. In other words, it is the zone that has enough air to supply that need. The soil must have enough pore space to supply that needed air, otherwise what is needed for living organisms in the soil will come up short. How is this accomplished? Correcting soil chemistry is the key to correcting soil porosity. When the pore space is as ideally provided for soil life as possible, this insures the best circumstances for the life in each different type of soil. First of all, it is the greatest requirement to assure the ideal proportions of 50% water and 50% air will fill the space provided from the proper porosity in each soil. If you have too much porosity (open space) in the soil it will dry out too quickly and result in too much air in relation to water content. In such cases the soil dries out too quickly and moisture is lost that
could be kept there longer for the plant. This is the case in sandy soils and other coarse type soils. But using soil chemistry to determine the nutrient holding capacity of such soils and assuring that the proper amounts of magnesium, potassium and sodium are present can help with such problems. All three of these elements have different jobs for growing plants, but when it comes to soil structure, they all help in one certain way. All three when adequately provided to sandy soils cause the clay particles, or colloids, to disperse, or spread out which reduces the pore space in that soil and by doing it dries out more slowly and thus water stays available there for a longer period of use. But in addition to dispersing clay particles in the soil, the correct amount of magnesium provides another advantage. Magnesium, due to its chemical makeup, attracts, and holds more water in the soil. Increasing the amount is a definite advantage in sandy soils, and minimizing the amount is a definite advantage in heavy soils that tend to have too much water. On the other hand, if there is too little space in the soil, water will predominate, and the soil will lack an adequate amount of air. This happens in clay soils that have insufficient amounts of calcium, or too much magnesium, or potassium, or sodium. The effects of calcium on a soil has exactly the opposite influence that will be caused by adding magnesium, potassium or sodium. Calcium causes clay particles to flocculate the soil. This means the clay particles will aggregate or clump up. And as the clay particles are pulled together in small “clumps” it increases the amount of space or soil porosity in that soil. Consequently, the calcium in needed amounts causes soils to “open up” due to increased porosity and water can flow more freely in that soil. It can get in faster and with adequate pore space it can wick back up for plant uptake more easily as well. Therefore, soil porosity is not just there to supply air and water, it is the science that enables the soil to bounce back when the effects of too much water come from rainfall, flooding, etc. and extreme amounts of air when soil dries out from lack of adequate moisture. It provides resilience or the ability to make any needed adjustments more quickly once conditions exist to permit recovery. In other words, this is the key to helping soil adjust back to the most ideal conditions for the needed life there—to most benefit the soil biology. The seven years of independent university research that has now been completed as randomized, replicated plots at the Bradford Research Farm at University of Missouri, Columbia show this to be true. This work has shown that the highest populations of microbes and the highest replacement of carbon, and very importantly, the highest yields and feed values, are on the soils that exhibit exactly the soil chemistry requirements that Dr. William Albrecht recommended as necessary for soils that would grow the best plants (both in yield and quality!) based on his work in the early- to mid- 20th century. By measuring the needs of the land, using soil testing based on optimum mineral content as shown through soil chemistry, optimum feed value can be achieved and measured. This is accomplished by correctly measuring and providing each required mineral nutrient for meeting the needs of nutrient differences from soil to soil. This can be measured by soil testing specifically designed for that purpose in combination with normal feed testing to show the value that using this method can provide. Independent consultants who have had the proper training and work with our company can do both the soil testing and recommendations and test the feed to show the results. Or have one of the consultants do the soils and you have the feedstuffs tested and evaluated before and after CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
time the other night to go out as a family and work on our project. All the kids were digging holes in the field, Travis and I were collecting grass seed, and then we went into a different pasture where the cattle are, and sprinkled it into their mineral and sprinkled it out on the soil so they could stomp it in. We enjoyed the sunset and watching our kids screaming and having fun being wild and active. So that’s where we are in this current chapter of our lives.” After Travis and Mandy scaled down Parker Creek Ranch, Mandy has been working as an education director for Welder Wildlife Foundation’s Rangeland Curriculum. For the past 10 years she has been going to schools—science education centers—in Texas, and teaching teachers how to incorporate rangelands curriculum in their science courses. She recently took an executive director’s job at the Devil’s River Conservancy in West Texas. “Life is a little chaotic right now with me being a CEO and Mandy being an executive director, with three kids,” says Travis. “We are still very busy, just in a different way! We are both very passionate about taking care of the land.” Throughout it all, they have enjoyed engaging their local community and other organizations across the state. “This has been fun, connecting with people and seeing how we can help other landowners be productive and profitable. We want to help keep ranches going. We got into this field because we were passionate about conservation and we believe that producing food in a way that’s good for the environment is one of the answers! This will take a lot of people, working hard together,” Travis says.
Scaling Change
Travis and Mandy strongly believe that regenerative, holistic agriculture practices have a large-scale impact on the conservation of our natural resources. “We have seen our systems and efforts greatly improve the soil and forage quality, water catchment and infiltration, and wildlife habitat. Our relationship with the people of our community is of great importance to us. We are energized by sustainable agriculture and love to teach
Pure Pastures Farm
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focus that the reason we’re selling meat is because we’re using the animals to regenerate the ranch. We got away from that a little bit, but we’re cognitively trying to move back to it, which is why we’re looking into leases, partnering with other producers to source livestock, because we’re never going to be able to raise enough on this ranch to sustain a business, while regenerating the land. “At the beginning, we were all not wanting to acknowledge it, but we were hopeful we could. At the last meeting, Lew Moorman told us we were going to die because we couldn’t do it all ourselves! So, we’ve taken it to heart, and are making better decisions to regenerate the land while providing our local community with quality products. We’ve built a strong relationship with our community of customers where they trust our commitment to quality, whether we raise the product ourselves or from a likeminded producer, to provide them with healthy, nutrient dense products.” 18
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others about what we do,” Travis says. Their business and production models are always evolving. They currently are taking in some research and partnering with organizations like Texas AgriLife Extension. Mandy has received a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) producer grant to conduct water conservation research in capturing water on the landscape. “We are so prone to frequent droughts and this was our biggest limiting factor. We did some studies on water capturing and storing in the soil by using keyline designs and deep soil ripping. We’ve done this in addition to our grazing and seeding, as a way to manage the soil,” Mandy says. They have also learned a lot during their ranching venture. “The challenges and learning experiences have been exciting, but at the same time, my personality continually needs new challenges,” says Travis. “I think everyone practicing Holistic Management should take a personality test! Then you’d find out what type of person you are, and how you make decisions. That way you could also understand the people around you, and how they impact your decision-making process. “With my personality, I need change every now and then. I don’t do well sitting idle or doing the same thing for very long. I am almost to a point in my life where I think I’ve tackled a lot—even though I still have a long way to go in learning about landscapes and building businesses and working with people. I feel like it’s time for other people to take a step up. I think what this holistic, regenerative movement really needs at this time is to scale up and be more widespread. It is still too much of a niche, in my opinion.” There are some indicators that this is happening. “The carbon credit marketplace may be a catalyst to increase adoption of things like Holistic Management,” says Travis. “And consumer demand for better products, such as farm to market products, will help. But I think it is still very microscopic compared to the larger way that land is being managed. I really feel at this point that the Holistic Management movement and good land management has been pushed hard for about 20 years now, but only in the past 10 years has it really taken off. It needs something more, however, to catalyze and scale it up to make a greater impact. “I am working on some projects that may help influence part of that, and we’ll see where it goes! That’s the next step I am looking for.”
How To Know What to Feed the Livestock in Your Soil
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
applying the nutrients shown to be necessary to reach the best levels for the needs of each particular soil. And when you do so, be ready with answers to these three important questions. 1) How much rainfall do you normally receive per year. 2) How would you rate the productiveness of the soil you intend to use for this experiment? 3) What is the greatest need concerning this land that you would like to solve? Be your own scientist and learn the truth for yourself!
To learn more about Neal Kinsey and Kinsey Agricultural Services visit: https://kinseyag.com/.
PROGRAM ROUND UP HMI Scholarships Help Small Farmers Succeed
I
Krista Raymond has operated Five Sprouts Family Farm with her husband Roger and their five children for nine years in Alexandria, Ohio. They raise a variety of pastured meats, which they sell at the local farmers’ market and direct to consumers online. Krista is also a certified Life and Health Coach and uses the farm to help educate customers on the benefits of local small farms and the health benefits of pastureKrista Raymond. raised meats. Over the past year, however, Krista felt like the farm was running them, and it was no longer something that brought them joy. She was spending 60-80 hours/week working on the farm, and her husband would come home from his day job and help in the evenings. They spent many days chasing the sun down and felt they were always going from putting out one fire to another. “Our quality of life had all but vanished, and the farm kept us from important events with our family and friends. We were running ragged and ready to walk away”, Krista says. Krista had heard about Holistic Management several years ago and purchased the book and the textbook but couldn’t work through it independently. Without context, It seemed too dry, geared towards larger farms/ranches, and she couldn’t understand how it related to their small farm operation. Then at the 2023 OEFFA Conference, she attended HMI’s Executive Director Wayne Knight’s winter workshop, and the light bulb went off. “The HMI approach spoke so much to me during Wayne’s presentation at the OEFFA conference. The practices and philosophy felt familiar—concepts like root cause, circle of influence, starting with the end in mind, and the wheel of life tool were all familiar to me from my previous training as a Life and Health Coach. I could finally see how it all fit together. I left the conference on sensory overload,” says Krista. Krista then applied for a scholarship to HMI’s 6-Day Regen Ag School at the Leo Ranch in Texas. She knew she had too many enterprises she was trying to manage. With what she had learned at the workshop, she saw that this was a better decision-making platform to help her evaluate what enterprises were successful and which ones could be streamlined or eliminated. She wanted to learn more about how to apply the concepts she had been introduced to.
“After nine years, I was struggling to keep going, burnt out, and longing for something more, a new direction,” says Krista. Krista dug deep at the Regen Ag School and followed up with HMI’s Online Grazing Planning Course to better build and implement a Grazing Plan for her farm. The timing was perfect as she met with her local NRCS agent to create her prescribed grazing plan to receive funds for cross-pasture fencing and improving their water system. “I felt like the Grazing Course allowed me to hold an intelligent conversation with the NRCS agent. We used HMI’s Grazing Chart to develop the plan and talk about options for planting some new grass species as well. It felt empowering to be able to have that knowledge and confidence to participate in that conversation,” says Krista. “We’ve been pushing production for the last couple of years on our 14 acres, which has depleted the animals and the land. It was great to talk to Wayne at the OEFFA conference, hear his message and now understand the framework, we now feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.” “It’s been great to be able to sit down with my husband and work on our holistic goal and think about what we want to accomplish. It feels refreshing. I now know I’ve been working on this production model too hard. I was trying to be Joel Salatin and not doing any of my enterprises successfully. It was draining physically and financially. Learning about Holistic Management has been a good mindset change. If we can make our business more self-sufficient, we can take more personal time from the farm to do things we love, like camping with our children. We are focusing on making our enterprises more efficient and downsizing or eliminating some all together so we can focus on improving our quality of life.” Krista feels that the scholarships she received from HMI has given her an opportunity to learn a new framework and better understanding of how all the different parts of her life she is trying to manage influence each other. “I can talk to people all day about the benefits and need for healthy diets, but they need to understand the 5 Sprouts Farm. need for healthy finances to do that as well, if they can’t afford quality food that’s just added stress.” says Krista. “It’s a whole system, it all comes together.” “In our area, there is a division between commercial and small farmers. There are few resources for small farmers, even within NRCS. I want to be a liaison and help other small producers make more efficiencies for their businesses so they can succeed as well. I talk to many fellow small producers at our local farmers markets and many feel just like we did, burnt out and drowning because the farm runs them. I hope to be a beacon for them to learn there is hope and a better framework for them to succeed.” Thanks to the L&L Nippert Foundation for funding the Regenerative Agriculture Scholarship Fund that helps people like Krista as well as our other funders who provide scholarship support!
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Certified
Educators
NEBRASKA
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.
Joshua Dukart
Ralph Tate
Randal Holmquist
Hastings 402/463-8507 • 402/705-1241 (c) pswanson3@unl.edu Papillion 402/250-8981 (c) tateralph74@gmail.com NEW HAMPSHIRE
Seth Wilner
Newport 603-543-7169 (w) • seth.wilner@unh.edu
U N I T E D S TAT E S
NEW MEXICO
Ann Adams ARIZONA
Tim McGaffic
Christine C. Jost
Silver Springs 773/706-2705 christinejost42@gmail.com
Cave Creek 808/936-5749 tim@timmcgaffic.com
Lee Altier
MARYLAND
CALIFORNIA
College of Agriculture, CSU Chico 530/636-2525 • laltier@csuchico.edu
Owen Hablutzel
MICHIGAN
Larry Dyer
Petoskey 231/881-2784 (c) dyer3913@gmail.com MISSISSIPPI
Preston Sullivan
Los Angeles 310/567-6862 go2owen@gmail.com
Meadville 601/384-5310 (h) preston.sullivan@hughes.net
Richard King
Petaluma 707/217-2308 (c) rking1675@gmail.com
MONTANA
Roland Kroos (retired)
Doniga Markegard
Half Moon Bay 650/670-7984 doniga@markegardfamily.com
Kelly Mulville
Paicines 707/431-8060 kmulville@gmail.com
Bozeman 406/581-3038 (c) kroosing@msn.com
Cliff Montagne
Montana State University Bozeman 406/599-7755 (c) montagne@montana.edu
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@paratuinstitute.com
Dolores 808/936-5749 tim@timmcgaffic.com IDAHO
Angela Boudro
Bonners Ferry 541/890-4014 kregandangie@hotmail.com KANSAS
Winfield 316/322-0536 linda@gtpresourcemanagement.com
20 IN PRACTICE
Kirk Gadzia
Bernalillo 505/263-8677 (c) • kirk@rmsgadzia.com
Jeff Goebel
Belen • 541/610-7084 goebel@aboutlistening.com NEW YORK
Erica Frenay
SOUTH DAKOTA
Mitchell 605/730-0550 • randy@heartlandtanks.com
Deborah Clark
TEXAS
Henrietta 940/328-5542 deborah@birdwellandclarkranch.com
Kathy Frisch
214/417-6583 • kathytx@pm.me
Guy Glosson
Snyder 806/470-6857 • glosson@caprock-spur.com
Wayne Knight
Holistic Management International Van Alstyne 940/626-9820 waynek@holisticmanagement.org
Tracy Litle
Orange Grove 361/537-3417 (c) • tjlitle@hotmail.com
Brooktondale 607/342-3771 info@shelterbeltfarm.com
Peggy Maddox
Craig Leggett
Christine Martin
Chester 518/275-5484 • craigrleggett@gmail.com
Elizabeth Marks
Chatham 518/567-9476 (c) elizabeth_marks@hotmail.com
Phillip Metzger
Hermleigh 325/226-3042 (c) • peggy@kidsontheland.org Oakwood 936/245-9505 • christine@theregenranch.com VERMONT
John Thurgood
Stowe (1/2 year in Oneonta NY) 802/760-7799 • thurgood246@gmail.com WISCONSIN
Norwich 607/316-4182 pmetzger17@gmail.com
Laura Paine
Ralph Corcoran
Philipp Mayer
Columbus 608/338-9039 (c) • lkpaine@gmail.com
AUSTRALIA
Coolatai, NSW 61-409-151-969 judi_earl@bigpond.com
Graeme Hand
Mt Coolum, QLD 61-4-1853-2130 graemehand9@gmail.com
Dick Richardson
Tim McGaffic
Linda Pechin-Long
Judi Earl
Warwick, QLD 61-4-1878-5285 hello@decisiondesignhub.com.au
Dolores 970/739-2445 cadwnc@gmail.com
Holistic Management International Albuquerque 505/842-5252 ext 5 anna@holisticmanagement.org
Hazen 701/870-1184 • joshua_dukart@yahoo.com
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Helen Lewis
Cindy Dvergsten
NORTH DAKOTA
Paul Swanson
Langbank, SK 306/434-9772 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net
Blain Hjertaas
Redvers, SK 306/452-7723 bhjer@sasktel.net
Brian Luce
Ponoka, AB 403/783-6518 lucends@cciwireless.ca
Mt. Pleasant, SA 61-4-2906-9001 dick@naturesequity.com.au
Noel McNaughton
Jason Virtue
Tony McQuail
Cooran QLD 61-4-27 199 766 jason@spiderweb.com.au
Brian Wehlburg
Mid North Coast, NSW 61-0408-704-431 brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au CANADA
Don Campbell
Meadow Lake, SK 306/236-6088 • doncampbell@sasktel.net
h September / October 2023
Edmonton, AB 780/432-5492 • noel@mcnaughton.ca Lucknow, ON 519/440-2511 • tonymcquail@gmail.com
Kelly Sidoryk
Blackroot, AB 780/872-2585 (c) kelly.sidoryk@gmail.com FINLAND
Tuomas Mattila
Pusula 358-407432412 tuomas.j.mattila@gmail.com
Pirkanmaa 358-409306406 mayer_philipp@gmx.at NAMIBIA
Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii Windhoek 264-812840426 kandjiiu@gmail.com
Wiebke Volkmann Windhoek 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@afol.com.na
NEW ZEALAND
John King
Christchurch 64-276-737-885 john@succession.co.nz SOUTH AFRICA
Jozua Lambrechts
Somerset West, Western Cape +27-83-310-1940 jozua@websurf.co.za
Ian Mitchell-Innes
Ladysmith, Kwa-Zulu Natal +27-83-262-9030 ian@mitchell-innes.co.za
REGENERATE 2023
MICROBES * MARKETS * CLIMATES Holistic Management International, Quivira Coalition, and the American Grassfed Association invite you to explore regenerative agriculture at every scale — from microbial soil communities, to social relationships and markets, to our changing climate, and everything in between. Join us for the conference, workshops, and special events! www.regenerateconference.com
Nov 1-3, 2023 | Santa Fe, NM
HMI’s Online Courses
Live, Interactive Learning from Anywhere in the World $350 each, scholarships available
Holistic Grazing Planning Sept 6-Oct 18
Holistic Management® Foundation Sept 12-Oct 24
Holistic Financial Planning Oct 17-Nov 21
Marketing / Business Planning This is the first time this course is available in the interactive, online format! Learn from HMI Certified Educator, rancher and direct marketer, Christine Martin.
www.holisticmanagement.org/training-programs
Marketing / Business Planning Sept 7-Oct 19
Guardian Dogs, Small Ruminants, and Profitability: A Holistic Perspective
October 5-6 | Graze the Prairie of Winfield, KS $300/person or $400/couple, partial scholarships available
Topics will include: • Holistic Management® as an Adaptive Management Tool • Multispecies Grazing and Ecosystem Monitoring • Small Ruminants on Small Acreages • Animal Body Condition, Nutrition, and Health • Livestock Guardian Dogs: Effective Training and Use • Parasite Control and more! www.holisticmanagement.org/gtp
Save the Date - Registration Coming Soon Small-Scale Success in Regenerative Agriculture Field Day Aug 24 | Taos, NM Holistic Grazing Planning Workshop Oct 17-18 | Brett Gray Ranch of Rush, CO Scholarship funding support for HMI programs comes from the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation.
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THE MARKETPLACE
Kelly Sidoryk
Canadian Holistic Management for Non-Brittle Environments Ontario, Quebec and Maritimes Tony McQuail HMI Certified Educator Contact now for upcoming courses
Box 72 Box 72 Blackfoot, Alberta, Blackfoot, Alberta, Canada T0B Canada T0B0L0 0L0 780-872-2585 780-875-4418/872-2585 kelly.sidoryk@gmail.com sidorykk@yahoo.ca kellysidoryk.com HMI Certified Educator Facilitating Holistic Management Intro workshops; Financial planning; Grazing planning and Succession planning. Rancher, freelance writer and photographer, special event organizer and speaker.
Resource Management Services, LLC
mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca meetingplaceorganicfarm.on.ca 519-528-2493 Lucknow, ON
On-Site Consulting:
All aspects of holistic management, including financial, ecological and human resources.
Ongoing Support:
Follow-up training sessions and access to continued learning opportunities and developments.
Property Assessment:
Land health and productivity assessment with recommended solutions. Pasture Scene Investigation
22 IN PRACTICE
Jozua’s purpose is to improve the sustainability and resilience of individuals, families and family businesses, especially in the farming and ranching sectors, by offering: 1. Process consulting focusing on visioning and values clarification, goal setting and implementation, conflict resolution and succession planning. 2. Training in Holistic Management and associated knowledge frameworks. 3. Ongoing support during learning and implementation to ensure effective results. 4. Regenerative living experiences by visiting and staying on the Lambrechts’ family ranch in South Africa. Email: jozua@websurf.co.za Phone: 083 310 1940
CORRAL DESIGNS RICHARD KING
Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 505-263-8677 kirk@rmsgadzia.com www.rmsgadzia.com
How can Kirk help you?
Jozua Lambrechts
Professional Certified Educator
Holistic Management® Educator By World Famous Dr. Grandin Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals The wide curved Lane makes filling the crowding tub easy.
Includes detailed drawings for loading ramp, V chute, round crowd pen, dip vat, gates and hinges. Plus cell center layouts and layouts compatible with electronic sorting systems. Articles on cattle behavior. 27 corral layouts. $55. Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59. Send checks/money order to:
GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS
2918 Silver Plume Dr., Unit C-3 Fort Collins, CO 80526
970/229-0703 • www.grandin.com
h September / October 2023
Assisting people with: • Land health assessment • Growing soil health & biodiversity • Problem solving & creativity • Planning complex situations holistically • Monitorng to stay on course • Building consensus • Finding blind spots • Sound policy development • Improving quality of life Certifications with HMI, SI, SRM, Calif. BOF
INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS OR WORKSHOPS
(707) 217-2308 cell or (707) 769-1490 rking1675@gmail.com
THE MARKETPLACE Resource Management Services, LLC
CORRAL DESIGNS HMI Grazing
Planning Software
Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 Pasture Scene 505-263-8677 kirk@rmsgadzia.com Investigation www.rmsgadzia.com
• User-friendly excel-based interface • Let the computer do the math while you plan • Easy SAU and ADA calculations J• Account for multiple herds hyperlinks By WorldManual Famous Dr. Grandin T • Grazing •Comparing Livestock and Land Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals performance of conventional Performance Worksheet wide curved Lane makes filling a The easy. •Improving Andthe many moretubfeatures soilcrowding health
How can RMS, LLC help you? On-Site Consulting: All aspects of holistic management, including financial, ecological and human resources.
• Effective biological monitoring Includes detailed drawings for loading • Forage assessment ramp, V chute, round techniques crowd pen, dip TO • Multi-species grazingPlus systems cell vat, gates and hinges. $40center ADE • The role dung beetles UPGR with layouts andoflayouts compatible • Brush control animalArticles impact on systems. electronic sortingusing “•This tool has already given us a many Thebehavior. connection between & human health fold cattle 27 corralsoil layouts. $55. return beyond our initial investment and L Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59. we have just begun to use it.” order to: —Send Arnoldchecks/money Mattson, Agri-Environment Services Branch,
$150
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.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS TO LEARN MOREDr., or TO ORDER: 2918 Silver Plume Unit C-3
Land Health Monitoring: Biological monitoring of rangeland and riparian ecosystem health. Property Assessment: Land health and productivity assessment with recommended solutions.
22 IN PRACTICE
Fort Collins, CO 80526 Call 505/842-5252 or visit us at 970/229-0703 www.holisticmanagement.org/store/ www.grandin.com
Brian Wehlburg Holistic Management Training • Decision Making • Goal Setting • Land Planning •• Environmental Environmental Monitoring Monitoring • Grazing Planning • Grazing Planning
Training Individuals and groups Training Individuals and groups (Landcare, TAFE, CMA, etc.) (Landcare, TAFE, CMA, etc.) Contact: Contact: 61-2-6587-4353, Contact: 61-2-6587-4353 61- 04-087-4431 +61 4 0870 4431
or 61- 04-087-4431 or 61-04087-404-431 (cell) Mid-North Coast NSW, Australia Brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au www.insideoutsidemgt.com.au
“I did this course with Brian and can thoroughly recommend it. It takes land management to a whole new level. He brings a wealth of experience to the table.” Martin Bartlett, Sydney
May / June 2014
ral KINSEY Agricultu
Services, Inc.
e Worlders th d n u ro A y it il ert grow Increasing Soil F ars of field experience. Working with ing e world, balanc ore than 40 ye countries around th tion. Benefit from our m 75 an th e or m d an es pasture produc in all 50 U.S. Stat tain uality crop and ob to il so he nt ni ai and maint
Testimonials “In following your recommendations to correct these problems we began having positive results within the first year and have continued to get those results, as measured by increased yield, for the past seven years. Production in the bad areas now equals what the good areas used to produce, but the good areas have gotten better so they are still ahead…it has also held true in our landscape areas...” —Lee Dickens, California “Thanks very much for last year’s [recommendations]. It was the best corn crop in this area ever. We think we averaged over 200 bushel per acre. The highest check we happened to take was 265 bushel per acre, which as the second highest that our Pioneer dealer took. Most beans were in the lower 50’s in this area, but our averaged 60.” —Randy Vogeler, Iowa “We applied all the recommend trace elements…Had extremely good results. Best grass ever…in spite of a lousy growing season—very hot and extended drought. We were the only people in the area who didn’t have to feed hay in July/August.”
K
For consulting or educational services contact:
Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. Charleston, Missouri 63834
—Frank Bostwick, Arkansas
“Neal, my wheat and canola crops this year are the bestI’ve ever grown. By following and implementing your recommendations, I feel my yields have increased by 50% for wheat and 25% for canola. A great achievement. Many thanks.” —Paul Mason, Australia
Ph: 573/683-3880, Fax: 573/683-6227 www.kinseyag.com • info@kinseyag.com
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PAID Jefferson City, MO PERMIT 210
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West Ranch for HMI who had inherited the property and used it as a learning site. In 2003, Peggy suggested to HMI that there was a need for a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education program that could be based on a ranch to help children learn about all the STEM-based information that happens on a ranch and connect them more deeply to the land and agricultural knowledge oe and Peggy Maddox have been a bit of legend within the that surrounds these lands. So, Kids on the Land (KOL) was born 20 Holistic Management community. In the 1986 they were $3 years ago. Peggy used the Holistic Management process to help her million in debt (with interest at almost develop that program as she called in her $1,000/day) and their land badly volunteers that she called LINKS (Learning deteriorated. They went to their first Holistic in Nature with Kids). Some of those original Management school with their son, Dalton, and volunteers have remained with her through all wrote their holistic goal on the truck ride home. these years. They created a holistic goal that From that point on they worked to put Holistic they still use to guide program development Management into practice as were able to be for KOL. debt free in five years. They started with the 3rd grade class at They put all their animals (5,000 ewes Ozona and each year added a grade. Today and 400 cows) into one herd and sold land they serve over 700 children and work with and equipment and looked at every expense nine school districts in Texas. “The pandemic closely. They also went to the bank with their really hit us hard because we couldn’t do our new financial plan and stopped them from spring programs,” says Peggy. “So, we began foreclosing on them. They also got creative to make videos and we offered them to the and got the trust that held their biggest lease school districts. We also offered activities to fund infrastructure investments to improve and resources to them and the schools the asset base they owned, helping them stayed involved. We were able to start doing develop the 13 paddocks on that property to programming on the land again in the fall of 65 paddocks. With improved infrastructure they 2022. We like to get the community involved Peggy and Joe Maddox were able to improve their grazing and went so we usually have four to five volunteers from 28% bare ground to 14% bare ground as from each community as well as the 10 well as increase the number of higher successional grass species, volunteers I have that help with the programs. Some of them go to improving their stocking rate from 30 acres for one SAU to 13.5 every program and we get a lot of good support from Texas AgriLife acres. Not only did they get out of debt, but they were able to finance and the NRCS. the purchase of an irrigated farm when their leased land was under “The teachers are telling us how excited the kids are to be able contract to be sold. They decided, this time they would manage debt, to come to this program,” says Peggy. “We have high school ag and not let debt manage them. But they were only getting started. students who came through our program as elementary students. Now, they volunteer, and we incorporate them in the leadership roles From Cows to Kids during our programming.” In 2001, Joe and Peggy moved to Ozona, Texas to manage the CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
DEVELOPMENT CORNER
The Maddox Legacy
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