#101, In Practice, May/June 2005

N I

RACTICE P a publication of the savory center www.holisticmanagement.org

A Holistic Management Skeptic by Seth Wilner

y story is one of a skeptic who only came to embrace Holistic Management after trying it on for size personally. I returned home after the first week of training with some significant skepticism about the whole process and its practical utility. I was also somewhat skeptical about the impacts that people claimed were the result of using this process. I believe a great deal of this skepticism was due to the fact that I lacked the “why” behind each step of the model. This skepticism proved an asset though, as it drove my personal exploration. As an Extension educator with the University of New Hampshire, I decided to try Holistic Management on for size first before I introduced it to any growers with whom I was working. I did not want to teach something if I could not be sure it worked or was practical. I approached my wife and told her about what I had learned in my first week of The Savory Center’s Certified Educator Training Program and about my plans to start managing holistically at home. She too was skeptical, but when I presented to her my null hypothesis that Holistic Management would not benefit the quality of our lives, our financial condition, or the environment on our five acres, she said she would indulge me. My wife and I sat down and went through the steps of defining our whole under management and forming our holistic goal. I brought a flip chart home, set it up in my living room, and served as both facilitator and participant as we went through the publication, At Home with Holistic Management. Our conversations were rich, and we learned worlds about each other. It was just like we were dating again, discussing ethics, values, philosophies, life

views, hobbies, skills, etc. At one point, we did an exercise where we wrote down the top 10 things we liked about ourselves and the top 10 things we liked about each other. We exchanged our lists and were blown away by each other’s thoughts and words. My experiences with defining our whole and forging a holistic goal demonstrated to me that the process of developing a holistic goal was as potent as the product itself. It is worth mentioning that my wife and I found it extremely helpful to acknowledge up front that our whole under management and holistic goal were only for our internal use. This saved us from worrying about the wording or how it sounded or other people’s judgments, which did pose stumbling blocks at the beginning. That freed us to simply use words to capture our true thoughts and feelings, and it allowed us to be playful, silly, serious, spiritual, emotional and philosophical in our answers.

PHOTO CREDIT: J.R. ANDERSON

May/June 2005 * Number 101

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Standard Bronze turkeys are an heirloom breed and one of the many profitable enterprises at Thundering Hooves Farm. Read more about how the Huesbys used Holistic Management to help them make decisions toward vertical integration of their farm products on page 10.

FEATURE STORIES A Holistic Management Skeptic Seth Wilner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Monitoring Farm Progress toward Sustainability Karl North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

LAND & LIVESTOCK

Good Neighbors With our first temporary holistic goal formed, we took the advice of Jim Weaver and started testing everything we could to learn how to use the testing questions embedded within the framework. We had a great deal of fun with this, and also struggled to figure out what to do in certain situations. One such situation was when we needed to buy a truck. My neighbor knew I was looking for a truck. We were always borrowing other friends’ trucks, and we could sense this was wearing thin for people. We tested the decision to purchase a truck and decided to do so. We did not want to go into debt, so we limited the cost of the truck to $1000. My neighbor offered us a deal—his old continued on page 2

KTS Farm— From Setbacks to Success Jim Weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Thundering Hooves Family Farm— Prospering Through Working with Natural Laws Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

The Laws of Farming Joel Huesby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

NEWS & NETWORK Savory Center Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Tools to Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Savory Center Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . .15 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Savory

The

CENTER

AD DEFINITUM FINEM

THE SAVORY CENTER is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. The Savory Center works to restore the vitality of communities and the natural resources on which they depend by advancing the practice of Holistic Management and coordinating its development worldwide. FOUNDERS Allan Savory

* Jody Butterfield STAFF

Tim LaSalle, Executive Director Kate Bradshaw, Director of Finance and Administration Kelly Pasztor, Director of Educational Services; Constance Neely, International Training Programs Director Ann Adams, Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE and Director of Publications and Outreach Maryann West, Executive Assistant Terri Telles, Finance Coordinator Donna Torrez, Administrative Assistant

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Rio de la Vista, Chair Leslie Christian, Vice-Chair Terry Word, Secretary Richard Smith, Treasurer Jody Butterfield Judy Richardson Bruce Ward

ADVISORY COUNCIL Jim Shelton, Chair, Vinita, OK Robert Anderson, Corrales, NM Michael Bowman,Wray, CO Sam Brown, Austin, TX Leslie Christian, Portland, OR Lee Dueringer, Scottsdale, AZ Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA Cynthia & Leo Harris, Albuquerque, NM Clint Josey, Dallas, TX Dianne Law, Laveta, CO Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, Mexico Jim Parker, Montrose, CO Dean William Rudoy, Cedar Crest, NM York Schueller, El Segundo, CA Richard Smith, Houston, TX Africa Centre for Holistic Management Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Tel: (263) (11) 404 979; email: hmatanga@mweb.co.zw Huggins Matanga, Director HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by The Savory Center, 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: savorycenter@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2005.

IN PRACTICE

May / June 2005

A Holistic Management Skeptic

continued from page 1

truck and his muzzle-loader for a total of only to simultaneously consider the social, economic, $400. The truck needed an estimated $600 in and environmental impacts of a potential repair, so the total would equal the $1,000 decision, our quality of life was enhanced. Sharon and I had budgeted. It seemed like a There is little doubt in my mind, or Sharon’s, good idea, so we agreed. As part of the that I would have rationalized how it was my agreement, my neighbor was supposed to get neighbor’s fault for not getting the truck to the the truck into the mechanic using his trailer. mechanic, for being slow, lazy, etc. And, indeed, Well, the truck sat there for months, and then he could have acted far more quickly. And so it got buried under several feet of snow. I was could have been that I owned a better truck, not disappointed with his inaction so decided to had to wait, and my neighbor would have lost actively look for a truck elsewhere. out because he was slower than what we agreed I found another truck with a plow for only to. Yet a good relationship with our neighbors is $1,200, a better truck for about the same money. far more important to us in our life. Actually the We had the extra $200, and I could have the truck situation served to strengthen my truck now, ending the need to wait for my relationship with my neighbor, and we are very neighbor to get his truck much closer as a result. to the mechanic. We Small-Town tested the decision and Had my whole under Friendliness noted the red flags that management and holistic Over the months, came up with the social goal not been written down, other significant impacts weak link test. If we bought the other truck, I would not have thought to to the quality of our life occurred. In one it could very well upset contact the bank president. situation, my car died, our neighbor and hurt and I needed to replace our relationship. Likewise, it instantly. After finding the society and culture another car to buy, I approached my bank for test also made us queasy. We like our neighbor financing. Since the vehicle was a 1996 model, a great deal and felt in our gut that buying the they would only offer me a 9.9 percent interest other truck could definitely have the potential to rate. If the car were newer, they would have hurt our relationship. As a result of using these offered me a much lower rate. This was quite testing questions, I decided to go down and talk disturbing to me, so I chose not finance my car with my neighbor to see if buying the other through that bank and went home. truck would upset him. (In our forms of I stewed on the drive home and thought production correlating to the quality of life about options. I got out our Holistic Management statement about good relationships with materials and looked at these for ideas. I saw in neighbors, we had an open communication my future resource base that I had described a process, building respectful relationships, etc.— rural community with small town amenities and those statements guided me to go down there friendly culture. It occurred to me that this bank and talk with him as well.) was not meeting my expectations. I had all my During our conversation, my neighbor said accounts there, was a loyal customer, and so on that it would be fine if I bought the other truck, and so forth. I kept looking at my whole under but I could tell by the tone of his voice that he management and saw in my resource base the was hurt. I went home and tested the decision names of community members with whom I again. I decided that the red flags were still served on various boards. I saw the name of there, and I valued having a good relationship the bank president, as we had served on an with my neighbor over owning a truck. I economic development board together in town. returned to my neighbor, explained to him my I decided to call him and discuss my situation thinking and told him I would buy his truck, as and share with him my expectations regarding agreed. He was moved by this decision, and he his bank’s services. We set up an appointment told me that he would get the truck to the and got together. mechanic in short order. During this conversation he asked my why I This was my first exposure to the potency of didn’t use a home equity loan instead of a car Holistic Management. By using our holistic goal

loan. The rates were better, and the interest was without warning. These repairs cost in the tax deductible. No one had mentioned that neighborhood of $6,000. Had we not accrued option before him, and it sounded great. We money through our planned profits, we would looked into this option only to find that I did have been in a tremendous bind. Having these not have enough equity in my home to get the resources unspent and undedicated, we were full amount I needed for the car loan. He waived able to weather the storm and come out the that restriction, granting me the full loan at a other end with no debt incurred. That event 4.75 percent interest rate. Indeed this was the was quite eye opening. Through the Holistic small town friendliness that I expected from my Management® Financial Planning process, we bank. No doubt this positively impacted the were also able to remodel our house, buy new quality of my life, and my decision to contact furniture for the first time in our lives, and plan the bank president helped me advance toward a vacation to Ireland together. my holistic goal. Connecting with Nature Had my whole under management and My wife and I are avid gardeners. I focus on holistic goal not been written down, I would fruit and vegetable production, and Sharon not have thought to contact the bank president. focuses on landscaping with annuals, perennials, Seeing things on paper triggered the thoughts. and woody shrubs. At first we used traditional Likewise, I tested several approaches to the methods for raising our crops and then switched conversation. These approaches ranged from calling the bank president and telling him what my expectations of his bank were and informing him that if his bank could not meet these expectations I would find one that did, to a softer approach looking for ways to resolve my problem. Although it is fairly obvious which approach would work better, simply testing these approaches helped me see the probable consequences of calling him in a hot head type manner. By testing the decision prior to implementing it, I was able to craft the tone of my conversation. As an extension agent, Seth Wilner set out to prove Of Septic Systems & Ireland that Holistic Management wouldn’t work. In doing so, he discovered it could actually help him improve Sharon and I were rabid budgeters his relationships, quality of life, finances, and well before we created our first holistic understanding of nature. financial plan, so we had most of the data available when we sat down to work through the Holistic Management® Financial Planning process. Initially, we decided to devote 10 percent of our gross income to “planned profit.” The textbook suggests using some percentage that challenges you, but we decided to be gentle. In short order, we increased our planned profit to 24 percent which was quite a sum of money that started accruing. We monitored our finances monthly, and this gave us firm control over our spending habits. As we were somewhat liberal with our budget allocations, we actually had more money allocated than we spent. The net result is that we were in far better financial condition as a result of Holistic Management. Our planned profit has proven both helpful and useful, strongly increasing the quality of our lives. In one situation, our septic system failed

to organic production methods. After learning the skills necessary for organic production, we felt confident that we were producing a healthy food source in a sustainable manner. This confidence was based on our belief that all organic practices were sustainable. With Holistic Management, we realized we needed to look at the effect of our practices on the ecosystem processes to determine if our practices were in fact sustainable. Such a focus called for a major paradigm shift. First of all, Holistic Management makes one far more connected to nature and all of its complex interactions. Second, it frees one from simply looking to the books to see what the accomplished organic growers were doing and implementing those practices on our land. Instead, we realized we need to monitor our

whole given what we were seeing and the outcomes we wanted. Through our monitoring practices, we have come to learn so much more about the impact of our actions on the soil and mineral cycles. Likewise, Sharon and I have altered our practices as a result. At one point, we put up yellow sticky traps to see how much erosion was occurring under one set of growing practices versus another. Both practices were considered sustainable, yet one resulted in far more wind erosion than another. We also more keenly scrutinized the mulches we used, and as a result we switched from black plastic to straw mulch for the crops that did not require the added heat. For those crops such as tomatoes and peppers, which benefit from the extra heat units black plastic provides, we turned to recycled plastics and use these over each year, reducing our wastes. We also cropped differently, taking advantage of vertical and horizontal interplanting techniques that more efficiently capture the sun’s energy. So there it was, plain to see; my null hypothesis that Holistic Management would not impact the quality of our lives, our financial condition, or the environment on our five acres of land was clearly wrong. It was obvious to me that the process of defining our whole under management and our holistic goal had brought Sharon and me closer together. Likewise our commitment to produce respectful communication enhanced our relationship and built trust in our marriage. There were also similar improvements in our finances and the way we managed our land and raised our food. In setting out to prove that Holistic Management didn’t work, I found out unequivocally that it does indeed improve people’s lives, finances, and resources. Once I was convinced of the impacts of the Holistic Management® decision-making framework, I started working with farmers and teaching them the process. I found my own personal exploration to be most valuable in my work with them. I could use personal anecdotes, I was familiar with some of the common hang ups and reservations, and I was more familiar with some of the “whys” behind various steps. So using it at home first was beneficial in numerous ways. Seth Wilner is a Holistic Management® Certified Educator who lives in Newport, New Hampshire. He can be reached at: 603/863-4497 or seth.wilner@unh.edu.

N u m b e r 101

IN PRACTICE

Monitoring Farms for Progress toward Sustainability by Karl North and Donn Hewes

ustainability has become a slippery word. In an economy that rarely rewards sustainability, powerful interests, threatened by its ecological meaning, have tried to misrepresent it as sometimes subservient to market demands. For many scientists, business people, governments, consumers, and producers the attempt to balance social, economic, and environmental issues in their decision-making seems to entertain the illusion that a policy of compromising ecosystem imperatives to meet market demands is sustainable. We believe in any discussion about sustainability, it is essential to recognize that the ecosystem, not the economy, is the foundation of wealth.

Table 1. Units of Sustainability Indicators on a Cuban Farm Indicator

Units

1. Milk Production 2. Food Production 3. Reforestation 4. Wildlife Diversity 5. Edible Products 6. Fertilizer Production 7. Labor Intensity 8. Energy Efficiency

Tons/Hectare Tons/Hectare Trees/Hectare Total Species Number Tons/Hectare Hours/Day/Hectare Calories Produced/Calories Invested

Picture Sustainability The tool we describe here we learned from Cuba, where necessity created a nation-wide revolution toward low-input integrated farming systems, and then the need to monitor the progress of these new types of farms toward sustainability. Cuban scientists knew the potential of creating synergisms in integrated crop/livestock systems that would enhance productivity, pest control, and efficiency in resource use. But as noted in Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance (2002) by Fernando Funes et al, the Cuban scientists found that since these results are due to “complex mechanisms, it is common in this type of research that one obtains extremely positive results without being able to provide a clear explanation of their causes.” To capture the dynamics of progress toward sustainability in farms redesigned to be integrated agroecosystems, Cubans devised a kind of web graph that would visually summarize sustainability patterns at a glance. These graphs are multi-dimensional, containing as many axes as there are sustainability indicators that the farmer thinks are important to measure. Table 1 and Figure 1, taken from Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance, note the list of sustainability indicators that are important to Cuban agriculture right now. The idea is to capture, in a small number of variables, an easily read visual measure of overall progress in the system. These variables are usually defined so that an increase outward from the center along an axis indicates progress in that indicator. That way an increase in the area of the

IN PRACTICE

May / June 2005

Figure 1. Web Graph of Progress in Sustainability on a Cuban Farm web will indicate overall progress. In Figure 1, labor intensity in the Cuban web graph appears not to follow the general rule of definitions that portray progress as movement outward from the center of the web. This may be deliberate, for in Cuba and much of the developing world, labor-intensive production is often more sustainable than production that is capital-intensive. In our first world context, labor efficiency appears more sustainable, which may prove to be true only to a point.

The graph in Figure 1 is based on extensive calculation. But like other planning procedures in Holistic Management, it could be a simple, rough set of estimates, easily sketched out for annual stock-taking, and compared to last year’s web. Farmers could even use a simple scale of 1-100 on each axis, an approach that would enable qualitative measures like ‘farmer satisfaction.’ The Cuban graph, although derived from absolute numbers and careful calculation, also shows a simple common scale for all indicators.

The absolute numbers are no longer visible because the range of values of each indicator from zero to the optimal has been weighted to fit a common scale of 0-100. That is what the numbers going up the vertical axis mean. This makes the web graph more reader-friendly. In any case, the function of a web graph, like the function of the testing questions in Holistic Management, is not to provide exact answers but to provoke productive reflection. The web graph tool does this by revealing rough trends and relationships.

Management Issues This tool forces a number of management issues out into the open. First, it shows whole system progress/regress over time, instead of mono-dimensional graph monitoring. How whole systems change over time is crucial to understanding how systems work, particularly soft systems. The web graph forces one to see and think about the changing relationship of all the indicators, and is a reminder that all these variables are interdependent. Second, it raises the question: What are we measuring and why are we measuring it with the units we have chosen? Look at the units in Table 1. Notice that milk production, for example, is measured in quantity per hectare, not quantity per cow. Implicit in these two measures are two very different farming goals. And what if we measured milk solids/acre? What would that imply? The indicators the Cubans have chosen to measure reflect a particular approach to input selfsufficiency. Notice that fertilizer is a farm product being measured. This is a clue to why animal food production (in this case milk) is measured separately from other food production. The ruminant animal is the core of their notion of a sustainable system because it can provide both food and fertilizer ingredients from biomass grown without tillage energy, and therefore without disturbing the cover that protects the soil. The idea that the grass/ruminant complex is the core that drives the rest of the farm has generated an important research question in Cuba regarding this system: what proportion of livestock area (forage) to crop area is most sustainable? Third, energy efficiency, which is not even on the radar of most of our agricultural research community (ours is the least efficient agriculture in the world in this respect), is a carefully calculated output/input ratio in Cuba. They divide the total energy value of plant and livestock production, including biomass for composting into fertilizer by the sum of the energy inputs of tractor, animal traction, and human labor.

You may wonder: Why track only energy in farm production, when arguably one should track protein and mineral output in the food and feed products as well? In fact, the data for this web graph is taken from more detailed tables that do track other variables. But the goal in designing a web graph is to find a small number of indicators that best capture progress toward sustainability, a complex and not easily quantifiable concept. The energy crisis looming over the planet and already felt in many countries like Cuba makes farm energy efficiency an essential goal to be monitored, in Cuban thinking. Fourth, there is no indicator of monetary profit. In capitalist economics, the economic system is the final arbiter of success and is considered permanent, as if it were sanctioned by natural law. But that is like the tail wagging the dog, for as we said at the outset, sustainability in its most meaningful sense recognizes ecological imperatives that trump everything else. When we recognize that we must preserve the natural capital that provides ecological services essential to the survival of civilization, it becomes clear that to be sustainable, human society must shape its economy so that ecologically sound human enterprises are profitable, and are predominant. In Cuba, public policy and sheer necessity are combining to shape the economic system so that agricultural sustainability is profitable, so no indicator of monetary profit is necessary in their web graph. In our country neither necessity nor public policy have been significantly brought to bear as yet, so the Cuban agricultural situation is a bellwether of things to come, and its response a model for us to seriously consider.

Bringing It Home Northland Sheep Dairy is a small grass-based dairy (57-acre/23-ha) currently supporting a flock of fifty dairy ewes, their lambs, and four draft horses on relatively poor upland soils in New York hill country. Its commercial products are cheese, meat, sheepskins, yarn and knitwear, and occasionally apple cider. We asked ourselves: what would a web graph of our farm look like? Would we use the same indicators as in Figure 1? Would we define them with the same units as in Table 1? We played around with these questions using data from our farm. We considered the quick and dirty approach of simply estimating progress on each axis on a scale of 0-100. In the end, we opted to quantify progress as best we could, then translate the numbers to the 0-100 scale. We

estimated upper benchmarks of sustainability somewhat arbitrarily for each indicator. Choosing what you will measure and how you will measure it is the key to successfully graphing a farmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainability. There are an almost limitless number of things you could use to measure sustainability. We began by listing more than twenty. These included references to soil organic matter production, soil fertility, plant diversity, cheese and lamb production, solar dollars, financial profit, animal diversity, and reforestation. We could even use the amount of time spent playing badminton or guitar as one indicator of our progress toward sustainability. To make a representative graph, we tried mixing and matching several indicators at a time to see how they relate to each other, how they reflect other measures that could be left out, and most important, how they demonstrate what we feel are the most important aspects of sustainability for our operation. This process itself, and the discussion it generated, stimulated new thinking about our concept of sustainability. Finally we aimed for a snapshot of progress toward sustainability that reflects the values in our holistic goal. By a process of trial and error, we gradually discovered indicators that custom-fit our farm and goal at this time. 1. Farm Productivity. We started with a basic measure of productivity. Farm income is often used to represent productivity. But we wanted to avoid income as an indicator because we realize that our farm income comes from an economy that does not reward sustainability, and therefore puts market values on our products that may be different from use values. Since cheese is our most important product, we settled on pounds of cheese/acre as a convenient indicator that could capture productivity with the least calculation. Our farm plan compensates for operating in this economy with off-farm income, low inputs, efforts at labor efficiency, and value-added products. Our genetic goals for our livestock are hardiness, self-sufficiency, and the ability to provide high quality foods and fibers, as much or more than productivity. Looking at our goals we realized that productivity alone does not express much in the way of sustainability for our farm. 2. Sheep Health. Next, we considered animal health, because if it can be maintained or improved while reducing medical intervention, excessive labor, and expensive inputs such as grain or wormers, and we would achieve some measure of sustainability. Animal health also directly reflects our efforts to build soil fertility continued on page 6

N u m b e r 101

IN PRACTICE

Monitoring continued from page 6

and forage diversity because our livestock are almost totally dependent on the forage our soil produces for feed and nutrition. We chose the percent of the base flock of ewes and rams without health problems in a given year as a measure of sheep health. 3. Lamb Growth. Since in our sheep dairy we wean lambs to pasture at 3-4 weeks, we have managed to grow only a portion of the lamb crop to market weight in a single season. The rest are sold as feeder lambs, at considerable economic sacrifice. Lamb growth is important to overall farm productivity. In addition, we thought lamb growth, measured by percent of lambs reaching market weight in one season, would aggregate a number of other sustainability concerns, including control of farm internal parasite populations, ewe fertility and mothering ability, pasture health and forage nutritional quality. 4. Input Self-sufficiency. We express this with an indicator that shows progress in reducing the major purchased inputs: hay, custom hay work, medical expenses, seed, livestock feed supplements, maintenance, and fertilizer. Despite our concerns with the use of market values, we decided for convenience sake to gauge input self-sufficiency by net income achieved as a percentage of gross income. In so doing we are also tracking an important determinant of profitability. 5. Fertilizer Production. We agree with the Cuban view that to make farming sustainable we must maximize on-farm fertilizer production. We decided to indicate this separately from overall input self-sufficiency because of its importance. Our unit of measure is spreader loads of compost per acre, as a percentage of the fertilization rate we estimate we need to maintain our soil at its maximum fertility potential. 6. Energy Self-sufficiency. Here again we created a separate indicator because energy drives all activity and is of paramount importance. While we admire the Cuban measure of energy efficiencyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a ratio of calories produced to calories consumed in farm productionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we chose an indicator that sacrifices accuracy for simplicity: hours of animal traction used as a percentage of dollars of energy purchased. For now we are rather arbitrarily setting the ideal benchmark at 100 percent. Despite the lack of dimensional equivalence, we think it will adequately track our efforts

IN PRACTICE

May / June 2005

toward energy self-sufficiency in the near future. Later, we will develop a more accurate measure that will include other alternatives to purchased energy, like wind or solar electric, gravity water systems, and new horse-drawn machines. 7. Labor Efficiency. It is becoming widely understood that sustainable management of biological systems will require more labor than current attempts to manage them with methods borrowed from industry. But we can mitigate and perhaps even overcome these losses in labor efficiency by finding sustainable ways to put nature to work. The quality of life in any civilization is partially dependent on a degree of labor efficiency in agriculture, which is the basis for all civilizations. We can monitor this fairly easily by tracking changes in the hours worked/day/acre. Since we are fitting all calculations to a scale of 0100 percent satisfaction, we need to estimate an ideal labor efficiency. Let us say that ideally two people should be able to run our 100-acre (40-ha) farm working six hours a day each (the French 35-hour work week approximates this). This gives us an upper benchmark to aim for of 0.12 hours/day/acre. Since these two people cannot work more than 48 hours/day, we can set the lower benchmark at 0.48. 8. Worker Satisfaction. The survival of agriculture requires an adequate quality of life for the farmers. Worker satisfaction is perhaps impossible to quantify. We measure it by estimating how well our farming activities satisfy quality of life values in our holistic goal, and representing that on the web graph as a percent

of 100 percent satisfaction. These indicators, albeit crude in their units of measurement, should nevertheless serve the function intended: to show rough trends in the variables and even patterns of interdependency that stimulate better management. Table 2 shows the units of measure of each indicator, the upper and lower limits in the units shown, how the raw data relates to the 0-100 percent scale, and the percent of the ideal achieved in the years 1992, 1997, and 2002. The web graph in Figure 3 shows progress/regress on our farm in these measures of sustainability from 1992 to 2002 in comparison with the ideal of 100 percent success.

Progress Not Perfection Our web graph fails to show the steady outward progress toward sustainability visible in the Cuban example. Some of our indicators, like sheep health and lamb growth, are sensitive to annual changes in weather and other factors. Perhaps they could more reliably track general trends if they were calculated as averages over several years. However, the regression in lamb growth over ten years does accurately reflect a gradual increase in sheep parasite populations on the farm, from zero parasites when we began raising sheep in 1985. This stemmed from a tactical decision that kept us in business in the first two decades of farm development. It involved a trade-off where we elected to maximize dairy production, our main income source, knowing that this put our sheep stocking rate on the farm

Table 2 . Units, Scale, and Progress in Sustainability Indicators: Northland Sheep Dairy Indicator

Units

Raw Scale

% Scale

1992 %

1996 %

2002 %

1. Farm Productivity

Lb of Cheese/Acre

0-50

0-100

2. Sheep Health

% without health problems

0-100

3. Lamb Growth

% reaching market weight (70 lb)

0-100

4. Input Self-sufficiency

$ net income as % of gross income

0-100

5. Fertilizer Production

Spreader loads of compost/Acre

0-15

0-100

6. Energy Self-sufficiency Animal traction hrs as % of energy $ spent

0-50

0-100

7. Labor efficiency

Hours/Day/Acre of land under management

0.48 - 0.12

0-100

8. Worker Satisfaction

% of quality of life values satisfied

0-100

Figure 2. Web Graph of Progress in Sustainability on Northland Sheep Dairy too high to fully implement our desired plan of parasite control. But there are more general reasons for the fluctuations in the graph. A main one is the number of unknowns peculiar to the history of Northland Sheep Dairy. This was not an operation with a long contiguous track record over generations on the same land. Previous farmers had abandoned the land for decades, after many more decades of extractive agricultural practices. We knew its agricultural history only in vague outline. We were practically beginning farmers. There were no models of milking sheep for us to follow in this country. We often undertook other practices that were risky because they had been rarely tried in the region, or because they might sacrifice short-run progress to build a system that we hoped would prove sustainable in the long run. Even so, the graph shows some progress on many indicators from 1992 to 1997. Subsequent regression in certain indicators is due to our decision to include on the web graph the year 2002, when we began to rent land that almost doubles our acreage of intensively manageable acreage. The point of this inclusion is to show how differently indicators behave when they are measured on a per acre basis. The increase in the land base throws farm productivity and fertilizer production, both measured per acre, into regression, at least temporarily.

Measuring these variables another way might still show progress, for in absolute terms we are still increasing both. By measuring them per acre, we remind ourselves of the challenge of achieving both the sustainable production potential on the new acreage, and a restoration of its ecological capital, which we had already partially attained on the original property. On the other hand, labor efficiency, also measured on a per acre basis, increases in 2002 almost to the ideal, because we worked twice as much land with only a little more labor than before. The challenge revealed here is to maintain this currently somewhat artificial labor efficiency as we build production to its full potential on the new land. Can we design management practices that save labor or add labor-saving devices without losing ground in other indicators like input self-sufficiency? This indicator lost ground in 2002 as we began to invest in the new acreage in ways that will yield results only in the long term. The transition to new managers that is happening concurrently also provoked a rise in purchased inputs. Our chosen indicator of energy selfsufficiency, hours of animal traction as a percentage of purchased energy inputs, shows steady regress over the time period of the web graph. By measuring only animal traction among farm-generated energy products, we give a

deceptively low value to this indicator, although by original design the farm was remarkably energy efficient in comparison to most farms. Nevertheless this indicator accurately portrays a failure to compensate for rising energy prices with increases in farm energy production. Finally, worker satisfaction, though improving slightly over the time period, still measures far below the ideal despite high quality of life on the farm. This is due to the holistic nature of the indicator, pegged as it is to satisfaction of values described in our holistic goal. Our holistic goal values not just what happens in the minimum whole that we can best control, but the state of the nation and other larger wholes as well, reflecting our understanding of the ultimate interdependence of all these. In our estimation, the state of the nation and the world declined markedly over the ten year time period, offsetting high and increasing quality of life on the farm. Just as active use of a holistic goal in decisionmaking leads to its own refinement in an unending, iterative process, we believe we will learn from this web graph tool as we continue to adjust it to meet our needs. We can anticipate learning from this process in several ways. In time, we may find indicators that better assess sustainability on our farm. We may find units that more accurately or easily measure an indicator. New knowledge of our agroecosystem, new management tools, and new technologies are all likely to alter our sustainability goals (100 percent on the graph) as they apply to this landscape. Both the landscape itself and the world around us may change (as in global warming) in ways that require adaptations in this tool. Graphic display of changes in important sustainability indicators on a single page reveals not only progress/regress in the whole, but also some of the dynamics of interdependence in the variables. In this way it helps us to make decisions that benefit the whole, rather than some parts to the detriment of others. Accurately quantified web graphs are a way for scientists who take a systems approach to evaluate on-farm research experiments over time. Used in a simplified, rough-and-ready fashion, they can help farmers think more holistically in their management, as we have tried to show in a first attempt of a web graph of progress toward sustainability at Northland Sheep Dairy. Karl North is a Certified Educator who farms near Marathon, New York. He can be reached at 607/849-3328 or northsheep@juno.com. This article can be seen in its entirety at www.managingwholes.com/monitoring.htm.

N u m b e r 101

IN PRACTICE

LIVESTOCK

KTS Farm—From Setbacks to Success by Jim Weaver

ress and Tammy Simpson, and their two children Alec and Hillary, focus their use, we’ve missed out on years of human creativity. The most run a small 180-acre (72-ha) seasonal dairy (KTS Farm) in the Elk misapplied tools, however, have been grazing and animal impact.” The Run Watershed of Rutland Township in Tioga County. Located in fertility of the farm was hauled down off the hills and concentrated at the north central Pennsylvania in the headwaters of the Susquehanna River barn, and for a time, worse yet, off the farm to the valley below. Now this Basin, their farm is up a hollow on a side hill with rolling paddocks, good has changed. The poultry, and now the cows, stay on the hill, and transfer water, an old barn and a new house. of nutrients is part of management. All the generations of Simpsons have been farmers as far back as Kress Kress still has a few areas of the farm that could use animal impact, but can remember. He started in partnership his monitoring has shown the increase in litter, with his dad from the premise that a less bare ground, and more grass than there Registered Holstein cow was the way to was several years ago. The stocking rate has make money in the dairy business. His doubled, organic matter has increased, and family had a line of registered cattle at Kress says that dandelions (a fertility indicator Simalot Farms and showed Holsteins all species) have increased, and goldenrod (an over the Northeast. infertility indicator) has decreased. During a However, this historical objective of pasture walk last summer at KTS, the primary the Simpsons has evolved to: “We need topic was how pasture growth has improved on access to land and a product to sell.” the farm in general and how this came about. They’ve jump started the fertility of this During the pasture walk Kress pointed out worn-out farm with pastured poultry and, the importance of fencing, water in the with sunlight and timely rains, moved the paddocks, and cattle flow as three factors the farm ecosystem to dairy-quality pastures land planning and weak link analysis and more forage than they can convert identified early as resource conversion issues The members of the Northern PENN Holistic to milk. that had to be addressed. His debt has been Management Network take a pasture walk at KTS The community they live in has a steadily decreasing, the economics of dairy Farm. From the left: Caleb Williams, Dave Johnson, strong agricultural base, which contributes production have improved, and he has seen a Kress Simpson, and Don Chamberlain. to the operation as neighbors help each decrease in bare ground due to improved other with the oftentimes complex and time sensitive process of solar recovery periods in his grazing plan. The testing questions provided the conversion (herding, milking, etc). There are challenges with new necessary framework for sorting the many variables he encountered. management practices, but as Kress began to learn about Holistic For example, one question that came up was, “Do we turn the soil and Management and formed a holistic goal, the process of describing the plant a crop or turn the cattle in there and let them harvest the one that’s quality of life for his family and the future resource base he needed naturally growing there now?” The answer was: “Get the fence! Bring the became strong motivators to make management changes. In essence, the cattle!” A quick run through the testing questions for this decision goes holistic goal “gets me focused on where I’m going, and what I need to something like this: do to get there,” says Kress.

Run Cattle or Plant Crop Improving Decision-Making “We’ve used all the tools most farmers have at one time or another,” says Kress. “The problem is we’ve misapplied them. Without the holistic goal to

Land & Livestock

May / June 2005

Cause and Effect—Problem=not enough forage for cattle. For his dairy, turning the soil and producing a crop would fail (does not address the need for grass—forage for the cattle). The maximizing of natural forage

production passes in the action of running the cattle. Weak link social—Because Kress has indicated in his holistic goal that he will surround himself with people that feel the same way he does, he has plenty of support for his decision to go grass-based. Weak link biological—Not applicable Weak link financial—Running cattle passes as using that area for forage addresses resource conversion weak link. Marginal Reaction—Running cattle passes for grass/forage production. Cropping fails for time and money spent to grow, harvest, and feed a planted crop. Gross Profit Analysis—Gross profit higher for cattle. Energy/Wealth Source/Use—Running cattle passes because that land use regenerates the land while feeding the cattle. Planted crop fails test as it’s an addictive use of fossil fuels and credit is often needed to plant a crop. Sustainability—A natural pasture leads toward his future resource base. Society & Culture—Kress feels good about this decision. Outcome: Run the cattle

Shedding Heavy Metal We often talk of learning to use the testing questions as a scan for a sound decision. Kress confided that on the farm the questions are a scan, but he still has trouble using them outside the environment of the farm. When confronted with “downtown issues,” he still stumbles and has to consciously think about the pass/fail process we use to determine a decision’s soundness. Testing his decisions led to many insights that have moved the farm further toward his holistic goal. The maintenance of machinery and the costs to run it were revelations to Kress. These two factors were used to cut expenses and reduce the need for more equipment. He has very little in the way of rust, rot, and depreciation on his farm. The only equipment he has to maintain and operate is haying equipment, which he shares with his father, and a manure spreader and skidsteer for handling his winter accumulation of manure. The decision testing helped him decide to get rid of much of his machinery. As Kress noted, “If we aren’t going to till and plant, then we certainly don’t need all that machinery!”

Surviving A House Fire Of all the planning procedures in Holistic Management, Kress believes the need for financial planning is the most critical for farming. When considering financial planning, there is a need for serious cash flow to make a profit and some serious attention to details as expenses can rapidly get out of hand. These expenses are often predicated by serious crisis management. Sick cattle, droughts, lack of feed, and family crisis all contribute to stress in operating a farm. Kress came through a crisis of monumental proportions last winter when his house burned to the ground and left him and his family standing in the yard in their socks. He attributes the financial planning as the most important factor in coming through the fire. “We had put our Milk Income Loss Check from the government into our savings because we didn’t need it to cash flow the business, but it made our transition from burned down house to new much easier,” says Kress. “Without the financial planning, I don’t think this farm would cash flow on $10 (per hundred weight) milk, but with the financial planning, it does!” By cutting his maintenance expenses and the decision to go grass-based, he has reduced the cost of production of a hundred weight of milk to less than $8 per hundred weight. This allows him to realize a profit even in the toughest

economic situation. When I talked to Kress, with the milk futures priced headed toward $20, he is wishing he could put more cows into the milking string. But upon further testing, this decision would decrease his quality of life, and it would not be in his best interest nor take him toward his holistic goal. To push the string or himself that hard would fail the marginal reaction test even though it might pass the gross profit analysis. When Kress thought about it further, he said, “No, I guess I’ll stick to my plan and graze the cows I have.”

Growing the Herd While all the steps in the Holistic Management® framework are important and useful, Kress has found the Livestock Production Plan to be most useful for him in long range planning. He forecasts his herd growth, milk cow replacements, and cattle sales with this tool. It provides a tool to estimate grazing paddocks and stored forage needs. The forecasting also allows him to map scenarios of farm growth. As his son grows up, Kress would like to provide him with a farm to run. With the livestock production plan, it’s easy to see where the cattle could come from. “Cattle reproduce themselves faster than they wear out on a grass-based farm,” says Kress. “We have excess cattle every year. We can move those cattle into or out of planning scenarios, and this gives us a window on what else we need to make another production unit. This is a future resource base detail for me, with cookie cutter dairies all over Tioga County!” Kress and Tammy have integrated Holistic Management into the way they farm, the way they raise their kids, and the way they live. The concept of holism has strong meaning for Kress, and the tools he employs have made the farming he does profitable and satisfying. He has time for sports, rides his snowmobile in the winter, and works hard on the farm because he loves it; it’s in his blood and it pays. Through setbacks of fire, drought, long winters, and shoestring budgets, he has been able to bootstrap his operation toward a vision of farming he only dreamed about as a kid and hopes to pass on to his children. This article is excerpted from The Savory Center’s Publication, Improving Whole Farm Planning through Better Decision-Making. That publication can be purchased from The Savory Center or accessed on the web at www.holisticmanagement.org/wholefarm.cfm. Jim Weaver is a Certified Educator in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. He can be reached at: 570/724-7788 or jaweaver@epix.net.

Holistic Management Results for KTS Farms Decision/Process Grass-based dairy

Grass-based dairy Grass-based dairy Get rid of machinery Get rid of machinery Financial planning Financial planning Livestock Production Planning Planning

Result Increase soil fertility (evidence of increase in dandelions and decrease in goldenrod) Decrease bare ground Increase litter and ground cover Reduce expense Increase profit Decrease debt Decrease production costs Improved long-range planning Improve quality of life (more time for hobbies and family)

N u m b e r 101

Land & Livestock

Thundering Hooves Family Farm— Prospering Through Working with Natural Laws by Ann Adams

PHOTO CREDIT: J.R. ANDERSON

y first introduction to Joel Huesby was an internet confession of his status as a “recovering farmer.” This article on the Rodale Institute’s New Farm website details Joel’s epiphany in 1994 as he was burning wheat stubble to get rid of his “problem” of organic matter, which was in the way of his planting alfalfa. Just two weeks before he had begun doing the math and realized that he was spending more per acre than he was bringing in. On top of that, he could see his topsoil blowing away, and he accepted the harsh reality that his farm was a personal financial, ecological, and social failure. At that point, he resolved to do nothing the same again.

the non-growing season that lasts from October to the middle of April. His paddocks are 5-15 acres (2-6 ha) in size and average a 35-day recovery period. Prior to getting the animals on to the land, and after Joel stopped spraying pesticides so the land could recover, he was overwhelmed by a host of weeds including lambsquarter, kosha, Russian thistle, and Canada thistle. But within two years of getting animals on the land, the weeds have all but disappeared. Then in 2000, Joel heard about Don Nelson’s grazier program funded through a Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant. Don, a Holistic Management® Certified Educator and Professor of Animal Science at Washington State First Steps University (WSU), had Thundering Hooves is a fourth-generation family developed a series of farm of 400 acres (160 ha) of irrigated, certified workshops based on organic pasture in the fertile Walla Walla Valley of holistic decision-making, Washington State. Four Huesby families raise holistic planned grazing, pasture-ranged and pasture-finished chickens, Dick Diven’s Cow-Calf turkeys, cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs. They use no Production model, and hormones, avoid antibiotics, and pasture their Charley Orchard’s biological animals on land that has been chemical-free since monitoring process (Land 1995. The adult workers include Joel and his wife, EKG) based on the Holistic Cynthia; Joel’s parents, Gordon and Lois Huesby; his Management biological brother, Bryan, and Bryan’s wife, Jenny; and Joel’s monitoring principles. sister, Clarice, and her husband, Keith Swanson. “I had learned about Gordon Huesby, Joel’s father, helping out with the chicken In the years following Joel’s epiphany in 1994, some of these concepts production. In testing the decision on pastured poultry, the Huesbys when he when I was studying range decided to reduce production from 7,000 to 2,000 chickens. At $16 decided to stop management at WSU in the a bird, they weren’t ready to drop the operation entirely. his “criminal” mid ‘80s,” says Joel. “But, approach to these courses were a good farming, he began experimenting with refresher for me and helped me focus on how I wanted to farm as a ways to increase the health of the soil sunlight harvester. It also helped me clarify the philosophy of the farm and and keep it covered. His experiments focus on how nature functions in wholes. We wrote our holistic goal, which included adding paper pulp from a helped us know what we wanted and where we wanted to go. We brought paper mill to draft horse farming. that back to the rest of the family, and we all agreed to what we were It was the latter experimentation that striving for.” drove home the fact that muscle is the Economies of Scale most efficient machine, and he needed to quit cropping and get more animals on As Joel became more focused on livestock instead of cropping as a the land to use their muscle to harvest source of income for the family farm, he got to work on increasing the the sunlight. The draft horses also were profit margin from their livestock sales through better production practices the inspiration for the farm’s new name and creative marketing. The Huesbys invested a lot of time at farmer’s With the purchase of their markets, in direct sales from the farm, and selling to restaurants and stores. own slaughter and processing as their hooves thundered near the farm house. While Joel still seeds alfalfa, his They would stagger their attendance at various farmers’ markets, sometimes facility, the Huesbys can pastures are interlaced with fescue and working two a day. Because they had several families working within their truly complete the vertical orchard grass. For winter grazing, Joel integration of their own operation, they were able to implement this strategy. product as well as assist other stockpiles the hay in loaves in the fields, But the returns given the time investment weren’t satisfying. “You really ranchers expand their market. and the animals eat from the piles during need at least $1,500 in sales to make it worth the time invested,” says Joel.

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“Average sales at those farmer’s markets were in the $800—$1,000 range. Sometimes we could hit $1,500, but it wasn’t consistent. Given the number of people we had involved, we needed to invest in infrastructure that would help us produce gross sales more in the $1.5–$2 million range. “There’s no easy slope given the USDA regulations. It’s more like a cliff. You have to meet those regulations if you want to produce a reasonable income. We had improved the land and our production capacity. It was time to look at how to increase our income from our pounds per acre through our processing and marketing. Those two went hand in hand.” “I know some people think that I’m a maverick nutcase for the things I’ve tried,” says Joel. “I’ve certainly made some mistakes, but as long as I don’t make the same mistake twice, I figure that’s part of learning. People around here can’t believe I’m letting my cows graze the alfalfa instead of baling it. Currently, farmers can earn about $720/acre ($288/ha) for baling their alfalfa. I’m stocking about three stockers per acre now. That averages about $3,600/acre ($1,440/ha) gross income from our direct marketed beef. But to expand we needed to expand our processing capacity.”

The Power of Processing

day, allowing for plenty of time to do a safe, clean job,” says Joel. “Compare that to plants that are processing 180 animals an hour. “Our processing needs are really only a quarter of the new facility’s capacity,” adds Joel. “Besides the $330 processing cost for a whole beef, we can also make money on parts of the animals that we didn’t have access to before, like the head. If you use another processing facility, they retain the right to those byproducts as part of their profit margin. You can sell the head for $30-40 to members of the Hispanic community.” Those kinds of byproducts can add up. Joel has also approached pet stores in the Seattle area. “I explained to one owner that the animal protein listed in their pet treats included not only farm animals but also cats and dogs. The rendering truck that stops at our plant for our offal also stops at the animal shelter. When he heard that, he said he’d take whatever we had in the way of organs, trachea, sinew, and bones. You can earn as much as $300-400 an animal for pet food and treats. That same owner said that some of his clients spend as much as $250 per month on pet treats for their animals. With the processing plant we can tap that market.” Another niche market that Joel serves is selling turkey feathers for arrows. The Huesbys raise Standard Bronze turkeys. Joel happened across this heritage breed because a farmer nearby had advertised that he was getting rid of his flock. When Joel bought some of his flock, the farmer mentioned that a woman in Idaho would buy the feathers bringing an additional $5 per bird in profit. The Huesbys raised 600 turkeys last year and were sold out in the fall with a gross income averaging $40-50 per bird.

Two years ago, the Huesbys were using a slaughter facility that was 65 miles away. Like many other facilities, this laughterhouse had a busy season that became an issue as the Huesbys expanded. If they didn’t schedule well in advance, sometimes 1 and 1/2 months in advance, they were unable to get their animals processed in the timeframe the customers required. The Cost of Pastured There was also the issue of hauling the animals and Poultry the additional stress on both humans and animals. “Quality also becomes an issue as you direct market your But like any business, product,” says Joel. “Processing can really affect the the Huesbys must balance quality of the meat.” the challenge of increasing So last year the Huesbys purchased a custom wrap income with their quality facility in Walla Walla, just 18 miles from the farm. As an of life. Last year they grew interim step, while they were getting USDA approval, they and processed 7,000 had the animals slaughtered at the more distant facility chickens with an average Cynthia and Joel Huesby have the support of the extended and then processed them in their own plant. They are gross income of $16 per Huesby clan to make Thundering Hooves successful. Among now in the process of getting USDA approval for a mobile bird. Like the turkeys, the their ranch hands are all the Huesby offspring, including slaughter unit that can handle 10 cattle a day. They plan chickens were easy to sell, (from left): William, Rachel, Emily, and Anja. on slaughtering the animals at the farm then transporting and the Huesbys sold all the animals, waste water, and offal to the processing plant in Walla Walla for their chickens by early fall. Cynthia, Joel’s wife, was in charge of the processing of the animals and disposal of the waste. In this way, they do not pastured poultry operation and was struggling with how labor intensive this need to add any waste water facilities on the farm. enterprise was. When the family sat down to discuss this decision in the Likewise, they will slaughter other people’s animals at Thundering Hooves context of their holistic goal, it was clear they had a love/hate relationship and then haul them to Walla Walla. With this system, they don’t have to worry with this enterprise. Their customers were clamoring for this product, and it about driving to other ranches and farms and not having people ready. Anyone helped round out what the Huesbys could offer them. using their services will need to bring their animals in the night before. The Huesbys decided to increase the cost of the bird in order to make

The Whole Enchilada Currently, Bryan Huesby runs the custom wrap plant where they process their cattle, as well as chickens, goats, turkeys, pigs, and sheep. Their new facility will not only be able to process the planned 230 cattle the Huesbys raise, but also other local animals. “We will only process 6-12 large livestock a

the enterprise worth its negative effect on their quality of life. They also decided to reduce the numbers to only 2,000 birds. The customers didn’t complain about the price increase, and the Huesbys felt better about their involvement in that enterprise. continued on page 13

N u m b e r 101

Land & Livestock

The Laws of Farming Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt taken by permission from Thundering Hooves website. It begins right after Joel’s epiphany as he burned wheat stubble and decides to do nothing the same again.

o, what to do? It sounded intriguing to say, “I will do NOTHING the same again,” but what did that really mean? I began to read more and think more, and slowly it dawned on me why my farm was not supporting me and my family. I had broken the law. I was a criminal. Not in the legal sense, but in a much more vast, universal sense. What do I mean? In a nutshell, here is my confession: I had compacted the soil, fed it artificial food, removed organic matter without putting any back, laid the ground bare, disrupted the soil community of microorganisms by use of tillage, poisoned the soil with chemicals, and dumped my commodity on the market, and wondered why I got a dump price. This may sound like common sense, but there’s more to this than meets the eye . . . much more. At the beginning of our brochures we write, “Our farm seeks to follow natural laws governing the relationships between grazing animals and the grassland.” Why? Because there is an authority that we would do well to follow. There are consequences if we don’t. Let me explain. Laws bring order from chaos. They protect you, other people, and other things. Laws are universal. They operate at all times, in all places whether we are aware of them or believe in them. Some laws may not necessarily be apparent. They are hidden. Disobeying laws always leads to predictable consequences, but some consequences may not be immediate.

Defining the Laws The law of compaction—The heaviest impression on the soil for millions of years was a hoof, not a tractor track. What happens to a soil that is compacted? Bad consequences. Water runs off instead of percolating in. Soil moisture wicks out. The soil can’t breathe. It suffocates. There is no exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Physically there is less room for the roots to grow and less room for soil biota— microorganisms, worms, bugs, etc. The law of fuel—All life, soil or otherwise, runs by burning energy, consuming fuel. Carbon is the fuel of the soil, just like the carbon in the form of sugar that fuels our bodies or carbon in the form of gasoline that fuels our cars. Carbon runs the soil engine. When an engine runs out of fuel it stalls or dies. Organic matter is the form of carbon that runs the soil’s engine. Commercial fertilizers and tillage burn up organic matter. The very things farmers do to produce a crop burns up the soil’s fuel! The law of collecting energy to be stored as carbon—A farmer can be first seen as a solar energy harvester. A farmer uses a green leaf to capture sunlight and turn it into usable energy. If the soil is laid bare, sunlight is wasted and falls to nothing. Modern farming leaves the soil bare for at least part of the year or a whole year in the case of summer fallow. The only barren place in nature is a desert. The law of maturity—Adults are better able to handle stress than youngsters. A soil with a mature plant community above ground, and a

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May / June 2005

mature soil biota community below ground, is better able to produce in times of drought, flood or other stress. Most cultivated crops are less than a year old and are youngsters. The law of diversity—All life requires a rich diversity of food for best production. Yet modern agriculture focuses primarily on three fertilizer nutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K). It may come as a surprise to many that their soil is not lacking these elements, they are just unavailable to the chemically-dependent plant/soil. A farmer can determine how to set up the conditions where these elements are made available to the plant when needed and in their most stable and usable form through a healthy soil. Diversity is nature’s strength. Mono-cropping is modern agriculture’s weakness. The law of cover—The soil is meant to be covered. The only barren place on nature is a desert. The earth will do anything to put her clothes back on once she is laid bare. This is one reason why weeds exist. If you don’t cover her with plants of your own choosing, she will use plants of her own. The law of wounds—The soil surface is very much like our skin. When you scrape or cut yourself, you bleed. When the soil is cut, life bleeds away. Water and dirt wash away, and then the dry soil that is left blows away. The law of scabs—When you are scraped or wounded you form a scab, an ugly protective covering, which remains until healthy skin can grow again. Weeds are the scabs of a wounded soil. They may be unsightly, but are absolutely necessary to aid in the healing process. The law of balance—In the physical world it is well understood that if there is equal pressure on all sides of a focal point, balance is present. The amount of weight or demand on each side makes no difference so long as there is balance. The needs of plants and the needs of animals on the soil, our focal point, are perfectly balanced to each other and are complimentary. The wastes of the one are the food of the other and vise versa. Separating this most basic relationship leads to all sorts of ill consequences. The law of giving back what you take—If you take life from the land, you must put life back. This means no more harvesting alfalfa and sending it to feed someone else’s cattle. It is time now to build the soil, not deplete it. The law of good business—But those are just some of my transgressions. By letting someone else sell for me, I never knew or developed a relationship with the people who would ultimately purchase and eat the food grown on my farm. One of the laws of good business is asking “Who are my customers?” and “What do they need?” I had no idea. I had never asked these questions. Furthermore, all business begins with the premise that you must have something to sell or offer at a profitable price. (Without a profit, any notions of helping the environment or others cannot be realized, since a poor man cannot look past his own needs.)

—Joel Huesby

Thundering Hooves Family Farm continued from page 11

Farmland Fund Because the Huesbys have invested so much time in educating the public through their direct marketing, including their website which has garnered 2,000 visits a month, they have gained the support of many urban consumers. A visit by a senior producer from cable TV station MSNBC at one of Joel’s talks also helped push Thundering Hooves into the limelight. Likewise, Joel’s columns in the Puget Consumers Coop newsletter, The Sound Consumer, also keeps Thundering Hooves in the public eye with a readership of 40,000 Seattle consumers. In 1999, Puget Consumers Co-op, a Seattle-based chain of natural foods stores, created The Farmland Fund, an independent, self-supporting, nonprofit land trust. The Farmland Fund works to secure and preserve threatened farmland in Washington State and move it into organic production. The Fund's focus is on large, functional landscapes of local, regional, and statewide importance so protection can be extended to include biodiversity and wildlife habitat as well as to farmers and farming communities. The Fund purchased the Bennington Place, a 174-acre (70-ha) farm just across the road from Thundering Hooves. The Huesbys created an agreement to lease the

The

Reader’s

Bennington Place from the Fund with an option to buy while restoring the land both for food production and to benefit wildlife. “Thundering Hooves wouldn’t be where it is today without all of our family pitching in,” says Joel. The Huesbys spend quite a bit of time in family meetings defining roles, monitoring activity, and communicating expectations. Always they watch how they can be fair to everyone and provide the opportunity for making a living from the farm. It helps that all the families live next to each other, but even so meeting frequency can vary depending on the time of year. In the winter they may have 2-3 meetings a week, while in the summer they may go a couple of months before holding a meeting. “Don Nelson said to begin with the end in mind,” says Joel. “To me that is the key to our success. My advice to anyone who wants to succeed is to write your holistic goal and determine how to move toward it. There’s a lot of people who don’t want to have to do the rigorous planning and thinking necessary with Holistic Management. But if you don’t do that, how can you be successful? It’s really all about commitment. You can’t just dabble in a business if you want to succeed. We’ve immersed our lives in it, and it is now just paying off.” Joel Huesby can be reached at 509/529-2218 or jchuesby@bmi.net. To learn more about Thundering Hooves Family Farm, visit their website at: www.thunderinghooves.net.

Forum

Ideas, Suggestions, Comments & Corrections

am a member of The Savory Center’s 2001 Certified Educator’s Training Program and am still in the process of completing that program. Until March, much of my mental energy and time was taken up with my work at a bank that did not move me toward my quality of life in my holistic goal which includes being healthy, happy, and prosperous. The security of a regular paycheck was a cocoon, and the butterfly inside needed more. In January I attended the Holistic Management Rendezvous in Albuquerque and stayed for the Quivera Coalition Conference. Both wafted over me like warm spring winds, bringing notice that it was time to break free. Mixing with other educators and practitioners, listening to their stories and taking part in lively discussions emphasized my passion for the answers found in Holistic Management and led me to think about ways I could give back to The Savory Center. When an intern opportunity arose at The Savory Center to assist in the education programming, I knew it was time to test the decision if it was time to quit my work at the bank so I could work with The Savory

Center. In a nutshell, here’s how the decision tested: Cause & effect: The problem was I felt angry and frustrated at the bank due to the lack of creativity, increase in restrictions and emphasis on sales over service that kept me from fulfilling my holistic goal. Staying at the bank failed, while working with The Savory Center passed. Weak link: • Social—My family were all aware of the cause of the problem and were supportive of my taking this opportunity, so there were no social weak link red flags. While it really only mattered to me what my family felt about this adventure, I was amazed to learn that my friends at work were honestly delighted for and inspired by me. Their rush of support for me and my decision was extra support that I hadn’t anticipated. • Biological—Doesn’t apply • Financial—My financial weak link was product conversion. I needed to gain more skill and experience with Holistic Management and this experience at The Savory Center would help me do that.

Marginal Reaction: Working at the bank would continue to cause me stress which was already showing physical symptoms. The opportunity to work at the Center with people I knew and respected, with a purpose in mind, was already creating a new found energy and excitement in me. Gross profit analysis: Clearly from a financial standpoint the bank paid much better than an intern stipend. However, the intern position is a short-term investment, not a long-term commitment. Energy/Money, Source and Use: Energy source and use is a one-time investment of fossil fuel to travel from Minnesota to New Mexico. Money source was from my savings and the investment in addressing this logjam of an unfulfilling job and developing skills felt like a good use. Sustainability: The intern position definitely moved me toward the future resource base described in my holistic goal. Society and Culture: I was really excited about this opportunity and felt it was the right move to make. So here I am in New Mexico, working at The Savory Center and monitoring my decision. Gretchen Blank 505/842-5252 gretchenb@holisticmanagement.org.

N u m b e r 101

IN PRACTICE

Tools to Test

en South and his wife Kathy began operating as K & K Sawing a few years ago after Ken lost his job at a local ranch. Their goal was to build a business that would allow them to continue to live in the Northeastern Montana region surrounding the small town of Jordan, Montana. They started custom sawing lumber to see if we could make a go of it and haven’t stopped sawing since. Fortunately for K & K Sawing, logging cutbacks on Federal lands have left some manufacturers scrambling for reliable supplies of quality fiber. At the same time the massive fires seen in Montana, the Dakotas, and other Western states throughout recent fire seasons provided an impetus for private land owners, especially farmers and ranchers, to begin treating their own forests for improved health and reduced fire threat. While the solution to the problems both processors and forested land owners face seems simple—just get the two together—a huge problem arises because hundreds of miles can separate the forests needing treatment from the nearest sawmill of any size. That means transportation costs are high, and it is the nature of a forest health project that the fiber with the least value is that most needing removal. Ken South’s LT-40 Super Hydraulic Wood-Mizer portable band sawmill has proven to be the key in bringing supply and demand together in a way that allows everyone in the equation to achieve their goals as they serve the needs of their various communities, because it allows him to mill small timber into value-added products only a few feet from where it is harvested, a vital factor in making the whole process economical when the timber is small and potential customers remote. The key issue that restricts environmentally-healthy forest thinning is making sure the thinning only removes smaller trees and that it be done in a way that allows for a profit for the contractors. Because Ken uses Wood-Mizer thin kerf, portable band mill technology, he has managed to effectively address this issue to create a sustainable business that helps ranchers increase profits from their forests while improving forest health.

IN PRACTICE

With his portable saw, Ken South is able to short circuit the production loops that add much of the cost between stump and secondary processor in a more traditional operation. Because he can process cants and lumber at the landing, handling costs are dramatically reduced. Logs are brought to the landing, sawn to length and processed immediately. Because the cost of shipping a raw finished product from the woods is substantially the same as that of transporting raw logs, shipment costs are also reduced. Only finished product, ready for secondary processing, leaves the woods where, in a conventional harvest, a third or more of the material being shipped out may never produce substantial value, especially if the logs are quite small. In a typical K & K thinning effort, most of the trees removed are in the 5 – 13 inch (125-325 mm) top range. Larger trees are left to form the base of the residual forest.

Let’s Make A Deal Ken’s timber comes as the result of deals worked out with ranchers who are interested both in thinning to produce healthier residual trees and in reducing the opportunity for catastrophic fire. Income necessary to keep the ranch viable financially is also important. Ken and the land owners he works for negotiate a deal based on the actual sawn board footage of the lumber shipped. The amount will vary depending on the difficulty of the terrain and the nature of the timber. When working on a healthy stand, Ken says, most trees in the 5 – 12 inch (125-300 mm) range are removed unless its obvious a particular tree is healthy, growing, and not a fire danger to nearby trees. Any particular parameters of an individual harvest are usually determined through discussions with the landowner before the harvest begins. Ken and a contractor friend with logging equipment have worked out a split on the wood that allows each to operate a profitable business. The contractor harvests the trees and delivers them to a central point at the saw. The “landing” is changed periodically both to avoid ground damage and to reduce the amount of time and labor involved in harvesting the wood. Most of the larger material goes to a single manufacturer he’s

May / June 2005

developed a relationship with over the years and is used in building safety barriers and other structures along roads and highways throughout the West. Lumber not suitable for the major customer is generally sold to a variety of local customers. Because the area is isolated (the nearest lumber store is more than 100 miles (160 km) away from most of the farms and ranches in the area) and, “…everyone knows what I’m doing,” there is usually a ready purchaser for any extra lumber Ken might have available. Slabs are usually reclaimed for firewood. Limbs and tops are left in the woods to provide soil nutrients as are sawdust and unsaleable scrap. Lumber destined for the primary customer is loaded onto a semi-trailer which is left at the site to be filled then picked up by a local trucker who delivers it to the customer’s mill in South Dakota, nearly 200 miles. Total production on the unit is in excess of 500,000 board feet (1,180 sq meter) per year. The impacts on the forests are dramatic enough in terms of health and quality enhancements that neighboring ranchers have already asked Ken to work their forests when he’s done where he’s working today. According to Ken, as much as ten to fifteen years worth of work is already lined up. The demand comes, Ken says, because it’s easy to walk through an area he’s worked in and see the improvement to stand health coming as the result of his efforts. An unharvested stand, he says, is thick, full of dead wood, and is obviously a tinder box waiting to explode into fire. A thinned stand has trees spaced at healthy distances from one another with grasses and other plants growing where little grew before. Looking at the before and after, Ken says, is one of the chief satisfactions of his work. —Jack Petree The products discussed in this column are not endorsed by The Savory Center. This column offers our readers additional information about various tools and technologies that have come to our attention and that we think might be of value to our readers. To learn more about Woodmizer’s product line call 800/553-0182 or visit their website at www.woodmizer.com.

T he

GRAPEVINE n ews f ro m t h e s a vo r y c e n t e r * p e o p l e , p ro g ra m s & p ro j e c t s

A Message from the Board Chair

n a recent conversation with a young woman I am mentoring, I had a great opportunity to laugh. She was frustrated, and rightfully so, by difficulties in the organization in which she works. She said to me, “I just want a ‘yes’ or a ‘no!’ I’m a black and white type of person, I hate gray!” Rest assured, my laughter was not at her, but at memories of myself saying the same thing some number of years ago. I also recall the words of my mentor. “Ron,” he said, “you need to get your colors straight. What lies between black and white is every other color . . . not gray.” As an organization development consultant, one of my primary professional roles as well as inspirational speaking and mentoring for personal and professional growth, I am very aware of the remarkable range of organizational trials and tribulations that lie between black and white. Indeed, it was with full awareness of such challenges that I accepted an invitation to join the Board of Directors and, a short time thereafter, selection as the Board Chair. Let me explain the source of my awareness about The Savory Center. Some years ago, Jody Butterfield asked me to facilitate a planning session for the Center. This occurred after I had interviewed Allan Savory for a public radio program I hosted. Because a large part of my professional work is based on observation of organizational behavior, I believe I have a fairly good idea of the challenges and opportunities before us.

New Savory Center Staff

new addition to the Savory Center staff is Executive Assistant Maryann West. Maryann hails most recently from Cincinnati, Ohio, but

Maryann West

With that in mind, allow me to provide a little insight as to the direction for which I intend to provide leadership. But first, let me assure Ron Chapman you I am invested in the mission, the health of The Savory Center, and long-term leadership. We have several immediate needs. By the time you read this, though not complete, many efforts should already be underway. They include strengthening operational leadership, staffing and core programs, performing a Board-level selfassessment that includes practitioner input to gain a complete portrait of the state of The Savory Center affairs and operations, and invigorating donor and supporter relationships. Because we are involved in this self-assessment, we have decided to suspend our Executive Director search until the end of this year so we can more effectively choose the right person for that job. Looking beyond the immediate demands, there are several broad themes of great importance for our long-term growth. At the top of the list is the strengthening of our educational programs, including delivery and marketing. Building on the input we received last year, we are working to finalize our delivery model and begin marketing for 2006 and 2007 later this year. A second major arena will be to build a strong foundation for programmatic growth. This will

include strategic and business planning, development and fundraising plans, and tending to structural needs in the organization. The third theme is board development. Almost without exception, high functioning boards result in excellent non-profit organizations, and nothing short of excellence will adequately serve The Savory Center’s mission. We look forward to and invite questions and comments from those of you who have a strong commitment to The Savory Center’s success and the spread of Holistic Management. The task that lies before us is one of “Organizational Tao.” We need to understand the “way” of things, so we can work most effectively and productively. If you believe in Holistic Management, we ask that you support our efforts through your own unique and creative contributions as we create a bright and exciting future together. I thank you in advance for that support. I’m often accused of being an optimist, but I disagree. I am a realist who has looked long and hard at entrenched difficulties. Over and over again, I have seen remarkable results. I believe in good outcomes because experience has convinced me. That’s my faith. I’m delighted to have this chance to demonstrate it with and through The Savory Center. After all, the only real frontier has been that of challenge. And that’s nothing new to us.

grew up in New York. She has a Bachelors of Arts in English and Education from Ladycliff College in New York and a Masters in Curriculum and Supervision from Wright State in Dayton, Ohio. Maryann taught at middle schools in both gifted and talented classrooms as well as a variety of urban classroom settings. Likewise, she also taught graduate level writing classes at

Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her most recent work, before her move to New Mexico, was as a curriculum consultant for Kings Local School District working with administrators and training teachers, helping to coordinate classroom teaching with state educational requirements. Maryann chose to work at The Savory

Ron Chapman Board Chair

N u m b e r 101

IN PRACTICE

Center because she wanted to take what she had learned and apply it new areas. Also, as a lifelong learner, she was excited about all the new information she would learn from her work at The Savory Center. “I want to work in a meaningful environment, and have the substance of that work be in helping other people, particularly people who recognize the world community as a whole,” says Maryann. “I liked what I saw on the website and what I’ve seen in working here at The Savory Center. The Center is a learning organization with a network that has a definite sense of community. This network is passionate about people, the planet, and making the best out of whatever opportunity is provided. I have a similar life philosophy and that’s what attracted me to The Savory Center.” Maryann’s primary duties will be to provide assistance for Interim Executive Director, Shannon Horst in outreach, administration, and Board relations. Maryann has proven to be a quick study in her short time here at The Savory Center. Her writing skills and educational background are welcome additions to our staff as we work to expand our educational offerings. Likewise, her eagerness to help and work as a team player is also a great asset for staff and Board alike. Maryann moved to New Mexico with her husband, Mark, and has two grown daughters, Megan and Alison. Welcome Maryann!

Heifer Project Update

4-H students at Rocky Ridge School with their temporary holistic goal.

he Savory Center is now working with Heifer International on a one-year pilot program to provide in-depth training and facilitation of Holistic Management to Keyah Bi’ Inna,’ a group of Navajo families located near Rocky Ridge in the heart of the Navajo-Hopi disputed lands. Certified Educator Cindy Dvergsten, will be leading the TSC effort and will work closely with Mike Everett, the Southwest Field Coordinator for Heifer. Keyah bi’ Iina’ means “Land is Life.” At the core of the project are ten families who have collaborated with Heifer International to promote land restoration, economic prosperity, and healthy people. Tim Johnson, President of Keyah Bi’ Inna’ is passionate about the vision for healthy land and people his group has developed. Both he and Treasurer Jay Begay Jr.

Development Corner

ur thanks to the Arntz Family Foundation of San Rafael, California who awarded The Savory Center a $15,000 grant for general operations in February. This is the fifth year the Arntz Foundation has awarded us unrestricted grant funds, which are so difficult to come by and thus all the more appreciated. In December, 2004, we had the opportunity to get to know the Arntz family and foundation staff a little better when they sponsored a Holistic Management workshop for Bay Area organizations devoted to assessing projects for their ecological, social and financial soundness. The workshop taught us all—facilitators and participants alike—more than we could have anticipated. We hope there will be opportunities for more of them. We’d also like to thank those of you who responded, and continue to respond, to the annual appeal for contributions you made last Fall. We plan to acknowledge all of you in our annual report, which will be mailed out to all members/subscribers in June. Your contributions make a difference, no matter the size. We couldn’t have accomplished all that we have in the first quarter of 2005 without your support.

Grant Money for West Ranch Education and research activities have gotten a welcome boost at The West Ranch in Ozona, Texas through the support of grants from Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

IN PRACTICE

May / June 2005

see this effort as a starting point towards honoring their vision and mission through education and facilitation of community involvement. In this first training, Cindy and Mike are also working with the newly formed 4-H club to brainstorm possibilities and explore what they valued the most about being in 4-H. The students learned about the water and mineral cycles, which opened their eyes up to possible projects such as composting manure and raising their own food for a community celebration. The children will build on this information as they develop their holistic goal.

Outreach Activities

llan Savory gave the keynote address at The Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) in February. He also offered two workshops with Certified Educator Jim Weaver. The keynote and both workshops were well-received, and we received numerous follow up requests for information. Shannon Horst spoke at the 11th Annual Silicon Valley Conference for the Pacific Industrial and Business Association in March on the request of WSP, an international environmentally focused consulting firm with headquarters in Palo Alto, California. The theme of the conference was Environmental Health and Safety Leadership and the Bottom Line. Shannon’s presentation was “Making Decisions as if Each One Matters.”

The Southern SARE grant has been awarded to HRM of Texas who will be collaborating with Joe and Peggy Maddox, managers of the West Ranch, as well as other collaborators including Dick and Pat Richardson from the University of Texas at Austin, Steve Nelle of Natural Resources Conservation Service, range consultant, Bob Steger, and the Texas Hair Sheep Association. The grant proposal, “Addressing Cedar Infestations Sustainably—Using Animal Impact to Increase Forage Production and Improve Soil Health,” addresses the issue of cedar (redberry and liveberry juniper) negatively impacting ranch production and profit. This project will focus on improving soil health, increasing the bulk of desirable forage species, and reducing the establishment of new cedar trees. It will not involve removing existing cedars. The West Ranch staff will subdivide a test area of 1,200 acres with temporary fencing into one 200-acre “paddock” and ten 100-acre “paddocks” to increase the density at which they run their herd of cattle and hair sheep, and reduce the amount of time the animals spend on any square yard of land. Instead of the average stocking rate of one animal unit per 50 acres, the 200-acre test paddock will have a stock density of approximately 2-2.5 animal units per acre. In the 100-acre test paddocks the herd will average 4 to 4.5 animal units per acre. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife grant is part of that agency’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. The West Ranch will conduct a variety of wildlife management practices including a demonstration of Holistic Management on the ground, constructing a covered classroom, purchase a water cycle demonstration model, develop a dung beetle farm, and inform visitors of the importance of water conservation, range management, the nutrient cycle, and biodiversity).

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Certified

Educators

To our knowledge, Certified Educators are the best qualified individuals to help others learn to practice Holistic Management and to provide them with technical assistance when necessary. On a yearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with the Center. This agreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives, to seek out opportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management and to maintain a high standard of ethical conduct in their work. For more information about or application forms for the U.S., Africa, or International Certified Educator Training Programs, contact Kelly Pasztor at the Savory Center or visit our website at www.holisticmanagement.org/wwo_certed.cfm?

* These educators provide Holistic Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent. UNITED STATES ARIZONA Tim Morrison 230 1st Ave N, Phoenix, AZ 85003 602/280-8803; tim.morrison@nacdnet.net Kelly Mulville HC1, Box 1125, Sonoita, AZ 85637 520/455-5696; jackofallterrains@hotmail.com CALIFORNIA Monte Bell 325 Meadowood Dr., Orland, CA 95963 530/865-3246 • mbell95963@yahoo.com Julie Bohannon 652 Milo Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90042 323/257-1915 • JoeBoCom@pacbell.net Bill Burrows 12250 Colyear Springs Rd., Red Bluff, CA 96080 530/529-1535 • sunflowercrmp@msn.com Richard King 1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 707/769-1490 • 707/794-8692 (w) richard.king@ca.usda.gov Tim McGaffic 13592 Bora Bora Way #327 Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 310/741-0167 • tim@timmcgaffic.com Christopher Peck P.O. Box 2286, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707/758-0171; ctopherp@holistic-solutions.net

Byron Shelton 33900 Surrey Lane, Buena Vista, CO 81211 719/395-8157 • landmark@my.amigo.net GEORGIA Constance Neely 1160 Twelve Oaks Circle Watkinsville, GA 30677 • 706/310-0678 cneely@holisticmanagement.org IOWA Bill Casey 1800 Grand Ave., Keokuk, IA 52632-2944 319/524-5098 • wpccasey@interl.net LOUISIANA Tina Pilione P.O. 923, Eunice, LA 70535 phone: 337/580-0068 • tinamp@charter.net MAINE Vivianne Holmes 239 E. Buckfield Rd. Buckfield, ME 04220-4209 207/336-2484 • vholmes@umext.maine.edu MASSACHUSETTS * Christine Jost Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine 200 Westboro Rd., North Grafton, MA 01536 508/887-4763 • christine.jost@tufts.edu MINNESOTA

Tom Walther 5550 Griffin St., Oakland, CA 94605 510/530-6410; 510/482-1846; tagjag@aol.com COLORADO Joel Benson P.O. Box 2036, Buena Vista, CO 81211 719/395-2468 • joel@joelnlaurie.com Cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 info@wholenewconcepts.com Rio de la Vista P.O. Box 777, Monte Vista, CO 81144 719/852-2211 • riovista@rmi.net Daniela and Jim Howell P.O. Box 67, Cimarron, CO 81220-0067 970/249-0353 • howelljd@montrose.net Craig Leggett 2078 County Rd. 234, Durango, CO 81301 970/259-8998; crleggett@sisna.com Chadwick McKellar 16775 Southwood Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80908 719/495-4641 • cmckellar@juno.com

Terri Goodfellow-Heyer 4660 Cottonwood Lane North Plymouth, MN 55442 763/559-0099 • tgheyer@comcast.net MISSISSIPPI Preston Sullivan 610 Ed Sullivan Lane, NE Meadville, MS 39653 601/384-5310; prestons@nwaisp.com MONTANA Wayne Burleson RT 1, Box 2780, Absarokee, MT 59001 406/328-6808 • rutbuster@montana.net Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle, Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862 • KROOSING@msn.com * Cliff Montagne Montana State University Department of Land Resources & Environmental Science Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079 • montagne@montana.edu

Seth Wilner 104 Cornish Turnpike, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (w) 603/863-9200 (h) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO * Ann Adams The Savory Center 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org Amy Driggs 1131 Los Tomases NW Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/242-2787 adriggs@orbusinternational.com Mark Duran 58 Arroyo Salado #B, Santa Fe, NM 87508 505/422-2280; markjodu@aol.com Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/867-4685 • fax: 505/867-0262 kgadzia@earthlink.net Ken Jacobson 12101 Menaul Blvd. NE, Ste A Albuquerque, NM 87112; 505/293-7570 kbjacobson@orbusinternational.com * Kelly Pasztor The Savory Center 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/842-5252 kellyp@holisticmanagement.org Sue Probart P.O. Box 81827, Albuquerque, NM 87198 505/265-4554 • tnm@treenm.com David Trew 369 Montezuma Ave. #243 Santa Fe, NM 87501 505/751-0471; trewearth@aol.com Vicki Turpen 03 El Nido Amado SW Albuquerque, NM 87121 505/873-0473 • kaytelnido@aol.com NEW YORK Phil Metzger 99 N. Broad St., Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-3231 x4 (w); 607/334-2407 (h) phil.metzger@ny.usda.gov Karl North 3501 Hoxie Gorge Rd., Marathon, NY 13803 607/849-3328 • northsheep@juno.com John Thurgood 44 West St. Ste 1, Walton, NY 13856 607/832-4617; 607/865-7090 jmt20@cornell.edu NORTH CAROLINA Sam Bingham 394 Vanderbilt Rd., Asheville, NC 28803 828/274-1309 • sbingham@igc.org NORTH DAKOTA * Wayne Berry University of North Dakota—Williston P.O. Box 1326, Williston, ND 58802 701/774-4269 or 701/774-4200 wayne.berry@wsc.nodak.edu OKLAHOMA Kim Barker RT 2, Box 67, Waynoka, OK 73860 580/824-9011 • barker_k@hotmail.com

N u m b e r 101

IN PRACTICE

PENNSYLVANIA

INTERNATIONAL

Jim Weaver 428 Copp Hollow Rd. Wellsboro, PA 16901-8976 570/724-7788 • jaweaver@epix.net

AUSTRALIA Helen Carrell P.O. Box 1263 Warwick, QLD 4370 61-7-46617393 • 61-7-46670835 helen@insideoutmgt.com

TEXAS Christina Allday-Bondy 2703 Grennock Dr., Austin, TX 78745 512/441-2019 • tododia@sbcglobal.net Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com Jennifer Hamre 602 W. St. Johns Ave., Austin, TX 78752 512/374-0104; yosefahanah@yahoo.com * R.H. (Dick) Richardson University of Texas at Austin Department of Integrative Biology Austin, TX 78712 512/471-4128 • d.richardson@mail.utexas.edu

Steve Hailstone 5 Lampert Rd., Crafers, SA 5152 61-4-1882-2212 hailstone@internode.on.net Graeme Hand “Inverary” Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 3302 61-3-5578-6272 • 61-4-1853-2130 gshand@hotkey.net.au Mark Gardner P.O. Box 1395, Dubbo, NSW 2830 61-2-6882-0605 mark.g@ozemail.com.au Brian Marshall P.O. Box 300, Guyra NSW 2365 61-2-6779-1927 • fax: 61-2-6779-1947 bkmrshl@northnet.com.au

Peggy Sechrist 25 Thunderbird Rd. Fredericksburg, TX 78624 830/990-2529 • sechrist@ ktc.com

Bruce Ward P.O. Box 103, Milsons Pt., NSW 1565 61-2-9929-5568 • fax: 61-2-9929-5569 blward@holisticresults. com. au

Liz Williams 4106 Avenue B Austin, TX 78751-4220 512/323-2858 • eliz@grandecom.net

Brian Wehlburg c/o “Sunnyholt”, Injue, QLD 4454 61-7-4626-7187 ijapo2000@yahoo.com

WASHINGTON Craig Madsen P.O. Box 107, Edwall, WA 99008 509/236-2451 madsen2fir@centurytel.net

CANADA Don and Randee Halladay

Sandra Matheson 228 E. Smith Rd. Bellingham, WA 98226 360/398-7866 • smm1@ gte.net

Box 2, Site 2, RR 1 Rocky Mountain House, AB, T0M 1T0 403/729-2472 • donran@telusplanet. net Noel McNaughton 5704-144 St., Edmondton, AB, T6H 4H4s 780/432-5492 • noel@mcnaughton.ca

* Don Nelson Washington State University P.O. Box 646310, Pullman, WA 99164 509/335-2922 • nelsond@ wsu.edu

Len Pigott Box 222, Dysart, SK, SOH 1HO 306/432-4583 • JLPigott@sasktel.net

Maurice Robinette S. 16102 Wolfe Rd., Cheney, WA 99004 509/299-4942 • mlr@icehouse.net Doug Warnock 151 Cedar Cove Rd., Ellensburg, WA 98926 509/925-9127 • warnockd@ elltel.net WEST VIRGINIA Fred Hayes P.O. Box 241, Elkview, WV 25071 304/548-7117; sustainableresources@hotmail.com

Kelly Sidoryk Box 374, Lloydminster, AB, S9V 0Y4 403/875-4418 • hi-gain@telusplanet.net MEXICO Ivan Aguirre La Inmaculada Apdo. Postal 304 Hermosillo, Sonora 83000 tel/fax: 52-637-377-8929 rancho_inmaculada@yahoo.com Elco Blanco-Madrid Cristobal de Olid #307 Chihuahua Chih., 31240 52-614-415-3497 • fax: 52-614-415-3175 elco_blanco@hotmail.com

Steve Ritz HC 63, Box 2240, Romney, WV 26757 304/822-5818; 304/822-3020 steve.ritz@wv.usda.gov WISCONSIN Elizabeth Bird Room 203 Hiram Smith Hall 1545 Observatory Dr., Madison WI 53706 608/265-3727 • eabird@facstaff.wisc.edu

Manuel Casas-Perez Calle Amarguva No. 61 Lomas Herradura Huixquilucan, Mexico City CP 52785 52-55-5291-3934 (w) 52-55-54020090 (c)

Larry Johnson W886 State Road 92, Brooklyn, WI 53521 608/455-1685 • lpjohn@rconnect.com

Jose Ramon “Moncho” Villar Av. Las Americas #1178 Fracc. Cumbres, Saltillo, Coahuila 25270 52-844-415-1542 • fmholistico@att.net.mx

NAMIBIA Gero Diekmann P.O. Box 363, Okahandja 9000 264-62-518091 nam00132@mweb.com.na Colin Nott P.O. Box 11977, Windhoek 264-61-228506 canott@iafrica.com.na Wiebke Volkmann P.O. Box 182, Otavi, 264-67-234-448 wiebke@mweb.com.na NEW ZEALAND John King P.O. Box 3440, Richmond, Nelson 64-3-338-5506 succession@clear.net.nz SOUTH AFRICA Sheldon Barnes P.O. Box 300, Kimberly 8300 barnesfarm@mweb.co.za Johan Blom P.O. Box 568, Graaf-Reinet 6280 27-49-891-0163 johanblom@cybertrade.co.za Ian Mitchell-Innes P.O. Box 52, Elandslaagte 2900 27-36-421-1747 • blanerne@mweb.co.za Norman Neave P.O. Box 69, Mtubatuba 3935 27-084-2452/62 • norberyl@telkomsa.net Dick Richardson P.O. Box 1806, Vryburg 8600 tel/fax: 27-53-927-4367 judyrich@cybertrade.co.za Colleen Todd P.O. Box 21, Hoedspruit 1380 27-82-335-3901 (cell) colleen_todd@yahoo.com SPAIN Aspen Edge Apartado de Correos 19, 18420 Lanjaron,s Granada (0034)-958-347-053 holisticdecisions@hotmail.com ZAMBIA Mutizwa Mukute PELUM Zambia Office P.O. Box 36524, Lusaka 260-1-261119/261124/261118/263514 pelum@kepa.org.zm ZIMBABWE Liberty Mabhena Spring Cabinet P.O. Box 853, Harare 263-4-210021/2 • 263-4-210577/8 fax: 263-4-210273 Huggins Matanga Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls 263-11-404-979 hmatanga@mweb.co.zw Elias Ncube P. Bag 5950, Victoria Falls 263-3-454519 rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw

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IN PRACTICE

May / June 2005