#136, In Practice, Mar/Apr 2011

healthy land. sustainable future.

MARCH / APRIL 2011

NUMBER 136

Romancing the Next Generation— Three Creeks Ranch

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n 1992 Chet Vogt purchased the 5,400-acre (2,160-ha) Three Creeks Ranch in Elk Creek, California. It had been badly abused and suffering from seven years of drought, but Chet saw its potential. At that time this one-paddock ranch was capable of carrying 225 cows. But over the years, Chet has been able to double that carrying capacity to 450 cows through his planned grazing, some years running as much as 500. Chet first learned about some of the Holistic Management concepts in a Ranching For Profit (RFP) course with Stan Parsons in 1992.

Over the years, Chet has learned a lot about ranching profitably in California’s Mediterranean climate as well as working to improve bird habitat in his riparian areas. In fact, he received the 2008 Leopold Conservation Award for exemplary environmental stewardship from Sand County Foundation, California Farm Bureau Federation and Sustainable Conservation and his work with such organizations as the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition.

But rather than resting on his laurels, Chet and his wife Angela have learned that they want to share the lifestyle they love with the next generation so they can learn about the opportunities that ranching offers.

Profitable Ranching The goals of Three Creeks Ranch are to be sustainable: socially (self, employees, and community), economically (have value), and ecologically (leave the land better than you found it). Chet works to keep the ranch operations simple and low-cost so there is just Chet, one full-time employee and a caretaker.

Chet’s top priority for infrastructure development after he received his grazing training was to develop 32 paddocks from the one paddock that was there when he bought the ranch. With these paddocks he works for a 60day recovery period and 3-day grazing periods.

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

by Ann Adams

He also works to get higher stock density when doing some “flash grazing” with 15 animals/acre.

The Three Creeks Ranch is blessed with many spring or reservoir fed ponds for livestock watering so Chet didn’t have any pumps or electricity. He has installed many miles of pipeline that gravity flow to large storage tanks at central points for watering his cattle. For Chet the greatest limiting factor for the ranch is the timing of the precipitation. The winter growing season for his winter range in Elk Creek is from November 15th through May 15th With that California winter rainy season, the rain needs to come in November and May to really be of use and increase grass production. If they miss that window, then it really impacts the amount of animals they can carry. He can get 20 inches of rain during the rainy season, but if it hits in December and January, when the plants are dormant, it doesn’t produce the forage he needs.

Given the hot, dry summers in northern California, he chooses to run the animals on a permit in Modoc National Forest. Chet also has a Memo of Understanding with the Bureau of Land Management for weed management on a 12,000acre unit (4,800 ha). Although the cattle run in very steep and rugged country, he has been able to divide the ranch into 15 paddocks using high voltage electric fencing. He says that the fencing is mostly effective, but with heavy public access, gates are often open and fences are often down due to the elk population in the area. He is in the 6th year of that program to reduce such weeds as barb goat grass, yellow star thistle, and medusa head. The monitoring program in place tracks the progress being made to create more plant diversity, recognizing that eradication of these plants on such a large scale is not feasible. He’s found that he can use dry cows on their 2nd trimester to eat the medusa thatch and still perform well . After the first four years of this grazing there was a 47% reduction in medusahead.

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FINANCIAL PLANNING

Robert and Cheryl Cosner used their training in holistic financial planning to successfully move their sheep operation from Washington to Oregon and keep it profitable while addressing issues of initial poor feed quality on their new land.

To learn more, turn to page 4.

FEATURE STORIES Balancing on The Slippery Slope of Grazing to Perfection—Advanced Grazing Courses with Ian Mitchell-Innes PEGGY COLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Managing for Change DOUG WARNOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Tools for Effective Financial Planning MARY JOHNSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Data Mine: Using Phenology—Considering Grass Lifecycles in Your Grazing Planning FRANK ARAGONA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

LAND and LIVESTOCK The STAC Method— Assessing Forage in Brittle Environments DICK RICHARDSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Efficiency of Low Input—Springbockvley Farms JUDITH ISELE, EKKEHARD KÜLBS, AND WIEBKE VOLKMANN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Regenerating Native Grasslands— Research from Australia GRAEME HAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Living Soils in Tasmania GRAEME HAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Green Grass and Grasshoppers MEGAN AND ANDREW MOSLEY . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Questions & Answers

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

NEWS and NETWORK From the Board Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

healthy land. sustainable future.

Holistic Management International works to reverse the degradation of private and communal land used for agriculture and conservation, restore its health and productivity, and help create sustainable and viable livelihoods for the people who depend on it.

STAFF Peter Holter . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chief Executive Officer Tracy Favre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chief Operating Officer Kelly King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chief Financial Officer Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE and

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and Outreach Frank Aragona . . . . . . . . . . Director, Research and

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& Executive Support Peggy Cole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Project Manager, Texas Brady Gibbons . . . . . . . . . . Field Advisor Mary Girsch-Bock . . . . . Development Associate Valerie Grubbs . . . . . . . . . Accounting Associate Carrie Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . Education Associate

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sallie Calhoun, Chair Ben Bartlett, Past Chair Gail Hammack, Vice-Chair John Hackley, Secretary Christopher Peck, Treasurer Ron Chapman Judi Earl Jim McMullan Jim Shelton

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The David West Station for Holistic Management Tel: 325/392-2292 • Cel: 325/226-3042 westgift@hughes.net Joe & Peggy Maddox, Ranch Managers

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by: Holistic Management International 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: hmi@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org COPYRIGHT © 2011

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IN PRACTICE

Romancing the Next Generation Three Creeks Ranch had been in drought for three years prior to last year. Chet had to destock so he didn’t keep replacement heifers. “Those kinds of situations require emotional discipline,” says Chet. He assessed the situation and determined ahead of time when to remove animals rather than tough it out by taking too much from the land or feeding hay. “It’s expensive to operate in California and you really have to watch inputs, but I’m still in business,” says Chet. “It’s definitely a survival game and no two years are alike. You are always balancing the needs of the cattle and the land.”

Over the years Chet has seen his annual grasslands change with greater diversity of plants, including lots of different native perennials. In fact, over a 15 year period he has been able to double his carrying capacity. “I grow more forage through poorer conditions because of the soil health,” says Chet. “It’s a very fragile soil and management practices are even more important here.”

Chet also has a special focus on 9 riparian areas and increasing the bird species. He feels that the birds are indicator species of the health of the land. He has worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Point Reyes Bird Society to do bird counts. When he first bought the ranch there was no significant bird life. Now more than 90 species of birds use his riparian corridor, including the neo-tropical migrating birds. “The riparian area was a desert when I bought the place,” says Chet. “Now it is healthy and wooded, an ideal bird habitat.”

Chet has achieved these results by fencing off riparian corridors and livestock ponds as special management zones that receive short-duration grazing so that native plants can thrive and provide abundant nesting habitat for birds and other wildlife including Tricolored Blackbirds, Box Turtles, California Quail, Black-Tail Deer and many others.

continued from page one learn about the paleontology of the early animals in that area, and participate in a host of activities like planting perennial grasses, climbing hills, looking at flowers, and catching lizards. He is currently expanding the program to other grades and is setting up a template for others to use. “It’s amazing how little the kids understand about nature,” says Chet. “I read The Last Child in the Woods and it made me think about how I could counter this trend. We need to get kids outdoors because that experience can affect their lives in so many positive ways.

Chet got the community to help with this project by engaging a local 4th grade teacher and then recruiting parents to volunteer as chaperones. He was hooked when he saw the immediate results of the children’s awakening to the fascination of nature and the awareness of what was around them. “I would hear comments like, ‘I had no idea this was out here’ from many of the students who lived in what would be considered a rural community,” says Chet. He also worked with the superintendent to increase support for the program in the school. Because he feels strongly about this program, Chet is funding this project with money awarded from the Leopold Award to pay for buses, substitute teachers, portable toilets, and food to serve the 135 students that participated. “In order to be sustainable longterm, this program must be community driven with the rancher only providing the location,” says Chet. “Wild at Heart” has a seven-member steering committee to plan and implement the program.

The first session was short because it took place during the school day. But the current year’s program will be a full-day on a Saturday to expand the activities they will offer at Nature School. Using a curriculum that builds off of concepts learned in the classroom, students are engaged in more complex tasks and learning as

The Next Generation Chet used to give field day tours in conjunction with Cooperative Extension and NRCS but he found he got very low results from “talking to the old folks.” “Change is very difficult for many people,” he says. That’s why he’s switched to working with a younger crowd.

He’s started a Nature School called “Wild at Heart” that brings the local 4th grade class to the ranch and gives them the opportunity to see nature, monitor invertebrates,

March / April 2011

Chet Vogt won the 2008 Leopold Conservation Award for exemplary environmental stewardship.

Balancing on The Slippery Slope of Grazing to Perfection— Advanced Grazing Courses with Ian Mitchell-Innes

by Peggy Cole

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The riparian areas throughout Chet’s ranch have improved dramatically as demonstrated by these photos taken in 1996 (above) and 2008 (below) of Rattlesnake Creek. the day progresses. “It’s a big dream,” says Chet. “We want to start in our local communities and see if it can be expanded to other areas—maybe even the inner cities?”

Mistakes Are Inevitable When I asked Chet what was one of the biggest learnings he has had over the years, he said: “The biggest learning I’ve had is you are going to make mistakes and you can’t get discouraged. When I first started putting up fence and moving cattle and my neighbors were still set-stocked, I had to believe there would be a change in the landscape to continue with what I was doing because the change didn’t come overnight. It took 3-5 years to really see the change in biological diversity. I stuck with it because I had seen the change on other people’s places and I knew it could work. For instance, when I first bought the ranch we found only one perennial grass, melica onion grass. We now have documented 13 different native perennial grasses. They were there all the time, just so overgrazed that they could not be seen. At times you get discouraged because the results are so slow in coming. This is the reason so many people fail to stay with an intensive grazing program. Commitment to the program and the tenacity to stick with it is critical.”

“It’s damn hard work, but I love the lifestyle. I want others to have an opportunity to see the value to that lifestyle as well and consider a career,” says Chet. Chet’s passion for this work is evident to many people as evidenced by his Leopold Award in 2008, his work with the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition, as well as his efforts with the Nature School. When I asked Chet what contributed to the success of his ranching operation, he replied: “You have to be passionate to make it work.”

or graziers grazing to perfection would be making a beeline toward your holisticgoal—that desired quality of life and future landscape description you envisioned and described— while balancing the needs of the triple bottom line for financial, social, and environmental health. But finding the perfect balancing stance on half a dozen simultaneous teetertotters is not for the faint of heart. Grazing and ranching with precision is a challenge that has left many people humbled and can be a rewarding profession and wonderful lifestyle. As more people are choosing to ranch with a desire for an improved quality of life and profitability, and a healthy landbase, the need for training in how to achieve the desired results has grown. That’s why HMI is organizing the 2011 Ian Mitchell-Innes Course series taught by South African grazier and educator Ian Mitchell-Innes. Ian is a sought-after presenter and knows how to share his knowledge so others can achieve the results they want.

To give you a taste of what you will be learning with Ian, we share some of the critical concepts Ian focuses on.

What You’ll Learn Ian’s mantra is “Animal performance, animal performance, animal performance.” He cautions everyone to keep the stocking rate the same for at least a year, but increase the stock density on each individual paddock. The art of grazing can be incredibly refined and used as a tool not only to make a better living from the land, but also to create healthier soil with more forage while sequestering carbon and adding oxygen to the air. Give the soil food web a chance to adapt to the greater production levels before increasing stocking rate. Be prepared to utilize additional forage as land health increases.

A cow is balanced on the tipping point of several different teeter-totters we must manage all at once to get the desired result. She must balance her pH by eating just the right balance of protein and energy (hydrogen), get enough but not too much of about 20 minerals, strike the right balance between trample and graze that will put the right balance of green or brown litter in contact with the soil to create the right balance between bacteria and fungi in the soil for the vegetation you (and she) desire.

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Chet Vogt can be contacted at vranch@elkcreek.com.

Number 136

IN PRACTICE

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Managing for Change

by Doug Warnock

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t has been five years since Robert and Cheryl Cosner moved their family and livestock operation from Centerville, Washington to Weston, Oregon, and they think it would have been very difficult without their grounding in Holistic Management. “We didn’t think it was going to be much of a transition, but it was more of a change than we thought,” said Robert, recently. “Without our grounding in Holistic Financial Planning, the change could have been a disaster,” added Cheryl.

In September of 2004, the Cosners moved from the family farm near Centerville in Klickitat County, Washington to a 2,100 acre (840 ha) ranch in the foothills of the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon. Since they were moving to an area with a higher rainfall, they didn’t believe the transition would be hard to make, but it was more than anticipated.

“We moved east and north about 150 miles (240 km) to a place with somewhat higher rainfall and much steeper ground. The elevation of our land ranges from 1,200-3,400 feet (4001133 m) and the annual precipitation varies from 17-22 inches (425-550 mm). We found the plant communities are different here,” said Robert.

“We’ve made use of our creativity and our holistic financial planning experience to make a successful change,” reports Cheryl. “The bottom line, profit, is the producer’s report card. If you go into the red, you’ve failed the course.”

The Cosner family operation includes 240 Coopworth ewes, carryover lambs and new crop lambs, around 700 head of sheep all together.

They also run 40 to 60 Angus cows and calves, as well as, 65 to 70 head of goats.

weeds as burdock, hound’s tongue, mustard, Scotch thistle, lambsquarters and pigweed have been significantly reduced, and in some cases, essentially eliminated. Perennial grasses are coming back and both the forage quality and quantity have been greatly increased. This was accomplished by adding interior cross fencing to establish more paddocks and by planned grazing.

They added some New Zealand type fences and are making use of portable electric fencing, including some electric netting. The Cosners have also done some spring water development, which helped foster better grazing distribution.

One of their challenges has been predation of the sheep by coyotes, cougars, and bears. “Coyotes have been the worst,” Robert says. “But they are discouraged by hot fences and tend to leave them alone.” Another big challenge is improving the forage. While their management has changed the plant community favorably, it lacks an adequate population of legumes. They plan to inter-seed some legume into the grass stand. They’re considering alfalfa, sanfoin and some other legume species.

Positive Changes

The last two winters they wintered their sheep on alfalfa aftermath, which has greatly reduced their use of hay for wintering the sheep. Last winter they decreased their feeding of hay by 150 tons. They contract with hay growers in the Walla Walla Valley to clean up alfalfa fields. The sheep are trucked to the hay fields in late October or early November where they graze until about the middle of February. The alfalfa aftermath costs them very little and saves them a considerable amount in winter feed expense. Analyzing the nutritive value of the hay aftermath has shown it to be at least 20% crude protein and 65 to 80% in TDN. This practice is a win-win situation for both parties, as it also helps the haygrowers get their fields cleaned up and ready for the new spring growth. It’s been so successful that haygrowers are now calling the Cosners and asking them to bring their sheep to graze their hay fields.

Since the move, there has been good progress in improving the plant communities on the Cosners’ rangeland. The populations of such

Cheryl & Robert Cosner enjoy their new ranch in Eastern Oregon.

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Saving On Feed Costs

March / April 2011

The Cosners are also making use of some offranch grazing during the summer and early fall.

Along in August, when the availability of grass is down, they truck the sheep down to Eric Nelson’s ranch near Pendleton, where they graze hay fields and pasture until mid October. This takes the pressure off their rangeland, leaving enough grazing there for the cattle. They keep most of their lambs over the winter and take them to the Nelson place in April before lambing season where they are finished out on forage.

The cattle herd is wintered on the ranch utilizing south slopes, where the Cosners feed alfalfa hay every two to three days. The plan is to eventually increase the size of their beef cattle herd.

Marketing Direct The Cosners direct market much of their production. The lambs are trucked to Portland for processing and the meat brought back on trucks owned by Hill Meats of Pendleton. Hill Meats also provides them some cooler storage to supplement what they have on the ranch. The cut and wrapped lamb is delivered by Cheryl to customers in the Tri-cities, Walla Walla and around the area.

Most of the steers and part of the heifers they produce are sold direct to individual customers.

They sell whole carcasses, halves and split halves direct to members of several buying clubs in the Portland area and to some buyers in the Walla Walla area. The cattle are all straight bred Angus that are finished on forage. Most of the beeves are in the 850-950 pound (383-428 kg) live weight range, yielding carcasses of about 450-550 pounds (203-248 kg). It takes from 24 to 30 months to get the beeves to finish weight.

The wool from the Coopworth ewes is sold directly to established customers, which has included the Pendleton Woolen Mills. This year’s clip is going to a mill in northern California that produces all natural wool bedding.

An additional enterprise involves providing recreational hunting of deer and wild turkeys.

They have a contractual agreement with a family that gives them exclusive hunting rights to the Cosner property.

In a recent review of their holisticgoal, they’ve found that the eastern Oregon location is allowing them to make good progress toward the quality of life they want. “We’ve got some work to do on improving our quality of life, by reducing our work time, but we’ll get there,” Cheryl says. “We want to make some improvements on our house, but we’ve devoted our financial resources to the business, for now. Eventually we’ll be able to give some attention to the house,” she reports. In the mean time, the Cosners are improving the ecosystem health of their land and getting greater production as a result.

Tools for Effective Financial Planning

by Mary Johnson

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frequently talk with a room full of permaculturists or farmers and ask them questions like: “Are you happy with your current financial situation?” and “What goes into your financial planning?” I usually find myself looking out at a roomful of blank stares, or worse, getting loud sighs or judgmental groans in response to my questions. If you yourself are having a similar gut reaction, I challenge you to take a minute to suspend any feelings of distaste that you may be struggling with. Also, if you think you already know enough about how to manage your life and finances, give yourself this quick quiz and allow yourself the opportunity to perhaps even make some profound and empowering changes in your life, I guarantee you will be happy you did.

Financial Literacy Quiz 1. What information does a gross profit analysis give you, and how can it help you evaluate an enterprise? Why is that important?

2. What is the purpose of doing a cash flow budget and how can the information be used in managing a project or business?

3. Why calculate both a beginning and a projected ending net worth in the financial planning process?

4. What elements could comprise an increase in the net worth of a farm or business?

5. Describe the difference between being profit oriented versus production oriented?

Feeling confident, or does this all sound like Greek to you? Unless you are living the life you dream of and feel relatively confident that you will be able to sustain that lifestyle into the future, you may want to ask yourself these questions: “What financial decisions did you make in the last year?”

“Do you think you had the best tools to make those decisions in a sound way?”

“Do you feel confident that you were using

your precious time, money and energy in the most effective way?”

“Did your decisions lead you towards achieving your overall goals for your life in the best way possible?”

“Did the decisions support your deepest values?”

If you are still feeling good, you probably have a sound basis in financial management already. If your answers to any of these questions come up short, or leave you feeling a little uneasy, maybe it would be a good time for you to take a Holistic Financial Planning course or refresher.

Beginning Women Farmer Program I have been working closely with some of the Beginning Women Farmers from the Northeast that are part of HMI’s NIFA/USDA-funded program, both as a mentor and as an instructor of some of their sessions. Just to give you a flavor of the diversity in the group, one woman has run a successful computer company in the D.C. area for the past decade, after having spent her early years working as a migrant laborer in the fruit industry.

Now she has invested a sizable nest egg into renovating a New England fruit orchard. Recently I was at her farm working on developing her holisticgoal with her husband, and testing some

Benefits of Holistic Financial Planning • Planning for and achieving a triple bottom line profit, one that is socially, financially and environmentally sound.

• Planning for profit. Once you know how much profit you need and want, then you brainstorm all the ways that you can think of to create that profit by the end of the year.

• Prioritizing expenses to maximize investing in the areas that need it the most. For example, focus on wealth generating expenses first, and address the weakest link in the production chain, cap other unnecessary expenses, and stick with the plan so profits aren’t eaten up.

• Analyzing your enterprises against each other (Gross Profit Analysis) and in relation to how they help cover overhead expenses and generate return on investment so you can maximize profit.

• Monitoring your plan (usually monthly) and proactively making necessary changes along the way so you get where you said you want to be by the end of the year.

Mary Johnson major decisions they were facing in the operation.

After $700,000 of investment in the start-up, they were trying to decide if they were really committed to the costly vegetable operation that was taking up a lot of their time, but not adding to their quality of life as they were both really more interested in the fruit side of their business.

Another woman, after raising nine children and coaching them through various 4H projects for years, decided to turn their goat experience into an organic micro-goat dairy. She sells organic herbs and veggies to a Whole Foods just outside of Boston, Massachuesetts.

All the women have similarly amazing stories about what led them to farming. I have watched their excitement and frustration and listened to their unique viewpoints as they have diligently tackled homework assignments and made the long drive across the state to visit each other’s farms and grapple with the new concepts, sometimes with tears, often with lots of laughter and vociferous conversations that make teaching a challenge at times.

Already, they are beginning to integrate the concepts into their busy lives as business women, farm owners, mothers and wives among the million other hats they wear on a day-to-day basis. All seem to agree, it’s not easy stuff, but the thought of being able to make better financial decisions ahead of time, and know they are on track to making a profit, is worth the extra effort.

Finding the discipline to do it, now that’s the real challenge. Their mentee groups and the regular meetings help them stay committed.

Reinvestment Strategies As a permaculturist I have noticed how the financial weak link test ties in with the Permaculture Principle of Obtaining Yield—a surplus is a natural part of a well-designed system.

Holistic Financial Planning helps us understand CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

Number 136

IN PRACTICE

5

Using Phenology— Considering Grass Lifecycles in Your Grazing Planning

by Frank Aragona

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ccording to Wikipedia, “phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and inter-annual variations in climate.” The discipline of phenology is often attributed to the great naturalist and author Aldo Leopold. In fact, phenology is an ancient science that human beings have studied and applied for millennia.

Phenological phenomenon are expressed in the annual cycles of nature: a bear emerging from hibernation, a spring ephemeral blooming in the forest, or a grass seedling germinating and establishing itself with the assistance of summer rains. Phenology is proving a critical science in studying the effects and pace of climate change around the globe. Understanding phenology, moreover, is a critical part of land management, and grazing planning is no exception.

To date, attempts at phenological grazing planning have been subtle or poorly documented.

It is imperative that we improve our existing planning tools; this can be achieved by monitoring ecosystem phenology, and by incorporating phenological data into the grazing planning process.

Monitoring is the first critical element of phenological grazing planning. Phenology is highly place specific—factors like elevation, latitude, seasonal variation, and species composition will affect annual ecosystem cycles.

Many groups have felt the need to develop a landscape-scale, collaborative phenological monitoring protocol and database.

This need has led to the USA National Phenology Network. They have developed data collection sheets, documentation on collecting field data, and a collaborative web-based interface to enter and retrieve data from across North America.

Learning how to use and expand upon these kinds of tools will be critical for the continued development and refinement of planned grazing.

In 2011, HMI will be looking to build a stronger relationship between our community and organizations like the USA National Phenology Network. We will encourage the use of these monitoring tools via outreach and education, and also explore ways to integrate these tools within the framework of holistic planned grazing.

Implementing a phenology monitoring program is the first step in phenological grazing 6

IN PRACTICE

planning, but it is not necessary to have many years of data to incorporate these concepts into your planning. Many land managers are often aware of the annual cycles of the principle species on the landscape; taking the time to think through and write down these key moments in species lifecycles can help in the planning process.

Mapping your landscape is also an important part of this process. Species composition is determined by variable landscape features, like soil type and elevation. Understanding the relative abundance of a species or a plant community will help you to understand what plants exist where, and as a result you will know which species’ life cycle patterns you must give the greatest attention on a per paddock basis.

Additionally, phenological grazing planning requires an understanding of how grasses and other plants grow. While individual plants do not move through space, they do move through time.

As they do so, plants undergo changes in structure, palatability, and sensitivity to grazing.

Presented below is a review of some of the key phases in a grass plant’s growth and development.

This analysis is not comprehensive, but it will provide a strong basis for thinking about these concepts.

C3 or C4?

The differences between C3 and C4 plants are primarily metabolic, related to the different enzymes used in the photosynthetic apparatus of the plant. For our purposes, it is enough to say the C3 grasses tend to be cool-season plants, and C4 grasses are generally warm-season grasses. Some common C3 plants are wheatgrass, needlegrass, bromegrass, and bluegrass. Cool season grasses initiate growth in the early spring, when soil temperatures reach a minimum of 40 degrees F. These cool-season grasses produce highquality forage early in the growing season.

However, they do not grow during the hot periods in midsummer, and often become semi-dormant.

They may grow again in the fall as temperatures cool and late summer precipitation replenishes soil moisture. Thus, there may be two growing periods for these grasses: early spring and late summer or fall.

Common C4 grass species include blue grama, buffalograss, and bluestems. These grasses grow in a temperature range between 70 and 95 degrees F, although soil temperatures can be between 60

March / April 2011

and 65 degrees F. C4 grasses are more effective at using soil moisture, especially under droughty conditions. In general, they are less palatable to grazers than cool-season grasses. As Trlica notes: …because C3 grasses often enter the reproductive period at about the time that C4 grasses begin growth, livestock normally seek out this new growth from warm-season species. New foliage is always more digestible than more mature foliage, whether it be from a C3 or C4 species.

The Phases of Growth There are several identifiable stages of grass growth: seedling germination/establishment, vegetative stage, the “boot” stage, the reproductive stage, and the dormant stage. Cereal producers have used more detailed tools for agronomic purposes. One such example is the Zadock’s scale.

For our purposes, the five stages listed above should be sufficient, and will be given consideration below.

Seedling Germination and Establishment Seed germination occurs under proper environmental conditions, and is highly species specific. Some species will only germinate when soil moisture and soil temperatures have reached a critical threshold; other species require fire, insects, or passage through an animal’s digestive tract to germinate properly. Know your species, and take good notes of what you see in the field.

When planning your grazing, remember the following, “The most critical period in the life of a grass seedling is when the primary roots begin to die and the secondary roots may not have developed enough to properly feed the shoot. This period is particularly critical if soil moisture in the surface few inches of soil is limited and no subsoil moisture is present.” This is especially important to remember in cases where new plant establishment is of concern.

Vegetative Growth Plants enter the vegetative growth stage immediately after coming out of dormancy in the spring, or in the case of seedlings shortly after the development of secondary roots. Range scientist L.L. Manske has written concisely about the vegetative growth stage of grass plants, with specific reference to the effects of grazing. Below is

an excerpt from his writings detailing key aspects of vegetative grass growth: … the grass shoot’s production of three to three and a half new leaves during the growing season is important. When the shoot reaches the third-leaf stage, the apical meristem begins to produce flower buds rather than leaf buds, although formed leaf buds continue to grow and develop. Defoliation of leaf material before the shoot has reached this stage can disrupt the formation of leaf buds and leaves for the shoot, weaken the plant and diminish the plant’s ability to produce herbage.

Most native cool-season grasses reach the third-leaf stage around early June, and most native warm-season grasses follow in about two weeks. On strategies that begin grazing before the third-leaf stage, such as early spring grazing started in mid-May, 45 to 60% of the potential herbage biomass will not be produced.

Defoliation of the shoot that has reached the third-leaf stage can stimulate the natural biological processes grass plants have developed in response to grazing. These processes include stimulation of vegetative reproduction and the growth of new tillers from the grazed shoot’s axillary buds. Properly timed grazing that removes only a small portion of the leaf activates beneficial processes that can result in a 30 to 45 percent increase in herbage production.

Implementing grazing management strategies that start after the third-leaf stage and coordinate grazing periods with grass growth stages can activate beneficial plant processes that result in increased herbage production and in turn reduce pasture and forage costs. An astute manager will time grass plant recovery periods to take full advantage of compensatory growth responses.

The “Boot” Stage The “Boot” stage of grass growth is the transitional stage from vegetative to reproductive growth. This growth stage is initiated by changes in day length, and the transition is controlled by plant physiology and hormone releases. According to Manske, “The first external sign of flower stalk development is the swelling of the sheath that encloses the flower head.”

Annual seed production is not always required to maintain range health, often because grasses can reproduce via tillering, or in the case of sod grasses via underground rhizomes. Since the forage quality and productivity of grass plants is much higher under vegetative growth, land managers might often prefer to graze plants after the third leaf stage and before the boot stage, thereby maintaining the grass community in a vegetative state. As Trlica notes:

… a reproductive tiller may remain vegetative if the growing point (terminal [or apical] meristem) is removed by grazing.

Vegetative growth, therefore, is favored by some grazing, which reduces the number of seedheads produced and may stimulate the formation of new tillers.

Manske provides insights on how phenological data can be used to plan grazing in relation to the boot stage: “Most cool-season plants enter the reproductive stage before June 21, the longest day of the year, and most warm-season plants enter the reproductive stage after June 21.

Reproductive Stage Sometimes seed production is necessary, especially when a stand is in need of newly established seedlings. Some land managers actually manage a stand to produce a seed crop, which is harvested and sold on the market.

Planned grazing can be used to steer the successional trajectory of a particular paddock or pasture. In this context, timed grazing and controlled utilization may allow the manager to inhibit seed production of some plant species.

Subsequently, grazing animals can be removed from the area to allow seed production of desirable species. This process can also be applied in reverse, depending on the plant species and their flowering times. This approach requires good data on plant phenology, hence our previous emphasis on establishing monitoring protocols and collaborative databases.

The Dormant Stage Plants begin to prepare for dormancy during the growing season. Carbohydrates accumulate in roots and crowns. These sequestered resources are used for respiration during winter dormancy and then again for the first flush of green growth once growing conditions resume.

Phenological grazing planning is an implicit principle embodied in the concept of planned grazing. It is our attempt here to offer tools and ideas for making this concept explicit in our thinking and planning processes. The idea is based on three principles: phenology monitoring, understanding the grass life cycle, and planned grazing. Hopefully, readers will find these concepts useful, and will apply them in their management process. HMI will continue to explore these concepts in greater detail. Ultimately, we aim to provide our community with useful tools for applying these concepts in practice.

References Manske, L.L. Kraus, A.M. Jirik, T.C. Manipulating Grass Plant Growth Can Enhance Forage Production.

North Dakota State University. Available online: http://www.chaps2000.com/ bin/ccs2r2.pdf Stichler, C. Grass Growth and Development. Texas Cooperative Extension. Available online: http://publications.tamu.edu/publications/Forages/ scs-2002-22a.pdf Trlica, M.J. Grass Growth and Response to Grazing. No. 6. 108. Range: Natural Resources Series. Colorado State University. Online at: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/natres/ 06108.html.

Tools for Effective Financial Planning

continued from page five

what a healthy surplus is, and where it will come from in a well designed business and identifies how best to catch and store that surplus and even how to redistribute it based on the values you define as important to you in your holisticgoal.

Once you have the profit, you plan how you will use it – maybe to increase your net worth by shrinking debt, or add to savings for retirement, or just for spending on an overdue vacation that will improve your quality of life and increase the sustainability of your business by reinvigorating you and your family. Knowing what you will spend the profit on are the carrots and the sticks that keep you moving on the plan from week-to-week, and that force you to make the tough decision so you don’t let that profit slip away from you.

The Beginning Women Farmer Program was funded by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA. Mary Johnson is a Permaculture Design & Holistic Management consultant and trainer working with Terra Genesis International. She works with farmers and business owners in the U.S. and internationally using concepts from both Permaculture and Holistic Management to help families, businesses, and organizations. You can read more about Holistic Management and International Permaculture on Mary’s blog at http://wrcinashfield.wordpress.com.

Number 136

IN PRACTICE

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& The STAC Method— Assessing Forage in Brittle Environments

by Dick Richardson

STAC Adapted to Brittle Environments

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was first introduced to the STAC method of assessing veld (forage) in non-brittle environments by Jim Weaver from Wellsboro, Pennsylvania while we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the winter of 2004. Jim was in HMI’s 2001 Certified Educator Training Program and we had met during that program’s graduation. When Jim shared this idea, I saw it as a valuable tool. After metricating it, I simply adapted it for use in brittle environments.

How It Works STAC stands for Sole, Toe, Ankle and Calf. These are the points of measurement of the top of the bulk of the grass sward (plant). In other words look through the grass to identify what height the bulk of the grass stops so that one measures bulk not stalks and wisps that stick out the top. Jim demonstrated how to accomplish this viewpoint by leaning down on to his head and looking backwards between his legs.

Having made the decision on bulk height, simply work out what feed is available. The formula for dairy cattle is Sole is 10 SDA (stock days per acre) or 24 SDH (stock days per hectare), Toe is 20 SDA or 48 SDH, Ankle is 30 SDA or 72 SDH, and Calf is 40 SDA or 96 SDH. Jim in his wisdom had simply translated this information from the original STAC method he had learned, which expressed this information in pounds of dry matter available per acre. In other words Sole is 300 lb per acre, Toe is 600 lb per acre, Ankle is 900 lbs per acre and Calf is 1200 lbs per acre. So for reference, this translates to 327 kg/ha at Sole, 656 kg/ha at Toe, 982 kg/ha at Ankle and 1309 kg/ha at Calf height. Jim then translated this into stock unit days using 3 percent of body mass intake on a 1000 lb/ 450 kg animal unit.

In the dairy industry, a 3 percent dry matter intake is applicable. In the beef industry in South Africa, however, we tend to work on only a 2.5 percent of body mass intake as an average through the year.

So at 25 lbs (11.25 kg) dry matter intake you would use the forage calculations below. These are the figures I would suggest one starts with in brittle environments with mixed to sweet grasses.

The actual intake of dry matter of an animal really depends on the rate of Forage Calculations for 1 SAU based on 1,000 lb (450kg) beef cattle with 25 lb (11.25kg) intake

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Measurement

SDA

SDH

SDA @ 50%

SDH@50%

Sole Toe Ankle Calf

12 24 36 48

30 60 90 120

6 12 18 24

15 30 45 60

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digestion taking place. In lower-fiber, higher-energy feed, the rate of passage of feed is quick and animals eat more dry matter per day. This figure on dairy cows can go up as high as 8%. Then, when dietary fiber is high, the digestive rate of passage slows down, and total dry matter intake will come down as low as only 1% in some cases.

March / April 2011

First, do the steps as above, then work out what percentage of the grass sward is at the measurement. We do this by pacing ten paces and scoring each footfall according to available bulk feed as follows: • Full (as per bulk height) scores a 1 • Half the feed available only (half covered with bulk height) would score 0.5 • If there is a bare patch with no feed available (no bulk present) you would score it a 0.

(TIP: Count only on the one foot each time rather than on each footfall, it is a lot easier.)

This will then tell you what percent of the sward is not full, and you can then calculate what feed is available with this figure and the original bulk measurement. For example, if you count 10 footfalls and find 3 are bare, 4 are only half, while the rest are full that would mean that 50% of the sward measures to your original bulk estimate ((4 x .5) = 2 + 3 = 5 or 50%). Say it was toe height; then 50% of 24 SDA or 60 SDH would equal 12 SDA or 30 SDH. What I do if it is not consistent range or pastureland, such as if I am reassessing a paddock that has just been grazed, is to rate each footfall as part of the rate I expect the whole to be. For example, if I expect the whole area to be toe height by the average of what I have measured, then I base each step on a toe height scale. If the plant is sole height then that is half of toe half and rates as .5. If it is calf height then I rate it as 1.5 of toe height. I then do the calculating as above and determine the average within the 10 steps and base my forage assessment on that SDA or SDH. The rules for this method of forage assessment are no different to the rules one would use when doing squares or clippings for assessment. Do it twice in a representative area, and always do more than one representative area in a paddock where there is variation.

A note of caution: On foot you must force yourself to put your next footfall where it should go, not where you may influence the score.

I have double-checked this measurement method against the normal square method we use and am very sure they match up well. In fact, I am very positive about it as the subjectivity of the square method really throws one out when the plants become tall with seed heads.

I have found these figures accurate, although the end of this non-growing season will tell us how accurate we really are with this method.

Try it out for yourself and see what you think. Good luck!

Dick Richardson is a Holistic Management Certified Educator from Boorwa, New South Wales, Australia. He can be reached at: dick@bdynamic.org or 61-0-263-853217.

The Efficiency of Low Input— Springbockvley Farms

by Judith Isele, Ekkehard Külbs, and Wiebke Volkmann

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ituated at the Western border of the typical Kalahari dune landscape, but in almost completely flat countryside, Farm Springbockvley is located 108 miles (180 km) southeast of Windhoek. On its 23,750 acres (9,500 ha) of predominantly red sand and partially limestone soils, Springbockvley contains open grassland with some shrubs and trees.

Only a few shallow depressions exist, of which the most prominent one is the name given to the farm. More than 100 years ago, when the farm was marked out and the house built, many springbuck are said to have lingered around this vley—which comes from Afrikaans “vallei” (as in “pond”), that is fed by a spring, and therefore holds semi-permanent open water. The long-term average annual rainfall at Springbockvley is 10.5 inches (260 mm), with amounts differing between 2.8 inches (70mm) to 18.4 inches (460 mm) in the last five years.

Building Team Trust Ekkehard Külbs took over the farming business from his parents in 1989 and since 2004 runs it together with his wife Judith Isele. Ekkehard’s father, who bought the farm in 1959, developed it with simplicity and efficiency in mind and managed soil, rangeland and animals conservatively, but with much passion for the whole ecosystem. For better utilization and to establish grazing management, he built up the main part of today’s infrastructure on the farm which is comprised of 60 camps (paddocks) and jackal proof fencing along the borders of the farm, as is common in this area of the country. After having studied agriculture in Germany, Ekkehard not only continued with the farming approach of his father, but refined it in his years of farming. He started off with attending a course in Holistic Management in 1990. Later, with her background of having studied Organic Agriculture, it was easy for Judith to keep up with Ekkehard’s holistic approach when she moved from Germany to Namibia to join him on the farm.

On Springbockvley, four permanent staff members assist with the tasks.

Each of them carries responsibility for one of the four “flerds” which consists of a flock of sheep and a herd of cattle combined. Depending on respective distances, the distance from the homestead to the animals and to the water points is either travelled by foot, car, tractor or motorbike—while Judith passionately uses her horses to do the work in the veld.

Already in the times of Ekkehard’s parents, long-term work relationships have been valued and nurtured. Two retired employees have worked for more than 20 years here and continue to live on the farm with their families.

The employees do some gardening for their own vegetable consumption and also have chickens, donkeys, horses, and dogs. They also keep a limited number of sheep and cattle together with the big herds in the veld.

To strengthen the wider community in their area, Ekkehard and Judith are always tempted to expand employment and income opportunities.

Imitating Nature Although most of the development of the infrastructure happened before 1989, the real return from it came through using it differently. The 60 more or less rectangular camps are 400 acres (160 ha) on average with the extremes being 113 acres (45 ha) and 825 acres (330 ha). There are two handling facilities on the farm and a loading ramp near the farmstead which is located one mile (1.5 km) from the public road running along the southwestern border of the farm.

Up to 1989 the whole farm was subdivided into 5 cells. In each of the cells

Ekkehard Külbs & Judith Isele

one or two herds were rotating in up to 12 camps according to a strict time table. On fixed days, every second week (once a week in the growing season), the animals would be moved from one camp to the next. Animal numbers were kept limited to official stocking rates.

In 1990 Ekkehard started to implement the principles of Holistic Management, especially the financial and grazing planning procedures.

He combined herds and started to move them according to a time plan that included the differences in size and quality of fodder in each camp. The nutritional needs of the animals at different times of the year were considered in the planning to optimize condition and production. Now there are three big cells of 16 to 17 camps each, which contain up to 2,000 sheep and 300 cattle. In the fourth cell, 11 camps around the farmyard are at the disposal of a smaller herd with around 500 sheep and 100 cattle.

Each of the 17 water points (reservoir and troughs) is surrounded by 4–5 camps. The 7 boreholes 15-75 feet (5 – 25 m deep) are all equipped with windmills as no engines are in operation on the farm, and water gravitates through approximately 15 miles (25 km) of pipeline from center reservoirs at the boreholes to other water points. The 1.5-inch (40mm) plastic pipes are buried into the Kalahari sand and are almost maintenance free.

Often, the first limiting factor to keep large herds is to provide sufficient drinking water. Here, the speed of recharge into the drinking troughs is even more crucial than the amount of water stored in the respective reservoirs.

At Springbockvley, the recharge into the troughs is facilitated by gravity feed from the reservoir through short 2-inch (50 mm) diameter pipes, with a ball valve that is situated outside the kraal to prevent damage to it and subsequent leakage. Except during a few weeks of the year when wind is scarce, all water reservoirs tend to be permanently full. This way the recharge is fast enough to have 2,000 sheep and 300 cattle get their water fill comfortably around two troughs each about 9 feet (3 m) long.

Apart from cattle and sheep, approximately 350 springbuck, 100 oryx and varying numbers of kudu and warthog are utilizing what grows on Springbockvley. They are being used for farm owners and personnel’s consumption of venison, or by professional hunters when needed to control numbers. Still, oryx and springbuck have increased substantially in the last 10 to 12 years, after being freed from restriction to only a few “game camps” Ekkehards father had limited them to. They now can roam freely and are easily changing through the gates that are open whenever camps are not occupied by sheep and cattle. Oryx sometimes allow even to be moved between camps, sometimes done in order to allow the camps to recover before or after planned grazing by the herds.

In addition there are duiker, steenbok, aardwolf, bat-eared fox, and other CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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small animals as well as predators like African wild cat, cape fox, and the caracal and black-backed jackal, which are ever controversial for sheep farming. The movements of the latter are closely monitored, and whenever they move between the sheep, they are trapped and killed. Still the lamb losses to black-backed jackal and other small predators are accepted to be approximately 5% annually. Although Ekkehard and Judith would prefer co-existing with jackals, they carry on with the current practice, for the time being, to keep losses down.

prepare the soil surface for the coming rainy season. With the current strategy to move through each cell in approximately 180 days, two grazing selections are done before the next rains are due. So the animals get fresh grazing after 10 to 12 days for almost six months. After this, there is a fair expectation that for the second selection, there will be some new food in the camps other than only the leftovers of the first one: pods and leaves that have dropped, and new shoots on perennial grasses or new leaves on the bush after winter. These moves are assumed to be fast enough for the rumen flora not to have to adjust to new conditions with every move to a new camp, but there is still ample “pressure” on the animals in the big herds to force utilization of less valuable plant material.

Livestock and Vegetation

Planning for Peace of Mind

Springbokvley Farms

continued from page nine

Realizing that well planned grazing and herd dynamics can release At the beginning of the non-growing season, the amount and quality increase production potential, Ekkehard and Judith try to address the of available forage is assessed by taking two to three samples in each camp factors involved with the helpful tool of the weakest-link analysis, where with the so-called STAC method. This gives a fair and insightful indication no effort whatsoever will advance the dynamic process of growth and of both the amount of grazing available and the condition of the soil. The production if it does not strenghten the one link in the chain of production results from the samplings are calculated into total forage available in each that is weakest at the time. camp, each cell and ultimately on the whole farm. These calculations can For the time being, Ekkehard and Judith see the limiting factor for be cross-checked using the “square estimation,” where the area is visualized progress on Springbockvley still in the ability of the animals to perform on and judged that would supply one cattle with sufficient feed for one day. the resources present on the farm. Another factor for limited animal Both Ekkehard and Judith feel confident to build the plan for the whole condition on Springbockvley is the very low species diversity of the grasses, animal production for the rest of the year on this early assessment. Although where 90% of the grasses are comprised of only two relatively narrow leaved it takes some discipline to do the sampling (as it takes most of two to three species: the perennial Large Bushmangrass (stipagrostis uniplumis) and days walking in the veld), the result is most rewarding knowing early in the the annual Bushmangrass (schmidtia kalahariensis). year what to expect and seeing the outcomes of all the decisions and With all the emphasis on grazing management over so many years, processes of earlier actions. there is still no easily evident increase in diversity. This fact challenges the With the amount of forage assessed, a non-growing season including suitability and the efficiency of just these grazing strategies that were thought a drought reserve of together 300 days is planned for; assuming from to have shown some improvement in the species composition simultaneously. experience that first growth only occurs at the end of January. Additionally, As the biodiversity concern, though, is currently not the weakest link in the 4-6 Animal Days per Acre (ADA) or (10 to 15 ADH) worth of grazing are chain of production, it could easily develop into it when, for example, a loss planned as a left-over and to serve as a risk margin for faulty assessment. in animal condition is experienced, while assuming there would be sufficient If uneaten, this plant material will later be available for trampling down to fodder available. Judith and Ekkehard see an opportunity to make up for the form the vital soil cover that is needed to build soil structure and helps to low diversity with detailed planning to make sure that each of the few grass keep soil moisture losses to evaporation and temperatures low. At the end species are present in different age stages. So here, the relevant aspect of the first rotation, a controlling assessment is done to confirm the amounts responsible for the composition of a good diet would be more the respective of fodder available for the second part of the non-growing season. This state of growth of the existent few grass species and less the presence of a sampling is not done with the same attention to detail as earlier, but variety of species. comparing it with the calculation of what the animals have hitherto taken The diversity and the nutritional value of the existing grazing on out, gives another confirmation, and with it peace of mind.

Springbockvley are closely related to the condition and the production With the use of this plan, Springbockvley has over the years seen a capability of its animals. In principle, animals and grazing have developed continually increased carrying capacity even with those years in between, together, so grazing can only be improved together with and through the where less than a third of the average rainfall was recorded (1995, 1996 and animals that live on it—and vice versa. Hence, selecting for cattle and sheep 2007) and some drastic temporary de-stocking had to take place. As is the that grow well under the prevailing circumstances is the current strategy to case in 2010 on Springbockvley, stocking almost 35 lbs/acre (40 kg/ha) of improve profitability of the farm, rather than following the ever present lure live animal mass (See Figure 1) in the Kalahari Sandveld is much higher to “buy better genes.” But these animals can only convert the existing resources into production—and at the same time improve the conditions for weight gain—when the grazing planning provides for time on both sides: for the animals to be able to select a balanced diet, and for the plants to have sufficient time for recovery.

The average grazing period in the growing season is between four to six days per camp, provided fast growth is observed. These moves also need to take into account other factors of the farming reality: size of camps, quality and quantity of forage and soil condition in each camp, breeding seasons, vaccinations, weaning, marketing, special treatment of specific areas and problem species.

For each non-growing season, a new schedule of animal moves is drawn up. Generally, grazing periods of seven to twelve days are Figure 1: Rainfall and Stocking Rate on Farm, Springbockvley 1994 – 2010 planned to combine the needs of the animals with the need to 10

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March / April 2011

Nguni Cows with Calves

Flock of Damara Sheep

than most of the farms in the region are able to achieve.

Added to a detailed, careful and, at the same time, ambitious grazing plan, a very important tool for grazing management is animal impact. By combining the five herds into four large herds, the animals move at higher density and hence closer to each other while grazing and walking to the water point. This tends to stimulate the animals to eat less selectively and at the same time they tend to place their hooves more randomly to trample down brittle plant matter that is so valuable for growth and soil.

What is important for the trampling effect, though, is in the first place the amount of hooves per area and not the type and weight of the specific animals. On the soft soils of Springbockvley, the sheep do a tremendous work. Only when it comes to breaking down the harder perennial grasses, it gets obvious that animal density alone is still not enough to really make a difference here. Higher numbers, even tighter densities of cattle and a change in the behavior of the animals to instill herd effect, where the hooves are placed randomly and with force, brings about new levels of healthy “disturbance” to the soil.

In the average 400-acre paddock/camp (160 ha), the calculated density may be averaging 6 animals/acre (15 animals/ha), with extremes of 3 animals/acre (7 animals/ha) in the 825-acre (330-ha) camp to 20 animals/acre (50 animals/ha) for the 113-acre (45 ha) camp. In reality, though, tighter densities are well achieved, as the animals are not evenly spread over the whole camp but usually tend to bunch together.

Decreasing Inputs In 1989 Ekkehard took over the livestock from his parents which included 250 Simmentaler cattle and 3,000 Karakul sheep. By 2010 breeds changed and the number has risen to about 700 Nguni cattle and 5,000 Damara sheep.

Due to ever falling prices and the fact that he had no passion for the Karakul business, he soon introduced Damara rams to the Karakul flock, building on the adaptation of the existing ewes. The Damara sheep fit well into the prevailing system, because they are adapted to the climatic and nutritious circumstances of the area and have good mothering abilities.

Similar to the Karakul, they have strong herd instincts and hence function well in big flocks. In addition to the rams introduced during the first years,

Ekkehard occasionally bought some small Damara flocks to speed up the replacement process.

With the cattle, he realized that the large framed Simmentaler struggled to perform optimally in the low diversity and Kalahari sandy conditions, as soon as stocking rates increased. For the first few years he crossbred with Afrikaner bulls, but he did not get the desired results of maintained reproduction. Although the crossbred animals gained acceptable carcass grades at the abattoir, they were still large framed and not able to use the available fodder efficiently—the higher the stocking rate, the longer the inter-calving periods became, resulting in persistently underutilized perennial grasses.

In 1994 Ekkehard introduced Nguni bulls to the mixed SimmentalerAfrikaner herd and over the last 15 years the animals developed into a compact medium frame size. These genetics allow for more numbers of animals to be fed on the available land with maintained reproduction, which adds up to significantly increased production and hence profitability.

Even with the above mentioned bigger herds and animal densities, cattle and sheep do not bother each other in the same camp. They rather perfectly complement each other not only in their daily routines but also in their diet and their grazing habits. While the sheep come to the water point early mornings and late afternoons and quickly return into the veld, the cattle hang around the water point to drink, rest, and ruminate characteristically from late morning until early afternoon.

A very important part of the sustenance of the sheep (being browsers to an extent of 60%) are leaves and other parts of bushes, as well as herbs and small leaves and spikes of grasses, while the cattle as graziers mainly eat more fibrous grass plants with a small addition of the sheep’s diet. This means that even while being fully stocked with sheep, there would still be space and fodder for cattle to produce on, and vice versa. Due to the fact that the habitat on Springbockvley consists of a limited number of bushes, and contains a lot of open grassland, a number of 5,000 sheep currently seems to be the upper limit to be supplied with sufficient amounts of suitable fodder.

Farming with these two indigenous breeds—Ngunis and Damaras— achieves remarkable production per hectare at Springbockvley. The annual meat production since 2000 is on average 9.5 lbs/acre (11 kg/ha) with a maximum of 13 lbs/acre (14.8 kg/ha) in 2003. The meat production constitutes more than one third of the stocking rate since 1995, which compares well even with areas of higher production capacities.

Breeding Well-Adapted Animals But it was not just the mere change to the smaller indigenous breeds that brought about this difference. It would not have had the mentioned success if it had not been combined with a strict and consequent selection of animals from within the herd. Ekkehard and Judith aim for healthy, low input production abilities under the given environmental circumstances.

The first priority in the cattle selection process is high and early fertility— meaning every cow has to give birth at the latest at an age of 2.5 years and from then on every year. Animals who fail to reach this objective will be culled. Calving ease, mothering abilities, milk production, growth of the calves and phenotypical characteristics—according to Lasater’s motto “form follows function” – are other criteria that are included when selecting heifers or culling cows. With two calving periods per year of summer (November to January) and winter (May to July), the system of serving heifers at around 18 months can easily be achieved.

With the sheep a very low input management is maintained. Rams are kept in the flock throughout the year. Only in years with low fodder quantities or qualities will they be taken out to prevent lambing between September and December. Female lambs are not actively weaned, which provides for a secure CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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Regenerating Native Grasslands—

Grassland Regeneration

Research from Australia

by Graeme Hand

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tipa Native Grasses Association (Stipa) was formed in Australia in 1997 by farmers to promote the profitable management and use of native grasses in agriculture. Many of these farmers had developed or adopted management practices that regenerated native grasslands on their properties. The practices discovered and developed by farmers to regenerate native pastures have been proven to work in many environments and have been scientifically corroborated (Badgery et al.

2008, Thapa 2010). These practices have been confirmed by Stipa members throughout NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria, with trials underway in Tasmania. The management practices had the following in common: • They promote 100% ground cover by growing leaf litter and trampling this litter onto the soil.

• They manage this litter cover with impact/disturbance so that it is composting/ decomposing and providing germination sites.

Examples of these practices are Planned Grazing (Savory & Butterfield 1999) and Pasture Cropping (Cluff & Seis 1997).

Influence of Management The impact of unmanaged grazing on native grasslands in the Wannon country southwest of Horsham was recorded by John Robertson in 1853.

When he first arrived, Robertson counted 37 different species of perennial native grasses on his run. Sheep were often difficult to find in the long growth. Within two years, Robertson observed that bare ground caused by overgrazing gave way to numerous deep erosion gullies across his land, accompanied by the emergence of saline springs (Billis and Kenyon 1930, quoted in Jones 2009).

It follows that if unmanaged grazing was the cause of this degradation then managed grazing of native grasslands may reverse this degradation.

The following description is the background for on farm trials to learn how

REFERENCES Badgery WB, Seis C and Millar GD. 2008.

Pasture cropping—integrating livestock and crop production for sustainable management of rangelands in south east Australia. In: “Proceedings of the XXI International Grassland Congress and VIII International Rangeland Congress,” Vol 1, pp 432-437.

Cluff D and Seis C. 1997. Should farmers and graziers be garmers and fraziers? In: ‘Landcare Best Practice’ released at the Landcare Changing Australia National Conference, Adelaide, September 1997. pp 22-23.

Jones C. 2009. Submission to the Victorian Environment and Natural Resources committee, Inquiry into soil carbon sequestration in Victoria, No 17.

Langford CM, Simpson PC, Garden DL, Eddy DA, Keys MJ, Rehwinkel R and Johnston WH. 2004. Managing native pastures for agriculture and conservation. NSW Department of Primary Industries.

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to regenerate native grasslands using livestock.

As discussed, conditions need to be met for grassland regeneration. The first one is creating the soil surface condition of a stable decomposing litter layer with germination sites. The second is the presence in the immediate environment of a viable seed bank.

Soil Surface Condition The soil surface conditions that promote this germination and establishment are complete litter cover and composting/ decomposing litter at the soil surface. These soil surface conditions promote water infiltration and storage while at the same time inhibiting weeds (Tongway & Hindley 2004). Disturbance/impact of the soil surface is also required to create germination sites and to trample litter from fully recovered grass plants onto the soil surface.

The litter must be composting/decomposing to cycle nutrients (Tongway & Hindley 2004) and to increase the fungal content which allows native grasses to access nutrients. The management of the trial sites is based around increasing fungal biomass which creates the conditions that favor the germination and establishment of native grasses and has been shown to be a reasonable “. . . indicator of the overall health of the soil ecosystem” (McDonald et al. 2010).

Even where practices have deleted soil biological activity, management can quickly recover the required biological activity for regeneration. “. . . These soils are not biological deserts. They are far from dead and retain all of the essential components of healthy functioning ecosystems. All that is required is that they are treated a little differently.”

(McDonald et al. 2010) Stipa’s experience is that this is the primary, low-cost, low-risk technique to regenerate native grasslands. “. . . Without fungal-dominated soils, it can be very expensive, almost impossible to grow the native grasses” (Ross 2009).

These conditions can be created by livestock being pulsed at high density with long recovery periods. Management can recruit native grasses from very low populations ranging from 20-30% (Thapa 2010) to less than 5% of native grasses (Zollinger, pers. comm. 2010) to bare ground in cropped areas (Stipa, Newsletter 2009).

Lindsay E. 2009. South Coast Conservation Management Network Newsletter, Issue 12, July/August 2009, page 4, CSIRO Entomology.

Lindsay E and Cunningham S. 2008. Land use effects on soil nutrient enrichment: risks for weed invasion. CSIRO. Lunt ID. 1990. The soil seed bank of a long-grazed Themeda triandra grassland in Victoria, School of Botany, LaTrobe University.

Lunt ID. 1997. Germinable soil seed banks of anthropogenic native grasslands and grassy forest remnants in temperate south-eastern Australia.

Plant Ecology 130: 21-34.

McDonald D and Rodgers D. 2010. Soils Alive!— Understanding and Managing Soil Biology on Tasmanian Farms. Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania.

Pannell DJ, Marshall GR, Barr N, Curtis A, Vanclay F and Wilkinson R. 2006. Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders, http://cyllene.uwa.edu.au/ ~dpannell/dp0502.pdf.

March / April 2011

Ross B. 2009. (Farmer commenting on training) In Practice—a Publication of Holistic Management International, September/October 2009, Issue No. 127, page 18.

Thapa R. 2010 Low cost guide to boosting perennial grasses. Prograzier, Winter 2010, page 19, Meat & Livestock Australia.

Thapa R. 2010. Low cost rehabilitation of perennial grass pastures by managing seedling recruitment. Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Charles Sturt University.

White R, Murray S and Rohweder M. 2000.

Pilot analysis of grassland ecosystem, World Resources Institute.

Natural temperate grassland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain. Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

Zollinger R. 2010 pers. comm., Victorian DPI, Hamilton.

Seed Bank

Weed Control

Stipa has been involved with over 400 trials where the soil surface conditions described here have been created and have not seen a site where a viable native grass seed bank has not been present. Previous seed bank work in Victorian grasslands identified numerous species that were not present in the vegetation (Lunt 1997). Similar work in New South Wales found “. . . a viable soil seed bank was present at all sites, and it was much larger than expected . . . There is much greater diversity in the seed bank than was detected in the vegetation surveys” (Lindsay & Cunningham 2009).

Management clearly influences what seeds germinate and establish.

“Just as past and current management practices impact the current standing vegetation, they also appear to impact the capacity of seed bank to germinate” (Lindsay 2009).

The conditions that need to be created for most annual weeds to germinate and establish in a pasture or grassland is overuse of the perennial grasses—sometimes described as overgrazing (Savory & Butterfield 1999).

The management described creates healthy, suppressive soils and highly competitive perennial grass root systems that out compete annual weeds when they try to germinate and establish. This is described by Roshan Thapa (Thapa 2010) where weed control is provided by management of perennial grasses to increase competition. “. . . However through proper management, mature desirable perennial grasses have a role to play in managing weeds in permanent pastures” (Bowcher 2002). “Maintaining effective competition from useful perennial grass pasture species means that invasive weeds such as . . . thistles and annual grasses can be restricted to a minor component of the sward (Kemp 2006)”. Badgery et al. (2008) found that N. trichotoma (serrated tussock) seedlings could be prevented from establishing if the herbage mass of desirable perennial grasses was maintained above .6 tons DM/acre (1.5 tons DM/ha) through summer.

Trial The first step to learning how to regenerate native grasses is to develop a small trial that receives the management described (i.e. high density pulse with animals and then long recovery and then repeat). Initially long recoveries are required to enable the native grasses to germinate and establish, especially where soil conditions are not optimal. “...The native plants are growing and flowering much slower than most of the exotic species” (Lindsay 2009). For most environments, a recovery around 12 months will create the conditions described. As this is dependent on soil, aspect, season, etc., these conditions can only be created by close observation and monitoring. The key is to produce the following soil surface rather than sticking to a formula of impact and recovery.

Profitability

Soil Surface Description

It is clear that in areas where introduced pastures do not persist for greater than 10 years, at a very high level of carrying capacity, that well managed highly productive native pasture is a low-risk, resilient, profitable option. “Highly productive native pastures can perform similarly well in the more productive parts of the landscape and even in less favourable positions.

They also provide less financial risk, allow lower management input, and provide higher resilience to variable rainfall, low fertility and acid soils. These native pastures can be substantially more profitable than introduced pastures sown on unsuitable land and performing below expectations.” (Landford et al. 2004).

The soil surface between the perennial grasses can be described as: “Extensive decomposition-litter has at least three layers or stages in decomposition ranging from fresh material on top to 20 mm (1 inch) or more of comprehensively humified (very dark, with no identifiable fragments) at the soil-litter interface; mineral soil may have significant organic darkening in excess of 10 mm (.5 inch)” (Tongway & Hindley 2004).

Graeme Hand is a Holistic Management Certified Educator who lives in Branxholme, Victoria, Australia and is the CEO of STIPA: The Native Grasses Association in Australia. This article was excerpted from the STIPA newsletter. He can be reached at 61-3-5578-6272 or graeme.hand@bigpond.com.

Living Soils in Tasmania

I

by Graeme Hand

n May 2010, I was lucky to be invited to present at a “Living Soils” workshop in Oatlands in Tasmania. This was a great workshop organized by NRM South (a natural resource management organization in Australia). Other presenters included Dr. Christine Jones and Col Seis. The workshops went very well and a lot of the farmers were very interested in the potential of regenerating native grasses for grazing.

The most surprising thing I learnt was that many of the summer growing (C4) native perennial grasses are not present or have not been recorded in Tasmania. During breakfast discussions and walks Christine and I discussed possible reasons why this group of grasses that are present in southern Victoria are not obvious in Tasmania.

One idea of Christine’s that fits the evidence and is my favored explanation (although, as Christine said, hard to prove) was that as the last ice age retreated, people planted/transferred summer growing (C4) native perennial grasses from further north, but failed to get them established in Tasmania before Bass Strait was flooded.

Another idea that I have been working on and thinking about is

based around the physiology of the only summer growing perennial native grass that is recorded in Tasmania—kangaroo grass (Themeda australis)—which is a lower successional grass that has the ability to survive large periods of over rest by being able to form growth points half way up its stem. This adaption to management is also present in grasses like bent grass (Agrostis spp.) and many of the Aristida species, an example of which is three awn grass or brush wire grass (Aristida behriana).

Over rest kills higher successional, more palatable, species because the old plant material chokes their ground level growth points. Grasses, unlike trees and bushes, generally cannot drop their leaves and coevolved with herbivores. So this theory is based around losing the large herbivores earlier in Tasmania than in southern Australia.

If this theory is correct, then there still should be seeds of other summer growing grasses in the soil seed bank. It would be good to see some work done on what is the viable soil seed bank on multiple areas to confirm that these grasses are not present at all in Tasmania. Grasses that I am thinking of that should be in Tasmania are red grass (Bothriochloa macra) and other higher successional natives grasses such as box grass and Warrego grass (Paspalidium spp.).

Number 136

Land & Livestock

13

Green Grass and Grasshoppers

by Megan and Andrew Mosley

I

n 2010 we had some interesting weather on are farm, Etiwanda, near Cobar, New South Wales, Australia. By August we had 12 inches (300 mm). We typically receive somewhere around 16 inches (400 mm) annually, so as you might well imagine the property is looking a picture. I wouldn’t have to tell any fellow farmer what a sight it was for sore eyes after 10 long years of below average rainfall!

On the 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) of fenced and planned grazed country we had an explosion of soft seeded, broad-leafed, native perennial grasses, and they were thick and vigorous. It is worth noting that we have never sown any of these native seeds. They have been sitting quietly in the soil waiting for the right conditions to be created for them to germinate—and it seems they are happy, because they are bouncing out of the ground all over the place!

We have been working for the last 10 years to give our country every opportunity to catch the rain that falls through planned grazing, animal impact, and time for the plants to recover. We are blown away by how the native grasses responded to this rain—it seems the more it rains the cleverer

Questions & Answers

we get! Jokes aside, we have had tests done on our current carbon sequestering ability. On the area we have developed, we are sequestering five times more carbon than we are emitting.

Along with all that rain and grass came about a bazillion grasshoppers!

We had a bus group here the other day of about 35 folks and the grasshoppers were particularly busy that day – one bloke on the bus asked us, “What are you going to do about the grasshoppers?” and well, Andrew, not being a fan of chemicals replied, “Don’t worry about them mate, just keep fencing and grow more grass!”

We are continuing to work on regenerating the country on Etiwanda each year and every year we reap the benefits through more feed, healthier land and happier people! We have endless opportunities in this western country. For $30-$40/ acre (47-100/ha) (on licensed country) you can take almost completely unproductive country, covered in woody weeds, growing next to no grass and suffering from very hard capped soil, and turn it into a bounty of healthy natural grasses providing more feed right now than our stock can eat!

For more information on the Mosley’s property, Etiwanda, visit www.etiwanda.com.au. This article was excerpted from the August 2010 issue of the STIPA newsletter.

Have a question or comment about an article or issue we’ve covered in IN PRACTICE? We want to hear from you! Send comments to IN PRACTICE, HMI, 1010 Tijeras Ave. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 or hmi@holisticmanagement.org or 505/843-7900.

If You Grow It, Don’t Hay It! From Tony McQuail to Greg Judy

Q

: I enjoyed your article in #135 IN PRACTICE about stock piling and winter grazing. We are in the snowbelt in Ontario on the east side of Lake Huron in eastern Canada. I’ve heard that once the snow is over the eyes of the cattle when they have their head down grazing they aren’t going to do a great job of grazing.

The idea of having my hay stock piled rather than baled is an attractive one. I’m curious, does your ground usually freeze before it gets snow covered and what depth of snow do you get through the winter? How often are the cattle likely to graze a piece during the summer growing season and still have an adequate stockpile to graze in the winter? Do you have any hay fields or do you buy hay?

I’m working on a paradigm shift here, Greg, but at the same time I don’t want to leave my cattle with nothing to eat next winter or lots to eat but buried and flattened under three feet (1 m) of snow.

A

: Yes, it can freeze rather deep here, but with a nice heavy sward of grass covering the soil surface, it is very easy to step in a tread-in. It is much harder to get in a pigtail, which we do not use. Any area devoid of litter or grass is impossible to get a post in without a cordless drill. Even a very thin layer of litter on the ground after grazing be enough to keep the ground from freezing.

The most snowfall at once that we have grazed through is 24 inches (600 mm). Our cattle did fine. We had a giant sward of stockpiled green fescue waiting on them under the snow. It is the only grass that stays green most of the winter as long as it is protected by snow or a heavy sward.

We have no buildings for our livestock. We do have strips and blocks of timber scattered across our farms. There are also valleys that they can get down into to escape the wind. The cold does not bother our stock much; the wind is another story! We do not backfence in the winter as

the cattle rarely go back on the grazed strips and it also allows them escape cover from storms.

We never graze a farm more than 3 times a year. We have found that we can grow more grass and have healthier plants with longer recovery periods. It also allows us to put down more litter because some of the plants are over mature. This litter is not a waste because for every leaf trampled, we get two back.

We never bale hay on our farm. If pastures get mature ahead of us and we don’t need it, we skip it and go on. Later in the summer, we can come back and make a withdrawal from it if needed. We buy 8 days of hay for the winter. If we don’t need it, we unroll it with our homemade bale unroller powered by an ATV in the early spring.

I am not sure how well your grass will stand up under three feet of snow. I would definitely stockpile as much as I could on a portion of your farm and see what happens next winter.

Tony McQuail can be reached at mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca and Greg Judy can be reached at gtjudyhighdensity@live.com.

14

Land & Livestock

March / April 2011

Springbokvley Farms

finances and grazing etc. needs to take place, but monitoring and controlling

continued from page eleven need to show where aims are not met. Consequently,

place in the instituted hierarchy of the home flock that keep them bonded and calm. Only the male lambs are sorted out after they have weaned themselves from their mothers, to be kept in a separate flock until they are ready for sale. Once to twice a year, young ewes that did not reproduce within two years of age are culled, as well as all those ewes that have not reconceived or lost their lambs. As male lambs are not castrated, there is a broad opportunity to select for their own flock for breeding rams. Due to the size of the breeding flock, there is no concern for inbreeding.

The aim is to produce meat from the available natural resources with the least possible external input. Supplementation is kept to a minimum, and the sheep get no licks at all, as the design of the lick troughs that supply the cattle prevent sheep from reaching its contents. Through their browsing of valuable bush components the Damara sheep sufficiently meet their mineral necessities.

The cattle are given minimum amounts of a self-mixed lick to compensate for mineral shortcomings in the growing season and to stimulate digestion of the dry grasses holding high fiber contents during the winter. Licks contain phosphate, salt and sulphur in summer; and salt, urea, molasses and maize bran in the non-growing season.

With the ongoing strength of grazing planning and selecting adapted cattle, Ekkehard and Judith are planning to simplify lick composition, reduce lick amounts, and replace urea through natural protein resources.

This is not only to reinforce the use of the natural resources but also with regard to the vision to possibly switch to certified organic meat production in the near future.

Low-Stress Animal Handling Working the animals in kraals or in the crush is kept to a minimum at Springbockvley. All the cattle have to go through the crush once a year though for compulsory vaccinations. Furthermore, the cattle are only worked through the handling facilities for weighing, branding and ear tagging before being transported and for branding, castrating and dehorning of calves. No routine of pregnancy testing or scheduled animal weighing exists, neither are general treatments like dosing, other vaccinations and parasite control needed. During calving season, new born calves are regularly ear tagged to be linked to the tag number of the mother.

With the sheep, there is almost no work except the regular sorting and tagging three to four times a year. They are in fact never treated, except for individual cases, when ticks cause obvious pain and injury.

The grazing management makes this possible, whereby staying in a camp for not longer than 5 to 14 days (depending on temperature and moisture) and not returning earlier than 60 days, breaks the breeding cycles of internal and external parasites and the animals can handle the remaining pressure.

The bigger the herds, the more difficult they are to handle.

As a result, it gets more important to find ways and means to practice calm and firm animal handling; and to make sure all involved parties do not get frightened and stressed. For this reason, Ekkehard and Judith, together with their staff, practice low stress stockmanship after attending courses to learn these techniques. This involves all the tasks to be done with the animals and not against them, while refraining from using sticks, shouts, frightening gestures, and pressure.

a big part of the farming routine work consists of controlling tasks. A lot of time is spent checking border fences and all herds are visited and checked for well-being, efficient water and lick supply at least every second day.

Apart from the high time input in the above mentioned management tasks, the setup on the whole farm is consciously kept as simple as possible, clear, and efficient. Moreover, Ekkehard and Judith try to be self sustaining in as many ways as possible and to rely on regenerative energies. All the boreholes are equipped with windmills that assure low maintenance. The electrical power is supplied from an efficient solar system. Their garden supplies a variety of vegetable and fruits for fresh consumption and for preservation for the rest of the year. They bake their own bread, hunt springbuck and oryx for fresh and smoked meat or salami. Judith processes milk from their cows into yogurt and different cheeses.

Given their tight focus on low-cost production, the farming business at Springbockvley is highly profitable. Ekkehard and Judith were able to achieve a continually increasing farming income with almost stable levels of farming expenses that do not make up more than approximately one third of the income since 2000 (See Figure 2).

More than once, the living and managing approach at Springbockvley have been depicted by fellow farmers as being simple or even minimalist.

Ekkehard and Judith take this as a compliment and they enjoy the fascination of the efficiency and of this way to live with and through agriculture.

They are involved in different projects and actions to support sound agriculture and are happy to be an integrated, active part of the Namibian community. They feel confident in “riding the front wave” of some pioneering steps that are currently undertaken around sustainable agricultural progress. They have carried the responsibilities for the Namibia Centre for Holistic Management for many years and participate actively in different mentorship programs. They are also founding and board members as well as lecturers at the Agricultural Training Centre Krumhuk, and they are part of a lively management club, and are always open to discussion and dailogue and available for personal consultations.

Ekkehard and Judith value doing most things together, as they consider their relationship (together with the closeness to their friends and Ekkehard’s two sons) their primary source of joy and motivation.

In essence, farming might be a profession like any other. But sustainable, holistic, or organic approaches in agriculture often require even deeper knowledge and more skills around the processes of the whole ecosystem and the understanding of their interconnectedness.

Judith Isele & Ekkehard Külbs live near Windhoek, Namibia and can be reached at: 00264 – (0)62 – 581 606 or iselkuel@iway.na.

Keep It Simple A big part of the daily life at Springbockvley is to keep the feedback loop running, as not only the planning for healthy

Figure 2: Farming Expenses as Part of Farming Income on Farm, Springbockvley 1991 – 2009 Number 136

Land & Livestock

15

Balancing on the Slippery Slope of Grazing to Perfection continued from page three

PH Power No one really knows what the p stands for (power or potential, probably) but the H stands for Hydrogen. The scale runs from 0 on the acidic side to 14 at the alkaline end. A healthy cow should produce urine with a pH of 7. If she has been eating too much protein, her dung will be toward liquid and her pH high. In this condition she is unable to absorb and utilize the minerals she takes in, which can create a mineral deficiency that supplements do not address because she is not absorbing them. If the cow’s urine pH is right, minerals offered cafeteria style are taken up in the right amount to be healthy, the immune system works, parasites are shed, growth and conception is maximized.

Diet Selection Selection is the key to hydrogen-protein balance. The cow instinctively chooses the right thing to eat—if it is available. The energy in a plant consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Energy is released when carbohydrates burn (metabolize). Hydrogen or energy is strongest in the tips of the leaves, with protein being closer to the roots. Oxygen is the controlling factor in how well the energy burns. Ketosis is trying to burn hydrogen in the absence of oxygen. Protein is not a good source of energy because the ammonia gas gets trapped in the rumen and can cause bloat. If the urine pH is above 7, you have evidence of protein being used as an energy source.

Cafeteria-style minerals allow each individual animal to supplement its diet by taking in the right amount of each mineral without having to take in too much of another as they might do in a prepared mix. They will seek what they are missing from the soil/plant offerings and return some to the soil to gradually improve the mineral balance there.

When in animal performance mode—two months before calving to the end of breeding— maximum selection is key to getting animals fat and healthy. Stocking rate determines the amount of selection. Either give the animals more space in which to choose their diet, or move the herd through the paddocks faster. For calving, select a large area with plenty of selection for your 45 days of calving, then move the mamas in a manner that allows them to come back for their calves and allows calves to go under the single-wire electric fence.

Ian calves mid-summer and weans his calves at 10 months, then moves them through the 16

IN PRACTICE

paddocks about 20 days or so after the mothers, who are moving fast in animal performance mode. This gives the calves a diet of re-growth leaves with maximum energy and protein, with less fiber. Although it is intentionally overgrazing plants (re-biting before complete recovery), it is acceptable if total recovery occurs after the calves have moved through.

Full recovery for grazed grasses yields: relaxed grasses that don’t feel stressed enough to send up a seed stalk; lots of broad-leaved, dark green vegetation; longer periods in the vegetative state; longer, deeper roots; and more bulk.

Animal Performance or Landscape?

Controlling trample to graze ratios can build soil and soil fertility to support increased biomass.

Animal performance mode allows a cow to selectively eat what she wants, so is high on the graze end of this teeter-totter. Wide paddocks allow cattle to spread out a bit for more graze than trample and greater selection for the animals.

When not in animal performance mode, you can put your animals into landscape mode. Here, they trample more than they eat—up to 90% trample—in order to put any remaining standing grasses in contact with the soil, banking all that carbon for next season’s forage. Think energy in = energy out plus at least 10% “interest.” To get the highest trample ratio, use long, thin paddocks with the cattle moving through 4 or 5 abreast.

Send them up one lane and back the next. Make an enclosure to pen a dense herd for an hour or two, then watch that spot after recovery to get an idea what high stock density can do in that location.

Bacteria to Fungi The bacteria:fungi ratio can be manipulated by the amount of green grass trampled versus brown. The green grass litter tends to favor bacteria where as the brown will favor Fungi.

Monoculture grassland tends to be bacteria dominated. To move this to incorporate legumes it needs to have some Fungi in it. For native grass species in America to establish they need more Fungi than for legumes.

Bacteria sequester nitrogen, make the mucous necessary to glue soil particles together, and are the base of the soil food web’s food chain. A teaspoon of productive soil generally contains between 100 million and 1 billion bacteria. That is as much mass as two cows per acre.

Fungi provide water, nutrients and minerals to their host plant, have the enzymes necessary to digest woody fibers, and make glomalin, another soil particle glue so useful in retaining carbon it may be one of the measurements used in carbon

March / April 2011

Ian Mitchell-Innes trading (google “glomalin” for a fascinating education in soil carbon).

Both bacteria and fungi are necessary and desirable for healthy soils, and altering the balance between the two can favor some plant communities over others. For more information you can read Elaine Ingham’s Soil Biology Primer at the NRCS website http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/ concepts/soil_biology/soil_food_web.html

Monitoring—The Daily Habit Monitoring is an important part of grazing to perfection. Monitoring animal performance is pretty much a daily habit. What would be your first indication that the animals are becoming stressed? Dipping litmus paper into a puddle of a cow’s urine monitors the urine pH. Pink eye and other ailments can be a sign the pH has been incorrect for a while. If the cattle want to move before normal, they are not getting optimum nutrition. Check the rumen fill on the left side just in front of the hip bone—it should be full. Check the coat—it should be shiny and lying flat. If the hairs are dull, rough and/or standing up, the animal has been stressed in some way for three months or so. Excessive flies are a sign of a less than ideal condition. The dung should be neither too firm nor really runny. Failure to conceive tells you to look hard at management practices.

You should also monitor the land for full recovery of plants before re-grazing. Spacing between plants should be getting smaller, grasses should be broad-leafed and dark green, and litter should be covering the space between plants.

Ian emphasizes that form follows function.

The function of an animal is to perform in the environment into which it is born. The size of a cow needs to be determined by the amount of energy capture in the forage.

To learn more about HMI’s 2011 Ian Mitchell-Innes Course Series, read the ad on page 22 or call HMI at 505/842-5252.

From The Board Chair

W

hy does HMI do the things it does, rather than other things? How do we decide what grants to write, who to collaborate with, what program content to generate, etc? Perhaps even more importantly, how do we decide what not to do, even if asked? These are questions that I have been grappling with ever since joining the HMI Board several years ago, and they are the core questions of the practice of Holistic Management.

Our statement of purpose is to advance the worldwide practice of Holistic Management. This gives us a possible constituency of 7 billion people on 6 continents. Our mission is to improve the health, productivity and profitability of land such that the land provides a sustainable livelihood for those who depend on it.

Even if we restricted our efforts to those managing land-based enterprises in the world's grasslands, that is still a huge range. What, then, is the best way to advance Holistic Management, given our financial resources, expertise, intellectual property, and community? Of course, no one who is involved with HMI is satisfied just to advance Holistic Management. We all want to do that in the most impactful, meaningful way that we can. We want to change the world sooner rather than later. Utilizing the Holistic Management framework, we continually review our holistic goal, and employ the testing guidelines and questions to keep us on track.

Root cause, weak link, marginal reaction, and gross profit are all considerations in our decisions, now more than ever before.

There are a lot of decisions to be made to translate the statement of purpose into the daily activities of the organization and make the progress we all want to see. Some of those decisions belong to the Board, but many are operational and the responsibility of the CEO. As we have worked through improving this process, we have tried to determine where and how to draw those lines, so that responsibilities are clear and there is accountability for execution of the plans that we make. In general, it is the Board's responsibility to provide the vision for the impact that the organization is going to have in the world, and it is the CEO's responsibility to determine how best to accomplish that and then to execute. As Peter Holter, HMI CEO, likes to say, it is the responsibility of the Board to decide where the train is going, but his responsibility to decide how to get us there.

Historically, HMI has used a strategic planning process as part of this decision-making.

Improving this process and making sure that we

can monitor and re-plan are important goals of the current Board. We worked on improving the process in 2010 and will continue in 2011. We hope that by 2012, we will be tweaking rather than creating and that roles and responsibilities will be well understood. We are using a rolling strategic plan, which means that we are always looking 3-5 years down the road, with annual modifications. Here is how the process is currently working: 1. At the July Board meeting the CEO and staff presented an overview of the strategic plan for 2011, including areas where they wanted Board input. Main areas of the plan are feefor-service consulting, non-profit projects, data and documentation, and infrastructure, along with geographic focus and who we consider our customers. There was a day at the Board meeting dedicated to a discussion of the plan, with a focus on making sure that the Board concentrated on where we are headed, without diving into the what and how that are the responsibility of management. This is an ongoing struggle for our Board. We enjoy the details of programs and issues facing the organization, but we challenged ourselves to remain at a high level during this discussion, and mostly succeeded.

2. Between the July and November meetings, staff incorporated input from the July discussion, and added detail and metrics to the plan for 2011.

3. At the November meeting, the Board approved the plan for the following year, along with a budget driven by and reflecting that plan.

4. Staff will report quarterly to the Board on performance, referring to the metrics included in the plan. The goal is to make sure that we are monitoring performance versus expectations in a way that is efficient for staff and Board. If necessary, we can re-plan at any point during the year.

5. At the July Board meeting we will begin the process again for the 2012 strategic plan.

I personally am excited about our focus on: • Contract Services: providing contract consulting such that these fee for service contracts will help support our non-profit activities • AgTown Turnaround: a comprehensive program to help revitalize depressed agricultural communities—using the triple bottom line and the Holistic Management Framework • Beginning Women Farmers: designed to help the growing segment of women famers become successful • Kids on the Land: a continuation of this successful “day on a ranch” program for elementary school children • GenNext: introducing Holistic Management to the college community • Outreach Programs: growing and supporting our Holistic Management network Making sure that the Board spends its time on getting the high-level vision right and does not get involved in operational issues is one of my highest priorities as Board Chair. I am confident that we are going to get better as this over the next few years, and that improvement here can dramatically increase our impact, as we become more focused, targeted, and thoughtful in what we do and how we do it.

Number 136

IN PRACTICE

17

Video Review

by Ann Adams

Occam’s Grazer All Things Being Equal, A Holistic Approach is Best Raincrow Film ccam’s Grazer is a recently released DVD by Raincrow Film that visits 4 holistically managed farms: the Hutton Ranch, Matheson Farms, Mitchell Bay Farm, and Thundering Hooves Ranch. The interviews with these farmers and ranchers, as they chronicle their journey as producers who now have new tools and new results because of Holistic Management, is uplifting and inspiring. Each producer has a slightly different take on what has been changed for them and how their quality of life, profitability, or land health has changed. You get to hear from different types of operations (large and small) owned in some cases by women as well as men, and see a diversity of species raised with those products marketed in a variety of ways.

That perhaps is what I enjoyed most about the film—it demonstrates how different each farm or ranch is and yet how the lack of a holistic decision-making process had been holding each of these operations back.

The universal need for, and positive results from, learning Holistic Management reinforces the understanding that we are all capable of improving our lives and land if we desire to do so. Certainly we have the tools available to us.

The title is a play on “Occam’s Razor,” which is a philosophical/scientific principle that suggests we should tend towards simpler theories until we can trade some simplicity for increased explanatory power or results. With Occam’s Grazer we have the opportunity to see how “all things being equal, a holistic approach is best.”

Simply put, the primary change each of these producers experienced was a change in management practices, through the different goal setting, testing, and planning processes within Holistic Management. Their land base and assets were the same after their training as it was before. It was what they did with those resources through their management after the training that made all the difference. Several of the producers imply they wouldn’t have remained in business if it hadn’t been for Holistic Management.

The purpose for this documentary is to show that a small but growing group of farmers, ranchers and land managers are challenging both environmentalists and traditional ranchers to change the debate on overgrazing and land degradation. They make a compelling case that cattle and other grazers can and do have a positive impact on the environment and provide a sustainable income for farmers and their communities.

Additionally there is a special feature which includes an interview with Craig Madsen of Healing Hooves about his vegetation management business using goats. He does a great job of explaining the value of multispecies grazing.

This video provides an introduction to Holistic Management and holistic grazing as well as many powerful insights, philosophies, and useful ideas from people who are using the framework and practices every day.

Whether you want to learn more about Holistic Management or you want to share these concepts with others, Occam’s Grazer is a very accessible and thought-provoking documentary.

To purchase Occam’s Grazer for $19.97plus s/h, view the ad on page 22 or go to http://www.raincrowfilm.com/store.

O

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T he news from holistic management international

people, programs & projects

New Staff—HMI is excited to announce the addition of several new staff members Sandy Langelier, Director of Communications & Outreach: Sandy joined HMI in January of 2011 as the Director of Communications & Outreach.

She’s an accomplished marketing, communications, sales, and business operations manager with over 20 years of experience in creating, delivering, and measuring demand creation and brand awareness programs for Information Technology, Energy, and Nonprofit organizations.

After spending way too many years stuck in traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sandy relocated to Albuquerque in pursuit of cleaner air and more dramatic sunsets. When not slaving over a hot communications plan, she enjoys spending time with her teenage daughter and two yappy dogs.

Frank Aragona, Director of Research and Development: Frank Aragona is from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Frank brings a mixed background of entrepreneurship, scientific research, and international experience to HMI. He graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1998 with a major in History and Political Science. Shortly thereafter, Frank spent a year in Istanbul, Turkey teaching English in a small, private school. Frank then attended Michigan Technological University in pursuit of a Masters of Science in Forestry. From 2000 to 2003, Frank worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia in a small agricultural village named Tipa Tipa, located in the Mizque Province of Cochabamba. In 2004 he created a small consulting company with the mission of integrating Information Technology and sustainable agriculture.

Frank’s interests and expertise include: Geographic Information Systems, permaculture, silviculture, agroforestry, mushroom cultivation, gardening, woodworking, soil science, and Holistic Management.

Carrie Nelson, Education Associate: Carrie has been the Education Associate for HMI since December of 2009. Her background is primarily in the banking and mortgage industry though she is currently studying Graphic Art and Web Design at CNM. Migrating from the beach to the desert, she was raised in Huntington Beach, Corpus Christi, and Albuquerque. Her favorite hobbies and interests include traveling and serendipitous adventures, hiking, water sports, studying the arts and history, family, and being active in her church.

UNITED STATES

Certified Educators

NORTH DAKOTA

The following Certified Educators listed have been trained to teach and coach individuals in Holistic Management. On a yearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with HMI. This agreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives and to seek out opportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management.

For more information about or application forms for the HMI’s Certified Educator Training Programs, contact Ann Adams or visit our website at: www.holisticmanagement.org.

◆ These educators provide Holistic Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent. associate educators provide * These educational services to their communities and peer groups.

* Tim McGaffic

P.O. Box 1903, Cave Creek, AZ 85331 808/936-5749 • tim@timmcgaffic.com CALIFORNIA

Richard King 1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 707/769-1490 • 707/794-8692(w) richard.king@ca.usda.gov * Christopher Peck 1330 Gumview Road, Windsor, CA 95492 707/758-0171 Christopher@naturalinvesting.com ◆ Rob Rutherford CA Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 805/756-1475 • rrutherf@calpoly.edu COLORADO Cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 hminfo@wholenewconcepts.com * Katherine Belle Rosing 22755 E. Garrett, Calhan, CO 80808 970/310-0852 heritagebellefarms@gmail.com GEORGIA Constance Neely 1421 Rockinwood Dr., Athens, GA 30606 706/540-2878 • clneely@earthlink.net

* Larry Dyer

1113 Klondike Ave, Petoskey, MI 49770-3233 231/439-8982 (w) • 231/347-7162 (h) dyerlawr@msu.edu MONTANA

Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle, Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862 kroosing@msn.com * Cliff Montagne P.O. Box 173120, Montana State University Department of Land Resources & Environmental Science, Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079 • montagne@montana.edu

Mae Rose Petrehn P.O. Box 1802, Ames, IA 50010 • 913/707-7723 treadearthintometaphor@gmail.com MAINE Vivianne Holmes 239 E Buckfield Road Buckfield, ME 04220-4209 207/336-2484 vholmes@umext.maine.edu

NEW HAMPSHIRE ◆ Seth Wilner

24 Main Street, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) seth.wilner@unh.edu

◆ Ann Adams

Holistic Management International 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org Kelly Boney 4865 Quay Road L, San Jon, NM 88434 575/760-7636 • kboney@plateautel.net Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/867-4685, (f) 505/867-9952 kirk@rmsgadzia.com

MICHIGAN

* Ben Bartlett N4632 ET Road, Traunik, MI 49891 906/439-5210 (h) • 906/439-5880 (w) bartle18@msu.edu

PENNSYLVANIA

NEW YORK Erica Frenay 454 Old 76 Road, Brooktondale, NY 14817 607/539-3246 • efrenay22@gmail.com

Peggy Sechrist 106 Thunderbird Ranch Road, Fredericksburg, TX 78624 (C)830/456-5587 • peggysechrist@gmail.com WASHINGTON Sandra Matheson 228 E. Smith Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226 360/398-7866 • mathesonsm@frontier.com ◆ Don Nelson Department of Animal Sciences 116 Clark Hall, Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164-6310 509/335-2922 • nelsond@wsu.edu Doug Warnock 1880 SE Larch Ave., College Place, WA 99324 509/540-5771 • 509/856-7101 (c) dwarnock@charter.net WISCONSIN

TEXAS Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy. 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 glosson@caprock-spur.com Peggy Maddox P.O. Box 694, Ozona, TX 76943-0694 325/392-2292 • westgift@hughes.net

Larry Johnson, 608/455-1685 W886 State Rd. 92, Brooklyn, WI 53521 LarryStillPointFarm@gmail.com * Laura Paine Wisconsin DATCP N893 Kranz Rd., Columbus, WI 53925 608/224-5120 (w) • 920/623-4407 (h) laura.paine@datcp.state.wi.us

INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA

NEBRASKA Terry Gompert P.O. Box 45, Center, NE 68724-0045 402/288-5611 (w) • tgompert1@unl.edu Paul Swanson 5155 West 12th St., Hastings, NE 68901 402/463-8507 • swanson@inebraska.com Ralph Tate 1109 Timber Dr., Papillion, NE 68046 402/932-3405 • Tater2d2@cox.net

NEW MEXICO IOWA

OREGON Jeff Goebel 52 NW Mcleay Blvd., Portland, OR 97210 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com

Jim Weaver 428 Copp Hollow Road, Wellsboro, PA 16901 570/724-4955 • jaweaver@epix.net

UNITED STATES ARIZONA

Wayne Berry 1611 11th Ave. West, Williston, ND 58801 701/572-9183 • wberry@wil.midco.net Joshua Dukart 2539 Clover Place, Bismarck, ND 58503 701/870-1184 • Joshua_dukart@yahoo.com

Judi Earl “Glen Orton” 3843 Warialda Rd., Coolatai NSW 2402 judiearl@auzzie.net • 61-2- 0409-151-969 George Gundry Willeroo, Tarago, NSW 2580 61-2-4844-6223 • g.gundry@bigpond.com Graeme Hand 150 Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 3302 61-3-5578-6272 (h) • 61-4-1853-2130 (c) graeme.hand@bigpond.com * Helen Lewis P.O. Box 1263, Warwick, QLD 4370 61-7-46617393 • 61-7-46670835 helen@insideoutsidemgt.com.au Dick Richardson Bonnie Doone 1497 Little Plains Road, Boorowa NSW 2586 61 0 263853217 (w) • 61 0 263855284 (h) 61 0 429069001 (c) • dick@bdynamic.org Brian Wehlburg Pine Scrub Creek, Kindee, NSW, 2446 61-2-6587-4353 brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au Jason Virtue P.O. Box 75, Cooran, QLD 4569 61-2- 07 5485 1997 jason@spiderweb.com.au CANADA Don Campbell Box 817 Meadow Lake, SK S9X 1Y6 306/236-6088 doncampbell@sasktel.net

Linda & Ralph Corcoran Box 36, Langbank, SK S0G 2X0 306/532-4778 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net

* Allison Guichon

Box 10, Quilchena, BC V0E 2R0 250/378-4535 allison@guichonranch.ca Blain Hjertaas Box 760, Redvers, Saskatchewan SOC 2HO 306/452-3882 bhjer@sasktel.net Brian Luce RR #4, Ponoka, AB T4J 1R4 403/783-6518 lucends@cciwireless.ca Tony McQuail 86016 Creek Line, RR#1, Lucknow, ON N0G 2H0 519/528-2493 mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca Len Pigott Box 222, Dysart, SK, SOH 1HO 306/432-4583 JLPigott@sasktel.net Kelly Sidoryk P.O. Box 374, Lloydminster, AB S9V 0Y4 780/875-9806 (h) 780/875-4418 (c) sidorykk@yahoo.ca

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INTERNATIONAL KENYA Richard Hatfield P.O. Box 10091-00100, Nairobi 254-0723-506-331; rhatfield@obufield.com Christine C. Jost International Livestock Research Institute Box 30709, Nairobi 00100 254-20-422-3000; 254-736-715-417 (c) c.jost@cgiar.org * Belinda Low P.O. Box 15109, Langata, Nairobi 254-727-288-039; belinda@grevyszebratrust.org MEXICO Ivan A. Aguirre Ibarra P.O. Box 304, Hermosillo, Sonora 83000 52-1-662-281-0990 (from U.S.) 51-1-662-281-0901 Rancho_inmaculada@yahoo.com.mx

AFFILIATES NEW ZEALAND John King * P.O. Box 12011 Beckenham, Christchurch 8242 64-276-737-885 succession@clear.net.nz

Usiel Kandjii P.O. Box 23319, Windhoek 264-61-205-2324 • kandjiiu@gmail.com Colin Nott P.O. Box 11977, Windhoek 264/61-225085 (h) 264/81-2418778 canott@iafrica.com.na Wiebke Volkmann P.O. Box 9285, Windhoek 264-61-225183 or 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@mweb.com.na

HRM of Arizona Norm Lowe 2660 E. Hemberg Flagstaff, AZ 86004 928/214-0040 loweflag@aol.com

SOUTH AFRICA Jozua Lambrechts P.O. Box 5070 Helderberg, Somerset West Western Cape 7135 27-83-310-1940 • 27-21-851-2430 (w) jozua@websurf.co.za Ian Mitchell-Innes P.O. Box 52 Elandslaagte 2900 27-36-421-1747 blanerne@mweb.co.za

UNITED KINGDOM NAMIBIA

ARIZONA

* Philip Bubb

32 Dart Close, St. Ives, Cambridge, PE27 3JB 44-1480-496-2925 (h) +44 7837 405483 (w) philipbubb@onetel.com

Colorado Branch For Holistic Management® P.O. Box 218 Lewis, CO 81327 www.coloradoholisticmanagement.org Cindy Dvergsten, webmaster 970/882-4222

Central NY RC&D Phil Metzger 99 North Broad Street Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-3231 ext 4 phil.metzger@ny.usda.gov

T h e I a n M it c h e ll- I n n e s

Tour 2011

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PENNSYLVANIA Northern Penn Network Jim Weaver, contact person 428 Copp Hollow Road, Wellsboro, PA 16901 570/724-4955 • jaweaver@epix.net

TEXAS NEW YORK

Managing Wholes Peter Donovan PO Box 393 Enterprise, OR 97828 541/426-5783 www.managingwholes.com

~ FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO ~ www.holisticmanagement.org or call 505/842-5252

Oklahoma Land Stewardship Alliance Kim Barker, contact person 35878 Cimarron Road Waynoka, OK 73860 580/732-0244 580/732-0244 oklsa@pldi.net

COLORADO

NORTHWEST

March 29-31. . . Paicines Ranch, California 3-Day Class Introduction and Grazing Overview April 1 . . . . . . . Paicines Ranch, California Consulting Field Day May 2 . . . . . . . . Ford Ranch, Texas May 3-5 . . . . . . 3-Day Class Introduction, Financial, and Grazing Overview May 9 . . . . . . . Bear Creek Ranch, Texas May 10-12 . . . . 3-Day Advanced Grazing Techniques May 14 . . . . . . . Phelan Ranch, Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA

HMI Regional Texas Office Peggy Cole 5 Limestone Trail, Wimberley, TX 78676 512/847-3822 pcole@holisticmanagement.org West Station for Holistic Management Peggy Maddox PO Box 694, Ozona, TX 76943 325/392-2292 westgift@hughes.net

T H E

M A R K E T P L A C E

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For consulting or educational services contact:

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Number 136

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T H E

M A R K E T P L A C E

CORRAL DESIGNS

Dr. Sandra Matheson CE in Holistic Management and Raincrow Film LLC Present

Resource Management Services, LLC Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 505-263-8677

Occam’s Grazer

Pasture Scene Investigation

kirk@rmsgadzia.com

(DVD) Includes Special Feature:

Healing Hooves

Holistic Management Training

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

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

27 corral layouts. $55.

Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59.

Send checks/money order to:

This DVD is a must for anyone wanting to learn more about using livestock to heal the land!

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

To order the DVD: http://www.raincrowfilm.com/store info@raincrowfilm.com

Holistic Goal Setting and Facilitation Services Are you ready to make the most out of your resources?

Do you need help dealing with critical human resource issues?

Has change taken you by surprise?

HMI provides skilled, objective facilitators to help you achieve your goals!

BENEFITS OF HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT FACILITATION INCLUDE:

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• Elicits key motivators and values 505/842-5252 or from the group for more effective email Tracy at tfavre@ group decision making holisticmanagement.org.

• Improves communication • Improves conflict resolution • Creates a safe environment to have crucial conversations including generational transfer • Creates common ground from which to make management decisions and plans

22

IN PRACTICE

March / April 2011

Holistic Management® Certified Educator Training Program

970/229-0703 www.grandin.com

April 13-16, 2011 Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC)

Sonoma County, California for further information on this course, please contact Brock Dolman at brock@oaec.org

Remember, profitable agriculture is not about harder work.... It is about making better decisions! visit RMS, LLC website www.rmsgadzia.com

Want to make the world a better place?

Interested in teaching others about Holistic Management?

HMI’s Certified Educator Training Program is an individualized two-year training program developed to produce excellent Holistic Management facilitators, coaches, and instructors. Tailored to meet your needs and interests.

TO LEARN MORE, CONTACT: Ann Adams • hmi@holisticmanagement.org • 505/842-5252 http://www.holisticmanagement.org/n7/Certified_Educators/CE9_ITP.html

T H E

M A R K E T P L A C E

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Visit: www.wholenewconcepts.com Email: hminfo@wholenewconcepts.com Call Cindy at 970/882-4222 for a free consultation!

Cindy Dvergsten, is a Holistic Management® Certified Educator, offering you over 15 years experience in training, mentoring, and facilitation; 30 years in natural resource management; and a lifetime of experience in diversified farming.

Offered By Whole New Concepts, LLC P.O. Box 218 Lewis CO 81327

HMI GRAZING PLANNING SOFTWARE • Save Time!

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4865 Quay Road L San Jon, NM 88434 575/760-7636 kboney@ plateautel.net

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healthy land. sustainable future.

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID ALBUQUERQUE, NM PERMIT NO 880

a publication of Holistic Management International 1010 Tijeras NW Albuquerque, NM 87102 USA return service requested

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

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT MAIL ORDER EMPORIUM Subscribe to IN PRACTICE

Software

_ A bimonthly journal for Holistic Management practitioners

Holistic Management® Financial Planning (single-user license) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $149 Grazing Planning software (single-user license) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100

Subscribe for 1 year for only $35/U.S. ($40/International) 2 years ($65/U.S.; $70/International) 3 years ($95/U.S.; $105/International)

_ Gift Subscriptions (same prices as above). _ Special Edition: An Introduction to Holistic Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5 _ Compact Disk Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$14 _ Bulk subscriptions available.

Pocket Cards Holistic Management® Framework & testing questions, March 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4

Planning and Monitoring Guides

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_ Policy/Project Analysis & Design August 2008, 61 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17

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Books & Multimedia

_ Aide Memoire for Grazing Planning August 2007, 63 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17

Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision-Making,

_ Second Edition, by Allan Savory with Jody Butterfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50 _ Hardcover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $55 _ One month rental of CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 _ Spanish Version (soft). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $40 _ Holistic Management Handbook, by Butterfield, Bingham, Savory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30 _ At Home With Holistic Management, by Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20 _ Holistic Management: A New Environmental Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10 _ Improving Whole Farm Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13 _ Video: Creating a Sustainable Civilization—An Introduction to

_ Early Warning Biological Monitoring— Croplands April 2000, 26 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15

_ Early Warning Biological Monitoring—Rangelands and Grasslands August 2007, 59 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17

_ Land Planning—For The Rancher or Farmer Running Livestock August 2007, 31 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$15

Planning Forms (All forms are padded – 25 sheets per pad) _ Annual Income & Expense Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17 _ Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 7 _ Livestock Production Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17 _ Grazing Plan & Control Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17

Holistic Decision-Making, based on a lecture given by Allan Savory. (DVD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30

_ Stockmanship, by Steve Cote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 _ The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook, by Shannon Hayes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 _ The Oglin, by Dick Richardson & Rio de la Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 _ Gardeners of Eden, by Dan Dagget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 _ Video: Healing the Land Through Multi-Species Grazing (DVD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30 _ PBS Video—The First Millimeter: Healing the Earth (DVD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 TO ORDER

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Shipping and handling costs to the right are for U.S. media mail only.

Call 505/842-5252 for all other shipping rates.

up to $15: $16 to $35: $36 to $50: $51 to $70: $71 to $90: over $91:

add $ 5 add $ 6 add $ 8 add $ 9 add $10 add $12