healthy land. sustainable future. NO V E MBER / DECE MBER 20 11
From the Board Chair
NUMBER 1 40
WWW .HO LIST ICMANAGEMENT.O RG
INSIDE THIS ISSUE by Sallie Calhoun
SOIL FERTILITY
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t the July 2011 meeting the HMI Board of Directors adopted a new holistic goal. Our statement of purpose now says, “We educate people to manage land for a sustainable future.” I am excited about this because in my experience the creation of a well thought out statement of purpose and holistic goal is the most important factor in moving from where you are to where you want to be. At the same meeting we reviewed our strategic planning process and our monitoring of key performance indicators. Our goal is to make sure that everything the organization does ties clearly back to the holistic goal, and that we have good answers to the question, “Are we moving towards our goal?” In “HMI’s mission is to this article I want to share some background on why and how we created our new holistic goal. educate people to When I attended my first HMI Board meeting, 6 or 7 years manage land for a ago, I remember a lively discussion during the development committee meeting. The topic was “the elevator speech.” What sustainable future.” was the 15-second answer when someone asked, “What does HMI do?” Though the discussion was animated and fairly lengthy, there was really no good answer that day. In fact, for years I have struggled with this question. I have practiced a lot of different versions of my own answer on airplanes headed to Albuquerque over the years, and staff has developed a variety of answers. They were called mission statements, vision statements, etc. Over time, a number of us on the Board came to believe that one of the reasons we could not get “the elevator speech” was related to the organization's holistic goal and the questions around whether our statement of purpose was current with our evolving organization. To some of us, the holistic goal seemed too broad and general. We are a small organization, and we have to be very thoughtful about how we can make an impact in the world. When we tested decisions toward our holistic goal, it often seemed as if too many actions could pass, and it did not give much guidance on priorities or focus. It could go wherever the interest of the moment took us. We all understand that holistic goals change with time. They are living documents, meant to be used on a daily basis. This is why the HMI bylaws require that we review the holistic goal every year. We had routinely done the review, but there was always tension between folks who wanted to start from scratch to create a potentially more useful holistic goal, and people who found the existing one useful and did not want to spend the time trying to go through this exercise with so many people. Even the small review often proved exhausting and not particularly useful. In 2010 we launched an effort to strengthen governance at HMI. What are the responsibilities of Board and staff? How do we measure progress? How do we maintain consistency and focus? How do we plan? We decided that a clear, useful holistic goal owned by the Board as much as the staff was the first step in the process. To get there we hired HMI Certified Educator Kirk Gadzia, who has helped many groups over the years with goal creation. We spent a day at our March 2011 meeting with the entire board and many staff members working on the holistic goal. It was hard, and there was a point at about 1:30 in the afternoon when I hung my head, and thought, “We aren't going to get there.” About that time, Kirk kicked into high gear and we had a completed holistic goal two hours later. It was exciting and it united us. We could all see how the forms of production supported the statement CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Photo by Neil Dennis
The vital role of healthy soil in sustainable agriculture is a topic Dr. Patricia Richardson has spoken of for many years. To read an excerpt from her presentation about “Living Soil” and learn about the importance of the critters in the soil, turn to page 16.
FEATURE STORIES GenNext: Montana State University’s Home on the Range SIERRA DAWN STONEBERG HOLT . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Plant Utilization and Multi-species Grazing on the Serengeti FRANK ARAGONA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Beginning Woman Farmer Profile: Spring Chicken Farm JESSIE SCHMIDT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Book Review—Switch ANN ADAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Kids on the Land: A Day on the Farm— Making Connections for Kids VAL & DAVID POGSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Whole Farm Planning with Holistic Management— Making A Difference at Sunshine Farm CINDY DVERGSTEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
LAND and LIVESTOCK Confessions of a Worm Rancher— Soil Life Exploding At Judy Farms GREG JUDY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Carbon That Counts DR. CHRISTINE JONES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Living Soil—Why We Want to be Outnumbered DR. PATRICIA RICHARDSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Q&A on Animal Performance BEN BARTLETT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
NEWS and NETWORK Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Certified Educators/Affiliates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
healthy land. sustainable future.
Holistic Management International exists to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future.
From the Board Chair of purpose, and how the quality of life supported what we all wanted. Not everything everyone wanted was included, but we all bought completely into what was there and believe that we captured the important elements. Our new holistic goal is now up on our website
Peter Holter . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chief Executive Officer Tracy Favre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chief Operating Officer Kelly King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chief Financial Officer Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE and
Director of Education Sandy Langelier . . . . . . . . Director, Communications
and Outreach Frank Aragona . . . . . . . . . . Director, Research and Development Tom Levine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Senior Development Advisor Peggy Maddox . . . . . . . . . . Director, Kids on the Land Program Donna Torrez . . . . . . . . . . . Manager: Administration & Executive Support Peggy Cole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Project Manager, Texas Mary Girsch-Bock . . . . . Grants Manager Brady Gibbons . . . . . . . . . . Field Advisor Valerie Grubbs . . . . . . . . . Controller Carrie Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . Education Associate
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sallie Calhoun, Chair Ben Bartlett, Past Chair Gail Hammack, Vice-Chair John Hackley, Secretary Christopher Peck, Treasurer Lee Dueringer Clint Josey Jim Parker Kelly Sidoryk
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by: Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: hmi@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org COPYRIGHT © 2011
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and we are sharing it here in this issue. We are moving towards being a more focused organization, with better alignment between staff, Board, and programs. And, I am finally happy with my “elevator speech”—HMI educates people to manage land for a sustainable future.
Holistic Management International 2011 Holistic Goal
STAFF
Ron Chapman Judi Earl Jim McMullan Jim Shelton
continued from page one
Mission Statement: HMI educates people to manage land for a sustainable future. Belief Statements: • People Count • Healthy Land is Essential • Money Matters • It takes all 3!
Quality of Life / What we Value (We want to): • Be Accountable • Be Innovative – Creative • Be Customer Driven • Strive for Excellence • Have Financial Stability • Have Meaningful Work • Achieve our Mission • Create and Honor Partnerships / Collaboration • Help Create Healthy Productive Land
Forms of Production (We must produce/create): • Effective (Policy) Planning and Monitoring Systems—To Plan and Achieve our Mission • Effective and Measurable Educational Programs (profit and non-profit) • Effective Management of Assets: 1. Financial 2. Social 3. Physical • Practice and Encourage the evolution / development of the Holistic Management process • Building (Internal / External) Community through (respectful and clear) communications • Excellent (Internal and External) Customer Service • Impact on the Land and Ways to Prove It • Targeted and Effective Marketing • Board and Staff Development • Effective Fund Raising (Strategy and Implementation)
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Future and Current Resource Base (We must have): • Satisfied Customers • Demonstrable Track Record • Board and Staff Committed to Mission and Holistic Goal • Network and Community Successfully Practicing Holistic Management • Stable and Expanding Network of Financial Supporters • Effective Maintenance of Physical Assets within Our Current Circle of Influence • Good Community Relations • Financial Sustainability
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL Whole under Management The Decision Makers: • Holistic Management International Board of Directors • Holistic Management International Staff Vetoers: None Resource Base: People: Certified Educators, practitioners, clients, suppliers, HMI Educational Advisory Council, donors, partners and potential collaborators; state, regional and international affiliates and supporters. Land & Physical Assets: The equipment/furnishings within HMI Headquarters and any other offsite assets listed on our inventory sheets. Money: What we can generate from our own consulting, training, and management services, publications and products; oil and gas royalties; what we can raise from donors, foundations, and government grants; what we can earn from other appropriate investments.
GenNext Montana State University’s Home on the Range by Sierra Dawn Stoneberg Holt, PhD
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y family, like many other native range ranchers in the American West, often finds itself threatened by proponents of the Remove-Humans-and-let-Nature-Take-its-Course approach to land management. I found myself disillusioned by all the old negative faces of this conflict. I wanted something new and positive.
My answer was a college course that I called Home on the Range: History, Ecology, and Politics in the West. This spring I was able to run a semester-long course under Montana State University’s Agriculture Department. Using the internet from my remote ranch home, I was able to meet with a dozen committed, enthusiastic students twice a week for seminar discussions of a complex reading list. I challenged them with essays about their own personal convictions, decision-making in the face of real life problems, and analysis of real rangeland data. Their final projects were philosophical papers that they presented to their classmates for discussion. Each reading assignment included a chapter from Allan Savory’s Holistic Management. As we worked our way through a semester of history, ecology, and philosophy, they were able to gradually develop an understanding of holistic thinking and how it applied to the many opinions, experiences, and beliefs that we explored. My students were from Montana, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Texas, Nebraska, New York state, Wisconsin and Japan. The variety of experiences and backgrounds was a definite asset to our discussions. Once the semester was over, I invited the students to join my family on the ranch. Among us, we have advanced degrees in wildlife biology and veterinary medicine (my parents), mathematics (my husband), and botany (myself). The ranch has been home to six generations of my family, makes its own household power from solar and wind, and has a hand-milked dairy cow. Many students, in their initial essays, subscribed to the doomsday fatalism of mainstream ecological thought. One essay stated, “I have come to terms over recent years with the fact that we have passed the point of return on some of our most serious environmental issues.” As the year progressed, students developed more hopeful, goal-oriented opinions. When we discussed the subjective, aesthetic aspect of goals, one student suggested, “I don’t think it matters what it looks like; it depends on how healthy it is . . . A brittle environment can look bad, but if it’s healthy, it’s healthy. It’s not all about beauty.”
Another stated, “One person might think that a golf course in the middle of the desert looks beautiful, but to other people it looks destructive.” We discussed how results on the land weren’t predetermined based on race or culture, but arose from the decisions, choices, and goals of individuals. One student stated, “They respected the land better, I think, just like anyone else could have done. Some people chose to do that in the past and some people didn’t, and you can see the effects of it now.” The course was invigorating and uplifting. When I asked for their opinions, one student wrote, “This was a good class and your open mindedness was refreshing.” Another concluded, “I would like the people who helped contribute to this class to know that I have not ever had a class that answered so many real world questions without ever pressing particular views upon me. It’s worth
a lot to me now and to my future.” The excursion to the ranch was also an inspiring experience. I led a series of hikes designed to show students actual plant, animal, and human interactions. I got them on the ground looking at living plants, the soil surface, and the local watershed. Between hikes, they had a chance to ride horseback, tour the ranch’s solar and wind power production, help with general ranch chores, hear family stories, and discuss the world with the ranch’s opinionated inhabitants. I’m hoping to make Home on the Range a regular offering for Montana State University’s Agriculture Department. However, the department has made its approval contingent upon outside donors providing a $6,000 standard salary for my efforts. This year’s Home on the Range was made possible by RANGE Magazine’s Range Conservation Foundation, Montana Stockgrowers Association, Phillips County Livestock Association, and Phillips County Cattle Women. Anyone that is interested in learning more about this course or contributing to its continued existence can contact me at sierra@nemont.net.
My husband (far right) is explaining vegetation and range monitoring to two of my students. By taking them to one of our actual monitoring sites, we were able to show them years of our own data and pictures. The students were able to actually see plant species and the soil surface and how they had changed over time. Our little daughter was an enthusiastic participant. Number 140
IN PRACTICE 3
Plant Utilization and Multi-species Grazing on the Serengeti by Frank Aragona
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his article is the second in a multi-part series on unmanaged grasslands, ecosystem processes, and the African Serengeti. We continue to look at the research of one of the world’s top behavioral ecologists, Samuel J. McNaughton. McNaughton’s research sheds light on the proportions of utilization and the effects of multiple ungulate species harvesting biomass from the same resource base.
Utilization is a key factor that determines the spatial geometry, nutrient cycles, and successional trajectory of grassland ecosystems. In light of what McNaughton’s research has shown us about natural cycles in unmanaged grazing ecosystems, the question arises: What utilization patterns are observed in nature? McNaughton provides utilization estimates through a variety of statistical tools: …estimating consumption by comparing peak biomass inside fences and terminal biomasses outside fences would have led to the conclusion that 92% of aboveground production was consumed…the annual average consumption as a proportion of actual primary production in Serengeti grasslands exceeded .5 [50%] at 19 of the 28 study sites; some exceeded that value by a substantial margin. The most lightly grazed Serengeti site, with 17% of aboveground primary productivity consumed by herbivores, was well above the values from most terrestrial ecosystems. The maximum proportion consumed was .94 [94%]. And: Similar estimates for the Serengeti region would indicate that consumption averaged 92% of aboveground production. A more realistic estimate is the ratio of consumption to actual net productivity, which averaged .66 [66%] with a median of .71 [71%]. Clearly there is significant variability in utilization patterns, with extraordinarily high values at some spots and relatively low values at others. The average and mean may mask this variability; nevertheless, in general utilization is high, well over 50% of total aboveground productivity. Deriving a utilization rule of thumb from this data is not necessarily recommended. However, what is apparent is that animals are selecting for 4
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high utilization in some areas and lower utilization in others. Animal behavior in response to a changing environment is a strong factor that drives uneven utilization on the landscape. Not surprisingly, grazing ungulates in the African Serengeti also prefer green forage; migratory patterns on a vast, unfenced landscape allow animals to graze green forage almost exclusively: “green forage made up a relatively constant proportion of consumption. [Approximately] 80% over a broad range of green forage on offer.” In modern-day ranching operations, hay is usually shipped in from irrigated pastures or distant biomes to simulate similar feeding behavior. One must remember that in ecological terms, the Serengeti is a multi-dimensional system. Grazing herds are not monotypic; that is, a variety of grazing ungulates coexist on the landscape, each one seeking advantage through different feeding strategies. McNaughton notes this in his observation of the synergies between zebra (an equine species) and wildebeest (a ruminant species): The appearance of the sward changed substantially during the grazing succession. Prior to wildebeest passage, the grassland had little apparent structural differentiation. After they passed, ungrazed patches stood out as tall clumps. That structure facilitated zebra foraging in a way heretofore undescribed, as I observed zebras walking from tall patch to tall patch to feed. Grazing by zebras had a leveling effect on the vegetation, and the regrowth following their passage produced a structurally homogenous grazing lawn of high biomass concentration. These interactions also shed light on how utilization occurs over time and space in a multispecies environment. As McNaughton observed: During their passage through the stand, wildebeest consumed 156 g/m2, 76% of the initial standing crop, in a few hours. The zebra herd
November / December 2011
subsequently consumed 21 g/m2, or 44% of the remaining forage. Overall, the two grazers consumed 87% of the initial standing crop in a 4-d [day] period. To the extent that there is excess soil moisture, such stands will regrow after grazing. The following table, taken directly from the referenced article, displays the extent to which multi-species environments are subjected to different grazing pressures in the course of a year.
A study of this table reveals seasonal changes in grazing preferences for each species. It also shows that nature has filled various niches with the preferential feeding behavior of different species, thereby allowing for a more complete trophic food web and full-spectrum utilization of available biomass resources. McNaughton’s observations force us to reevaluate our own approach to land management, raising some difficult questions in the process. Can we simulate natural ecosystem processes through the use of multi-species herds? Does multi-species grazing in a ranching environment result in a more effective utilization of available biomass resources? Will multi-species grazing increase the nutrient density of the grassland, creating a dense and nutrient rich “grazing lawn”? And can human ingenuity be used to apply similar grazing patterns that are based on nature’s model? Source: McNaughton, S.J., Ecology of a Grazing Ecosystem: The Serengeti. Journal: Ecological Monographs, 55(3) 1985, pp. 259-294.
Beginning Woman Farmer Profile Spring Chicken Farm by Jessie Schmidt
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own a narrow paved road, on the way to the transfer station in Topsham, Vermont, Betsy Mattox is in her fourth year of managing Spring Chicken Farm. “Being on the way to the dump has its advantages,” laughed Mattox as we toured her property. Despite her initial reservations about the property, the Saturday morning traffic has been a boon to her spring seedling sales, which are a small but significant part of her evolving farm business. For Mattox, every year managing her farm has been different, as she has sought to find a sustainable model that suits her personality and makes room for other things in her life. Last year’s newest difference is her baby girl, Claire, born in December. Much of Mattox’s planning has been influenced by her desire to have children and manage her farm independently. Her husband is a carpenter and sawyer, who helps when needed but isn’t interested in working full-time on the farm. As Mattox has honed in on her goals and the quality of life she aspires to, her niche farm has taken shape and is taking off. Mattox began working on farms as a teenager, gaining new perspective with every experience. The farmers she has worked for have been some of her greatest mentors. However, marketing and business know-how was something she missed being employed on educational and start-up farms. She regrets never working on a large, profitable farm where she could have experienced effective business management first hand. When she came to Vermont four years ago, she knew she was ready to manage her own operation and decided to learn business and marketing skills on the fly. From the beginning, Mattox wanted to see how small her operation could be. While she admires large, sustainable farms and their capacity to serve larger markets, she also knew that was not her style. In her first two years, she operated a small Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) business, serving her local community. During that time she started experimenting with growing broiler chickens. With this new enterprise, she found, not only an eager market for her high quality poultry, but also a venture that suited her personality. In her third year, Mattox gave up all market gardening except a small Thanksgiving share CSA to compliment the heritage breed turkeys she was raising. While she never planned to be a poultry farmer, she has found that this enterprise is tailored to her management goals and the quality of life she desires. As with her seedling enterprise, Mattox appreciates the focused sales window for her products. The animals are off the farm by winter which frees up time for other things. All of her chickens are pre-sold and secured with a deposit from her customers. Most customers come to the farm to pick up their orders on slaughter day, relieving Mattox from the necessity of freezing and storing her product. How does she market her products? “My town has a really good gossip train,” Mattox remarked. And nearly everyone in
town drives by on Saturday mornings. An extensive mailing list, good signs and flyers have all assisted in her focused community marketing. To gain new skills in farm business management, Mattox was accepted in 2010 to a course in Holistic Management offered by UVM Extension through an USDA/NIFA grant that HMI received. Whole Farm Planning for Beginning Women Farmers is a 10-session course that facilitates creating a values-based mission for the farm and teaches participants about financial management, business planning, marketing and monitoring land health. For Mattox the most important aspect of this class was networking with other beginning women farmers. Feeling isolated on her farm was balanced by the opportunity to share experiences and learn from other course participants. Mattox has faced challenges in starting her business but sees many opportunities as well. Mattox jumped right into managing her own farm when she came to Vermont. In retrospect, she wished she had taken more time to prepare her land, therefore reducing the time she has spent fighting perennial weeds. She also thinks she
would have benefited from a mentoring program for new farmers. She feels there is no substitute for mentoring with someone who is a master in their field. Additionally, Mattox admits, she has a hard time letting go of established enterprises. In the future she plans to make a clean break from products that are not profitable or don’t meet her personal goals, and to start new enterprises when she is really prepared. As for opportunities, Mattox says, “Really healthy foods often have a cultural and political niche market, but they are for everybody.” She envisions working with midwives and health care providers to provide nutrient dense foods to pregnant women and people fighting chronic illnesses. “I want to make nutritional food available to those who are newly open to improving their diet.” Mattox is working on expanding her operation and is using funds from her Individual Development Account (IDA), a matched savings plan offered through local Community Action Agencies, to purchase a bulk feed bin. For more information about Spring Chicken Farm, contact Betsy Mattox directly, at 802/439-6077 or betsymattox@gmail.com. Betsy Mattox found a key element in the Beginning Women Farmer program was the networking with other women farmers.
As part of her beginning farmer exploration Betsy Mattox discovered that she was a poultry producer. She raised both chickens and heritage breed turkeys.
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IN PRACTICE 5
BOOK REVIEW
by Ann Adams
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath, Broadway Books, 2010, 305 pp
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read the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard a year ago and have been telling everyone about what a thoughtprovoking book it was. Having used some of the techniques suggested in that book over the course of the year since I read it has deepened by conviction of what an accessible and useful book it is. So what follows is part book report and book review because the tools from this book are worth the extra attention. Like the Heath brothers’ other book, Made to Stick, this book relies on proving their thesis, that one can orchestrate change, with stories of psychological experiments. This book starts with “The Popcorn Experiment” in which people are given yucky popcorn at a movie and people who received bigger containers ate more popcorn. We can certainly assume that these people had no self control to eat more yucky popcorn, but the take home message from the Heaths is that this story is an example of something that looks like a people problem (no self-control) when it is really a situation problem (large popcorn containers). If we can get over the judgment that people should have the self-will to reject yucky popcorn even if handed a large container, and stop handing them large containers, then we achieve a different outcome then when we are assuming everyone is master of their own destiny. In this way, the Heaths are unapologetic social change architects.
The Heart & Mind Dichotomy The whole focus of the book is how people respond to change. We often say change is hard, but it isn’t hard all the time—like when we have made the decision instead of it being made for us. Likewise, technology is often eagerly embraced by people because it makes their life easier or more fun. The key distinction of what makes change hard is when the heart and mind disagree. To clarify this point, the Heaths use a metaphor of a rider trying to control an elephant. The elephant is emotion and instant gratification and the rider is the analyzer, decider, and delayed gratification. If the elephant wants to go one way, that’s the way it goes taking the rider with it. The rider needs to know how to control the elephant beyond brute force (self-discipline) and clarity, easy steps, tapping into feelings, and painting the desired outcome for the future are all valuable tools. 6
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To demonstrate the metaphor of the elephant and the rider the Heaths write about a study where people were offered radishes and chocolate chip cookies. One room was told they could only eat the cookies, and the other was told they could only eat the radishes. Then they had a “second study” about solving story problems. These problems were actually unsolvable so the study was really about people’s ability to persist. Those people who did not have to resist the temptation to eat cookies (because they were allowed to eat the cookies) tried to solve the problems for 19 minutes trying 34 times. The radish folks tried only 8 minutes for a total of 19 attempts. Their “rider” was worn out from not eating the cookies. The take home message here is self control is an exhaustible resource and influences our ability to do other tasks like adapt to change. Moreover, the bigger the change, the more it will sap people’s self control, so being able to chunk it down and create clarity helps make change easier to accomplish. Two ways to create clarity is to focus on emotion and hone in on one action that makes a difference. For example, researchers decided having people drink 1% milk was the best way to get people healthier. They ran ads in a certain geographic region that said a glass of whole milk has the same amount of fat as five strips of bacon. Prior to that campaign, 1% milk sales were 18% of the market in that region. After that campaign, sales were 41%, and 6 months later it remained at 35%. This study is an example of how resistance is lack of clarity. Once people were given a clear direction, they could make a choice that they perceived as helping them. From these stories, we have the three key steps to making change easier: • Direct the Rider (give crystal clear direction as in the example of the 1% milk) • Motivate the Elephant (What looks like laziness is exhaustion as in the case of the people tempted by cookies) • Shape the Path (situation problem vs. people problem)—shrink the popcorn buckets.
Behavior is Contagious Another critical point the Heaths mention is that behavior is contagious. That’s why it is important to find the bright spots (the positive deviants) to be role models rather than berate
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those who are not behaving in the desired way. After identifying the positive deviants, break down what they are doing and make it simple for others to do the same. The key is to look for success and clone the bright spot. They suggest you spend 80% of the time doing this as that is what changes the behavior culture. This is similar to solutionsfocused therapy where you make small adjustments to the positive things people are already doing. Another technique the Heaths mention is the “Miracle Question.” With this you identify the first tangible signs that the miracle (the change you want) happened in order to set the foundation for changing that behavior. For example, you can ask the question: “If a miracle solved your drinking problem, what would you be doing differently the next morning?” If you can’t imagine, try to imagine. Be specific. “Maybe I would go to the library and look at newspapers.” How would your day be different if you went to the library? These are the tangible beginnings to changed behavior. Another technique is the “Exception Question.” Here you ask, “When was the last time you saw a little bit of the miracle, even just for a short time?” Replay the scene. What was happening? How did you behave? Were you smiling? Did you make eye contact? When you have focused on three behaviors you can try those and track whether doing them or not improves the situation. These kind of tangible, specific direction is like the 1% milk study and helps people have the clarity to move beyond resistance.
Script Critical Moves Another focal point about choice is that too much choice leads to decision paralysis, so it is important to limit choices and get clear on what to focus on so you script the critical moves. This sounds easier than it is, even in small businesses, where you have competing agendas. For example, are you going to grow revenue or maximize profit? Are you going to make perfect products or get those products to market faster? Change brings new choices that create uncertainty and ambiguity is exhausting. The most familiar path is the status quo, so if you are asking people to change, you must script critical moves. To do that you must find the bright spots already in the company and find the feelings (emotions) that create those bright spots. Next you need to tweak the environment (the situation) to encourage that behavior, and rally the herd. Setting behavioral goals can make a huge difference in these types of situations. For example, when behaviorists worked to improve child abuse intervention, they found that just five minutes of play with the child leading the play and the adult following the child’s lead made
a huge difference in changing behavior. Through that experience, the parent learned how to adapt to the child’s lead and to continue that type of training until that behavior became instinctive. Research found that after 3 years of different types of intervention, the parents that went to anger management class had a 60% repeating offense rate. Those parents who attended the parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), learning how to adapt to the child’s lead, had only a 20% repeating offense rate. That’s an example of a clear behavior to focus on to change an unwanted behavior (child abuse). An example of how to rally the herd is in the story of Miner County, South Dakota. This was a county that was dying. Some of the high school students were concerned about this situation so they surveyed the county. They found that the 1,000 registered voters in the county were shopping in Sioux Falls (one hour away). To counter this behavior, which had a negative economic impact on county revenue, they created a rallying cry: “Let’s keep Miner dollars in Miner County.” They had a meeting to determine how to achieve that outcome. People had all sorts of suggestions. One suggestion they decided to implement was to pull up some tree stumps along the main street as a town beautification project. Lots of people showed up for the event and that got more people engaged in other improvement efforts. Then the students did the calculation that if 10% of consumer income were spent in the county that would lead to $7 million in increased income for the county. This figure became the target goal. One year later, the citizens had actually ended up increasing consumer spending in Miner County by $15.6 million which increased tax receipts, leading to more social services so improvements snowballed from there.
Create a Destination Postcard Scripting critical behavior is just one piece of the puzzle. You also need to create an attractive destination that allows the “rider” to use strengths (passion) to help the elephant get there. For example, Crystal Jones teaches first grade in a school challenged with low reading scores. She tells her students, “You’re going to read like a third grader by the end of the year.” To get the students to behave differently she calls the students “scholars,” thus creating a new identity. In doing so she got 90% of the kids reading at a third grade level or better. In another example, the Heaths write about the UCSF Breast Cancer clinic developed by Laura Esserman. Her concept was to get everyone under the same roof working as a team to create a highly effective cancer clinic. The difficulty with this goal was various medical professionals had to set aside
their territories and put the patient at the center focus under one roof. Changing the focus to the patient getting all their needs under one roof was the destination postcard that made the vision come to reality. By finding the feeling and identity, you are able to motivate the “elephant” and grow the people who might initially have been resistant to
The key distinction of what makes change hard is when the heart and mind disagree.
the change. Studies have shown that positive emotions broaden and build (through play), so it is important to encourage open minds and creativity when addressing these changes.
Shrink the Change One principle that really helps reduce resistance is to shrink the amount of change required, to get the ball rolling. This seems obvious, but what often happens is people raise the bar and require big changes. For example, a study done about a car wash promotion showed that when people were offered a deal where after 8 car washes the card holder got a free wash, only 19% of the people receiving cards actually completed the 8 car washes and received the ninth one free . However, when the promotion was a card with a place for 10 stamps (one for each car wash) with the 11th wash free, but the first two car washes were already stamped, then 34% of the participants completed that card (because they were already on their way to a free car wash). This idea of creating momentum is also why some financial councilors suggest to people with credit card debt to pay off the card that is easiest to pay off, not the one with the highest interest rate. Someone who is buried under with many credit card debts may not have the endurance to chip away at the card with the highest rate, but will feel greater success at getting one less card they have to pay off and then will take the next step to pay the next one off. That’s why it’s important to get the success going. In this way the Heaths suggest we focus less on milestones and more on “inch pebbles.”
Grow the People The best way to grow people to make the necessary changes is to create the identity that encourages that change. There are two basic styles
of decision making: consequences and identity. We think most people make decisions based on consequences but a lot more decisions happen because of identity. People ask: Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What would someone like me do in this situation? That’s how they make decisions. This is like the first graders who as scholars learn to read at a third grade level. Likewise, Brasilata (a manufacturer of steel cans) created “inventor” identity for all employees who had to sign “innovation contracts.” After 13 years of creating that culture, in one year employees submitted 134,846 ideas. Moreover, during an energy crisis, they came up with so many power-saving ideas that their energy consumption was reduced by 35% within a few weeks. To start the shift you can use a foot in the door technique by asking a small thing to get people to identify with that change and then ask for something bigger later. Likewise, the Heaths note you must also create the expectation of failure (which happens as a part of learning) so that people are comfortable with that aspect of the change process. If people have fixed mindset they tend to avoid challenges because failure is seen as reflecting negatively on them personally. To reach full potential you must have a growth mindset. Studies show that you can train people toward that perspective. Researchers experimented with junior high students (where the fixed mindset really sets kids back in a way that doesn’t happen in elementary school). One group of students were taught generic study skills while another group was taught about the growth mindset (in which the brain is like a muscle that must be exercised and is not a limited resource). In this class they learned how something new is challenging at first but gets easier. Amazingly, those two-hour trainings made a huge difference for those kids. Math scores declined in the study skills group and increased in the growth mindset group.
Tweak the Environment The chapter on how to tweak the environment was perhaps the most thought-provoking of all. The Heaths discussed how we are frequently blind to the power of situations and need to cure ourselves of the “Fundamental Attribution Error” (what’s causing this problem) and look at how to make the desired behavior extremely easy. Amazon 1-click buying is an example of this type of social engineering. Another example they discuss is a situation in which a teacher had kids goofing around outside of class and coming in late. The teacher decided to put a couch in front (a cool thing) and “cool” CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
Number 140
IN PRACTICE 7
Kids on the Land: A Day on the Farm— Making Connections for Kids by Val & David Pogson
Are you working with kids on the land? Send us your story or inquiries if you want to learn how. Send to hmi@holisticmanagement.org with the subject head: KOL
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y wife, Val, daughter, Ashley, and I are proud to work a fourth generation farm in Mather, Manitoba. In 2007, we attended a Holistic Management course. We were tired of the high input costs and the low returns of production based farming. The decision making framework of Holistic Management reinforced our belief that we had to make changes, for our farm to survive into the future. One important choice for Val and I was to include our six year old daughter, Ashley, in the learning process through explanations during pasture tours and cattle movement on our farm. She just loves to travel with us in the pasture and to share her observations of dung beetles, left over grass for fertilizer, and wildflower colors.
Building the Program Over the last few years, Val and I acknowledged that the distance between the farm producing the product and the people consuming the product has become so great. People no longer have an understanding of where their food is coming from. The most sensible starting point for change for us was to liaison with the education system and to share our story. Mrs. Lisa Russell, Ashley’s kindergarten teacher, was receptive to the idea and asked us to consider a hands-on field day for her class. We had heard about the Kids on the Land program from Director Peggy Maddox, and we found that this program had a free download of its curriculum on the HMI website. The kindergarten outline was great and we used it to create an outline for our day. Mrs. Russell also found the resource to be quite useful in the classroom to support and enhance learning prior to the visit to the farm. On June 10th, the big yellow bus came up the lane full of excited kids and adult chaperones. Our welcome included some farm history and why we had made changes in our operation. We split into two groups to encourage participation from each kid. We kept our discussions focused on one topic, usually ten to fifteen minutes, and found that this pace kept the kids’ attention quite well. Val mixed vegetable seeds and allowed the kids to sort and identify what can be grown in a local garden. I introduced the kids to our chickens, both market and layers. We fed the chickens, learned about the water system in each cage and learned that we move the chickens onto fresh grass twice a day. After snack break, everyone had an opportunity to pet and feed a rabbit during free time. As the day progressed, we continued to alternate groups between Val and me. Val took the kids to plant a tree and discussed the basic parts for growth. The focus was on the soil, water requirements, and the sun. Our horse held the 8
IN PRACTICE
kids’ attention while I explained the use and care of this important farm animal. A bridle and saddle were on display for the kids to explore. But the highlight was for each kid to touch the horse’s soft muzzle and to listen to the grateful whinny in return for the affection! Everyone had an opportunity to color a horse picture and take it home to share with their family. After a busy morning on the farm, the kids refueled on hot dogs, carrots, chips, and cake for lunch. The afternoon involved boarding the school bus for a tour out to pasture. The first stop included seeing baby calves and their mothers on fresh pasture. We talked about the cow needing grass to eat and the grass needing the cow to harvest it. The result was the manure, urine, and trampled grass to feed the bugs in the soil. I showed the kids a dung beetle working to carry the cow pie into the soil. The result of the whole process is more grass growth. The cows, grass, soil, bugs and water need each other to function as a whole. Next we broke into groups of three with two kids and one adult. We gave each group a hula hoop. We spread out in a pasture that the cows had recently grazed. Each group was asked to
November / December 2011
throw the hoop and to record what the kids was inside the circle. The adults recorded the kid’s observations of dirt, grass, bugs, flowers, manure, roots, etc. Next we moved to the ungrazed pasture and repeated the process. It was very interesting to listen to the discussions that followed as well as the differences that were noted between both pastures. An excellent hands-on learning experience! Along the bus route home, the kids picked different wildflowers and noted the diversity of plant materials that grow in our roadside ditches in Manitoba. We enjoyed a quick snack and we thanked them for coming and visiting our family farm. Some take home material that was provided included a “Where Is Agriculture?” game modeled after the popular children’s book series “Where’s Waldo?”, stickers and a puzzle. Val and I hoped that the kindergarten kids had an enjoyable day on the farm and that they left with a better understanding of food and its production. When the class returned to school, Mrs. Russell encouraged each child to make a page to put into a class booklet. This booklet showed drawings of what each child learned and enjoyed on their field day. We thought that this was great and enjoyed the booklet. A special keepsake! Val and I hope to continue the process of sharing Holistic Management and food production in partnership with the education system. In order for agriculture to be sustainable, we need to continue to educate the consumers, and that starts with the children. Val and David Pogson farm near Mather, Manitoba. They can be reached at: dvpogson@xplornet.com.
David Pogson explains about horse needs and care. The bonus was touching the horse muzzle.
Whole Farm Planning with Holistic Management— Making A Difference at Sunshine Farm by Cindy Dvergsten
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fter 10 years of whole farm planning and management with holistic planned grazing, our land (designated by yellow/grey border in photo below) is showing up as being greener and more vibrant than surrounding lands. This photo taken by the USDA is from late July 2009. Notice that where the pasture has just been grazed, the color is more tan/yellow. This indicates that the soil surface is covered with residue after grazing. Residue helps to protect the soil, holds moisture in and helps build soil fertility. In contrast, the surrounding farm fields show pinkish/brown (light grey) which indicates bare soil is showing between plants. Exposed soil surface dries out faster, promotes weeds, increases runoff, and decreases fertility. We have increased productivity from a low of 2 tons per acre to 3.5 or more. This pasture has not been plowed or reseeded in at least 30 years! We have done this by carefully managing our grazing so the animals are in the right place, at the right time, for the right reason. We do not allow them to
overgraze a single plant if we can help it. We give our pastures ample time for recovery and use our animals as tools to build more soil and soil fertility. Decisions we make concerning our land are tested to determine if they are socially, economically and environmentally sound. We make improvements to our infrastructure when it makes sense economically and labor wise.
that we are heading the direction we want to go. We generate real wealth by converting solar energy into healthy food products. We aim to create healthy land, healthy animals and healthy people. This contributes to building a strong vibrant community and economy that is sustainable. We find a lifestyle of health and sustainability to be very rewarding.
Biological Monitoring
Cindy Dvergsten is a Certified Educator and can be reached at: 970/882-4222 or hminfo@wholeconcepts.com
Biological monitoring is important to becoming sustainable. We observe on a daily or weekly basis what is happening with the rate of grass growth and the animals. We tweak our grazing plan as necessary to stay in tune with nature as the season progresses. We plan for adequate recovery periods and flexible grazing periods so as to match our available labor and needs of animals. Little changes in the landscape, especially at the soil surface are hard to detect without a closer look. We use simple techniques to help us analyze what is going on each year at the soil surface to ensure
The two photos show the difference in how the land looks after grazing between our neighbors land and ours. The neighbor’s pasture pictured on the left shows much more bare soil due to lower plant density and less volume of forage. Our pasture pictured above shows plenty of residue and green grass is left after grazing to protect the soil surface. With whole farm planning, our farm has almost doubled production while improving soil cover. That soil cover and increased soil health is indicated by the darker green of vigorous vegetation.
The right side of this photo shows where the sheep had grazed for 7 days in comparison to where they are now. We adjust the size of the paddock as needed to accommodate the needs of the animals and stay up to seven days in any one place. Number 140
IN PRACTICE 9
& Confessions of a Worm Rancher— Soil Life Exploding At Judy Farms by Greg Judy
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cattle owner purchased the hay and we fed it on our farms. We unrolled every 010 was our fourth complete year of Holistic High Density Planned large round bale that we could get our hands on. I believe Jim Gerrish is right Grazing on Judy Farms, and the last six months have been a real on, hay is worth unrolling even if it is rotten! Cattle will not get any feed value eye opener. We have seen some unique circumstances that have never been witnessed before on our farms. Some of the numbers and from it, but I promise you they will poop and lay on it. Presto, you now have soil food to start the healing process of your soil bankrupted farm. From 2006 sights that we are seeing are going to be hard for you to believe. That is to 2011 we have not put down any purchased soil amendments other than fine, skepticism is good. But we now have much more hard data that has been collected from permanent transects on our farms. Before we dive into purchased hay in the winter. The weak link in solely using hay to build your soil fertility is that these latest happenings, I want to cover where we started at and the progression we have seen over the last four years. This will give you a time economically it is tough to cover every inch of your farm with purchased hay. If your soil is so bankrupt that nothing grows there, table of where we started at and the length of time you will need to bring some form that elapsed to the present. of material in to start the litter bank and soil When we took possession of our owned and building process. Brainstorm a list of folks that you leased farms, the top soil was pretty much gone. “I remember Ian Mitchell Innes can talk with on wintering their cows. What you From 1920 to 1972 these farms were plowed and row want preferably are early bred cows that will calve in cropped until there was no soil left. The old timers asking me how many microbes late spring. Explain to the cattle owner that you will said that if you gave an old worn out piece of land a are dumped out the back of a take care of his cows all winter on your farm for an little rest (5-7 years) you could still nurse one last lime truck. His next question to agreed upon price per day per cow. All he has to do meager crop out of the soil without adding any is buy the hay and have it hauled to your farm. fertilizer. This is pretty much what happened, folks me was how many lime trucks Have the bales positioned in all paddocks over were poor and they mined every spare nutrient out of have baby calves?” your farm before winter begins. Emphasize to the the land until all the top soil was gone. cattle owner that he can take the winter off— Moving along with the history of these farms, heck he can go on vacation if he feels like it. You from early 1970 until the late 1990s these farms lay have his cows care under your control. Also stress fallow or occasionally they were mowed for hay. Lots the advantage of being able to bring his pregnant cow herd home in the of absentee landowners give the hay away every year just so their farm has spring to calve on his nice clean, hopefully stockpiled farm. There is nothing that pretty neat mowed look. This was further mining of nutrients being better than calving on clean stockpiled pasture in the spring. By using his removed from the soil with each hay crop. Finally the farms soils were so cows microbes, his purchased hay, you got paid to jump start your farm’s depleted of nutrients that they could not even grow grass. Much of our farms fertility over the winter. had a sickly pale green moss covering the soil, interspersed with broomsedge and eastern red cedar. Dewberry vines filled in the rest of the areas—not real Mob Grazing for Microbes productive land for anything to live on. I remember Ian Mitchell Innes asking me how many microbes are Using Hay for Soil Fertility dumped out the back of a lime truck. His next question to me was how many When we first started leasing these fallow farms in 1999 we put down some lime trucks have baby calves? Ian’s point was to emphasize to me that my fertilizer and lime money would be much better spent investing in more lime, phosphorus and potassium initially. We quickly figured out that we livestock. Our weak link on Judy Farms was not having enough microbes in would be bankrupt rather quickly if we added all the soil amendments that the soil. So we are now focusing on feeding the microbes in the rumen of the the soil tests called for. We also started custom grazing cattle in 1999 simple because we had no money to purchase our own livestock. Looking back, it was cow and letting the cow transfer those microbes into the soil. We could lime and fertilize the soil until we were broke or we could let the livestock fix it for the best thing that could have happened. us by using mob grazing. We humans really try to make things complicated; We started wintering dry bred cows on our bankrupted soil farms. The 10
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I am living proof of that. Beginning in 2007 we switched to mob grazing and begin focusing on feeding the soil with all the vegetative matter that we could possibly trample onto the soil surface daily and still maintain animal performance. We immediately started to see a difference in how the plants responded to this extra vegetative material being fed to the soil followed by full plant recovery periods. The remaining moss and broomsedge are beginning to disappear in our pastures. The woody invasive sprouts are getting pressure put on them from the increased stocking density and our multi-species effect of sheep/ cattle grazing exposure.
Year-Round Living Soil Our soils now have a sponge-like feel to them when you walk across them. With an adequate recovery period, it still amazes me how a pasture can have such a nice soft pliable surface after getting pounded with 2-300,000 lbs stocking density. The soil surface is very self healing when you have high microbial activity working for you in the soil profile. When you consider that there are 1 billion microbes in one healthy teaspoon of healthy soil, it is actually kind of staggering to think about. One of our favorite activities now is to explore the wildlife under the recovered grass sward. You can literally spend hours observing the various critters crawling, sliding, flying, walking, hopping and burrowing their way around their home. Our first big discovery that we have now observed in 2010 is that our soil critters are now active 12 months out of the year! Two days after Christmas we had just moved the mob onto a fresh stockpiled pasture that was buried under 10 inches of snow with temperature around 10 F. We pulled the snow back and dug down to the soil surface and we were shocked at what we found. There were spiders of all sizes crawling around like it was a normal day. Green miniature aphids were hopping around, snails were crawling around, and beetles were burrowing out of sight. There were fresh earthworm castings deposited on top of the soil. Fresh castings are shiny looking, almost like you waxed them up real good. I like to refer to the shiny castings as blocks of gold! All of this soil life was working for us on a cold bleary wintery snowy day. Why is this important? Heck, we now have a unique diversity of soil animals building top soil in our pastures more months out of the year. Normally in cold weather soil life goes dormant to survive. Our energy cycle is much improved; organic material is now breaking down much faster in our soils. Why is this soil life not going dormant when we enter winter conditions? With closer inspections we could easily tell that the ground surface under the
grass sward was insulated with decaying litter. The ground was not frozen; the temperature was warm enough to encourage the small critters to continue with their daily routines of eating and pooping stuff. The thick sward of grass insulated the ground surface from the above cold temperatures which sealed the deal. Once the stockpiled sward is grazed off and the canopy removed, all soil life hibernates or expires. Their micro-climate home is gone. If we are trying to build top soil on our pastures which will allow us to grow more and higher quality forage, soil life ranks Number 1 in importance. It’s easy to lose the connection with the soil life on a daily basis. Ranchers wear so many different hats that it can be challenging to stay focused on what is most important on our operations. Folks, if we don’t have healthy functioning soil life on our farms, we are fighting an uphill battle of building a sustainable operation that can stand on its own without any inputs.
Worm Mob Grazing The biggest surprise that we witnessed happened on March 31st. I am a little bit hesitant to tell anybody about it simply because most folks will think that I may be stretching the truth a bit. Well, I had a witness, so here goes. Justin (our intern) and I were out doing some biological monitoring on pasture that had been grazed this past winter. We were monitoring litter, castings, new grass seedlings, legume content, soil cheese depth and plant spacings. I noticed as we walked over the paddock that all the manure piles looked like something was deflating them from the inside. The outside surface on the manure pats looked very fibrous, the luster was gone. I reached over and gently lifted a manure pat that measured 12" across by 2" thick over on its side to expose the under belly. Justin and I both gasped as we fixed our gaze on the manure pat. The whole area of the manure under belly was completely covered with earthworms positioned in every imaginable direction. It was one of the most exhilarating sights that I have ever witnessed. I immediately placed the manure pat back exactly like I found it. Justin and I just sit there dumbfounded, looked at each other and busted out laughing. There was some serious worm mob grazing going on under that manure pat. We were both grinning at our new found treasure. I asked Justin to run and get a large pan and shovel to gather the complete manure pat into. We began very carefully counting the earthworms, taking care not to injure any of our precious delicate guests. I had a gut feeling that we were in for a huge surprise in the actual worm number count. Each handful of aged manure was literally packed full with earthworms. Once we tallied up the total worm count from each of us, we ended up with 462 earthworms from one manure pat! How cool is that? It was not a freak incidence, every manure pat that we turned over was loaded full of worms devouring their precious food source. There was a manure smorgasbord party going on at every manure pat that we checked. By going back to our grazing chart we were able to determine this particular paddock had been grazed January 3rd. It seems like 12 week old manure pats during the winter are perfect for March worm mob grazing. If we look further at the numbers that are generated by earthworms it gets even more exciting. Once our farms reach 25 worms per square foot, they can generate 100 tons of earthworm castings per acre per year. The ph level on an earthworm casting is 7 and is deposited right at the soil surface where plant roots can readily take up the rich nutrients. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
The actual manure pat with 462 intact earthworms devouring it. The manure pat looked like a sponge with all the holes drilled in it. Number 140
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Confessions of a Worm Rancher
continued from page eleven
The fourth item worms need is “To be left alone”. How would you like it if someone ran a giant disc blade through the middle of your house while you Jerry Brunetti explained to me that an earthworm actually injects a were eating your dinner at the kitchen table? This is exactly what we are doing portion of lime into the casting as it leaves his body. In other words, we have to the earthworms and soil microbes when we turn soil. If my dinner table got 462 miniature lime spreaders in one manure mat. Wow, with no lime ripped in two pieces while I was trying to have some dinner, I would move spreading fee or fossil fuel used to get it on our pasture! I don’t believe there somewhere else. So leave them alone and let the little buggers heal our soils. is another living thing that we can have on our pastures that will give us One other thing that upsets me is to see folks drive their heavy trucks all over the return like an earthworm does. their pastures. Their basically treating their precious pastures like it is a An earthworm has a life span of 7 years. During their life span a single worthless concrete parking lot. You are compressing the soil and killing worm with its offspring involved can produce 1.2 million worms. Now we earthworm activity. If you need to drive, use flotation tires with a light ATV. are talking some very serious soil wealth for our farms future. Now here is After heavy rains, do your best to keep all vehicles off your pasture. where it gets even more exciting. Think about this for a minute. If we can In wrapping up, we really need to focus on what Mother Nature gives us physically count 462 earthworms in one manure pat, how many critters are for free. Ian Mitchell Innes has made the comment to me numerous times, in that same manure pat that are too small for us to see with the naked eye? “The ecosystem worked pretty good until white man arrived with the firearm I would venture a guess that it is in the billions, especially if one teaspoon and messed it up.” We can fix it with Holistic High Density Planned Grazing. of healthy soil has 1 billion microbes. It is a huge paradigm shift to think of ourselves as a worm rancher instead of a cattle rancher. Worm Feeding Essentials Worm rancher sure does not sound nearly as sexy With proper grazing management, we can as saying “I’m a cattle rancher”. I know a lot of “Once our farms reach 25 worms focus on building our earthworm numbers in our ex-cattle ranchers that would still be ranching per square foot, they can generate pastures. Over time our livestock stocking rates today if they had been worm ranchers first. 100 tons of earthworm castings will have to be increased on our farms. With this Missouri led the nation last year in cow massive influx of soil life, the plants are number decline; 107,000 cows were sent to town. per acre per year.” absolutely exploding with more volume and This happened with record high cattle prices. higher quality leaves. To draw worms onto your In other words, the cattleman’s input costs were farm and have them multiply in large numbers higher than the price they received for their you must have four essential items. calves, so they sold their cowherd. All this purchased input stuff that we are The first item is food. When we switched to higher density mob grazing, told to put on our farms is nonsense. Folks, let’s turn our farms around; our litter bank exploded. It is best to get the remaining un-eaten forage become a worm rancher. I guarantee that the microbial life that you build in trampled on the ground by a cloven hoof. Earthworms do not have stilts to your soil will thank you handsomely with higher profits. Watch our website: travel around on, looking for food. They must have three square meals a greenpasturesfarm.net for more earthworm developments this summer. day and the food needs to be at their eye level. The food needs to be bountiful I think we are going to see hyperinflation in earthworm populations! enough to support a large community of worms. A thick grass sward litter Greg Judy can be reached at gtjudyhighdensity@live.com. blanket is just the ticket. One last comment on effective litter banks: Build it and the worms will come! The second item worms need is moisture. If the soil dries out because it is exposed to sunlight, worm activity ceases immediately. The earthworms will burrow deep just to survive. The Small-Scale Farmers to Double World Food Production Says U.N. Study mucous coat that covers their entire body must n a March report from the United Nations, scientists noted that world hunger and climate stay moist or they are dead. A good litter bank is change cannot be solved by industrial agriculture. The U.N. study notes that it will be the best protection you can have for preserving small-scale farmers who can double the food production over the next 10 years by using moisture on the surface of your pasture. For simple farming methods. every unit of humus you build in your topsoil, Techniques like insect-trapping plants in Kenya or weed-eating ducks in Bangladesh’s rice moisture preservation is enhanced eight times. paddies are some of the techniques that small farmers employ to create synergistic relationships The third item worms need is shelter. This is and partner with nature. solved by having a deep litter bank covering the It’s not new information that this type of farming (low-tech, low-input) means that farming is soil and taller forage keeping the intensity of not reliant on large companies and creates greater food security. What’s new is the research that the sunlight from penetrating the roof of their shows this type of farming can not only feed the current world population, but has the potential to homes. If you can keep the sunlight off the double the world’s food production over a 10 year period. earthworms back, they will happily turn all "To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming the dead organic matter in your pasture into techniques available. Today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods priceless earthworm castings. We have seen outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production in regions where the earthworms under tall forage actually crawling hungry live," says Oliver De Schutter, U.N. Special Rapporteur and author of the report. around on top of the ground during the hot part "We set up our farming techniques in the 1920s when we thought there would be a neverof the summer looking for a meal. There is no ending supply of cheap oil," he said. "Developing farming in a way which makes it less addicted sunlight beating on their back, therefore they are to fossil energy is much more promising." perfectly comfortable traveling around cleaning up the last dead vegetative material.
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Carbon That Counts by Christine Jones, PhD
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ailing a cataclysmic collision with an asteroid or a volcanic explosion of earth-shattering proportions, the thin layer of weathered rock we call soil will have to feed 50% more people before this planet gets much older. The problem has not gone unnoticed. Learned men and women have gathered, books have been written and conferences convened. What has been discussed? How to build new topsoil? No. Everything but. The collective knowledge of the human species on almost every subject from subatomic particles to distant galaxies is extraordinary, yet we know so little about soil. Is it too common, this world beneath our feet? This stuff of life that sustains us? Failure to acknowledge/ observe/ measure/ learn how to rapidly build fertile topsoil may emerge as one of the greatest oversights of modern civilization. Routine assessments of agricultural soils rarely extend beyond the top 10 to 15 centimeters (4 to 6 inches) and are generally limited to determining the status of a small number of elements, notably phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N). Over-emphasis on these nutrients has masked the myriad of microbial interactions that would normally take place in soil; interactions that are necessary for carbon sequestration, precursor to the formation of fertile topsoil. Fig. 1. In this paired site comparison, parent material, slope, aspect, rainfall and farming enterprise are the same. Levels of soil carbon in both paddocks were originally the same. LHS: (left) 0-50cm (0-20 inches) soil profile from a paddock in which groundcover has been actively managed (cropped and grazed) to enhance photosynthetic capacity. RHS: (right) 0-50cm (0-20 inches) soil profile from a conventionally managed neighboring paddock (10 meters through the fence) that has been set-stocked and has a long history of phosphate application. NOTES: i) The carbon levels in the 010cm (0-6 in) increment are very similar. This surface carbon results from the decomposition of organic matter (leaves, roots, manure etc), Photo: Christine Jones forming short-chain unstable Property: ‘Winona’, operated by ‘labile’ carbon. Colin and Nick Seis ii) The carbon below 30cm (18 in) in the LHS profile has been sequestered via the liquid carbon pathway and rapidly incorporated into the humic (non-labile) soil fraction. Longchain, non-labile carbon is highly stable.
Land Management and Soil Carbon The RHS soil profile has formed under conventional grazing, intermittent cropping and standard practice fertilizer management. On the LHS, 50 cm (20
in) of well-structured, fertile, carbon-rich topsoil have formed as a result of the activation of the “sequestration pathway” through cropping and grazing management practices designed to maximize photosynthetic capacity. Superphosphate has not been applied to the LHS paddock for over thirty years. In the last 10 years the LHS soil has sequestered 168.5 t/ha of CO2. The sequestration rate in the last two years (2008-2010) has been 33 tons of CO2 per hectare per year. Due to increased levels of soil carbon and the accompanying increases in soil fertility, the LHS paddock now carries twice the number of livestock as the RHS paddock. Levels of both total and available plant nutrients, minerals and trace elements have dramatically improved in the LHS soil, due to solubilization of the mineral fraction by microbes energized by increased levels of liquid carbon. In this positive feedback loop, sequestration enhances mineralization which in turn enhances humification. As a result, the rate of polymerization has also increased, resulting in 78% of the newly sequestered carbon being non-labile. The stable, long-chain, high-molecular weight humic substances formed via the plant-microbe sequestration pathway cannot “disappear in a drought.” Indeed, the humus now present in the LHS profile was formed against the back-drop of 13 years of below-average rainfall in eastern Australia. A major cause of soil dysfunction, as illustrated in the RHS soil profile in Fig.1, is the removal of perennial groundcover for cropping and/or a reduction in the photosynthetic capacity of groundcover due to set-stocking. In the post-war era, a range of chemical fertilizers have been applied to soils in an attempt to mask reduced soil function, but this approach has merely accelerated the process of soil carbon loss, particularly at depth. The net effect of inappropriate management practices has been compromised landscape function, losses of biodiversity, markedly reduced mineral levels in plants and animals and an increase in the incidence of metabolic diseases. This will no longer do. Australia is not the only country in which subsoils—and hence landscape function—have deteriorated as a result of inappropriate land management and fertilizer practices. In New Zealand, a country blessed with vast tracts of inherently fertile topsoil, carbon losses are occurring at depth under heavily fertilized pastures, due to the inhibition of the sequestration pathway. To date, alternative management practices have been either dismissed or ignored by establishment science in that country. It is important to note that the rapid improvements to soil fertility and soil function recorded in the LHS soil profile in Fig.1 are dependent on the enhanced photosynthetic capacity that accompanies regenerative forms of cropping and grazing management.
Not Just Any Carbon—Not Just Anywhere The soil surface increment, 0-10cm (0-4 inches), generally contains the highest levels of short-chain, labile carbon, indicative of rapid turnover. While this ‘active’ carbon is important for the health of the soil food-web, the surface increment is not where one would be looking to safely ‘store’ atmospheric CO2. The deeper in the soil profile that carbon is sequestered, and the more humified the carbon, the better. Over the last 10 years, the amount of long-chain, non-labile soil carbon (ie the humic fraction) in the LHS profile has doubled in the 10-20cm (4-8 inches) increment, tripled in the 20-30cm (8-12 inches) increment and quadrupled in the 30-40cm (12-16 inches) increment. In future years, it is anticipated that the most rapid sequestration of stable soil carbon will take place in the 40-50cm (16-20 inches) increment, then later still, in the 5060cm (20-24 inches) increment. That is, over time, fertile, carbon-rich topsoil will continue to build downwards into the subsoil. Deeply sequestered carbon alleviates subsoil constraints, improves farm CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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3 or Morgan P test. These tests provide information on the relatively small
Carbon that Counts
continued from page thirteen pools of inorganic soil P. Where a figure for Total P is provided, it refers only to
productivity, enhances hydrological function and improves mineral density in plants, animals and people. The Kyoto Protocol, which relates only to carbon sequestered in the 0-30cm (0-12 inches) increment, completely overlooks this ‘sequestration of significance’ in the 30-60cm (12-24 inches) portion of the soil profile.
Building New Topsoil The formation of fertile topsoil can be breathtakingly rapid once the biological dots have been joined and the sequestration/ mineralization/ humification pathway has been activated. The positive feedback loops render the liquid carbon pathway somewhat akin to perpetual motion. You can almost see new topsoil forming before your eyes. The sun’s energy, captured in photosynthesis and channelled from above-ground to below-ground as liquid carbon, fuels the microbes that solubilize the mineral fraction. A portion of the newly released minerals enable rapid humification in deep layers of soil, while the remaining minerals are returned to plant leaves, facilitating an elevated rate of photosynthesis and increased levels of production of liquid carbon, which can in turn be channelled to soil, enabling the dissolution of even more minerals. The levels of acid-extractable minerals in the LHS soil profile are higher than those on the RHS soil in the following proportions, calcium 277%, magnesium 138%, potassium 146%, sulphur 157%, phosphorus 151%, zinc 186%, iron 122%, copper 202%, boron 156%, molybdenum 151%, cobalt 179% and selenium 117%. Levels of inorganic plant nutrients have increased to a similar extent.
Where Do The “New” Minerals Come From? A standard soil test provides very little information about the bulk soil and the minerals potentially available to plants. Most lab reports list ‘plantavailable’ nutrients (that is, nutrients not requiring microbial intermediaries for plant access) and if requested, acid-extractable minerals (misleadingly quoted as “totals”). With respect to phosphorus, for example, the ‘plant-available’ levels are usually estimated using an Olsen, Colwell, Bray 1, Bray 2, Mehlich 1, Mehlich
Here’s The Data 1990-2010: 168.5 tonnes CO2 sequestered per hectare 2008-2010: Sequestration rate 33 tonnes CO2 per hectare per year Permanence: 78% of the newly sequestered carbon is in the non-labile (humic) fraction of the soil Location: The greatest increases in soil carbon have occurred at depth, overcoming subsoil constraints. Non-labile soil carbon has doubled in the 10-20cm increment, tripled in the 20-30cm increment and quadrupled in the 30-40cm increment. Minerals: The following increases in soil minerals have occurred – calcium 277%, magnesium 138%, potassium 146%, sulphur 157%, phosphorus 151%, zinc 186%, iron 122%, copper 202%, boron 156%, molybdenum 151%, cobalt 179% and selenium 117%. Cash benefit: At a carbon price of $20 per tonne, and assuming payment for non-labile (permanent) carbon only, the value of 33 tCO2/ha/yr would be $660 x 78% = $515/ha/yr. A price on carbon would provide worthwhile incentive for progressive farmers to rebuild our precious agricultural soils. 14
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the quantity of P that is acid-extractable, not the actual ‘total’ amount of P in the soil. Other techniques, such as x-ray fluorescence (XRF) are required to determine the composition of the insoluble, acid-resistant mineral fraction, which comprises 96-98% of the soil mass and contains far more minerals than are shown in a standard soil test. Indeed, the top one metre of soil contains thousands of tonnes of minerals per hectare. Specific functional groups of soil microbes have access to this mineral fraction, while others are able to fix atmospheric N, provided they receive liquid carbon from plants. The newly accessed minerals, particularly iron and aluminium, plus the newly fixed N, enable rapid humification of labile carbon. However, the liquid carbon needed to drive the process will not be forthcoming if high analysis N and/or P fertilisers inhibit the formation of a plant-microbe bridge. The “classic” models for soil carbon dynamics, based on data collected from set-stocked conventionally fertilized pastures and/or soil beneath annual crops, where the plant-microbe bridge is dysfunctional, fail to include nutrient acquisition from the bulk mineral fraction and hence cannot explain rapid topsoil formation at depth. The puzzle is that establishment science clings to these out-dated models, inferring real-life data to be inconsequential. Measurements made outside of institutionalized science are branded ‘anecdotal’ and largely ignored.
Making The World A Better Place When pastures (including those grown in association with crops) are managed to utilize nature’s free gifts—sunlight, air and soil microbes - to rapidly form new, fertile, carbonrich topsoil, the process is of immense benefit to farmers, rural communities and the nation. Property owner, Colin Seis, has no wish to revert to former management practices, as he can now carry twice the number of stock at a fraction of the cost. Nevertheless, if the land management were to change for some unforeseeable reason, the increased levels of humus (non-labile carbon) now present in his soil would remain for considerably longer than the average lifespan of carbon in trees. In addition to reducing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the activation of the soil sequestration pathway results in the release of plant nutrients from the theoretically insoluble mineral fraction, which comprises by far the largest proportion (96-98%) of the soil mass. This increased mineral availability improves the health of pastures, crops, livestock and the people consuming agricultural produce. Everyone benefits when food is more nourishing. Mineral availabilities are determined more by the rate of carbon flow from plants than by the stock of carbon in the soil. The ‘key’ to mineral management is appropriate groundcover management. When the plant-soil sequestration pathway has been activated, it is possible to feed more people from less land.
Taking Action on Soil Carbon Those who persist in maintaining that soil carbon comes at a ‘cost’ and/or disappears during a drought and/or requires applications of expensive fertilizer and/or necessitates forgone production—had better ‘please explain’. The on-farm reality is that when the sequestration pathway for non-labile carbon has been activated, the opposite is true. How much longer will the farming community have to endure the myths, misconceptions and misleading models put forward by the people currently employed to solve the problem of declining soil carbon, dwindling soil fertility and losses in soil function? Will government show some initiative, seek the truth and act on it? For further information see “The Story of Soil Part I: Sequestration, Mineralization and Humification” at www.amazingcarbon.com.
Living Soil— Why We Want to be Outnumbered Editor’s Note: Excerpted from Dr. Pat Richardson’s Presentation at HMI’s 2007 International Gathering
T
o understand Holistic Management is to understand that all parts work as a whole. When considering how best to manage land, it’s important to recognize the mineral cycle in the soil as an important part of the whole. First, what goes on in the soil leads to healthy plants, healthy plants lead to healthy animals, and healthy animals lead to healthy humans. And because the minerals have to be present in healthy soil, living organisms must also be there because living organisms make minerals cycle. In her 2007 presentation Living Soil: Why We Want to be Outnumbered, Dr. Patricia Richardson explains how plant roots bring up mineral nutrients above ground, making vegetation, but they do not accomplish this by themselves. They actually need livestock to cycle minerals. There are livestock of all kinds—microfauna (microscopic animals, fungi, and bacteria), mesofauna (macroscopic soil invertebrates such as earthworms and nemotodes), and megafauna (large animals).
The Livestock Below
to your sand, silt and clay and pass calcium through, 95% passes through. If you add bacteria, 90% passes through. But add fungi, and only 5% passes through. Fungi hang on to calcium and are essentially the “highways” to getting it to the roots of plants. What scientists have learned is that almost all plants have associations with fungi. They require, seek, nurture fungi, and don’t do well without them. So where does soil and bacteria get their energy food? Root areas are the metropolis of the soil where a vast amount of life is going on because the plants are feeding , demanding and seeking protection. They want bacteria and fungi close to their roots. In turn, the roots give energy food, their carbohydrates, and their sugar.
Crumb Soil How does soil get the desired crumb structure? When you look at humus to see which humic acids are there, you find a sort of gooey glop, and for most of the past 50 years, it’s been seen as insignificant. But around 15 years ago, one woman scientist looked at the glop and realized that it’s a type of glue that holds a lot of organic matter together, which gives soil the crumb structure. We don’t know what the glue is made of, but the fungi do. As soil managers we must avoid ripping up or poisoning the fungi through tillage, herbicides, and pesticides. We have to nurture it because it has a job and purpose in creating healthy soil. With that knowledge we can ask ourselves, “Is there another way to manage more gently?” This question will inspire
When making your decision to manage land, do you think about the bacteria you’re managing? A teaspoon of healthy soil can contain 100 million bacteria. When they are allowed to grow naturally, they build communities of multiple kinds. They build towers, move liquid, communicate, and create protective sheaths to fight off other bacteria, protozoa, and antibiotics. This is why some bacteria are more resistant to antibiotics. Given the duties these bacteria perform, it is essential that we think about how we’re managing CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 them. Looking at a chunk of soil with desirable crumb structure, one would see that bacteria are the same size as clay particles. Clay is crystals, and sand and silt are broken down pieces of rocks. Bacteria live in crystal “castles”, building on edge waters of silt, sand, clay where they live and thrive, trying to protect themselves against predators in soil. Why would we care if our soil has lots of bacteria? First, bacteria have more nitrogen in them than any other living organism we know of. They have about five carbons to one nitrogen, whereas humans have roughly 30 carbons to 1 nitrogen. Bacteria sequester the nitrogen that you want in soil. And because of the protective sheath, bacteria do not leech when it rains, and the nitrogen stays in place. Second, almost all plants nurture and seek a relationship between their roots and fungi. Out of all food plants make, they put 50-80% back into their root structures. And about 50% of that food is transferred into the soil. Soil biologist Elaine Ingrahm, calls this food “cake and cookies” because it attracts lots of bacteria and fungi. The cake and cookies feed fungi, and the fungi then penetrates into the roots. What do the plants get out of it? The fungi actually move way out beyond the root structure to bring in minerals, and they cycle those minerals to the plants. Dr. Richardson explains if you have sand, silt, and clay parent material of soil and you pass liquid calcium though, all of it leeches through. If you add organic matter, good cationic exchange capacity The Food Web: how plant residue is decomposed by soil organisms. Number 140
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Living Soil
continued from page fifteen
our use of the tool of human creativity to consider other soil management techniques to create the desired outcome. Joel Salatin is quoted as saying, “Production needs to be light on the landscape.” But when we rip up grass through tillage, we damage root structure. What are we doing to its collaborative structure that is bringing nutrients and water to those plants and which also extends the capacity of every plant to get water from the soil? What communities are we ripping up? If healthy soil is part of our holistic goal, part of our resource base to achieve our desired quality of life, then what management techniques will help us improve soil life, not damage it?
The Dung Beetle’s ‘Roll’ In the 1970s, the USDA introduced to the U.S. the Onthophagus Gazella dung beetle from South Africa because they are very fertile. Their females actually lay 25-75 eggs in a year, whereas the U.S. dung beetles typically lay only 2 eggs in a year. Why do we want dung beetles? These creatures seek animal waste, particular the moist dung from cows. They form balls out of the waste and roll them away to bury them in the soil. The females do all the digging and the males bring the balls of waste (organic matter and moisture) to the tunnels. The females will then clean and lay eggs in the dung balls. The outcome and wonderful benefit is aeration and fertilization of the soil. Dr. Richardson was able to do a study on Holistic Management practitioner Walt Davis’ ranch in Oklahoma. In a year, she measured that the dung beetles were digging one ton of wet manure per acre per day. Dung beetles don’t work as much in the cold and during droughts. But while they slow down on digging, they still remove moisture from waste which means there is less moisture for parasites to multiply. In this way, dung beetles are a natural solution to parasite problems. The holes that dung beetles create also help drain water into the soil. In an experiment Dr. Richarson performed on Walt Davis’ ranch, she filled coffee cans with water with holes in the bottoms and placed them on top of the soil. Where a cow pie was not buried underground, 4 inches of water took 90 minutes to drain. Where a cow pie was buried, 10 inches of the water took only 60 minutes to drain. With the help of dung beetles and other burrowing organisms such as earthworms, the earth can take in more rainfall with less runoff.
Looking at the Whole Dr. Richardson notes that with Holistic Management, we’re always looking for stacking benefits. She further explains that the “poop cycle” leads to the cycling of minerals, as the waste is food for other soil organisms and eventually even humans. Some of our own waste favorites are beer and wine (yeast waste); bread (baked yeast waste); and cheese, wine, soy sauce, and yogurt (fermented bacteria waste). Keeping soil covered is important because it has a cooler temperature, which helps micro and mega soil herds survive. Soil litter provides food for fungi and mesofauna and clearly we want to see litter moving down into the soil. As we manage our above ground livestock or crops, we should ask the question: “What does our soil livestock need?” They need food, water, and habitat. If we’re managing a whole food web, we must feed all the livestock, including bacteria, by being aware of the life and by not damaging the soil and root structures. These organisms are working for us for free, so we need to nurture and not kill them. In this way, we get the added benefits of improved water and mineral cycles which leads to the greater forage/crop productivity we need for profitable, sustainable agriculture. 16
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Questions & Answers Animal Performance
Q:
Last year I received 34 head on January 19 weighing 377 pounds. I received 82 head on March 6 weighing 477 pounds. All were shipped on July 3 weighing 717 pounds. All this was on 60 acres with basically grass. I did feed some sweet feed to keep them tame. As close as I can tell I fed 3,600 pounds worth of feed for $460. Is there any way to figure out how many pounds of forage it takes to get that amount of weight gain? Total gain was 32,285 pounds.
From Ben Bartlett, Holistic Management Certified Educator
A:
It looks like your heifers did well. Here are my rough calculations:
34 head for 200 days = 6,800 cow days and 82 head x 120 days = 9,840 for a total of 16,640 cow days. If you had 32,285 total pounds of gain divided by 16,640 cow days, that means your average daily gain was about 1.94 pounds. I consider this a good gain. Better average daily gain 2.0 pounds + can be achieved. Your gain per acre of 32,285 divided by 60 = is 538 pound per acre which I would consider good, but it all depends on what it cost you to get that many pounds. If you received 50 cents per pound of gain, then you grossed 50 cents x 538 pounds or $269 per acre. But the important issue is what was left after seeding ryegrass and how would this compare to summer grazing that may generate less pounds but also have less cost. How many pounds of forage for a pound of gain depends a lot on the condition of the cattle, age of cattle, average daily gain, etc. For example, we know that on high energy feedlot rations we can get a pound of gain on about 10 pounds of feed. On the flip side, if you have very poor forage and cattle are not gaining, then all the forage they eat goes to keeping them alive and it would take thousands of pounds of forage to get a pound of gain. If you cattle were gaining almost 2 pounds per day, my guess is took about 15-18 pounds of forage dry matter to get a pound of gain. Therefore, 538 pounds of gain x 15 pounds of forage means you grew and your cattle harvested about 8,070 pounds or 4 tons of forage per acre. Not bad. The bottom line is: Are you making the return you want for your time and land investment? (Not owning and having money tied up in cattle is a real plus even if some years the cattle owner seems to make a lot of money and do nothing). Taking the ownership risk is significant.
Have a question? Let us find you the answer. Email questions to anna@holisticmanagement.org with subject heading: Q&A. You can also mail your questions to 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Ste. B, Albuquerque, NM 87109 or fax at 505/843-7900.
T he news from holistic management international
NE SARE Train the Trainer Program Results
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rom 2008 through 2010, twenty-eight agricultural professionals in the Northeast participated in a professional development program on whole farm planning using the Holistic Management framework funded through the USDA Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education with Certified Educator Seth Wilner of University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension as the project director working with Certified Educator Phil Metzger. Twenty-seven agricultural professionals completed the program, which included four three-day training session held over the course of two years. The results of the post-program survey are done. Here’s what the participants accomplished: • 100% improved their goal setting skills • 92.6% improved their decision making skills • 88.9% improved their financial planning skills • 81.5% improved their communication with farmers • 77.8% improved their grazing planning skills In the time since the training and survey, the participants have gone on and taught Holistic Management whole farm planning to 929 farmers, primarily through field days, workshops, and general farm visits. The professionals achieved 103% of their goal in the number of farmers who improved their farm management skills through practicing Holistic Management.
people, programs & projects
personnel from both Texas and Oklahoma. AgriLife Extension Service heard about the class and sent 3 students from their own budget. Teaching for HMI was Certified Educator, Kirk Gadzia, who taught the class of 42 scientists and consultants at the Noble Foundation facilities in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
NSW Farmer of the Year
Changes at the West Ranch
N
O
orm Smith, a fourth generation farmer who runs “Glenwood,” a 7,000-acre (2,800-ha) merino grazing farm east of Wellington, New South Wales, Australia, with his wife and children, was recently named by NSW Ministry of Primary Industries. Twelve years ago Norm and his wife, Pip, completed a Holistic Management course through what was then Orange Agricultural College. The skills they acquired on that course saw them pioneer planned grazing management on Glenwood. Norm has encouraged greater diversity of desirable species with planned grazing enabling short graze periods and long rest periods. The benefits of this have been numerous, including 100% ground cover, a huge increase in diversity of perennial plant species, an improvement in soil nutrition and microbial activity, an increase in soil organic matter, increased water holding capacity, no need for artificial fertilizers and reduced chemical use. Congratulations to Norm and the Smith family!
Train the Trainer Workshop
T
he Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI), Holistic Management International (HMI) and The Noble Foundation teamed up this summer to provide a 5-day class in Holistic Management for Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Noble Foundation
ver the last year, the HMI Board of Directors has reviewed many things in order to ensure the organization’s sustainability and growth. One big area of review has been the West Ranch, which was generously donated to HMI in 2001, with the direction that the ranch and its resources be utilized for educating others about Holistic Management. The Board’s Holistic Management monitoring of the performance of the West Ranch “toward” HMI’s Holistic Goal demonstrated a poor marginal reaction. The Board conducted a detailed review looking for ways to more effectively utilize those assets, as any holistically managed business should do. In recent years since 2008, ranch and mineral revenues have declined from where they were in 2001 and the remaining earned funds have been utilized in significant deferred maintenance to the ranch, rather than for education programs. This has resulted in ranch operating losses, and a reduction in the ability of HMI to fulfill its non-profit mission. Under these circumstances, the HMI Board of Directors gave careful consideration to the option of selling the ranch—and undertook a rigorous Holistic Management testing process on the proposed sale, including cause and effect, review of the weak link components of financial, environmental and social aspects, gross profit analysis, energy/money sources and use, CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
Train the Trainer Workshop
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Grapevine
continued from page seventeen be served by the sale. As a result, the AG submitted
sustainability, and society and culture. The Board commissioned an independent professional review of forecast mineral and ranch revenue streams going forward; and conducted extensive work including a monitoring feedback loop. As a result the Board elected to sell the ranch, and re-deploy the assets from that sale to the specific development of programs in fulfillment of the HMI mission – rather than a continuation of addressing growing deferred maintenance challenges. A big part of the Board’s responsibility is to monitor the assets of the organization to make sure they are appropriately applied to the organization’s non-profit mission. An extensive analysis of the proposed sale was conducted by the Texas Attorney General’s (AG) office, who agreed that the public trust would best
to the courts the recommendation to allow the sale of the surface of the ranch, provided that HMI shall use the sale of surface proceeds and future mineral interest income (which HMI retains) to develop, operate, and carry out programs promoting Holistic Management. The courts approved the AG’s recommendation allowing HMI to conduct programs not only in Crockett and Val Verde Counties, but throughout the state of Texas, and the United States. The sale was completed in late June, 2011. The buyer is a native Texan with deep roots in West Texas, and with a strong interest in Holistic Management principles and practices. Ranch managers, Joe and Peggy Maddox, continue to live on the ranch assisting the buyer. Peggy Maddox remains employed by HMI as the Director of the Kids on the Land program, which she pioneered. The positive result of this sale has already been
demonstrated in the development of new programs in Texas, including recent NRCS trainings there and in Oklahoma; Kids on the Land Programs in Jack County, Crockett County, Nolan County, and Schleicher County; Beginning Women rancher/farmer workshops in Austin, Dallas, Lubbock and Edinburg; development of a sustainability program in the city of Elgin; and ongoing ranch consulting projects in several Texas communities. We expect to further develop the HMI Education Platform, including new curriculum packages, and an on-line component to make HMI trainings more accessible, easier to do, and structured to deliver greater result for people, land, and animals. We are grateful to David West for his gift of the ranch and its assets to help HMI fulfill the direction of his will and HMI’s mission—to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future.
were able to stand in 3.5 weeks instead of 7.7. The Heaths also advocate for using checklists which help people see what is a best practice and reinforces the use of it and insures against overconfidence. The Heaths recognize that change is a process, but as they note, kids were first to get there to use it. He could have locked the door or had getting married or having a child is a huge amount of change and a daily quiz at the beginning of class or have the last person in their seat people decide to make that change all the time (consciously or have to answer question, but these were more punitive. otherwise). They encourage you Understanding what is causing a to get a change partner to help problem and correctly determining you in that change process. the best course of action requires What does this have to do observation and creative thinking. Two ways to create clarity is to focus on emotion with Holistic Management? In one hospital researchers found and hone in on one action that makes a difference. Given that Holistic Management that nurse medication is a decision-making framework administration error happened In fact, researchers found that goal completion went and adaptive management tool, when the nurse was multi-tasking. from 22 to 62 percent with the use of action triggers. any tool that we can add to our To address this, they had the nurses toolbox to improve our goal setting, wear a bright vest when they were strategic planning, day to day dealing with medications to let management, and decision making others know what they were doing is a great asset. When I think about a holistic goal and how people and all other personnel were trained not to ask them to do anything articulate what they value, that is a critical tool to influence the elephant else while they were wearing those vests. Errors dropped 47% with this of emotion. Likewise the clarity that emerges about key values and the procedure. This procedure is similar to the “sterile cockpit” protocol in systems, processes, and behaviors that need to be in place to create the the airline industry in which no personal chatter is allowed below desired outcome (the forms of production) helps to bring clarity and 11,000 feet where most accidents happen during takeoff or landing. move through resistance. Build Habits However, I’ve seen lots of people and groups stall even after having written a holistic goal because there wasn’t ownership in the holistic People are sensitive to environment and culture, so if we use that goal or because the change is so large and they have not yet had the knowledge we can help change occur through the use of action triggers steps broken down so they have a clear path to make progress toward (imagine a time and place when you do the action). These action that holistic goal. That’s where the techniques offered in this book can triggers motivate people to do the things they know they need to do and really help people who have begun the process of managing holistically, help them with “hard” goals. In fact, researchers found that goal but have a steep learning curve or major change ahead that is completion went from 22 to 62 percent with the use of action triggers. challenging them. I know this book helped me tremendously both as a For example, hip replacement patients are told “If you are going to go for a walk this week, write down when and where.” Writing those practitioner and as an educator. If you are interested in improving your triggers down meant that patients were more consistent in their ability to handle change or to be a change agent, get Switch and rehabilitation and therefore were able to bathe themselves in three weeks experiment with the techniques suggested. instead of seven weeks (the norm for those not using action triggers) and
Book Review
18 IN PRACTICE
continued from page seven
November / December 2011
UNITED STATES
Certified Educators
Jeff Goebel 5105 Guadalupe Trail NW Albuquerque, NM 87107 • 541/610-7084 goebel@aboutlistening.com
The following Certified Educators listed have been trained to teach and coach individuals in Holistic Management. On a yearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with HMI. This agreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives and to seek out opportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management. 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. These associate educators provide * educational services to their communities and peer groups.
UNITED STATES ARIZONA
* Tim McGaffic P.O. Box 1903, Cave Creek, AZ 85331 808/936-5749 • tim@timmcgaffic.com CALIFORNIA Owen Hablutzel 4235 W. 63rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90043 310/567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com 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
MICHIGAN
* Ben Bartlett N4632 ET Road, Traunik, MI 49891 906/439-5210 (h) • 906/439-5880 (w) bartle18@msu.edu * Larry Dyer 1113 Klondike Ave, Petoskey, MI 49770-3233 231/439-8982 (w) • 231/347-7162 (h) dyerlawr@msu.edu
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
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
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 HAMPSHIRE
GEORGIA Constance Neely 1421 Rockinwood Dr., Athens, GA 30606 706/540-2878 • clneely@earthlink.net IOWA
* 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 * Tobey Williamson 52 Center Street, Portland, ME 04101 c: 207-332-9941 • tobey@bartongingold.com
NORTH DAKOTA 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
◆ Seth Wilner
24 Main Street, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) seth.wilner@unh.edu NEW MEXICO ◆ 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 575/268-1162 kboney@plateautel.net Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/867-4685, (f) 505/867-9952 kirk@rmsgadzia.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@columbianet.com
PENNSYLVANIA WISCONSIN Jim Weaver 428 Copp Hollow Road, Wellsboro, PA 16901 570/724-4955 • jaweaver@epix.net TEXAS
MONTANA
NEBRASKA COLORADO
NEW YORK Erica Frenay 454 Old 76 Road, Brooktondale, NY 14817 607/539-3246 • efrenay22@gmail.com Phillip Metzger 120 Thompson Creek Rd., Norwich, NY 13815 607-334-2407 • pmetzger17@gmail.com
Peggy Maddox P.O. Box 694, Ozona, TX 76943-0694 325/392-2292 • westgift@hughes.net Peggy Sechrist 106 Thunderbird Ranch Road, Fredericksburg, TX 78624 (C)830/456-5587 • peggysechrist@gmail.com
Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy. 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com
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 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 Dick Richardson Frogmore Boorowa NSW 2586 61-0-263853217 (w) 61-0-263856224 (h) 61-0-429069001 (c) dick@hanaminno.com.au Brian Wehlburg Pine Scrub Creek, Kindee, NSW, 2446 61-2-6587-4353 brian@insideoutsidemgt.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
Number 140
IN PRACTICE 19
INTERNATIONAL
AFFILIATES
KENYA
NEW ZEALAND
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 NAMIBIA 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
* John King
P.O. Box 12011 Beckenham, Christchurch 8242 64-276-737-885 succession@clear.net.nz
ARIZONA HRM of Arizona Norm Lowe 2660 E. Hemberg Flagstaff, AZ 86004 928/214-0040 loweflag@aol.com
Oklahoma Land Stewardship Alliance Kim Barker, contact person 35878 Cimarron Road Waynoka, OK 73860 580/732-0244 580/732-0244 oklsa@pldi.net
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 Wayne Knight Solar Addicts PO Box 537, Mokopane, 0600 South Africa 27-0-15-491-5286 theknights@mweb.com.za Ian Mitchell-Innes P.O. Box 52 Elandslaagte 2900 27-36-421-1747 blanerne@mweb.co.za UNITED KINGDOM
* Philip Bubb 32 Dart Close, St. Ives, Cambridge, PE27 3JB 44-1480-496-2925 (h) +44 7837 405483 (w) philipbubb@onetel.com
Western Canadian Holistic Management Conference
COLORADO Colorado Branch For Holistic Management® P.O. Box 218, Lewis, CO 81327 www.coloradoholisticmanagement.org Cindy Dvergsten, webmaster 970/882-4222 NEW YORK
NORTHWEST Managing Wholes Peter Donovan PO Box 393 Enterprise, OR 97828 541/426-5783 www.managingwholes.com
SPEAKERS INCLUDE: David Irvine • Roland Kroos • Wayne Berry Joshua Dukart • Arlene Jorgenson And more!
Hold the Date! February 21-22, 2012
November / December 2011
PENNSYLVANIA Northern Penn Network Jim Weaver, contact person 428 Copp Hollow Road Wellsboro, PA 16901 570/724-4955 jaweaver@epix.net
Central NY RC&D Phil Metzger 99 North Broad Street Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-3231 ext 4 phil.metzger@ny.usda.gov
YORKTON, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA
20 IN PRACTICE
OKLAHOMA
Early bird registration $100 For more information email: Pamela.Iwanchysko@gov.mb.ca
TO REGISTER, CALL: (306) 786-1531
T H E
M A R K E T P L A C E
HANDS-ON AGRONOMY BASIC SOIL FERTILITY GUIDELINES Now Available on DVD
BUY THE DVD TODAY! Runs 80 minutes and covers the following topics:
$30
• Feeding and Balancing the Soil • The Albrecht System • Soil Testing • Considering Soil Test Results • Sulfur • Calcium, pH, and Liming • Potassium and Sodium • Nitrogen • Manures, Green Manures
(postpaid to US addresses)
For consulting or educational services contact:
Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. $30
Holistic Management® Certified Educator Training Program
(plus shipping) (PAL orders add $5)
Want to make the world a better place? Interested in teaching others about Holistic Management?
297 County Highway 357, Charleston, Missouri 63834 Phone: 573/683-3880; Fax: 573/683-6227, neal@kinseyag.com WE ACCEPT CREDIT CARD ORDERS (VISA, MC)
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:
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 • 505/842-5252 hmi@holisticmanagement.org • www.holisticmanagement.org
To learn more, call HMI at
• 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
Number 140
IN PRACTICE 21
T H E
M A R K E T P L A C E
4 2 1 1. WRAPPER WIRE with 6 stainless steel strands that deliver a high shock impact. White or orange.
3
2. BRAIDED MEGA WIRE with 9 stainless steel strands, this superior strength wire is an e ex xcellent conductor. 3. POWER T TA APE High visibility tape with 6 stainless steel strands. White or orange. 4. MEGA T TA APE with 10 stainless steel stra rands creating an excellent conductor. White or orange.
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Resource Management Services, LLC
CORRAL DESIGNS
Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 Pasture Scene 505-263-8677 Investigation kirk@rmsgadzia.com www.rmsgadzia.com
0310
Christine
Jost
Veterinarian • Researcher Project Design • Certified Educator 20 Years of International Experience !
How can RMS, LLC help you? On-Site Consulting: All aspects of holistic management, including financial, ecological and human resources. Training Events: Regularly scheduled and customized training sessions provided in a variety of locations. Ongoing Support: Follow-up training sessions and access to continued learning opportunities and developments. Land Health Monitoring: Biological monitoring of rangeland and riparian ecosystem health. Property Assessment: Land health and productivity assessment with recommended solutions.
22 IN PRACTICE
By World Famous Dr. Grandin Originator of Curved Ranch Corrals The wide curved Lane makes filling the crowding tub easy. Includes detailed drawings for loading ramp, V chute, round crowd pen, dip vat, gates and hinges. Plus cell center layouts and layouts compatible with electronic sorting systems. Articles on cattle behavior. 27 corral layouts. $55. Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59. Send checks/money order to:
GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS 2918 Silver Plume Dr., Unit C-3 Fort Collins, CO 80526
970/229-0703 www.grandin.com
November / December 2011
Participatory approaches for development projects: • Design and implementation • Monitoring and evaluation • Assessment and lessons • Workshop facilitation Group and individual training with NGO’s, communities, and farm families: • Holisticgoal setting • Decision testing • Financial planning • Biological monitoring — CONTACT CHRIS AT — c.jost@cgiar.org • +254-736-715-417
T H E
M A R K E T P L A C E
WORLD CLASS FENCING
HMI GRAZING PLANNING SOFTWARE UPGRADE
www.powerflexfence.com
PowerFlex G2 Post
NEW FEATURES INCLUDE:
Holistic Management Handbook Healthy Land, Healthy Profits The Holistic Management Handbook gives you step-by-step guidance for managing R a ranch or farm holistically. E ORD It is essential reading for TODAY! anyone involved with land management and stewardship.
30
100
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• Easy calculations to determine SAUs • Auto-fill functions for closed plan dy given “This tool has alrea • Account for multiple herds urn beyond ret d fol ny ma a us ent and we our initial investm • Added ability to identify to use it.” n gu be t have jus exclusion periods and paddocks Ma — Arnold ttson, nch, needing special attention rvices Bra Agri-Environment Se ri-Food Canada Ag and e ltur ricu Ag • Compares estimated SAUs with planned peak SAUs • Grazing Manual hyperlink TO LEARN MORE OR references for each step for TO ORDER CALL: ease of reference HMI at 505/842-5252 or • New Livestock and Land go to our online store at www.holisticmanagement.org/store/ Performance worksheet
PowerFlex Geared Reel
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The HMI Grazing Planning Software is an electronic version of the Holistic Management Grazing Plan and Control Chart. This software tool does all the grazing planning calculations for as many as 100 paddocks.
Learn how to create healthy land and healthy profits.
Call 505/842-5252 or order online at www.holisticmanagement.org!
See the Big Picture ~ Respond to Change ~ Be Sustainable
Get Started Today – Join Our
Holistic Management Distance Learning & Mentoring Program Realize Immediate Benefits Save money on education — and get more for your money with highly personalized training. All you need is a telephone, a computer is NOT needed. Learn at your own pace; apply what you learn to your situation and get results now!
Don’t change your life to learn. Let your education change your life! 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 Number 140
IN PRACTICE 23
healthy land. sustainable future.
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID ALBUQUERQUE, NM PERMIT NO 880
a publication of Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 USA return service requested
please send address corrections before moving so that we do not incur unnecessary postal fees
HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT MAIL ORDER EMPORIUM Subscribe to IN PRACTICE
Software
_ A bimonthly journal for Holistic Management practitioners
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)
Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . electronic $30 hardcopy $45
_ 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
One year for $17 each/U.S., or $22 each/International ______ Please indicate number of one-year subscriptions
_ Policy/Project Analysis & Design August 2008, 61 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17
_ Introduction to Holistic Management
_ Back Issues: $5 each; bulk orders (5 or more issues) $3 each. List
August 2007, 128 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$25
Please indicate issue numbers desired: ___,___,___,___,___,___,___,___,___,___
_ CD of Back Issues: #71 - 130 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$25
_ Financial Planning August 2007, 58 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17
_ Aide Memoire for Grazing Planning August 2007, 63 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$17
Books & Multimedia
_ Early Warning Biological Monitoring— Croplands
Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision-Making,
_ Second Edition, by Allan Savory with Jody Butterfield. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50 _ 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 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
Planning and Monitoring Guides
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 MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION Amount $_____________ Please designate program you would like us to apply contribution toward _________________________________________
Questions? 505/842-5252 or hmi@holisticmanagement.org
Indicate quantity on line next to item, make sure your shipping address is correct, mail this page (or a copy) and your check or money order payable in U.S. funds from a U.S. bank or your credit card number and expiration date to: Holistic Management International, 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B, Albuquerque, NM 87109. You can also call in or fax credit card orders. Phone calls to: 505/842-5252; Fax: 505/843-7900. For online ordering, visit our secure website at: www.holisticmanagement.org. Printed on recycled paper
Shipping & Handling Shipping and handling costs to the right are for U.S. media mail only. Call 505/842-5252 for all other shipping rates.
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