#145, In Practice, Sept/Oct 2012

in Practice a publication of holistic Management international

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2012

From the Board Chair

NUMBER 145

W W W. H O L I S T I C M A N A G E M E N T. O R G

by Sallie Calhoun

~ inSiDe ThiS iSSue ~

Why it is Ethical to eat Meat

Marketing

E

This essay was originally submitted to the New York Times.

Have an essay or letter to the editor you’ve written that you’d like to share?

Send to Ann Adams at anna@holisticmanagement.org.

FEATURE STORIES

Marketing is a critical component of successful farming.

Read about the many marketing techniques and distribution channels that farmers are exploring, including farm debit cards, like this one from The Kitchen Garden, on page 7.

Using Social Media Effectively to Make the Most of Your Farm Business EMILY BROOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Introduction to Holistic Management— A New Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Managing Quail Habitat FRANK ARAGONA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Building Market Demand— The Kitchen Garden ANN ADAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Market Your Farm Products Effectively SANNE KURE-JENSEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Land & Livestock Nutrient Dense Grazing LISA MCCRORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mob Grazing – A Tool to Improve Pastureland HEATHER SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

News & Network

ating meat produced by land stewards working to regenerate their landscapes and the earth is one of the most ethical choices that an eater can make in the 21st century.

I am a cattle rancher in central California, and I know the local grasslands—the native perennial bunch grasses and the annual grasses that arrived with the Spanish, the oaks on the hills and in the valley bottoms, and the birds that frequent these trees.

I continuously strive to understand this ecosystem and how the pieces fit together.

This is a place where there is not a drop of rain between the middle of May and the middle of October. It is not suitable for vegetables—the hills are too steep for irrigation or cultivation. This is a classic grassland, like others that cover approximately 40% of the earth's surface—a place where there is not enough moisture for a forest to grow, but a place of spectacular, if less obvious, biodiversity and productivity.

Since I cannot grow vegetables or orchards on my land, there are two choices— fence it and ignore it, or use domesticated livestock to keep the grasslands healthy (and grow protein as a by-product). The world's grasslands evolved with grazing animals, and without them inside the fence would be shrubs, bare ground, less biodiversity and less life. The soil and wildlife need disturbance, and inside the fence there would be little of that. Abandoning these grasslands now would be the final nail in their coffin, and we would all pay the price with more floods, drought, carbon in the atmosphere, and extinctions, along with less food for 7 billion people.

With properly managed domestic livestock we see a completely different result.

The perennial grasses thrive and over the course of their hundred-year lives huge root systems grow supporting uncounted soil organisms and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. The wildflowers flourish every spring, supporting a myriad of butterflies and insects for the birds. The rain soaks into the soil growing more grass rather than swelling streams and rivers. The system functions as it evolved to with the help of a keystone species of the landscape—committed humans.

This land has been managed by humans since the native Americans arrived approximately 15,000 years ago. Since Europeans arrived we have introduced non-native plants, killed the wild herds, built fences, re-routed rivers, tilled, sprayed, and built, built, built. We displaced nature and took over the management and hence the responsibility for this land. It would be supremely unethical to take the landscape, break it, and expect to hand it back to nature as if nothing had happened, all the while knowing the consequences.

Meat consumed by humans is part of a vast system involving domesticated animals, the ecosystems in which they live, and the economy. Thinking about the ethics of eating meat requires thinking about the whole system, not just one small part. The economic reality is that in order to have committed land stewards working with livestock every day for the sake of the ecosystem, they must be compensated, and selling meat is how that happens today. Much as some people might wish otherwise, it is not possible to quickly return to a landscape maintained by huge herds of wild herbivores. In order to support the world's grasslands today and continue to benefit from the significant ecosystem services they provide, humans need to eat beef that is raised responsibly on those grasslands.

10 13

Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 From the CEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Kids on the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Using Social Media Effectively to Make the Most of Your Farm Business

in Practice a publication of holistic Management international

Holistic Management International exists to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future.

STaFF Peter Holter . . . . . . . Chief Executive 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 Matt Parrack . . . . . . . Director, Development Peggy Sechrist. . . . . Development Advisor Peggy Maddox . . . . . Director, Kids on the Land Program Peggy Cole . . . . . . . . Project Manager, Texas Mary Girsch-Bock . . Grants Manager Carrie Nelson . . . . . . Store Manager / Customer Support

by eMily BrookS

introduction to inbound Marketing nbound Marketing is marketing with a magnet, not a sledgehammer — marketing based on content that attracts and nurtures prospects, not spam that interrupts them.

There are three stages: Get Found, Convert and Analyze.

Inbound marketing is marketing that's useful.

It means acquiring customers by attracting and nurturing prospects with exceptional content, data and customer service, not interrupting them with spam. It means pulling prospects in with a magnet, not beating them over the head with a sledgehammer.

Inbound marketing tactics tend to be cheaper than traditional marketing tactics.

Companies that focus on inbound tactics have a 62% lower cost-per-lead than companies that focus on outbound tactics.

Inbound marketing includes a variety of tools that allows customers to come to you and ask for more information. Whether you are providing your own material or linking to material of value on someone else’s website, content is the key.

I

how it Works BoarD oF DireCTorS Sallie Calhoun, Chair Ben Bartlett, Past Chair Clint Josey, Vice-Chair Jim Shelton, Secretary Ron Chapman, Treasurer Gail Hammack Wayne Knight Judi Earl Zizi Fritz Jim Parker Christopher Peck Kelly Sidoryk

Think of your sales and marketing process as a funnel. Fresh prospects come in at the top of the funnel, happy customers go out the bottom. As a marketer, your goal is to maximize both the number of people you attract at the top of your funnel as website visitors and the number that come out the bottom as customers.

Inbound marketers use three types of tactics to do this: Get Found — Tactics like blogging and search engine optimization that aim to attract quality prospects to your website.

Convert — Tactics like landing pages and lead nurturing that aim to convert website visitors to leads and long-term customers.

Analyze — Tactics that aim to improve the efficiency of the entire process — to get more of the right people in the top and out the bottom.

Get Found Tactics Get Found tactics help you attract visitors to your website (prospects to the top of your funnel). They're the most important inbound marketing tactics because they're like a building's foundation: You can't build anything without them. If you don’t have any website visitors, you can't generate leads.

Blogging — Inbound marketing starts with blogging. A blog is the single best way to attract new visitors to your website. Businesses that blog get 55% more leads than those who don't.

In order to get found by prospective customers, you need to have content that attracts them.

Your blog is the home of this magnetic content.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — Your customers begin their buying process online, usually at a search engine. So you need to make sure you're listed prominently when they search. To get there, you need to carefully, analytically pick keywords, optimize your pages, create content and build links.

Social Media — When people go online

Inbound Marketing

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 © 2012

2 IN PRACTICE

September / october 2012

today they're interacting with friends, asking questions, answering questions, sharing content and discussing an infinite range of topics. As a marketer, you want your content to be a central part of the discussion in your industry. If your content is a part of that conversion, it can help you pull people back to your site and to the top of your marketing and sales funnel.

Content Marketing — Content marketing is another Get Found tactic. Like blogging, it means publishing content that will attract people to your website. Unlike blogging, Content Marketing is not restricted to a specific channel — it's the general idea of using content to attract people to your site. It can also include videos, white papers, webinars, and other content. For example, one of the Beginning Women Farmer participants who sells pork, uses a report about Confined Animal Farming Operations (CAFO) to provide content on her website as well as move visitors to leads.

Convert Tactics Convert tactics help you take the visitors you attracted to your site with blogging, social media, and search engine optimization and convert them into paying customers. You can generate a lot of activity on your website without convert tactics, but you won't generate any revenue.

Calls to Action — How do you begin to engage website visitors and engage them in a sales process? You encourage them to take actions — maybe download a white paper, maybe signup for a webinar.

Calls to action are buttons or links that encourage your visitors to take action, eg "Download a Whitepaper", or "Attend a Webinar". If you don't have enough calls to action or your calls to action aren't enticing enough, you won't generate any leads.

Landing Pages — When a website visitor clicks on a call to action they should be sent to a landing page. The landing page is where the offer in the call to action is fulfilled, and where the prospect submits information that your sales team can use to begin a conversation.

For example, if you offer a whitepaper download in your call to action, the landing page is the page where visitors submit the information required to download the whitepaper. When website visitors fill out forms on landing pages, they typically become leads.

Email Marketing — What do you do if a visitor clicks on your call to action, fills out a landing page, downloads your whitepaper, but still isn’t ready to become a customer?

You need to nurture a longer-term relationship with that lead. Email marketing is

one way to do this. A series of emails focused on useful, relevant content can build trust with a prospect and get them ready to buy.

Lead Nurturing — Lead nurturing refers to email marketing structured in a series of emails containing sequential content. Lead nurturing emails (campaigns) are often triggered by specific landing pages. Because of their specific triggers and sequence, lead nurturing campaigns can be more relevant, and thus more likely to engage prospects.

Marketing Automation — Marketing Automation refers to email marketing and lead nurturing where the email sequence and content is based on data the recipient has allowed you to collect. For example, if a visitor downloaded a whitepaper, you might want to send them a series of related emails, but if they follow you on Twitter and visited specific pages on your website, you might want to change the messaging.

analyze Tactics Analysis is the critical third category of inbound marketing tactics. Once you start attracting people to your site with blogging, social media and SEO, and once you start converting those new website visitors into leads and customers, you need to begin analyzing your sales and marketing funnel and figure out ways to make it more efficient.

Key Metrics — Most inbound marketers use the sales and marketing funnel to frame their analysis. They look at the following funnel metrics: Website Visitors — A measure of the top of your sales and marketing funnel; these are people who found your site. They need to be converted to leads and then customers.

Leads — A measure of the middle of your funnel. These are people who visited your site and did something (usually filled out a form) to identify themselves. Once website visitors identify themselves and become leads, you can begin the conversation needed to turn them into customers.

Customers — The bottom of your funnel — the goal!

Conversion Rates — A conversion rate is the percentage of people who move from one stage of your funnel to the next. If 2% of your website visitors become leads, your visitor-tolead conversion rate is 2%.

Benchmarks — Benchmarks are data from peers for any metric you track. For example, conversion rate benchmarks allow you to see how your own conversion rates compare to those of similar businesses.

Content Performance — Each type of content you produce should be tracked independently. You want to see how well each type of content is attracting people to your website, and how frequently specific pieces and types of content are used in the process of converting leads to customers.

Method of Analysis — Inbound marketing analysis should begin with a series of questions designed to pinpoint the place where you have the most leverage as a marketer — the place where you have the greatest opportunity to make changes that could result in increased sales. Here’s the series of questions you want to start with: • How do your website visitor numbers compare to your peers? (Use your benchmarks to determine this.) If you’re behind your competitors, you know you need to improve the top of the funnel (get more traffic); if you’re ahead of your competition, move to the next question.

• Are you getting as many leads as your competitors? How does your visitor-to-lead conversion rate compare? If you’re below your benchmarks for leads and visitor-to-lead conversion, you should dive into your middle-ofthe-funnel Convert process, and figure out how to improve your results.

• Are you happy with your lead volume, but not your sales numbers? In that case, examine your sales process (the bottom of your funnel). What can you do to improve your lead nurturing and sales techniques to make more of your leads convert?

Goal Setting — Inbound marketing analysis allows businesses to set and track specific ConTinueD on PaGe 16

number 145

IN PRACTICE 3

introduction to holistic Management—

A New Approach

A

s HMI works to make our curriculum even more accessible and useful to farmers and ranchers, we’ve reworked the introductory curriculum with the help of an educational consultant. We surveyed Certified Educators and many different people we have been teaching this material to over the years to see what they had found helpful and difficult to understand and implement. While the framework remains essentially the same, the way we articulate it has changed to make it easier to understand. We will be using this curriculum for HMI-sponsored Introduction to Holistic Management courses going forward. After doing some beta testing and getting feedback for fine tuning, we’d like to share with our network the revised Holistic Management® Framework.

The Principles Holistic Management is based on two key principles: 1) Nature functions in wholes 2) Understand your environment The first principle focuses on the idea of holism, helping us to shift our paradigm to focus on building symbiotic relationships in all our management decisions. We have to pay attention to the relationships between the different aspects of the whole. Anytime you change one thing, it impacts other areas of your life. We keep that in mind with Holistic Management by using a holistic goal to help us keep focused on the big picture and reduce unintended consequences.

The second principle is to help people focus on understanding that all tools do not have the same effect in different environments.

We must determine where the environment we are managing is on the brittleness scale (a scale linked to humidity and how quickly dead vegetation breaks down). In a rainforest (a 1 on the scale) there’s lots of humidity and vegetation decomposes quickly. In a desert (a 10 on the scale), there’s little humidity and vegetation decomposes slowly. With this principle we remember that there are no one size fits all solutions. What may be a “best management practice” in one area of the world could cause problems in another area.

The Practices The six key steps to practicing Holistic Management are: 1) Define what you manage 2) State what you want 3) Aim for healthy soil 4) Consider all tools 5) Test your decisions 6) Monitor your results 4 IN PRACTICE

Practice one— Define what you manage Define what you manage is looking at the inventory that you are managing. The two key areas of that inventory to define are your management team (decision makers) and your assets. When defining the management team you focus on who is making management decisions at the various levels of managements. Those people are the ones that should help create a holistic goal and who must have ownership in it. All your assets include what we used to refer to as your “resource base,” which include clients and vendors, tangible assets like buildings, equipment, and livestock, and money. Knowing what your inventory is then allows you to better manage it. This step can make you further aware of the influences impacting the inventory that you manage and how you affect them.

Practice Two— State what you want Working with your other decisions makers on your management team, begin the process of creating your holistic goal—describing the life you want to live, based on your deepest values.

To create your holistic goal, ask your management team to describe: 1) The quality of life desired (Quality of Life) 2) What you need to create or produce to live that life (Behaviors, Systems, & Processes) 3) What must exist to sustain that life in the future (Vision) These three different pieces of a holistic goal help the team define the quality of life they want right now which motivates them to manage toward the common ground articulated. It also helps them identify the behaviors, systems, and processes they must put in place to get there.

Lastly, it helps them articulate their vision for the future with the legacy they want to leave in regards to their relationships with their communities and the land by describing:

September / october 2012

1) How you have to behave 2) The future landscape 3) The future community In this way the holistic goal provides guidance for both short and long-term decision-making.

If you are part of an organization, department, division, or other unit formed for a specific purpose, you will also need to create a mission statement that articulates and clarifies that purpose. Doing so will improve internal alignment and decision making. You must answer the question, “What were we formed to do?” Individuals and farm families do not need to create a mission statement but may choose to do so.

Practice Three— aim for healthy soil This practice uses four fundamental ecosystem processes in Nature, so you can begin to assess the health of your land and consider it in your management decisions. The four ecosystem processes are: 1) Water Cycle 2) Mineral Cycle 3) Energy Flow 4) Biological Community The earliest indicator of ecosystem health is soil cover and soil health. If there is 100% soil cover, made up of living and decaying plants and a great diversity of species, you likely have a healthy environment. You must have a good understanding of ecosystem health to be able to do the next practice effectively.

Practice Four— Consider all tools available The tools for managing ecosystem processes fall into six broad categories: 1) Human Creativity 2) Technology 3) Rest 4) Fire 5) Animals and Living Organisms 6) Money and Labor Human creativity and money and labor are required in using the other tools. In land management, fire, rest, and technology are the most used tools to modify our ecosystem.

However, animals and living organisms can help improve land health, water infiltration, and the land’s ability to sequester carbon through grazing and the animal impact of many different species.

Tools are neither good nor bad and should

Ultimately, we are looking at whether the action or decision meets the triple bottom line you have articulated in your holistic goal. These seven tests supplement other considerations when making a decision (research, intuition, cash flow, etc.). The seven tests are:

be managed within the context of your management inventory. Consider your holistic goal and the degree of brittleness of the environment you manage, along with other factors before you decide whether or not a particular tool is suitable.

1) Root Cause—Does this action address the root cause of the problem?

Practice Five— Test your decisions

2) Weak Link a. Social—Are there any social concerns regarding this action? b. Biological—Does this action address the weakest point in the life cycle of this organism?

The seven Holistic Management testing questions help us sift through the many factors and complex variables to get to the heart of the matter and help improve decision-making.

Holistic Management® Framework

,QYHQWRU\

0DQDJHPHQW 7HDP

:KROH 8QGHU 0DQDJHPHQW

0LVVLRQ 6WDWHPHQW

3UDFWLFH 7KUHH

(FRV\VWHP 3URFHVVHV

3UDFWLFH )RXU

7RROV IRU 0DQDJLQJ (FRV\VWHP 3URFHVVHV

3ODQQLQJ DQG 0RQLWRULQJ 3URFHVVHV

4XDOLW\ RI /LIH DQG 9DOXHV

%HKDYLRUV DQG 6\VWHPV

%LRORJLFDO &RPPXQLW\

+XPDQ &UHDWLYLW\

:DWHU &\FOH

7HFKQRORJ\

)LQDQFLDO 3ODQQLQJ

9LVLRQ

0LQHUDO &\FOH

5HVW

)LUH

$QLPDOV DQG /LYLQJ 2UJDQLVPV

*UD]LQJ 3ODQQLQJ

/DQG 3ODQQLQJ

(QHUJ\ )ORZ

0RQH\ DQG /DERU

%LRORJLFDO 0RQLWRULQJ

3UDFWLFH )LYH 7HVWLQJ 4XHVWLRQ &DWHJRULHV

3UDFWLFH 6L[

)HHGEDFN /RRS

5RRW &DXVH

:HDN /LQN

5) Investment Analysis—Is the energy or money to be used in this action derived from the most appropriate source in terms of your holistic goal? Will the way the energy or money is to be used lead toward your holistic goal?

You may test decisions individually on a day-to-day basis or you will make higher level decisions as part of your strategic plan that will be based in your financial planning, biological monitoring, land planning, or grazing planning (or other production planning you do).

3UDFWLFH 7ZR +ROLVWLF *RDO

4) Gross Profit Analysis—Which enterprises contribute most to cover the fixed costs (overhead) of the business?

7) Gut Check—Considering all the testing questions and your holistic goal, how do you feel about this action or decision now?

$VVHWV

3XUSRVH

3) Comparing Options—Which action gets the “biggest bang for the buck” toward your holistic goal? Where is your highest return?

6) Vision Analysis—Does this action lead toward or away from the Vision articulated in your holistic goal?

3ULQFLSOHV 1DWXUH IXQFWLRQV LQ ZKROHV 8QGHUVWDQG \RXU HQYLURQPHQW 3UDFWLFH 2QH

c. Financial—Does this action address the weakest link in the chain of production?

In my enterprise, what single thing will have the greatest positive impact on my chain of production?

&RPSDULQJ *URVV 3UR¿W ,QYHVWPHQW 9LVLRQ 2SWLRQV $QDO\VLV $QDO\VLV $QDO\VLV

*XW &KHFN

Practice Six—Monitor your results Before you begin to implement a decision, consider any unintended consequences that could arise from your actions. Determine the earliest warning signs that might say you’re going off track. Monitor those indicators carefully; take action if things start to go wrong or circumstances change.

We hope these revisions have made the curriculum more inviting and easier to understand so that more farmers and ranchers will shift their thinking and behavior toward a more holistic approach to agriculture.

We are working on developing an online course from this material as well, so look for an announcement in the next IN PRACTICE and on our website to learn more when this will be offered.

3ODQ $VVXPH FKDQJH

5HSODQ

0RQLWRU &RQWURO &RQWURO

+ROLVWLF 0DQDJHPHQW ,QWHUQDWLRQDO

Have questions?

Like to share your feedback regarding these changes to the framework? Send an email to anna@holisticmanagement.org.

number 145

IN PRACTICE 5

Managing Quail Habitat

by Frank araGona

A

fter HMI’s very successful and exciting Cows and Quail workshop in Van Horn Texas this July, I’ve learned a lot about quail and their habitat requirements. Dr. Dale Rollins is a quail specialist and was a designated facilitator during the two-day workshop. Much of the information in this article comes directly from Dr. Rollins’ experience and expertise.

There are many quail species in North America, but for the purposes of the Cows and Quail workshop we were primarily focused on two species: Bobwhite Quail and Scaled Quail. The Northern Bobwhite Quail is a species found throughout North America, and there are 21 recognized subspecies, the majority of which are found in the United States or Northern Mexico. Scaled Quail are confined mostly to the Southwestern United States, with their range extending into Central Mexico.

A major focus of our workshop was learning about the varied habitat requirements of different wildlife species. Along with the two species of quail described above, we also learned about the habitat requirements of pronghorn, big horn sheep, and mule deer. In broad terms, many wildlife species require similar things to thrive. We chose to focus on the basics in our workshop: food, water, cover, and home range.

■ Food: Quail are omnivores; they will eat a

diversity of plants and insects to meet their daily nutritional requirements. In terms of vegetation, quail rely heavily on forbs, herbaceous flowering plants that are not grasses. Forbs, therefore, are an excellent indicator of the suitability of an area to support a healthy quail population. Insects are also a good food source for quail; therefore, it is critical to have diverse vegetation, both in terms of species diversity and geometric growth form, to support large numbers of insects that are accessible to ground dwelling birds. Dr. Rollins showed us a brief field video that demonstrated the great diversity of insects that are found in a strip of sunflowers that colonized an area that was disked for this purpose.

■ Water: Water should be available at a

distance of half a mile between water points.

GIS maps can be used as a land planning tool to determine areas where water is scarce, which may help to make decisions as water development progresses on the landscape.

Many ranchers modify troughs and watering points to accommodate ground dwelling birds like quail. This is done by adding ramps both on the exterior and interior of a trough. The exterior ramp allows the quail to get up to the trough to get a drink, and the interior ramp gives the birds an exit if they should fall in or if they are unable to reach the water from the top.

distance of approximately every 50 yards.

Bobwhites require the same sized brush, but at 5 to 25% of the land area and at distance of every 25 yards. As a species that is restricted primarily to arid rangelands, Scaled Quail have limited needs for dense grass cover. Sparse bunch grasses and forbs should provide sufficient grass cover for Scaled Quail, but Bobwhites require basketball sized bunchgrasses and annual forbs at somewhat higher densities.

One key challenge for land managers in arid environments is maintaining adequate grass cover in grazed areas. Several strategies exist to deal with this challenge. One simple strategy is to lower your stocking rate. And while this is a simple strategy, it is likely a big decision for most producers and should be approached with careful deliberation. First and foremost, the manager must weigh the cost of doing so with the potential gains from additional hunting revenues. Grazing planning is another useful way to manage grass cover. As most readers know, one useful outcome of a well developed grazing plan is the ability to control residual forage. Consider shortening your grazing periods and/or lengthening your recovery periods to allow for full sufficient grass

■ Cover: Quail also require cover, which they use for a number of different purposes: protection from predators, nesting, feeding, and sleeping. Here is where there are some subtle but important differences between Bobwhite and Scaled Quail. Scaled require scattered brush cover, about the size of a pickup truck, at 5 to 15% of the land area with a 6 IN PRACTICE

September / october 2012

coverage. Monitor the results of your planning on the landscape as you go.

In moist environments, grass cover can become too thick for quail, which can restrict mobility thereby decreasing habitat suitability.

In this situation, it is much easier to use grazing and animal impact as a tool to improve ecosystem geometry. Design your grazing plan to allow for adequate residual cover, and also manage stock density such that some of the residual cover is trampled to the ground, which will free up some space while improving the water and mineral cycle.

■ Home Range: Finally, be aware of the habitat and range size of quail. In general, quail are less mobile than most other wildlife species.

Quail have been known to move large distances, sometimes as much as 20 miles or greater; the reasons for this are unknown.

Fortunately, quail generally like to stay in a fairly small home range. In the case of Bobwhite, the home range is generally 20 to 50 acres in size, while the Scaled home range is between 80 and 300 acres in size. If your ranch or farm is smaller than this yet still home to quail populations, consider including your neighbors in some of your planning exercises. What they do will also affect the hunting and wildlife value of your property. If your ranch is large enough to accommodate quail, take a look at your land plan and consider if you are allowing for connected corridors of habitat to allow quail populations to intermingle and move naturally across the landscape.

In conclusion, cows and quail can cohabitate the same environment, and both can thrive. In arid environments, managers must be careful not to damage the grass cover that quail require. In higher rainfall areas, cattle and other domestic livestock are a useful tool for managing the landscape towards the unique requirements of ground dwelling quail. As always, plan accordingly and monitor your results.

This is a quail-eye view of the kind of cover and food source that makes up good quail habitat.

Building Market Demand—

The Kitchen Garden by ann aDaMS

C

aroline Pam originally went to culinary school and traveled abroad as part of her love for good food. She also had a stint as a farm market manager where she met her husband, Tim Wilcox. Their common love of “Vegetables with Taste” (The Kitchen Garden’s tagline) led them to start The Kitchen Garden in Sunderland and Hadley, Massachusetts.

The Kitchen Garden’s primary focus is on food lovers—providing them with great healthy food raised sustainably. Caroline wants people to realize how delicious the food is and how much flavor there are in vegetables. She also shares with people how to cook the food to bring those flavors out. Between radio, TV, newspaper, and web outreach, Caroline has spent considerable effort to share her knowledge and story as well as her food. The Kitchen Garden started on one acre then grew to 2 acres, then 4, then 7, and now is 20 acres, growing to supply market demand that is a result of good marketing strategy and implementation.

Market Focus The Kitchen Garden has three primary markets: Farmer’s Markets, wholesale to restaurants and retail stores, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares. While there is nothing unusual about that market strategy, her implementation certainly has a creative flair.

When the farm first began, Caroline was in the field all the time. But when her children, Lily and Oliver, came along she switched to the management and marketing side of the business more. In 2010, she participated in HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer program to continue to develop her business management skills.

One way to increase the sales at the four farmer’s markets they supply was to offer a prepaid debit card, called a Market Share, that people can buy food with as part of a gourmet CSA option. “People need to buy with the card before December 31st,” says Caroline. “That way we have a clean slate going into the following year and people buy the products before the card expires.” Add to this flexibility of purchasing and diversity of offerings a robust

Tim and Caroline with Lily and Oliver at The Kitchen Garden’s farmer market stand.

social media effort that includes blogs, electronic farm journal, email list, spots on TV and radio, and you have a very active marketing campaign.

“Marketing is about consistent communication,” says Caroline. Getting a customer’s email is critical to begin that communication process. You can begin to have pre-season conversations to get them ready and interested in the growing season.

Part of that communication is visual, such as always showing greens fresh and keeping them cool to look their best. “The more you know about your product, the more you are able to sell it,” says Caroline. “People need encouragement. Give out free samples and give them ideas of how to use the ingredients.”

The farmer’s markets are a place to engage new customers as well as develop your relationship with current customers. Each farmer’s market is different, so there is a thought process behind deciding which market you want to engage in. “Each market has very distinct customers,” says Caroline. “For example, the Springfield market is very diverse.

Some are there for a bargain and are looking for price. Then there are the serious food lovers that want something new. Finally, there are the moms that buy food that their families will eat.

We take that into account as we select and prepare for those markets.”

All that marketing doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, but it does require some thinking to maximize marketing effort. Caroline says, “How you market your product makes a huge difference in getting free advertising.”

For example, The Kitchen Garden uses reusable plastic tote boxes with their logo on the side. The cost is $8/each and it’s part of the CSA cost. They not only serve to transport vegetables, but are free advertising as CSA members tote their food or leave the box around their house.

Having plastic tote boxes with The Kitchen Garden logo on it works nicely for their CSA (reusable containers that keep on advertising).

Chef Demand Caroline also spends a lot of time developing successful relationships with restaurants and the chefs who make the purchasing decisions. She encourages farmers to talk with the chefs at restaurants to find out what they want and to see if they are willing to buy smaller quantities if you don’t have a lot of a particular item. She also suggested that you can sell as little as 2 bunches of parsley and six heads of lettuce if it works for you economically.

In fact, delivering these smaller amounts can be a service differentiation. The key is to have some personality, a story to tell that the chef can in turn tell to his or her clients. It also pays to be organized and have an email list and price list so ordering is easy. Don’t wait for the chef to call you. Call the chef. “Mention what they haven’t ordered,” suggests Caroline. “Check to see if they are interested in other products. Eat out at the restaurants you sell to and check about the food preparation.

Caroline said that when you are building relationships with restaurants to purchase produce, it’s critical to learn what the chef wants.

You need to find out who has the authority and how they prefer to be contacted and at what time of day. If you have your product and price list, you are better prepared to know who to call and highlight certain items for certain restaurants. The more you can get these restaurants on schedules, the easier it is to manage the product delivery.

Production & Marketing Caroline found that the gross profit analysis is critical to determine what to grow. She has found bunched roots, lettuce, and herbs to be profitable products for her farm. But her product ConTinueD on PaGe 8

number 145

IN PRACTICE 7

The kitchen Garden

continued from page seven

mix has evolved based on what people are excited about. Certainly you need a critical quantity to garner interest and to make delivery financially feasible, but that doesn’t preclude offering some options and novelty items, or accepting requests. “Get what people are used to, but slightly different and cooler,” says Caroline. “If there are some crops you just can’t give up, create a ‘pet’ garden for your pet projects, but phase them out of your production mix. For a successful business, you have to grow what you can sell a lot of.”

When The Kitchen Garden moved to a very narrow farm, they had to reconsider if they wanted organic status because the buffer on both sides of her land meant very little would actually be considered organic. Many of the farm practices would fall into the organic regulations, such as dealing with weeds with stale bedding and flame weeding, but instead of pushing for organic status, the marketing statement behind the production decision is: “Are we organic? We only use products and techniques that have been approved for organic agriculture. But technically, we cannot call ourselves organic because we have chosen not to certify with the USDA. We think this is an unnecessary step because we have such a close relationship with our customers.

They know us and what we care about, and our vegetables speak for themselves.”

Pricing is a critical part of marketing that is directly related to cost of production.

While there are many price reports to use when pricing your product, you can’t forget your cost of production and the type of product you are selling. “There’s a tendency to want to dump your product by reducing your price,” says Caroline. “It’s not a good move to make because you can’t talk people back up. It also is not good for other farmers. You really need to determine the right price, then find the right buyer. Sure, if you have seconds then you can price accordingly.”

To maximize production and profitability, The Kitchen Garden double crops. This intense growing season means they have three full-time employees, two to three apprentices, and three summer workers. Now that they have high tunnel greenhouses, they have extended their season to year-round.

Gourmet CSa The Kitchen Garden CSA is a little more involved than the average CSA. It’s really a hybrid of a buyer’s club and a CSA. Market Share is a new kind of CSA that offers more choice and flexibility than a traditional farmshare. Customers can pick out what they want from any of The Kitchen Garden’s farmers' market stands in four locations.

Members can choose to join at the Small Share of $325 or Full Share levels at $550. Market Share members are also welcome to harvest herbs, cherry tomatoes, peas, beans and flowers from the pick-your-own garden in Hadley. There is also a “Fruit Share” which was developed with a partnership with local fruit producers.

Likewise, there are Winter and Spring Shares available to keep customers loyal during the off-seasons.

Marketing can be a lot of work and it helps to have one farm member focused on that effort to make sure that it happens with the quality and consistency necessary.

But if you are trying to maximize income from production, marketing is a critical piece of selling the amount of product you want at the price you want. Caroline’s key advice regarding marketing? “Know your numbers.” If you know what it cost to produce and what you need to make the profit you want, then you are more motivated and able to develop and implement the marketing plan that will get you there.

Market Your Farm Products Effectively

by Sanne kure-JenSen

M

ost farmers focus on production and don’t spend nearly enough effort on marketing. As with any business, this effort is critical to our success. Sherry Simpson of Cranberry Hill Farm shared her marketing experience at the Beginning Women Farmer Conference at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts in March of this year. Her threestep approach was simple, inexpensive and successful: Tell your story, Create a logo and Accessorize. Simpson’s consumer-focused marketing strategies help her run a successful, profitable farm in Ashford, Connecticut.

Holistic Management considers three product phases: Resource conversion or growing, Product Conversion or harvest/ processing and Marketing Conversion or selling. Marketing and selling are often the weakest links in the Farm to Eater process.

As with any Whole Farm Management approach, Simpson recommended addressing the weak link with a variety of low cost or free marketing techniques.

Marketing Everything the consumer experiences, from the way your phone is answered, your business card, Farmers’ Market display or website, to a story in the paper is part of your business marketing. Make sure the message says what you want it to say.

Customers today want an “experience” rather than a “product.” If you aren’t interested in working directly with customers, Simpson suggests you hire someone who is more outgoing or sell wholesale.

Today’s trendy restaurants promote menus with “local” produce, greens and meats.

Customers recognize the health benefits of eating fresh, local produce and pastured or free-range meats. Buyers support local farmers directly at Farmers’ Markets and Farm Stands, or indirectly where local farms’ products are featured in restaurants and grocery stores.

Tell your Story For more marketing/pricing resources that Caroline suggested, go to her powerpoint presentation for the Beginning Women Farmer Conference at: http://holisticmanagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Farm-to-Restaurant.pdf.

Caroline Pam can be reached at: carolinepam@gmail.com.

8 IN PRACTICE

September / october 2012

“You are Local!” said Simpson. Be sure you remind customers and sell your farm and farm family. Tell what you grow and how; explain why are you a farmer and when you started farming.

Is it a multigenerational effort? Brag to your customers if you use best management

Art Talmadge and Sherry Simpson at their farmer’s market booth marketing their farm products. practices, organics or integrated pest management practices. Explain why you chose or didn’t choose heirloom varieties or breeds.

Was it for disease resistance, flavor or consistency of the crop, etc? Assume that your customers are not home gardeners and will need details.

Branding/logo Design a logo and use it on everything.

Make it simple and clear. It could just be as basic as your farm name with an oval around it.

The least expensive option is a one color logo.

If you don’t feel creative, select a Clip Art image for free at microsoft.com or request a designer proposal at crowdspring.com.

Have this logo printed or sewn on shirts, coats, hats and/or aprons to wear at Farmers’ Markets, Farm Stands, CSA pickups or during deliveries. See the “Displays” section below for more on Farmers’ Market and Farm Stand signage.

To improve your credibility, use every appropriate partner logo on your brochures, fliers, website and Facebook page. Include your state department of agriculture logo, Harvest New England and Slow Food USA. If you are a member of NOFA, a Chamber of Commerce or other associations, include their logo as well. Be sure to request permission from the organization and have them send you a high resolution image rather than just pulling it from their websites. For member organizations, be sure you keep your membership current.

accessorize—Print Create business cards, product signs, tri-fold brochures, rack cards and signs. Each spring, or for special events, print and mail post cards.

Simpson creates her promotional materials on her home computer. She supports a local printer, Staples, OfficeMax or orders inexpensively from Vista Print and uses free templates at Microsoft.com and Vistaprint.com.

Be sure your rack cards have your farm logo, contact information, web site, directions and something unique about you. Always carry business cards and rack cards. Bring rack cards to your local library, your town hall, local stores, Chamber of Commerce, Visitors’ Bureau, garden centers and other relevant sites.

Place your Farmers’ Market or Farm Stand hours in the free calendar listings in your local newspaper, www.Patch.com and other online calendars. Check with your local or state Visitors’ Bureau, tourism office or Chamber of Commerce to investigate their listing options.

buy the last of anything. Include something yellow for its eye-catching appeal.

Label everything at Farmers’ Markets and at Farm Stands. Print up 4 by 6 cards with your farm logo and your various product names and laminate them. You can use a wax pencil or marker to write in your prices. Post these up high in your tent. Make another set of cards with two or three brief, interesting facts about each item such as: especially sweet, long keeper, heirloom variety, organically grown, Italian seed, great with ___ and include a cooking or recipe suggestion. Put these near the products.

Consider offering recipe cards (with your logo, website and contact information) for customers to take with them.

accessorize—Web

Be sure you evaluate your real production costs. Your time is valuable. Set your prices to make a reasonable profit. Educate your customers that you deserve a living wage just as they do. Do not look around at other Farmers’ Market vendors and match or undercut their prices. This approach makes everyone lose money on their efforts and products. You will do better to offer a quality product, display it in an attractive manner and act courteously.

Establish a presence on the internet. Take advantage of all the free listings you can: your state’s department of agriculture and any member associations you belong to like a livestock association or Chamber of Commerce.

Keep a list and be sure to update all these listings if you change your hours or want to promote a special event.

You can get national/international exposure with a free web page at LocalHarvest.org, Facebook.com or SmallFarmCentral.com. Your page should include a farm description, images, contact information, where you sell, farm or Farmers’ Market hours, directions or map, a farm story and special farming practices. Add your farm and business associations, partners, product list, dates products available and customer reviews. For about $50/year you can be a part of the www.eatwild.org site. You may also choose to invest in your own website.

Facebook or a blog allows you to have a conversation with your customers.

You can see Cranberry Hill Farm’s listings and websites at LocalHarvest.org, Facebook.com, farmfresh.org, and NEHBC.org.

Search or Google your farm name frequently and see what is out there. You may wish to link to a favorable story from your site. If there is an error posted, get it corrected right away.

Displays Use a simple long, one-color tablecloth over your Farmers Market display table. Let your products be the colorful focus. Use multilevel displays between waist height and eye level.

Always make bountiful displays. Refill the baskets or bins from backups in coolers under the tables, switch to smaller baskets or add something when you run low. Customers never

Be Profitable

Get The Word out Simpson urged farmers to stay in touch with your State’s Department of Agriculture, Tourism Office and Visitors Bureau to learn about regional and local events. Participate in every relevant event you can for exposure to customers and to get your name out. Some states have a state-wide farm weekend; if your site and insurance can support it, participate in that tour. Encourage farm visitors (on specific days and times) through your mailings rack cards and website.

Get media coverage whenever you can.

Invite local and regional reporters to join your email and postcard mailing list. Include television, print and online contacts. Contact them directly when you have a photo op or write and send press releases yourself.

To learn more about Cranberry Hill Farm, go to http://www.localharvest.org/cranberry-hillfarm-M20409 or visit the farm's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cranberryhillfarm. If you have questions on marketing, contact Sherry Simpson at simpsontalmadge@aol.com or 860429-3923. A similar story appeared in the June 11, 2012 New England issue of Country Folks and was posted at examiner.com.

number 145

IN PRACTICE 9

liVeSToCk

&

Nutrient Dense Grazing by liSa McCrory

After completing a course in 2011 on Nutrient Dense Farming (www.realfoodcampaign.org), Lisa was inspired to use this newfound information and apply it to her pastures and gardens. Taking a close look at her soil tests, she gained a deeper understanding of the soil’s excesses and deficiencies, and came up with a strategy to increase the biological activity in her soil, the health of her plants a nd, the nutritional quality in the pastures and gardens. This article will take you through the process of what has been done on Earthwise Farm and Forest, the economics behind it, some observations from the 2011 growing season, and thoughts and plans for 2012.

E

arthwise Farm and Forest consists of 158 acres of which 125 acres are actively managed forest and 8 acres is currently open and used for pasture and vegetable crops. An additional 16 acres are leased and used for pasture.

Much of the leased land has come under our management over the past 4-8 years and prior to that had been over grazed or neglected. We have been making improvements on these pieces by employing Management Intensive Grazing and holistic planned grazing, and providing water in the paddocks for more efficient grazing and more control over where the manure is deposited. We also drag the pastures in the spring and clip pastures at least once a year, or when necessary.

It was clear from the animal productivity, plant species, and total dry matter harvested each season that our grazing management was making a difference, but there was a lot of room for improvement. We know that if our land is more productive, that we would be able to harvest some of the surplus feed for winter feeding. I knew that we could make incredible strides if we were to take some soil tests and address some of the acute deficiencies and imbalances.

In 2011, I enrolled in the Nutrient Dense Farming class, offered by the Real Food Campaign (www.realfoodcampaign.org) and taught by Dan Kittredge. This course helped me develop a deeper understanding of what it means to have healthy balanced soils and how that impacts: 1) feed and food quality; 2) disease resistance; 3) pest resistance; and 4) the volume of the feed and food produced. I used the knowledge gleaned from this class in addressing deficiencies in our pastures and gardens and would like to share with you some of our activities and plans for the future.

Soil Tests Reading and understanding the soil test was the first step. By reading the soil test I could identify the deficiencies and imbalances in our 10

Land & Livestock

September / october 2012

Bazel spending some time with his chickens in their chicken tractor.

pastures and gardens, and then determine which organically approved fertilizers I wanted to apply to address those deficiencies. Then I would need to calculate the volume (lbs/acre) of each amendment that would be needed to bring the soil to perfect balance.

Finances With limited cash reserves, we needed to look at what was needed, calculate the costs, determine what we could afford, and then cut the amendments to a volume that was practical within our budget. We also created a wish list of additional amendments that we would add if time and resources became available.

logistics Knowing what to add was actually the easiest part to this project. Finding out where to get the amendments, getting a reasonable price, and determining how it was going to be delivered and applied was almost more challenging.

Our farm is relatively small and almost all of the fields needing attention do not have easy access, nor do we have a

Percentages of Nutrients in various mined minerals Magnesium Sulfate (epsom salts) = 20% Mg, 30% S Gypsum = 23% Ca, 19% S Sul-Po-Mag = 22%S, 22% K, 11% Mg Soft Rock Phosphate = 22% P, 20% Ca Hi Cal Lime = 38-40% Ca Dolomitic Lime = 30% Ca, 10% Mg P2O5: 75 ppm P x 4.6 = 350 #/acre P2O5

These Belgian cross gelding (left) and Belgian mare (right) are used for draft power at Earthwise Farm and Forest.

2011 nutrients and Cost

good location for amendments to be dropped off (volume loads) and then spread. Our methods of application were: 1) lime spreader, pulled by our horses, 2) backpack sprayer (liquid application), 3) spreading by hand from a wheel barrow (micro nutrients).

Grazing Management In order to plan our grazing season we need to write down a number of factors including: 1) Animal groups grazing on our farm: Draft Horses(2), Dairy Cow and Calves (3), Steers (5), Turkeys (50), Meat Birds (50), Layers (30), Layer Replacements (15), Sows and piglet s (6-8) 2) Identifying which animals can move large distances and which ones stick to a particular piece of ground. We also will start our pigs in a different location each year.

3) How often we plan to move various groups. A new paddock is given every 12-48 hours, with the exception of the pigs, who work larger sections of land for weeks at a time.

4) Planning for clipping, reseeding, dragging, possible hay harvest for 2012 5) Making sure that there is water in each paddock 6) Time to do some biological monitoring over the grazing season: Making note of pre and post grazing height, palatability, milk production, plant species, plant density, regrowth time, etc.

Taking the Nutrient Dense Farming Course, I became more appreciative of a broad spectrum of nutrients (beyond the N, P, and K), and their importance in producing food that is more nutritious and resistant to disease and pest infestations. I have enjoyed using the soil testing services provided by Logan Laboratories, as they provide clear information on many of the macro and micro nutrients, and provide ‘ideal’ and ‘actual’ readings so that I can identify deficiencies and excesses and use this information in my fertilizer amendment plans.

Based upon the soil test results of our primary grazing acreage (10 acres), the pastures were low in Potassium, Phosphorous, Sulfur, Calcium, Magnesium, Boron, Manganese, Zinc, and Cobalt. The pH for all the fields ranged from 5.4 to 5.9. It was not my intention to add amendments on the fields to bring them to their ‘optimum’ condition for a few reasons: 1) Too much at once could shock the system, and we were not turning over the sod; this would all be applied as a broadcast on the pastures, 2) I was more interested in seeing a gradual improvement so that I could see how the biological system would respond; my theory is that as the conditions become more favorable for soil microbes, earthworms and the like, that their increased activity will also contribute to soil nutrients being more available to the plants, and 3) We did not have the financial resources to address 100% of the needs; we applied about 50% or what was suggested.

Monitoring and evaluating For 2011 and 2012, we have been keeping track of the pounds of dry matter harvested per acre over the growing season on each of our fields.

One of the record keeping forms we used was HMI’s Grazing Planning and Control Chart. Since we were not harvesting any feed mechanically in 2011, we calculated the volume of dry matter harvested by grazing, plus any feed that was mowed and left as feed for the plants. Since we have not had sufficient quantity or quality of surplus feed, we have chosen to ‘clip and mulch’ if pasture gets a little ahead of us as a way of adding extra nutrients to those pastures, encourage grass and legume species and discourage unwanted weed species.

We also took forage samples in August, 2011 and plan to continue monitoring plant regrowth and quality year after year—taking note of the particular growing season (hot/wet/dry/cold…), determine impact of management, applications and the growing season in general.

Tamworth/Berkshire crosses are the heritage hogs for sale at Earthwise.

Important Conversion Values

Trace Elements

PPM = Parts per million PPA = Pounds per Acre PPA = 2(PPM)

Solubor = 20% Boron

There are 2 million lbs of soil in the top 6 inches of soil 500 lbs per acre = 11. 5 lbs per 1000 sq feet 100 lbs per acre = 2.3 lbs per 1000 sq feet 20 lbs per acre = .46 lbs per 1000 sq feet 5 lbs per acre = 2 ounces per 1000 sq feet

number 145

Borax = 11% Boron Cobalt Sulfate = 27% copper Manganese Sulfate = 32% Manganese

ConTinueD on PaGe 12

Land & Livestock

11

nutrient Dense Grazing

Macro and Micro Nutrients Potassium: Ideal balance = 3-5% base saturation (780 CEC x % saturation %200 = ppm), Ca:K ratio 10:1 Best Sources: Potassium sulfate, Bio-cal Note: Excessive levels of potassium can crowd out calcium and magnesium, resulting in deficiencies of these cations. In dairy cattle low Mg and Ca and high K can lead to ‘grass tetany’ (hypomagnesemia) and milk fever (hypocalcemia).

Benefits: 1) Stalk strength, lodging resist ance 2) Improves winter hardiness 3) Disease resistance 4) Protein production 5) Carbohydrate production; sugar translocation 6) Enzyme function 7) Cell division Magnesium: Ideal balance = 12-15% saturation (240 CEC x % saturation % 200 = ppm, Ca:Mg ratio 5:1 Best Sources: Magnesium sulfate, Sul-Po-Mag Benefits: 1) Key element in chlorophyll 2) Protein production 3) Enzyme functions 4) Energy release in cells 5) Aids in phosphorous uptake 6) Oil formation 7) Starch translocation Calcium: Ideal balance = 70-80% saturation (400 CEC x % saturation % 200 = ppm), Ca:K ratio 10:1, Ca:Mg ratio 5:1 Best sources = Bio-Cal, Calcium Sulfate (gypsum), High Calcium Lime (low Mg), Ida-Phos Benefits: 1) Improves soil structure 2) Stimulates soil microbes and earthworms 3) Mobilizes nutrient s into plant 4) Increases Nitrogen utilization, protein content 5) Root & leaf growth 6) Cell division 7) Builds cell walls 8) Enzyme functions 9) Increases sugar content of plant 10) Promotes overall plant health 11) High quality grain or fruit Phosphorous: Ideal Balance = P1 (available): 25-50 ppm, P2 (reserve): 50-100 ppm Best sources: Monoammonium phosphate, Idaho phosphate (Ida-phos), N.Carolina phosphate Benefits: 1) Fast & vigorous growth 2) Good & early root growth 3) Grain development and quality 4) Hastens maturity 5) Increased N uptake 6) Increased mineral content 7) Higher sugar in plant 8) Energy release in cells 9) Cell division & enlargement 10) Photosynthesis 11) Contained in cells’ DNA

12

Land & Livestock

Sulfur: Ideal Balance = 50 ppm or 100 #/acre Best sources: Bio-Cal, Annomium sulfate, calcium sulfate (gypsum), potassium sulfate Benefits: 1) More useable protein (high quality, complete) 2) Makes soil nitrogen more available 3) Loosens, aerates soil 4) Reduces excess soil magnesium 5) Lowers soil pH 6) Energy release in cells 7) Part of vitamin B1 and biotin Zinc: Ideal balance = 5+ ppm or 10#/are Best sources: zinc sulfate Benefits: 1) Contributes to test weight 2) Increases ear size of corn 3) Promotes silking in corn 4) Hastens maturity 5) Chlorophyll formation 6) Enzyme functions 7) Regulates plant growth Manganese: Ideal balance = 20 ppm or 40#/acre – Mn/Fe ratio should be 1:1 Best sources: Manganese sulfate, 28% Benefits: 1) Normal growth and photosynthesis 2) Oil Production 3) Energy release in cells 4) Enzyme function Iron: Ideal Balance = 20 ppm or 40#/acre High iron ties up phosphorous Benefits: 1) Chlorophyll production 2) Energy release in cells 3) Needed by nitrogen-fixing bacteria Copper: Ideal Balance = 2+ ppm or 4#/acre Best sources = copper sulfate, 25% Benefits: 1) Controls mold and fungi 2) Photosynthesis 3) Releases energy in cells 4) Enzyme functions 5) Normal leaf growth 6) Increases st alk strength 7) Animal health Boron: Ideal Balance = 2+ ppm or 4#/acre Best sources = calcium borate Benefits: 1) Promotes flowering and pollen (silk & tassel in corn) 2) Seed development 3) Root and leaf growth 4) Cell wall formation 5) Protein production 6) Sugar translocation 7) Energy release in cells 8) Improves quality 9) Increases calcium uptake

September / october 2012

continued from page eleven

On the 10 acres of primary pasture (and potential hay ground),we applied (on a per acre basis) 1 ton dolomitic lime, 200# gypsum, 200# Sulpomag, 10# Solubor, 10# Zinc Sulphate, 15# Manganese Sulfate.

This came to an investment of $237/acre.

The micro nutrients were applied in the fall mixed 1:1 with humates, one of the pastures did not get the micronutrients last fall (ran out of time), but we will apply them this year. This may give us an opportunity to compare the untreated field to the one adjacent that did have micronutrients applied. We will be able to compare forage production, plant species, and perhaps feed quality.

ruminations and observations The 2011 growing season was particularly wet and rainy with a noticeable lack of sunny days, which had a direct impact on feed quality and regrowth. It was a hard year to bring in quality feed, but was a good year for grazing as the pace of the regrowth was perfect for us; it didn’t seem to slow down even in the hottest parts of the summer (late June and July). The 2012 growing season is proving to be much more favorable with an early spring, lots of hot sunny days, and ample rainfall. As a result, our pastures are growing incredibly well.

I am estimating that forage production is at least 50% greater this year than it was in 2011.

It is hard to say how much credit goes to the nutrients applied and how much goes to a warmer, sunnier growing season.

Perhaps it is a combination of the two. My understanding is that it is in year 2 and 3 after applying minerals/ nutrients to the pasture that we will see the greatest improvements. In walking the pastures with my husband in late June, we both noted how the plant species have changed significantly over the years and perhaps even more so over the past 12 months.

The population of ferns on the edge of one of the fields has dwindled significantly, and there is a much denser population of grass and legume species in the pasture. I think that the grasses and legumes have been able to compete better because we provided the right environment for them both above and below the ground.

Mob Grazing –

A Tool to Improve Pastureland by heaTher SMiTh ThoMaS

T

he term mob grazing is often used to describe short duration high-intensity grazing—with many cattle on a small area of pasture, moved once a day or several times a day to a new section of pasture. Doug Peterson, NRCS State Grassland Conservationist in Missouri, says the term mob-grazing is somewhat vague and there are many interpretations.

Mob Grazing Defined At Earthwise, the Jersey cows are milked by hand out in the field.

Due to the incredible abundance of feed this year, we decided to purchase a square baler and plan to harvest some feed in July on at least 5 of our 10 amended pasture acres. In the past (before we had our two cows and 3 steers) my husband would mow a few acres with his horses and store the hay (loose, stacked) in our neighbor’s barn. In order to store a greater amount of feed that is easier to handle and with minimal financial investment, purchasing a used square baler ($1,200) made the most sense for our farm. We do not have a tractor, so we also needed a piece of equipment that our draft horses could pull.

The cost for the 2011 amendments were: • 18 tons lime @ $52/ton delivered . . . . . . . . . . . . . $940 • 2 ton SulPo Mag/Gypsum @ $550/ton. . . . . . . . . $1100 • Micronutrients: Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Boron, Humates – applied at $75/acre . . $750 • Total amount invested on amendments for 2011 . $2,790 So have we recouped our investment from last year? Not yet, but if we manage to harvest even 150 square bales this year, that will be $600 that we will not be spending on purchased feed and about 20% of our purchased feed needs.

If we can hold steady with soil nutrients then we will pay off the investment in 5 years. Moreover, this investment will also be moving us closer towards our goal of not having to purchase any winter forages. We plan to take another soil test in 2013 to see how things have changed and will decide then whether it would be prudent to apply any additional nutrients.

I feel that with our Management Intensive Grazing and holistic planned grazing, we are making gradual improvements year after year, and anticipate that our fields will not need any additional inputs. The soil test that we take next year will be very interesting indeed and will help us assess the value and impact that the amendments had on our pastures. We may pay off our investment sooner than we think.

Lisa McCrory is a mentor and instructor for HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Program. She can be reached at: Lmccrory@hughes.net or 802/234-5524.

“Whenever someone tells me they are mob grazing, I want to know what stock density they are using, in pounds. Are they using 100,000 pounds per acre, or 10,000, or half a million pounds of animal weight?

Stock density is determined by pounds per acre, so 100 thousand-pound cows per acre would be 100,000 pounds. The calculation of stock density doesn’t take into consideration how long you leave them there (one day, half a day or two days), that’s 100,000 pounds. If you put those same 100 cows on a half acre, that’s 200,000 pounds of stock density. If the 100 cows are on 10 acres, that’s 10,000 pounds of stock density. This figure tells me almost everything I want to know. It tells me their trampling rate, how often they will be moved, and to some extent what the pasture rest period will be, and so on,” says Peterson.

“My primary experience with mob grazing comes from my own operation. We have a 200 cow-calf beef operation and run another 200 contract cows on the side. I was a soil scientist with NRCS for a while and have a strong interest in soils. I’ve been a student of Jim Gerrish’s management intensive grazing (MIG) and a student of Holistic Management and Allan Savory. Savory taught me about the tool of animal impact. We had several things happen in our own operation that led us to see some of the things that animal impact and trampling could do. About 5 years ago Ian Mitchell-Innes (from South Africa) and Chad Peterson in Nebraska were both starting to get some folks following their ideas about higher density grazing, so we weren’t the first to do this, but were always willing to try new things.”

ConTinueD on PaGe 14

Doug and the Peterson crew before moving fence for their cattle.

Farming is a family affair.

number 145

Land & Livestock

13

Mob Grazing

a 4 to 5-foot tall canopy. I’ve seen some fields that have such a tall canopy that the operators have to chop it down where the fences go, so the cattle can see where the temporary fence is. There are some Building Topsoil tremendous benefits when you can let it grow that high,” he says.

We have to take animal performance into consideration, and it should He saw incredible results. “This is a phenomenal tool to heal and build be one of the things at the top of our list. But having grass that mature is up our worn out and degraded soils. Our soils in this country are seriously not a bad thing if you have some flexibility, using diverse species of degraded. Where I live, in northern Missouri, historically (pre-European livestock or animals with different nutritional needs. “Our best livestock settlement) our soils were probably close to 8% organic matter. Now, due tool for trampling large amounts of material down is a dry cow, or a cow in to farming and continuous grazing, most soils are down to 2%. We have late lactation after breeding season is over. We can let the calves wander sucked organic matter out of these soils. Cropland is down to about 1.5% and well managed pastures about 2.5 to 3.5%. We have a long way to go, underneath a single wire electric fence into a pasture with less mature plants (more nutrients), wherever they need to go to meet their nutritional to correct this,” says Peterson. needs, while still concentrating the cows on the tall, mature piece to have “In my training, in agronomy and soil science, we were taught that it an impact in a certain area,” he says. takes hundreds of years to build or restore the soil. But we started seeing “It’s not one-size-fits-all. The tool of animal impact and improving soil some interesting things with our intensive grazing and trampling, adding health is something we need to look at differently each year or even carbon to the surface of the soil, feeding the soil biology. We started during the year. There are times when the market is right and we can seeing things that didn’t jive with what we’d been taught. We now know make a profit with a certain class of livestock, that we can do this a lot quicker,” he explains. that we might want to graze grass a little shorter “So I went on a quest, not just here at work, and take a little profit out of that land. There are but also a personal quest to learn everything I “Some producers have times to build soil and put profit into that land— could about soil health, the water cycle, mineral to store carbon in the soil—and there are times cycle, soil biology, etc. and came across a restored their soil organic we can make a profit with a class of livestock number of people who were doing the same matter to 6, 7 and even 8% that needs a higher nutritional level, to take that thing, and making incredible improvements in profit back out.” You can take advantage of soil health. I recognized this as a tool to restore in just a few years.” some of the gain you’ve made in the soil and the land and the productivity of the soil. There grass. are many great examples of people who have “I did a pasture walk here several months done that—here in Missouri and other places ago, and Bob Salmon, the gentleman whose place we were looking at, as well,” says Peterson. had very good records on the number of cattle he’d been able to run “Some producers have restored their soil organic matter to 6, 7 and every year, doing a lot of custom grazing. It varied widely in different even 8% in just a few years. Along with that comes a tremendous years, over the course of 10 years. He might get a really good grazing increase in productivity. It’s a higher level of management. The trampling contract one year or was running his own yearlings, and if he thought the is a way to purposely feed the soil biology. We purposely feed our cows price was going to be really good he would stock a little heavier that but we don’t always think about soil needs. Any time we do something to remove the soil’s food source (crops or haying), we have taken something year—taking the profit back out of the land, knowing that he would have away. Even if we feed the hay back on the same land, we don’t get the full to rest it in the future. So the next year he might graze half as many animals, in an effort to restore the land and put carbon back into the soil,” benefit. We might keep the minerals in the same field, but there’s no way explains Peterson. we can spread it across that field as uniformly as by grazing it, to feed all This is where a good grazing plan comes into play, along with good the soil biology. If we don’t leave nutrients for the soil biology, we can’t monitoring of the land, the grass, animals, etc. “But for most of our keep them functioning optimally,” he explains.

“Another thing we’ve seen, by keeping a much taller canopy through a pastures and landscapes, we’ve been taking and taking for the past 150 years. We haven’t tried to put it back. So there is some discussion about longer portion of the year, we are keeping our soils much cooler. We are the MIG systems allowing us to maximize our intake and utilization and actually creating a microclimate from the surface of the soil upward (not maintain plant health the way it is today, this year, but these systems don’t just down). We’ve taken soil temperatures in fields of tall grass, and right necessarily build soil for the future. There are times when we might have across the fence in a shorter pasture, we’ve seen as much as a 20to give up a little profit. We need to leave a little more grass standing degree difference in soil temperature at 2 inch depth.” there and tramp a little more down (rather than having cows eat it) in an “We’ve always known that soil cover was important, for water effort to restore and rebuild the soil,” he says. infiltration and to retard erosion, but I don’t think we realized how “There are some good books that talk about this, and how every important the canopy height was. We might have a good layer of mulch civilization that failed in the history of the world failed when it destroyed its on the surface but we didn’t realize how important having a 2 to 3-foot tall soil. Are we in this country on the verge of failing because of our soil canopy is, versus a 3 to 8-inch canopy in a typical MIG (management depletion? Maybe not, but I think we have abused and destroyed it faster intensive grazing) system,” says Peterson.

“There is a tremendous difference in evaporation and soil temperature than any other civilization in the history of the world, and we have done it in the taller canopy, and in the air temperature above the ground. If there’s because of the availability of technology,” he says.

We have to rethink our methods, and our definition of waste. Most a 6-inch grass canopy in a MIG system the soil temperature will be similar people feel that if they don’t completely use a pasture, they are being to that of a 2-foot canopy on a piece that has been rested for a longer period of time, but the air temperature at 6-8 inches above the ground will poor managers and wasting something. We need to think in terms of this not be the same in the two different fields. We’re actually creating a micro- “waste” as an investment in the future of the land. “If we want our land to truly be sustainable (a term that gets used too much), we need to rethink climate above the surface of the soil by having a 2 to 3-foot tall canopy, and in some cases some people give a longer rest period and might have this; there is very little of our agriculture production system that is 14

Land & Livestock

continued from page thirteen

September / october 2012

“We needed to get some warm season components back into our anywhere close to sustainable,” says Peterson. fields, and it’s working. We’re seeing a lot of sunflowers, coneflowers, etc.

For anyone interested in mob grazing, he suggests finding a mentor. that you almost never see anymore in pastures. In some cases we are “Talk to people who are already doing it. We talked to several people but sacrificing some grazing days in the short run in order to get more plant we also made some mistakes. I don’t know of many people who tried it diversity in the long run. There’s no doubt that some of our cool season early on who didn’t make mistakes. We hurt animal performance a little, grasses are completely recovered sooner, but if we are tying to promote because when you have a lot of cows confined in a small area, you make them incredibly aggressive grazers. You can make them eat the thatch off some of the native forbs, our rest periods have to be based on what’s needed for those species—for all the plants we want to have. Even if they the ground, even though it may kill them eventually (not enough aren’t there now, if we don’t give the pastures these rest periods, they’ll nutrients). They become extremely competitive for the forage, and each never be there,” he explains. time they go into a new pasture they eat very aggressively,” he says.

“We have to manage for what we want, rather than what we have now.

“I tell people to not get hung up on achieving a certain stock density figure. They need to figure that out for their own situation. The first thing to I tell people that grazing management is not rocket science. It’s harder. decide is how often they want to move the cows—once a day, twice a day, You have animal nutrition and performance to consider, along with climate and rainfall, soil biology, etc.” You must wear or whatever they are willing to do. Then, they many hats. Grazing management is an art as have to make sure the cows have enough well as a science, and it takes a bit of work to forage and only eat the part of the plant that figure it out. meets the nutritional needs for that particular “We have to manage “The thing we all should be looking at, class of livestock. If it’s dry cows, they can however, is improving soil health. Jay Fuhrer, probably eat 60 to 70% of the plant. If it’s for what we want, rather with NRCS in Bismark, North Dakota, is one of lactating cows or young stockers, maybe only than what we have now.” the leaders in the country regarding soil health. the top 30 to 40% will meet their needs,” he He does a lot of work with cropland and cover explains. crops, diverse mixtures, etc. and also a lot of The next thing to look at is the trampling work with pasture improvement. Jay has a effect. “Did you get enough of that material on phenomenal team with NRCS, ARS and private individuals, working on the ground to protect the soil and to feed the soil organisms? What was these issues,” says Peterson. the animal impact like? If you didn’t get the impact you wanted, your only choice is to get a higher stock density, which means you need to give them a smaller area, which then means moving them more times per day” necessary Changes he says.

High stock density grazing has helped many producers cut costs enough to stay in business. Peterson tells of a Missouri producer, Mark Managing for Plant Diversity Brownlee, who was faced with a difficult decision a few years ago when “The other thing that’s important is plant diversity, for nutritional needs fertilizer costs dramatically increased. He was also short of help because of the cows as well as mineral cycling. The more diverse the plants, the both his sons left the farm for other jobs. “His back was against the wall more resilient the pasture in withstanding stress like drought—as when and he made this change. He did a presentation last year at the American you have both cool and warm season grasses, and broadleaf plants as Forage and Grasslands Council meeting and impressed a lot of people well as grasses in the mix. If we have all four groups (cool season, warm with his story about how this turned things around for his place and season, forbs and grass) we’ll have a diverse mixture. This is important transformed it.” for plant growth and for soil biology and mineral cycling,” he says.

Peterson says that in Missouri there’s a wide mix of producers. “We “There are different organisms in the soil that break down and have some very advanced grass managers and many who are still doing mineralize different types of plants. Thus the more types of plants you continuous grazing and baling hay. By contrast, many of the ranchers I’ve have, the more types of soil biology you have, as well,” he says. talked with in Canada are very sharp managers who really know their “We also need diversity in our management. If I pick a place and give costs. They’ve made changes because they had to, in order to stay in it long rest periods and use high stock density for several years, business.” After BSE hit, they had to change or get out. eventually the only plants growing on that place will be plants that can “Most people won’t change until they have no other choice—and then tolerate that high density rate and long rest periods. This will favor certain they realize there are some other options. The Canadians had that species, and won’t favor the clovers, for instance. So I believe that we defining moment.” As hay costs, fuel costs, and other inputs keep rising, need diversity in our management—some periods of very long rest, more and more of us here in this country may come to realize that there accompanied by high density grazing, and there are times we need short are better ways to manage our land and cattle. rest periods, to stimulate the plants that do well under those conditions,” Our industry has also gotten a lot of bad press from environmental says Peterson. groups. “I tell everyone that cows and grass are going to save the world.

The problem for most stockmen is that they’ve been favoring plants Raising livestock on pasture is a way to grow food that is good for the that need a short rest period—whether with continuous grazing or a MIG natural resources and good for us. And if there is such a thing as mansystem with a short rest period. “Some of the 3 and 4 pasture systems in caused climate change, the fastest way to reverse this is to improve the the West won’t fall into that category (especially on rangeland), but in our soil with cows and grass.” Cattle are the best tool to create healthy part of the country most of our MIG systems favor plants that only need a grassland ecology. short rest period, such as clovers, some of the cool season grasses, etc.

What we are trying to do now in our operation is favor plants that need Doug Peterson works for the USDA-NRCS in Gallatin, Missouri. longer rest periods. These are the forbs and native grasses that we don’t He can be reached at: 660/663-3703 ext 124 or have a lot of ,” he says. doug.peterson@mo.usda.gov. number 145

Land & Livestock

15

DEVELOPMENT CORNER

Future Farms— upper Piedmont, Virginia

H

MI organized a Future Farms Town Hall Meeting on May 31st in Sperryville, Virginia. The main feature was the nine farmers who participated in the 2011 Future Farms pilot program for Rappahannock County. They did a great job of describing their program experiences and successes while fielding questions from an interested audience of 80.

HMI was pleased at the collaboration with this program group. They wanted to continue to deepen their Holistic Management practice, so they partnered with HMI to develop this public

event to recruit more participants to extend the training into a second year. They will serve as mentors for the new group and their team spirit in supporting the event and recruiting neighboring farmers is greatly appreciated.

Thanks to hearty recommendations by our panelists, several additional farms have signed on to participate in the 2012 Future Farms— Upper Piedmont Program. Twenty-five farms gathered in Sperryville July 26 to begin the 2012-2013 series of trainings in HMI’s Whole Farm Planning process.

HMI would like to extend our deep thanks and appreciation to Flavor Magazine, Culpepper Soil & Water Conservation District,

Panel of nine graduates from 2011 Future Farms Upper Piedmont Program. Photo by Molly Peterson, MollyMPeterson. com

using Social Media

continued from page three

marketing goals. Once you’ve identified your key metrics and done your inbound marketing analysis, there are several simple steps you can take to set concrete business goals: • Set Your Sales and Lead Goals — What are your goals for the next quarter?

The next year?

• What is the marketing program needed to achieve those goals? — Given current conversion rates, how many leads do you need to hit your sales goals?

• How many website visitors do you need to get? — What are the things you need to do to get that website traffic? Or what are the things you need to do to improve your conversion rates?

Does inbound marketing work? Businesses that have followed these guidelines, consistently have the capability of creating customers from leads. One farmer whom I’ve worked with said she no longer is doing farmer’s market because all her product is already sold. That’s a nice problem to have. If marketing is your weak link, consider exploring how you can build an inbound marketing plan.

Emily Brooks is a business and social media consultant for Edibles Advocate Alliance and mentor for HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer in Connecticut. She can be reached at chefemily@ediblesadvocatealliance.org or you can visit www.ediblesadvocatealliance.org.

This article is an adaptation of her presentation for the Beginning Women Farmer conference HMI held in Amherst, Massachusetts in March 2012.

16 IN PRACTICE

September / october 2012

The Piedmont Environmental Council, Cliff Miller, Dick McNear, Michael Sands & Betsy Dietel, and Erin Pearson for their donations to the program. We are grateful for all the individuals and organizations committed to this vibrant agricultural community.

Beginning Women Farmers Program

H

MI successfully completed its 3-year program whole farm planning training program for Beginning Women Farmers in the Northeast, funded in 2009 by the USDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program. Program Evaluator Seth Wilner provided HMI with a variety of evaluation tools to measure key knowledge and behavior change as well as data to help HMI look at longer term impacts.

Program data shows that HMI far exceeded the goals of 25% change in behavior and 25% increase in revenue that we had in the original proposal. Based on the evaluation of knowledge change in the following table, we are also well over our 50% of participants achieving knowledge change.

HMI would like to express its appreciation for all the hard work of our collaborators in the Northeast, including: University of Vermont, Women’s Agricultural Network—Maine, Small and Beginning Farmers of New Hampshire, Northeast Organic Farming Association— Connecticut, Central New York RC&D, and Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture.

(See data on page 17.)

Cows & Quail Workshop

P

articipants were asked to think like a quail, eat like an antelope, and see like a 4-inch tall chick. We searched for forbs with nice seeds, learned where the bugs live, looked for ways to outsmart coyotes and appreciated land open enough for pronghorn to flee at speeds up to 63 mph. To many of the 40 participants in HMI’s recent Cows & Quail Workshop, held July 13-14 in the desert landscape of far west Texas at Chris and Laura Gill’s Circle Ranch, this was a real shift in perspective from the viewpoint of cattle ranching. Those ranchers manage over

Beginning Women Farmers Program Data Participant Behavior Change BWF Participant Behavior Change

This type of shrub is quail heaven. Discussing this habitat (left to right) Steve Nelle, Host ranch owner Chris Gill, and Dale Rollins.

536,000 acres so the effects of their management is far reaching.

Quail expert Dale Rollins asked participants to decide how much camouflage was in their cowboy hats as they define their future landscape description somewhere on the continuum of ideal for cattle or ideal for quail/wildlife, as the two are not the same.

The challenge at this workshop was to modify grazing planning so that ranchers are taking good care of the cattle, yet sculpting the habitat that leaves tall bunch grasses for nesting, forbs for food and brushy cover for protection from raptors.

Steve Nelle of the Texas NRCS also talked about how ungulates need cover for hiding their fawns, yet not so much cover that predators can approach undetected. Thick swards of grass or evenly grazed short grasses are more hindrance than help for these prey animals that rely on forbs and brushy browse for food. The low stock density patch grazing might be just the ticket where wildlife is number one.

The second day of the workshop was devoted to an understanding of Holistic Management principles and how to use the grazing planning chart to move cattle and other livestock through each individual’s own landscape in a manner consistent with desired outcomes. Instructors for this portion of the program included HMI’s Frank Aragona and Certified Educators Guy Glosson and Owen Hablutzel. Evaluations showed the workshop was a hit, and more are planned for Texas and beyond.

HMI would like to extend our thanks to Chris and Laura Gill for the use of their spectacular Circle Ranch in West Texas for the program, and to Chris & Laura Gill, the Gill Family, the Negley Family, and the San Antonio Chapter of Quails Forever for their donations to the program. We also want to thank the Hotel El Capitan for their support of the program.

Aggregated Percentage

Highest % Achieved in One Year

Holistic Goal/Whole Farm Plan Financial Plan Business Plan Marketing Plan Land Plan Biological Monitoring Grazing Plan Increased Network

93% 82% 78% 68% 60% 57% 43% 92%

97% 88% 86% 74% 62% 60% 51% 96%

Experienced Increased Net Income Experienced Gross Revenue Increase

57% 35%

Percentage of Participants Experiencing Change in Knowledge Course

Soil Fertility Leadership & Communication Whole Farm Goal Time Management Financial Planning On-farm Decision making Planned Grazing Marketing Business Planning Land Planning

Year One

80 100 94 97 71 94 47 19 84 71

Year Two

100 100 97 97 95 85 56 50 37 33

Year Three

80 89 100 98 98 100 54 88 93 80

Year One Participant Statistics* Total Gross Revenue Before Training Total Gross Revenue After Training Difference $121,000 Average gross revenue /participant before training Average gross revenue/participant after training No. of participants that experienced gross revenue change

$310,000 $431,000 39% increase $10,690 $14,862 35%

*BASED ON 29 RESPONDENTS

number 145

IN PRACTICE 17

From the Ceo

Why we need 100,000 new farmers/ranchers

by PeTer holTer

There are 3 main reasons: 1) People are hungry 2) They need food 3) They need jobs Let’s look at some statistics: 1. Globally, we need to double total food production by 2050 to meet the world’s needs— farmers and farm rangeland are needed to grow that food—in the world, hunger kills more people than aids, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

2. In the U.S., 49 million Americans live in food insecure households—meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from— New Mexico is dead last on that list. One in six Americans struggle with hunger. 36% of households defined as food insecure have at least one working adult, and only 10% of food insecure households are homeless.

3. Rural counties are disproportionately high in food insecurity and hunger 4. In New Mexico, only about 3% of food grown in state reaches the mouths of in-state consumers.

5. Of the $2.5 billion received by New Mexican farmers each year, 80% is earned either from exports of dairy products and cattle or from sales of the grains to support these animals. Most of the remaining agricultural

products in the state, such as pecans, onions, and chile, are exported as well.

Food localization means New Mexicans, while continuing their food-export industries, would consume more of the raw foodstuffs grown or raised in the state.

Residents also would purchase more processed foods from local manufacturer, buy more of all kinds of food from local grocery stores, and eat out more selectively in local restaurants.

Why does that matter? It’s the ripple effect, and there are extensive studies. One simple example: New Mexicans spend $124 million on fresh vegetables, but well over 90% of all vegetables grown in the state are exported.

Expanding the vegetable sector by 90% to meet local demand, while continuing to produce for export, would create 700 additional jobs.

I’m not here today to argue food localization vs. large, so called “industrialized” agriculture, although many people question the sustainability of that industrialized food system —pointing to: • It consumes vast quantities of natural resources • It is heavily dependent on fossil fuel to produce synthetic fertilizer and process

people programs projects N E W S F R O M H O L I S T I C M A N AG E M E N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L

north Dakota Producer Wins award

G

abe Brown of Brown Ranch in North Dakota won the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) 2012 Growing Green Award in the food producer category. “These vanguards are serving up a food system with generous portions of workplace justice, economic viability and ecological integrity,” said Jonathan Kaplan, Director of Food and Agriculture at NRDC. “They are living proof that we can grow and eat food that is good for us, our communities and the planet.”

For over 15 years, North Dakota rancher Gabe Brown has merged back-to-basics agrarian practices with innovative science-based sustainable farming techniques on his 5,400 acre diversified family ranch. For Brown, healthy soil is the renewable resource that sustains all. By making use of a 100 percent zero-till cropping system, holistic planned grazing, and polyculture cover crop and polyculture cash crop rotations, he has successfully transformed conventional grazing and cropping operations into models of regenerative agriculture. Brown's Ranch also integrates its cow-calf and grass finished livestock operations with a highly diverse cropping rotation, which includes over 25 different cash and cover crops resulting in high yields and strong net profits.

“Being recognized shines the spotlight on the need to practice Holistic Management and regenerate our resources,” said Brown. “It's the only sustainable way we can ensure safe, healthy food production for generations to come.”

18 IN PRACTICE

September / october 2012

package and transport food • It consumes huge volumes of water • It degrades soil Many of my best friends are big ranchers and farmers, currently enjoying record farm/ranch income and one of the strongest agriculture markets in decades. The big farming and ranching folks are happy right now—and they are nervous.

Talking to a big rancher just yesterday he feels the “bubble”—the money won’t last, the drought is driving people out business, mad cow, pink slime, tagging and other regulations make it challenging—in addition to the cost of transport to feedlots and the challenges of a beef diet—it goes on and on.

That said—realistically—big production is not going away anytime soon. It may change and adapt—but it will be there as part of the agricultural landscape, in one form or another.

With the smaller and medium sized guys, however the question is one of sustainability, not just of the land or cattle—but of the people.

The average American farmer is 58 years old. The average cattleman is 61 years old.

And, oh, by the way, according to Beef USA, 90% of all U.S. cow herds have less than 100 cows. So there is a declining population of people, with small herds, with growing challenges—and despite the current bubble— a disincentive to carry the ranch forward another generation, in the face of hunger and a growing demand for food.

That is why U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack says we need 100,000 new farmers and ranchers in the next 5 years. We have a shrinking supply of production, that is farmers/ranchers—with a growing demand for output—that is, food.

The good news is there is a new generation coming on that wants to farm and ranch. They are exploring new paradigms—problem is they often can’t afford the land. Luckily, there are programs with land trusts, USDA and others to assist. They also desperately want training—not only in production but management to run a smaller, efficient, profitable healthy enterprise.

And interestingly many are doing it. Many of them are women—30% of the 3 million farms are operated by women. Today, women are twice as likely to take over an existing enterprise or start a new one than men.

Whether it is in New Mexico, the greater U.S., or internationally in food insecure nations —smaller, local, sustainable agriculture can— and should—be a major contributor to the local economy, to solving the local hunger problem with more planet friendly approaches to the land. It is not just a nice idea, it is a critical part of the world’s future.

kids on the land at

Richards Ranch

O

nce again the Hackley family of Jacksboro, Texas, hosted a Kids On the Land (KOL) program for students from Jacksboro Elementary. This was the first year for 3rd graders to participate and the second year for 4th and 5th grades. While the 3rd graders completed a day-long program called, “Let’s Talk About Insects,” 4th graders experienced working as naturalists, and 5th graders investigated the importance of soil cover and a healthy water cycle.

Nineteen volunteers assisted Peggy Maddox, Director of HMI’s KOL program at the Richards Ranch headquarters. Activities for the 3rd graders included an insect lab, creating insect life cycle wheels, and after learning about insect adaptations for how they eat, move, see and communicate, they participated in relay races as insects. The day also included a lady bug release as students learned the value of beneficial insects in our environment. The 4th graders learned all about the vegetation found on the ranch which is located in the Western CrossTimbers eco-region of North Texas. Management of the ranch livestock was part of 5th graders day as they learned how planned grazing helps create covered soil and a healthy water cycle for the Trinity and Brazos Rivers water catchment areas.

Richards Ranch, owned by the Hackley family, is an award winning operation that has practiced Holistic Management for over twenty years.

Kids and volunteers enjoy the facilities, and being on the ranch provides all a great opportunity for outdoor, experiential learning. All members of the Hackley family, including John, his son, Brent and his wife, Cindy, daughter Mary Kay, and even 12 year old, Hunter Hackley, who provided his grazing project to be displayed for the students during the planned grazing simulation, were involved in teaching the students. John’s granddaughter, Hallie, was a 4th grade participant. John’s sister, Martha Salmon, was the volunteer coordinator for the local volunteers. Thanks also to NRCS employees, Tony Dean, Ricky Linex, and Nathan Haile, and the Texas Forest Service also. The continued support from regulars, Katherine Dickson, Dr. Paul Martin, and Bryon Haney, who have donated their time and energy for KOL programs across Texas, helped make the KOL days successful.

Book review

by ann aDaMS

Fearless Farm Finances: Farm Financial Management Demystified Midwest organic & Sustainable education Services (MoSeS) www.mosesorganic.org • 2012

T

hinking about taking out a loan? Wondering if your farm business is sound? Want more ideas of how to set up record keeping systems? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, then Fearless Farm Finances is the book for you. Published by the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Services (MOSES) and funded by USDA National Institute for Food & Agriculture’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, this book was written by agricultural professionals and farmers to address one of the biggest stumbling blocks to success for sustainable farmers (lack of a basic understanding of farm financial management).

Fearless Farm Finances is written for the beginning agricultural producer as well as the experienced producer who would like to get a better handle on the numbers so there is something for everyone. A great deal of time is spent on show to set up good record keeping systems and Richard Wiswall’s book, The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook, is mentioned frequently regarding the systems he created. Likewise, there is a host of resources mentioned at the end of the book including different financial planning software (although Quickbooks is mentioned most frequently).

The appendices are also quite helpful including how to create an Excel budget template from Quickbook and a comparison chart of the relationship between financial concepts (like Net Worth) and the financial tool used (like Balance Sheet). All the key topics are covered including bookkeeping basics, how to organize financial information, enterprise analysis, and budgeting and monitoring.

While I think beginning farmers would get a lot of this book, they would definitely need to digest it in chunks.

That’s all to say that the section on “Analysis and Decision-Making Using Your Numbers” should be of great interest to experienced farmers who actually have a couple years of farming numbers under their belt and want to dig into the various ratios that will help them determine liquidity, solvency, and profitability.

Mary Kay Hackley John Hackley Photo credit: Peggy Cole

Fearless Farm Finances is not light reading, although it has a nice layout that makes it user friendly. No matter how many years you’ve been farming, if you want to take your financial management to the next level, Fearless Farm Finances will give you tools to do that. To order Fearless Farm Finances go to www.mosesorganic.org.

number 145

IN PRACTICE 19

Certified Educators

U N I T E D S TAT E S

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.

◆ These educators provide Holistic

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.

Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

These associate educators provide * educational services to their

ARIZONA

MAINE

*

TEXAS Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy. 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com Peggy Maddox P.O. Box 694, Ozona, TX 76943-0694 325/392-2292 • 325/226-3042 (c) westgift@hughes.net Peggy Sechrist 106 Thunderbird Ranch Road, Fredericksburg, TX 78624 830/456-5587 (c) peggysechrist@gmail.com

NEW YORK

WASHINGTON

Erica Frenay 454 Old 76 Rd. • Brooktondale, NY 14817 607/539-3246 • efrenay22@gmail.com Phillip Metzger 120 Thompson Creek Rd. Norwich, NY 13815 607/316-4182 • pmetzger17@gmail.com

Sandra Matheson 228 E. Smith Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226 360/220-5103 • mathesonsm@frontier.com ◆ Don Nelson Washington State University 121 Clark Hall, Pullman, WA 99164-6310 509/335-2922 • nelsond@wsu.edu Doug Warnock 6684 E. Highway 124, Prescott, WA 99348 509/629-1671 (c) • 509/849-2264 (h) dwarnock@columbiainet.com

communities and peer groups.

U N I T E D S TAT E S

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

NEW MEXICO ◆ Ann Adams Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 • 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org Kirk Gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/867-4685 • 505/867-9952 (f) kirk@rmsgadzia.com Jeff Goebel PO Box 7011, Albuquerque, NM 87194 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com

Vivianne Holmes 239 E Buckfield Road Buckfield, ME 04220-4209 207/336-2484 • vholmes@maine.edu

NORTH DAKOTA CALIFORNIA Owen Hablutzel 4235 W. 63rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90043 310/567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com Richard King Poppy Hill Farm, 1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 rking1675@gmail.com • 707/217-2308 cell ◆ Rob Rutherford CA Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 805/756-1475 • rrutherf@calpoly.edu

COLORADO Cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 hminfo@wholenewconcepts.com Katie Miller 22755 E. Garrett Rd. Calhan, CO 80808-9170 970/310-0852 • katie.belle1985@hotmail.com

*

GEORGIA

MICHIGAN Dyer *1113Larry Klondike Ave, Petoskey, MI 49770 231/347-7162 (h) 231/881-2784 (c) ldyer3913@gmail.com

HAWAII Tobey Williamson General Delivery, Kamuela, HI 96743 207-774-2458 tobeywilliamson@hotmail.com

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

Torray & Erin Wilson 4375 Pierce Ave., Paullina, IA 51046-7401 712/448-3870 • torray@gmail.com curlywilly@gmail.com

20 IN PRACTICE

*

*

Paul Swanson 5155 West 12th St., Hastings, NE 68901 402/463-8507 402/705-1241 (c) swanson5155@windstream.net Ralph Tate 1109 Timber Dr., Papillion, NE 68046 402/932-3405 • Tater2d2@cox.net

I N T E R N AT I O N A L AUSTRALIA Judi Earl 3843 Warialda Rd, Coolatai, NSW 2402 Australia 61267296185 • 409151969 (c) judiearl@auzzie.net 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

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

September / october 2012

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE IOWA

WISCONSIN Laura Paine Wisconsin DATCP N893 Kranz Rd., Columbus, WI 53925 608/224-5120 (w) • 920/623-4407 (h) laura.paine@datcp.state.wi.us

MONTANA Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862 406/581-3038 (c) 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

NEBRASKA

Constance Neely 1421 Rockinwood Dr., Athens, GA 30606 706/540-2878 • clneely@earthlink.net

Joshua Dukart 2539 Clover Place, Bismarck, ND 58503 701/870-1184 • Joshua_dukart@yahoo.com

CANADA Don Campbell Box 817 Meadow Lake, S0X 1Y6 306/236-6088 doncampbell@sasktel.net

Kelly Sidoryk P.O. Box 374, Lloydminster, AB S9V 0Y4 780/875-9806 (h) 780/875-4418 (c) sidorykk@yahoo.ca

I N T E R N AT I O N A L KENYA

Holistic Goal Setting & Facilitation Services

NEW ZEALAND

Christine C. Jost International Livestock Research Institute Box 30709, Nairobi 00100 254-20-422-3000 254-736-715-417 (c) c.jost@cgiar.org

*

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

*

Belinda Mackey P.O. Box 15109, Langata, Nairobi 254-727-288-039 belinda@grevyszebratrust.org Constance Neely, Ph.D. clneely@earthlink.net +254-724-522-617

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?

SOUTH AFRICA Wayne Knight Solar Addicts PO Box 537, Mokopane, 0600 South Africa 27-0-15-491-5286 +27 15 491 3451 (h) +27 82 805 3274 (c) theknights@mweb.com.za

NAMIBIA

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

UNITED KINGDOM

Usiel Kandjii P.O. Box 23319, Windhoek 264-61-205-2324 kandjiiu@gmail.com

Benefits of holistic Management Facilitation include:

*

Wiebke Volkmann P.O. Box 9285, Windhoek 264-61-225183 or 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@mweb.com.na

Philip Bubb 32 Dart Close, St. Ives, Cambridge, PE27 3JB 44-1480-496-2925 (h) +44 7837 405483 (w) pjbubb99@gmail.com

,

To learn more • Elicits key motivators and values contact Frank Aragona from the group for more effective at 505/842-5252 group decision making or by email at • Improves communication franka@ • Improves conflict resolution holisticmanagement.org.

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

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.

THE MARKETPLACE

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 (plus shipping) (PAL orders add $5)

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)

number 145

IN PRACTICE 21

THE MARKETPLACE

.!4)/.7)$% . !4)/.7)$% $ ) 3 4 2 )"5 4 )/ . $)342)"54)/.

Resource Management Services, LLC

CORRAL DESIGNS

Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 Pasture Scene 505-263-8677 kirk@rmsgadzia.com Investigation www.rmsgadzia.com

Achieve success with —

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

B-C Ranch Inc.

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

September / october 2012

970/229-0703 www.grandin.com

➡ ➡ ➡

People: Learn to differentiate between standard of living and quality of life Land: Leave a legacy, improve the land

Finances: Make a profit every year

******************** Holistic Management Facilitators: DON & BEV CAMPBELL Box 817, Meadow Lake SK S9x 1Y6 306/236-6088 • doncampbell@sasktel.net

THE MARKETPLACE Managing Change Northwest Presents . . .

Allan Savory

Creator of Holistic Management

Certified Educator Grazing Planning Class october 5-6, 2012 Papillion, nebraska

NOVEMBER, 2012 November 7 and 8 Cattlemen’s College (in-depth training) Washington Cattlemen’s Association Annual Convention CLE ELUM, WASHINGTON

November 9 “Can How We Eat Help Reduce Climate Change?”

Learn how to incorporate the Holistic Management Grazing Planning Software into your grazing classes. Limited to 15 certified educators/trainees.

Lunch will be provided for both days.

Opportunity to sell the grazing planning software upon successful completion of class.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

November 10 Tilth Producers of Washington Annual Convention PORT TOWNSEND, WASHINGTON

For more information go to MCN website: managingchangenorthwest.com dwarnock@columbiainet.com

— COST — $200/PERSON • SPOUSE $100 Registration deadline: September 15, 2012 Contact Ralph Tate at: tater2d2@cox.net

Holistic Management Handbook ORDER

TODAY!

$

40

healthy land, healthy Profits

The Holistic Management Handbook gives you step-by-step guidance for managing a ranch or farm holistically. It is essential reading for anyone involved with land management and stewardship. Learn how to create healthy land and healthy profits.

Call 505/842-5252 or order online at www.holisticmanagement.org!

Employment Wanted: Employment wanted on a livestock grazing operation. I have over 15 years experience in grazing management with cow/calf, stocker cattle, sheep and goats. Strong skills in animal health, nutrition and general ranch management.

Student of Bud Williams stockmanship and marketing philosophies. I'm looking for a challenging position that will allow me to utilize and improve all of my skills. I have excellent professional and personal references. Please leave a message at (903) 253-4265.

Wayne Knight Certified Educator and Rancher 19 Years Experience Limpopo Province, South Africa.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT TRAINING Veld Assessments Grazing Planning Combining Game and Cattle Holistic Financial Planning Effective Multi-generational Businesses Holistic Land Planning

Contact Wayne at +27 15 491 3451 wayne@theknights.za.net

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 145

IN PRACTICE 23

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, a bimonthly journal for holistic Management practicioners

Software

___ One-year Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 U.S. ($40 International)

___ Grazing Planning Software (single-user license) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100

___ Two-year Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $65 U.S. ($70 International)

___ Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . electronic $30, hardcopy $45

___ Three-year Subscription. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $95 U.S. ($105 International)

Pocket Cards

___ Gift Subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Same Prices As Above)

___ Holistic Management® Framework and Testing Questions, March 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4

___ Special Edition: An Introduction to Holistic Management . . . . . . . . $5

Planning and Monitoring Guides

FREE DOWNLOADS of many of HMI’s educational materials are now available on HMI’s website, http://www.holisticmanagement.org.

Click on the Free Downloads link on the homepage to learn more.

___ Policy/Project Analysis & Design, August 2008, 61 pages. . . . . . . . . $17 ___ Introduction to Holistic Management, August 2007, 128 pages . . . . $25 ___ Financial Planning, August 2007, 58 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ Aide Memoire for Grazing Planning, August 2007, 63 pages. . . . . . . $17

Books and Multimedia ___ Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision-Making, Second Edition, by Allan Savory with Jody Butterfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $60 ___ Spanish Version (soft) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $40 ___ Holistic Management Handbook, by Butterfield, Bingham, Savory . . . $40 ___ At Home With Holistic Management, by Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20

___ Early Warning Biological Monitoring—Croplands April 2000, 26 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15 ___ Early Warning Biological Monitoring— Rangelands and Grasslands, August 2007, 59 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ Land Planning—For The Rancher or Farmer Running Livestock, August 2007, 31 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

___ Holistic Management: A New Environmental Intelligence . . . . . . . . $10

Planning Forms

___ How to Not Grow Broke Ranching

by Walt Davis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30

___ Annual Income & Expense Plan, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . $17

___ Improving Whole Farm Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13

___ Worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7

___ Video: Creating a Sustainable Civilization—An Introduction to Holistic Decision-Making, based on a lecture given by Allan Savory (DVD) . . . $30

___ Livestock Production Worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ Grazing Plan & Control Chart, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

___ Stockmanship, by Steve Cote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 ___ The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook, by Shannon Hayes . . . . . . . . . . . $25 ___ The Oglin, by Dick Richardson & Rio de la Vista. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25

i would like to make a Tax Deductible Donation

___ 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:

In the amount of $_____________. Please designate the 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. Place phone calls to 505/842-5252, or fax to 505/843-7900.

For online ordering, visit our secure website at: www.holisticmanagement.org.

Printed On Recycled Paper

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

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

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

add add add add add add

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