#149 In Practice, May/June 2013

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 3

NUMbEr 149

w w w. h o l i s t i c M A N A g E M E N t. o r g

~ INSIDE THIS ISSUE ~

Green Pastures Farm—

Increasing Profitability through Improving Soil Biology

Soil Food Web

by ANN ADAMS

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

FEATURE STORIES

Greg and Jan Judy have a home farm of 250 acres near Rucker, Missouri. With an additional 750 acres of leased farms, Greg is managing a total of 1000 acres of land (600 of which is pasture) near Rucker, Missouri. They raise South Poll cattle, along with sheep, horses, goats, pigs, and chickens. The cattle are 100% grass-finished on the perennial grasses and forbs grown on the farm. Greg is known for his high-density, mobgrazing techniques that have moved organic matter from as low as .5% on some of these played out soils to 5%. But, the drought of 2012 put those practices to the test.

“Our Holistic Management training helped us survive that drought in good shape,” notes Greg. “We had some rain the first week of May, but then it didn’t rain until the end of August. All my neighbors were feeding hay from July through September, but we took the necessary steps so we wouldn’t have to do that. Staring on June 1st, we were monitoring daily to see if we had any regrowth after grazing. But it was clear there was 0% regrowth. So by July 1st we put our revised holistic grazing plan into action. We combined both our grass-finishing herd with our cow/calf herd so we had one herd to manage and increase our recovery times. We also culled our cull cows and sent some grassfed steers a little early. We also got a really good price for our heifers. We knew we could keep our next year’s heifers when we had more forage. Those 2 actions (combining herds and destocking) allowed us to continue at the same stock density but increase our summer recovery periods from our normal 80 days to 170 days, and we preserved our cow herd.”

These actions resulted in Greg still having a profitable grazing year despite one of the worst droughts in that area, and still have stockpiled grass to graze through the winter and begin 2013 as a profitable grazing year. “The animal performance was incredible,” says Greg. “We can have washy grasses with a 38-42 inch rainfall. But, because we had less rain (13 inches), we ended up having really nutrient-dense grasses. So this winter we were able to have fat cows even with the calf still on her. The cows didn’t need as much feed because the forage was so nutrient dense. That helped

Strengthening the Human Resource Link with Holistic Management

HEATHER SMiTH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Measuring Social Success— Rancher Sustainability Assessment Tool

HEATHER SMiTH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Alchemy Gardens— Fulfilling Work and Fulfilling Lives ELySA BRyAnT WiTH TAnnER BRyAnT

. . . . . . . . . .6

Fungi as the Focus of Healthy Grasslands— Using the Soil Food Web

Ann AdAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Land & Livestock

Surviving a Drought

A functioning soil food web is what increases land productivity, animal performance, nutrient-dense food, plant health, and a host of other benefits. To learn more about the soil food web, read the article about Greg Judy on this page and the Betsy Ross article on page 7.

News & Network

ew folks involved in holistic planned grazing or grass-finished beef would argue with the statement that Greg Judy is a leader in the field of sustainable ranching. His grazing practices have resulted in improved soils on his home farm as well as the land he leases. He’s built his business to the point where he could quit his town job (one of the happiest days of his life), and even provide 2 paid internships a year at his farm. His business model is so successful that he has developed a consulting business helping others achieve the same level of success, and through his on-farm education (including a yearly grazing school) he has reached approximately 5,000 inspired producers.

What more could he want?

Even healthier soil!

KTS Farm— Making the Transition

Ann AdAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Pasture Cropping— Regenerative idea from down Under

COURTnEy WHiTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Cows & Elk— A Symbiotic Relationship

CHRiS GiLL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

From the Board Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Readers Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Soil Biology

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

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

us stockpile even more grass. They were only taking the top 1/3 of the plant.” So when Hurricane isaac dropped 6 inches of rain in 10 days at the end of August, Greg’s pastures responded with a quick green up that helped him increase his stockpile. “We were able to get through the winter on that grass despite some big snows and cold weather,” says Greg.

The Next Frontier

STAFF Peter holter . . . . . . . Chief Executive Officer Kelly King . . . . . . . . . Chief Financial Officer Ann Adams. . . . . . . . Managing Editor, in PRACTiCE and Director, Community Services sandy langelier. . . . Director, Communications and Outreach Frank Aragona . . . . . Director, Programs Matt Parrack . . . . . . . Director, Development Peggy sechrist. . . . . Development Advisor Peggy Maddox . . . . . Program Advisor Peggy cole . . . . . . . . Project Manager, Texas Mary girsch-bock . . Grants Manager carrie Nelson . . . . . . Store Manager / Customer Support

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sallie Calhoun, Chair Ben Bartlett, Past Chair Kelly Sidoryk, Vice-Chair Jim Shelton, Treasurer Judi Earl, Secretary Ron Chapman Zizi Fritz Laura Gill Gail Hammack Clint Josey Wayne Knight Sam Montoya Jim Parker Michael Podolny

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 © 2013

2 IN PRACTICE

continued from page one

May / June 2013

But this spring, after monitoring his pastures, Greg was looking for other ideas to improve soil fertility. “i’m happy about all the improvements i’ve made with the cows and the grazing,” says Greg. “But, i’m still seeing more bare ground and weeds then i’m happy with. So i went to a workshop at the Rodale institue by Elaine ingham to learn about the soil food web and compost tea, and i’m so excited about the possibility of taking this land to the next level!

The idea is to use compost tea to introduce aerobic bacteria to the anaerobic soil we still have. While we’ve done a lot for the soil, it’s still struggling so we see plants like ragweed. “i figure it’s a pretty low cost experiment for a huge potential return. We’ll invest in a microscope and a brewer and a sprayer for the ATV. One pound of properly made compost can make 300 gallons of compost tea. you only need 30 gallons/acre of the tea if the soil is completely broken. We’ll use the material from the farm (the hay, leaves, wood chips, and manure) because it already has the bacteria adapted for this area. We may also try some compost from a Soil Food Web compost producer nearby.

“The key is you have to have your soil tested to see what is missing and then have the

compost tested to make sure that it has the missing ingredients. Once we get the soil biology right, i think we might see the growth double, and the grass will be even more nutrient dense so breeding percentages go up as well as weight gains. We’ll also have more diversity of plants as the soil becomes more aerobic.

There were pictures in dr. ingham’s presentation of prairie grasses with 18-foot roots! They had a picture of a 3-month old annual rye grass that had been grazed to 1-inch tall three times during the course of its life. The roots were over 4 feet tall!

“What that proved to me was that roots don’t die back when a plant is grazed if the soil is healthy. The plant just exudes food for the soil life through the roots. it still maintains its root structure and can still access water and minerals below ground to grow more forage above ground! This opens up a whole new way of looking at grazing, particularly in droughtprone areas. The compost tea can improve any soil, anywhere, so the possibilities are amazing!

Since land is the biggest expense in ranching, if you can grow double your forage with compost tea, you’ve just bought yourself a whole new ranch for very little money.

“So we’re going to take our soil samples of some of our worst areas and get the compost ratios right to correct the soil biology. We can use that same compost for the better areas as well. you get the soil biology right, then you don’t have to add inputs. you don’t even have to add the compost tea again if you keep grazing right. you can’t beat that for a low-input solution! “i learned some things at that workshop that stopped me in my tracks—like that the soil microbes are happiest under about 12 inches of snow. you need free-flowing water in the soil, so a nice moist soil with a blanket of snow for insulation makes those microbes happy.”

Greg is already sharing this information with

This is what Greg Judy’s pastures looked like in July 2012 in the middle of the drought when he destocked to help keep soil health and maximize profit.

his interns and planning the various test areas they will begin trialing the compost tea treatment. “i used to just want to focus on the cattle and grass,” says Greg. “But, i’ve seen an explosion of people recently who are 50 or older, who want to get into farming and do something real. They may have gotten burnt in the stock market and want to invest in land and animals and learn how to grow food for their family and their neighbors. They need help setting up their farm and understanding cattle genetics that work for grass-finished animals, and how to graze those animals. i like helping those folks make that transition successfully. it’s rewarding work.”

Greg also likes helping train the interns and helps them get jobs once they have completed their internship. “i’ve got a list of folks who are happy to hire any intern we’ve trained,” says Greg. His intern program focuses on helping the interns learn the basics of grazing, farm design, and animal management, then he encourages them to work for someone else for 5 years to really begin to hone their craft before stepping out and getting a farm of their own. “it takes 10 years to get really good at this business,” says Greg.

Greg is happy selling his cattle in wholesale semi-loads to businesses like Thousand Hills Cattle Company because he’s learned how to grow beef with low-inputs so he is able to be

profitable even at wholesale prices. “ian Mitchell-innes told me i needed to focus on only a few things,” says Greg. “if i can raise cattle at a low enough cost, i can let someone else do the marketing and still make a good profit.”

So with a business profitable even in drought, Note the excellent animal condition on Greg’s cattle as they forage Greg Judy is still on the post-drought winter stockpile. looking for the next way to improve the Stay tuned for results from Greg’s experiment soil health and business sustainability. “We’re in a future issue of IN PRACTICE. also going to learn about Permaculture from Mark Shepherd. We want to grow more To learn more about Greg Judy and his 2013 perennial crops like pawpaws, persimmons, Grazing School in Missouri with Ian Mitchelland acorns that the cattle and hogs can forage on and improve our ability to capture more solar Innes on May 9-11th, go to: http://www.greenpasturesfarm.net/index.php. energy. Ever since we started focusing on the Greg will be sharing this information about the soil health, we realized there was more we soil food web as part of that grazing school. For could do, and we needed more tools. i figure i’ve got 20 years of real energy left in me. i want links about Dr. Elaine Ingham and the Soil Food Web go to: http://www.soilfoodweb.com/ to really make this place take off!”

Strengthening the Human Resource Link with Holistic Management

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

eorge Work and his wife Elaine have been ranching in San Miguel, California for many years. Forage in this valley depends on seasons and moisture. The coastal climate on one side and desert on the other make an interesting combination. “We get east winds from the desert and this has an influence on some of the big fires we’ve had south of here, even late in the fall. Every place is unique, and this is part of the challenge of ranching,” says Work. Land management must fit the environment.

George has also been practicing Holistic Management for many years. “My father always used to say that the grass grows better when a cow isn’t standing on it. But at that time i was never sure what he meant. does that mean rest periods? does it mean moving the cows a little sooner? My father didn’t elaborate.

Holistic Management finally explained it for me,” says Work.

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The Importance of Goal Setting “Besides my father, the person who probably had the most influence on my life was Allan Savory. A friend of mine had gone to one of Allan’s week-long schools and invited Allan to come out to his ranch,” says Work. during the course of that field trip Work was intrigued enough with what he learned that he signed up for one of the Holistic Management schools. in that school, “Allan taught us that a threepart goal was extremely important,” says Work.

“He also said that when we went home we shouldn’t just go out and start building fences (for better grazing implementation). He instructed us to have a family meeting and do our planning and set our goals. So when i got home we had a meeting with our 3 kids, sitting around the dining room table. After the long drive coming home, i’d had plenty of time to think about the things Allan was teaching and i

had it pretty well figured out. But the meeting was a wreck. This was the first official meeting we’d ever had as a family,” he says.

“Jody, our oldest girl, was in high school.

The youngest girl got up and went to her room, and one of them was crying. About the only thing i did right that day was ask Elaine what happened. She told me the way she saw it was that we weren’t together. i said, ‘We’ve been married for 20 years and have 3 kids. How can we not be together?’ So this was the start of a major journey for us,” says Work.

Work also explored “in Search of Excellence” put on by Lew Tice, which focused on visualization and goal setting. “One of the reasons i went to that program was because Allan made such a point about our goals being important,” says Work. “The first day of the school, Lew told us that when we set goals we should not set them only in one area of our life.

“Writing your goals can be difficult. Many people tell me they have goals, but don’t have them written down. Allan says that when a rancher gets a pencil in his hands he gets a tremendous urge to go out and check the cows CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Number 149

IN PRACTICE 3

Strengthening the Human Resource Link

continued from page three

goes back to communication. The kids need to hear it from mom and dad, regarding why the parents think it’s fair.” it’s human nature to see things in terms of how they affect you personally.

What might seem fair or unfair to you could be viewed differently by someone else. We must try to stand in the other person’s shoes, and imagine how they see it.

“This is another thing we did in our family.

We’d seen how well it worked in our marriage encounter to write a letter to your spouse. So we wrote a letter to our adult children and asked if they had any strong attachments, and how they felt about being in our family. We also asked for their definition of wealth. We had a number of questions and asked them to write their answers.

Then we wanted to meet with them at a later date, singly. We asked them to talk it over with their spouse,” says Work.

“We were going to write a second letter and include spouses and grandchildren but we never got it done. it’s still not too late and we hope to do that. We asked if they had any strong attachments to any specific thing. i read an article once called ‘Who Gets Grandma’s Ring?’ it’s not always about the land and money.” Sometimes the battles are over an object that several people think they should have. Usually these disputes can be worked out, if families get together and

married 48 years but as she says, we don’t want to be merely married; we want to be happily and joyfully married. it all goes back to communication, and how well we manage things. As a species we are very good at building things, creating new technology, but we George Work (left) symbolically handing over the reins are not so good at of the ranch to son, Ben. managing— whether it’s our or go fix the fence in the back pasture— land, our people, our own lives and bodies.” anything but write something down!”

Work says his goals have actually changed By writing down your goal and getting very little, from the beginning. “The overall goal ownership from everyone on the management should not change much, but the plans on how to team you are better able to manage toward that get there change a lot; those can be changed goal and move beyond individual agendas. every day,” he says.

“One of the things i’ve observed is that the land is the way it is because of the people. if Passing On the Farm anything is going to change on the land, the One example of how the plans can people have to change first. The big value of change is with estate planning when there is Holistic Management is learning how to make a major shift in the roles and responsibilities better decisions, using a model or framework. within the management team. George and But how do you change people? That’s the Elaine spent quite a bit of time working on the issue,” says Work. best way to transition the ranch to their son, “All of this was a huge change for me, and Ben. “We still have the home place, about ultimately for my family. if a person goes through 1000 acres. My son and his family have been this goal-setting program it will change you—if running the ranch for several years and we’ve you do it the way it is intended. At one point we been trying to get things figured out on how to talked about quality of life. get it transferred to them. We finally made this “At the school, Allan said, ‘i don’t know about transition, and now we just work at trying to the ladies, but you men should keep asking the keep peace in the family.” Family, question: What would i be willing to die for? you relationships, and good communication are need to ask yourself this, over and over again, as George and Elaine Work found that there were you write down the things you want in your quality always a work in progress. many relationship building tools that helped them “in most families, once mom or dad or of life.’ We often hear people say they’d die for a in their journey to move toward their holistic goal. both are gone, the family comes apart and it’s certain thing—whatever their passion is—but The journey has been a rewarding one for them. difficult to continue on with the ranch. There when it comes down to reality i don’t think they again, the key is communication. The thing would. But i would certainly consider my death many parents don’t do, regarding the issue of talk about it. in one case, the children agreed that valuable to know that my children would always estate planning, is look at whether it needs to be they’d each take a certain item for 6 months.” have clean water to drink and food to eat, and be fair or needs to be equal. These are completely Compromises are better than a family rift. The able to go to the church of their choice, and other different things,” he says. most important thing is family and relationships, basic freedoms. There are some priorities a “We sat down with our kids early on and told and all too often these get shredded over some person would be willing to sacrifice for. This is them the only way we can divide this ranch small item. what begins to change you, when you know what if parents can be there during these your true priorities are. This is how i began to look equally is to sell it and divide the proceeds.” All discussions and estate planning, they can give too often this is what happens, because the heirs at Holistic Management,” says Work. the whole story on some of these things and put want an equal share.

“Our weak link in this operation is still the it into better perspective for the children to “Fair is a different story. Who decides what’s people/ communication issue, even though we continue to work on this. My wife and i have been fair? This can be different to different people. it all understand. “it’s sad that families often don’t 4 IN PRACTICE

May / June 2013

The Work Ranch is working for sustainability from all sides of the picture—especially human— which requires a hard look at relationships.

have the opportunity to do this; by the time the estate is being settled, mom and dad are already gone,” says Work. it pays to try to work things out while everyone can sit down together and share insights.

George Work can be reached at: george@wildblue.net.

Measuring Social Success—

Rancher Sustainability Assessment Tool ecause of George Work’s commitment to measuring sustainability, he helped create an assessment program, which he donated to the Cooperative Extension. “We’ve been asked to put on a workshop to include the vineyard people—a huge industry in our area. When i was in high school in the 1950s we had 2 wineries. Today we have about 220. This growth has come in the last 15 years, with tremendous change. These aren’t just 40 acre plots. One of the wineries will be planting more than 1000 acres this spring,” says Work.

“We patterned the self assessment after something the wine people had done, but changed it to fit our purposes. They have a 1000-point system and for each question you answered yes, you got a certain number of points. When we created ours we just had people score things from 1 to 10.”

The questions included things like your relationships with government regulators. if you are doing a good job, give yourself an 8 or 9. if you won’t speak to them, give yourself a 1 or 2. There are 11 categories, each with 8 or 10 questions. “you do this scoring at least once a year, and preferably 2 or more people in the operation do it— either the husband and wife or father and son, whoever is involved and has some input. This is part of the holistic concept, to be inclusive rather than exclusive,” he explains. “it is a method to monitor yourself, and you are as important as the grass! One of the ways to help people change is to ask them a question.” Then they may start thinking about something they’ve never thought about before, or may look at their own operation and management in a new light.

“We created this assessment to fit central California, and annual grasslands. if a rancher in some other part of the country was to use this it would have to be customized for the area. We didn’t have anything in there about snow, for instance, or sub-zero temperatures, or native grasslands. it needs to be specific for your region,” says Work.

B

“Each of the categories has other questions at the end. For example, the one on water quality asks ‘is there is some aspect of your water quality management that you can change to improve the social, economic or natural resources of your practice? if so, write your action item here.’ Underneath that, it says, ‘if you have completed this evaluation previously, how well did you accomplish the action item you identified. Give yourself a 1 to 10 score.’ We could have 100 questions and never really hit on the one you need to consider, on your own place, so we are trying to drag some of this out,” he says.

“One of my friends filled it out and told me that on the conservation category he scored it at 8 and his son scored it at 3. in their estate planning, the father had combined several legal lots before the son was born. if someone has a 40-acre parcel or a 10-acre parcel and it’s a legal lot, they can build a house on it. He had combined some of those lots voluntarily, which lowered their value considerably. His father-in-law helped him and they’d combined these to lower the value of the whole ranch. if you don’t have legal lots, you won’t be developing the land for housing. But the son didn’t know that this had happened. The father was thinking they’d done a great job on the conservation aspect, to keep more open space for agriculture. The value in doing this assessment was that both the father and the son learned something; they needed to talk to each other!” Communication was lacking.

Building communication skills is important, but this also illustrates why you need more than one person on the operation doing the assessment. Sometimes one person doesn’t view it the same way another member of the operation sees it. “if we could do a workshop with the vineyard people, we could talk about things like this, because they are at least 10 years ahead of us.

They’ve been using their 1000-point system to score themselves on sustainability, and they use this aspect in their direct marketing. if they can label their product as sustainably grown, using their third party verification system, it’s an asset.”

To download the Ranching Sustainability Assessment Tool go to: http://cesanluisobispo.ucanr.edu/Custom_Program743/Ranching_Sust ainability_Self-Assessment_Project/ —Heather Thomas

Number 149

IN PRACTICE 5

guess or revisit. By weighing the decisions carefully against business needs, gross sales increased by 45%. Going forward she feels more prepared to utilize financial planning and be better

by ELYSA BRYANT with TANNER BRYANT equipped to make a profit.

The Holistic Management toolkit extends to indsay Arbuckle started Alchemy Organic Farming Association in Vermont (nOFAelements that aren’t yet part of her business but Gardens in 2010 with her partner, Scott VT) Farmer Correspondence Program, which may be in the future. Livestock is something that pairs farmers with students via a pen pal Courcelle, growing nutrient dense interests Lindsay and Scott, but their current relationship. They were connected with students vegetables and herbs. Lindsay and situation doesn’t easily accommodate having in the Culinary Arts program, a perfect fit, offering Scott pursue training opportunities and available animals…yet. But with the grazing planning that them a great opportunity: to teach future chefs resources to help build their skill set and farm Lindsay learned and then exposed Scott to, about the origins of their food. Through this business, so when the opportunity to apply for they’re excited to put those concepts into practice, partnership, Lindsay and Scott educated students HMi’s Vermont Beginning Women Farmer (BWF) nurturing fertile land that will help them produce program came along in 2012, Lindsay was excited about the basics of their farm enterprise. it has healthy animals and healthy food. been so successful that students are now planning to participate.

One of the most commonly overlooked, yet an herb garden with the help of Alchemy Gardens. “i started the BWF classes with a positive most valuable tools that Lindsay has brought to attitude,” says Lindsay. “Sometimes i got her farm business is human creativity, overwhelmed by the amount of work, but which they try to use as much as the Holistic Management principles helped possible. “in the past, when we hit a us to manage our farm better.” Lindsay had road block, we sometimes ended up experienced a great impact on the way she quite discouraged,” says Lindsay. “now, runs her business. during her time with the we know that a quick brainstorming course she found that the Holistic session could help us find a solution.”

Management toolbox was actually Rather than getting discouraged or necessary to run her business. For wasting time mired in frustration, they example, Lindsay found that the process of look to define the steps that get them defining a holistic goal helped shape their past the roadblock and working toward business to a large extent. By developing a what they want to get done. holistic goal, she and her partner found that The BWF program continues to be a they were more easily able to avoid being huge resource for Lindsay, who says: overwhelmed by multiple demands and “The most important take-away from this instead know when to make time for the program for me was the great network of other important elements of their lives, like women farmers that i got to know. i Scott Courcelle and Lindsay Arbuckle of Alchemy Gardens family and friends. learned so much from each of them and When Lindsay’s best friend got married really appreciated the conversations and Planning for profit was another element of in August, at the height of tomato season, Scott laughs we had together. i know that anytime that i Holistic Management that served Lindsay well. and Lindsay realized that their first priority was have a question or problem, there are a dozen “Planning for profit was a great paradigm shift for valuing the connection to friends and family. By women who have my back and will help me out.” me,” says Lindsay. “We are in our third season of identifying what means most to them, it made a Lindsay feels grateful to be connected to the growing vegetables, and though we have been difficult decision manageable by reinforcing their land, the seasons and its bounty through pleased with our gross sales, we have netted very farming, finding wealth in ways that other than values. it also helped them prioritize taking care of themselves, reminding them to take time to rest little. This changed my view of how to ‘make monetary. Through Alchemy Gardens, Lindsay and recharge. The holistic goal brought a sense of money’—by reducing our expenses, and setting a and Scott nourish and nurture others, whether solid budget. now we should be able to make a gratitude into sharper focus because they more directly through the food they produce, the profit.” She also started categorizing expenses to clearly realized the ways that they meet their education they provide, or the sense of get a fuller understanding of which expenses were community they cultivate through these holistic goal each day in the work that they do. ‘wealth generating’ (investment priorities) and They are small business owners who are living connections. Growing a business is ongoing which ones were not. in 2012, Alchemy Gardens happy and fulfilling lives by growing high quality work, but they have found it to be a rewarding organic, nutrient dense food for others and helping bought their Farmall Tractor, a new set of experience. They are also looking forward to Buddingh basket cultivators, and other others to grow their own good food, and that’s seeing the farm grow as they learn and evolve cultivators—a purchase that allowed them to important to them. as farmers. As Lindsay said in a Rutland Herald reduce weed pressure and the associated labor, Their holistic goal also helped them define the article, (noting a Swedish proverb): “All the as well as increase yields. They also purchased a elements they wanted to incorporate into their flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds root vegetable barrel washer. They identified lives. One of those elements was bringing an of today.” challenges in their operation and made solid educational dimension into their farming. Lindsay Elysa Bryant is also a graduate of HMI’s decisions to buy equipment to address them. and Scott help educate customers by fostering a BWF program and a Certified Educator trainee.

Looking back Lindsay feels happy with the clearer connection to their food, teaching them She can be reached at: elysa.bryant@gmail.com. decisions they made, a signal that they not only how to grow and cook their food. Another Lindsay and Scott can be reached at: appropriately addressed those challenges, they dimension of their business that incorporated alchemygardens@gmail.com. made choices that they haven’t had to second education came in 2011, through the northeast

Alchemy Gardens—

Fulfilling Work and Fulfilling Lives

L

6 IN PRACTICE

May / June 2013

Fungi as the Focus of Healthy Grasslands—

Using the Soil Food Web

by ANN ADAMS

nterviewing Betsy Ross about soil fertility in grasslands is like drinking water out of a fire hose. She has so much passion and enthusiasm for this subject and so much knowledge and experience; it’s hard to capture it all.

Betsy Ross is the CEO of Sustainable Growth Texas (SGTX), and is in partnership with her brother Joe david Ross, dVM, who runs the 10,000-acre Ross family ranch in Sutton County, Texas while Betsy manages the 530-acre Ross Farm cattle operation in Williamson County with the help of her sister, Kathryn Ross. Together, they raise and market all-natural grassfed beef under the “Betsy Ross Grassfed Beef” label to Whole Foods and People’s Pharmacy in Austin, Texas. in 2002, Betsy and Joe david were awarded the “2002 Outstanding Forage Producer in Texas” by the Texas Forage and Grassland Council.

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The First Years After assuming management of Ross Farm in 1992, Betsy observed that continued use of conventional fertilizers and herbicides results in a classic “pesticide treadmill.” While exploring organic farming methods, she pioneered the use of liquid compost extracts (LCE) to manage large tracts of land in Texas. Her interest in understanding and managing soil biology led to her becoming a Certified Soil Foodweb Advisor in 2004. She and her son, J.R. Builta then developed SGTX as a consultancy and biological services company.

“When i first had weeds, i sprayed chemicals, burned, pulled, shredded—and i still had low successional weeds,” says Betsy. “not understanding that my old farm land had almost no fungi, i also started using molasses as a stimulant to the soil biology. That was the worst thing we could do because we were just feeding

The area that wasn’t treated is mostly forbs with large spacing between plants.

the bacteria which was about all that was left from years of cultivation. The bacteria promptly used up all the available nutrients, as without other microbes to check their growth, and robbed my This was the overgrazed native prairie grass area in grasses of all the nutrients! Our December 2006 on the Erath County Ranch southeast of grasses turned yellow and looked terrible! We had such poor nutrition Dallas, Texas (an area that has ranged from 45-25 inches of rainfall over the last 5 years). The area was sprayed in that we couldn’t even feed out November 2006 and rain came in its usual pattern in March. dairy heifers. When we first tried to raise grass-fed beef, we couldn’t get good CLA readings. Then dr.

Elaine ingham started helping us, and we started developing our fungal compost tea, and things turned around. We also worked on our cattle genetics.”

From those early experiments 10 years ago, SGTX now specializes in the blending and custom application of a liquid biospray containing LCE, biological inoculants, minerals, and carbon In this photo taken in June 2012, the increased soil sources to promote an abundant fertility in this spray area not only increased initial growth population of diverse and after typical annual precipitation in 2007, it continued balanced soil organisms. This is a to encourage good regrowth after grazings and the practical and affordable way to drought of the last couple of years. promote plant health because soil biology influences every aspect of soil health and crop productivity: nutrient regeneration of native grass and prairie stands. cycling, residue decomposition, soil structure, They use the LCE and improved grazing and disease suppression. While some soil food practices to achieve those ends, as well as a web companies charge as much as $6000/acre strong understanding of how the soil food for amendments, SGTX has been able to get web works. their costs down to $35-40/acre per treatment.

While SGTX works in many different A Fungal Focus situations, the goal of the SGTX prairie “The holy grail is fungi—both saprophytic restoration program is to promote a fungal soil and mycorrhizae ,” says Betsy. “Most ecology that recycles everything, mycorrhizal colonization for nutrient gathering and exhange, conventional farming practices increase bacteria seedling establishment, and natural growth and at the expense of fungi because we leave the ground bare, are too selective in what we want to grow, as well as work the land too much. if you want bacteria to dominate, then you disc in organic matter. if you want fungi, then you keep litter on top of the soil. Fungi can break down those complex native grasses and forbs in the soil and the poop. They can move up and down in the soil. if you happen on a fresh cowpie in the early morning and see gray hairs coming through the poop, that’s the fungi seeking out the nutrients and pulling them back into the ground for the microbe community. if you are in Notice tight spacing of grasses in treated areas.

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Number 149

IN PRACTICE 7

LIVESTOCK

&

KTS Farm—

Making the Transition

by Ann Adams

or the last 34 years Kress and Tammy Simpson have run a small 180-acre (72-ha) seasonal grass-based dairy (KTS Farm) in the Elk Run Watershed of Rutland Township in Tioga County.

Through the vagaries of weather and markets they have built a successful business that they are now ready to transition. While their son and daughter have helped with milking chores growing up, they are now exploring other learning opportunities and Kress took steps to transition the farm business to a younger farmer that has been involved in the business.

F

Whole Farm Success Kress first learned about Holistic Management in 1992 when Allan Savory came to the local fairgrounds and gave a presentation. Ed Martsolf then ran a series of workshops later that year and Kress came to Ed’s first class along with 20-25 other people. That group then formed a management club that has been going for the last 20 years. Some of the other dairy farmers in that group have moved on to crop farming and living on gas royalties because these grass-based dairies found they were not able to achieve a sustainable quality of life and a profitable business given the weather and markets.

Why has Kress been able to have the quality of life he and his family wants Kress and Tammy Simpson and the level of profit? “i’ve been practicing holism for 17 year,” says Kress. “i had been reading The Stockman Grassfarmer and saw all these articles about Holistic Management, so i called Allan nation and asked him: ‘What’s up with this holistic stuff.’ They recommended i explore it so i went to Ed’s class. That’s when i had a series of paradigm shifts that resulted in our dairy being not only grass-based, but also 8

Land & Livestock

May / June 2013

seasonal. That’s made a huge difference.

“With a seasonal dairy, the spring can be very stressful with a fluctuating market. i had originally chosen not to be certified organic because it didn’t pay to do so. But about 3 years ago we decided to become certified organic and sell our milk through Organic Valley because the conventional market was fluctuating so much you couldn’t plan your income. Holistic Management is about planning, so i knew it was time to make the switch to certified organic and work with a company that could offer me a steady contract.” That focus on the whole farm was critical to help Kress set up the farm for a successful transition.

Transitioning the Business Kress admits the dairy business can take its toll. Even with a seasonal dairy, nine months can be a long time without a vacation or weekend off.

So Kress began to invest in the next step—an employee. “Three years ago we hired our first full-time employee, Mike Geiser. He didn’t know anything about seasonal dairying but he was eager to learn. The first day he came to work, we pulled out the Holistic Management® Grazing Chart and explained how we grazed and why. One of the main reasons we hired Mike was so we could start taking weekends off and going on vacation. So that first day, we sat down and planned around our families for the upcoming grazing chart. We mapped it all out on the chart. Mike loved how we operated the dairy and the work so over time we started talking about how we could transition the business to him.

“He’s in the process of buying my dairy herd and i’ll continue to mentor him as well as lease him the land. He has the same philosophy as we do about the dairy and the timing is right for someone else to take up the reins. i gave him the pick of the herd and he has a 5 year lease on the land and equipment with an option to re-lease. i’m going to focus on growing more feed for the herd, and Mike will purchase the feed. We’ll continue to live on the farm and since Mike lives nearby this arrangement works out for us.

“Holistic Management has made it very clear to me, if something isn’t taking you toward your goal, you don’t do it. i’ve attained what i have because i’ve followed that guideline. i’m not broke. i haven’t used government programs other than a loan from FSA. in 1998 i invested $100,000 to help my dad refinance. 30 years later, i’ve been able to cash flow that original investment over the years to where i have the equity to sell the cattle to Mike and offer him the lease and purchase a milking parlor that works so i can transition the farm to a younger farmer.”

Farm Growth Along with the Holistic Management Grazing Chart, Kress has found the Livestock Production Plan to be most useful for him in long range

planning. He forecasts his herd growth, milk cow replacements, and cattle sales with this tool. it provides a way to estimate grazing paddocks and stored forage needs. The forecasting also allowed him to map scenarios of farm growth that helped him in determining appropriate herd size and profitability margins as he talked with Mike about the business transition.

One point of pain that needed to be resolved was the type of dairy parlor.

Kress notes, “We upgraded to a Swing 10 ireland style parlor for a number of reasons. it was an investment we could afford and we did the financial planning to determine how it would pay for itself. Mike wouldn’t be here still if we hadn’t made that investment. Most of those old barns and parlors in this area mean that one person can only milk 35-40 cows.

Last year we milked 88 cows, which were too many even with both of us. now, we’ve scaled down our herd to 66 cows that Mike will be milking.

This level of production has worked for us as we expect 8,000 pounds of milk/cow/year over a 9-month period. We’ve determined it takes about 600,000 pounds of milk/grazing cell to be profitable. With Mike working that number of cows to pay off his loan and lease and other direct expenses, he should be able to grow a sustainable business and have a sustainable quality of life.”

Making Tough Decisions

carrying capacity. When my dad was running the place back when i was a kid, we had Holsteins weighing 1,500 pounds. One acre would support one of those cows. now i’m running my smaller crosses that weigh about 1,000 pounds. it takes one acre to support two of those cows.” With planned grazing, Kress has been able to increase his carrying capacity by 25%. “i also quit doing Ai about 10-12 years ago,” says Kress. “i wasn’t getting the conception rates i wanted and it was tricky with the seasonal dairy. With Ai, i was getting 60% conception. now using the bulls we have a 70-80% conception rate.”

Kress admits that grazing implementation quality has varied over the years. “i’d probably give us a 6.5 out of 10 for paddock moves before Mike joined us,” says Kress. “Mike really pays attention to the land and the animals, and he’s moving the animals every 12 hours. He’d probably give us an 8 or 9 score now. We’ve been working with 14-16 day recovery periods in May and then as long as 60 days in the summer slump with even longer through the winter. We’ve got our stock density at 60 cows/acre (60,000 pounds/acre), but we are still seeing some selectivity so we try to get them out of the pasture with some residual left. We’ve found with dairy cattle we can’t let the forage get above 12 inches.”

Kress still has a few areas of the farm that could use animal impact, but his monitoring has shown the increase in litter, less bare ground, and more grass than there was several years ago. Organic matter has increased and Kress says that dandelions (a fertility indicator species) have increased, and goldenrod (an infertility indicator) has decreased.

There have been a number of challenges Kress has had to face over the years, but with recent weather and markets, dairying has been even more challenging. He notes, “it’s been a challenging time for dairying with the drought. The droughts mean less forage grown and more expensive feed and it is harder to get. We have a drought plan we’ve had to put in effect given the last 2 years have been less rain or poorly timed rain. normally we Energy and Sustainability have 2 weeks in August when we feed Mike Geiser is now taking over the reins of the seasonal dairy While there are a number of off of stored feed because of the at KTS Farm. (Left to right): Back row: Michael and Mike. reasons that Kress is looking at summer slump. Last year we were a Front row: Jacob, Hunter, Taylor, and Tess. transitioning to growing crops for the month ahead of schedule when we KTS herd, energy and feed costs were a big driver. Kress notes, “When i had to begin to purchase feed. i knew that was a year where we had to was taking Ed Martsolf’s class, he made the comment, ‘How many trucks settle for breaking even, but i didn’t want it worse than that. are pulling into your farm and how many are leaving.’ you have to look at “Given the situation in August we had to make some tough decisions, what your farm is producing and what you are buying in. We do feed grain but i was clear we weren’t going to go backward and back into debt. and a ton of chopped corn used to cost $300. now it costs $700.

When november came and it was clear things weren’t getting any better from a forage situation, i told Mike he could have the pick of the herd. The increased energy costs are causing increased production costs. The more i can produce here with a lower cost of production/cost, the better rest i direct marketed and got the best prices i could.” Because Kress able Mike will be able to turn a profit with the dairy. We want to create a responded to the situation in the context of multiple objectives toward his sustainable model. We’re not going to push the crops hard because we holistic goal he was able to protect his equity and move forward in his want to build soil fertility as part of the model.” plans for transitioning the farm.

Kress has been using animal impact to “plow” the ground, then he’ll disc in the spring and seed. Going forward he wants to develop a crop Production Transition rotation of grains and forage with fallow years as well. He’s looking at Over the years, Kress has adapted the production system at KTS putting 15-20 acres a year into his rotation as he experiments and Farm. His father raised Holsteins but Kress’ herd is a cross of Ayrshire, develops his system. He is receiving some mineral royalties now which is Holstein, Jersey, and normande. The animals are healthy because they allowing him to make some of these transitions, but he knows that energy live outside, and they only see the vet about twice a year. Kress has very is the big issue and he wants to figure out a system that will be resilient in little foot rot or pink eye and no serious fly issues which all means lower the years to come as energy and food becomes more expensive. cost of production for vet bills and healthier animals for better production.

“Without my training in Holistic Management, i might have become in turn Kress is managing those animals to also improve land production. reliant on those mineral dollars,” says Kress. “now i see that money as an “Over the years i haven’t spent a lot of money on inputs,” says Kress. “i’ve used the animals to improve soil fertility which has helped increase CONTINUED ON PAGE NINETEEN Number 149

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Pasture Cropping—

Regenerative Idea from Down Under

by Courtney White

• Significantly reduced input costs and risks • improved economic return from the ‘vertical stacking’ of enterprises • improved ‘happiness’ quotient on the farm

it is this last point that is perhaps most important, Colin says. As a s Colin Seis tells the story, the idea for pasture cropping came to practice, pasture cropping is pretty straightforward: by growing an annual him from the bottom of a beer bottle. Ten of them, in fact. plant in the competitive niches in the root ecology of a perennial pasture, it was 1993. Colin, a sheep farmer in western new South it avoids the need to kill pasture grasses prior to sowing a crop, thereby Wales, and his friend daryl Cluff, also a farmer, were drinking maintaining a living plant cover, which improves biological health of the beer one night, contemplating paradigms. Why, they asked, were crops soil and protects from wind and rain erosion. and pastures farmed separately? Their answer: tradition. They had been Plus, a farmer gets two products – crops and animals – from one taught that pasture and crop systems operated by different ecological piece of land. Three, actually, if you harvest the grass seeds as a process and were thus incompatible. Crops needed tilling and pastures potential food source, as Colin has done, mimicking the Aboriginals who needed animals. The systems could be alternated over the years, but lives in the area historically. never integrated. Right? Or wrong? They decided to have more beer.

But it is the social and emotional value of farming regeneratively, Colin raised the question because he had as Colin calls it, that matters most to him. been watching the native grasses on his farm To tell the story properly, we need to back up and began to wonder if nature didn’t intend for in time. annuals and perennials to coexist. nature certainly wanted weeds in his pasture – so A New Farm why not a different type of annual instead, When Colin gives a lecture or conducts a such as oats? He knew why: weeds liked to workshop, he invariably starts with the story run a 100-yard dash while perennial grasses of what went wrong with Australian like to a run a marathon. Two different races, agriculture. it’s his way of putting pasture two different types of athletes. Right? Or cropping in context, as well as explaining why wrong? They needed another round of beer. he calls it ‘regenerative’ agriculture – What if it were just one race? What if because so much of what happened on the grasses acted as a kind of cover crop for the continent’s farms and pasturelands annuals, keeping down the weeds but historically was unregenerative (by the way, allowing the middle-distance runners, such as they don’t call anything a ‘ranch’ down oats or barley or canola, to grow while the Under, everything is a ‘farm,’ unless it’s a perennials waited for their turn on the huge spread Outback, which are called racetrack? More to the point: what if you no‘stations’). tilled drilled the perennial pasture during its The destruction of Australia’s grasslands dormant period with a cereal crop? What began 150 years ago, said Colin, with would happen? inappropriate grazing management, and later That was crazy talk, had to be. it was time by plowing, mostly to grow wheat for the for more beer.

Colin Seis at a ram sale nation’s burgeoning population. Overgrazing, They more they drank that night, however, tilling, and the introduction of exotic animals the more the idea intrigued them. Why in colonial times, including foxes, rabbits, toads, and a variety of couldn’t a cereal plant be cropped in a perennial pasture? As farmers, aggressive plant species, all combined to devastate the continent’s couldn’t they figure out a way to make them all get along symbiotically? if nature could do it, why couldn’t they? That’s when the light went on, Colin naturally nutrient-poor soils and largely defenseless indigenous wildlife.

Topsoil began to wash away, along with its precious carbon and other said, thanks to all the beer. organic matter, causing a general decline in overall soil health and crop “you had to be drunk to think of something like pasture cropping,” productivity. Everything sped up with the introduction of the mechanized Colin told me. “But once we sobered up the next day, we decided to give tractor in the 1920s, and not in a good way. This was followed by it a go.” widespread application of herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizer in And give it a go they did. a desperate attempt to salvage what remained of the soil’s fertility.

So have many others. Today, pasture cropping is practiced by over Colin knows this story first-hand – he saw it happen on his family’s 2000 farms across Australia, and many more overseas. The idea 2000-acre farm, called Winona, located 180 miles northwest of Sydney. continues to spread as well. Here are some reasons why: Colin’s grandfather resisted the industrial changes being pushed on Australian wheat farmers by agricultural companies and government High crop yields • agencies.

He was doing fine, Colin said. His son, Harry, however decided Sustained high pasture and animal production from cropped land • to try something called “new Manure” a go, which turned out to be an increased fodder for livestock • early version of superphosphate, in an attempt to boost declining yields.

High rates of carbon bio-sequestration • His father objected, asking “What’s wrong with the old manure?” Trouble Marked improvement in the water-holding capacity of the soils • slowly escalated after Colin’s father bought a tractor. He didn’t know it, • improved nutrient cycling but his increased plowing was depleting the soil, carbon especially. A • improvements in biodiversity and resilience even under vicious cycle ensued: less fertility in the soil meant more chemical inputs drought stress

A

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May / June 2013

were needed to compensate, round and round. Then the farm began to fail. Costs kept rising, fertility kept falling, salinity rose, trees began to die – and they were going broke.

“Still, the ‘moron’ principle prevailed in my family,” said Colin, his voice rising slightly, “you know, more fertilizer on and more on.”

The farm ended up becoming dysfunctional and unprofitable. The granite soil on Winona had become compacted and acidic, and organic carbon levels had dropped to below 1.5%. The topsoil had declined to less that 100 mm deep and the subsoil had become sodic. Areas of salinity were also breaking out around the property as well.

Then in 1979, a wildfire burned almost all of Winona. Three thousand sheep died, all of the buildings were destroyed, twenty miles of fencing burned up, trees exploded, grass died, and Colin ended up in the hospital with burns on his body.

“Worst of all, there was no money to recover things with, which means we had hit rock bottom” Colin explained. “My grandfather had the last laugh, i’m afraid.”

When Colin had recovered from his burns, he decided to rethink the way he had been practicing agriculture. it wasn’t a criticism of Colin’s father, who had followed the rules of farming for the time, rather a realization that the rules themselves needed to change. The fire suddenly created an opportunity to do just that. Out of the ashes, Colin vowed, a new farm would emerge.

The first step was to physically rebuild the farm, which took two years, with lots of help from neighbors. The second step was to go cold turkey on fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides, because they couldn’t afford them. The pastures collapsed as a consequence – they were addicted to phosphorus, Colin said. The third step was to research native grasses.

Could they come back? Would they be an acceptable alternative? His father had battled against native grasses all his life, Colin told me, and they kept returning despite his efforts at eradication. This raised a question in Colin’s mind: if they keep wanting to come back, why not let them? Apparently, they want to be on the farm.

This led to the fourth step: study the Holistic Management ideas of Allan Savory, who had developed a way of managing animals on pasture that mimics the graze-and-go behavior of wild herbivores. Colin resisted initially, but again felt that he had no choice. He quickly learned that it worked, especially when he sicced his sheep on the non-natives (with his father’s reluctant blessing). However, this new approach created a long transitional period of low productivity, which reinforced his neighbors’ belief that native grasses were not as productive as introduced ones. But Colin persisted with his plan.

“i’m stubborn like my dad and his dad,” Colin said. “i wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not for a while, but in the end it paid off.”

By 1990, things had improved substantially, and Colin was seeing benefits both on the land and in his bank account. But Colin knew it wasn’t enough to completely repair all the damage that Winona has endured over the years. He needed a new idea.

That’s where the beer came in.

“Before industrialized agriculture was developed, the world’s grasslands and farms contained hundred of plant species of all sorts,” Colin said. “And they functioned with very few problems like disease, insect attack and weeds because it was a balanced ecosystem. Pasture cropping returns that balance. it also creates good, rich soil with high carbon levels and good water holding capacity.”

Today, thanks to Holistic Management, pasture cropping, and other regenerative practices, Colin can catalogue Winona’s recovery in detail:

• Winona is now native grassland with over 50 species of grass, forbs • • • • • • • • • • • •

and herbs The farm saves around $60,000 annually in decreased inputs it has increased profits by improving sheep carrying capacity, wool quality and wool quantity Crop yields from pasture cropping remain about the same when compared to conventional cropping with 20-year oat yields averaging 2.5 ton/ha no insect attacks or fungal diseases in crops or pasture increases in bird and native animal numbers and species diversity Big improvement in soil health, soil structure and water holding capacity Soil microbial counts show that the Winona soil has significantly higher counts of fungi and bacteria All soil nutrients have increased by an average of 150% Soil organic carbon has increased by 203% Today Colin and his son nicholas run around four thousand Merino sheep on Winona and pasture crop around 200 ha (500 acres) annually in oats, wheat and cereal rye.

Winona has left rock bottom far behind. So have Colin and his family.

How It Works The key to how pasture cropping works is the relationship between C3 (cool season) plants and C4 (warm season) plants – the difference being the number of carbon molecules and how they affect the process by which glucose is produced in a plant. C3 plants, such as wheat, rice, oats, and barley, grow early in the season and then become less active or go dormant as temperatures rise and light intensity increases. in contrast, C4 plants, such as corn, sorghum, sugarcane, and millet, remain dormant until temperatures become warm enough to ‘switch on’ and begin growing.

Pasture cropping utilizes the niche created by C3 and C4 plants. When a C4 is dormant (during winter), a C3 plant seed is sown by no-till drilling into the C4 pasture. With the onset of spring, the C3 plants begin to grow. if managed properly, plus the right amount of rain, the C3 crop can be harvested before the C4 plants begin the vigorous part of their growth cycle. The removal of the C3 crop will then stimulate C4 plant growth (due to reduced competition). Also, the mix of shallow and deep rooted plants access water resources in the soil differently, which can reduce competition and increase overall productivity.

A key is what’s happening in the soil. C3 cereal crops provide sugars to soil microbes, such as fungi, nematodes, and protozoa, during the time

Oats planted in danthonia, a cool-season “wallaby grass.”

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Number 149

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Idea from Down Under

continued from page eleven

when the C4 plants are dormant, which can improve soil fertility faster than a C4 pasture alone might. This also speeds up nutrient cycling, promotes an improved water cycle, increases nitrogen content, and adds organic matter to the soil, which can build humus. Additionally, the no-till drill lightly aerates the soil, allowing oxygen and water to infiltrate.

Another key is using grazing animals to prepare the C4 field before drilling. Grazing animals hit the perennial pasture hard, which gives the C4 plants a “headache,” according to Colin, so that the C4 plants come up slowly, giving the C3 plants a chance to grow. By hitting the pasture hard with a large mob of sheep in a time-controlled manner, Colin can keep the C4 plants from growing too tall, too early and thus prevent them from shading the C3 plants. Animals can also control weeds; create litter on the soil surface; supply a pulse of organic nutrients for the crops; and remove dry plant residue from the pasture.

Colin says his use of sheep mobs has been controversial in some quarters due to a concern about soil compaction. This is only a problem where there are low levels of ground cover and litter, he says, or when the ground is very wet. “Where there are good perennial pastures and ground cover,” says Colin, “pasture cropped paddocks show very little compaction and soil structure problems,” Proper sowing is another key. An assessment of a pasture’s potential is also critical before a farmer tries to crop it. Colin has some advice before sowing: graze the paddock to 3-4 inches; create as much litter as possible; use an herbicide to control weeds only if absolutely necessary; use no till equipment to sow at the correct depth and row spacing; sow the correct crop for your soil type; conduct a soil test if possible; because crops sown by pasture cropping are slower to develop, the crops can be sown up to two weeks earlier than usual; avoid fertilizer use as much as possible – it shouldn’t be necessary. in Colin’s case, he started with normal rates of fertilizer, but reduced it use by 70% over time and today only uses organic fertilizer at very low rates.

One more: never, never, never, use a plow.

Colin also cautions that crop yields are usually lower than with conventional, industrial agriculture in the beginning. He says this is more than offset by the ability to produce two (or three) products from the same bit of land, plus all the fertility that is being built up in the soil. in 2010, the University of Sydney conducted a research project on Winona and an adjoining farm, under the direction of dr.

Peter Ampt, to evaluate the effects of pasture cropping vs. conventional management on soil health and ecosystem function.

The project compared paddocks of comparable size on each farm. Here are some of the Warm-season, C4 Paspalidium grass species results of the growing beneath an oat crop. research: 12

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May / June 2013

A combine harvests oats with the native warm-season grass C4 under the oats.

• Winona’s paddock was 83% native perennial grass species • The neighbor’s paddock was 88% annual weed species • There was greater ecosystem function on Winona • The sheep stocking rate was double on Winona • Crop yields were the same • Soil microbial counts showed that Winona had significantly higher amounts of fungi and bacteria over the neighboring farm

in the Study’s Conclusion, dr. Ampt and Sarah doornbos write: These results illustrate that the rotational grazing and pasture cropping practiced on the innovator site can increase perennial vegetative ground cover and litter inputs, compared to the continuous grazing system and conventional cropping practiced on the comparison site. Increased perenniality and ground cover lead to improved landscape function in the pasture through increased stability, water infiltration and nutrient cycling which in turn can lead to improved soil physical and chemical properties, more growth of plants and micro-organisms and an ultimately more sustainable landscape. It also shows that rotational grazing and pasture cropping can improve landscape function while sustaining similar or higher stocking rates over the year compared to the conventional system.

This corroborated Colin’s intuition about what was happening on Winona. it also proved that he hadn’t been so drunk after all!

For a copy of this Study see: http://sydney.edu.au/agriculture/documents/2011/reports/Ampt_CiL_BM_ CombinedReportSept2011dRAFT.pdf

More Good News There are other good reasons to give pasture cropping “a go.” it can be used as a land restoration strategy, for example. That’s precisely how Colin used it on Winona – to convert a worn-out, weeddominated, burned-over, failing patch of farmland into an ecological healthy and economically profitable landscape. He did it by rotating pasture cropping around his farm over time, generally only cropping ¼ of his farm at a time. Colin is convinced the same strategy can be used anywhere similar C3-C4 plant relationships exist. “it’s a great way to rebuild grasslands and can happen almost anywhere there’s enough rain to grow a crop,” he says. in arid environments, he says, you must drill more carefully and expect yields to be lower – especially in the first few

years. “it can also be done with horses or electric engines, i suppose,” he says. “you’re limited only by your imagination.”

By the way, don’t use fire to do this job, he insists. don’t burn anything. “Throw your matches away,” he instructs. Use livestock instead.

Another benefit is increased carbon, which Colin calls “rocket fuel for plants.” According to research conducted by dr. Christine Jones, soil organic carbon has increased 203% over ten years on Winona compared the same neighboring farm studied by dr. Ampt (the farm is owned by Colin’s brother, who, Colin says, has been a good sport and good conventional farmer). dr. Jones calculates that 171 tons of CO2/ha has been sequestered to a depth of half a meter on Winona. This has contributed to a dramatic increase in the water-holding capacity of the soil as well, which, according to dr. Jones has increased by 200% in ten years and can now store over 360,000 liters/ha with every rainfall event. it’s the same with other minerals. Winona has seen the following increases: 227% more calcium; 138% more magnesium; 146% more potassium; 157% more sulphur; 186% more zinc; 151% more phosphorus; 122% more iron; 202% more copper; 156% more boron; and 179% more cobalt. it has 277% more calcium than the neighboring farm, and 151% more phosphorus.

Another benefit is what some farmers call ‘vertical stacking’ – the stacking of enterprises on a farm that fit together and thus making more profit per acre. Pasture cropping is a perfect example. it also lowers the cost of growing crops to a fraction of conventional cropping methods. The added benefit is that up to six months extra grazing is achieved compared with the loss of grazing due to ground preparation and weed control required in traditional cropping methods. Other benefits include the recruitment of perennial plant numbers and diversity of the pasture following the crop. This means that there is no need to re-sow pastures,

Soil Food Web

continued from page seven

a drought or have removed all the litter from your soil, then you probably have lost your fungi. That’s what you need to bring back. Fungi is also the most vulnerable. Typical agricultural applications of lime can kill it. So people go out and fertilize a field with lime and think they are doing the right thing, when they are killing off the very thing that they need to make the calcium available naturally.

“What people need to understand is that a soil food web means that you need all the web—the fungi, bacteria, nematodes, birds, animals—all of it. it doesn’t matter if you add a lot of amendments yet don’t have the right microbes to make them available to the soil community and in turn to the plant. if you don’t know what you are missing, then you are shooting in the dark. There are some people that say, everything is there, you just need to give those things the right environment and everything will take off. We haven’t seen that situation very often. But, we believe that if something is missing because of drought or management practices or whatever, then you need to reintroduce those missing microbes back into the food web so it will be whole again. There needs to be proper ratios for things to function right and for the nutrients and minerals to be available.”

Betsy’s focus is that everything in nature has a purpose, but we need to take the time to understand what we are managing and begin to focus on determining what the root cause is of the issues we are facing as producers. “Everything is a biological event,” says Betsy. “if you want to manage for fungi, then you should try mob grazing—about 30% graze and trample 70%. in that way, we set the table for the soil life we need for native, perennial systems. Having forbs in your forage mix is okay—in fact good. They are fiberizing the soil. if it gets to be too much, use it as a

which can cost from $100 to $150 per hectare.

“The best way to improve your profits is to improve your soil,” Colin likes to say.

And there’s no reason pasture cropping can’t be done organically, thus adding value to both the cereal and animal products. Winona isn’t certified organic, mostly because Colin likes to keep “every tool in the toolbox” when managing the land. But it would be very easy for someone else to giving organic “a go.”

There’s one last benefit – one that maybe the most important of all in coming in coming years: feeding people. A lot of people.

According to the United nations, there will be nine billion people on the planet by 2050, which raises a serious question: how are we going to feed them without destroying what’s left of the natural world, especially under the stress of climate change?

The answer is to intensify food production sustainably by managing land in nature’s image. Consider the alternative: more of what got us into trouble in the first place. With two billion more people to feed, intensifying food production will be crucial if we’re going to have our natural world and eat it too, so to speak.

Pasture cropping is one answer, i believe. it produces a grain crop and an animal product plus a wild harvest crop (grass seeds) all from the same acre – while building topsoil, improving the water cycle, enhancing the nutrient quality of the plants, and restoring land health. All on one farm, or ranch. it’s possible and profitable, as Colin Seis and his friend daryl Cluff have demonstrated. We can feed nine billion if we want. We know how. i’ll raise a beer to that!

This article first appeared in ACRES USA. For more of Courtney’s writing, see his web site: www.awestthatworks.com

cover crop to get on the ground to feed the fungi. you can let the termites take down the stalky grass.

“When you have fungi, then you have more calcium available. i believe that the big issue we are facing in agriculture today is not having sufficient available calcium. if the calcium isn’t available, then a plant may end up using potassium to build its new cell walls as it grows. That plant will be weak, vulnerable to weather and insects, and lacking in nutrition.

The insects know this through their ability to sense this vibrationally and will attack the plant.”

Recovering from a Drought So what do you do if you have bare ground and have pulled all your animals off due to the drought? you need to get the ground ready for when it does rain and have a plan of action. “Look at what the landscape was like historically,” say Betsy. “it will be easiest to manage your land so that it returns to what it was historically rather than trying to make it something it has never been. in West Texas, the brittle areas were all savannah at one point; they were fungal dominant. you can bring that back and maintain it with cultural (management) practices. if you get the ratios right, you may only have to treat an area one time with LCE and then keep things going with good practices. if things are more out of whack it may take more than one treatment.” drought is tough regardless of how much soil fertility you have.

However, according to Betsy, the more organic matter (OM) you have, the longer you can last between rains. Betsy knew the drought was coming in 2011, and they sold off half her herd. She thought she’d be okay with the CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Number 149

Land & Livestock

13

Cows & Elk—

A Symbiotic Relationship

by Chris Gill

he elk (Cervus canadensis) is one of the largest deer in the world. in fact, they are twice as big as mule deer. They are ruminants with four-chambered stomachs that feed early and late in the day. Elk are extremely adaptable, thriving in mountains, grasslands and the deserts of far-West Texas. They annually grow antlers, which are shed each winter. They live in single-sex groups most of the year, but bulls fight for cows during the rut, attempting to create harems of 20 or more cows. After about eight months gestation, spotted calves are born in early summer, and at the Circle Ranch, these remain hidden until fall. They are beautiful animals and valued by hunters.

When Europeans arrived in north America, elk were found in huge numbers and were the most-widely distributed hoofed animal on the continent, including native range throughout Texas. Relying on eyewitness accounts across Texas that begin in 1600, archeological finds of elk bones and ancient elk dung, old elk sheds found on prairies, cave elk paintings and stone carving, and geographic evidence, we can place elk in at least 30 Texas counties. By 1900, like many other game animals, they were almost gone, falling prey to over-hunting and range destruction. despite claims by naturalists in the early 20th century that Texas elk were a different species known as “Merriami elk,” modern science, including dnA testing, has shown that all Texas elk were Rocky Mountain elk.

Unfortunately, the misconceptions persist that elk were confined to a very limited range in Texas and that the elk found here were a now-extinct species. These misconceptions are being used today to justify an effort to remove all elk from state and federal land in far-West Texas. The elkremoval policy is being expanded to private lands; landowners who want to reintroduce bighorn sheep on their property must agree to remove all the elk on their land. Tragically, a coalition of private and public conservation entities, whose missions are protecting and enhancing native wildlife, is harming the only large game animal in far-West Texas that is making a comeback on its own.

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Cattle and Elk Relations Another reason for the anti-elk (as well as anti-cow) sentiment is the belief that elk “compete” for food with cattle, and wildlife, including bighorn and, vice-versa. But, according to holistic thought, all animals and all plants are interdependent and cannot be healthy without each other: systems function as a whole, not as parts.

Significant amounts of evidence prove (under several types of planning) that cattle grazing helps elk and, in the process, other wildlife.

But unless cattle grazing is planned, cows can harm habitat and wild animals. Example after example demonstrates that obvious compatibility exists unless livestock, wildlife or both are mismanaged. Cattle must be grazed in a way that considers food, cover and space for all wildlife.

Grazing of any specific area seems to work best if the grazing is seasonal and provides periods of deferment and long rest.

Elk-cow research has shown that the animals are compatible grazers.

Cattle remove old, “wolfy,” decadent plant growth. Essentially, cows like mature re-growth. in fact, cattle will often perform better in dry spring conditions than wet. in our deserts, dead grasses take decades to decompose and will eventually die without grazing. Elk, being generalist grazers, avoid “wolfy,” old plants, and they do not graze with enough intensity or with enough duration or density to clean up the old growth.

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Land & Livestock

May / June 2013

Research indicates that elk have been native to Texas for many years and have co-existed with other herbivores.

But cows will clean up old growth, stimulating new growth and providing succulent foodstuffs for wildlife. Today, elk herds often follow cattle to obtain fresh growth just as they once followed the bison.

At the Circle Ranch, we graze cattle in the dormant season (September 15 – June 15) only where and when mature regrowth exists.

This avoids growing-season cattle-elk “overlap” in our ranges, which have limited plant growth until the summer monsoons start in July. On open ranges like ours, wildlife moves itself, but we must move the cows. Water, salt, and herding move the cows to where they can make a living and do their job for wildlife, including elk. Enticing livestock into remote areas increases food and range for wildlife, relieving wildlife pressure on the forage base and spreading animals across bigger areas.

Management Implications We manage off the premise that inter-species “facilitation” is the rule, not the exception. Cows and sheep have each been shown to stimulate plants preferred by the other; sheep stimulate cow plants, and so even do burros. Because there is almost no unaltered wildlife community or habitat left, insuring healthy wildlife and profitable ranching requires controlled (planned) grazing strategies to benefit plants and animals. it is easier to study controlled cattle movements because elk cannot be controlled, but it is reasonable to assume that elk are also helping cows.

Remember, grazing tests are always conducted on artificial, “closedsystems,” which do not exist in nature.

While the Circle Ranch makes money on our cows, we make more on our hunting, and yet we do not think of domestic and wild animals as separate animal classes, or enterprises. They must all be present and all be managed together for any one animal to be healthy. Plants, animals and soil life are interdependent with each other and with water, minerals and sunshine. This system functions as a whole even though it has countless pieces. We have found that efforts to “manage” for one plant or animal just mess it up! That’s why we focus on healing the systems and improving wildlife habitat that serves multiple species.

HMi is again breaking ground with its educational program, “Cows and Quail.” This program teaches how to use animals together to help the plants both need. Three classes are planned this year. To find out more go to www.holisticmanagement.org Chris Gill and his family own the Circle Ranch near Van Horn, Texas where they are using cattle to improve wildlife habitat. www.circleranchtx.com

been practicing Holistic Management and inspiring others on his family ranch and a variety of public and private lands for over twenty years. i met Joe twelve years ago right after i purchased my ranch, and what he had As i sit down to write this article, i am very farmers connect with landowners, including land accomplished on his land inspired me to get optimistic. This is partly because it is a beautiful trusts, in ways that work for them and the land. involved myself. He explained how he uses his spring week in California with the native plants HMi is already part of this network. horse, his dogs, and his creativity to move his and fruit trees in full bloom, and the perennial The next two speakers were fantastic landscape in the direction he wants to take it, grasses just beginning to put up seed heads. representatives of the Holistic Management along with his family, his business, and his The main reason, though, is the great week i community in California. First was an inspiring community. Both Byron and Joe were well have had and the growth of interest in Holistic young rancher named Byron Palmer. i met Byron received by the people i spoke with, and clearly Management in California. got people thinking. i have just returned from two The next day there was a 3-hour days at the California Council of workshop on Holistic Management Land Trust’s meeting in offered as one of 6 possible Sacramento, California. Thanks to sessions. Approximately thirty the efforts of the Big Sur Land Trust, attendees chose this track, and it there was a plenary and a workshop led to an interesting and lively on Holistic Management and the afternoon. Rob Rutherford of need to put people back on working California Polytechnic Univesity and landscapes. it was an amazing Kent Reeves from Whole Picture opportunity to start a dialogue with a Consulting covered the art and wide variety of people working to science of Holistic Management. preserve landscapes in California, Folks from the TomKat Ranch and i (Left to right): Joe Morris, Lana Weeks, Bill Leahy, Byron Palmer, Kendra and it went very well. talked about what implementing Johnson, Sallie Calhoun.

The plenary session was on Holistic Management looks like on Monday morning and followed a our ranches. We got great questions speaker who ended his talk by saying that at our 2011 workshop with ian Mitchell-innes. He from the group, including a lively discussion grazing is not a good thing. it was the perfect has attended every workshop we have held about conservation easements and the flexibility set-up for the panel that took the stage. Bill since, and it was a conversation with him at our that ranchers need to manage and regenerate Leahy of the Big Sur Land Trust did the 2012 workshop that got Lana Weeks of the Big their land. After the session, there were many introductions, and added that in his view land Sur Land Trust excited enough to get this discussions of possible future collaborations stewardship is the challenge facing land trusts in plenary on the agenda. He explained that he first and projects. the 21st century. Kendra Johnson of California learned about Holistic Management and the Many thanks to the Big Sur Land Trust for FarmLink lead off by talking about how important possibilities of using domesticated animals to creating this opportunity. They are leading the it is to get the next generation of farmers and restore grasslands ten years ago, and has been way with a rancher on their board, active ranchers on the land running economically viable committed to the idea since then. He cold called engagement with the ranching community, and businesses that are good for the land and his way into a farming job, and has been moving an initiative around working landscapes. This is communities, and the possible role of land trusts steadily towards becoming a skilled grazer and what really makes me optimistic. HMi is a small in making that happen. She announced the land manager ever since. His career goal is to organization with big ideas, but our community is creation of a new nationally based non-profit, provide eco-system services for landowners, and large and engaged. We cannot even imagine the The Agrarian Trust, which will be working on he is well on his way. difference we can make and the fun we can have templates, models, and networks to help these He was followed by Joe Morris, who has working together and with future partners.

From the BOD Chair

by SALLIE CALHOUN

Putting People Back on the Land

Soil Food Web increased soil fertility. “But that drought brought me to my knees,” says Betsy. “To deal with that drought, we had to combine our herds. We began mob grazing, as i knew we needed to improve the soil fertility even more. We think about 250,000 pounds of beef/500 acres is our sweet spot now. We know we are not out of the drought yet, so we are careful to leave residual which in turn provides insulation, shade, protection for the grasses and forbs that will come in and are trying to help the land recover.

With all our efforts, animal health and

continued from page thirteen

performance has dramatically improved and we are beginning to add more animals back on to the land.”

Betsy made clear she has found no silver bullet. There are many management practices that need to be combined. But, the take home message is, “There is hope,” no matter what the conditions or environment. “The soil life is there,” says Betsy. “if it is just inactive, we wake it up by giving it what it needs in the right proportions. We use a lot of the soil food web soil tests to see how we need to move the soil

microbes and confirm that with chemistry tests to see if we are going in the right direction. Our first job is to balance the calcium/magnesium ratio in the prairie lands. We know we’ve done a good job when the mud in a pasture doesn’t stick to your feet or to your animals’ feet. it’s all about managing what’s going on under the ground with the right life, the right food (amendments) and the right practices.”

Betsy Ross can be reached at: betsy@sustainablegrowthtexas.com.

To learn more about the soil food web, go to http://www.sustainablegrowthtexas.com/ resource/resource.html.

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DEVELOPMENT CORNER Open Gate Mi is excited to announce the open gate on-Farm learning series. This series consists of day-long, farmer-to-farmer and rancher-to-rancher learning events that are held on farms and ranches throughout the U.S. Each day is hosted by an experienced Holistic Management practitioner and features numerous innovative and sustainable agricultural topics and practices.

We’re scheduling 8 of these events around the country in 2013, and the best way to learn about them is to go to our website to view details and registration information about each event. These events are a great opportunity to see from the ground up how producers are using Holistic Management to better manage risk, make better decisions, and reap the benefits of sustainable, profitable farming and ranching. you’ll share ideas and experiences on the land with other local farmers and ranchers that are facing similar challenges. Both management issues and production techniques may be addressed. Topics may include: holistic biological monitoring, drought mitigation, sustainability assessments, succession planning, direct marketing, improving farm management — just to name a few. not only will you get valuable hands-on knowledge, you’ll get an opportunity to mingle with your neighbors and build lasting relationships with folks that share a passion for sustainable agriculture, local food, and the environment. in addition to experienced and beginning farmers and ranchers, you’ll get a chance to meet with representatives from local agencies, organizations, and businesses interested in supporting farms.

While each day’s agenda may differ slightly, it will be a full day of learning and sharing in small group and large group facilitated discussions on the land.

Hosting an on-farm training day is great way to make a positive impact in your community. if you are interested in possibly hosting such an event or presenting a sustainable agriculture topic, please contact Ann Adams at anna@holisticmanagement.org or 505/842-5252 x105.

Our Open Gate On-Farm Learning Series offers organizations, agencies and businesses a great opportunity to network

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16 IN PRACTICE

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with farmers and ranchers interested in sustainable agricultural ideas, products, services.

We offer a variety of sponsorship opportunities to connect you with our community. if you are

interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact Matt Parrack at mparrack@holisticmanagement.org or 505/842-5252 x 111.

HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Program The Texas Beginning Women Farmer (BWF) 2012 class met for its final class in February at Selah Bamberger Ranch in Johnson City, Texas, which provided both a lodge and the classroom for the event.

This session covered Grazing Planning and Leadership & Communication. Having the session on the ranch allowed for the women to take part in hands-on The graduating class of the Texas BWF 2012 program forage assessment exercises.

Post-program field days will include a class reunion at Alice Ball Strunk’s ranch, a class with Steve nelle on riparian management and plant identification, goat BBQ, and a tour of the Ross Farm. This session was also used to introduce the management club concept and 3 management clubs were created Texas BWF participants learning how to assess forage. with each group having a coordinator who received a management club binder to begin the process. Thanks to our new BWF TX Management Club Coordinators for their volunteering: Kathy harris, tracy little, and heidi sloan. HMi will begin accepting applications for the 2013 Texas BWF program in May. Visit our website to learn more.

HMi’s BWF in the northeast has also been very active through the winter. The participants in Jessie Schmidt (center) helps BWF Connecticut, Maine, new Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts farmer participants Massachusetts, and new york have been learning with their financial planning. goal setting, on-farm decision-making, financial planning, time management, marketing planning, and business planning. Over 30 day-long sessions have been held in these states since november 2012. Thanks to our collaborators: Northeast organic Farming Association-connecticut, central New York rc&D, women in Agriculture Network—Maine, University of Vermont, small & beginning Farmers of New hampshire, and community involved in sustaining Agriculture (MA). Also thanks to our pool of BWF instructors and mentors for their efforts with this program.

Empowering Women in Agriculture Seminars HMi held two Empowering Women in Agriculture Seminars in March—one in Fredricksburg, Texas and one in Albuquerque, new Mexico. These seminars were funded through a national Center for Appropriate Technology (nCAT) grant which was funded by the USdA’s Risk CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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

Canadian Holistic Management Conference yet another successful Western Canadian Holistic Management conference was held in Russell, Manitoba on February 1213th. Approximately 180 people were in attendance for this year’s conference HMI’s CEO, Peter with the youngest participant being 22 Holter, shared HMI’s vision and months old to those too programs with the young to mention!

The conference kicked Canadian off with “susie o” from conference Missouri, USA speaking attendees. on her experiences about moving from an urban upbringing to marrying a farmer and adjusting to life on the farm. Later in the conference, Pierrette Desrosiers from Quebec, spoke about the human relations and development of emotional intelligence in leaders in the field of agriculture.

Presentations by Canadian Certified Educators included Don campbell on finances, blain hjertaas on land management, and ralph and linda corcoran on the human resources side of things. There were also presentations from one of the most active Holistic Management Support Groups in Canada. They shared their affiliation with each other to the crowd and how supportive they are of each other and what they do to hold their group together on a regular basis. it was mentioned that they truly have become a “family” and it was really touching to see the impact that Holistic Management has made in their lives. There was additional producer participation with a producer panel comprising of tom and Michelle teichroeb, Art McElroy and Duane thompson.

Dr. gary Martens from the University of Manitoba also presented about the Holistic Management course for students at the University of Manitoba. Lastly, Peter Holter, HMi’s CEO, spoke about HMi’s global efforts and programs.

The conference also showcased a children’s program. Special thanks to Jo-lene gardiner for her efforts in coordinating this with the Manitoba Forestry Association, the Nature conservancy of canada and Manitoba

Agriculture, Food and rural initiatives. Also, thanks goes out to our volunteers, cathy

The children with Dave Pogson presenting their stories of the Children’s program to the crowd in a Power Point Presentation.

Nebraska College Training

shaluk, glen Peterson, Kim brownlivingston and Val and David Pogson for volunteering to assist the children.

And finally, special thanks goes to cynthia Nerbas for all her personal time and effort in organizing once again the silent auction which raised over $5000 for next year’s conference!

Financial support to the conference was provided by growing Forward ii – Agricultural sustainability initiative and the AgriExtension business Programs as well as many agri-businesses and booth displays.

Special thanks also goes to Manitoba Agriculture, Food and rural initiatives, the saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and Alberta Agriculture and rural Development staff for their assistance in organizing the event.

The organizing committee is already busy planning for the next conference which is tentatively booked for Lloydminster, Alberta in February 2014. Stay tuned for upcoming details to save the date!

for many years and are over run with invasive species of brush and weeds. Officials believe that Holistic Management training for producers, landowners and agency staff will serve to make the goal of restoration a reality.

The introduction to Holistic Management Workshop was in January and 90% of participants increased their learning about Holistic Management. The Financial Planning workshop was in February and 100% of participants felt they had increased their understanding of Holistic Management Financial Planning and will change their financial planning practices. The same was true for the Holistic Management Grazing Planning course that took place in March, with 100% of participants increasing their understanding of grazing planning and changing their practices.

These workshops are being offered at the CCC Hastings Campus in 2013. We hope that this joint effort can be continued annually with a possible rotation between the Hastings and Columbus Campuses. See the HMi Event Calendar for dates and contact information. For further information please contact Bob Shields at 308/379-1361 or bob.shields01@gmail.com.

Holistic Management training is now readily available in Central nebraska thanks to a cooperative effort from the rainwater basin Joint Ventures Project (RBJVP), central community college (CCC) Extended learning services, and HMi. Joint Ventures Project officials, courtesy of a grant from the Nebraska Environmental trust and other sources, are providing substantial funding to make this possible and HMi is providing the curriculum. Central Community College is providing facilities, organizational and promotional in kind services for the program.

Sustainability was recently identified as a primary goal for CCC resulting in eagerness to be a part of Holistic Management education.

Certified Educators Paul swanson, Mae rose Petrehn, and ralph tate are teaching this series of workshops.

The Joint Ventures Project is a coalition of several state, federal and private programs with a common mission of preserving wildlife habitat, restoration of endangered species populations, supporting conservation initiatives and developing cooperative arrangements that are beneficial to agriculture. A key focus of the 2013 workshops will be the restoration and management of Rainwater Basin wetlands through managed grazing.

Grazing planning course participants learn about the principles and practices These wetlands of grazing planning as well as how to use the grazing planning software. have been rested Number 149

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READER’S FORUM A Letter from a Program Participant dear HMi, ecause of the HMi program, i have completely revised my cattle operation, addressing all three legs of the management “stool” (social, environmental, economic). My goals were to basically become profitable so that i could pass on to my three girls a profitable, self-sustaining operation. doubling my herd size i think was also included as a goal.

Being a “get ‘er done” kind of guy i have accomplished a good bit so far.

On, the social leg, all three girls were interested (wanted to) keep the farm going, none of which had time to be the farmers, as they are all gainfully employed and are in the child rearing process. in light of the $5 million gift opportunity in 2012, with an uncertain future, plus what we had previously gifted, i transferred farm ownership to them, each owning 240 acres, with them all agreeing that Jeanie and i had the right to farm and live in our house as long as we desire. i have worked out a 5-year sub-lease with Mount Vernon Grassfed in which they (Mike Peterson) take care of the herd and the costs associated, and they get 75% of sales. i get 25% of the sales. i also buy expansion heifers for 75% of market value. They buy feeders for their grass fed operations for 25% of market value.

What is left is sold on the market with a 75/25 split. This arrangement gives Jeanie and me free time to travel and pursue other interests (we have even bought an RV). So far i cannot believe how well this arrangement is working.

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Development Corner Management Agency (RMA). Both seminars were packed with registered participants.

Evaluations showed that the participants found the seminars to be very educational.

Each seminar started with Holistic Management Certified Educator, Peggy Maddox describing how Holistic Financial Planning saved the Maddox Ranch. This was followed by a hands-on workshop led by Holistic Management Certified Educators Ann Adams in new Mexico and Peggy sechrist in Texas. Participants got first-hand knowledge of how to manage financial risk and then broke into small groups to complete a financial planning exercise. After lunch everyone enjoyed a panel discussion and Q&A session with local women producers. nCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist, robert Maggiani also 18 IN PRACTICE

May / June 2013

The girls are all happy too. Starting this year, they will purchase all the expansion heifers. We will also start gifting our Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) which owns the cows and equipment. in 5 years or so they will also own the LLC. At that point i will be about 80 years old and i can go to my final resting place with much peace of mind.

On the financial leg, i was barely breaking even, even with six rentals bringing in about $40,000. it has been obvious for some time that my fulltime employee of some 15 years was a major cause of the problem. difficult as it was, i think because of the HMi program confidence, i gave him notice, a separation bonus, and we parted ways.

Also impacting the financial end of things was implementing an intensive grazing program. i combined my three herd operation into one herd, and began a one-herd rotation. The herd is moved basically daily, guided by the simple principle that the good stuff is grazed no shorter than 3 inches. By putting the three herds into one and intensively grazing, i have reduced hay needs 50 to 60%, substantially reduced fuel, and fertilizer and maintenance costs. As hay needs are reduced i plan to concentrate more on horse hay which is profitable if made right. i don’t want to give up hay making as it is my favorite part of farming. We will finish 2012 substantially in the black, most of which i used to improve the water supply for the one herd and drought conditions.

On the biological leg, we are making

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gave a presentation on the Top Ten Resources Women Farmers and Ranchers never Use. These seminars were a great way to introduce attendees to HMi’s Beginning Farmers & Ranchers program. We wanted to let the participants know about HMi’s USdAfunded program in Texas and to also assess interest in new Mexico for such a longer program here.

A special thank you to all involved with our Empowering Women in Agriculture Seminars. While both seminars were sponsored by nCAT, additional sponsors for the new Mexico event were wells Fargo, Farm bureau Financial services, la Montanita coop, rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Java Joe’s and New

progress. By grazing the good stuff to no less than 3 inches, fescue and weeds are left, so we do some clipping and spot spraying. i have Dick McNear installed or upgraded six new water stations, all of which are served by deep wells to assure water in dry spells. i have also reworked the existing electric fences to reduce solar fence charges and improve ease of temporary fence crossing in each of the 25 permanently fenced fields already existing.

Mulch and grass density already seem to be improving.

As you know, i was initially probably your biggest skeptic about the whole HMi program. i must admit that i have done a 180-degree turnabout, and without it i would not have had knowledge or confidence to implement what needed to be done to get Jeanie and me some free time, and, much more importantly, to pass on to our girls a profitable beef operation that basically runs itself.

Dick McNear farms in Virginia. He became a part time farmer in 1961. Although he went to West Point and spent 10 years in the army, his aptitude tests always indicated he should go into farming or forestry. After the army, he spent 2 years as a teacher and then 20 years doing planning and zoning for a nearby county.

He started farming full time when he retired in 1992.

Mexico Mid-region council of governments Agricultural collaborative. Texas sponsors were liveAuction.tv, and Malcolm and Delphine beck.

Texas Beginning Women Farmer program participants were the panel of producers for the Texas Empowering Women in Agriculture Seminar.

Book Review

by ANN ADAMS

The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances. Crops, and Staff—and Making a Profit

by RICHARD WISWALL • Chelsea Green Publishing • 2009 • pp. 184

s the Project director for HMi’s Beginning Women Farmer Program, i’ve spent a lot of time reviewing various financial and business planning materials for farmers. One of the books i consistently direct people to when they are ready to ramp up their farming business is Richard Wiswall’s The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook. This is a great handbook for any farmer, not just organic farmers, but it is even more helpful for organic farmers because of some of the additional organic production practices he includes in his book.

Wiswall is an experienced farmer, who has been running Cate Farm in Vermont for the last 27 years. He opens his book by talking about the money that can be made in farming and the need for business and financial planning to make it happen. in fact, he mentions that he took a Holistic Management class in 1993 and heard the presenter say, “The biggest fallacy in farming is that there is no money in it.” He talked about how that statement really changed his paradigm about farming, and i think that is the main reason he wrote The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook—to help other farmers change their paradigms.

Clearly Wiswall is comfortable with number crunching and making a profit, and he gets people thinking about efficiencies and economies of scale in a sustainable way. Even if not everyone on the farm team wants to do the numbers, this book helps whoever is in charge of the finances find a way to move forward and grow the profitability of an organic business—a critical need at this time as organic food demand

A

Making the Transition

exceeds supplies. His tools and templates are simple and efficient so the average farmer shouldn’t be overwhelmed. Like any component of management, it is making the time to do the necessary chores like recordkeeping and enterprise analysis that is so critical.

This book is a handbook—it has exercises to complete including some whole farm goal setting. Wiswall also really drives home the focus on profit rather than production which is a critical point for many farmers. He develops a worksheet that helps people project gross sales over a 5 year period to help them determine how they can move from their current net to the net they would like to earn and then gives an example of a marketing chart of how to grow those gross sales in such as way as to earn the net. it’s these kinds of simple yet rigorous exercises that make this book so valuable.

While the book itself is worth the cover price, the added bonus of a Cd filled with job descriptions, timesheets, payroll calculators, and enterprise budget templates makes this book/Cd a real bargain. if you want to build out a business plan and grow your farming business, Wiswall has given you all the tools you need in The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook.

To purchase this book go to: http://holisticmanagement.org/store/books/

gone from being an employee to a business owner so his risk has increased, but so has his insurance policy or buffer that is helping make the key decisions i’ll need to make is if i want to ability to build equity.” the changes i need to make. i’m ready to take invest in some of the equipment i don’t have or So as KTS Farm moves forward providing on a different risk with my focus on cropping. if i want to hire it out. What’s interesting to see organically certified milk to Organic Valley, there My dad went broke doing conventional cropping is that i have a lot less income and a lot less are now two farmers where there used to be one. in the ‘60s-‘80s. On the other hand, my expense. My net is about the same but there is The growth and transition of this small farm is an granddad made a huge success in the ‘40s and a lot less risk. On the other hand, Mike has example of how to survive in the challenging ‘50s with his cropping. The key business of dairy farming. was obviously soil fertility. So Because Kress took the time Holistic Management Results for KTS Farm as part of our transition we will to determine his whole farm be working with Organic Valley goal and has consistently Decision/Process result who has a program where made decisions toward it for Grass-based dairy increase soil fertility (evidence of increase their agronomist will work with 20 years, he has been able at in dandelions and decrease in goldenrod) you to analyze your soil age 56 to create and Grass-based dairy decrease bare ground samples. We’ve also been implement a succession plan Grass-based dairy increase litter and ground cover working with their for that business to continue to veterinarians as well.

Financial planning decrease debt provide a quality product while “Right now i’m working on improving the land base on Financial planning decrease production costs a Holistic Financial Plan for the which it relies.

Livestock Production Planning improved long-range planning crop enterprise and it’s been Planning improve quality of life (more time for fun because it is so different Kress Simpson than the plans i’ve done for the hobbies and family) can be reached at: dairy over the years. One of simpson1979@npacc.net. continued from page eight

Number 149

IN PRACTICE 19

Certified

Educators

◆ These educators provide Holistic

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.

Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

*

These associate educators provide educational services to their communities and peer groups.

ralph tate 1109 Timber dr., Papillion, nE 68046 402/932-3405 • Tater2d2@cox.net

U N I T E D S TAT E S ARIZONA

MAINE

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

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

CALIFORNIA

NEW HAMPSHIRE ◆ seth wilner 24 Main Street, newport, nH 03773 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) seth.wilner@unh.edu

MICHIGAN

lee Altier College of Agriculture, CSU 400 West First St. Chico, CA 95929-0310 laltier@csuchico.edu • 530/636-2525

larry Dyer 1113 Klondike Ave, Petoskey, Mi 49770 231/347-7162 (h) • 231/881-2784 (c) ldyer3913@gmail.com

*

owen hablutzel 4235 W. 63rd St. Los Angeles, CA 90043 310/567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com

MISSISSIPPI

richard King Poppy Hill Farm, 1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 rking1675@gmail.com • 707/217-2308 (c) ◆ rob rutherford CA Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 805/756-1475 • rrutherf@calpoly.edu

Preston sullivan 610 Ed Sullivan Lane, n.E. Meadville, MS 39653 prestons@telepak.net • 601/384-5310

cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23 dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 • hminfo@wholenewconcepts.com

Kirk gadzia P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, nM 87004 505/867-4685 • 505/867-9952 (f) kirk@rmsgadzia.com

MONTANA

Montagne *P.O.cliff Box 173120, Montana State University department of Land Resources and Environmental Science, Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079 • montagne@montana.edu

IOWA

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

NEBRASKA

& Erin wilson *4375torray Pierce Ave.

605/473-5356 • randy@zhvalley.com

Mae rose Petrehn 1122 Woodburn dr., Spearfish, Sd 57783 913/707-7723 (c) Treadearthintometaphor@gmail.com 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 VERMONT calley hastings 787 Kibbee Rd., Brookfield, VT 05036 802/279-3893 • Calley.hastings@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 WISCONSIN

Jeff goebel 52 nW Macleay Blvd, Portland, OR 97210 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com

laura Paine Wisconsin dATCP n893 Kranz Rd., Columbus, Wi 53925 608/224-5120 (w) • 920/623-4407 (h) laura.paine@datcp.state.wi.us

Don campbell Box 817 Meadow Lake, S0X 1y6 306/236-6088 • doncampbell@sasktel.net

tony McQuail 86016 Creek Line, RR#1 Lucknow, On n0G 2H0 519/528-2493 mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca

linda & ralph corcoran Box 36, Langbank, SK S0G 2X0 306/532-4778 • rlcorcoran@sasktel.net

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

Pigott *Boxlen 222, dysart, SK, SOH 1HO

Paul swanson 5155 West 12th St., Hastings, nE 68901 402/463-8507 • 402/705-1241 (c) swanson5155@windstream.net

Paullina, iA 51046-7401 712/448-3870 • wilsonee3@gmail.com

holmquist *25267randal Holmquist Rd., Reliance, Sd 57569

WASHINGTON NEW YORK

roland Kroos 4926 itana Circle, Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862 • 406/581-3038 (c) kroosing@msn.com

COLORADO

NEW MEXICO ◆ Ann Adams Holistic Management international 5941 Jefferson St. nE, Suite B Albuquerque, nM 87109 • 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org

SOUTH DAKOTA

OREGON

*

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

AUSTRALIA Judi Earl “Glen Orton” Coolatai, nSW 2402 +61 4 09 151 969 (c) • judi@aimsag.com.au 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

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

For more information about or application forms for the hMi’s certified Educator training Programs, contact Ann Adams or visit our website: www.holisticmanagement.org.

20 IN PRACTICE

May / June 2013

306/432-4583 JLPigott@sasktel.net

Kelly sidoryk P.O. Box 374 Lloydminster, AB S9V 0y4 780/875-9806 (h) 780/875-4418 (c) sidorykk@yahoo.ca KENYA christine c. Jost international Livestock Research institute Box 30709, nairobi 00100 254-20-422-3000 254-736-715-417 (c) c.jost@cgiar.org

NEW ZEALAND King *P.O.John Box 12011, Beckenham, Christchurch 8242 64-276-737-885 • john@succession.co.nz

SOUTH AFRICA wayne Knight Solar Addicts P.O. 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 UNITED KINGDOM Philip bubb 32 dart Close, St. ives, Cambridge, PE27 3JB 44-1480-496-2925 (h) • +44 7837 405483 (w) pjbubb99@gmail.com

*

thE MArKEtPlAcE

Financial options for every phase of your life Whether you want to save for the future, secure a personal loan, utilize exclusive online and telephone banking services, or enjoy the convenience of our ATMs and many locations, we are here for you. Call, click, or stop by and talk with a banker. If you would like to open an account over the phone, call 1-800-932-6736 any time (or 1-800-311-9311 for service in Spanish).

wellsfargo.com All loans are subject to application, credit qualification, and income verification. © 2013 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. (841838_07746)

ADVANCED I SOIL FERTILITY COURSE Determining & Calculating Needed Nutrients July 29-31, 2013 LOCATION: CLINTON BUILDING 501 CAMPANELLA DRIVE, SIKESTON, MO

—SPONSORED BY —

KINSEY AGRICULTURAL SERVICES, INC. CONDUCTED BY NEAL KINSEY

This workshop utilizes 100 soil tests employing the Albrecht System to establish the desired formula and calculate needed nutrient requirements for top production and quality.

— MONDAY — Working with Soil Tests, pH and Liming REGISTRATION: $650 per person, including lunch each day.

Or, $950/person, includes breakfast, lunch and lodging for July 28, 29, and 30.

For room reservations call Kinsey Ag. Services, Inc. (573) 683-3880

— TUESDAY — Building Fertility with Major Nutrients

— WEDNESDAY — Working with Micronutrients

For consulting or educational services contact:

Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. 297 County Highway 357 Charleston, Missouri 63834

Ph: 573/683-3880, Fax: 573/683-6227 www.kinseyag.com • neal@kinseyag.com

— THURSDAY — WE ACCEPT CREDIT CARD ORDERS (VISA, MC)

Optional Farm Tour

Number 149

IN PRACTICE 21

thE MArKEtPlAcE

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Holistic Management Trainings

CORRAL DESIGNS

February 10-15, 2014 Albuquerque, New Mexico with instructor Kirk Gadzia

310-567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com

Whole Systems Design, Consultation and Education

Advanced Training Session Feb. 13-15: $495 Comprehensive Holistic Management Training Feb. 10-15: $895

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22 IN PRACTICE

May / June 2013

Owen Hablutzel CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

Introduction to Holistic Management Feb. 10-12: $495 (Requires prior attendance at intro session.)

0312

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Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59.

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• Integrated whole farm/ranch planning • Keyline Design/Permaculture Design • Resilience Assessments • Tailored Workshops and Speaking • International Experience

Group Facilitation • Individual/Groups • Open Space Technology (groups 5 – 2,000) • Strategic Planning • Consensus Workshops

Let’s discover solutions together!

thE MArKEtPlAcE

JOB OPPORTUNITY Director of Agriculture Desired skills/experience • Holistic Management • Thorough knowledge of animal management • Extensive horticultural background • Experience in sustainable agriculture setting • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills • Computer skills • Bachelor’s Degree or other formal education • 5-10 years Farm experience Greenacres is a 605 acre enterprise focused on education about the environment, sustainable agriculture, classical arts and research in these areas. Operational aspects of the agricultural activities include cattle, poultry, sheep, equine, pastures, hay production, horticulture production, sustainable agriculture and horticulture research.

For full job description go to: www.green-acres.org.

Send resume to: Sally Schott Greenacres Foundation 8255 Spooky Hollow Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45242.

Larry Dyer Ecological

Matheson Farms sustainable living Education center

Agriculture Consulting

Programs on-line or on-location:

Helping farms and communities through the holistic lens of an ecologist

• Holistic Management • Sustainable Agriculture • Sustainable Living • Consensus Building

Educational Programs Group Process Facilitation • Group and Individual Consultation •

services:

•

• Personalized training • Group classes/seminars • Mentoring • Group Facilitation • Biological Monitoring • documentary Filmmaking Dr. sANDrA MAthEsoN Certified Educator in Holistic Management Bellingham, WA • 360-220-5103 sandym@mathesonfarms.com www.sustainablelivingeducationcenter.com

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

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

Offered By Whole New Concepts, LLC P.O. Box 218 Lewis CO 81327 Number 149

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

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