#153, In Practice, January/February 2014

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2014

From the Board Chair

NUmBER 153

w w w. h o l i s t i c m A N A g E m E N t. o R g

by SALLIE CALHOUN

~ INSIDE THIS ISSUE ~

Beginning Farmers

T

his is my final article as Board chair. I turned the gavel over to Kelly Sidoryk at the annual meeting in November but will remain on the Board for one more year as past chair and member of the CEO search committee. Kelly is a Certified Educator from Lloydminister, Alberta, Canada and has been active in Holistic Management and with HMI for over twenty-five years. She has been on the Board for three years and will do an amazing job as chair. She will be introducing herself in an article in the next IN PRACTICE.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

FEATURE STORIES

Schuyler and Colby Gail began Climbing Tree Farm with some sheep 7 years ago. After Holistic Management training they had the tools to look at what it means to sustain a small farm for the long term.

To learn more about their story, turn to page 4.

Fat Toad Farm—Creating a Sustainable Balance ELySA BryANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lessons in Holistic Management— Barking Cat Farm KIM MArTIN & LAurIE BOSTIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Climbing Tree Farm— Making a Small Farm Work HEATHEr SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Making Sound Decisions— using Holistic Management SuSAN BEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Land & Livestock

practitioners so much because they are curious, open-minded, and always trying to figure something out. My intention is to stay involved with the community long after I leave the Board.

Since 2014 is the 30th anniversary of the founding of HMI, I found myself thinking about the history of the organization and its future as I sat down to write this article. This feels like an exciting time for a new approach to agriculture and land management in general and Holistic Management in particular.

Five years ago, in preparation for the 25th anniversary, Ben Bartlett quoted a Buddhist proverb, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Since that time, interest in local food, atmospheric carbon, inequality, and environmental degradation has continued to build. In just the past year, it has become common to attend a meeting of urban folks who are concerned about these issues, along with soil health and the lack of young farmers.

Interest in Holistic Management has continued to grow around the world.

Over 1.5 million people have viewed Allan Savory's TED talk and it has spawned a lively conversation. The book Cows Save the Planet and other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth by journalist Judith Schwartz has made its way into the mainstream. HMI is finding interest, funding, and collaboration from a wide variety of partners including over 78 collaborating organizations that have

Vacation and the Grazing Chart TrOy BISHOpp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Birdwell-Clark ranch— Improved Grazing Benefits Cattle and Wildlife HEATHEr SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The red river Graziers Management Club HEATHEr SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Addressing Animal Health Issues—The Basics LISA MCCrOry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

News & Network

Serving on the Board of a non-profit organization as a volunteer is a big commitment of both time and energy, and taking on a leadership role is even more so. Three years ago I felt comfortable moving into the chair role partly because of the depth of experience and passion for the organization on the Board. There were two past chairs and numerous people with many years of experience that I could turn to in my first Board Chair role. There are always challenges as you navigate the needs of a diverse group, but I have learned a lot about myself, HMI, and the Holistic Management community as we have worked to move HMI forward in its ability to serve its mission.

After serving on numerous Boards, I have thought a lot about why people are willing to do it. For me, with HMI it started with a real interest in Holistic Management, and the desire to learn more. I continued on the Board because of the relationships that I had created with people on the Board and in the community. I took on the role as Board Chair because it had become important to me that more people learn the tools of Holistic Management to benefit the people and the land. I have no doubt that I have profited from the relationship far more than the organization has.

After six years, I still look forward to those evenings in the bar talking about the weather, how the grass is growing, and especially figuring out what is happening on the land and maybe why. I enjoy spending time with Holistic Management

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Holistic Management in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Market place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Fat Toad Farm— Creating a Sustainable Balance

In Practice

by ELYSA BRYANT

a publication of Holistic Management International

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

STAFF Kelly curtis. . . . . . . . Chief Financial Officer Ann Adams. . . . . . . . Managing Editor, IN prACTICE and Director, Community Services, Interim CEO sandy langelier. . . . Director, Communications and Outreach Peggy sechrist. . . . . Development Advisor Peggy cole . . . . . . . . Project Manager, Texas mary girsch-Bock . . Grants Manager carrie Nelson . . . . . . Store Manager / Customer Support Valerie grubbs . . . . . Accountant Nancy Baca . . . . . . . Administrative Assistant Julie Kare . . . . . . . . . Instructional Design Specialist

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Kelly Sidoryk, Chair Sallie Calhoun, Past Board Chair Michael Podolny, Vice-Chair Jim Shelton, Treasurer Wayne Knight, Secretary Ron Chapman Zizi Fritz Laura Gill Gail Hammack Clint Josey Wayne Knight Danny Nuckols 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 © 2014

2 IN PRACTICE

C

alley Hastings joined HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer program in Vermont the first year they offered it in 2009. After making her way through the curriculum as a farmer, she decided to go on to the Certified Educator program to teach others Holistic Management. She became a Certified Educator in 2013. Her teaching began early on in the program, returning to the farm after the intensive weekends to teach the interns what she was learning and engage her family in the process. From that experience, Calley was able to improve life for herself on the farm as well as help the farm become more sustainable.

Balancing Life In that first year as a new farmer joining the Beginning Women Farmer program, the Holistic Goal came to be an eye-opener for her. The Holistic Goal literally became the first wake-up call that she was getting burned out with farming on her family’s dairy farm producing goat’s milk caramel. pre-farming, there were many other things that Calley valued and made time for in her life.

As she developed her Holistic Goal, she realized she was no longer making time for those priorities. Through the Holistic Goal process, she was encouraged to set boundaries around the farm and her time. She decided to take seven months to travel to New Zealand, an investment of time to travel and assess what was important to her. ultimately, that time away helped her return to the farm but in a position less intense and more conducive to spending time off the farm to pursue the interests that had taken a temporary backseat to farming. The Holistic Goal also helped her family affirm that they are all on the ‘same page’ for the future of the farm and to help them be clear on what they value most.

While the Holistic Goal was perhaps the first eye-opener for Calley, there were other benefits as well. As in the other states, and with many of the Northeast participants, the network of women participating in the program was an invaluable aspect of the program. The opportunity to share and learn together while working to create a new model for producing food has been a bonus for Calley.

While the challenges are great, and there are many moments of not knowing how to move forward, Calley reports that the Vermont group has helped give direction and support during the start-up phase for many farms and will hopefully leave each participant with new ways

January / February 2014

of thinking and approaching their business that will bring them toward their goals.

Financial Benefits Holistic Financial planning can be a challenge for new farmers to integrate into their practice. But for Calley, it provides yet another way to help move toward the Holistic Goal and stay clear on priorities. When asked about the value of Holistic Financial planning, she said: “The financial planning was, and continues to be, another very powerful part of Holistic Management. Taking control over record keeping, pricing, enterprise budgets and ultimately profit has been absolutely crucial to our farm business. I think there is a tendency to think of farming endeavors as passion-based without as much of the business and marketing influences. But once again, if you are trying to establish a farm that will be there in the long run, profitability is key. I also stopped joking about not getting paid as a farmer. Now when I look at a new enterprise the first thing I think about is the financials and make sure there is a line in there for labor. I know that if I don’t value my time no one else will. If the math doesn’t work out for a new enterprise, then it gets ditched. I may be ok with not getting paid for something for a year or two but that gets old pretty quickly and I want to know that I am creating something that I can afford to create.”

Calley Hastings’ success with Holistic Management has come through applying its concepts to her life overall. The Holistic Goal helped her realize that her time and responsibilities needed to have boundaries to keep her life balanced with the other things she values. That perspective gave her the impetus to make a trip to New Zealand and an CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Lessons in Holistic Management—

Barking Cat Farm

by KIM MARTIN & LAURIE BOSTIC

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fter eight years of farming, we were at a crossroads where we needed to make some major changes in how we ran our farm or seriously consider shutting it down. In a case of fortuitous timing, we were invited to an introductory session about Holistic Management in 2011; afterward, we went home and promptly downloaded all the free materials from the HMI website and started poring over it. We immediately knew that Holistic Management offered a real solution to the problems we were facing. And luckily, we were chosen to be part of the first Texas class of Beginning Women Farmers and ranchers (BWF) in 2012.

Since then, we’ve made huge changes in how we manage our farm.

Holistic Goal & Time Management One powerful, fundamental change was writing down a Holistic Goal and beginning to manage towards it, including testing decisions large and small. Since we both have backgrounds in engineering, actually articulating our Holistic Goal was probably the most difficult thing we did. We spent the entire first BWF class squirming in our seats because the whole concept was so foreign and, to our very analytical minds, vague!

Luckily for us, peggy Maddox came over during that first class and gave us some sage advice. She asked us what brought us to Holistic Management in the first place and then told us to write that down. So we did! Our first Holistic Goal was: “The farm pays for itself. We have more free time”. That was our entire first Holistic Goal.

Those two statements remain in our goal but the entire goal now takes up two pages.

The next most powerful change we made was using annual time management planning.

Now instead of having “To Do” lists that go on forever, we have actual plans and schedules.

It has been a major shift in how we think and leads to far more agreement on when and how things should be done. We meet each Saturday to review our annual time plan for each major enterprise and project. During that relatively short and increasingly less painful meeting, we come up with an agreed upon schedule for the following week.

Because of our technical backgrounds, all of our time management planning is done electronically using spreadsheets. We use a simple format for the weekly schedule, listing tasks by day of the week and who is responsible for each task. After transferring everything from the annual plan to the weekly one, we review the week to make sure no one day is overloaded and that we can reasonably expect to finish everything that we planned to do.

Now, that’s not to say that our time management is suddenly perfect. However,

recently we’ve even been able to start taking some Saturdays off, which for folks who haven’t taken a vacation in a few years is a huge step forward. And we don’t allow ourselves to be discouraged by the plain and simple fact that our annual plan is not correct. We can see that we will get to a point where it will be mostly correct eventually.

Weak Link Analysis The time management planning exercise in our BWF class was the next most difficult for us after the Holistic Goal one, but it served to concretely show us that labor was definitely a weak link for us. Weak link identification was actually the first thing we latched onto when we heard about Holistic Management. Identifying ours was quick because it had been obvious to us for a long time. It was resource conversion.

We couldn’t produce enough crops to meet our market demand. And it was clear to us that labor was the culprit.

Our farm requires a lot of hand labor, so we started studying how we could mechanize more tasks. A controversial idea that we initially didn’t

see eye-to-eye on was that of reducing the number of planting beds inside our deer fence to be able to move easier through the field with both people and equipment. reducing planting space is a painful decision, but using the testing questions, we were able to come to the conclusion that doing so moved us towards our Holistic Goal. And, using the testing questions reduced the decision to a logic problem instead of a heated discussion. We also addressed our labor weak link by hiring additional crew members and making sure they work on wealth generating activities.

Once you address one weak link, the next one pops up. We knew that soil biology was a weak link for us and that it would be our next stumbling block. Betsy ross of Sustainable Growth Texas was a mentor in our BWF class, and we have started working with her and her company to correct our soil biology problems.

Focusing on becoming a biologically managed farm instead of just an organic one has been a major mindset shift for us. We are using new tools like refractometers, microscopes and electrical conductivity meters.

By being part of the BWF class, we made some important and, hopefully, lifelong connections. recently 3 of our BWF classmates attended a workshop where we talked about how we are applying Holistic Management and shared their experience as well. That event was a great testament to the other attendees about the power of Holistic Management and the power of the network of women farmers we’re building in Texas.

Kim Martin and Laurie Bostic own Barking Cat Farm where they’ve been growing tasty organically grown food for 9 years for restaurants and a CSA. Contact them at farm@barkingcatfarm.com

Laurie Bostic spraying compost tea at Barking Cat Farm.

Number 153

IN PRACTICE 3

Climbing Tree Farm— Making a Small Farm Work

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

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chuyler Gail and her husband Colby started farming a few years ago and learned a lot by trial and error on their farm, Climbing Tree Farm. After learning about Holistic Management, she applied for HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Training program in New york in 2012 and completed this program funded by a grant from uSDA/NIFA’s Beginning Farmer and rancher Development program. Through this program she has moved from just focusing on the production of farming to also looking at what it means to sustain a small farm for the long term.

Starting Out “We got our first sheep 7 years ago when we were caretakers for my grandmother’s farm— where she grew up,” says Schuyler. “We needed to find a way to get rid of the tall grass around the barns, and someone gave us 8 sheep. We fenced off the barnyard and just let the sheep have that part of the farm. They hadn’t been sheared for 3 years and they were so shaggy we couldn’t even tell which ones were male or female. We’d never been around sheep before.

“We had them sheared soon after they arrived. We thought we probably had one ram, but as it turned out we had 3! We kept one ram and processed the others,” she says. The sheep started having babies, and Schuyler and her husband started selling the meat to friends and acquaintances.

“After we had sheep and couldn’t leave home as easily, we got chickens. The first year we had 25 chickens, the next year we had 100, and the year after that we had 1,300. We don’t have that many now, however. until I took this class, we did everything by trial and error.”

“That’s how we started farming. We realized very quickly that parking sheep in a barnyard is not a very good long-term plan. So we branched out to pasturing other parts of what was my grandmother’s farm, and the sheep kept having more lambs. We learned about

moving them to different pastures to make this more sustainable, and then we learned to divide the pastures with Electronet fencing,” she explains.

Morgan Hartman (of Black Queen Angus) is a grass farmer and a friend, and helped them learn more about creating a grazing program.

“We started going to conferences and found HMI. I had planned to take the class last year, but was due to have a baby on the first day of class and put it off a year,” says Schuyler.

“Our animals were turning the pastures into a golf course and we realized they would not have enough food. They accomplished the goal of mowing, but we wanted to be able to feed them year-round. At that time our goal was just mowing, and now it’s managing for meat,” she says.

From Sheep to Pigs The majority of their farming now is pigs, several different heritage breeds including Mulefoot, red Wattle, Large Black and Old Spot. “We are now starting to farrow our own pigs. We feed them brewers grains, dairy, gleaned fruits and vegetables from produce farms, and whey from local cheese makers.

We are experimenting with planting forage like mangles for winter feed. The pigs probably get 10% of their food from purchased local grain and we are trying to eliminate purchased grain.”

Most of the pigs range in the woods. “We

Schuyler and Colby Gail like raising their children on a family friendly farm where the children understand where food comes from. had them on pasture last year but they didn’t seem as happy as they do in the woods— where they are harvesting a lot of their own food and have more room to explore,” she says.

“We just started a CSA and are in a cooperative with our neighbors and a friend, Cynthia Creech, who has been raising grassfed beef for 30-some years, and with the Abode Farm—a horse-powered vegetable farm.

Cynthia raises randall cattle (a rare breed that originated in New England). When she started there were only nine of these cows left, and she has a genetic program that helped build several herds,” says Schuyler.

“Through the CSA we sell chickens, turkeys, eggs and pork. We also raise grass-fed lambs.

Most of our business is done through restaurants and stores.”

“When we moved to our new farm a year and a half ago, we had our laying hens fertilize the area where we wanted to put a garden.

Then we put pigs there, and then a cover crop, and then had our neighbor till it this spring. Now we are starting to grow forage there—mostly mangles and turnips—for the pig and sheep.”

Land Management Benefits

Fat Toad Farm

continued from page two

opportunity to reevaluate her life and family farming commitment. She recognizes that Holistic Management gives her the tools to look at a farm or land business with many new and different perspectives, more critical and thoughtful than before. When an ‘opportunity’ for the farm comes up, like buying two bob calves, she starts running through the testing questions, evaluating whether they will bring them towards or away from their Holistic Goal.

She now considers if they will support the dairy operation (their main business), if they will be profitable, and if they help solve a problem or if they are just a distraction from what Fat Toad Farm should be focusing their time and energies on. Taking the time to do that has led to a better quality of life and a more sustainable business.

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January / February 2014

A year and a half ago she and her husband were able to purchase 20 acres through the Land Conservancy—some land that had not been farmed for more than 50 years. “We bought it from a family who had owned it as a second home. They had waited 12 years on a land match program for a farmer who would want to lease it. Once they found us they were so excited about it that they sold it to us. This was great for us,” she says.

“When we moved here it had been brushhogged a few times over the past 50 years or

so but was mostly goldenrod (taller than me!) and brambles. Everyone who came to visit asked if we were going to have it mowed, but we didn’t. We rotationally grazed the pigs, sheep and poultry for a year, and already the fields look like fairly decent pasture again.

There is some bramble and goldenrod left, but there is also a lot of clover and other desirable plants returning—without seeding them. In the woods our pigs are clearing out the underbrush and brambles, and we have pasture grasses and clover moving in where the pigs have been,” says Schuyler.

“So now we own 20 acres and are also leasing from a neighbor who asked us to farm her land in hopes of getting an agricultural exemption for tax purposes. right now we have a one-year trial lease with the neighbor, trying to see how much of her acreage we can get this ag exception on. It’s 370 acres and only half a mile from our house, so this was wonderful luck,” she says.

“In our area, leasing is very helpful for farmers and land owners both. I give our land owner a lot of credit. The land that we are leasing was seized by the state in the 1990s. It was going to be put up for auction and developed, and the current owner bought it so that it would not be developed, to keep it in agriculture. property taxes are very high in New york State. It’s nice that now the land owner can get a break on the taxes because it is once again being used for farming.”

Before the Gails moved here, the land they are leasing had an unfinished foundation for a giant house with a helicopter pad—a large flat area created by blowing the top off a mountain.

Now that whole area is just shale, with no topsoil. “One of the reasons the current landowner is leasing to us is that she wants us to help rehabilitate that land, and get some soil and plants growing again. We plan to put animals there in the winter, and possibly use it as a holding area for new animals coming onto the farm. It will have a lot of manure on it to start building some soil. This is a huge long-term project,” she explains.

Challenges of a Small Farm While the Gails have received a lot of support from landowners and family, they are aware of the challenges they face on their small family farm. “A lot of people think our life is very quaint and simple. Some of the people I know from high school tell me that I’m living their dream—having kids and farming. I wonder sometimes why they aren’t doing it, if it’s their dream, and I also wonder if they would really like this or not? The dream and the reality might be very different. I’m not even sure that my

Schuyler uses all her livestock to help improve land health.

Here she is moving a portable chicken house. husband and I are willing to give our lives to this, long term. right now we are giving it our all, and it is very difficult,” she says.

“In this part of the country there is almost an unrealistic image of farming. I saw an article stating that the new thing to do when you get out of college is to spend time on an organic farm for a couple of years. But how can farming be sustainable if we are expecting new people to do it, and only briefly, and we’re not taking care of the people who hold the knowledge, who are in it for the long term,” she says.

“Farming is a really great thing for young college graduates who want to try it out, but I wonder how farming can continue to exist for families with young children. We need to be able to provide for our kids, and this system makes it hard to do that,” she says. Most people in agriculture are underpaid because Americans spend less than any other nation for their food—and tend to take their food for granted.

“The fact that organic farming is being billed as the new, cool thing for young people is also hurting it, and it is using these young people as free or cheap temporary labor,” says Schulyer.

Some people stick with it and do it because they love this way of life, but it can be very difficult to make a living at it.

“A lot of things we are learning today was known for centuries, and then got lost. One thing we’ve tried to do is become friends with older farmers who are the age of our parents and grandparents. If we work together with them, we can learn from them. For instance there is a dairy farmer here that we know and love, whose family has been farming the same land for many generations. He is doing it largely the way his ancestors did it, but is selling all his milk to the dairy co-op. If he were to milk those 80 cows differently and market the milk a different way, he could be making money instead of losing money every year,” says

Schuyler. “Old farmers and new farmers could share knowledge and improve their farms and businesses together.”

Improving Quality of Life Given the challenges of farming, having a network of farmers becomes ever more important. As the Gails became more involved in their farm, Schuyler was very interested in HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer program so she could learn more how to take their farm to the next level and expand her farmer to farmer network. planning for quality of life was a missing piece for them that she became aware of through the program.

“We didn’t consider ourselves in our planning, before. Now, as things progress, we realize we need to plan for ourselves and our family as well as our animals and our land. We want to be able to have more time to play with our kids,” she says.

“We never had a financial plan in the beginning, and we are still working on that. We had never broken down our various enterprises to see what was making money and what wasn’t. Now, based on our plan, we raised the prices on our eggs and chicken by quite a bit. I will explain to our customers the reason for this.

I don’t think any of them would like the fact that we were losing money to produce this food for them. people who are buying the kind of food we produce are doing it at least partly for a social reason and if we are not making any money doing this then they won’t want it,” she says.

Schuyler also found this network of farmers that developed from the program to be helpful.

“We have continued to use one another for second opinions on various things. This has been helpful. When you have friends that aren’t CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

Number 153

IN PRACTICE 5

Making Sound Decisions using Holistic Management

by SUSAN BEAL

I

accepted the invitation to present at the NODpA meeting in Mansfield, pennsylvania last September, before I heard about the Holistic Management component of the meeting. I’m still grinning about the collaboration!

I came to Holistic Management—or rather, Holistic Management came to me—out of the blue at an Acres uSA conference in the early nineties. richard and peggy Sechrist were presenting on financial management from the holistic perspective and I wandered in, interested to hear what they had to say.

That session shifted my world.

My past trail with financial management had been simply black and red—and whatever one needed to do to turn the red to black, one did— regardless of whether or not those choices resonated with other aspirations, dreams or priorities. Economics and financial management options of the past had felt to me to be, in many ways, punitive and judgmental—focused on how I was not fitting into the box of traditional approaches to, and successes in, financial management and economics that were being taught, particularly in the veterinary world— rather than helping me figure out how it might be if I were to plan from a place that included my perspectives and priorities and considered how I wanted it to be on the larger perspective.

Nothing I had heard up until that session with the Sechrists really integrated the things that I held dear—a vitalistic approach to the world and a lifestyle in which work and personal priorities were congruent—with a manner in which I could approach economics, finances

and overall planning. The past red and black model had no columns for those other considerations that were really important to me.

While that particular session spoke to financial planning, their presentation showed me that there was a realistic and functional potential for a holistic business plan that was in concurrence with my strong vitalist tendencies.

They showed me it was possible to marry what I now know as the triple bottom line into the choices I made in my world, be they personal or business. Here, in one fell swoop, I was being told that it was, indeed, possible (and potentially profitable, no less!) to integrate one’s priorities in ecological practices, in social and communities dynamics and in lifestyle in the context of a sound means of decision making, financial planning, management and monitoring.

There has been a lot of water under the bridge since that day. The longer and more intentionally I work with the concepts of Holistic Management, the more I appreciate the fullness of the approach.

What’s all that look like on the ground, in the trenches, in the day-to-day? I can tell you about the side of the barn that I see.

Over the years I’ve come to realize that much of what folks (me, too!) have listed as goals are actually tasks—and many times those tasks have folks scurrying around doing a bunch of things without having a clear context, objective or overall intention (other than to work through the stuff on the list). So we tend to do a lot of busy work that leaves us feeling tired and depleted but not truly

Susan Beal leading a workshop.

6 IN PRACTICE

January / February 2014

satisfied—and that does not really get us closer to how we really want it to be. realizing that the goal—the holistic context— is the touchstone around which one can determine priorities and thus decide which of those many tasks are really needed to actually keep moving toward the goal is a huge step.

My second significant realization concerns clarity around the whole one is managing. What is it, really, and who are the real decision makers who influence that whole? Without knowing that clearly—and marrying that to the holistic context—it’s really impossible to ensure that our actions and choices “fit” our goals.

That “whole” might be a family, a farm/farm business, one enterprise in the larger farm business, a board of an organization, a department of a company, etc. It’s important to realize that there are wholes within wholes and that these may partially overlap. Be clear on what you are managing and be clear on who the decision makers really are. Many woes and frustrations occur because folks try to influence things when they are not really a decision maker in that particular whole (or because there are others who are also decision makers who have not been consulted) and because they are simply not clear about what it is that is being managed.

In my work over the years with farmers and clients, I am more and more intentional about asking about these sorts of things; getting very clear about their goals and about who is involved in the larger decision making. I ask folks in one form or another (and rarely by explaining the Holistic Management paradigm or using the lingo we use in that context): “How do you want it to be? What’s important to you in this situation?“ From there it becomes far more obvious that the best solutions are not those that are imposed by some outside entity or individual but those that are chosen, particularly when the solutions further address the consideration “how do you want it to be”.

I’ve also recognized that I am a resource for farmers and clients—not a primary decision maker.

My interactions vary depending on the day and the situation because there are no rote answers and no one size fits all plan (and that frustrates some, for sure!). From where I stand, these concepts and practices fit well within the practice of individualized medicine that is part of holistic care, and specifically a part of homeopathic practice. While there are patterns that become apparent, one size does not fit all and each situation is unique.

In some situations it’s feasible—and desirable—to have folks go through the whole process in an overt and intentional manner,

sitting down and identifying the holistic context in which they are working, writing the goals, identifying the decision-makers and making the plans. After they do that, folks will know “how they want it to be” and what they need to do to get there. And they will have a touchstone against which to test and measure their choices and decisions, recognizing when adjustments are needed in order to keep things on course.

In other situations, that broad approach is impossible and we simply begin to work from where we are. In the trenches this approach unfolds in various ways. It may be making sure the whole family is really and truly on board (if only for the next two weeks, after which we reassess and renegotiate) when making a plan for a treatment and training program for a dog with serious behavioral issues. It may mean that I understand that the emotional value of that brown cow in those stanchions far exceeds her monetary value, and that I weigh that consideration when offering reasonable treatment options. It may mean that we all fully understand that, for this farm family at this moment in time, implementing a certain mineral or vaccination program is not the best use of their available time, energy and money—and seeing what they really need is to have some simple coaching about their paddock size and the timing of the pasture rotation that will result in larger volumes of more nutrient dense sward.

The family with the dog has identified the decision makers, a plan of work and the time of the assessment. The brown cow shows us that there are community and social aspects to consider in any decision-making processes— and that these may over-ride other aspects in a given situation. The farmers who alter their grazing management have identified the weak link in their chain of production. All these are foundations of Holistic Management—and all were used without ever saying the words.

I’ve yet to be in a situation in which folks do not appreciate the conversation around identifying the weakest link (even if we do not use that term) and the potential obstacle to moving toward that “how do I want it to be” place. There are many situations in which folks would like to separate the farmer or business owner from their money, or where farmers are feeling bad because they cannot get everything they want to do done. I’ve found that folks appreciate knowing that there is some way to intelligently identify and triage the best way for them to spend time, energy and money.

Folks also appreciate how time, energy and money are thought of in the same manner. So doing can help give a sense of personal worth and value and help folks put a priority on the use of those resources.

Interestingly, there is rarely an argument about the “how do you want it to be” parts of things. In farms, families and businesses—and individuals—the debate and dissention typically comes from the “how to get there” portion of things—the tasks, not the actual Holistic Goal/the holistic context. So, folks argue about whether to have black cows or brown cows, about whether to dairy or raise hogs, about whether to certify organic, about whether to add heirloom tomatoes or chickens or soap-making to the task list. Folks rarely debate about the larger context, the “how do you want it to be” part of things. ultimately, there will be folks who embrace the full spectrum of Holistic Management: decision-making process, grazing/land management planning, financial planning, and biological monitoring. There will be those who need some time and space to consider the approach before they take more definite action around this decision making and planning

Climbing Tree Farm

process. And there will also be others for whom the timing is not right or with whom the approach does not resonate—but that decision does not negate the value of the experience they have had in coming to that conclusion.

This is an exciting time for farming and for the place of Holistic Management in the larger world order.

Dr. Beal, DVM and Agricultural Science Advisor for PASA comes from a long background of holistic veterinary medicine, ranging from a mixed practice to emergency medicine, equine, and companion animal practices. Susan is particularly interested in whole farm/whole system pasture based ecology, and offers common sense advice and counsel with the goal of health from the ground up—thriving individuals and ecosystems. This article first appeared in the Northeast Organic Dairy producers Association (NODpA) Newsletter.

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The majority of Climbing Tree Farm livestock sales are now pigs.

The Gails raise a variety of heritage breeds that are hardy and delicious. farming, your life is so different from theirs that they just don’t understand.”

The group of women farmers in Schuyler’s class has become friends, mentors and a support group when needed. In doing so, they are addressing some of the challenges of creating a successful small farm—sharing vital knowledge and offering encouragement. As more Americans are interested in eating locally, they will need more small farms with the knowledge, network, and passion for growing food profitably and sustainably for the long term. With Holistic Management, the Gails now have another tool to help them achieve their farm and life goals—providing quality food for their community, learning from other farmers, and sharing their knowledge with the next generation of farmers.

Number 153

IN PRACTICE 7

LIVESTOCK

&

Vacation & the Grazing Chart

by TROY BISHOPP

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hio dairywoman Stacy Hall said to me a while back, “If you don’t plan for fun, you won’t have any.” It’s a phrase that warrants attention for farmers and workaholics like me.

For those who hold the badge of courage of never missing a milking or find fault with those “lazy” people who are basking on the beach; ask your better half how that’s working for ya?

Guilty as charged.

Man, I wish I had that time back. I wish I had it back for the sake of my wife, kids, family and friends. I regret I didn’t take enough time for myself.

It’s rather haunting to remember missing many family functions over a calving, broken barn cleaner chain or getting hay in. Is it me, or does farming just predispose us to work without much time off? I shouldn’t really complain because it was my genetic makeup (farmer gene) and choice to live this life on the land.

I happen to believe farmers, especially menfolk, can change and add meaningful downtime away from the farm or at least the daily grind of chores. If the workaholic (me) can do it so can you, but you need some disciplined forward planning, priorities and above all, compromise. In this department, I have to admit the older I get, the more I look for opportunities to quit early or only work half a day (so I won’t feel guilty). you have got to set family goals and a plan to live the life you want, however painful that may seem. After some discussion about our goal, we all felt strongly that family time and vacationing was a priority. This also helped us budget financial resources to make it happen.

My grazing chart, with its helpful calendar, has become more of a life chart because it not only encompasses cattle moves, recovery periods, rainfall and management items, but allows me to schedule in time off and work around the flow of the animals in advance. I like to say, “If it ain’t on the chart, it won’t happen.”

The truth of the matter is when we start planning our grazing season the first question is always, “when will we be going on vacation or traveling for special getaways (anniversary), kayak trips, wine tours and weddings, etc.?” This, for me, has been a revolutionary change to stop wishing or hoping to get the quality time and actually make it happen, without the guilt.

In 2010 we decided to try this new “holistic” vacation venture with a week at White Lake in the Adirondacks. We planned on having the cows in a big paddock that had been banked for bird habitat and drought reserve feed which worked out awesome except for denigrating the rotational grazing creed of allowing the cattle to continuously graze for seven days. Oh no, the sky will fall!

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Being that the camp was only an hour from the farm, I inadvertently mentioned to my wife that I could check the animals mid-week and shoot right back to the lake. In a stunning, and needed scolding, my wife uttered these words which forever changed my attitude: “If you go back home that’s not a real vacation and furthermore, your holistic grazing planning would be a sham!”

Admittedly, she was right on target—words most spouses (male and female) need to hear.

Two weeks ago my family spent a week in the High peaks of the Adirondacks, and following the same ole big paddock recipe with my dad checking water and voltage, I didn’t so much as call. I’m wondering if others could let go of the farm attachment. For me, this time is critical to clear the mind and enjoy, unconditionally, your loved ones.

At a recent planned grazing chart training, farmers scoured my life/grazing chart and seemed obsessed with a small heart surrounding the words, “couples massage.” yes, Mr. Machismo, scheduling day retreats is also part of the plan. As I can attest and wholeheartedly support, with some trepidation like many farmers would have, a professional deep massage and hot stones will leave you so relaxed that there will be no farming in your immediate future. you’ve got to plan and set aside time for this, especially since my wife bought it for me as a present!

In working with other farmers on grazing planning, apparently this planning ahead for time off the farm to attend fairs, weddings and trips across the country is a hot ticket to explore. Most are planning backward from the time they leave so the animals will be in secure paddocks, very accessible by anyone filling in.

In one instance, a dairy farm family from pennsylvania went to Wisconsin for a week to visit and it happened to be the hottest week of the year. Since the cows were in paddocks nearest to the barn, they didn’t have to expend much energy and then went in the freestall with fans running, alleviating much labor and hassle for the farm-sitters. upon returning, there was an emphatic red phrase by the owner on the grazing chart over that week — vacation is good!

To download your own holistic planned grazing chart from Central New york resource Conservation and Development, Inc., visit www.cnyrcd.org/planned-grazing-participants.

Troy “The Grass Whisperer” Bishopp manages Bishopp Family Farm in Deansboro, New York. He can be reached at farmboytb@aol.com or www.thegrasswhisperer.com.

Article previously printed in Acres U.S.A. For more information visit www.acresusa.com.

The Birdwell-Clark Ranch— Improved Grazing Benefits Cattle and Wildlife

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

Emry Birdwell and grandson Everett move 4,000 steers— one of several moves per day the herd experiences as part of the planned grazing.

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mry Birdwell and his wife, Deborah Clark, run stocker cattle on their ranch near Henrietta, Texas. Emry has been ranching all his life, starting with a cow-calf operation on leased lands.

“My father was a rancher, and his father before him was a farmer. I trained under Allan Savory in the early 1980s and that’s where our planned grazing started. I’ve been 30 years adapting to it and understanding it,” he says.

Planned Grazing in Action In their grazing program, the cattle graze intensively for short periods, moved several times a day to new pasture, allowing each pasture a long enough rest to fully recover before grazing it again. The secret to success is flexibility and monitoring, with long-term planning to increase production of these pastures. As the pastures improved, the stocking rate was increased, and animal forage needs could be met without supplementation.

“The cattle are able to get by on what’s out there in the pasture. Emry hasn’t fed any hay since the 1980s,” says Deborah. Some supplemental protein is fed, but there’s been no need for hay.

“Being able to get by without hay is a tremendous testimony to this type of grazing, and how it can work,” she says. This becomes very obvious during drought years like Texas has been experiencing. Just the fact that the cattle can continue to graze, without need for dramatic herd reductions in the dry years, is a big plus.

In 2004 Emry and Deborah purchased their present ranch (more than 14,000 acres) and began to improve the range pastures. “When we first moved here to Clay County, Emry had the opportunity to put into practice what he had learned, and he became very aggressive and creative with planned grazing. Owning this piece of property allowed him to maximize what he had learned over the last 30 years,” Deborah says.

“When we first came here, we ran only 2,400 head,” says Emry.

“We’ve had as many as 6,400 cattle in here, in 2010, but we’ve been in a drought since then. We had 5,300 head last year, and we’ve backed off to about 4,000 this year on grass. The rest of the cattle are on wheat pastures,” he says.

They buy stocker cattle each year, starting in July and August. “Some of them go to wheat pastures and the rest of them stay here on grass.

“We run 5,000 to 7,000 cattle a year, with an average of 4,000 on the place at any one time. These are all sale barn cattle,” he says.

With the planned grazing system, Emry, Deborah, and one hired helper are able to take care of it all. Having the cattle in one large herd concentrates the management efforts into a small area, making it easy for one person to do the pasture moves. And when supplement is fed, one person can feed all the cattle.

Infrastructure Investment Emry became interested in Holistic Management in the 1980s after one of his neighbors went to a grazing school and implemented some of these principles to improve pastures and stocking rate. Emry began using these methods on leased lands with his cow-calf herd and a few stockers, and then changed completely to stockers to have more flexibility.

“On our ranch today we have 120 permanent paddocks, fenced with electric hard wire, and we divide each of those 3 to 5 ways with poly wire.

The 120 days from March through June, we probably moved the cattle on average 4 times per day—sometimes 6 times per day and a minimum of twice a day,” says Emry.

“Since 2011 we’ve been putting in a pipeline system for water. We’d been watering in dirt tanks that collect runoff from rainwater. Due to lack of rain in the current drought we put in the pipeline so we can pump from those dirt tanks into water troughs. Most of the cattle are now using water troughs,” he says.

He also utilizes a mobile water trough, pump and generator. These are on a trailer and can be moved from one water hole to another. “This enables us to pump from a water source we couldn’t use, into a trough, and make it usable. This helps stretch the water supply. We’re watering 3,800 cattle right now out of one 24-foot trough,” he says.

Deborah explains that the pipeline allows them to move the mobile trough to wherever they want the cattle to be. “Emry can move that trough anywhere in a paddock, in order to achieve new results on stocking density and pasture use,” she says.

Deborah and Emry been on this ranch nearly 10 years and have changed a lot of things. “We’ve taken out miles and miles of permanent fence, to enable the cattle to get to the water that we had,” says Emry. “We still have some more fences to take out, but with our current

The mobile water trough that can handle 4,000 head of cattle.

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grazing system we’ve seen a dramatic increase in our perennial grasses. recently we found several stands of Eastern Gama grass, which is virtually extinct in north and west Texas. We just found some in here this spring. Our switch grass and Indian grass has spread tremendously also,” he says.

Considering the past 3 years of drought, the forage increase has been dramatic. “In the second year of the drought we were running one herd of 5300, but we experienced the most significant gains in that set of cattle— more than we’d had in the previous 8 years that we’ve been here,” says Deborah.

Dealing with Drought Drought is a common situation in this part of Texas, but with planned grazing it becomes much more manageable and not as frightening. The grass is healthier and has strong root systems, and provides enough ground cover to help catch whatever moisture does come. Soil temperatures never get as high when there are plants to shade the ground.

This slows evaporation loss and also enables the plants to keep growing and not go dormant so readily in the hot weather.

“We are just starting to ship cattle right now, and the cattle we weighed the other day outgained the cattle we’ve had in the past,” says Emry. The ranch easily produces more than 120 pounds of gain per acre, on average.

A major contributing factor to the overall gain and improvement in animal performance is due to the multiple moves to new pasture each day.

“Our grass this year is higher in quality than quantity just because we did have a little rain. We had 3 freezes in April—which we never have—and that set it back. But the fact we cut back on our cattle numbers this year kept us in the game,” he explains.

“We’ve run cow-calf pairs on the other places we’ve been, but a person needs to run yearlings or steers with the cows in order to be flexible. Being in a stocker operation now enables us to add or subtract numbers whenever the situation dictates,” he says.

“We’ve changed our paradigm. up until 2010 we were not running the cattle on wheat. Now we can use that as a safety valve. We can take those cattle to wheat or bring them back to the ranch. This year, with the market the way it was in May, we brought the cattle back here to be on grass for a month, and this allowed us to sell the cattle at a higher price,” he says.

Deborah did not grow up with ranching so there’s been a learning curve. “ranching is a difficult occupation to learn,” says Deborah. “Moving to the ranch was a new experience, like a baptism by fire, but it was thrilling and new, and a terrific opportunity for Emry and me to work together—and we are beginning to see the fruits of our labors these past 9 years. The impact of our management, and the changes that I can see on the landscape, as an uneducated person, just make me want to go out and do even more— be better at it, and do it with more vigor and commitment.”

One of the new stands of Eastern Gama grass that Emry and Deborah are now seeing on their ranch.

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Cows & Quail

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n June 7-8, 2013, Deborah and Emry hosted HMI’s Cows and Quail program on their ranch. Over the years they’ve been improving quail habitat. “These birds have always figured into our plan, because we have 9 bird dogs and we like to hunt quail. The quail are important to us but we don’t do anything exceptionally special for them—except that our grazing plan generally leaves some nesting cover for them to survive,” says Emry.

Deborah says she’s been to a lot of workshops where they say you can’t manage for both cattle and quail. “We have a different view and feel we can manage for both, but usually one will trump the other, depending on your priorities. We are also firm believers in thinking that what we do with our grazing impacts the habitat for our wildlife. We are not proponents of deferred grazing. We think a person can do more beneficial things for wildlife habitat by how you manage your cattle rather than taking the cattle off,” she explains.

“We have quail, and a lot of wildlife in general. We do put a few food plots around the ranch, primarily for deer. We also hunt turkeys here. We also have some dedicated riparian areas that we keep for the wildlife and have those fenced off to keep the cattle out. We monitor the quail and wildlife; we just finished a quail census for our spring call count. There are practices and protocols we follow throughout the year to monitor what’s going on with the deer and quail populations,” she says.

They have one hunting lease on their place, for deer and quail. “This is a group of hunters we’ve known for a long time and they are friends of ours,” says Deborah. “They also do a little bit of supplemental protein feeding for the deer, along with the food plots that we’ve put in.”

When the Cows and Quail class was held at their ranch, the focal points for the participants were the plant diversity and overall-favorable habitat, rather than just the high-density grazing. “Thankfully, we’d had a rain just before they got here.

We took them to some good areas and some poor areas. We do have some areas with bare ground and places that need more time and effort. But wherever we went, we heard quail calling and that was a good bonus—proof of the pudding,” she says.

The ranch has a healthy quail population. “The over all quail population state-wide and region-wide has declined dramatically in the past 2 decades and we are trying to mitigate this decline by our grazing management. So everybody is talking about the fact they’ve been hearing more quail than we have heard in recent years, and no one seems to know why. We’ve had a few advantageous late spring rains, but we didn’t have much rain last year—and had more quail than we thought we had. Everyone is tickled about the increase in quail numbers, but we don’t know why they are doing better,” she says.

“There are two key elements that are crucial to the success of planned grazing resulting in improved forage for cattle and improved habitat for wildlife,” says Deborah. “Those elements are rest and animal impact, with proper timing and amount of each.”

The Red River Graziers Management Club

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

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s ranchers learn about Holistic Management and planned grazing, and try various grazing systems, it is often helpful to share information and learn from each others’ successes and mistakes. That’s why Jerry Addison, a rancher near Bowie, Texas, has been involved with the red river Graziers Management Club for a number of years, and helped form it at the start.

Brett, Lisa, and son Blake Addison owner/operator of OK ranch.

Brett has been involved in grazing club from the beginning.

Learning from Each Other “I read something about a fellow in Kansas who was with the NrCS or County Extension who formed a grazing club about 20 years ago,” says Jerry. “This guy had pulled all the people together and they would go look at various grazing operations. I had also read about a group in Australia that met with different ranchers who were struggling. They would actually get out their financial records, lay them on the table and take a look to see what wasn’t working,” says Addison.

“The inspiration for our grazing group here came from these examples, and I’d also visited with richard Teague (Texas AgriLife research and Extension). He thought it would be great for ranchers to share with other ranchers instead of just extension services coming in to tell them how they should do it. people who are out on the land practicing grazing management could share ideas. richard was instrumental in encouraging the formation of our club. When we first started, there were several people I knew of who had gone through the Holistic Management courses, and they helped us along.

“Somebody has to be the cheerleader and make all the phone calls and encourage people to come. In the beginning, I called everyone and said let’s have a meeting and talk about what we might do—sharing ideas so we don’t have to repeat mistakes. We had our first meeting at Clint Josey’s place at Leo, Texas. We had about 10 or 11 people and had a round table discussion. They weren’t all ranchers. One man from North Texas university was with an ecological group. Charles Griffith, the forage person from the Noble Foundation, and Walt Davis who was involved with an Oklahoma Holistic Management group were also there. Most of the people were either involved in ranching or were ranch consultants.

“All of these people have practiced Holistic Management for a long time. Our thought was that since we were all still learning, and all still making mistakes here and there, we could share our experiences and help people keep from making the same mistakes. Learning from each other, we could move forward better.

“We met to talk about what we wanted to accomplish. We didn’t want it to be just show and tell, looking at various ranches. We wanted people to be able to learn something. That’s why we decided to do it for the first year without adding a lot of people, until we got a format figured out. After a few meetings, however, everyone got so excited about the meetings— and wanting other people to be involved--that they started inviting their friends.

“It’s important to have a core group that you put together in the beginning, and then you have to create a meaningful meeting. you can’t just have a bull session because we can all do that at the coffee shop.

For people to take off part of a day it has to be a learning experience or people wouldn’t take time off from their work. We’d start at 10 a.m. and get out at 3 p.m. This gave people a chance to come from quite a distance. We had people coming from as far away as Dallas, and from Vinita, Oklahoma, and is a fairly diverse group.

“In a way we did start out with show and tell. We’d go to various operations and the rancher would give us the tour and tell us how he was running his grazing, and we could ask questions.”

From Observing to Evaluation

Then Hugh Aljoe and russell Stevens from the Noble Foundation who do consulting, and richard Teague from Texas Agri-Life brought a new format to the discussion part of the meetings.

“They wanted to move it forward and incorporate 120 days after 300 cows grazed on as small the opportunity to make observations and let people as 1/2 acre temporary paddocks. tell what their goals are, and then we’d all go look at their operation and come back to evaluate it— breaking up into groups of 5 to discuss it,” says Jerry.

The groups could hash it over and list the things they thought were really great, and the things they thought the person could add to the program to make it better. “We tried to keep it non-critical, but informational,” says Jerry. “This exercise was as beneficial for the groups of 5 as it was for the rancher whose place we toured. It was a learning CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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experience for the groups that hashed it out. It was a learning experience for everybody.

“One bunch organized the questions for the breakout sessions.

Someone else was constantly bringing in new people. Everyone was doing a piece of it. The person making the calls is the key to get everyone there, but is not the key to making it grow. That’s up to all the other people who are involved, and excited about it.

“Everyone is in a hurry to learn as much as they can, and they want to see other people’s operation and what they are doing to make things better. Most of the people in our group had already had lots of experience with Holistic Management. We brought in people who had never even heard that term, but meeting with the grazing club they got to see Holistic Management in action.

Pushing to the Next Level “I went to my first training with Kirk Gadzia at Ghost ranch. I was already trying to get ready to do rotational grazing. We had discussed this with the Noble Foundation, which had gotten us interested. I wanted to understand what we were getting into before we built any fences. So I went out for some training in Holistic Management, came back and drew up a plan for all our cells and pastures, began moving the cattle, and started building fences,” says Addison.

“We are still learning, just like everyone is, still pushing it to another level. I have a son, Brett, in Oklahoma and he gets an intern in the spring and has 300 cows on ½ acre for an hour and a half. He’s getting unbelievable animal impact and good performance on the cattle.

“We also learned a lot from one another just about electric fences, and setting up stock tanks or water lots, or a different type of water system. A person might be trying to figure out how to do something, and then they are exposed to someone who has actually done it already—and has already made the various mistakes to learn how to do it the way they are now.

“I felt like our initial forming of this group was more about helping each other to learn from somebody else’s mistakes and successes. There are a lot of people out there who would love to know how we do what we do.

From rancher to rancher and neighbor to neighbor, that’s still a really good way to approach this.”

The meetings have grown over time to where they are now attended by 45 to 50 people. “We started out by letting everyone bring their own lunch and that worked,” says Jerry. “Then some people wanted to have someone bring sandwiches, or cook hamburgers. It got to where we needed a meal at the meetings.

“In the morning we would talk and then go tour, and then come back in the afternoon to talk about what we observed, and not necessarily critique it. We had some ranchers who said they didn’t want anyone coming to their place and telling them what to do. So we just handled it that way. On that ranch we’d just have show and tell and that was it. The guy still had a lot to offer because they already had a good operation and they didn’t want any new ideas. They were very happy with what was working for them.”

Keep it Going Addison says that the biggest challenge for a group like this is keeping it going. “It takes someone with a lot of commitment. When we first started, I called people and kept in contact, trying to find times that would work for everyone to get together for meetings. As time went on, my 12

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Brett left, Walt center, and Jerry—all three were at first grazing club meeting and still keep in touch and share information. schedule got pretty full and I didn’t have as much time to do this. I turned it over to richard Teague and he was very involved and instrumental in keeping it going. We kept it going for quite awhile,” says Addison.

“We still have our organization, but one of the mistakes we made was that we tried to do too many meetings per year. We started with about 10 ranchers. Our thought was to do this for a year, until we figured out a system that would make sense,” he says. Many of the ranchers were enthusiastic from the beginning and invited friends, and the club grew very quickly.

“It’s easy at first, and then it comes back to that one person who keeps it all going. It really increases their work load—having to contact everyone and let them know about meetings. Keeping it going is the big issue. Like most volunteer organizations, at some point everybody runs out of steam,” says Addison.

“We had a really good group of people who were all very sharp and had really good input. We did learn from each other, and from just getting together and talking about ideas. When you do that, and everyone is pushing for more meetings and more places to tour, the next thing you know you are meeting every month. It should probably be just quarterly or maybe just twice a year. Then the person who is doing the contacting would be able to do it more effectively,” says Addison.

“But to continue our red river Graziers I think it would take someone who is semi-retired or a spouse who is interested enough to keep up the contacts. It needs to be someone who is more or less directly involved in the operation. We managed to keep it going fairly well for about 5 years or more. people come to me now and ask if we can go to so-and-so’s place and I just don’t have time to pull it together since I am really busy running my own operation,” he explains.

“I think everyone benefitted from what we did. It put us all into a group that had respect for one another and for what each one of us was doing, even if it was different from our own operations. We could see it was working well for them,” he says.

He feels that anyone could start a group in their own area, as long as they have someone who is committed enough and has the time to make the contacts. “If you just send someone an e-mail and tell them you’re going to have a meeting, it’s too easy to just let it slide. If you call someone on the phone and tell them you’d like to have a grazing club meeting, and have a core group of people that you contact—and get a commitment from them—then it can be very successful,” he says.

Addressing Animal Health Issues—

The Basics

by LISA MCCRORY

Raising healthy livestock starts with a good prevention management plan, which includes good nutrition, healthy living quarters both indoors and out, observation skills, and tools and resources to have at your fingertips when treatments are needed. This article will cover some key preventive strategies, along with some treatment approaches that Lisa McCrory turns to on her farm including homeopathy, colostrum whey products, nutritional therapies, herbs, and books/resources she likes to have at her fingertips on her grass-based, certified organic farm.

H

ealthy livestock are a reflection of a whole farm system, involving a number of elements to balance quality of life with commercial livestock production. preventing dis-ease (illness) on your farm starts from the soil up, building soils with a good balance of biological life, minerals, and organic matter. With healthy soils in place, you can provide high quality feed for your production animals, which is step one in preventative care.

Meeting the nutritional needs of your livestock, however, is only part of the equation. The animals will also need an environment that provides fresh air, clean water, adequate shelter, sunlight, freedom of movement, and pasture to graze or forage.

Good observational skills are critical to having healthy animal. Looking at your animals for signs of health and “dis-ease” is a daily task.

Water Good quality and plentiful water is important; it is a significant portion of your animals’ daily intake. Making sure that the water is clean and available in quantities necessary to meet the needs of your livestock groups is critical. A dairy cow, for example, consumes from 10-25 gallons of water per day depending upon her body size, stage of lactation, and the amount of water in the feed she is consuming (some pasture is 7080% water!). For a beef cow, it is 10-20 gallons, 8-12 gallons for horses, 6-8 gallons for pigs and 2-3 gallons for sheep and goats.

It is best to have water in the paddocks where the animals are grazing to allow them to focus their energy on harvesting forage. A water source located a distance from the pasture may encourage the whole group to leave the pasture and get a drink of water at one time. This group dynamic does a few things that are not considered favorable for a healthy livestock operation: it distracts the animals from eating, keeps some from getting their daily allotment, and results in concentrations of manure left around the water tub (instead of being deposited in the pasture) and soil compaction.

Shelter and the Outdoors During the months outside of the growing season, your livestock should have daily access to the outdoors, sunlight, fresh air, clean, dry bedding, fresh water and protection from inclement weather. A comfortable animal is a happy animal. Make sure that your ruminants have opportunities to lie down and chew their cud; make sure there is adequate perching space and nesting boxes for your poultry; make sure your pigs have plenty of space to make a clean ‘nest’ with. If she does not have a clean, dry place to do this, with adequate space, then this could put unnecessary stress on the sow.

Know Your Animal Good observational skills are important for any livestock operation.

Taking the time each day to look for signs of health and signs of “dis-

ease” is a worthwhile investment. This does not necessarily mean having to know the personality of each and every animal (although some producers do). It is, however, taking note of visible signs of unthriftiness or discomfort. Take note of healthy animals too to affirm what is working well, and to identify livestock that you want to use to improve the genetics of your herd or flock.

An animal that is unthrifty may first show changes in attitude. She/he may be nervous or jumpy, depressed, off feed, or his/her water consumption may be down. Maybe she is not chewing her cud. perhaps she isn’t laying down, or is laying down and not wanting to get up. Is she hanging out with the other animals when she is outside, or is she off by herself? How does her manure look, and what does her breath smell like?

Signs of good health include a glossy coat, bright eyes, good body condition, good appetite, good milk production, low somatic cell count, alert disposition, and good mobility. The manure should not be too loose and shouldn’t have undigested grain in it. you can learn a lot about an animal’s health just by watching it in motion. So take the time to watch your animals each day; it may be the best 10 minutes you ever spent.

Flies & Parasites Flies bring stress and disease and seem to annoy and cluster around our cows the most. We will be trying a new fly trap in our pastures this year, called the Jahnke Fly Trap. Instructions on how to build this trap can be found at: www.nodpa.com/production_healthy_jahnke_flytrap_ 02_03_11.shtml.

The webinar on the trap is at: www.extension.org/pages/62007/video:innovations-on-an-organic-dairy:-the-fly-barrel.

Another great resource is the Integrated Pest Management Guide for Organic Dairy at www.nysipm.cornell.edu/organic_guide/dairy.pdf (pdf).

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Animal Health Issues

continued from page thirteen

This information is useful for all livestock producers, educating the reader on the various fly pests, their life cycles, and ways to manage them.

We do not use medicines to manage internal parasites—we have never needed it for our cows, pigs or our poultry. We feel that a good grazing system for our livestock, moving them frequently onto fresh ground, will prevent a lot of possible problems. We do look for signs of parasitism so that if we needed to, we would treat with anthelmintics.

Small ruminants have an added vulnerability to parasites.

I recommend the following documents (located on the following websites) to read up on preventive strategies for small ruminants: 1) Sustainable Management of Internal parasites in ruminants: www.nofavt.org/assets/pdf/parasites.pdf (pdf); and 2) Internal parasites in your small ruminants: www.uvm.edu/~susagctr/Documents/Internalparasites.pdf (pdf).

Long Term Health Plan and Records When entering known periods of stress such as calving/kidding/ farrowing, drying off, weaning, vaccinations, or significant changes to the feeding ration, it is always good to work preventatively and offer those animals nutritional supplements, probiotics, vitamin therapies, and/or kelp. preventative measures will pay for themselves many times over when done right.

A long-term health plan should be developed with the help of your veterinarian, your nutritionist, and/or your farmer mentors. As a certified

Keeping on top of fly populations can help keep animals healthy. The Jahnke fly trap is one technique Lisa is experimenting with.

organic operation, we are required to have a record-keeping system.

There are benefits to doing this that go beyond accountability to a certification program. Good records allow you to track the health, production, and reproductive history of the livestock, land management, crops harvested, feed purchased, feed additives, and health care inputs, including what is working on you farm and what is not. With experience and records, every producer can gain insight into the relationship between soil health, livestock health, and a productive whole farm system.

Health Products on Earthwise Farm On Earthwise Farm and Forest, we make sure to have the following supplied on hand— • homeopathic remedies: Homeopathy is our first line of defense when we have an animal with mastitis.

• Probiotics, Yogurt: Fed to calves to deal with mild cases of scours.

• calcium supplement (iV and sub Q): Good to have on hand after calving in case our cows come down with milk fever.

• Electrolytes (available in powder or liquid form): Wonderful supplement to offer your livestock during times of stress, such as calving/farrowing/kidding. We like to add small amounts in the water for our day old turkeys and chickens—continuing for at least the first couple weeks of life, and offering it at other times if it seems necessary.

• lotion/ointment for dry teats or skin abrasions: We make a calendula lotion from our flowers, blended with bees wax and olive oil.

• Peppermint liniment for hard quarters: Works great for swollen udders due to edema (at time of calving), or for hard quarters from mastitis.

• Kelp: We offer this free choice to our cows and supplement in the poultry and hog ration as needed.

• minerals, clay minerals, humates, salt: Offered free choice to our cows and pigs.

• Nutraceuticals and colostrum whey products: We purchase prepackaged nutritional supplements (boluses, liquid, or pastes) for times of stress such as freshening, drying off, mastitis, calf scours, off-feed, etc.

• saving and freezing colostrum from the cow: We make sure that our calves get the colostrum from their mother within the first 12 hours after birth. We encourage nursing, but will also milk the cow and bottle-feed the calf. Surplus colostrum is frozen and used as a nutritional supplement during times of stress.

• supplies: Teat dip for pre- and post- milking, iodine for dipping navels of newborn animals, CMT kit to test milk quality. CMT (California Mastitis Test) can catch subclinical cases of mastitis, looking at individual quarters, and will help us monitor the quality of our milk.

Resources/catalogs for health and dairy supplies Some of the main resources we use for these products are:

• livestock health supplies and nutraceuticals At Earthwise Farm & Forest Lisa and her family use a variety of homeopathic, mineral, and herbal products to keep their herd healthy.

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1) Crystal Creek, www.crystalcreeknatural.com, 888-376-6777; 2) Agri-Dynamics, www.agri-dynamics.com, 877-393-4484; 3) IMprO products (colostrum whey), www.improproducts.com

• homeopathic remedies:

1) Washington Homeopathics: www.homeopathyworks.com; 2) Celletech products: www.celletech.com

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

Holistic Management in Action One Year’s Success is Another Year’s Disaster—

The Joys of Farming & The Value of Monitoring

by TONY MCQUAIL

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very year in farming has its joys and its challenges.

2012 will hopefully go down in my 40 years of farming as the most challenging. Fortunately our experience with Holistic Management has made it far less stressful than it could have been.

2008

Challenges of Drought 2012 started out with an unusually mild winter. We had little snow despite being in the snowbelt and spring seemed to start in mid-March with summer temperatures. By the end of March I thought we were off to a great grazing season. The alfalfa and grass were up about eight to ten inches and the pastures and hay fields looked great.

We were leading a week-long workshop in early July. We wanted to delay some of our first cut hay so we could cut after the conference.

We decided to pasture a number of hay fields in March to retard their maturity. This was based on our historic experience of a flush of spring growth in the hayfields and pasture in response to April showers.

As is so often the case in farming, things did not go as we had planned. In the fields that were not pastured, a hard freeze blackened the top growth of grass and alfalfa. The April showers never materialized and the March growth had depleted winter root reserves and soil moisture. In both the grazed and ungrazed fields the spring flush never occurred. May, June and July were also unusually dry— indeed South Western Ontario experienced a serious drought though spotty rains were of local help to struggling crops. We missed most of them.

We had also hoped that the spring pasturing would help thicken up our hay fields by allowing seedling legumes and grasses to get a better shot at establishment with the over story removed. There had been seedlings germinating in the hoof prints in March that looked very promising. These dried up and disappeared as the summer wore on as did the low white clover in the understory of the pasture fields.

As you can see from the photos above, the 2008 monitoring photos show healthy legumes and grasses. 2012 shows a different picture and Animal Day calculations showed one-third the productivity of pastures. With this type of monitoring, the McQuails were better able to respond to the drought in a way that reduced financial and environmental liabilities.

2012

Time to Replan Fortunately for us our monitoring of early pasture Animal Days indicated that in the spring of 2012 we were getting one day of grazing where normally we would get three. It helped us realize that we needed to do some serious replanning immediately. We decided to graze most of our hay fields to increase the recovery time for our pastures and reduce the waste of time and energy harvesting thin crops. We arranged to buy hay early when prices were lower after running that decision through the Holistic Management testing questions.

As farmers we juggle a lot of variables, weather, pest and disease pressure, market prices and input costs. What works one year may not the next and vice versa. Holistic Management is a planning process that encourages us to make the best plan we can and then monitor it for when it isn’t working and replan.

Tony McQuail runs Meeting Place Organic Farm near Lucknow, Ontario, Canada with his wife Fran. He can be reached at: mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca.

On Farm Meetings e started aiming to have once a month meetings off-farm, with a babysitter at home for the kids. We probably manage to really do this on an average of once every three months, but we are having an at-home farm meeting with “kid movie night” three or four times a month, and that is helping us keep on track with each other and our work plan. The off-farm meetings are for bigger discussions.

—Kate Kerman, Keene, New Hampshire

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DEVELOPMENT CORNER Changes at HMI MI is very pleased to announce that long-time HMI employee, Holistic Management Certified Educator and practitioner Dr. Ann Adams has been appointed Interim CEO of HMI. Ann replaces outgoing CEO peter Holter who has been CEO for HMI since 2007.

“During his tenure as CEO, peter led a successful turnaround of the organization, resulting in a focus on delivering effective educational programs to farmers, ranchers, and land stewards in Holistic Management® Whole Farm ranch planning,” said HMI Board Chair, Kelly Sidoryk. She added, “The board is excited to have Ann Adams as Interim CEO of HMI. Ann has a long association with the organization and is very committed to the practice of Holistic Management and its community.” HMI’s seasoned staff is well poised to continue the organization’s mission to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future while the Board of Directors conducts a search for the next CEO. Also at the November Board meeting the new Board Chair, Kelly Sidoryk from Saskatchewan, Canada led the meeting. Sallie Calhoun became the past Board Chair, remaining on the Board for another term.

Ending terms were Judi Earl from Australia and Sam Montoya from Albuquerque, New Mexico. HMI thanks them for the time that they have given the organization.

New Board member, Danny Nuckols from Austin College in Sherman, Texas came on the Board and we are excited to introduce him.

Danny holds the John T. Jones Chair of Economics at Austin College where he is currently the Director of the Freshmen Seminar program, Director of the Will Mann richardson Lectureship Series, and Austin College’s Director of the Jon T. Owens Conference. He learned about Holistic Management when preparing to teach a course in Environmental Economics, and for doing research in organic production. He began attending HMI Workshops, which helped to enforce his understanding of sustainable land management. HMI’s mission has especially helped his research in Texas Organic farming and ranching. Danny is particularly interested in helping HMI erect effective and formal programs that help aid younger generations in better understanding sustainable and holistic resource use.

Danny is married to his wife, Martha, who is the Executive Director for the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) in Grayson County, and a member of the CAC State Board. Their son, Jason, is an environmental biologist for the Nature Conservancy in the Willamette Valley. They have three grandchildren. Welcome, Danny!

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2013 Open Gate Report n 2013 HMI introduced its new Open Gate On-Farm Learning program to provide new onsite educational learning opportunities to an expanding audience interested in Holistic Management and Whole Farm planning. Our 2013 program included 8 different events that began in May of 2013 and ran through the beginning of October. In that six-month period, we trained over 300 participants who manage a combined 300,000 acres. We worked with 74 collaborators to organize these 8 events that stretched from California to New york. We had

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worked to select venues and topics that would be of interest to a variety of producers and we averaged 38 participants per event. Our curriculum was focused on action-based peer-to-peer learning with lots of opportunity for experiential activity as well as presentations and Q&A. We wanted to see how that approach to on-farm learning would translate to knowledge change and intended behavior change.

When we evaluated those participants we found there was an average knowledge change of 35% and the following key outcomes. outcome Expanded network Would recommend the program Satisfaction with program Experienced knowledge change Intend to change management practices

% of Participants 96 96 95 93 65

HMI would like to thank all the collaborators and hosts who participated in the 2013 Open Gate program. The success of this program couldn’t have happened without the generous offering of time, knowledge, and money that all our collaborators shared. We look forward to more opportunities for collaboration in 2014. read more about the last five Open Gate events of 2013.

Creekside Meadow Farm Day

A great group of participants came from around the Northeast to learn from each other at Creekside Meadow Farm t was a cold, overcast September day in Deruyter, New york at Creekside Meadow Farm, but that didn’t keep over 50 people from attending HMI’s Open Gate On-Farm Day. After introductions at the farm store by HMI’s Director of Community Services, Ann Adams, New york Beginning Farmer and HMI Certified Educator, Erica Frenay talked about how Holistic Management had helped her family grow their farm. Tricia park then told the story of Creekside Meadow Farm’s growth and how Holistic Management had helped the park family when she was trained in HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Training program which was funded by the uSDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer and rancher Development program. After those case studies most of the crowd headed out on hay wagons to do a reading the land exercise with HMI Certified Educator Phil metzger and grazing specialist troy Bishopp of Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District. Ann Adams led a value-based goal-setting exercise for other participants. In the afternoon she led an enterprise analysis exercise while some participants went back out into the field to do a forage assessment and crop problem-solving exercise. Everyone reconvened at the store for a Q&A about marketing and then broke into small groups to do some peer problem-solving for each participant.

Evaluations from the event showed that 100% of the participants

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who completed the evaluation expanded their network and 95% of them will change management practices as a result of the program. Also, 95% of the participants would recommend this program to others. 66% of the participants intend to modify or develop a grazing plan and 57% will modify or develop a whole farm goal. These participants manage 1,279 acres of land that will be influenced by this program. topic covered

afternoon was a whole farm goalsetting presentation with exercises by Ann Adams, HMI’s Director of Community Services.

Evaluations of the event showed that 75% of participants intend to complete a whole farm goal and 80% intend to change management practices. 85% of participants expanded their network and 90% would recommend program to others. In total 3,820 acres will be influenced by this program.

% change in Knowledge

The value of grazing planning How to assess forage How to complete an enterprise analysis How to integrate livestock and cropping How to improve grazing practices

21% 38% 35% 29% 31%

Thanks to our host farmers tricia, matt, and cameron Park, and to our co-organizer NY NoFA, and to our grantor chs Foundation, and all our supporters: NY glci, madison soil and water conservation District, DeRuyter Farm and garden co-operative, Fertrell, cornell University cooperative Extension madison county, central New York Rc&D, Kelley meats, wholeshare.com, and Devine gardens Vermicompost, for making this event possible.

KTS Farm and NODPA Field Days

topic covered

% change in Knowledge/confidence

How to use Holistic Management to help with succession planning

55%

How to use goal setting and testing questions to determine priorities Ability to create a grazing plan Ability to determine plant recovery Ability to determine forage inventory Ability to increase forage productivity Ability to create a whole farm goal Ability to test decisions Intend to create or modify grazing plan

34% 55% 50% 50% 50% 65% 50% 45%

Thanks to Kress and tammy simpson and mike geiser of Kts Farm for hosting the farm day and to our grantors chs Foundation and simply organic Fund for their generous support and to NoDPA for this opportunity for collaboration. Thanks also to Doug wright of Dairymaster Parlors for supplying the morning refreshments for the day.

Paine Family Farm Day Laura Paine

Jim Weaver, Kress Simpson, and Dave Johnson discuss the forage composition at KTS Farm. hen the heavy fog burned off on September 26, 2013 at KTS Farm in Mansfield, pennsylvania, a crowd of 50 participants had the opportunity to hear about how Kress simpson and mike geiser now divide management and assets on KTS Farm, an organic dairy as part of the Northeast Organic Dairy producers Association (NODpA) Annual Field Days.

After an introduction about how Holistic Management has influenced Kress’ decision on KTS the group headed out to the field to see the result of the grazing planning and implementation. Jim weaver from Tioga County planning and troy Bishopp from Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District helped with the forage assessment activity which prompted a great conversation about forage quality and management. The group then moved to the New Zealand swing style parlor to learn how that has made a major difference in labor needs and quality of life on the farm.

In the afternoon, the conversations continued at the Mansfield Hose Company Hall as Kress shared how he developed the management transfer of his farm to Mike Geiser as well as some of the asset transfer while also supporting his son, Alec, in beginning his own dairy. This presentation was followed by a grain crop enterprise analysis presentation by Dave Johnson of NODpA. The last part of the

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n September 18, 2013 HMI held an Open Gate farm day at the paine Family Farm. Over 60 people, mostly local livestock producers, participated in the day. laura and Bill Paine started by explaining the history and layout of the farm, and followed-up with a Q&A; questions from the audience were about numerous farm issues, including marketing, vaccinations, pricing, product distribution, and grazing rotation strategy.

After the Q&A, everyone headed out to the field to observe and discuss Laura's research with warm-season perennial grasses. The paine Family Farm is the site of an ongoing study to evaluate the merits of replacing cool-season exotic grasses with warm-season native perennials. This area of Wisconsin was once an oak-grass savannah, but centuries of cultivation have radically altered the landscape. Native perennial grasses have the potential to restore the native biodiversity of the region while providing some useful agro-ecological benefits. The

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IN PRACTICE 17

DEVELOPMENT CORNER

Drought Mitigation Workshops—A Success

continued from page seventeen

primary benefit of planting native perennials is the capability of producing forage during a period when cool-season grasses are dormant and non-productive. A major drawback to this approach is the slow establishment time of the native perennials.

The field session was followed by lunch, which was generously served and sponsored by Johnson sausage shoppe, a local meat processor and distributor.

The group then engaged in a decision-testing exercise, where small groups determined if it made sense to increase forage production via expansion of perennial grass plantings. We concluded the day with an action learning exercise designed to foster producer to producer sharing and problem solving. In small groups, participants identified a critical problem in their production operation and worked together to propose potential solutions. Many participants commented on the value of getting new perspectives on old problems. participants of this event manage a total of 4,868 acres of crop and grazing land. results for the event are summarized below. topic covered

% change in Knowledge

The value of grazing planning

20%

How land planning and grazing planing influence each other

29%

using a whole farm goal to help with land planning decisions

44%

How to use testing questions to test decision

62%

How to improve forage production and availability with warm season pastures

51%

How to increase pasture forage health

29%

Thanks to event sponsors, including the chs Foundation, george Koepp of colombia county Uw-Extension, Johnson sausage shoppe, Badgerland Financial, wisconsin Department of Agriculture, and columbia county land and water conservation.

Special thanks to Bill and laura Paine for their hospitality and commitment to sustainable agriculture and their support of the local agricultural community.

Vermont Whole Farm Planning Field Day wenty whole farm planning enthusiasts showed up on September 24, 2013 for a Whole Farm Field Day at Cedar Mountain Farm in Hartland, Vermont. This event was organized by Jessie Schmidt of university of Vermont (uVM) New Farmer program (she is also HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Vermont State Coordinator). The event was an additional educational program for participants from that program (which has been funded by uSDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer and rancher Development program). The day included a dairy and vegetable CSA tour by farm owners/managers Stephen Leslie and Kerry Gawait as well as an environmental assessment exercise led by Ann Adams, HMI’s Director of Community Services. Further discussion about whole farm planning continued until dark while the group ate pizza from the Vermont Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) portable pizza oven.

Thanks to stephen leslie and Kerry gawait of Cedar Mountain Farm, UVm New Farmer Program, and Vermont NoFA for making this event possible.

MI began the first of a 3-part series of workshops on “Mitigating Drought with Holistic Management” in September 2013 at Bear Creek ranch near Aledo, Texas. This series was funded by the Dixon Water Foundation.

In the first session reading the land was the topic for the morning sessions. All four instructors, Richard teague, Peggy sechrist, Betsy Ross, and steve Nelle, discussed monitoring criteria to assess the condition of the rangeland. participants rotated through each station to work with these instructors in small groups. The afternoon was devoted to what to do with this information and the importance of keeping a written and photographic record of your land readings, with small group monitoring exercises. The next day’s agenda took participants far deeper into the understanding of how soil and plant biology work, including the role of roots and grazing, the fungal to bacterial ratios and the vital role of litter.

Evaluations showed the majority of folks found the content, the pace and the speakers excellent. The understanding was universal that soil can best hold and use water if it has a great diversity of plants with different root configurations and lots of organic matter. How to move the soil in that direction was the favorite take away.

In the second session, which focused on grazing planning to mitigate drought, Walt Davis and peggy Sechrist were the facilitators for the 48 participants. peggy Sechrist opened the workshop with a description of planned grazing and the principles involved. Walt Davis then explained the consideration of drought elements as part of the decisions involved in designing your grazing plan. Having the right enterprises for your resource base to be sustainable, even in a drought year is important, so Walt talked a little about some of the financial aspects of Holistic Management.

Walt shared tons of practical advice while the participants got more and more excited about creating a plan, and peggy Sechrist taught forage assessment. The class went into the field to practice stepping off a square they felt certain could feed one animal unit (1 cow or 5 sheep) for one day.

Back inside, peggy presented a set of information from Bear Creek ranch with which the participants were to work in 2-person teams to complete a grazing chart.

Day 2 resumed with completing the grazing charts with the goal of understanding how the chart can help manage a great deal of complexity. Walt Davis then shifted gears to talk specifically about

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Vermont whole Farm Planning Field Day: Stephen Leslie shared his knowledge of horse-powered farming with participants of the Vermont Whole Farm Planning Field Day.

Betsy Ross explaining soil biology to Drought Mitigation participants.

drought and how to develop a mindset and a plan that takes some of the stress and risk away from facing the inevitable. participants went out on the ranch to see pastures just grazed and pastures recovered enough to re-graze. The land was in wonderful condition despite the recent drought with lots of diversity, tight spacing of plants and many of the most desirable grasses. Cattle and sheep hang together for protection and ease of management. Dixon ranches general manager, robby Tuggle, and Walt Davis together answered many questions from a very engaged group of participants.

Log Cabin Livestock Farm Day he Open Gate Log Cain Livestock Farm Day was hosted by Ben and Denise Bartlett at their beautiful farm in the upper peninsula of Michigan in September 2013. Despite a cold and wet day, a number of people in the local community came long distances to participate in the event that HMI’s program Director, Frank Aragona facilitated.

The day started with Ben and Denise explaining the importance Holistic Management has had for them over the year. In particular, they have found great value in having some decision-making tools that have helped them balance the busy life of raising a family, holding full-time jobs, and managing a farm.

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From the Board Chair

continued from page one

helped HMI with our 2013 Open Gate program and over 64 collaborating organizations with our Beginning Women Farmer program. With the HMI Certified Educators we train over 5,000 people a year. The Quivira Coalition annual meeting, which always features ranchers and land managers practicing Holistic Management, sells out year after year. young farmers and ranchers are searching for new paradigms that create viable livelihoods and a healthier planet.

Those of you who have been working with the ideas of Holistic Management for the last thirty years have been leading the way, and more and more of us are starting to follow. It seems that almost everything people attempt takes far longer than they predict, but as there are more of us, there is more curiosity, more learning, and more momentum. There are new models and centers of innovation and inquiry popping up all over the world. I don't think that we can imagine how far we might go in the next thirty years if we connect and collaborate, but I am looking forward to finding out with all of you.

Ben Bartlett shared how Holistic Management helped him better manage Log Cabin Livestock Farm.

During a break in the rain, Ben took the group outdoors to evaluate soil health. They observed differences in soil texture and color based on management. participants also discussed soil ecology and the complexity of the trophic levels in a healthy, well-managed soil.

The soils exercise was followed up with lunch, generously provided

by Rock River Farm. After lunch, the group learned how to assemble simple snap and fit watering systems, which really gave people some perspective about the ease with which a person can setup a new water system using some of the newer technology available. participants concluded the day with a forage assessment exercise, where small groups went out into the field and evaluated the amount of forage available in the pastures. This information then helped the groups to determine what a simple grazing plan might look like.

Evaluation results showed that participants learned quite a lot about a number of critical farm management issues. topic covered

% change in Knowledge/confidence

The value of grazing planning How to assess amount of forage The value of monitoring soil fertility How to monitor soil fertility How to improve soil fertility How to improve grazing practices Ability to create a grazing plan Ability to improve farm management decisions

65% 82% 25% 35% 36% 55% 89% 56%

HMI would like to extend our gratitude to Ben and Denise Bartlett for sharing their home and their experiences with their local community. We would also like to thank the event sponsors, including Nevill Fence, livestock and grazing supply, Alger county conservation District, UsDA NRcs, michigan state University AgBio Research, msU Extension, and greenstone Farm credit services.

Have a question? Let us find you the answer.

Email questions to anna@holisticmanagement.org with subject heading: Q&A. you can also mail your questions to 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Ste. B, Albuquerque, NM 87109 or fax at 505/843-7900.

Number 153

IN PRACTICE 19

Certified

Educators

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

◆ These educators provide Holistic

Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

*

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

NEW YORK Erica Frenay

*454 Old 76 rd. • Brooktondale, Ny 14817

U N I T E D S TAT E S

607/539-3246 • efrenay22@gmail.com

ARIZONA

NEBRASKA

tim mcgaffic

Paul swanson

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

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

Ralph tate

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

owen hablutzel

1109 Timber Dr., papillion, NE 68046 402/932-3405 • Tater2d2@cox.net

NEW HAMPSHIRE Kerman *350Kate Troy road, Marlborough, NH 03455

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

603-876-4562, kkerman@phoenixfarm.org

Richard King

◆ seth wilner

poppy Hill Farm, 1675 Adobe rd., petaluma, CA 94954 rking1675@gmail.com • 707/217-2308 (c)

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

◆ Rob Rutherford

NEW MEXICO

CA polytechnic State university San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 805/756-1475 • rrutherf@calpoly.edu

Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 • 505/842-5252 anna@holisticmanagement.org

cindy Dvergsten 17702 County rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 hminfo@wholenewconcepts.com

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

sechrist *106Peggy Thunderbird ranch road Fredericksburg, TX 78624 830/456-5587 (c) • peggysechrist@gmail.com

Elizabeth marks p.O. Box 185, Austerlitz, Ny 12017 518/567-9476 Elizabeth.marks@ny.usda.gov

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

OREGON Jeff goebel 52 NW Macleay Blvd, portland, Or 97210 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com

VERMONT calley hastings 787 Kibbee rd., Brookfield, VT 05036 802/279-3893 • Calley.hastings@gmail.com

WASHINGTON 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

SOUTH DAKOTA

*25267 Holmquist rd., reliance, SD 57569 605/473-5356 • randy@zhvalley.com

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

IOWA

*

guy glosson

WISCONSIN

Randal holmquist

◆ Ann Adams

COLORADO

TEXAS

*

laura Paine

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

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.

torray & Erin wilson

4375 pierce Ave., paullina, IA 51046-7401 712/448-3870 • wilsonee3@gmail.com

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

MAINE

Judi Earl

Vivianne holmes

“Glen Orton” Coolatai, NSW 2402 +61 4 09 151 969 (c) judi@aimsag.com.au

239 E Buckfield rd.

Buckfield, ME 04220-4209 207/336-2484 • vholmes@maine.edu

graeme hand

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

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

20 IN PRACTICE

Brian luce

Frogmore, Boorowa NSW 2586 61-0-263853217 (w) 61-0-263856224 (h) 61-0-429069001 (c) dick@hanaminno.com.au

86016 Creek Line, rr#1 Lucknow, ON N0G 2H0 519/528-2493 • mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca

Brian wehlburg

306/432-4583 • JLpigott@sasktel.net

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

resources and Environmental Science, Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079 • montagne@montana.edu

Box 760, redvers, Saskatchewan SOC 2HO 306/452-3882 • bhjer@sasktel.net

tony mcQuail

CANADA

*p.O. Box 173120, MSu, Dept of Land

Blain hjertaas

Dick Richardson

Don campbell

cliff montagne

250/378-4535 • allison@guichonranch.ca

rr #4, ponoka, AB T4J 1r4 403/783-6518 • lucends@cciwireless.ca

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

*Box 10, Quilchena, BC V0E 2r0

150 Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 3302 61-3-5578-6272 (h), 61-4-1853-2130 (c) graeme.hand@bigpond.com

pine Scrub Creek, Kindee, NSW 2446 61-2-6587-4353 brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au

MONTANA

Allison guichon

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

January / February 2014

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

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

Usiel seuakouje Kandjii p.O. Box 23319, Windhoek 9000 264-812840426 (c) • 264-61-244028 (h) kandjiiu@gmail.com

NEW ZEALAND John King

*p.O. 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

Holistic Management Handbook Healthy Land, Healthy Profits

ORDER! TODAY

$

The Holistic Management Handbook gives you step-by-step guidance for managing a ranch or farm holistically.

It is essential reading for anyone involved with land management and stewardship.

40

learn how to create healthy land and healthy profits.

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

Western Canadian Holistic Management Conference

Save the Date!

lloYDmiNstER AgRicUltURAl ExhiBitioN lloydminster, saskatchewan

Feb. 10-11, 2014 SPEAKERS and PRESENTERS INCLUDE: Jim reger Jill Clapperton Seth Wilner Kathleen Charpentier

please make check payable to: West-Central Forage Assn. #1 5013 50 Ave, Box 360 Evansburg AB T0E 0T0 office: 780-727-4447 cell: 780-218-8890 www.westcentralforage.com

PlUs, PRoDUcER PANEls AND BREAKoUt sEssioNs!

Early Bird: $165/person (Deadline: January 31, 2014) $200 after deadline

KINSEY Agricultural Services, Inc.

HELPING DEDICATED GROWERS CORRECT SOIL FERTILITY PROBLEMS KINSEY Agricultural Services works with growers in all 50 states and more than 65 countries, balancing and maintaining the soil to obtain quality crop production. Furthering the work of Prof. William Albrecht and relying on his methods, we have helped clients improve both the quality and productivity of their soil through increased fertility in all types of situations — from certified organic farmers and gardeners to large-scale farms, ranches, nurseries, landscapes and forests, using conventional fertilizer sources.

This includes consulting for standard crops such as alfalfa, clovers, corn, cotton, pastures, potatoes, rice, soybeans, sugar beets, wheat and other small grains, and also specialty crops such as wine and table grapes, almonds, pecans, walnuts, citrus, coffee, 297 County Highway bananas, sugar-cane, avocados, olives, melons, 357 Charleston, MO 63834 U.S.A. cover crops, peanuts, timber, turf grass, Phone: 573-683-3880 • Fax: 573-683-6227 ornamental plants — and most major food E-mail: info@kinseyag.com • www.kinsey.com and fiber crops from all over the world.

KINSEY Agricultural Services, Inc.

Number 153

IN PRACTICE 21

thE mARKEtPlAcE

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

Holistic Management TTrrainings a

CORRAL DESIGNS

NEW 2014 DATES!!!!

NEW!

Jan. 27-Feb. 1, 2014 Albuquerque, New Mexico with instructor Kirk Gadzia

Introduction to Holistic Management Jan. 27-29: $495 Advance ed T Trraining Session (Requires prior attendance at intro session.)

Jan. 30-Feb.1: $495 Comprehensiv ve Holistic Management T Trraining Jan. 27-Feb. 1: $895 5HPHPEHU SURRĹ?WDEOH DJUULLFXOWXUH LV QRW DERXW KDUGHU ZRUNN ,WÄłV DERXW PDNLQJ EHWWHU GHFLVLRQV

For more inffor ormation and registration, visit our website: www.rmsgadzia.com

Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified E Educ ducator PO Box 1100 Bernalillo, NM 87004 505-263-8677 k irk@rmsgadzia.com

22 IN PRACTICE

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

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

27 corral layouts. $55.

Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59.

Send checks/money order to:

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

January / February 2014

970/229-0703 www.grandin.com

We’ve got NEW BOOKS from some of your favorite authors and agriculture leaders!

JoEl sAlAtiN? We’ve got him!

FoRREst PRitchARD? yes!

Jim gERRish? you bet he’s in there!

Check them out on the back cover or at www.holisticmanagement.org/store.

thE mARKEtPlAcE See the Big Picture ~ Respond to Change ~ Be Sustainable

Get Started Today – Join Our

Holistic Management Distance Learning & Mentoring Program Realize Immediate Benefits Save money on education — and get more for your money with highly personalized training.

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Don’t change your life to learn.

Let your education change your life!

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

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

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

Introducing a new book by David Pratt “I’d want this one on my shelf even if I didn't have any others.

What a delightful, wisdomdense read.”

JOEL SALATIN, POLYFACE FARM

$28 Plus Shipping Call (707) 429-2292 to order or visit our website, www.ranchingforprofit.com Also available on Amazon.com

HMI GRAZING PLANNING SOFTWARE UPGRADE NEW FEATURES INCLUDE:

The HMI Grazing planning Software is an electronic version of the Holistic Management Grazing plan and Control Chart.

This software tool does all the grazing planning calculations for as many as 100 paddocks.

$

100

• Easy calculations to determine SAus • Auto-fill functions for closed plan eady given “This tool has alr urn beyond • Account for multiple herds us a many fold ret ent and we tm es inv l tia ini r ou • Added ability to identify exclusion to use it.” n gu be t jus have periods and paddocks needing — Arnold Mattson, nch, rvices Bra special attention Agri-Environment Se nada e and Agri-Food Ca ltur ricu Ag • Compares estimated SAus with planned peak SAus • Grazing Manual hyperlink TO LEARN MORE OR references for each step for TO ORDER CALL: ease of reference HMI at 505/842-5252 or go to our online store at • New Livestock and Land www.holisticmanagement.org/store/ performance worksheet

Number 153

IN PRACTICE 23

NON-prOFIT OrGANIZATION u.S. pOSTAGE pAID ALBuQuErQuE, NM pErMIT NO 880

a publication of Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 uSA return service requested

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

Holistic Management Mail Order Emporium

Subscribe to IN PRACTICE, a bimonthly journal for Holistic Management practicioners ___ one-year subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 u.S. ($40 International)

Software

___ two-year subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $65 u.S. ($70 International)

___ grazing Planning software (single-user license) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100

___ three-year subscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $95 u.S. ($105 International)

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

___ gift subscription. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (Same prices As Above) ___ Back issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5/each

Pocket Cards

___ Back issues collection cD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25

___ holistic management® Framework and testing Questions, March 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4

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

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

Planning and Monitoring Guides ___ introduction to holistic management, August 2012, 128 pages . . . . $25 ___ holistic Financial Planning, August 2012, 58 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

Books and Multimedia

___ holistic grazing Planning, August 2012, 63 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

For more titles, visit our website at www.holisticmanagement.org. ___ holistic management, by Allan Savory & Jody Butterfield (softcover). . $60 ___ cows save the Planet, by Judith D. Schwartz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17.95

___ holistic Biological monitoring—croplands August 2012, 26 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

___ You can Farm, by Joel Salatin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35

___ holistic Biological monitoring— Rangelands and grasslands, August 2012, 59 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

___ salad Bar Beef, by Joel Salatin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35

___ holistic land Planning, August 2012, 31 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

___ Kick the hay habit, by Jim Gerrish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $27 ___ hands on Agronomy, Book w/DVD by Neal Kinsey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45

Planning Forms

___ holistic management handbook, by Butterfield, Bingham, Savory. . . $40

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

___ At home with holistic management, by Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20 ___ holistic management: A New Environmental intelligence . . . . . . . . $10 ___ how to Not grow Broke Ranching, by Walt Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30 ___ stockmanship, by Steve Cote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35

___ worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7 ___ livestock Production worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ grazing Plan & control chart, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

___ comeback Farms, by Greg Judy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $32 ___ PBS Video: the First millimeter: healing the Earth (DVD) . . . . . . . . $25 ___ the organic Farmer’s Business handbook, by richard Wiswall . $34.95

I would like to make a Tax Deductible Donation

___ how stella saved the Farm,

by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19.99

In the amount of $_____________. please designate the program you would like

___ the Dirty life, by Kristin Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

us to apply contribution toward ________________________________________

TO ORDER:

Questions? 505/842-5252 or hmi@holisticmanagement.org

■

Indicate quantity on line next to item, make sure your shipping address is correct, mail this page (or a copy) and your check or money order payable in U.S. funds from a U.S. bank, or your credit card number and expiration date to: Holistic Management International, 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B, Albuquerque, NM 87109.

■

you can also call in or fax credit card orders. place phone calls to 505/842-5252, or fax to 505/843-7900.

For online ordering, visit our secure website at: www.holisticmanagement.org. printed On recycled paper

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

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

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