#154, In Practice, March/April 2014

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

March / april 2014

NuMber 154

w w w. h o l i s t i c M a N a g e M e N t. o r g

Heirloom Blooms—

~ INSIDE THIS ISSUE ~

Water as a Crop

Cultivating a Healthier Happier Community

By Lenny Archer

H

eirloom Blooms is between San Marcos and Wimberley, Texas in the historic Hill Country. I started the business by putting in heirloom gardens for friends and schools and starting a seed bank. Today Heirloom Blooms is on 35 acres, and run by a team of dynamic professional young women. In addition to seasonal heirloom fruits, vegetables and herbs, we offer creative outdoor education adventures for all ages both on site and off site. Our facilities also include an event hall and guest cottages. We are working to make lasting legacy of this land, and become a model for generations to come.

Dreams Can Come True

Lenny Archer can be reached at: turtle@heirloomblooms.org.

Land & Livestock FEATURE STORIES

The 77 Ranch has worked to improve soil health, leading to better water quality downstream. Better water quality also protects vital resources for additional income streams for the ranch like fishing and duck hunting. Learn more about the innovative practices and the results that Gary and Sue Price are achieving on page 9.

News & Network

Holistic Whole Farm Management. The HMI Beginning Women in Ranches and Farms program that I began in the fall of 2013 has been instrumental in making my dreams a reality, and I credit the program with changing my life. Since the inception of my dream to have an heirloom fruit and vegetable farm as a platform for outdoor education and stewardship, my mantra has been; “Finding the balance between economically viable and environmentally responsible.” Not everyone was responsive to my passions about resource conservation, and I felt isolated. It used to keep me awake at night worrying. But I didn’t give up.

I had some amazing ideas, and spent years researching farming, gardening and the enterprises involved in agri-tourism, and built up my education and professional experience in outdoor education program design and delivery. In the first few moments of attending my first HMI workshop, I had an epiphany. I am not alone, and I must be doing something right. I thought, “Just look at this amazing group of women from all over our state, who share a similar vision.”

The network of support from our educators, mentors and participants has provided countless resources, and has been a catalyst for inspiration. Most important, HMI has allowed me to give myself permission to believe in my dreams as I have articulated it in my Holistic Goal, and to plan my life and profits around those statements.

The framework HMI provided only continued to validate, complement and enhance my dream. It also challenged me to be honest with myself, and be flexible. I immediately knew that I could not grow this alone, and gathered a group of supporters and volunteers, hoping that they too, could make their dreams come true. I wanted everyone to have personal and professional growth as a result of their involvement, but it was HMI that taught me to define our management team and create a whole farm goal together.

Instead of storing all the ideas in my head and controlling everything, I have learned to put a set of systems in place that allow me to utilize better time management, and delegate.

Identifying logjams, and using the testing matrix has set us on a planning track to reinvest in the ranch to keep us on a path toward our Holistic Goal. After the Financial Planning workshops we built a three-year budget for our business and our future 501c3 Non-Profit that I feel confident I could take into any group of board members or lenders and be considered an attractive, credit worthy investment.

I have employed the entire HMI framework to my ranch plan and it has saved me countless unproductive work hours, and wasted energy. Now I end my days with a sense of content accomplishment, and mental clarity enough to sleep and, perchance, to dream.

Financial Planning— Exploring the Logjam

DON CAMPBELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Holistic Forestry— Managing Light with Iron Grazers

TuOMAS J. MATTILA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

77 Ranch— Improved Water Quality as a Crop

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Doak Elledge – Planned Grazing Facilitates Long-Term Goals

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 From the Board Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Financial Planning—

Exploring the Logjam

By DON CAMPBELL

In Practice 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 Danny Nuckols Jim Parker

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

March / April 2014

W

hen you begin the process of Holistic Financial Planning, the first step is the annual review.

This involves looking at the previous year and determining if there is a logjam or any adverse factors that need to be addressed. If there are, then you need to prioritize investment in addressing them as part of your financial plan.

Identifying a Logjam

feel you have a logjam, make plans to deal with it. When looking for a logjam it is helpful to relax and reflect. If you have been using Holistic Management principles for 3 years or more you might ask yourself “am I making significant progress towards my Holistic Goal?” If you are not making significant progress you may indeed have a logjam.

There are many possible logjams. I have brainstormed this topic with many groups and I am amazed at the good insights people have.

This is an excellent exercise to do with your management club. Give everyone a copy of the list. A general list like this can be a real help in identifying individual logjams when you return home. Logjams can be intimidating as they often involve people issues. Once again I think recognition and action will be more helpful than denial.

The logjam is defined as: “something that consistently prevents us from moving towards Some Possible Logjams our holistic goal.”

I clearly remember Allan Savory talking 1. addictions: Drug and alcohol addictions are about a boom of logs moving down a river. common in our society. They can wreak havoc When movement stops and the logs become on our lives and our businesses. They must be stuck it is usually only one or two logs that are dealt with if we are to move forward. Fortunately causing the problem. It is the lumberjack’s job there are many programs to help people. to figure out which logs are causing the problem I have had some experiences with alcohol and to correct the situation. That’s where the and the AA 12-step program. When I was about term logjam came from. Knowing this 15 we had an alcoholic uncle live with us for a background may help you figure out the logjam few years. This had a profound effect on me. I in your business. learned about the devastation alcohol can The logjam is an important concept, one we cause. I learned about the AA program and the should not overlook when we are preparing to amazing positive results the program has had do our financial plan. I am sure there were for many, many people. To this day I have the courses where I didn’t cover the logjam in utmost respect for recovering alcoholics. enough detail. Thanks to HMI’s Interim CEO, As I look back I see this as having had a Ann Adams, I think I huge impact on my have corrected that. life and character.

There is nothing “There is nothing wrong with The impact was wrong with having a much larger than I having a logjam. A logjam is not realized at the time. logjam. A logjam is not a sign of a sign of weakness, failure or My admiration for my weakness, failure or Dad grew when I saw something to be something to be ashamed of.” all he was willing to ashamed of. If you do for his brother. have one it is just a My understanding fact. Deal with it and move on. There are 2 is that alcoholism is a disease and that it tends times trouble may arise: One is when we are to run in families. People may have a genetic afraid to look for our logjam in case we have pre-disposition to alcoholism. If you have this one. The second is when we know we have a pre-disposition you become an alcoholic when logjam but fail to take action to correct it. You you drink not because you are a weak person have all heard the expression about “the but because of the pre-disposition. elephant in the room,” but no one will talk about I didn’t want to know if I had this preit. This is a good way to think of a logjam that no disposition. I didn’t want to be an alcoholic. I one will recognize. No matter what the logjam is decided at a young age to be a non-drinker. it is better to identify it, deal with it and move on. There were two benefits to this decision: The Denial is not a good choice. first was that I guaranteed myself that I would You may or may not have a logjam. When never be an alcoholic. The second was that I you analyze your business and feel you don’t developed a very strong character at an early have a logjam, be thankful and move on. If you age. Not drinking in high school, university and

The Campbell Family for the rest of my life helped me build a strong character. This strength of character has and continues to help me in many areas of my life.

2. intergenerational transfer: This can be a stumbling block for many families. We have all heard stories about how the son can’t sign the checks yet. He may be 50 and Dad is in his 80s but don’t worry we will get there someday.

People always laugh at stories like this. unfortunately we laugh because the stories are too often true.

I see two sides to the intergenerational situation. Let’s begin with the young people. I learned from David Irvine that the estate belongs to the parents. It is theirs and they have the right to do whatever they want with the estate. The sons and daughters have no right to expect their parents to give or sell the farm to them. What the sons and daughters do have is the right to ask. They are free to ask “Is there a place here for me? What does it look like?”

Depending on the answer, the sons or daughters may choose to stay and work with the parents or to move on to something else. It takes great courage and strength of character for the young people to do this. The young people need to believe in themselves. They need to believe they can be successful, fulfilled and happy with or without the farm. Let’s hope we have helped our sons and daughters develop their character so they can make these hard decisions.

Now let’s look at the parent’s perspective. It is common today to have Mom and Dad hanging on hoping that one of their children will decide to come home. Here again the parents have no right to expect their children to come home. What the parents do have is the right to ask “Are you interested in coming home?”

Depending on the answer the parents can

begin to plan with their children or they can make plans to use the farm to suit themselves.

Intergenerational transfer is emotional.

Our lives are tied up in our businesses.

This is a crucial step, one where it is easy to drop the ball. I encourage you to get help. It is amazing how having a third party involved in the discussion can help us move from an emotional to a rational discussion.

I have been personally involved in 3 intergenerational transfers. The first one involved me, my 2 brothers and my parents.

This one failed. It was not pretty.

The second one was from my parents to Bev and me. This went very smoothly. I give a lot of credit to my Dad for setting up a real win/win situation. Mom and Dad enjoyed the ranch for years. Bev and I have been here for 41 wonderful years, and my extended family still spends a lot of time at the ranch. It is the common bond that unites our families. All these benefits were due to a good intergenerational transfer.

The third transfer was from Bev and me to our two sons and their wives. Fortunately, I realized that I would have too much power as Dad and facilitator. We hired Kelly Sidoryk to lead our transfer. This was a wise decision.

Kelly did a wonderful job. This has been a great blessing to all of us. It has allowed me to stay ranching, to do work I love, and to work to my energy level. It has provided our sons and their families with a great quality of life and a wonderful place to raise their families. Once again all this was facilitated by a good intergenerational transfer.

Intergenerational transfer is one of the most important things we do in our entire lives. When done successful it can provide great joy, peace and contentment for many, many years. When it fails, it can cause anger, hurt and anguish for just as many years. I encourage you to think about this. Give this important topic the time and resources it requires. I believe you will find that it is a good investment.

3. Marriage challenges: I am reluctant to comment on this but not commenting is like ignoring “the elephant in the room.” I don’t feel

that is a wise choice so here goes. We are all aware that about half of all marriages end in divorce. I think this is sad. It is a cost and a hurt to our society. As a society we should work to strengthen marriage and reduce the divorce rate. In individual cases I make no judgment. I know that many good people may get divorced.

If you are experiencing marriage challenges I know of one good program that may interest you. The program is called Retrouvaille. It is a program designed to help and renew troubled marriages. It is available in larger centers across western Canada.

Choosing a marriage partner is likely the single most important decision you will make in your entire life. If you are not married, my advice is go slow, choose carefully. Once you have chosen be committed.

For those of us who are married it is important to remember that love is a verb not a feeling. If you want more love, be more loving. A good marriage doesn’t just happen. A good marriage requires time, work and energy. Invest in your marriage. It may be the best investment you ever make.

For those who are divorced it is important to remember that a failed marriage does not make you a failure. Two fine people can be divorced for a variety of reasons. Learn from your experience then move ahead. You are still a good person with endless opportunities.

“No matter what the logjam is it is better to identify it, deal with it and move on.

Denial is not a good choice.”

4. age: Each of us is unique. We are blessed with different amounts of energy and ambition.

What we have in common is that from about age 55 until death our energy and our ability to work will decrease. It is important to recognize this. We need to adjust our work load to match our energy level. When we do this we can continue in our chosen occupation with a great deal of contentment. Failure to do this can make our lives drudgery. A good question might be “Do I manage my business or does my business manage me?”

In my case my two sons coming home has allowed me to work to my energy level and to continue to enjoy ranching. I like to think that if my sons had not come home I would have been wise enough to achieve the same result in some other manner. I will never know if this is actually true.

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Number 154

IN PRACTICE 3

Exploring the Logjam continued from page three

Do you have a plan to deal with your business as you age? There are lots of possibilities, but like everything else you need to make a plan. Some options might be: downsize, custom work, do less, change enterprises, or any other number of options.

The important point here is to adjust and change your farm to give you what you want.

You are in charge.

5. a lack of commitment: It is not uncommon to find different levels of commitment to the Holistic Goal. The best approach I know is to revisit your goal with a sense of goodwill. It is not about getting my way or your way but it is about finding a better way, a way that none of us had thought of before.

6. off-Farm Job: I was surprised the first time I saw this heading on a list of possible logjams.

The people explained to me that an off-farm job takes you away from the farm and reduces the amount of time you commit to the farm. This reduction in time is likely to have a negative impact on your farm management.

7. time Management: Farming is very time consuming. I realized years ago that I could easily work 24/7 and still not get it all done.

Over time I realized that I needed to have a balance: time for quality of life, time for work and time for planning. We are not machines.

Rest and recreation are critical to having a productive life.

It is easy to be mired in the $10/hour jobs (which tend to be urgent and which we often enjoy) and to neglect the $100/ hour jobs.

Remember that thinking and planning pay more than working. One of Stephen Covey’s ideas was to schedule your priorities instead of prioritizing your schedule.

Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a great resource for dealing with time management.

I believe it is impossible to be short of time.

We all have 86,400 seconds each day. When we spend our time wisely we feel we have adequate time. unfortunately it is easy to spend our time unwisely. When we do this we feel we are short of time. The comparing options test will aid us in this area.

8. Debt: Debt is not good or bad, it just is. Debt is a tool. My good friend Dennis Wobeser compares debt to fire: “If fire is heating your house it is good. If fire is burning your house down it is not good.” It’s up to you to know the difference. You need to determine what level of debt is best for you. The right amount of debt may vary at different times in your life. We have been all over the map from as high as a million

Holistic Forestry—

Managing Light with Iron Grazers

by TUOMAS J. MATTILA

Introduction orests are amazing. Given suitable conditions and climate, trees and their allied species will form an ecosystem which can regulate water and nutrient flows very efficiently, control the microclimate and enhance the habitat around them. They can be a valuable farm resource, supplying fuel, fiber, berries, mushrooms, animal shelter, windbreak and other products. At the same time, many forests are badly mismanaged, deteriorating in quality and expressing only a fraction of their potential.

When I started learning about Holistic Management® of grasslands, I was struck by a sense of familiarity. I don't have grazing animals, but the principles of sustainable grazing seemed very similar to the ways of managing forests sensibly. Adequate rest, focus on age structure and monitoring for long term change all seemed directly applicable to

F

4 IN PRACTICE

March / April 2014

forestlands. Maybe the perennial, humanmanaged plant ecosystems are not that different after all. Maybe the lessons learned in one of them could be transferred to the other. I began exploring these ideas in the less brittle environment of Finland.

Sure, there are some differences, especially concerning plant spacing and the fact that plant biomass is not harvested with animals but often with industrial sized equipment. These present some unique opportunities for developing forest landscapes. Because there are so few large plants, it's possible to track the development of an individual plant over time. In a grassland, focusing on individual plants instead of the whole paddock has been a huge step forward in finding proper grazing levels and recovery periods, but with 1000 plants per square meter, it's impossible to track the recovery of different plant individuals. In a forest with about 1000 plants per hectare, it's completely feasible to

“For those who are divorced it is important to remember that a failed marriage does not make you a failure. Two fine people can be divorced for a variety of reasons.

Learn from your experience then move ahead.” dollars to debt free. We varied our debt at different times to achieve what was important to us. The important point is that we set the debt level that worked best for us. The bank didn’t set it. A good financial plan is essential to achieve this.

This list is not comprehensive. There are many more headings that could be added. use the list to get started, brainstorm for more ideas.

If you have a logjam, address it. If you don’t have a logjam, move on to the next step in the financial planning process.

Don Campbell is a Holistic Management® Certified Educator who ranches with his family near Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.

He can be reached at doncampbell@sasktel.net.

tag trees and trace their response to management over time. Not to forget that each tree has its own datalogger in the annual growth rings, describing exactly the growing conditions it has experienced through its lifetime. Learning to read plant growth signs can be a valuable tool in understanding forest ecosystem conditions.

The heavy equipment needed to manage extensive forests can be both a curse and a blessing. The functioning of the whole forest ecosystem depends on the canopy layer, which again consists of big and heavy trees. If you want to change the light conditions or mineral cycles in a forest, that involves felling and transporting a lot of timber. The skills and equipment needed to do that safely are not easy to come by. This is why forest owners usually work with a logging company for harvesting trees. And the interests of the logging company may not be the same as those expressed in your Holistic Goal. usually they require a sufficient yield of timber at a low cost and ease of harvest. Planning production and harvesting so that you can meet those goals without compromising your future landscape is one of the challenges of managing forests holistically.

Well managed, the “iron grazers” (i.e. harvesters and forwarders/skidders) can be powerful tools for ecological restoration.

Compared to animal grazers, the machine operators can be told which plant to take and which to leave, where to deposit all the litter and where to concentrate the soil disturbance from tracks. And usually they are happy to cooperate, as long as the needs of the land owner are well communicated and feasible to do. Cooperation with well behaved iron grazers makes it possible to use selective felling and actually sculpt the future landscape by managing the light conditions in the forest.

Overall I was surprised to find very little guidance on applying Holistic Management to forests. This is understandable, since the approach was first applied in brittle arid ecosystems, where grasslands are the norm.

Therefore the aim of this article is to give an outline, how the principles and practices of Holistic Management can be applied in a forest setting.

Managing Ecosystems through Individual Plants When I started managing our forests I had the mindset of an environmental scientist. From my research and studies I “knew” that forestry is the major threat to biodiversity, reducing species diversity, age structure and deadwood.

At the same time, several environmental NGOs were lobbying against forestry and promoting extensive conservation plans. I didn't want to be a part of the problem, so I didn't do anything with the forests. The problem was, the forests were not getting any better. Our farms forests had been intensively managed and resembled monocultures with only the canopy layer present. Without logging the forests just grew more crowded and dark, which did not move the ground cover layer forward. The “hands off” policy was not working. At the same time, by not harvesting wood, I squandered the main asset

of the farm and reduced the resources available for developing the farm.

The way logging had become viewed as the major environmental threat seems very similar to the way grazing has been discussed in other climates. Overgrazing was seen as a problem, so a “hands off” conservation approach was initiated. Animal numbers were reduced, areas were fenced off, but the land was not improving, especially in the more brittle areas, which depended on periodic disturbance for establishing seedlings and maintaining the mineral cycle. At the core of the problem has been a focus on overgrazing of areas instead of the overgrazing of individual plants.

Forest management also took the route of ignoring plants and focusing on stands. The aim of intensive forestry was to make each forest stand a homogeneous unit for management.

The aim was to get as much biomass (timber and pulpwood) harvested as efficiently as possible. For maximal worker and equipment capital, clearfelling was developed as a harvesting method. using clearfelling, all trees in a stand are removed when the growth of the stand begins to decline below a preset economic growth rate. Thinning is used to make sure that in the final cut, all the harvested trees are of the same species and size. After harvest, regrowth is killed mechanically or chemically, the soil is tilled and replanted with new seedling trees. The whole operation was called “forest renewal”.

Although it is efficient, clearfelling returns the ecosystem to the lowest level of succession (bare soil). It also damages the ecosystem processes of energy flow, water cycle and nutrient management, as the growing plant biomass is too low to regulate the water or nutrient flows. In addition the planted secondary forest is usually of low biodiversity and of low resilience, and subject to frequent insect and fungal disease damage. The method is therefore strongly opposed and different kinds of “sustainability band-aids” have been applied

to maintain public acceptability. Forest certifications mandate specific criteria: number of trees left standing after a harvest, areas outside operations, soil tillage forms, etc. These criteria have become a target of fierce political debate in defining what is “sustainable forestry”.

In a sense, this repeats the cycle which has been seen in grassland management: poor management results in ecological damage, which results in bureaucratic limits to maintain a minimal level of environmental quality.

To me HM offers another kind of solution.

Improving ecological status through wise use of the tools available. With that mindset, the approach is no longer maximizing wood harvest, without causing too much damage.

The approach is to maximize ecosystem health and productivity, while providing a good quality of life to the managers. And logging can be seen as a tool to get there.

Like in grasslands, the key to moving the ecosystem forward is to focus on individual plants. Access to water, nutrients and sunlight define whether an individual plant grows or withers, so it makes sense to monitor and manage them.

Light Response of Trees and Forest Stands Fully grown forests are dark places. You may not notice it until you look straight up at the sky. Figure 1 shows a series of photos from a stand of approximately 80 year old spruce.

Although the forest seems open due to the sparse plant spacing, a photo taken straight up reveals that the canopy is closed. Direct sunlight enters the forest only rarely and in patches (seen in Figure 1a). As a consequence, the ground cover is dominated by shade tolerant mosses, needles and some sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) surviving in the lighter spots.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Figure 1. Light conditions in a fully grown spruce stand. a) Overview of trees, b) sky photo, c) ground cover.

Number 154

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Holistic Forestry continued from page five

The competition for light makes it difficult for the forest to renew. It is impossible for seedlings to emerge in the moss layer in our less brittle environment. The undergrowth is also under such severe light competition, that it barely grows at all. Shade tolerant plants remain small and wait for the right light conditions. This wait can last for decades, as is demonstrated by the tree rings of a 110 year old spruce (Figure 2).

First the tree spent 40 years in the undergrowth, reaching a diameter of 3 cm. After that light conditions improved and the tree rapidly reached a diameter of 40 cm during the following 70 years. When the tree was eventually felled in 2013, it was surrounded by a group of smaller trees, which were seedlings 70 years ago when sufficient light allowed them to take root. The life history of this individual tree demonstrates the dynamics in a mixed age forest. When a larger tree falls, it leaves a small clearing to the canopy. This allows light to penetrate and stimulates the growth of the understory and the emergence of seedlings.

Natural forests are often mosaics of different aged tree groups. It makes sense to mimic this pattern if you want to work with nature.

Figure 2. A 110 year old spruce, which spent its first forty years under severe light competition.

(Photo: Jussi Saarinen) Planted forests may not develop into a layered structure without human help. The forest in Figure 1 has been managed to consist of mainly spruce trees of a certain age. From the viewpoint of ecological succession, it is stuck. The conifers grow so thickly that they shade out other trees and finally also the ground cover. What is left is a layer of acidic needle residues, which blocks water infiltration, slows decomposition and prevents seedlings from establishing. The long term result is a lowproductivity, low-diversity ecosystem, which is 6 IN PRACTICE

March / April 2014

also very resistant to succession.

As a monoculture, it is vulnerable to insects and disease, which may eventually kill off enough canopy trees to allow the succession to start from the beginning. The conventional management approach to that forest would be to clearfell it, as growth is beginning to decline. However with a little bit of intelligent tree removal, this succession towards productivity and diversity can be greatly enhanced.

Figure 3. Variable outcomes to thinning depending on the The response of a group of amount of light entering the forest. trees to thinning depends on the intensity of tree removal (Figure 3). If you take only the smallest trees, the The left side of Figure 4 shows how forests remaining have ample resources and grow change, when they are logged with selective even larger. This results in a high forest with felling. It is the same forest as in Figure 1. Only only large tree individuals, and is commonly the largest spruce trees have been removed and practiced in forestry as it yields timber fast. all deciduous trees (birch, aspen, rowan) were However, there are no small trees to replace left to grow. Deadwood was left to the forest for the bigger trees after harvest. If you take quite maintaining insect biodiversity. After selective a bit of the biggest trees, there is sufficient light felling, the forest represents a forest clearing to stimulate undergrowth and seedlings. This with mixed species. The ground cover layer has results in a forest with several layers: the changed to leaf litter instead of moss and several canopy, the undergrowth and the seedlings. deciduous tree seedlings were present.

You can also take tree removal to the extreme undergrowth trees were growing rapidly and wild and remove all trees. In deciduous forests, this flowers were present in spring. practice results in a coppice rotation. Many The right side of Figure 4 shows what deciduous trees resprout from the stump and happens, if too much wood is cut. It is taken at roots. The new shoots have access to the the border of a neighboring plot, where the forest energy reserves and resources of the original owner decided to follow management guidelines stump and grow very fast (its not unusual to and clearfelled the spruce. The lot was tilled and have a growth of 3 m in the first year). In a planted with birch and spruce. In three years coppiced forest, the canopy is regenerated in a since the cutting, the forest has reverted to a matter of years, but the resulting trees have grassland with a dense sprouting of deciduous many small trunks. In the temperate regions, pioneer trees. If the pioneer trees succeed in coppicing has a long history, resulting in a shading out the grasses, succession may beautiful and diverse habitat representing eventually proceed back to forest cover. The something between a meadow and a forest. planted tree seedlings are under severe The cutting intensities can be mixed in a competition and only a few survive without forest, resulting in a mixture of different types intensive weeding. In any case it will take several of tree groups. For example some larger trees decades, before a marketable yield of timber can can be left to a coppice, resulting in a be harvested from that plot again. The best use coppice-with-standards. On our farm, I for such a plot might be to run it as a part of manage some field edges as coppices with planned grazing to thin out the stand and allow standards. As long as the recovery period desirable tree species to establish. between cuts is long enough, the coppices Excess light is also bad for timber quality and can provide truly astounding amounts of farm finances. A tree will attempt to use all firewood in an easily accessible location. At available sunlight and shade out competing trees the same time the standards together with the by branching excessively. This combined with larger coppice trunks provide roundwood for rapid growth often results in a thick branched, construction. However, most of the farm gnarly tree unsuitable for carpentry and difficult to forests are now under logging, where we aim split for fuel. The amount of side branches in the for continuous cover forestry, and a high growing tips of young trees can be a good diversity, layered structure. It might take indicator of future timber quality. Few side 40 years to get there, but the progress is branches means that the tree is reaching for the already visible in monitoring. canopy layer, producing straight and knotless

Figure 4. The forest in the left has been thinned sufficiently to stimulate undergrowth.

The forest in the right has been thinned too much (clearfelled) and has reverted to a grassland/resprout mixture. timber. The price of first grade timber may be ten times higher than for low grade, so managing for quality is important for future income. usually if the forest is developing to an undesirable direction or not making any progress, I look for the culprit in the light conditions. Too little canopy opening results in no seedlings, too much results in grass overgrowth. The basic principle is easy, but applying it requires developing an intuition which only comes through careful on-site monitoring.

Tracking succession With grasslands and grazing, it may be sufficient to just monitor for seedlings to see where succession is heading. For forests however, a little bit of extra detail is needed to give a good overview of the trends the forest is going to.

The succession of a forest can be easily seen from a stand-table (tree diameter distribution). Sampling a set of trees (for example on a transect), the trees are ranked by size and grouped into diameter classes. Figure 5 shows the diameter distribution of the spruce stand in Figure 1. The stand consists only of trees 15-25 cm in diameter. Previous

before a seedling will grow to replace it in the canopy layer (if it can establish itself in the shady understory). In spite of good appearances, the forest is deteriorating.

In natural forests the diameter distribution is often more skewed, with most of the trees being very small. As canopy trees die, they are constantly replaced by smaller trees, which rapidly use the newly released resource of available sunlight. As long as the conditions allow abundant supply of smaller trees, such a system can maintain itself indefinitely. Therefore if a forest manager wants to maintain a continuous forest cover, it is essential to keep the conditions adequate for new tree seedlings to emerge and grow. The amount of new seedlings and the diameter distribution of the stand provide excellent early warning signals of possible problems in the forest succession. understanding this ecosystem process of succession has helped me to interpret what I was seeing in the forests of our farm. Smaller sized trees were missing due to extreme competition and the “leave it alone� policy did nothing to help. Without logging some canopy trees, it would be a long wait for diversity to re-establish.

What about the other ecological processes: water cycle, mineral cycle and energy flow? The Holistic Management biological framework gives an excellent framework, but it needs to be applied for forests.

Some indicators to watch for are presented in Table 1 as food for thought. The main principle remains the CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

management has removed all smaller trees as competition to the main crop and the dense stand has prevented new seedlings to emerge. Such a stand is quite resistant to change, left to its own devices. The large trees would still shade out seedlings and continue growing in diameter. If a larger canopy tree is removed by storm or by Figure 5. Tree diameter distribution in natural forests (light green) logging, it will take decades and in a plantation (black). (Diameter measured at breast height.)

Table 1. Signs of functional ecosystem processes in forests energy flow

water cycle

Mineral cycle

community

Layered vegetation Mixed species Healthy trees Canopy closure Wide size distribution

Ground cover Moisture under litter/moss layer Fungi present

Rapid litter decomposition Insect signs Deadwood decomposing Nitrogen fixing plants Fungi present

Layered vegetation Mosaic of open and closed areas Species number Deadwood Animals and fungi present

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same. Soil cover, sunlight capture, rapid decomposition and biological diversity are as essential in forests as in grasslands and crop fields.

The idea of a chain of production has helped me to think about energy flow in forests.

Nowadays, anytime I visit a forest, I'm asking myself: what is this forest doing with all the sunlight? If all the species are stagnant, there is a resource which is left uncaptured. A mixed stand of deciduous and coniferous species is similar to the helpful hint of mixing cool and warm season grasses in a pasture. Different species grow at different seasons, therefore making maximal use of sunlight. And a layered forest can use sunlight entering from both high and low angles. The key realization in applying Holistic Management in managing forest energy flows is to look up instead of down. In a grassland, energy conversion happens at your feet, in a forest it is happening quite a bit higher up.

For the other ecosystem processes, the basic principle has not changed: soil cover is the prime indicator of ecosystem health.

Introducing deciduous trees with the conifers increases litterfall, which results in a mulch of high mineral organic materials, which then feeds the underground ecosystem. As a result the mineral cycle is stimulated, resulting in more nutrients released for the trees from the soil and litter. A functioning decomposition food web also increases diversity and provides food for mammals and birds. It can also change in soil cover towards a better water cycle, where moss and bare soil are replaced by a mulch of decomposing leaves.

Fungi are also a key aspect of ecosystem functioning in forests. Trees may send up to a third of their photosynthetized sugars to mycorrhizal fungi in exchange for water and nutrients. In addition the litter of branches is high in lignin and difficult to decompose by organisms other than fungi (and some insects with specialist microbes in their guts). The species amount and biomass of fungi in a forest soil is difficult to measure without (and even with) molecular biological methods, but useful indicators can be used to get an overview of the activity and type of fungi.

Holistic cropland biological monitoring taught me to use my nose to explore the underground ecosystems. This applies also to forests, where the broad scale of smells is enough to delight any connoisseur. Fungal activity creates a diversity of smell, ranging from fruity, to dusty, almond like or peppery.

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With a bit of practice and a field manual for mushrooms, you can quickly define which fungi are present and actively growing. If fungal activity is high, the smells are identifiable without even digging the soil. (This is the reason, why pigs and dogs make so good mushroom scouts.) A thick layer of mycelia found under the litter layer usually confirms the finding. The skill of identifying mushrooms can also be highly profitable, some studies have found that the price of mushrooms in a forest can be higher than the price of the timber, especially if gourmet mushrooms are present (such as Matsutake or Boletus).

A litter covered soil surface with good presence of fungi is also an ideal sprouting environment for a tree seedling. Once a tree seedling establishes itself, it is surrounded by decomposing plant matter, slowly releasing available nutrients. A higher canopy layer filters the sunlight, preventing ultraviolet light damage and protecting from desiccating winds. In addition the fungal network can supply the new seedling tree with nutrients and water, which it has obtained by using the sugars the fungi have received from the larger trees.

Before applying Holistic Management, I used to think that timber production and other uses of forests are competing. Now the whole pattern has changed, and I use logging to maintain an interesting ecosystem. It has become a tool to maintain wild berries, game and mushrooms and to enhance their habitat.

Planning for logging Mechanized logging is a form of ecosystem disturbance. If it is properly planned, it can be used as a tool for ecological restoration. There are however some practical matters in planning for logging.

The most important decision to be made in logging, is how to specify which trees to remove. Typical ways of removing trees are the removal of all trees below a certain diameter, above a certain diameter or selective felling of individual trees. Selective felling requires more thought and often painting beforehand the trees to be removed. The selection is usually done by rules of thumb, although also more detailed tools are available (based on the estimated net present value of individual trees). A basic set of rules is to remove diseased and damaged trees first.

After that the aim is to remove the trees, which are in the way of other more valuable trees.

Often this means the biggest trees with well growing undergrowth trees in the surroundings. The biggest trees are removed

until it seems that there is sufficient room for stand renewal and growth of the remaining trees. It is as much an art as a science, but can be learned with experience.

The benefits of the rule based on selective methods can be combined by preparing a “training area� for loggers. In the training area, all removable trees are marked and the logic behind tree marking is explained. After the loggers have practiced on the pattern of tree removal, they can follow that in other parts of the forest. Professional loggers are usually satisfied in following a certain pattern of tree removal, as long as three conditions are met: the amount of trees removed per unit area is sufficient, the harvesting is not excessively slow or dangerous, and the harvesting pattern is permitted by the local laws.

Apart from specifying which trees to remove, also the extent of specialist machinery used needs to be decided. A fully industrial logging operation consists of a harvester, forwarder and a log truck.

Harvesters fell, delimb and cut the trees to length. Forwarders transport the trees to a logging road, where they are loaded to a truck for longer distance transport. The tools require quite a bit of road infrastructure both outside and inside the forest. For example, harvesters and forwarders often require 4 meter skid lanes every 20-30 meters. These skid lanes have extensive disturbance as well as forest residue litter from debranching.

The lanes are often useful to place in the regions where the most new seedlings are needed, as the disturbed corridor is a good place for establishment.

Lighter options for logging include farm tractor operated logging equipment, chainsaws, four-wheelers, cable logging tools and even horse-drawn implements. With these tools, the disturbance to forest soil can be minimized, but the amount of necessary labor increases considerably as does the skill level needed to safely fell and transport large logs.

In some cases the problems can be mitigated by using a portable sawmill. As dried carpentry wood weighs only a fraction of the fresh logs, sawing and drying the logs in the forest site reduces transport and makes the individual items small enough to be safely handled (i.e. boards instead of logs). However the work amount increases considerably as one moves up the value chain. Sawing, stacking, drying and marketing several hundreds of cubic meters of carpentry wood each year is not an option for most forest owners. However it can be an excellent way to find added value to some special trees found in the forests (such as alders).

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

LIVESTOCK

&

77 Ranch—

Improved Water Quality as a Crop

by Heather Smith Thomas

P

photo courtesY oF earl NottiNghaM

lanned grazing and flexibility became a way of life for Gary Price more than 30 years ago on his 77 Ranch in Texas near Blooming Grove. Located in Ellis and Navarro Counties in the Blackland Prairie area, this land where cattle now graze in productive pastures was once farming country, growing cotton. As he has tried to maintain his native prairie land and shift the worn out land he’s purchased back to something closer to prairie, he’s worked to create a landscape that will harvest water that over time may be the most valuable crop he sells. Combining this focus on healthy land with a flexible approach to raising and selling cattle and diversifying income streams has resulted in a successful business model for the ranch.

Growing a Ranch Price put the present ranch together a piece at a time, over the past 38 years. “We bought the first property at that time and added to it with more than a dozen different purchases as adjoining parcels of land became available. The ranch has a mottled look because various pieces have not been under the same management all of those years. We operate about 2,500 acres, 2,000 of which are deeded land and the rest is leased,” he says.

“Some of the land had been fairly well managed and some had been abused, so our grazing plan has been a challenge. We’ve built crossfences, but the shape of the parcels didn’t matter as long as they have water and shade. Most of our planned grazing includes these varied pieces. The cattle may be going from a really good situation out of one pasture into a tough situation with a lot of brush and mesquite,” says Gary.

“We’ve got some of the original tall grass prairie that’s never been plowed. We have almost 400 acres of this Blackland Prairie. We’ve been told that only about 1% or less of the original prairie is still intact—that was never plowed. So we are fortunate to have some of that—on some of the original property we bought. It’s been a good guide, to show us through the ups and downs of drought what those grasses can do if they are managed properly,” he says.

“That particular property has been in our grazing plan now for about 60 years. It’s pretty good, and has been referred to by some NRCS people as pristine. We don’t pamper it; we graze it right along with everything else, but it has been the core area that shows us what we are shooting for on the other parts of the ranch. The cattle may be coming out of that pasture and going into something that’s tougher grazing,” he explains.

Gary and Sue Price

Some of the parcels were farmed in early years. “Ellis County had more cotton at the turn of the century than any other county in the u.S. Back in those days cotton was king and the farmers plowed up everything they possibly could, to grow cotton. Some of this ranch was originally old cotton fields that never were put back into grass; when we got those pieces they were growing whatever grass had come back in. Other parcels had been put into Coastal Bermuda grass. Many of those we reseeded with native grasses. Others we just left because the Bermuda grass was pretty thin and there were still some good native species mixed in.” Just by planning the grazing and giving pastures adequate recovery time, the native species are gradually increasing.

“We bought some parcels that were severely overgrazed. Just by keeping cattle off and giving them a little rest, we found there was a pretty good seed source and some native species coming back in. One portion was not particularly overgrazed, but had been continuously grazed for a long time. We rested it because we saw it had a lot of Big Bluestem and now it has more Big Blue than any other pasture we have. When we bought it, however, the grass was very short and it was hard to identify,” says Gary.

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Prairie Biodiversity In the parcel that has never been plowed, more than 130 different plants have been identified. There’s a lot of diversity there. It helps having many species for the cattle to select from, for optimum nutrition. “We recently put cattle into a new pasture and we’ve been pretty short of moisture the past 60 days. Those cattle were eating sunflowers and a little bit of what we call Texas Croton and some plants they wouldn’t normally eat,” Gary says.

“We had very little rain last summer. I am a big believer in paying attention to cow behavior. They need to have something out there to eat, but they can be pretty industrious and find things to eat if we just press them a little bit and let them know we are not going to spoil and pamper them. When we got 3 inches we were able to benefit from that. Many producers, sadly, had already grazed off everything they had and were feeding hay—starting in August. The water will run off that land if there is any slope at all, and not much will sink in. We don’t want them eating any noxious weeds, but that won’t happen if we have enough plant diversity.

They will find something nutritious,” he says.

“Our various pastures will never look the same; they will always be a little different because of their prior history. If you’ve abused the land and

77 Ranch has increased grass species diversity including this stand of Indian Ricegrass there’s been soil erosion, you can’t rebuild it very quickly. It can’t all look like pristine prairie, but we’ve seen tremendous recovery just by using good grazing planning and good rest periods. We are the keepers of the gate, and should never blame the cows for any overgrazing,” says Gary.

Conserving Water “The past several years, because of the droughts, we’ve learned the importance of the basics. We will never be able to control how much rain we get, but there are a lot of things we can do to control how much water we keep,” says Gary. If there’s enough ground cover, more water will soak in and it won’t all run off.

“We had very little rain during the last 3 months. Over a 60-day period we had only 3/4 inch of rain, and the temperature was over 100 degrees most days. It was extremely dry. To get through those periods you need to have some grass stockpiled. You also have to be ready for the rain. We recently got 3 inches, and we will benefit from that. Many producers, sadly, 10

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have already grazed off everything they have and are feeding hay—starting in August. The water will run off that land if there is any slope at all, and not much will sink in,” says Gary.

Without plant cover to shade the ground, the soil temperature heats up and it becomes too hot for optimum plant growth and the moisture evaporates quickly. “It was 90 degrees again after the rain, so there was a lot of evaporation, losing even more soil moisture. There are some basics that many folks have lost sight of—that grass is not wasted just because it didn’t go through a cow. It takes grass to make grass.” There has to be some residue to collect moisture, and to protect and shade the ground.

“You produce more, by leaving some. I remind people that they wouldn’t cut down their pecan tree to harvest the pecans. The grass plant, especially these native species, may be 50 years old. The root systems are deep and they are what carry the plant through the dry times. So you learn how to harvest the tops of the plants and leave enough to capture sunlight and recuperate, and shade the ground. Some of that thatch will be tromped in, to help create a moisture-holding capacity,” he explains.

“What we are really beginning to try to teach people is that the diversity of plant species is beneficial, even some of the plants that we might call weeds. They can provide nutrition for cattle during tough times. Right now, if we didn’t have some of those so-called weeds, we wouldn’t have much for our cattle to eat.

“Some of the taproots in various plants play an important role in bringing soil nutrients up, that are down deeper. As those roots die, they still provide little straws and capillary action to get that water down to the deep soil zone.

This piece of prairie that we have here has shown us that. It’s been pretty well managed for a long time and probably looks the way it did 200 years ago. It has a wide diversity of plants and a lot of Big Blue and Little Blue, Sideoats, Indian Grass, Partridge Pea and a lot of legumes,” he says.

Many producers spray their pastures to get rid of “weeds”, to kill all the broad-leaf plants. “Yet many of those plants are legumes and are giving you more nitrogen for the soil. We are still learning, and need to manage for the water—to keep as much of it as we can when we get rain. We went from extremely dry this fall to 3 inches of rain, and some areas got 5 or 6 inches.

Your ability to try to hold as much of that as possible, and let it infiltrate the ground, will contribute to your success. We may have gotten our last rain for quite awhile. It might be another 60 days before the next one.

“We’ve worked closely with NRCS over the years and are working with them now on a national water quality initiative. We have 3 water monitoring devices here on our ranch. One is in the tall grass prairie pasture, one in the mid-grass area and one in an eroded short grass, previously overgrazed pasture. We already know what it will show, but we are measuring runoff rate on these pieces that all have the same rainfall situations. The tall grass area will filter the water and slow down the runoff. But we need to produce the data to show other people exactly how this works. Then when we have tours on the ranch (which we have quite a few) people will be able to see that,” Gary says.

Gary hopes to add some equipment that will actually measure soil moisture content at different depths and evaporation rates after these rain events, along with measuring ambient temperature, rainfall, etc. “It will be a long-term collection of data that shows the importance of properly managing these grasses,” Gary explains.

The 77 Ranch is in the Trinity Basin. The Trinity River is the main water source for about 40% of Texas. “We are on one of the tributaries, Mill Creek.

We are working with Sand County Foundation in Wisconsin on a pilot project called Water As A Crop ™. The idea is that if we properly manage these grasslands, we can clean up and filter the water that will eventually be somebody’s drinking water downstream in one of the major reservoirs. In our case, it’s Richland Chambers Reservoir. That water is piped to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The water that goes on past goes down to Houston

photo courtesY oF roN Moore

77 Ranch has worked to increase their income streams including adding fishing and duck hunting. to Lake Livingston as a major source of their drinking water. If we do things to clean up that water and keep the silt out of those lakes, this should have tremendous value to millions of people,” Gary says.

“If we can show that we are doing this, through this data collection, hopefully some of the savings that we provide for them can find their way back as dollars for the landowners, to help them do the additional conservation practices.” This could be an incentive to try to keep the ground water clean.

“We know that ranching today must have diversification to survive. A rancher has to look at every potential income source that fits in with his/her goals and lifestyle. This is one that we are doing anyway, so if there is any way that it benefits folks downstream and saves them money, perhaps those dollars could find their way back—to speed that process of doing conservation work. We are interested in that.” It would be a win-win situation for everyone. People interested in finding out more about this project can check out Water As A Crop ™ on the Sand County Foundation website.

“The NRCS National Water Quality Initiative also has videos that were done here on the ranch, and some information about it. Water is the big issue in Texas. We are growing at the rate of more than 1,000 people per day. They are coming here for various reasons, but water will be the big challenge as there is more and more demand for it.”

Managing a Natural Cattle Herd The 77 Ranch is a cow-calf operation, utilizing two herds. “We’d like to have just one herd, for optimum animal impact on our pastures, but we have a major farm-to-market road that runs right through the ranch. We do cross it with cattle when we wean or have to work cattle, but we don’t do this on a regular basis because it’s too dangerous.

“We don’t keep any heifers. Everything is a terminal cross because we don’t want to have different groups of cattle. Because of the grazing plan we want to be able to treat and move them all the same, and not have different bunches of cattle scattered here and there or have some we need to keep away from a bull. The management is simpler if we don’t keep any heifers. We normally buy replacements as bred heifers and calve them ourselves,” says Gary.

He weans all the calves and keeps them awhile to precondition. That’s not typical in this area; many ranchers simply sell their calves right off the cows in the fall. “We’ve weaned calves for many years, and about 18 years ago we began to sell them as all natural, into that niche market.

This past year we were contacted by the folks that put cattle together for a high-end supermarket food retailer. We didn’t really think of ourselves as raising grass-fed cattle, but our cattle do fit this program,” he explains.

The calves are weaned and pre-conditioned for those niche markets.

“We don’t sell directly to the food store retailers but sell to their producers who take calves and grow them out to the next level. These are people who have a good grass program during the winter months, which usually means some over-seeded pastures with legumes and some cool-season annuals, to be able to keep those cattle growing well during the winter. Those folks then sell to the grass-fed niche market,” says Gary.

The ranch used to run F1 Hereford-Brahman cross cows (Braford).

“Those cows got a little too big,” explains Gary. “So in the last 6 or 7 years we’ve gone to a smaller-framed cow that’s half Angus, quarter Hereford and a quarter Brahman. We think we still need just a little Brahman influence in this area because of the heat and humidity. We also want the hybrid vigor of the crossbred female. We breed those cows to Angus bulls, which gives us a calf that’s ¾ Angus, 1/8 Hereford and 1/8 Brahman.

“Those calves can go to Kansas or Nebraska or the Panhandle quite readily, to be fed. They are a little more hardy, being crossbred, and have enough hair that they can go to the colder climates and do well. This has been a very good cross for us. If the calves are all natural but not grassfed, we sell directly to a feedyard and they can be finished as all natural and go to whatever market the feeder desires. These markets have been really good for us,” he says.

“I’ve always tried to manage in such a way that we don’t get ourselves caught in a corner or box—building as much flexibility as possible into the operation. The past several years have been very dry. until we see some changes in the weather we are trying to be as flexible as we can, with light stocking rates. The last 2 years have been a bit crazy because even though the drought has been severe we haven’t fed any hay or cake or supplemental feed. We’ve had mild winters, and a little rain in the fall which gave us some growth on the cool season plants. The cattle were able to graze through the winter,” says Gary.

“In the past, in what we call average years, we weaned in the fall (October-November) and preconditioned those calves for 45 to 60 days, depending on who is buying them. usually we have them contracted by then so we precondition them according to how the buyer wants the calves vaccinated. Some folks want specific vaccines so we accommodate that,” he says.

“We winter dry cows and it doesn’t take much to winter them. We start calving the last week in January or first of February,” he says. In this region the weather is not too cold. It might get down to 20 or even in the teens for a few nights, but it’s usually in the high 20’s or 30’s at night. “We sometimes get a little snow or ice but it doesn’t last more than a day or two. We probably average ½ inch of snow each year.”

The calves typically weigh about 600 to 625 pounds when they are weaned in the fall. “We keep them in traps at weaning, and precondition them—to get them used to eating and drinking out of troughs. That way we have various options and they can go a lot of different directions if we don’t have them contracted. When they go to the feedyard they do well,” Gary says.

“Our brand is on these cattle. They are usually verified for us by IMI Global. Most the niche markets now want third-party verification. We age and source those calves, and if the buyer wants electronic tags we put those in. With an all-natural market you can’t use any implants or antibiotics. If an animal has to be treated, we identify it and it’s not sold with that group,” he says.

The success of any program is based on credibility and consistency.

“Our books are open and IMI can come in and examine everything we are CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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doing. When we sell those calves our name is still on them; if any questions come up I want them to call us.”

Diversifying Income Streams The ranch also benefits from wildlife, with a duck hunting lease. “We let folks hunt ducks at several lakes and ponds here on the place that are from 2 to 10 acres in size. We have about 40 ponds in all, and we are under a major flyway so we have a lot of waterfowl. This has worked very well for us, because we are only about 50 miles from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Hunting is a major resource for us that will continue to grow, as these folks want to hunt and get out on the land,” says Gary.

“When we’re not in the duck season we have fisherman coming to the ranch. We have our lakes and ponds stocked with a Florida hybrid bass.

We do a catch and release program with them. About 20% of our ranch income is from those 2 enterprises,” he says.

“During periods of drought when your production is threatened, it’s good to know that you can still have some income. One of the places we bought has a nice brick home in the middle of it that we didn’t want to rent out. So we let our duck hunters use that when they are here. It’s not fancy, but it’s nice. They can come and spend the night and cook out— and not have to get up so early to go duck hunting the next day,” he says.

“We used to have some quail—a lot of Bobwhites in the area—but in recent years the bird population has declined. We used to do some quail leases 25 years ago, and we probably have some tremendous potential for that again, with the number of hunters in this region, if we could ever bring back the quail. We are working with an organization we helped form, called WNBRI (Western Navarro Bobwhite Restoration Initiative).

This is sort of a Co-op in which we put together about 30,000 acres with various landowners. We are all on the same page as far as knowing what good quail habitat is and doing some seeding to restore habitat. We work closely with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Biologist, Jay Whiteside, who lives here locally,” says Gary.

Reaching the Next Generation “I believe in diversity, and in conserving every drop of water we get, making our land a sponge,” says Gary. This is our goal. It’s also important to always come back to the middle to make sure we don’t get off on some tangents. I like to put any kind of idea on the table, but at the end of the day it’s got to fit our overall goal. For instance, we are not going to run a bed and breakfast; that works for some folks but wouldn’t work for us.”

Gary’s wife Sue is a retired 3rd grade schoolteacher. “She taught for 28 years, and we really enjoy having kids come to the ranch. We work closely with the Texas Wildlife Association in the LANDS program (Learning Across New Dimensions in Science) to teach kids about water resources and other natural resources. Sue really gets excited when those yellow school buses pull up here,” he says.

“As the gap becomes larger between the urban and the rural way of life, especially in our area, we have to try to tell that story—that we are all in this together. Their drinking water comes across some ranch somewhere; the rancher is responsible for keeping their water clean,” says Gary. We have to bridge that knowledge gap, because some kids today don’t have a clue about where their food or water comes from.

“These resources are so important. We’ve seen what happens when we have to become dependent on other countries for our oil. What if we end up in that position for our food? We don’t want to mismanage the land,” he says.

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Gary Price has restored some of the native prairie grasses to the 77 Ranch which had been used for cotton farming over 30 years ago.

Planned grazing has helped the tall grass prairie return.

“We try to teach the kids that soil erosion is an important issue and we need to prevent it. We don’t want an overgrazed situation. Once that soil washes away and gets into the creek and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s lost forever. It takes a very long time to make an inch of soil,” he explains.

The LANDS program is all about trying to bridge the gap of knowledge and understanding about our important resources. “Texas Wildlife Association also tries to encourage young people to be hunters and fishermen because that is partly how they learn about the land,” says Gary. They may never live on and manage the land, but getting out there to hunt and fish they may gain appreciation and respect for the land and resources.

“We see that in our hunters. They may be stockbrokers or attorneys but they have an appreciation for what we do. They see us busy at it, and they learn to want to protect it as well,” he says.

“Diversification, water management, keeping all your options open, etc. are the things we feel are important. Our markets are constantly changing. I’ve never seen as much change in the cattle industry as we’ve seen in the past 10 years, and a person has to be flexible to adapt,” says Gary.

“Holistically, we’ve tried to keep improving our grazing. I met Allan Savory several years ago at a ranch tour and realized that this is what we are doing anyway—so this was great to finally get a support system with some other folks who believe the way I do. I certainly didn’t have it all together; I’ve learned a lot from the textbook and reading and studying. I believe wholeheartedly in holistic concepts and that a person needs to set those goals. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,” he says.

“We see examples of that, all around us. So many people manage their places the way they’ve always done it or their parents did it. Seeing our cattle eating sunflowers is so much better than having to put a round bale out there for them.”

The 77 Ranch received the NCBA National Environmental Stewardship Award in 2013. “We were fortunate to receive that, and have a lot to live up to,” says Gary. “I tell people it always works better when it rains! That always makes us look better.” But it’s what a person does in the meantime that makes a big difference on how you get through the tough times. The planned grazing on the 77 Ranch has proven that to be true.

Doak Elledge –

Planned Grazing Facilitates Long-Term Goals

By Heather Smith Thomas

E

very farm and ranch is different. A long-term plan to improve pastures and stocking rates requires flexibility to meet unique conditions, close monitoring of forage, and moving the cattle at the proper time. This is what Doak Elledge has learned in over 30 years of practicing and consulting on planned grazing.

Doak ranches near Pampa, Texas and has been working with planned grazing concepts since the late 1970s. “I started in 1978-79 when I was in graduate school at Texas A&M. I did some early research work on shortduration grazing, compared with the Merrill four-pasture system. I did 2 studies; one was a diet study comparing bison-hybrid crosses that had genetically the same dams but different sires, and did a feed trial on them. Then I used some of these same animals in a grazing study,” he recalls.

That’s when the NRCS was recommending use of high-intensity, lowfrequency grazing. “This system showed good range improvement but poor animal performance. That’s when I met Savory and Parsons—when they first came to this country to start doing demonstrations. I spent 3 days with Savory when he toured several experiment stations,” says Elledge.

“In the studies I did in graduate school we had pretty good range improvement and fairly good animal production, but the only reason we had differences in animal production was because of our lack of knowledge. The system did show some potential, but people weren’t flexible enough in their grazing periods. For their various studies people always want to set things up a certain way such as a 3-day or 7-day period.” A grazing formula is ok, but you need to have some flexibility to accommodate difference in weather, etc. When people start increasing their stocking rate, this lack of flexibility is what gets them in trouble.”

Building Carrying Capacity Doak got a job in Pecos, Texas with Mike Harrison—one of the early pioneers who worked with planned grazing. Gary Loftin was the ranch manager. “With the early grazing cells they’d put in a couple years earlier, they only had about a 44% pregnancy rate on the cows in 120-day breeding season. This area near Pecos is dry, and typically about 100 acres per animal unit. We built 3 or 4 more grazing cells; I was construction foreman for those. I had one grazing cell I took over, and doubled the breed-back that first year,” he says. It took a lot of work and planning to get the cows used to the smaller pastures in the grazing cell.

“Then I got another job offer on a ranch near Pampa. It was 25 sections and good country. It had been really dry and we had to start that grazing program from the ground up. When I first started, we only had 10 pastures. Some of the western part burned up in a big fire in 1983 so we only had one big pasture over there. We were mainly running yearlings, which gave us a little more flexibility,” he says.

“The center part of the 3,000 acres burned up in the fire area. Without any fences we had to day herd those cattle, for the whole summer. It took a couple of years to get all our plans figured out for the infrastructure.

During that time I put in 50 miles of water line and 100-plus miles of fence and several pens. We started in the fall of 1982 and by 1988 we doubled the stocking rate,” says Elledge.

He leased a place in May of 1988 and had it for 10 years—and tripled the carrying capacity by 1996. “We started with one animal unit per 27

acres and by the time I left it was one per 9.3 acres. I ran yearlings, cows and sold hunting privileges—and had a really good setup by the time I got it all put together. The biggest herd of yearlings I ran on the place was 2,176 head, and also had more than 500 cows in one herd,” he says.

“I’d run them through the whole ranch, keeping a full recovery period Marla, Doak, Ty, and Con Elledge on the pastures between the steers and the cows. I learned the importance of keeping the steers and cows widely separated after having some problems with Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD)—one of those fluke things that added to my education! It was an expensive education,” Elledge says.

“The owners ended up selling the place after all our efforts in improvements. I had my cattle scattered over about 5 counties. Then I bought one of the places I had been leasing. It wasn’t very big, but I eventually picked up some other land around it and got it all set up for intensive grazing.

“The country we have up on top is mainly farm land. When I started on the one place the soil had only 0.8% organic matter. Even through the drought it improved. I did a soil test last year and it averaged about 2.3%.

I was pretty tickled with that.” The animal impact had increased the organic matter.

This region is in its 4th year of drought and it has required even more effective management to meet the long term goals of the ranch. “We had some early rain this year and then it turned dry, but we didn’t have the extended heat we had the past 3 years. It’s unbelievable how much grass it grew this year—how fast it came back. up at the home place I had 44 pastures and I then I cut them about 6 times and now have close to 180 pastures after doing the temporary fences,” he explains.

“I have them all set up with water. You have to have water to make a grazing system work. That’s the important thing, and you need to set it up so that it works with the land—to make it easy on the livestock. You get your report card at the end of the year when you preg check. This is what’s really been amazing with these cows. The first year of the drought we bred for 60 days, then for a few years we cut it to 45 days.

That first year in the drought our preg rate was 97.3% and then it went to 97.6%, then 98% and last year it was 98.3%. I was flabbergasted, and thankful,” he says.

Even though 2013 had still been a drought year things were looking better after just a little rain at the right time. “I am always amazed at how well Mother Nature manages things. I have a lot of Old World bluestem that some people consider a weedy grass but it will take a lot of abuse— and I think the dry weather selects for it. Right now, however, some of the native grass is coming back into it. The native grass can endure a lot, too, if given a chance and not overgrazed,” he says. Managing recovery periods and maintaining some forage residue is the key.

“Part of good management is to know when the grass plant has recovered after grazing—knowing the recovery period. The key to all of this is being able to manage the recovery period. Even when we were giving it 125-150 days, that wasn’t enough in the drought, and you had to be able to know that, at least 6 to 8 months ahead. We did, and we had some room to cut numbers. I had some 14 to 16 year old cows that had never missed a calf, so I saved some heifers out of them and let them go.

I also lost some 8 to 11 year olds that I let go, and that was kind of tough, but in the end it just made the herd better,” says Doak.

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13

Doak Elledge

continued from page thirteen

Livestock Water Infrastructure Being able to supply drinking water for the cattle is one of the most expensive and limiting factors on most ranches when you plan the pasture layout, but it is also a critical factor for effective grazing management, particularly in a drought. Doak Elledge has developed cattle on numerous ranches and knows the critical things to consider, especially locating water sources where they can serve more than one paddock, and minimize the distance that cattle have to walk to get to water.

“I often have submersible pumps in wells, with lots of storage, and a booster pump to push the water,” say Doak. “A lot of people have dirt tanks and it’s important to keep those clean. With the submersible pump you can build it where you can add more storage. I’d rather have more storage, close to the pump than have bigger tanks for the cattle to water in. In a big pasture you want a 30 to 40 foot drinking tub and a lot of storage for those.”

A lot depends on your country, regarding how you set up the water. “If it’s really rough country you need to put some thought into it. I currently have a job to go look at a place that has 18,000 acres, with water on the south and north end. The wells are about dry and don’t work, with the dropping aquifer. The original wells may be only 200 to 300 feet deep and now they need to be 400 to 600 feet deep. In the middle of that place they luckily have some good wells,” says Doak.

“I generally set up the water to where I can have gravity flow systems or pressure flow systems. With the booster pumps, putting water up on higher ground, in some areas I am watering 300 pairs, and in the past have watered more than 2,000 head of yearlings. These water systems will deliver 22 to 26 gallons per minute. The tanks have a float on them, but you need to be continually checking the water. Occasionally something will break and you just have to fix it quickly. You can use overflows that help water the wildlife, and do some little tricks with it,” he says.

regularly and may only be able to afford to fence a certain number of paddocks. “Depending on what you want for your own quality of life, you may only want to go out and check/move the cattle twice a week. It has to fit your overall plan,” Doak says.

“You can get your basic infrastructure set up the way you want it, and your interior fencing can be just 2 wires. Mine are high tensile and one of those is a ground wire, just because of our dry climate. I have been a fencing distributor for Southwest Power Fence since about 1987 and a Gallagher dealer since 1985. There are a lot of things you can do to set things up, but many people spend too much money for interior fences. A 5-strand barbed wire fence costs $9,000 per mile, and is not necessary.

You can build a 2-wire high-tensile fence for about a 1/6th the cost and it will work fine. Then you can use a number of great products for the temporary fences to split those pastures.”

This reduction in cost was what helped make it feasible for Doak to rebuild fences on his old place, after most of the original fences were burned out. “We had to protect the burned area so we put in temporary fence. We pulled out about 16 miles of old fence and put back about 14 miles, and now have 18 pastures. Once I get it up to about 25 or 26 pastures I’ll be in good shape, and then I can cut them again if I need to,” says Doak.

“It was so darn dry, especially in the sand hills, that we really had to pay attention and stay on top of things to make sure the electric fence was working. Like my son said, it was a shame we had to come back and redo it. But the people who bought it just wanted a hunting outfit and weren’t thinking about running cattle. That wasn’t their priority.”

Fences need to be well planned before you start building them— to make sure you put them in the right place to facilitate your goals.

“The planning and the fencing is a lot of work, but will pay big dividends down the road. When we worked on that country over in the sand hills it took me 2 years of planning before we ever started and we had several people working on it. That’s the good thing about planning; the more heads you have working on it, the better off the end result,” he says.

Fencing for Flexibility Fencing is another critical component to effective grazing management. Different people have different ability to move their animals

120 days recovery in this paddock shows good ground cover but still more recovery time needed due to drought.

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Teaching Others “One thing Savory always says is that it takes about 30 years to get a new idea to be accepted. Dr. Richard Teague at Texas A&M last year wrote a paper that says this type of planned grazing works.” It just takes time for enough people to try it and discover the benefits.

“Most people are slow to accept change or new ideas, myself included. I’ve done a lot of consulting and found that many people just keep making the same mistakes. It’s easy to ranch if you have lots of rain. The hard part is when things dry out and you have to try to get cattle through the winter and not spend all your money on feed,” he says.

“We have some family friends south of here who were doing a good job and gaining experience, but then they got into what we call strip grazing or mob grazing. I warned them that they lacked the experience for this. They didn’t listen, however and when we got into a drought it hurt them pretty badly,” he says.

“A person needs to be really careful and have some experience to make this kind of high intensity grazing work. It’s a great tool, but a person needs to get into it slowly and know how it works. You also have to remember that the people doing it in Missouri are in a wetter environment—a lot less brittle than what we have out here. You have to really pay attention; this dry soil will quickly turn to powder if you aren’t careful about the timing of animal impact on the soil. The operator has to pay attention to the grazing plan and make the necessary adjustments.

The Elledge family has been dealing with severe drought since 2010. You can see that even after the first year of the drought, the grass stands were health due to long recovery periods.

But if you get some rain, the grass can really explode with new growth.”

You have to be very flexible with the timing in moving cattle. You may need to change things daily or even during the day if necessary.

Doak has mentored and taught young producers and has a great interest in getting young people back to the land. “Only 2% of the population is in agriculture, but we are still getting a few young people; it’s just getting harder and harder for them to get started unless they have inheritance or some kind of help. I told my students they might have to work for somebody else for awhile, and that’s part of it. You can learn from these experiences; even if you learn what not to do,” he says.

“The same principles work, no matter where you are. You just have to adjust for the environment you are working in. Even the place next door might be different because they do things differently, but the principles of good management never change. Similarly, the laws of grazing management are valid no matter what you are doing. There are certain things that will apply, no matter what. And if it rains, that makes it even better,” he says.

“The good thing about this type of program is that you can optimize the rainfall. You’ll have more effective rainfall because more of it can get into the soil and not just run off,” explains Doak.

Keep Learning

Holistic Forestry

is important to have a clear vision on what you want from the forest. If you are fortunate enough to own a forest, it might be a good idea to check your Holistic Goal to see if it contains forms of production and a future landscape description which help you in planning for logging and forest management. I sincerely hope that this article has provided some thoughts for revisioning Holistic Goals for forest health.

continued from page five

Holistic Forestry Holistic Management provides an excellent framework for developing truly sustainable forestry practices. understanding your quality of life and having good decision making skills makes it easier to decide, whether to manage the forest mainly for timber, energy, carbon sequestration, habitat or wild foods. The forests have some unique properties compared to grasslands: especially large plant (tree) spacing and slow responses. It makes it easier to focus on and monitor individual trees. understanding some basics of the light responses of forests and the indicators to look for in a healthy woodland give the managers the tools to direct the development of the forest. With that a future landscape can be sculpted by successive tree harvests. And with forests being so flexible, it

Doak also understands that human flexibility and openness is important to a successful ranch operation. With all the planning, it’s important to include as many people from the management team as possible to maximize human creativity. “My kids have come up with things I never would have thought of,” says Doak. “A person can easily get locked into a certain way of thinking. My wife will come up with something or say, ‘What about this?’ that’s completely out of the box and I should have been doing it in the first place. You have to keep working with it, keep growing and learning. The minute you quit learning you get in a rut and get into trouble.

“In this business we are always working with change, but as we get older it seems like we don’t want to break out of our boundaries—the things we are comfortable with.” He advises people to get some education about Holistic Management and planned grazing, and find some places nearby to go look at. Those ranchers may not necessarily be doing a great job but looking at various places can give you ideas.

“When we had the old place there were people coming to look at it, from all over the world. I tried to be accommodating, and we had several big field days. I probably learned more from those people than they did from me,” he says.

Dr. Tuomas Mattila is an environmental scientist and ecological engineer, with a double MS in Agriculture and Forestry and Chemical engineering and a PhD in systems analysis. He's managing Kilpiä farm and forests in Pusula, near Helsinki, the capital of Finland. He can be reached at: tuomas.j.mattila@gmail.com. This article was written based on the experiences on ecological forestry in the Boreal and temperate bioregions of the far North. As conditions are likely to be different in the more arid and hot climates, land managers are recommended to experiment and see for themselves. The author welcomes all comments and suggestions for improving the holistic approach to forestry.

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DEVELOPMENT CORNER BWF hMi continues to oversee our uSDA/NIFA-funded Beginning Women Farmer program in the Northeast and Texas. This is the second year for this expanded program. We were able to train 120 beginning women farmers in 2013 in whole farm planning. We have had a full complement of applicants for our 2014 program so we are on target to train another 120 this year.

Because of an earlier start date for its program, Texas has completed 6 of the 10 sessions, including biological monitoring and grazing planning. Not only are the participants being trained in this program, but HMI is also training 9 whole farm planning trainers who are assisting instructors in this program. We will be reporting on knowledge and intended behavior change of participants in this year’s program later in the year.

HMI’s 2013 Texas Beginning Women Farmer program.

More Grants for HMI

Facilitator Peggy Sechrist shows Beginning Women Farmer participants how to determine animal days per acre as part of a forage inventory.

We are thrilled and honored to announce we have received grants from the clif bar Family Foundation and Farm aid. These foundations join individuals that support HMI’s mission to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future.

As we are a non-profit organization, we simply could not do the work we do without the support and help of foundations as well as regular folks who care about where their food comes from, the earth, and the lives of farmers and ranchers in our communities. Farm Aid is giving us $7,500 for creating and implementing innovative programs that build local and regional food systems, connecting farmers directly to consumers, and creating new markets for family farmers. The Clif Bar Family Foundation’s contribution is $5,000. This is their 2nd year of giving to HMI. We are grateful to both organizations for their support of HMI.

WSARE Grant Begins

Program mentor Peggy Maddox explains to a beginning women farmer group some of the key biological monitoring indicators.

16 IN PRACTICE

March / April 2014

The Western Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (wsare)-funded Distance Learning Program for Agricultural Professionals has begun. WSARE funded this 3-year program so that 35 agricultural professionals could learn how to better facilitate whole farm planning. HMI began an aggressive outreach effort in the fall of 2013 to promote this program and obtain the best applications.

We had over 80 applications from 12 states for the 35 slots.

States now involved in the program include: Colorado, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, utah, and Washington. We raised additional scholarship money so that we were able to accept 40 participants. We then rated applicants based on obtaining a balance across geography, agency

involvement, ability to reach a variety of audiences, passion for the program, years of experience, and background in whole farm planning.

Distance learning classes have already begun with Certified Educators phil Metzger and seth wilner facilitating the Introduction to Holistic Management Whole Farm/Ranch Planning course. Other courses will include Whole Farm Financial Planning, Holistic Grazing Planning, Holistic Land Planning, Holistic Biological Monitoring. We are excited about the capacity that this program will help us build for whole farm planning trainers in the Western u.S. Thank you to WSARE for this opportunity.

Veteran Farmer Program hMi continues our collaboration with La Montanita Coop in Albuquerque, New Mexico to teach veteran farmers about Holistic Management whole farm planning by offering a winter series of short courses. This series is funded by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and is open to all veterans and active duty personnel, and room permitting, non-veterans.

Participants will learn the basics of developing a whole farm goal and how to make on-farm decisions more effectively (including a special focus on financial decisions) in this Whole Farm Planning Series.

Drought Mitigation hMi offered the last of our Drought Mitigation workshops in diversity of species above and below the soil surface. Next Peggy Sechrist November 2013 at the Bear Creek Ranch near Dallas, Texas. took the class step by step through the process of Holistic Land Planning.

After exploring land planning options, the group went out on the ranch with Course facilitators were Peggy Sechrist and Walt Davis as Dixon Ranches General Manager, robby tuggle and Bear Creek Ranch they engaged participants in learning how to plan their infrastructure and develop a land plan based on the knowledge Manager, Danny parker to see how land planning was implemented at Bear Creek to handle both cattle and sheep to improve animal that drought will come. handling.

The 38 participants Thanks to Bear Creek Ranch and the Dixon Water spent the first day Foundation for making this series extremely successful. focused on controlling stock density to match forage composition to animal needs and the health of the total resource base.

Facilitators helped participants explore fencing layout and design and watering designs and techniques to help increase stock density.

Walt Davis reiterated that the key indicators of Dixon Ranch General Manager Robby Tuggle sharing how the land planning and healthy land are 1) Participants had opportunity to work on their own land plans implementation has helped the ranch improve covered soil with high as part of this workshop. production and animal performance. organic matter and 2)

HMI’s 2013 Annual Appeal a Success In November 2013, HMI sent out our Annual Appeal to nearly 10,000 HMI supporters. Like last year, our Annual Appeal packet featured profiles of five HMI practitioners. Their stories were heartfelt, and each producer noted how the use of Holistic Management improved their farm or ranch business.

We’re so proud of these Holistic Management practitioners and are grateful they allowed us to highlight their experiences and results.

We’re pleased to report that donations are running on target with what we received last year, with donations continuing to arrive daily. Even better news; 33% of our donations have come from new donors who have chosen to support HMI’s

results-oriented programs that help farmers and ranchers become and remain successful and sustainable –maintaining healthy lands, and producing healthy foods.

To everyone who has donated, we would like to express our sincere thanks. As with any nonprofit organization, donor support plays an important role in the success of any program. We continue to be grateful for your support – in fact, we couldn’t do it without you!

If you’d still like to donate, please visit our website at www.holisticmanagement.org and click on the Donate button, or mail a check or credit card information to HMI. From all of us at HMI, thank you again for your continued support. It is appreciated.

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IN PRACTICE 17

take place over the span of several weeks, allowing you to apply what you’ve learned and receive feedback and support from your instructor and fellow students. Our first course starts in March.

N E W S F R O M H O L I S T I C M A N AG E M E N T I N T E R N AT I O N A L The Comprehensive Distance Learning Development program and is designed Professional our of part is series American Farmland Trust Award primarily for land stewards, professional educators, and consultants. It’s The Burrows Ranch, owned and operated by bill and Kay burrows, also appropriate for producers interested in getting a more in-depth was recognized for its diverse land use as one of the 45 Profiles in understanding of how to practice Holistic Management and it’s an ideal Stewardship recently released by the American Farmland Trust. foundation for becoming a Holistic Management® Certified Educator.

The Burrows Ranch is a fifth-generation 3,500-acre family ranch near The courses are highly flexible and designed to meet the needs of busy Red Bluff, California. In 2010 they were honored as California finalists agricultural professionals, educators, and producers. Participants receive for the Farm Bureau Federation 2010 Leopold Conservation Award. personalized guidance and you have up to three months to complete each In 1985, after a seventh year of losses, the Burrows attended a course.

Holistic Management course. Over the years they converted the ranch from a cattle operation to a diversified cattle, agritourism, carbon Practical Farmers of Iowa sequestration, and land conservation business that uses cattle as well as meat goats and sheep for brush control. hMi was excited to collaborate with The Practical Farmers of Iowa during With this new approach the Burrows returned to profitability within their annual conference in January 2014. HMI Interim CEO and Holistic two years. 70% of their income comes from an agritourism business Management Certified Educator, ann adams, along with Margaret smith, a including short-term hunting of blacktail deer, boar, dove, quail and Holistic Management guided California ground squirrels. Congratulations, Bill and Kay! practitioner and trainer with long-time Holistic New Distance Learning Opportunities Management hMi is excited to announce two new programs for our community. No practitioners tom and irene Frantzen matter where you live, you can either start learning Holistic facilitated an in-depth 2Management, or further your knowledge and skills, without having to fly day course, “Achieve the or drive to a workshop. You can find out more about these programs on Triple Bottom Line with the HMI website by clicking on the “Training” tab.

Holistic Management.”

Getting Started Online Learning Series is our innovative series that 45 participants teaches you everything you need to know to build the farm or ranch of 45 participants enjoyed the Holistic your dreams. The series consists of five individual courses. Our courses participated in this Management workshop at the Practical experiential preFarmers of Iowa Conference. conference workshop beginning 15 including In Memoriam farmers. Course evaluations showed strong knowledge improvement in the It is with great sadness that HMI reports the passing of J. rukin areas of goal setting and decision-making. There were numerous Holistic “rukie” Jelks 86. Rukin passed away on Friday January 17, 2014 in Management practitioners on the conference agenda as well, including Neil Tucson, Arizona. He was born October 21, 1927 in Tucson and grew Dennis and Gabe Brown and David and Kay James. up on his Dad’s X-9 Ranch. Rukin was a member of Sigma Chi, graduating from the university of Montana with degrees in HMI at ACRES Anthropology and Sociology. While in college he met the love of his life, Carolyn “Keri” Gillett. After several different business ventures, hMi Interim CEO, Ann Adams Rukin managed the Diamond C Ranch with his 3 sons and the ranch presented a 3-hour Introduction to foreman, Joe Quiroga.

Holistic Management workshop at Rukin was a strong proponent and supporter of Holistic the Acres uSA Conference and Management, practicing it on the Diamond C for many years since Tradeshow on December 12, 2013 taking Holistic Management training in the ‘80s. In 1992, research in Springfield, Ilinois. Approximately done comparing the Diamond C Ranch to a neighboring ranch 70 people participated in this managed for the Audubon Society, showed that the Diamond C Ranch workshop with approximately 25 Participants have opportunity to demonstrated superior range condition. Tony Burgess, Program beginning farmers. There were lots work in groups and ask questions Director of the university of Arizona’s Desert Lab was quoted as of great questions and learning of facilitator Ann Adams. saying: “I am convinced that this sort of livestock management can during the workshop that included work if applied by someone as dedicated and diligent as Rukin Jelks.” small group, experiential exercises. While many participants were eager to Rukin is survived by his wife of 62 years, Keri, 3 sons and their have more time to learn about Holistic Management, they also noted on their wives: Rukie and Patricia, Daniel “Boone” and Barbara, Jimmy and evaluations that they had improved their ability to develop a whole farm goal Karen and his 10 precious grandchildren. We offer our condolences to and test decisions toward that goal. the Jelk family.

90% of participants who completed evaluations said they would change management practices as a result of this workshop.

people programs projects

18 IN PRACTICE

March / April 2014

From the Board Chair

By Kelly Sidoryk

hirty years. It is amazing that Holistic Management has been taught and practiced for that long. When our family was first involved many quotes were shared and one of them was, “Change is the only constant.” This has certainly proven true for Holistic Management as it has grown and developed since Allan Savory came to North America. Then, as now, we focused on people, land and finances.

Through this time there have been many great people involved. People who wanted to learn more about the decision-making process, and apply it to their own operations, to take them toward their goals. Back at the beginning we talked about diversity and this certainly applied not only to the land but also to the people. Some of the people fall under the category of land managers but not all. They all did have an interest in learning and improving how they make decisions.

Our organization, HMI, has also experienced changes, recently with the departure of Peter Holter and with Ann Adams now the interim CEO. Ann brings a wealth of experience and true commitment and dedication to the organization. A Holistic Management Certified Educator since 1998, Ann was instrumental in designing and implementing the uSDA-funded Beginning Women Farmers & Ranchers Program, our Open Gate On-Farm program and our Ag Educators Professional Development Program. Ann regularly teaches both onsite and distance learning classes. Ann has also written countless articles on Holistic Management, and has helped to develop agriculture-based software for financial planning and grazing planning for farmers and ranchers. Ann is the author of At Home with Holistic

T

Book Review

Management and is the Managing Editor of HMI’s In PRACTICE journal.

She is also part of a great team who are committed to building and strengthening the organization.

As I step into the board chair role I want to thank Sallie Calhoun for all the work she has given to the organization, as well as her guidance to me. I also want to thank the rest of the board and our newest member Danny Nuckol from Texas. It is an honor to work with this far-sighted group.

As HMI works to fulfill our mission to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future, we are focused on delivering effective educational programs to farmers, ranchers and land stewards in Holistic Management Whole Farm/Ranch Planning. The organization is finding interest, funding, and collaboration from a wide variety of partners. We have over 78 collaborating organizations that have helped with our 2013 Open Gate program. Over 64 organizations have assisted with our successful Beginning Women Farmer Program. With the HMI Certified Educators we train over 5,000 people a year.

Our connections have grown over the years, and we have 10,000 contacts on our email list. We’ve grown our Facebook friend numbers from 1,500 two years ago to 3,000 now. Our Youtube channel has grown from 200,000 views to 400,000 views in that same time period.

Opportunities continue to open up, and it is an exciting time to be part of such a great organization. There will undoubtedly be more change as we go since “Change is the only constant.” But as an organization, HMI will continue to reach out to our network to continue to build the relationships necessary to let others know about the great work our practitioners and Certified Educators are doing and spread the word about Holistic Management.

by ANN ADAMS

Healthy Land, Happy Families, and Profitable Businesses: Essays to Improve Your Land and Your Bottom Line by DAVID PRATT • 2013 • pp. 241 he focus of Healthy Land, Happy Families, and Profitable Businesses can be distilled down to the one sentence that is on the back jacket cover: “It doesn’t matter if you hit the bull’s eye if you’re aiming at the wrong target!” That sentiment may sound familiar to holistic managers, which isn’t surprising given that Dave Pratt runs Ranching for Profit, the school started

by Stan Parson, one-time business partner of Allan Savory, founder of Holistic Management. There are many principle and curriculum similarities between Ranching for Profit and Holistic Management which is why many holistic managers have also taken a Ranching for Profit course as well. So it was with great interest that I read Dave’s new book to see what he would focus on.

This book is actually a compilation of Dave’s ProfitTips which is a newsletter he sends out to Ranching for Profit alumni. These 2-4 page essays are great because they articulate the key principle or concept succinctly. This book is chockfull of great information for the beginning or experienced rancher.

As noted in the title, the book touches on land, families, and finances.

The first section on “Healthy Land” is all about grazing planning, animal performance, considerations of production systems (such as ranching with nature, and why you need to really keep healthy land in the forefront of your operation.

The next section is about “Happy Families.” In this section he focuses a lot on how the business can influence family life and how to work effectively

T

with employees. Some of the later essays are particularly helpful regarding succession planning and helping the older generation really understand what they must do to begin transferring a healthy business.

The last section, “Profitable Businesses,” focuses on the critical issues of how to generate profit from a ranching business. Dave explores a variety of issues including diversification and opportunities, and a lot about how to maximize the resources you already have so you can get more profit per unit on the current resource base rather than expanding that resource base and losing margin. There’s even a great glossary at the end of the book that helps define any terms that aren’t familiar to the reader.

If you already know these principles, this is a great review. If you are trying to get these key concepts across to an intern or employee, this is a quick and easy way to start the conversation so you can delve deeper into how to more effectively graze your animals, define job responsibilities and outcomes, plan for profit, or any number of key management conversations that need to happen on pretty much any ranch. If you are looking for a book that will help you work on your business, commit to knowing your production finances, work on your relationships, and structure your operation effectively, Healthy Land, Happy Families, and Profitable Businesses will get you started on the basics and inspired to create healthy land, happy families, and profitable businesses.

To order this book, go to: www.ranchingforprofit.com

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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.

Montagne *P.O.cliff Box 173120, MSu, Dept of Land

ARIZONA

Resources and Environmental Science, Bozeman, MT 59717 406/599-7755 (c) • montagne@montana.edu

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

CALIFORNIA

NEBRASKA

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

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

richard King Poppy Hill Farm, 1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 rking1675@gmail.com • 707/217-2308 (c)

Kelly Mulville

*707/431-8060 • kmulville@gmail.com

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

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE Kerman *350Kate Troy Road, Marlborough, NH 03455 603-876-4562, kkerman@phoenixfarm.org 24 Main Street, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) seth.wilner@unh.edu

4757 Bridgecreek Rd., San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805/544-5781 (h) • 805/550-4858 (c) robrutherford@gmail.com

NEW MEXICO ◆ ann adams

COLORADO cindy Dvergsten 17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 • wnc@gobrainstorm.net

Katie Miller

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

22755 E. Garrett Rd., Calhan, CO 80808-9170 970/310-0852 • heritagebellefarms@gmail.com

torray & erin wilson

*4375 Pierce Ave., Paullina, IA 51046-7401 712/448-3870 • wilsonee3@gmail.com

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

231/347-7162 (h) • 231/881-2784 (c) ldyer3913@gmail.com

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

graeme hand

MAINE

Meadville, MS 39653 prestons@telepak.net 601/384-5310 (h) • 601/835-6124 (c)

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

20 IN PRACTICE

*

25267 Holmquist Rd., Reliance, SD 57569 605/473-5356 • randy@zhvalley.com

TEXAS guy glosson

Kirk gadzia

NEW YORK

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

erica Frenay

*Shelterbelt Farm

200 Creamery Rd., Brooktondale, NY 14817 607/539-1179 (h) • 604/342-3771 (c) info@shelterbeltfarm.com

elizabeth Marks

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

Fredericksburg, TX 78624 830/456-5587 (c) • peggysechrist@gmail.com

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

phillip Metzger 120 Thompson Creek Rd., Norwich, NY 13815 607/316-4182 • pmetzger17@gmail.com

NORTH DAKOTA

WASHINGTON sandra Matheson 228 E. Smith Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226 360/220-5103 • sandym@mathesonfarms.com

◆ Don Nelson

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

Washington State university 121 Clark Hall, Pullman, WA 99164-6310 509/335-2922 • nelsond@wsu.edu

Doug warnock 6684 E. Highway 124, Prescott, WA 99348 509/629-1671 (c) • 509/849-2264 (h) dwarnock@columbiainet.com

WISCONSIN

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.

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

blain hjertaas

usiel seuakouje Kandjii

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

brian luce RR #4, Ponoka, AB T4J 1R4 403/783-6518 • lucends@cciwireless.ca

*

laura paine

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

NEW ZEALAND John King

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

tony McQuail

*P.O. Box 12011, Beckenham

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

Christchurch 8242 64-276-737-885 • john@succession.co.nz

Dick richardson

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

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

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

306/432-4583 • JLPigott@sasktel.net

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

MISSISSIPPI sullivan *610preston Ed Sullivan Lane, N.E.

SOUTH DAKOTA randal holmquist

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

IOWA

Dyer *1113larry Klondike Ave, Petoskey, MI 49770

*

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

◆ seth wilner

◆ rob rutherford

MICHIGAN

Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

P.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004 505/867-4685 • 505/263-8677 (c) kirk@rmsgadzia.com

U N I T E D S TAT E S

tim Mcgaffic

◆ These educators provide Holistic

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

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

guichon *Boxallison 10, Quilchena, BC V0E 2R0 250/378-9734 • allisonguichon@gmail.com

March / April 2014

KENYA christine c. Jost International Livestock Research Institute Box 30677, Nairobi 00100 254-736-715-417 (c) • c.jost@cgiar.org

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

sheldon barnes P.O. Box 300, Kimberley 8300 +27 82 948 2585 (c); +27 866 369 362 (f) barnesfarm@mweb.co.za

UNITED KINGDOM philip bubb

NAMIBIA wiebke Volkmann

*32 Dart Close, St. Ives

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

Cambridge, PE27 3JB 44-1480-496-2925 (h) • +44 7837 405483 (w) pjbubb99@gmail.com

Soil Productivity Requirements for Healthy Livestock

By Neal Kinsey

S

uccessful ranchers would never entertain the idea of starving their livestock to reduce the feed bill—at least not knowingly so. But, in too many cases ranchers actually do—by not feeding the soil.

Soil microbiologists tell us that the weight of all the life in an acre of soil is equivalent to the same weight as that of an average-sized cow.

What’s more, this life in the soil always eats at “the first table” and the crops and stock to be grown there get what is left over. If there is not enough for the life within the soil and the cows grazing on top, guess who gets there first. How many ranchers consider the need to feed an average-sized cow per acre even before the plants trying to grow there for feeding their animals are able to acquire what is needed to grow and produce properly?

However, the soil does not just operate on these biological laws of science. It is also subject to the physical laws that determine the pore space for water and air in that soil which provides the proper environment for biological activity. The amount and type of each element

affecting the pH of the soil actually determines this air and water mix.

And just as important for the land is the soil’s chemistry that determines whether each element present will remain adequately available in the soil for use by the plants that grow there. All of these laws are important and do not change in any part of the world where crops are to be grown. The combined effects that each one will have on the others must be correctly considered in order to have the most productive soil and grow the best feed and livestock.

One of the biggest mistakes on pastureland is the use of pH to tell whether the soil is supplying a sufficient amount of nutrients for the life in the soil and the animals it must support.

This is because the pH does not provide a complete picture of what type of fertility a soil actually contains.

When the soil pH is in the 5.5 to 8.0 range its principle make up is determined by four elements—calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. The problem is a combination of too much of one or more of these elements and

too little of one or more of the others can cause the pH to appear okay when in fact the soil is lacking what it needs to provide good nutrition for plant growth and the livestock grazing there.

When a soil has too much of one element, it will not have enough of one or more of the others. Only an accurate soil analysis that correctly measures all the elements mentioned above as affecting pH, rather than simply measuring pH, will tell farmers and ranchers what is causing the pH to be where it is. Such tests should then enable them and their consultant or fertilizer dealer to identify and begin to correct any excesses and deficiencies in each pasture, hay meadow or silage field.

Supply any deficient nutrients to control any excessive nutrients. This is the beginning point for building nutrient rich soils. The soil is the plant’s stomach. This balancing is not just for supplying the needs of the livestock, but the needs of all that serve to feed each animal.

When a fertility program is employed that only considers the needs of the crop, and not the needs of the soil, the crop and the livestock will all pay the price.

the MarKetplace 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 154

IN PRACTICE 21

the MarKetplace

Resource Management Services, LLC

CORRAL DESIGNS

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

How can RMS, LLC help you?

On-Site Consulting: All aspects of holistic management, including financial, ecological and human resources.

Training Events: Regularly scheduled and customized training sessions provided in a variety of locations.

Ongoing Support: Follow-up training sessions and access to continued learning opportunities and developments.

Land Health Monitoring: Biological monitoring of rangeland and riparian ecosystem health.

Property Assessment: Land health and productivity assessment with recommended solutions.

22 IN PRACTICE

March / April 2014

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:

E H T E V A S DATE HMI’s 30th Anniversary Celebration

Dixon Ranch Leo, Texas November 8 & 9, 2014 Watch for more information

GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS

in the next issue of IN PRACTICE

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

or visit our website at:

970/229-0703 www.grandin.com

www.holisticmanagment.org

the MarKetplace

Holistic Management Handbook Healthy Land, Healthy Profits

ORDER! TODAY SUBSCRIBE TODA TODAY AY Y FOR FO JUST $29 PER YEAR. YEAR. (a 50% savings off the cover price)

$

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!

SHELDON BARNES Certified HMI Educator Holistic Management Training And Consulting • • • •

20 years Ranching Experience 14 years Practical Holistic Management Manage herds of 3000+ animals Been part of a family business for 20 years

iMproVe Your: • LAND • FINANCES • DECISION MAKING coNtact Details Sheldon Barnes Willowbank Farm Po Box 300, Kimberley 8300 South Africa Mobil: +27 82 948 2585 Email: barnesfarm@mweb.co.za

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 154

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 Management: a New Framework for Decision-Making, Second Edition, by Allan Savory with Jody Butterfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $60 ___ spanish Version (soft). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $40 ___ holistic Management handbook, by Butterfield, Bingham, Savory. . . $40 ___ at home with holistic Management, by Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20 ___ holistic Management: a New environmental intelligence . . . . . . . . $10 ___ how to Not grow broke ranching

by Walt Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30 ___ Video: creating a sustainable civilization—An Introduction to Holistic Decision-Making, based on a lecture given by Allan Savory (DVD) . . . $30 ___ spanish Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30 ___ stockmanship, by Steve Cote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 ___ comeback Farms, by Greg Judy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $32 ___ the oglin, by Dick Richardson & Rio de la Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15 ___ gardeners of eden, by Dan Dagget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25 ___ Video: healing the land through Multi-species grazing (DVD) . . . $30 ___ PBS Video: the First Millimeter: healing the earth (DVD) . . . . . . . . $25 ___ the organic Farmer’s business handbook by Richard Wiswall . . $34.95 ___ how stella saved the Farm,

by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19.99 ___ the Dirty life, by Kristin Kimball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

TO ORDER:

___ holistic grazing planning, August 2012, 63 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ holistic biological Monitoring—croplands August 2012, 26 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15 ___ holistic biological Monitoring— rangelands and grasslands, August 2012, 59 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ holistic land planning, August 2012, 31 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

Planning Forms ___ annual income & expense plan, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7 ___ livestock production worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ grazing plan & control chart, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

I would like to make a Tax Deductible Donation In the amount of $_____________. Please designate the program you would like us to apply contribution toward ________________________________________

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

■

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■

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

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