#163, In Practice, September/October 2015

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015

NUMBER 163

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

2014 Annual Report

~ INSIDE THIS ISSUE ~

Business Models

Dear HMI Community,

was an exciting year for HMI. In addition to being HMI’s 30th Anniversary, important advances were made including new leadership and a broadening and deepening of our programming in order to reach more people in areas such as California and Colorado. Thanks to the support of our generous donors, HMI was able to expand the number of Open Gate learning days and Whole Farm/Ranch Business Planning Workshops, and to engage the Holistic Management community in ways not possible in the past through our Getting Started Online Learning Series. We held the Holistic Management Rendezvous 2014 that brought together the Holistic Management community from around the world to celebrate 30 years of growth and to further the understanding of Holistic Management.

HMI ended 2014 with a strong financial position. The number of educational programs executed has almost doubled over 2013, but expenses have been streamlined and programs executed in an even more cost effective manner. Management has also pared down and streamlined administrative expenses, resulting in a reduction of over $100K compared to 2013 expenses.

2015 is proving to be just as exciting a year for HMI. With our focus of energy and a greater sense of direction, HMI is building on the successes of 2014 by increasing our impact. Key strategic emphasis is being placed on improving our communication in a way that resonates with more people, and a continuing extension of our programming by adding more Open Gates and other educational opportunities through work with our Holistic Management Certified Educator network, including our first international Open Gate to be held in New Zealand, as well as Open Gates in Australia, Canada and Mexico.

2015 is a foundational year that will take HMI to a new level that will allow us to more effectively execute our mission of educating people to manage land for a sustainable future. This is a mission the HMI board and staff strongly believes in and we’re excited to work with our network of Holistic Management Certified Educators to advance our mission. We invite those who share our passion for improving the quality of life of farm and ranch families, and for increasing the sustainability of agriculture, to partner with us in our effort to help sustainable agriculture communities thrive through the practice of Holistic Management.

Sincerely,

2014

FEATURE STORIES Land & Livestock

Kelly Sidoryk - Board Chair Holistic Management Certified Educator

2 .............3

2014 Audited Financials . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

HMI Funding Community

Farm Girl Farm— Getting a Handle on Financial Management for Profit

ANN ADAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Managing Land with Multiple Generations— Noble Pastures Farm

ANN ADAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Cody and Deanna Sand— How Holistic Management Improved Their Lives

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Day Springs Farm— Practicing Holistic Management in Saskatchewan

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Red Devon Rotokawa Cattle— Building Grassfed Genetics and Healthy Land

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . 16

News & Network

Ann Adams - Executive Director Holistic Management Certified Educator

In this issue learn how different Holistic Management practitioners are exploring different business models and land use. Turn to page 7 to read how Noble Pastures Farm is dealing with multi-generation ownership.

Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Audited Financials Summarized Statement of Activities

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

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

STAFF

Ann Adams. . . . . . . . Executive Director Kelly Curtis. . . . . . . . Financial Director Sandy Langelier. . . . Director, Communications and Outreach

Peggy Cole . . . . . . . . Program Manager, Texas Kathy Harris . . . . . . . Program Manager

Mary Girsch-Bock . . Development Manager Carrie Stearns . . . . . Communications & Outreach Manager

Valerie Grubbs . . . . . Accountant / Customer Service Assistant Julie Fierro . . . . . . . . Education Manager

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Kelly Sidoryk, Chair

Ben Bartlett Laura Gill Clint Josey Walter Lynn Jim Parker

Kevin Boyer Guy Glosson Wayne Knight Danny Nuckols Jim Shelton

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 Š 2015 Holistic ManagementŽ is a registered trademark of Holistic Management International

2 IN PRACTICE

Revenues Professional services Educational programs Grants Publications Gas royalties Contributions Investment Income Partnership & trust income Miscellaneous income Net realized gains on sale of investments Unrealized loss on investments Total revenues Expenses Professional services Educational programs Publications Outreach Gas royalties Fundraising Administration Total expenses

Change in Net Assets

2013

2014

0 112,100 214,276 42,405 1,134,466 139,034 112,675 163,357 3,266 (8,214) (7,214) 1,906,151

1,200 64,206 264,635 54,203 638,128 156,551 92,498 79,433 6,139 45,930 (53,944) 1,348,979

0 657,459 52,378 72,125 275,221 51,587 309,050 1,417,820

1,957 596,375 70,829 83,916 222,133 96,274 447,124 1,518,608

488,331

(169,629)

Summarized Statement of Financial Position

Assets Cash and cash equivalents 750,362 Investments 1,925,398 Accounts receivable 220,296 Prepaid expenses 17,860 Unconditional promises to give 7,250 Inventory 14,674 Property and equipment, net 36,968 Unconditional promises to give - long term 2,000 Other 3,000 Stock in closely held companies 502,291 Mineral interest, net 1,213,453 Total Assets 4,693,552

246,044 1,847,741 169,809 23,680 7,250 7,824 51,880 9,500 3,000 501,245 1,314,565 4,182,538

48,347 19,050 11,965 79,362

21,232 22,418 13,029 56,679

2,464,574 2,149,616 4,614,190

2,774,255 1,351,604 4,125,859

Liabilities Accounts payable Accrued liabilities Deferred revenue Total

Net Assets Unrestricted Temporarily restricted Total

Total Liabilities and Net Assets

September / October 2015

4,693,552

4,182,538

2014 by the numbers

13,531 Farmers & Ranchers Trained 37,500,000 Acres Influenced

Eleven Open Gate Learning Days in the US

98% Beginning Farmers & Ranchers Program Participant Satisfaction Rate 112 People from 12 Countries enrolled in our NEW Getting Started Online Learning Course 51,215 People Learning about Holistic Management on our website

Funders It is with great pleasure that we acknowledge the many individuals and organizations whose support is the lifeblood of our mission and our community.

Stewards ($50,000+) Sallie Calhoun - The Christiano Family Fund, an advised fund of The Community Foundation for San Benito County USDA/NIFA BFRDP Guardians ($10,000+) Western SARE - Utah State University The Thornburg Foundation Jim & Carol Parker Protectors ($5,000+) David Elliott Farm Aid, Inc. Genevieve Duncan

Keepers ($2,500+) Jeanne Calhoun San Francisco Foundation Clif Bar Family Foundation

Patrons ($1,000+) Colorado Branch of Holistic Management Amy & Joseph Morel Joy Law Katherine Dickson Harry Duncan Campbell, Jr. Ron Chapman Ben & Denise Bartlett Alison Worcester Catherine Semrod Christopher & Laura Gill Clint & Betty Josey Don & Randee Halladay Armando (John) Flocchini Emry Birdwell & Deborah Clark Jim & Sara Shelton Justin Peeler Mary Cox

Sustainers ($500+) Roby Wallace Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Zizi Fritz G. Rodes Alfred (Chip) Chenoweth Alice Ball-Strunk Betsy & Reeves Brown Dave Waters

Farm Credit of New Mexico Frank Hayes Free Choice Enterprises Green Cover Seed Jewish Community Foundation John & Linda Decker Keystone Foods LLC Linda Meuth Mary N. Adams Mayette Johnston Pono & Angela Von Holt Southwest Quay County SWCD

Supporters ($250+) MicroLife Ron & Joan Ellermeier Carl Hathcock Connemara Conservancy Foundation The Lasater Ranch Ann Beeghly Jaye Henneke Kent Reid Schwab Charitable Fund William & Theresa Litle Joseph Whiteside Peter Schulze Big Bend Banks Bjรถrn Fallstrรถm Bryan Weech Byron & Wayne Eatinger Charles & Jennifer Sands Gerry & Carol Cates Highland SWCD Sandy Langelier Shipwheel Cattle Feeders Ltd. Sims Cattle Co LLC The Fertrell Co. Danielle Doucet Dennis & Ruth Demmel Janice Wizinowich Jonathan Wiley Lawrence & Lynn Levine Martha Holdridge Pete Ferrell

Friends (<$250) Paul & Julie Sloan Edwin Waters Kay Allen M.K. & Veronica Campbell Rich & Anne Morris Ag Conservation Solutions, LLC Anita Ramos & Reid Folsom Ann Adams Barbara & William Scaife Beth Griess Bob Hern Bruce & Lisa Rickard Canadian River SWCD Connie Ashbrook Walt & Dianne Davis Gail Kursel Gerda Hyde Peggy Cole Jack & Zera Varian James & Geraldine Matthews Janet Hunewill Jeff & Denise Hunewill Jennifer Munster Jennifer Peotter Joe & Peggy Maddox John Lynn Katie Felten Ken Riddle Laura Byrns Lou & Susan Preston Lowell & Mary Forman Lowry McAllen Mary Emeny Michael Sweeney Milton Suthers Norbert Pinkelman Rita Talbot Rob & Martie Rutherford Ryan Jarvis San Juan Ranch Simple Soil Solutions LLC Stacy Maurer Steve & Leslie Dorrance Texas Wildlife Association

The Nature Conservancy Upper Salinas Las Tablas Resource Conservation District Valencia SWCD Victoria Armigo Wayne & Judy Rasmussen George & Elaine Work Arizona Branch HRM John C & Rosalyn G Phillips Ken Gallard Linus Meyer Ethan Fortenberry Alisa Gravitz & Joe Garman Candace Burns Charles Tindell, Jr. Christine Barney Christoffel Den Biggelaar Dave Maxwell Dick & Jeannie McNear Duncan Spade Ranch Erin & Torray Wilson Gary Henneke Gary Lee LeGare Gerry & Pat Stratelak Jeremy & Jodi Peake Jason Klinge Jim Crum Kelli & Bill Parker Kirk Cunningham Larry Johnson Lee & Jill Dueringer Mary Ellen Gonzales Max Morris Merrie Talley Pam Walker Richard Rominger Sally Wellborn & William Gallagher Sharon (Sherry) May Tom Talley Cynthia Villa W.L. Holmes Wagon Wheel Cattle Co., LLC

Number 163

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

IN PRACTICE 3

Funders continued from page three

Watt Casey Gregory Carter Todd Staats Robert Parker Ben Berlinger Anne-Guri Eriksson Astrid Webster Barbara Love Ben Coleman Chandra Blackmer Denise Bostdorff & Daniel O’Rourke Duane & Barbara Trythall Ernie Saxman Julie Fierro Ismael Toyos Pardo Justin & Lisa Jessop Kelly Curtis Kenneth Miller Tom & Irene Frantzen Alec Bauserman Judith Maglione Carrie Stearns John Wernette Daniel White Ellen VandeVisse Eriko & Wim de Leeuw Joshua Brown Julie Gahn Miro Zaleta Ricardo Comisso Claire Anderson Mary Girsch-Bock

A special thanks to the following organizations & people who have graciously supported our programs.

Area Farm & Food Link Ashmore Insurance Bar Lazy S Ranch Bendy Brook Farm Betsy Ross Grassfed Beef Dr. Bonnie Warnock Blackwood Bounty Farm Blackwood Educational Land Institute Bloodnick Family Farm Blue Point Conservation Brian Wehlburg Brothers Ridge Farm Bureau of Land Management Calley Hastings Carrizo Valley Ranch C.D. Pounds Center for Environmental Research

4 IN PRACTICE

Central New York RC & D Chris Behr Connecticut Dept. of Agriculture Connecticut NOFA Connecticut NRCS Connemara Conservancy Cornell University, New York NRCS Craig MacMillan Dallas Farmers Market Dave and Laurie Celella Delana Lands Dharma Lea Farm Dixon Water Foundation Dr. Kelly Reyna Dr. Richard Teague Edible Austin Emerald Valley Fairy Englebert Farms Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance Farm Credit New Mexico Farm Service Agency (FSA) Fertrell Food Shark Gary & Sue Price Guy Glosson Hamilton Heights Dairy Heirloom Blooms – Lennie Archer Highland Soil & Water Conservation District Hill Country Alliance Jerry Addison John Wick JX Ranch Karen McFarland Kelly Mulville Kent Reeves Kentucky State University Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture Kerr Wildlife Management Area Kevin Fulton Katherine Napper Ottmers Kathy Harris Kelly Sidoryk Kristyn Harris KYSU Demonstration Farm Laird Foshay La Montanita Coop Land for Good Laura Celella Lauren Bradbury Leo Ranch Dr. Lisa Bellows Los Alamos Connect Maine Agricultural Mediation Service Maine Farm Service Agency Maine NOFA Maine NRCS

September / October 2015

Maine Organic Farming & Gardening Assoc.

Marfa National Bank/Big Bend Banks, N.A. Meadows Center for Water and the Environment Mesquite Grove Farm MicroLife Mimms Ranch Montesino Ranch Mo Ranch Moore Farms Native Prairies Assoc. of Texas NCAT New Hampshire Dept. of Agriculture New Hampshire Farm Bureau New Hampshire NOFA New Hampshire NRCS New Hampshire Soil & Water Conservation Districts New Mexico State University North American Hair Sheep Assoc.

North Country RC & D Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Association Organic Denmark Pam Mitchell Gayler Phil Metzger Pines & Prairies Land Trust Preston Sullivan Quivira Coalition Raindance Farm Ranney Ranch Red Corral Ranch Richard King River Systems Institute Robby Tuggle Rob Rutherford Ross Farms Running High Ranch Rural Texas Innovators Selah Bamberger Ranch Seth Wilner Small & Beginner Farmers of New Hampshire Southern New Hampshire RC & D

Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance Spring Creek Farm Spring Forest Farm Springwood Farm Steve Dahlberg Sustainable Food Center Sustainable Growth Texas Tablas Creek Vineyard Tara and Tab Weaver Texas & Southwestern Cattle Growers Assoc.

Texas A&M Agrilife Texas Ag Land Trust Texas Dept. of Agriculture Texas NRCS Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Assoc.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Texas Range Minerals Texas Riparian Association Texas-Mexico Border Coalition The Dixon Water Foundation The Intervale Center The San Francisco Foundation USDA Rural Development Thyme and Dough TomKat Farm Tracy Litle TRM International University of Maine Cooperative Extension University of NH Extension University of Texas-Pan Am University of Vermont USDA/NIFA USDA/Western SARE Valencia Water and Soil Conservation District Vermont NOFA Wayne Knight Wimberley Valley Watershed Assoc.

Women’s Agricultural Network Women’s Agricultural Network – Maine Women’s Agricultural Network – Vermont

Farm Girl Farm—

Getting a Handle on Financial Management for Profit

BY ANN ADAMS

making the income I had anticipated. I’d get out there and make some calls to get more product sold. But I wasn’t good at recording the expenses. So I hired a bookkeeper. At least once a month I’d know how I was doing because I knew what my expenses were.

“The BWF units on financial management were huge for me, particularly learning how to compare enterprises. At the time, I was doing both a CSA and restaurant deliveries. The CSA logistics had become draining. We didn’t have good infrastructure to host the member pick-up and by the time we put away the unclaimed vegetables and the tables and the tent, we’d clocked an 18-hour day. Then a late arrival would drive up and ask us to haul the vegetables out again…I knew in my gut this just wasn’t adding up, but I didn’t know how to think about the situation in black and white terms.

“In the BWF class, we were encouraged to compare enterprises. It never occurred to me to compare my enterprises. It was amazing! This required a lot of estimating because my crew Know All Your Costs worked on both enterprises simultaneously. But “The BWF class was huge for me because I I calculated all the labor for advertising for the was finally able to get a grip on my finances. I CSA and maintenance of dealing with all of the had taken another finance class called “Tilling members, and realized how labor intensive it the Soil of Opportunity.” In that course you was. On the other hand, working with the prepare a proposal as if asking for a loan, so restaurants was a matter of sending out one some of the seeds of the financial concepts email list to restaurants to let them know what I were planted then. But with the BWF program I had available, with a deadline to get the orders was able to set some goals and know they were in. It was very simple. I’d had a gut feeling that I more accurate. At that point I went from should cut back on the CSA, but after doing the Quicken to Quickbooks for my data entry. numbers I had a basis for that decision. After “I had been good about knowing if I wasn’t that analysis, I cut back 20% on CSA members and increased my restaurant sales by 30%. I also stopped the “you pick” operation. It was thrilling to look at the numbers and see how I could have a more profitable operation on the same scale and land base by changing the ratio of CSA to restaurant business. These are the kinds of decisions I share In 2005 Laura Meister started Farm Girl Farm and has developed her ability with the beginning to grow a variety of healthy food for both CSA members and to restaurants. women farmers I aura Meister started Farm Girl Farm in the Berkshire Hills of Western of Massachusetts in 2005. She and another, more experienced, farmer shared 1 acre on which they had a 40-member CSA. The land was situated in a flood plain so it was very rich but also extremely vulnerable (in fact, Hurricane Irene later wiped her out and precipitated a farm move to a town 10 minutes south). The other farmer left during the first season, so it was sink or swim “I really wouldn’t have even called myself a farmer then,” says Laura. At that point she looked around and decided she needed more training and as the farm grew, her need for more knowledge grew.

So in 2009 she took HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer (BWF) Training Program in Massachusetts to improve her ability to manage her farm. Given her performance that year and her past experience, she became a mentor for the program the next year.

L

Laura Meister is the owner of Farm Girl Farm, and past participant of HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Program as well as a mentor in that program.

mentor, so they understand the importance of knowing your numbers.”

Working in Multiple Businesses

In 2012, Laura decided to move to her romantic partner’s land. Laura’s farm was only 6 miles from Ted’s, and the two had collaborated in the past— for example, Laura had a heated greenhouse where she would start seedlings for Ted. Ted had a large van so he would do deliveries for Laura. As Laura’s business grew, she rented Ted’s unheated greenhouse from him. Moving her entire operation over to Ted’s land required having a clear sense of both businesses as separate entities, with separate assets. Both farmers contributed to the other’s business so there had to be a fair way to determine compensation. In this way, they could share infrastructure but keep the businesses separate.

“We keep track of the hours we spend on each other’s business, and we met with a lawyer to help us determine the value of things like rent.

I also pay 20% of utilities. We looked at things like what if his greenhouse, that I’m using for my vegetables, needs new plastic? Who pays for that? We work through each of those scenarios.

We may not actually trade money, but we try to know what our value is on all things. For example, my bookkeeping pays for the utilities.

That’s a fair trade. It isn’t always easy and figured out to the penny, but there is good faith that each brings a strength that rounds out the other person’s toolkit and the positive results for both of us speak for themselves.”

Ted had more farming experience as he had been farming for 25 years, and Laura brought a lot of business aptitude. “For Farm Girl Farm, CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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Getting a Handle on Financial Management for Profit continued from page five

the additional infrastructure was great! It was hard getting things set up, working alone at my other location and I never had a formal agricultural or horticultural education so the access to Ted’s know-how was an asset for me, translating immediately to better yields.”

Meanwhile, Laura was able to help Ted tighten up his business process and manage cash flow more smoothly, setting him up in Quickbooks, and establishing monthly and yearly budgets and goals. As a result, the farm was able to secure Farm Service Agency operating and refinancing loans —this has given a boost to the overall operation and the relief from worry allows new inspiration in managing the field.

“The big lesson for me during all of this transition was that I didn’t have to stop farming or do some massive clean up. Instead we could make many microchanges until things came back into balance. It is incredibly rewarding to see the fruits of all this work,” says Laura.

business end. This class prepares us. A lot of people aren’t thinking about their farms as businesses, so it helps to give people an overview of the whole process. Being available to help people outside of class is important to me. Every set up is unique, there is no onesize-fits-all answer to any given question.

“I also know that teaching is learning. When I started helping others, using the decision testing process more formally was really helpful. I was able to get others to do that kind of analysis. It takes the anxiety out of the

Sharing Knowledge & Experience

It is this kind of information that Laura wants to share with other farmers. “I love to talk about farming and the business of farming—the people stuff and marketing, the farming network. One reason I liked the BWF class so much was because I got to meet other women farmers and connect with the ones who had similar aesthetics. Through those connections I learned how my own operation might get bigger. It was good to share ideas and it jazzed me up. I’m up to 4 acres of production now and am not expanding currently, as I’m more concerned about what I can do better, getting better tools, and using better planning. For example, one of the issues I’m currently working on is the unheated greenhouses; how do I use the space better and get more yields?

“I have 1-4 seasonal workers and some volunteers, so approximately 6-8 people that I am managing. Right now our business mix is 90% restaurant sales (serving 30-40 restaurants) and 10% CSA. Within that mix are two really big restaurant customers and two grocery stores. I’m delivering to 20 places a week on average, twice weekly. I’m not spreading the word about the CSA and just let people find me. Some of my CSA business is bartering for other services like hair salon, web design or automotive repair.

“I decided to mentor in the BWF program because I felt like the class did me so much good. Many people are going into this endeavor of farming without a solid grounding in the

6 IN PRACTICE

While Farm Girl Farm does offer a CSA option, 90% of the production is sold to restaurants and grocery stores.

process. And the goal setting has been helpful as I work with one of my mentees who is turning over the business to others in the family.

“With my mentees, I really emphasize the importance of writing their holistic goal. I remind them it is their North Star that helps that decide what to do in the middle of millions of options. It helps us recalibrate and reorient, to get clear about all sorts of things, like ‘do I need that piece of equipment?’”

Many of Laura’s mentees are not from a farming background, which she can relate to. “I came from the city and was not from a farm family. I started farming when I was 36, although the seeds were planted in my 20s.

When I was in college I was involved in a summer program for children at the Farm and Wilderness Foundation in Plymouth, Vermont.

That was the first moment that engagement with the land came into my life. It was the first time in my life I was using my body and I was eating incredible vegetables. We were eating from the garden!

September / October 2015

“That was the switch for me. After that experience, I started feeling conflicted about living in the city, where I had little connection to the source of my food. But I continued with my studies and earned a Masters in Art History with a photography focus. I worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, where I got an excellent education for my eye, which I’ve brought with me to the field. Eventually, my interest in photography led me out to Western Massachusetts where I took a one-year crash course in documentary video production and did all of my assignments on small local farmers.

“I began volunteering at one particular farm while I finished my degree and the next thing I knew, I was helping to start-up a new small CSA farm. People often laugh when I tell them my background, but in my mind, filmmaking and farming are birds of the same feather—both pursuits involve problem-solving, creativity, orchestration of a million moving parts, intense hard work and time pressure, and above all, a strong sense of aesthetics and style.”

Laura believes there are many young people like her, drawn into the visceral quality of the work and ready to take the leap. “I fell in love with the whole process,” says Laura. “The minute you start growing something, you think about how to do it better the next time, and you plan yourself into the next season. Before you know it, it’s ten seasons later. But I want to make this work sustainable for me. I can’t bunch radishes for the rest of my life. I have to have an operation that is a really good model and create security for myself as I get older.

“Farmers are pretty passionate people and have a vision they are driven by. There is a certain insanity and optimism because there is a lot that could and does go wrong. We aren’t ever done learning such a hard job, and there is always the hope that what we learn will make the farm better. The vegetables and the soil teach us. You have to have drive. But there’s just so little margin in vegetable growing that you have to have efficiencies. You have to get into your numbers and find salvation there.”

It is that drive and the passion for the process of farming, creating beautiful, delicious products for markets demanding quality that keeps Laura interested in the art of farming. But it is her awareness that many farmers are not adequately prepared to address the business needs for their farming operations that keeps her engaged with the educational activities in HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer’s Training Program, as well as providing individual consultations. In both situations, Laura has found that Holistic Management has helped her, her employees, and her clients to get the outcomes they want.

Managing Land with Multiple Generations—

Noble Pastures Farm

BY ANN ADAMS

plan, but none of us had ever ‘run the farm.’” After the initial shock and scramble passed, they were able to find a young farmer that agreed to help them farm the land.

The Holistic Free range turkeys provide great meat and opportunity for the Carbaughs Management class to share what they are learning with their neighbors. taken with Leslie’s sister and brother-in“Holistic Management just kept popping up,” law helped bring structure to the plan because says David. When the Holistic Management they were all at the table together. courses were offered close to home, he decided While there were many aha’s for the now was the time. management team, David realized that they needed to have more structured communication at home so they could step through some of Starting Slow these issues with more of the management team.

The interest in grassfed meat and getting “We should be having regular meetings, but we involved in the production of it, came from don’t right now,” says David. “It was great to sit Leslie who had started doing research on the down together and work through some of the health benefits of grassfed beef. “As we things we need to work through.” In this case, changed our diet and ate good meat, our health each family set their own goals for their individual Crucial Conversations really improved,” says David. That led them to farms. They were able to cut their teeth on the exploring getting into the grassfed business for smaller, fledgling farms, without making it more David currently owns an insurance agency more than their own consumption. complicated on the estate farming operation. in Omaha, Nebraska, about an hour from Red David’s primary land base that he began With some practice and experience, they will Oak and Leslie manages the home. David and grazing is part of his grandfather’s 600 acre come together to create a holistic goal for the Leslie’s original plan was to move back to Red farm. Because David is 1/8 owner, he has taken family farm and work together on the current and Oak in the summer of 2013 and have a couple his 80 acres and plans to use that for Noble future farming operations. dozen cattle and some sheep, while David Pastures, his farm enterprise. He is taking 10 “We all get along great, but there was a continued to run his insurance agency. But acres at a time of that 80 acres and tension,” says David. “But with the holistic goal when Leslie’s father died during the spring experimenting with bringing it more fully to life process we went through in the class, we were planting season of 2013, things changed from its current status as row cropland and dramatically. “No one could have expected what all agreeing on a lot of points, just saying them turning it into pasture.

As he gets his systems differently.

It was a good exercise to go through happened,” says David. “Ben had a great estate down and can show results, he hopes to convert together, especially in not only his 80 acres, but more of the land from public, with Ralph and his and his wife’s family as well. Currently his Paul’s help.” grandfather’s land is being cash rented for David first learned around $250 an acre. If David can cash flow his about Holistic enterprises such that he can afford that rent, Management then he hopes others in the family will rent to International when he him to turn it back to pasture and get the heard Greg Judy talk attendant ecosystem services. David and Leslie at a Practical Farmers will also have about 200 acres of her parents’ of Iowa conference 600 acres that they would eventually like to and he began to bring under Holistic Management. consider taking the It was during Greg Judy’s presentation, that training. He then heard David got excited about Holistic Management Joel Salatin, Allan and managing the farm in a way that benefited Nation and other all.

“We really learned from Greg the idea of respected graziers talking about Holistic Elizabeth and Emily showing their prize 4-H broilers raised in a CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 Management as well. chicken tractor. avid and Leslie Carbaugh manage the farm Noble Pastures, near Red Oak, Iowa. Their farm is a combination of their land and land inherited from both of their parents and grandparents. Given this, perhaps not so unique, situation these days as more farms are inherited by multiple children and grandchildren, David and Leslie felt they needed to get Holistic Management training to help them better engage with all the decision makers about the shared land base.

So David and Leslie, along with his brother-inlaw and sister-in-law, started the Holistic Management classes in 2014. He felt the classes gave him a better sense of direction for the farm and helped other decision makers from their team also learn some new skills to help them in their planning. These courses included the Introduction to Holistic Management with Paul Swanson and Holistic Financial Planning and Grazing Planning with Ralph Tate. They’ve had multiple opportunities for deepening their learning.

D

Number 163

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LIVESTOCK

&

Cody and Deanna Sand—

How Holistic Management Improved Their Lives

BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

ody and Deanna Sand feel strongly that Holistic Management has improved their quality of life along with reducing their debt load and operating expenses. Whether switching to raising calves on their mothers in winter or calving in May, the Sands have made major management changes as a result of their Holistic Management training.

The Sands raise cattle on a family ranch 140 miles southeast of Bismarck, in southern North Dakota, running about 300 cows. Cody and Deanna have 3 children: Bailey (16), Desa (14), and Baxter (11).

“We have been on this place for 16 years,” says Cody. “My wife grew up here so we bought her parents’ place. It was her grandfather’s place originally. We each did some other things to help make ends meet; for 20 years Deanna worked off the place, and I made saddles in our custom saddle shop. We were supporting our ranching habit because it seemed to always take more income than we could make on the ranch.”

It was a struggle trying to make it work, doing the things they’d been taught, from one generation to the next. “One winter we attended a grazing workshop in Bismarck and heard some people talking about a Holistic Management course. We must have been searching for something different at that time, and I talked to a gentleman who went through that

C

The Sands Family (left to right): Bailey, Cody, Desa, Deanna, and Baxter

8

Land & Livestock

September / October 2015

course in the early 1980s and he told me it had changed his life. He was very supportive so we decided to sign up for the course,” Cody says.

“We drove to Bismarck for 3 days and those were 3 days of huge paradigm shifts. I was sitting there with light bulbs going off in my head, wondering why I didn’t know these things before. It all made so much sense,” he says.

That was 4 years ago, in February. The weather was cold when they were making these trips to Bismarck, down to 44 below zero. “We had to drive back and forth every day because we were feeding cows and backgrounding calves and couldn’t just go up there and stay overnight,” he says.

After taking that course, he and Deanna started changing some of the ways they did things. “We’ve now changed nearly everything. We are still ranching, but in a different way.”

Wintering Calves on Cows

To begin with, they had been wintering their cows on neighboring farmers’ cornstalks, and 3 years ago they left most of the heifer calves on the cows through winter. “Prior to that we were backgrounding our calves.

We weaned them on grass for a couple of years and that worked nicely but it necessitated a little higher input than what we wanted. So we left them on the cows all winter long. The first time we tried this with just with our replacement heifers—and it went very well,” he says.

The ranch is up in the hills in good grass country but there’s not much farm ground in this area. About 15 miles east the landscape changes to lower, flatter farming country. “We know a lot of farmers down there because that’s where I grew up. We have a really good relationship with one farm family who used to have cows. They love having our cows around in the winter, and love seeing them go home in the spring so they don’t have to deal with cows the rest of the year,” he says.

“We haul the cows 40 miles from our place to winter graze on cornstalks and it really works nicely for us. Three years ago we left the heifer calves with their mothers and they did very well. The cows lost body condition a little quicker, still nursing the calves, so we monitored them a little more closely and moved them more often to new cornfields so they would have better nutrition. But the calves did excellent—much better than I thought they would. I was very happy with the way it went,” says Cody.

“That was the first year we switched our calving to May. We weaned those May-born calves the first of March, partly because of the weather. I would have preferred to wait until the first of April (when they could go on grass), but we brought them home for a month on hay and then turned them back out on pasture. During the month of weaning we fed them a little hay and a couple pounds of cake per head. When we turned them back out on grass, I continued to feed them cake. We had one pasture we’d been able to save—with old grass. It was good forage for the calves but I just wanted to make sure they were getting enough and wanted to

keep them going,” he explains.

“We weighed those heifer calves when we brought them home to wean and they averaged 560 pounds. I didn’t weigh them when I took them down there with the cows, but just going off what our steers weighed when we sold them (and the fact that heifers generally average about 20 pounds less) the heifer calves gained a little more than a pound per day through the winter on their mothers,” says Sand.

He was happy with that gain because he didn’t have any investment for feed until weaning them in early March. The cows that lost a little weight lactating through winter regained their body condition before calving. “They bounced back a lot better than I thought they would, after we weaned the calves. They stayed on the cornstalks but we had to feed them a little supplemental hay because we started to get a lot of snow. It was still an easy way to get them through the winter,” he says.

“We’ve been hauling our cows down there for 10 years now and they are really savvy about grazing corn stalks. Moving our calving date later really makes a difference on their body condition. We used to start calving the first of April and I used to bring them home about that same time— and it was a little tougher on them. Now they can be on grass for a month or so before they calve.”

The calves looked better in the spring after being on their mothers than they did when they went through winter on their own. “We didn’t get as much gain as in a feedlot situation, but we prefer them to develop as a heifer, to become cows.” They need to maximize their ability to utilize forage, not grain. Wintering them on forage is also less expensive. It costs a lot to put gains on weaned animals through the winter.

Wintering the calves with their mother can be a very efficient, low-cost method, depending on calving dates. “In our part of the country I wish we could have nicer winters. Calving later, we went to not putting up hay anymore, and so far I haven’t had to buy any because we had carryover hay. Some winters are really nice and we hardly feed any hay, but when conditions are worse some supplemental feeding may be necessary,” says Cody.

He keeps the steers on the cows through the fall, selling them in November or December depending on the weather. “If the weather is nice, especially on the corn stalks, they do really well at first, cleaning up any corn that might be on the ground—in addition to the stalks,” he says.

The cows breed back on time because they have enough chance to recover from lactation before calving again, and the replacement heifers do well, grazing all winter with their mothers. “They were never penned up and they know how to forage,” he says.

This makes better cows; they are more ambitious to travel around finding something to eat rather than waiting for a feed truck every day in the winter. “They are working for us, rather than us working for them. We did that for way too long!”

“We also now breed our heifers as 2-year-olds rather than as yearlings, so we run them open that first summer. We’ll be calving our first set of 3-year-olds this year,” he says.

Increasing Recovery

The biggest change in their summer grazing management is the increase in recovery for the grass. “The high stock density is good, but the biggest thing that helps our pastures is more rest and recovery. Some of those pastures are now grazed for only 2 or 3 days during the year.

They get plenty of time to recover and build a better root system and become healthy again,” says Cody.

“I think this is one of the biggest factors in successful grazing.

Everything works together, but the rest and recovery part has been huge, for us. We didn’t know what it meant, before. Grass needs more rest than just through the winter months when it’s not growing. That’s

As can be seen in the picture, this bull calf being raised on cornstalks in winter is in good condition. not really recovery!”

A few of the government-owned pieces that border their place are now starting to come on board with some better grazing practices. “This is nice to see. But it’s such a slow change for ranching and land management agencies in general. The people who are on the ground here can see it and understand it, but they have to fight the higher-up managers who have their own rules,” says Cody.

Some of that land has been hayed (without grazing) for 40 years, and even though it started as native grass it now has an infestation of brome grass and Kentucky bluegrass. Without grazing animals, the plant balance has changed. It’s healthier with animals on it. “My pastures next door have more wildlife.

Changing Lives

Cody says he enjoys the new ways he’s learned to handle cattle, working with the cows’ natural tendencies and moving them easily, with very little stress. “My dad has been raising cattle a lot longer than I have, and the first time we started changing some things, he didn’t say much.

Then we took the Holistic Management class. That really changed our life. Up until that point we were just fighting the system; you can fight it forever but you are never going to win,” he says. It’s getting harder to survive in agriculture. The Holistic Management courses open a person to new ways of thinking, and more possibilities to try.

“The big thing here is that we can’t winter graze cattle east of the river.

The winters in western North Dakota are a lot nicer. But why not do what we can do, with what we have? Some people winter graze on grass and we do it on corn stalks. We graze a lot longer than many ranchers. Some of them start feeding hay in the fall and they really wouldn’t have to.

Either they have too many cows or not enough grass.”

After taking the Holistic Management class, and moving cattle more frequently to new pasture, Cody says they hardly need their horses anymore. “The cattle are tamer and easy to handle. Even putting them on the semi to haul them to the corn fields and back, the old ones teach the young ones; they just walk up the alleyway and right into the truck and all you have to do is walk up behind them and shut the gate. When we first started hauling them we were prodding and poking and pushing and it was so much work! Now it’s easy to do everything with our cattle,” he says.

“But we still continue to use our horses because we like to do that. It’s a whole different paradigm—to be a rancher and a cowboy today. How much of a cowboy are you when you don’t even need a horse anymore to ranch?”

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How Holistic Management Improved Their Lives continued from page nine

Cody went to a stockmanship class 3 years ago in Bismarck, put on

by Bud Williams’ daughter and her husband. “It was just a classroom setting because the weather was too cold to do outdoor work. We’ve been working with cattle a long time, and we were close to doing it right, on so many things, but it really helped to see how to do it better,” Cody says.

“That next spring we got the heifer calves in and Bangs vaccinated them. They hadn’t been through a chute since we ran them in for their fall shots. They are a little more skittish having run out all winter with their mothers rather than being pen fed and used to people. It was just me and my dad putting them in the chute for the vet. My dad went to that class, too, and even though he’s always been good at working cattle he’s getting so much better now. With just the two of us putting those calves in, they went through nicely, considering how inexperienced they were. If we’d had the wrong people helping—with sticks and hollering—it would have been a disaster! Things are falling into place to further our knowledge,” says Cody.

The Sands are now allowing for more recovery as well as grazing at high stock density to increase plant health through stronger root systems.

“When we preg-checked our cows, every cow walked calmly out of the chute; they didn’t run out like they used to. How you handle them in the back determines how they come out the front. This makes for lower stress, too.”

Cody has discovered that everything changes when you make one change. “Things overlap. This is what we talked about in the presentation we gave recently at Minot. Once we took that course in Holistic Management, nothing stayed the same. We found that if you change one thing one year, then the next year there are other things that come up and need to be addressed because of that thing you changed,” he says.

A person either has to go back to the way they were doing it before, or keep changing things to fit with the first change. “It’s been 4 years of adapting and changing. The title of our presentation was ‘Change: It’s Not a Four-Letter Word.’ Changing is a paradigm shift in itself,” Cody says.

“We were winter grazing pretty heavily even before we took the Holistic Management course, but some of the things that were not working for us included the fact that we were still putting up a lot of hay, and still calving in March and April. We needed that hay, but we realized we were feeding more in April and May than we were feeding all winter long! The nutritional requirements didn’t really change because the 10

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cows were still in their third trimester in the coldest time in North Dakota,” he says.

“We didn’t know any better, until we took that course. Changing our calving date to be more in line with Nature and the cows’ nutritional requirements helped lower their nutritional requirements during the winter months. Then our forage resources were matching their nutrition cycle.

Now we are calving in May and June when the grass is green and the nutritional requirements are highest; we are taking it off the land (the cows harvesting it themselves) and it’s much less costly,” he explains.

Changing the calving dates was one of the toughest decisions they had to make. Everything else has to change when you change the calving, such as when to wean, and how to market the calves. “If the only thing you change is the calving date, you just have smaller calves to sell in the fall. You have to change your inputs, and if you sell small calves in the fall you wonder if you’ll have enough money to meet your obligations at the end of the year. It was scary stuff,” he says.

“Ranchers love calving season and baby calves, but all the work that goes with it, calving early, isn’t much fun after awhile. When you drag cold baby calves in from the field, or put 20 cows in the barn every day to calve it becomes labor intensive,” he says.

“Some of the inputs we’ve saved, since we switched, have made things better. We came home after that course, and during that spring and summer we sold about everything that wasn’t bolted down, for financial reasons. We sold our calf shelters and other things that go along with calving; we took them to auction sales, because suddenly we didn’t need all of the things we needed before,” Cody says.

“We took that money and applied it on debt. It was emotionally hard to sell those things because they’d meant so much to us and had been a part of our ranching life for a long time. My banker actually called me in the middle of the summer and asked me if everything was ok! He’d noticed that we were not using our operating loan.”

The changes have paid off and Cody and Deanna feel that they are moving the right direction in improving the land and the cattle. The cattle are doing what they were meant to do—utilize forage—and the herd is adapting to this environment. Cody feels that ranchers need to select cattle that work well in their own situation. “And what works here might not work for my neighbor or someone else. Every place is different. Each ranch has its drawbacks as well as its unfair advantages,” he says.

A herd that is well adapted to one situation may not work as well somewhere else. Each rancher tries to create a herd that is a good fit for what that particular ranch can provide in feed and environment. “There is an adaptive phase. If you are buying heifers or cows, they have to adapt.

If I sold some of my cows to someone else, they would have to adapt to the new place, and a new social structure in the herd.”

Herd management changes hasn’t been the only adaptation for the Sands. “Since the class, my wife Deanna is no longer employed off the ranch. We are now able, financially, for her to stay home all the time, and this is a huge plus for us. For 20 years she drove 65 miles for work, because we had to, but for the past 3 years she’s been able to stay home. This has been good for her, and for me, and good for our kids. It’s been a win-win all around. I’ve cut back on my saddle-making, as well. It was a big part of my life for a long time, but we have chosen to let that go.

Right now our focus is simply raising the cows and the kids and it has become a lot more fun.”

With all these positive results happening in their lives, the Sands are feeling more comfortable with change. With Holistic Management they can now partner with nature, reducing their workload, producing healthier animals more profitably and with less stress for animals and people, while improving land health.

Day Springs Farm—

Practicing Holistic Management in Saskatchewan

cropping; we started to get some cover on the ground and the water infiltration rate had improved, breaking through the hardpan with the root systems. When we first came here we had only ½ of a percent organic

BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS matter in the first soil tests. What this land actually started with, I have no idea, but the early farming efforts here had probably reduced the soil rt McElroy farms in Saskatchewan, 10 miles north of the fertility,” Art says.

American border, about 50 miles east of Alberta, not far from “When we came here, there wasn’t enough organic matter for any Havre, Montana. “I am 63 years old and my wife Leslie and I— biological life to live on. As we began to think about the critters below the and 7 of our children—moved here from the family farm in ground, versus the livestock above the ground, we realized that Alberta in 1996 when I was 44. We had 2 more children after we moved continuous cropping was better than half-and-half summer fallowing, but here. We are blessed with a big family,” he says. it would not get us to the place we needed to be in order to really begin to “When we moved here to southern Saskatchewan it was a mixed build soil organic matter and biological life in the soil. farm. We ran livestock and grain farmed for 11 years. This is a dry part In 2006 my wife and I and one of our sons took a Holistic of the world and soil quality is not as good as what I had near Calgary.

Management course with Don and Bev Campbell here in Frontier. At that After we moved here, I continuous-cropped, with high-input agriculture, time we also decided we had to seed this place back to grass,” he says. for 11 years, under a no-till operation with 7 or 8 different annual crops,” “That year, we seeded 2,000 acres into grass and in 2007 seeded the he says. last 2,000 acres to grass. A lot of things came “We started seeding a little bit of grass back together for us at that time. I had a neighbor in 1998, when we could see that some of this who wanted me to do some custom grazing for land should never have been broken up for him. There was no way that I had enough farming. I seeded about 600 acres to grass in livestock to harvest all this grass by myself. We the next 5 years. The rainfall in this area, at were able to start custom grazing, and ever least during the years I’ve been here, can be since 2006 this neighbor has sent me up to anywhere from 3 inches a year to 20. It’s very 1,200 head of yearlings each year.” This helped sporadic. Some of our continuous cropping was add manure to the soil. very successful and some of it was very “In our own herd we generally have between unsuccessful. I could see, after 11 years, that I 150 and 200 head of cows because they come was playing myself out, playing the kids out and and they go, and I also run my own yearlings. we were not making the kind of progress we Getting the big group of cattle was a huge help. should have been making,” Art says.

Also at that same time I ran into Neil Dennis, and his philosophy of high density grazing. He convinced me that we could really speed up the Turning the Corner land health and soil improvement if we Art and his wife homeschooled all their increased our stock density. That’s when (2008) children and are still in that process with the we started putting the 1,200 head on 2.7 acres youngest two. “In 1999 my oldest son and I for 2 to 3 hours and moving them up to 6 times took the Ranching for Profit course as a home a day.” This was the best way to get enough study course. That really got us thinking. If what Art McElroy and his family graze over 9,000 acres animal impact. we were doing—the continuous cropping—was “What this has accomplished is just in Saskatchewan using Holistic Management. not viable, either financially or any other way, phenomenal on this low-quality soil. I don’t we needed to figure out what we should do. know what it would do on high-quality soil, That opened up our thinking to different ways of working with the land but when you do it on poor soil you can see the benefits and advances and what we were actually doing on the land, and the quality of life very quickly. There’s no way to make it worse, and we can really make issues,” he says. it better!”

“That prompted us to start thinking about some rotational grazing. I have one 3200-acre piece of leased land from the provincial government Improving Grazing Management and it was in one big field. In the year 2000 we divided it into 6 pieces with one-wire electric fence. We started moving animals through that, and “Don and Bev Campbell taught us financial planning, and how to created a few more dugouts so that every piece had water for the cattle,” balance our lives as a family. They taught us how to look at grazing. We Art says. had done some rotational grazing, but not to the extent of what we are “We could see there were places in that pasture where animals hadn’t doing now. All of these things came together about the same time,” grazed for years, and it was overgrazed close to the dugouts. We divided Art explains. it up and started putting a 1.5 inch water line into the ground. We got the “Another thing we decided we had to do was learn how to handle first 2 miles in during 2001 to try to get some water to areas on our home cattle properly. We’d been around livestock all our lives, but we realized piece of land that didn’t have water.” we had more to learn. I went to Texas twice with some of our children, to In 2005 he decided that the continuous cropping was not working, with learn stockmanship from Bud Williams. Through that experience we the cost of machinery, fertilizer, etc. “I realized we had to do something different, even though we had made some improvements with continuous CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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calves/yearlings around and they are coming and going with sell-buy marketing,” he says.

“We are so grateful to be able to still do what we are doing, at this stage of our lives, and running the farm rather than the farm running us!”

learned how to release the stress on cattle, and teach them how to take pressure, how to herd them, etc. Our place is divided by one-wire electric fences and we are moving them continually. This was one of the most Seeing the Results incredible things we ever learned—how to teach animals to respond to A few years ago he asked the Soil Carbon Coalition to come take soil pressure and release, and how to settle them in a pasture. When samples to measure the level of organic matter/carbon in the soil. “Every working with 1,200 head in such close contact, it didn’t take us very long 5 years now we will do a test to see what kind of advances we are making to get these animals settled, and our own animals the same. They adapt in storing carbon in the ground—to see if we are really making progress,” very readily.” he says.

In this region, one of the environmental advantages is that ranchers “Right now the real progress we see with our grazing is probably due can usually winter graze 7 or 8 years out of 10. “With our own cow herd, to the fact that many of these pastures are only grazed for 2 to 3 hours we started trying to save some grass and winter graze. We did some each year. They have a very long period of rest. Where my cows are swath grazing, and do some bale grazing when the snow gets too deep. grazing right now (in February) was grazed for 3 weeks in early May last In 2003 I was calving cows in late March and into April and I’d go outside year, but it hadn’t been grazed at all the year before. That piece of land in the middle of the night when it was minus 29 degrees Celsius and I had some bare ground on it so I let it grow the year before to produce realized that if I can’t enjoy calving and it can’t be a blessing, then we are seed. Then I put the big group of yearlings in it early in the spring when it never going to do this again. That was the first year the bulls didn’t get was wet, to trample in the seed from the previous fall, and to use up that turned out until August 20th. We decided to calve later, due to some of grass. Then there were no the inspiration from Dave more animals in there Pratt and the Ranching for again until the first of Profit course,” Art says.

December 2014, and “I also took Dick that’s where they still are Divens’ low cost cow-calf today, moving through it,” seminar and he really Art says. encouraged calving in “We got 5 inches of rain synch with nature. He late August-early helped us understand how September last year which the length of daylight hours is unusual in this part of affects a cow in cycling, the world, to get fall rain. etc. All of these things The flush of new seedling were coming together, but grass was phenomenal in 2008 I went to Colorado and it was hard to imagine and bought my first bull that much new green from Kit Pharo. We Art moves 1,200 head of cattle every 3-6 hours giving them approximately 2.7 acres per grass. With the rain, the realized we had to feeding. Improved forage stands have been the result of this kind of management. cool conditions and the downsize the frame on our amount of organic matter cattle, plus we needed and litter we have now, the animals that were more grass flourished. We’ve grown so much seed over the past several years; adapted to surviving completely on forages—and doing it all on their some of this land goes to seed every year. Where we did have some bare own,” he says. ground, it will be interesting to see how this continues to fill in.” Grass has Today the farm has 150 cows with these grass-based genetics. “They an amazing ability to spread and cover the bare spots if it has a chance. completely look after themselves. A lot of things were coming together, but it was mainly Holistic Management that helped us to really understand the relationship between the soil, the animals and our own lives and our Seeding Experiments finances—everything we were doing,” he says.

“Some of the first grass I seeded, when I first started, was a “The only thing I could do differently now is add another species for monoculture of crested wheat. That was a mistake, but Neil Denis says grazing. For many years we were mono-cropping (which is not the best you never make any mistakes; you just have a pile of learning for the land and ecosystem) and now we are mono-grazing. I think that if one of my children wanted to come home to this place, another enterprise experiences! When I still had my no-till disk drill, during the last years I was seeding grass, I went into that stand of crested wheat in early we could add to the livestock would be sheep or goats. I think this would November and dormant-seeded alfalfa. Again, I probably should have continue to enhance what we are doing here now,” he says. added more species, like meadow brome, at the same time,” says Art. “Many things have come together in our lives the past 10 years that “People told me I would never be able to get anything else to grow in a have really helped us change. I was 55 when the revelation came to me solid stand of crested wheat. But I figured I couldn’t make it any worse that the rate we were going in continuous cropping wasn’t sustainable. and decided to try it. Early the next spring, I put the big groups of cattle in The quality of life since we made the change has been amazing. I can do there and chewed that crested wheat right into the ground. That gave the as much as I want during the winter. In the summer we are quite busy, alfalfa a chance to get going, and also increased the animal impact on the which is a wonderful time to be busy, but the winter is easy. We move a ground—not only fertilizing it but working some of that ground to get the string of wire every day to graze cows, and keep 200 head of 12

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alfalfa seed growing,” he explains. “Now that piece of ground actually has too much alfalfa growing on it!”

He has another piece of ground where he seeded Russian wild rye as the grass and Cicer milkvetch as the legume. “Again, I should have added 4 or 5 other species of grass in there, but last spring when the big groups of cattle grazed it, I broadcast seed from the back of my quad, seeding meadow brome and alfalfa on that piece to try to add more diversity. I’ll see how that turns out and whether it works or not. Some of these things you have to be patient with, but I’ve never had an absolute failure yet on any of these experiments.” The grazing animals are the perfect tool to help manipulate the evolution and progress when trying to improve the pasture, Art has worked with Kit Pharo to improve the genetics of his herd so that the animals can better using them to tromp in the seed or graze off a utilize forage for better animal performance. piece to allow easier growth of certain plants.

“It is amazing how you can manage the animals in ways to improve the soil, the plants— the whole thing. There is still a group of us from our original Holistic But for heifer development (or for any calves, for that matter) there is no Management course who still get together every month to bounce ideas cheaper or healthier place for a calf to spend the winter than on the cow. off each other and share our successes and failures. This has been a They don’t gain a lot, but they keep gaining a little, and the compensatory very worthwhile time that we take to do this, every month. There are 5 or gain in the spring when grass comes is tremendous. When that kicks in 6 families and most of them are quite a bit younger than I am. It is fun to on a forage-developed animal, I am truly amazed at what happens to watch them not have to go through some of the mistakes that I did! I them. They grow phenomenally,” Art says. really encourage them to press on with this,” Art says.

“We put every heifer, except the extremes at the bottom and top, with Right now, in the livestock business, prices are better than they ever a bull—and let the bull and Mother Nature sort out our replacement have been and it’s hard to fail. “But we know that will eventually come to heifers. If they don’t get bred they are still good value in the fall as a longan end. A lot of these young couples went through the years of BSE and yearling. If they do get bred, they have been with their mothers and know managed to survive, so I think they will manage.” how to go through the winter. It’s the most inexpensive way to develop a “As we learn to think holistically, as a family, to understand the heifer—with her mother. When we figured out a way to do it in a relationship between the plants and reasonable way financially (winter the soil and the people and the grazing the pairs rather than finances, we continue to make feeding them), it worked.” This is “As we learn to think holistically, as a family, how Mother Nature did it, before progress. Our exposure to Bud Williams’ livestock handling, and to understand the relationship between the people came along to domesticate the sell-buy marketing, and getting these animals. some grass-based genetics have plants and the soil and the people and the “I can no longer buy the kind of also improved the cattle end of it. I replacement heifers that I want. I finances, we continue to make progress.” see a tremendous stabilizing factor can raise better heifers than I can in the life of this farm, going into the buy, because they are more suited future,” he says. to this environment. Any heifer that we keep now as a replacement is the most expensive cow we’ll ever have in the cow herd because of her value as a calf (what she’d have been Profitable Cattle Management worth to sell), but if we are going to continue on in the business we have “I fought Mother Nature most of my life, whether it was winter calving, to keep replacements. They are our future and will do much a better job or fertilizing and battling every weed and bug with herbicides and for us than any heifers we can go out and buy,” he explains. pesticides. I never succeeded. Working with Mother Nature is a lot more “Another thing that Bud Williams taught in the sell-buy marketing [see fun than working against her. Because we calve in June and July, this sidebar] was that you never let an animal start to lose value. This was changed our thinking about how we marketed calves, how we developed another thing I had a hard time getting my mind around. When you have a heifers, etc. cow that’s 6 or 7 years of age, in a normal market this is when she starts For heifer development, he usually doesn’t wean calves until April or to depreciate a little and lose value. Of course that’s not happening right May. They stay on their mothers all winter. This saves a lot of feed and now because we don’t have a normal market; the shortage of animals labor and is better than grain-feeding to develop their rumens and enable has made cows of any age quite valuable,” says Art. them to become good foragers. “They learn a lot from their mothers, as “Bud encouraged people to start selling cows when they are 6 or 7 well,” he says. years of age when they still have good time left in them, before they start “I had some steers that were overvalued in January (the market was excellent at that time) so I took some of them off the cows and sold them.

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to lose value, and replace them with something that in theory is genetically superior—which is their daughters, raised on your own place.

You can keep more heifers than you can cows, because they eat less, especially if they are developed inexpensively the way we do it. As we begin to think about some of these things and how we do them and why we do them, we can see that there are simpler, cheaper and far superior ways—both genetically and financially.”

It’s hard to change, however, when a person has done things a certain way for a long time. “There are many ways I am going against the grain, but it is working and it’s very satisfying. This is what keeps us doing it, and at my age I just don’t feel like working 10 hours a day anymore. I prefer working with the animals in such a way that they are looking after themselves, and it sure takes a lot of the work load off of me!”

“We feel fortunate that the good Lord opened our eyes to a lot of these things and it started with the Ranching for Profit school in the late 1990s.

Then I started reading some of Don Campbell’s articles he writes for the one of cattle magazines. I realized I needed to get hold of that guy and that’s when we had Don and his wife put on a course here in Frontier, for 7 or 8 couples. That really got our juices flowing on how we could change

Sell-Buy Marketing

ell-Buy Marketing is a little bit different than the traditional view of marketing and has been taught by Bud Williams. Everybody in the livestock business tends to think in terms of buying, increasing (weight or number of animals or value), and then selling, to make a profit. “In sell-buy marketing you determine what is overvalued and undervalued in the marketplace. You can only deal in animals that you can handle and increase their value. I never buy animals above 800 pounds because I am not in the feedlot business. So I might buy anything between 250 pounds and 700 pounds, or some cows, pairs or heifers,” explains Art McElroy.

“With every sale you can figure out what is overvalued and undervalued in the marketplace by determining the value of every increase in weight gain. It took me a little while to learn how to figure out what was overvalued and undervalued, but you just use 50 pound weight breaks or 100 pound weight breaks and divide the increase in the dollars by the weight gain, just to see what the market is paying for every one of those increases in weight,” he explains.

“You’ll always find that the lighter calves bring the most value per pound. If the next increase in weight, whether it’s 50 pounds or 100 pounds is only worth $1 or $1.50 you can begin to see whether you should hold the animals and if you are being paid to put more weight on them or not. If you are not being paid to put more weight on, then you need to sell those animals and replace them with something that is undervalued, that you will be paid to put more weight on,” he says.

“It’s easy to know exactly what all of your costs were on that turn of cattle, and through some simple arithmetic determine what you can afford to pay back for different weight prices and still cover all of your costs on that turn of animals. So you are buying a profit as you are replacing your animals,” Art says.

“People might say that your net worth could be constantly going up and down, and yes, that’s true. But it’s your cash flow that you have to be concerned about all the time, and this is where you end up with cash

S

14

Land & Livestock

September / October 2015

things and do better. So I am very grateful to Holistic Management and to Don and Bev Campbell for opening our eyes to so many different things that we could be doing, that would be really good for us as a family and for our business.”

Building a Flexible System

“It’s been quite a process, but I think we’ve only just begun to tap the potential of what we could actually graze on this farm now. I did some calculations with the local fellow who works for the government as a range manager, and we have more than doubled our carrying capacity since we started. I haven’t bought any more acres, to do this. I have some investment in water, with 18 miles of 1.5 inch water line in the ground. I’ve put up some electric fences, but not very many. Most of what we do is string temporary fence wire off of a quad. It can be put up and taken down very quickly. We can adjust the size of pastures from one year to the next, depending on rainfall.”

Permanent fences are not desirable because ultimately they are in the wrong places. “I actually took some of my permanent electric fences out, once we learned how to build temporary fences. We put a post every 75 to 90 feet, with just one wire, and the biggest charger we can buy. Our country is pretty flat because it was all farm land; we don’t have very

flow—with what’s left over between the sell and the buy price,” he says.

“Another thing I am learning to do with this is buying pounds of gain for less money than what it costs me to put it on. There are always some animals out there that you can buy, with the money from your last sale. You can actually take home 50 to 100 pounds or even 150 pounds for very little money, and sometimes you can take them home with a few dollars of cash in your pocket, from your last sale. As we begin to watch the marketplace, the signals that it constantly sends to us are fascinating. When you go to replace animals, if you can’t replace them at a profit, you leave your money in your pocket. You not only keep your money, but you also keep the feed that the animals would have eaten, whether it’s grass or stored feed. You have to determine what has the most value to you—the animals, your money, or your feed. What is the point of feeding animals if you are not being paid to put pounds of gain on them that would add value to the feed, whether it’s grazing or stored feed?” Otherwise you are just giving away your feed and your time.

“This is a unique system that Bud Williams figured out, and he did that when he was at VT Feeders in Alberta for 10 years. It is unfortunate that Bud has passed away, but his daughter and son-inlaw, Richard and Tina McConnell, are still going around teaching this method. This is a very good system and you don’t have to do it in large numbers, and it’s not wise to do it with borrowed money. You just build your numbers gradually. Richard and Tina will teach anybody under the age of 18 for free because they feel so strongly that young people need to learn how to do this,” Art says.

“It’s been very good for us, though it’s taken me 6 or 7 years to get my head around a lot of it. I was still thinking in terms of 40 to 50 years of Buy-Sell marketing, when I was trying to make a living in the cattle business that way. It’s a play on words, between Buy-Sell and Sell-Buy, but once you get your mind around it, you can see that it really makes sense, and it works. We’re finding out that a lot of things make sense if we’ll just stop long enough to think about them,” he says.

many ravines, and it’s easy to put fences anywhere we want them. It’s very simple. All the water goes to the cattle and we are not pumping water up and down grade elevations. We don’t have problems with airlocks in the water lines, so it’s very simple, and it hasn’t cost very much to put in,” he says.

“On average, the 1,200 head are on 2.7 acres. If we don’t get a lot of grass growth I have to expand that acreage, sometimes even double that. This is where flexibility of the whole system is nice, without permanent fences. We can give the herd more, or less, or change the amount of time. If we want to go away for a day, we can give them a big enough piece to do the whole day,” Art says.

“There are more and more people who are not afraid to try something a little different. This is how we learn, and make progress. Sometimes it’s hard to be different, but if you have to make some changes, you have to try something different. We were at that point in life where we knew we had to make changes, and were fortunate that we were exposed to many things that helped us make the right choices.”

DEVELOPMENT CORNER 2015 Beginning Women Farmer Program Report

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number Grant #2012-49400-19673, funded HMI’s 2015 Beginning Farmers & Ranchers: Women in the NE & Texas program.

Working with our collaborators, we delivered 70 day-long sessions from September 2014-June 2015. We recently completed evaluation of these programs and the highlights for Texas, New York, and Massachusetts are listed below. For more detail on the outcomes of these programs, go to our website where you can see the full reports. Thanks to the USDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development program for their support of this program. Look for our report of New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine in our next issue of IN PRACTICE.

Texas

Family Decision Making

All of the children were home educated and worked on this farm until it was time for them to go pursue their own dreams.

“I had daughters here who could run combines better than any man ever could. These kids have gone on to post-secondary education and have done extremely well. I’ve never had any hired help on this farm. Right now we are at 9,200 acres.

“When we moved here, my oldest son was 16 and he went on the seeder that spring and he seeded about 4,000 to 5,000 acres. Our children have been an integral part of this. The thing that I struggle with the most is getting everyone involved, or getting as many people as want to be involved, in the decision making—because I’ve been independent too long.

This is something that I really have to work on, getting more of the family involved in the decision-making and in why we make the decisions. Holistic Management has a very effective way of helping us make decisions to help us achieve our goals and objectives, but this is the area I have struggled with, trying for more success in involving my wife and children in this process. This is another challenge I have to keep working on,” he says.

“What is the point of developing and improving a farm or ranch if there will be no one to carry it on in the future? We all want continuity; we don’t want it to end with our generation. I maybe could have made more money just cropping it, or maybe I couldn’t, but I realized that long term that wasn’t sustainable. To have made the changes we have made now, and to see the advances in so many areas, it would be a shame to have done it all without being able to have someone else take it over and go on with it,” says Art. “This is the next challenge facing us—succession. I think we are well positioned, with what we have learned from so many resources, to be able to do that. This will be an exciting chapter, hoping some of the family will continue on with this.

The people part of a ranch or farm is an integral part, and probably the biggest challenge,” he says.

“Improving the soil and the grasses are easy, compared to moving forward with the decisions and the succession. But we can do it, so we will keep pressing on with it.”

2015 TX Class

The Texas program coordinated by HMI’s Program Manager, Peggy Cole, completed all 10 sessions by the end of February. Lead instructor was Certified Educator Peggy Sechrist and mentors for the program were Tracy Litle, Lauri Celella, Kathy Harris, Pam Mitchell, Lauren Bradbury, and Katherine Napper, and CD Pounds. Here’s what we’ve learned from our 33 Texas participants who graduated: Of the 28 participants responding • 27 are currently farming and all plan to continue farming • The average years of farming was 4 years (range: 0.2 to 9 years) • The average acres under production was 89 acres under production with a total of 2569 under production • The average age was 47 years old (range: 24 to 75 years old) • The total retail customers of all participants was 624 and 18 wholesale customers • 33 participants were trained and 32 graduated for a 97% graduation rate • Overall satisfaction of the program was an average of 94% Here’s what the participants had to say:

• The suggestions from others are invaluable. Seeing what others are doing helps generate ideas.

• In the BWF network we have teamed up, borrowed equipment,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

Number 163

Land & Livestock

15

Red Devon Rotokawa Cattle—

Building Grassfed Genetics and Healthy Land

BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

unique herd of Red Devon cattle from New Zealand is now making itself at home near Hardwick, Massachusetts on farms operated by Henry Hauptmann. This herd was started more than 40 years ago by Ken McDowall, a master breeder of livestock in New Zealand who picked the foundation cattle from an old established herd.

After 30 years of careful breeding, Ken McDowall’s Rotokawa herd was sold and brought to the U.S. by Ridge Shinn, co-founder of Raising Beef for Human Health and the Global Environment in 2008. Hauptmann purchased the herd in 2012 and now has approximately 240 animals.

A

will encounter here. We do give the calves one MU-SE (vitamin E and selenium) shot when they are born because I was told that we have a selenium deficiency here in the Northeast, and even our homeopathic vet suggested that it would be a good idea to give this to our calves at birth,” he says.

Managing for Healthy Land and Animals

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROTOKAWA ESTATES LLC

Hauptmann is not only focused on animal performance, but also grazing properly for improved land health. “We strictly adhere to [Holistic Management Certified Educator] Ian Mitchell-Innes’ philosophy.

We attended his seminars, and he has been out here to our farm. On Exceptional Grassfed Beef Genetics the farm where we are, which is about 25 acres in one piece, we don’t cut hay anymore. We just graze it,” says Hauptmann.

“We don’t bring in any other animals, and so far we have only used “The old farms are all overgrown into woods. The soil and climate the genetics in our own herd,” Hauptmann says. He doesn’t condone here tends to grow woods. It grows them very well and very quickly, so inbreeding, and just makes careful selections that stay at least 3 we have to try diligently to keep our fields open. What we have noticed, generations apart on the sire and dam’s side. In a herd this small, just by the grazing moves, that it helps keep them open. Some people however, eventually it will get to a point where new bloodlines must be move their cattle 2 or 3 times a day, but in our situation with the number introduced to avoid inbreeding. of animals we have and the locations where they are—and such a large The goal is to have approximately 50 brood cows to have enough staff to accommodate them—we move them just once a day. We’ve depth of genetics. “When we took the herd, they all looked great and we been quite successful with this,” he says. didn’t know which ones would be the best. I like to judge a cow by the “Whenever we have an opportunity to lease a new farm or people offspring that she raises, rather than by her looks. She must have want us to graze their farm, the stocking rate must be fairly low at first. superior offspring,” he says.

On the farms that have been hayed, etc. the grass just isn’t there. It “We suggest to people who are in the grassfed beef business to take won’t support one animal per acre. After grazing our grazing advantage of hybrid vigor,” says Hauptmann. “If they have good Angus management on our farm for about 6 years now, our stocking rate is cows, or Hereford cows, or Red Angus or any other breed that is one animal per ¾ acre. It has been amazing to see what grasses have already doing well on grass, they need a pure bull to cross them with to come back. Even after we winter the cows on a sacrifice pasture, it may get the most benefit from hybrid vigor. If they use a crossbred or look bare in the spring, but bounces back. When we have 80 animals on composite bull they will never be able to accurately predict what they 5 acres, they really tear up the pasture,” he says. will get. Pure Red Devons are now very rare in the world. Today they “We have 8 ring feeders out there for the hay, and move them every are making a comeback, especially in the grassfed industry because day or two when they finish a bale. After we move them around there is they are so genetically predisposed to do well on grass. so much manure over the whole piece that people can’t see any plants and ask us if we are going to seed it down because they don’t think it Adapting Animals to their Environment can grow back. I just tell them to come back and look at it in 6 weeks.”

“We have been struggling to get these cattle all back under one “We are improving the pasture as well as the cattle. It goes hand in management because when we hand and has been very rewarding,” purchased them, 2/3 of the herd were says Hauptman. “We are not in Pennsylvania, some were in Virginia, organically certified, but we don’t and some were here. They’ve been use any kind of chemicals, moved around so much, and we find herbicides or pesticides. The that the home-grown animals do the cows are fed strictly on grass, and best,” says Hauptmann. in the winter we feed haylage (in “I firmly believe that a calving cow round bales that are wrapped). will make antibodies (for her colostrum) We are so busy with the animals against the diseases that are in the that we don’t try to do the harvest,” pasture where she is. Even a pasture he says.

2 miles down the road has a different “Once we get the cattle where environment,” he says. The cattle we want to be with them, then we there would be exposed to hope to do more of our own different pathogens. harvesting. But we consider animal “We don’t really have a vaccination performance our number one priority program; the cows give their calves Rotokawa Red Devon bull is part of the seedstock being used to so that is what we dedicate our time antibodies against any diseases they keep the Red Devon breed pure. to right now,” says Hauptmann.

16

Land & Livestock

September / October 2015

Noble Pastures Farm continued from page seven

holism,” says David. “You can’t change one part without affecting everything. The long-term consequences can be very difficult to predict.

Every time we think about any potential action (like driving a truck across the pasture or worming a cow), we are considering what the downstream effect that action will have. We liked the idea of this kind of grazing, but we didn’t know about how to do the production such that the farm can be profitable, be good for the land and have a good quality of life. This was a very attractive idea, and really the only way to be sustainable.”

After that presentation, David began looking at ways to change how the land was being managed without hurting feelings or insulting family members. But, he was actually surprised at how open his father was to the ideas he was suggesting. “It was helpful for me to share Holistic Management because it had some science behind it; it wasn’t just emotion,” says David. “HMI’s outreach and the information shared through publications, helps with these discussions. The stories that Greg, Joel, Anibal, Allan Nation, Gabe Brown, etc. tell makes the difference. It’s hard to argue with their results.”

With David feeling like he had the information he needed to have a constructive conversation, he was able to approach his family to explore management options.

Small Town Dynamics

David knows that not all his neighbors will be as open to these new ideas as his family is.

“We are surrounded by people we grew up with.

People know each other and talk about each other. It’s like Neil Dennis says, I guess we are providing a community service as everyone can talk about us now instead of the others they have been talking about. I know it’s going to happen. When you do something different, people talk. But, even so, we know that Holistic Management is about regular people, not eccentric hippy communes.”

What kind of wild exotic management practices has David begun? “We had freerange chickens in our front yard and people would drive by and stop and check to make sure they hadn’t gotten out from the coop because they weren’t used to free range chickens,” says David. “When we had turkeys in the front yard behind poultry netting, that got even more people interested. I can’t wait to hear what they say when I put 100 cows on an acre of grass. But over time the novelty wears off. In fact, my wife’s uncle mailed us a Joel Salatin article from a conventional farming magazine about sustainable agricultural practices. It’s like they are accepting that what we are doing has value.”

Likewise, as David and Leslie have enjoyed exploring raising grassfed livestock, their daughters have also become involved.

Elizabeth (11) and Emily (14) help with chores.

David hopes that in the next 5-10 years the girls can take more of an active role in the farm. “I’d like them all to be involved in the monitoring as we go forward and learn about the land,” says David. “We never monitored when I was a kid. I want my kids to grow up with a holistic perspective and to think it is normal to witness dung beetles breaking up a cow pie. Right now they enjoy raising rabbits and chickens for 4-H. They even won reserve grand champion at the county fair for their chickens they raised in a Salatin-style Chicken Tractor.”

So David and Leslie will continue to engage their family in looking at transitioning more of the family land from conventional crop farming to pasture managed with Holistic Planned Grazing. In the process they will learn more and provide friends and family the opportunity to learn more from watching their process.

That ongoing learning with a group of people excited about being a part of the solution is what David really enjoys about the Holistic Management community. “I really enjoyed the Holistic Management class as people come from all over with different production systems,” says David. “We all have the same general values and ideas, but we have a lot to learn from each other. That’s what is great about sitting down and talking to the other participants and exploring ideas on the back of paper napkin. I guess that’s what we will do: save the world, one bar napkin at a time.”

In Memoriam

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

HMI at AGA Conference

The American Grassfed Association 2015 Conference was held in Denver, Colorado on June 7-9, 2015. As part of the events, Dr. Ann Adams, Program Director for HMI,

presented on Healthy Farm Economics. After her presentation, Byron Shelton, Senior Program Director from the Savory Institute and Dan Nosal from the NRCS led a pasture walk at the Flying B Bar Ranch to discuss key grazing planning principles and practices. Other presentations included a presentation on Animal Health by Dr. Meg Cattell and Dr. Arden Nelson and a presentation on Soil Health by Molly Haviland.

Participants for the day were very engaged with all presentations, asking many thoughtful questions.

Thanks to the American Grassfed Association for inviting HMI to present!

It was with great sadness that HMI learned of the passing of long-time Holistic Management practitioner Dennis Wobeser. Dennis passed away at the Lloydminster Dennis Wobeser Hospital in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan on Monday, July 20, 2015 at the age of 77 years.

Dennis also served on the HMI Board and was instrumental in the spread of Holistic Management in Canada. He was remembered as someone who always had time to listen to others and share his experience.

Dennis leaves behind his loving wife, Jean; children: Kelly (Mike), Wendy (Brian) and Brady (Shauna); and grandchildren: Tess (Colin), Leah, Carter, Julius, Lillian, Ben, Dalen and Nolan. He will be missed!

Number 163

IN PRACTICE 17

Development Corner

continued from page fifteen

bought/sold equipment & goods/services, exchanged information, troubleshooting, delivered programming, met with 3rd party & mutual friends, been introduced to new clients, etc.

• My mentor visits are very helpful! Great ideas & knowledge!

• It helps to know my decisions and goals are shared by others who also struggle to succeed - and some have made it!

• I feel like the class provided an inspiring network of other beginning & established farms & ranches with a wealth of knowledge & resource.

Learned of new mentors & programs.

Participant Behavior Change/Completion Of Plans

Holistic Goal/Whole Farm Plan Financial Plan

97

93

Business Plan

78

Marketing Plan

81

Land Plan

100

Grazing Plan (grazers in group)

95

Biological Monitoring

Post-Program Outcome Changes Topic

Increased satisfaction with Quality of Life

Increased satisfaction with Communication

Increased satisfaction with Time Management

Increased satisfaction with Ability to Determine Needed Profit

Increased satisfaction with Ability to Make Complex Decisions Post-Session Impacts Achieved

83

Improved ability to determine most effective enterprises

76

Improved Ability to Manage Animals

81

Natural Resource Management

Improved Understanding of Your Farm’s Eco-System

Improved Ability to Determine Appropriate Management to Address an Environmental Issue Implementation of Specific Management Practices to Remediate an Environmental Issue

Improved Understanding of Your Forage Composition

100 86 79

83

New York

100 % of Participants Experiencing Change 79

86

86

93

97

% of Participants

Human Resource Management

Clearer sense of what you are managing towards

100

Better Ability to Determine Resources Available to You

100

Improved Communications on the Farm

86

More Efficient Use of Resources

90

Improved Decision Making

90

Better Relationships

79

Ability to Identify Business Challenges from Previous Years

76

New or Improved Record Keeping Systems

76

New Policies and Systems Implemented Financial Resource Management

Strategies for More Effective Reinvestment in the Business Enhanced Understanding of Your Farm Finances

83

83

79

Changes in How Your Prioritize Expenses

83

Improved Ability to Incorporate Social, Environmental, and Financial into Your Land Plan

86

Improved Ability to Prioritize Land Planning Investments

Land & Livestock

Improved Ability to Articulate Goals and Objectives of Business to Others

% of Participants

90

Forge Relationships That Positively Impacted You

18

% of Participants

Post-Session Impacts Achieved

86

September / October 2015

2015 NY Class

The New York program was coordinated by Sarah Williford through Central NY RC&D. Instructors for this program included Phil Metzger, Erica Frenay, and Elizabeth Marks. Mentors for the program were Elizabeth Bunce, Tanya Moyer, and Alicia Purzycki. There was 94% satisfaction rating for the program overall by participants with a 92% satisfaction rating for the state coordinator and a 74% satisfaction rating for the mentors. Here’s what we’ve learned from our 18 New York participants, of which 15 graduated from the program: Of the 10 participants responding • 6 are currently farming and all participants said they intend to continue to farm or will start farming • The average years of farming was 3 years • The average age of the participants was 38 (range: 21 to 61 years old) • The average acres under production was 10 acres under production with a total of 80 acres influenced.

• The total customers of all participants was 70.

What was helpful about the program?

• I got encouragement when struggling and gained new knowledge • I learned how to turn farm goals into systems • I learned how much more I still need to learn, and that I still want to! It helps to break down things for better understanding.

• The testing questions were useful to evaluate and make informed decision.

• I have a better understanding of the relationship between forage animal #s and # of paddock.

Key Results of Training Program

Increased Satisfaction with Time Management

Increased Satisfaction with Ability to Determine Needed Profit

Increased Satisfaction with Ability to Make Complex Decisions Increased Satisfaction with Communication

% of Participants Experiencing Change 100

100 90

89

Increased Satisfaction with Quality of Life

78

Development of Plans/Behavior Change

% of Participants

Holistic Goal/Whole Farm Plan Financial Plan

Business Plan

100 100 78

Marketing Plan

78

Biological Monitoring

60

Forge Relationships That Positively Impacted You

89

Land Plan

Grazing Plan (grazers in group)

60

80

Results Experienced due to this Training Program

% of Participants

Clearer sense of what your farm is managing towards

100

More Efficient Use of Resources

100

Human Resources

Better Ability to Determine Resources Available to You

100

Improved Communications on the Farm

100

Ability to Identify Business Challenges from Previous Years

80

Improved Decision Making Financial Resources

Strategies for More Effective Reinvestment in the Business New or Improved Record Keeping Systems

Enhanced Understanding of Your Farm Finances Changes in How Your Prioritize Expenses

Clearer Sense of How Your Business Is Projected to Grow in Future Years

Improved ability to determine most effective enterprises Natural Resources

Improved Ability to Prioritize Land Planning Investments

Improved Ability to Incorporate Social, Environmental, and Financial into Your Land Plan

Improved Understanding of Your Farm’s Eco-System

Improved Ability to Determine Appropriate Management to Address an Environmental Issue

Massachusetts

100 90

90

80 90

80% 80

60 90

70 70

2015 MA Class

The Massachusetts program was coordinated by Devon Whitney-Deal through Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). Instructor for this program included Crystal Stewart, Calley Hastings, Missy Bahret, Jessie Schmidt, and Lisa McCrory. Mentors for the program were Lucy McKain, Laura Meister, and Marie-Laure Couet. There was 94% average satisfaction rating for all sessions and 85% of the participants noted they had increased their network as a result of the training. Here’s what we’ve learned from our 23 Massachusetts participants, of which 18 graduated from the program: Of the 14 participants responding • 10 are currently farming • The average years of farming was 4 years • The average acres under production was 34 acres under production with a total of 272 influenced • The total customers of all participants: Retail – total 380; Wholesale – total 23 What was helpful about the program?

• The training has provided a reality check for me to evaluate whether or not a “woman of a certain age” can develop a successful agricultural operation. It is possible given a balanced, holistic management approach to production.

• It’s given me the confidence that I can succeed as a farmer & do it in a way that will be sustainable for my life. It has given me any resources I could ever need & a basic overview of how to run a successful farm business.

• This training has been a great starting and building block for me in

my own development in future farming goals. It has showed me theoretical ways and real life examples of farmers who have high quality of life and are financially stable - something that has been very hard to see before this course. This class gives us the tools to set a higher standard for farmers to allow us to thrive rather than be broken down.

• It has been great to connect with other beginning women farmers of CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

Number 163

IN PRACTICE 19

Certified

Jeff Goebel

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.

CALIFORNIA

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

1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954 rking1675@gmail.com • 707/217-2308 (c) 707/769-1490 (h)

Mulville *P.O.Kelly Box 23, Paicines, CA 95043

707/431-8060 • kmulville@gmail.com

D. Nelson *11728Donald Shafer Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080-8994 208/301-5066 • nelson-don1@hotmail.com

Rob Rutherford

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

17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323 970/882-4222 • 970/739-2445 (c) wnc@gobrainstorm.net

IOWA Torray & Erin Wilson

4375 Pierce Ave., Paullina, IA 51046-7401 712/260-6398 (Torray) • 563/419-3142 (Erin) torray@gmail.com • wilsonee3@gmail.com

Bill Casey

KANSAS

1109 Timber Dr., Papillion, NE 68046 402/932-3405 • 402/250-8981 (c) Tater2d2@cox.net

NEW HAMPSHIRE Kate Kerman

350 Troy Road, Marlborough, NH 03455 603-876-4562 • 603/209-0946 (c) kkerman@phoenixfarm.org

Seth Wilner

24 Main Street, Newport, NH 03773 603/863-4497 (h) • 603/863-9200 (w) 603/543-7169 (c) • seth.wilner@unh.edu

NEW MEXICO

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

Kelly Boney

4865 Quay Rd. L, San Jon, NM 88434 575/268-1162 • Kellyboney_79@yahoo.com

Kirk Gadzia

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

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

AUSTRALIA

“Glen Orton” 3843 Warialda Rd. Coolatai, NSW 2402 +61 409 151 969 (c) • judi_earl@bigpond.com

MAINE Vivianne Holmes

Graeme Hand

*239 E Buckfield Rd.

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

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

Dick Richardson

“Spring Valley,” 165 Ironbark Lane Frogmore, Boorowa NSW 2586 61-0-429069001 (w) • 61-0-263856224 (h) dick@dickrichardson.com.au

MICHIGAN

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

Jason Virtue

MISSISSIPPI Preston Sullivan

*610 Ed Sullivan Lane NE, Meadville, MS 39653 prestons@telepak.net 601/384-5310 (h) • 601/835-6124 (c)

Roland Kroos

Ralph Tate

Judi Earl

13835 Udall Rd., Erie, KS 66733 620/423-2842 • bill.caseyag@gmail.com

Larry Dyer

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

Ann Adams

COLORADO Cindy Dvergsten

*

NEBRASKA Paul Swanson

*

MONTANA

P.O. Box 75 Cooran QLD 4569 61-0-754851997 • jason@spiderweb.com.au

Brian Wehlburg

Pine Scrub Creek, Kindee, NSW 2446 61-2-6587-4353 (h) • 61 04087 404 431 (c) brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au

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

Don Campbell

1105 S. Tracy, Bozeman, MT 59715 406/599-7755 (c) • montagne@montana.edu

Box 36, Langbank, SK S0G 2X0 306/532-4778 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net

Cliff Montagne *Montana State University

20 IN PRACTICE

Kathy Harris

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

Craig Leggett

U N I T E D S TAT E S Lee Altier

1033 N. Gabaldon Rd., Belen, NM 87002 541/610-7084 • goebel@aboutlistening.com

CANADA

Box 817 Meadow Lake, SK S0X 1Y6 306/236-6088 • 320/240-7660 (c) doncampbell@sasktel.net

Ralph Corcoran

September / October 2015

NEW YORK

6143 SR 9, Chestertown, NY 12817 518/494-2324 (h) • 970/946-1771 (c) craigrleggett@gmail.com

Erica Frenay

*Shelterbelt Farm

200 Creamery Rd., Brooktondale, NY 14817 607/539-6512 (h) • 607/342-3771 (c) info@shelterbeltfarm.com

Elizabeth Marks

1024 State Rt. 66, Ghent, NY 12075 518/828-4385 x107 (w) • 518/567-9476 (c) Elizabeth.marks@ny.usda.gov

Phillip Metzger

120 Thompson Creek Rd., Norwich, NY 13815 607/334-2407 (h) • pmetzger17@gmail.com

NORTH DAKOTA Joshua Dukart

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

SOUTH DAKOTA Randal Holmquist

*4870 Cliff Drive, Rapid City, SD 57702 605/730-0550 • randy@zhvalley.com

Bellows *NorthLisaCentral Texas College TEXAS

1525 W. California St., Gainesville, TX 76240-4636 940/736-3996 (c) • 940/668-7731 ext. 4346 (o) lbellows@nctc.edu

Guy Glosson

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

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.

Peggy Maddox

9460 East FM 1606 Hermleigh, TX 79526 325/226-3042 (c) • westgift@hughes.net

Peggy Sechrist

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

VERMONT Calley Hastings

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

WASHINGTON Sandra Matheson

*228 E. Smith Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226 360/220-5103 • 360/398-7866 (h) info@mathesonfarms.com

WISCONSIN Heather Flashinski

16294 250th Street, Cadott, WI 54727 715/289-4896 (w) 8 715/379-3742 (c) grassheather@hotmail.com

*

Larry Johnson

W886 State Rd. 92, Brooklyn, WI 53521-9102 608/455-1685 • larrystillpointfarm@gmail.com

Paine *N893Laura Kranz Rd., Columbus, WI 53925

6717 Hwy. 380, Snyder, TX 79549 806/237-2554 • glosson@caprock-spur.com

920/623-4407 (h) • 608/338-9039 (c) lkpaine@gmail.com

Guichon *BoxAllison 10, Quilchena, BC V0E 2R0

NAMIBIA Wiebke Volkmann

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

Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii

250/378-9734 • allisonguichon@gmail.com

Blain Hjertaas Brian Luce

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

Noel McNaughton *5704-144 St NW, Edmonton, AB T6H 4H4 780/432-5492; noel@mcnaughton.ca

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

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

NEW ZEALAND John King

Tony McQuail

*P.O. Box 12011, Beckenha, Christchurch 8242

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

SOUTH AFRICA Wayne Knight

86016 Creek Line, RR#1, Lucknow, ON N0G 2H0 519/528-2493 • mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca 306/432-4583 • JLPigott@sasktel.net

Kelly Sidoryk

Box 72, Blackroot, AB TOB OLO 780/872-9761 (h) • 780/875-4418 (w) 780/872-2585 (c) • sidorykk@yahoo.ca

Christine C. Jost

KENYA

ICRAF, Box 30677, Nairobi 00100 254-736-715-417 (c) • c.jost@cgiar.org

Iván Aurelio Aguirre Ibarra MEXICO

Pitiquito, Sonora 662-3210951 (c), 637-1231168 (c) rancholainmaculada@gmail.com

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

Solar Addicts, P.O. Box 537, Mokopane, 0600 South Africa 27-0-15-491-5286 +27 87 5500 255 (h) • +27 82 805 3274 (c) wayne@theknights.za.net

Sheldon Barnes

P.O. Box 300, Kimberley 8300 +27 82 948 2585 (c) • barnesfarm@mweb.co.za

Ian Mitchell-Innes

P.O. Box 52, Elandslaagte, KZN 2900 blanerne@mweb.co.za • 001-83-262-9030 (c)

Philip Bubb *32 Dart Close, St. Ives, Cambridge, PE27 3JB UNITED KINGDOM

44-1480-496-2925 (h) • +44 7837 405483 (w) pjbubb99@gmail.com

Development Corner

continued from page fifteen

all different backgrounds. Also, I’ve enjoyed looking at all of the different aspects of farming & how they fit together - holistically.

• I thought it was really well organized. There was clearly so

much work put into the organization. The teachers were well chosen and they all made classes interesting & engaging.

• I was extremely impressed with the knowledge & dedication of the presenters & the extremely thorough classes they held.

• It’s been great! Holistic Management is the way to go if you’re actually trying to be sustainable.

BWF Participant Behavior Change Holistic Goal/Whole Farm Plan

% of Participants 100

Financial Plan

71

Business Plan

57

Marketing Plan

64

Biological Monitoring

25

Land Plan

36

Grazing Plan (grazers in group)

0

Forge Relationships That Positively Impacted You

85

Key Post-Program Outcomes

% of Participants Experiencing Change

Satisfaction with Communication

64

Satisfaction with Quality of Life

Satisfaction with Time Management Key Post-Program Results

Clearer sense of what your farm is managing towards

Better Ability to Determine Resources Available to You More Efficient Use of Resources Improved Decision Making Financial Resources

New or Improved Record Keeping Systems

58

67

% of Participants 79

71

79 79

71

Enhanced Understanding of Your Farm Finances

64

Improved ability to determine most effective enterprises

71

Improved Ability to Incorporate Social, Environmental, and Financial into Your Land Plan

71

Improved Ability to Determine Appropriate Management to Address an Environmental Issue

36

Clearer Sense of How Your Business Is Projected to Grow in Future Years Natural Resources

Improved Understanding of Your Farm’s Eco-System Improved Environmental Conditions on Your Farm

64

71

36

THE MARKETPLACE l Services, Inc. KINSEY Agricultura

?

E R U T S A P E S N E D NUTRIENT-

How many animals truly receive feed that has been grown with correct nutrients added to the soil?

95+% of all pasture and hay soils we test do not have the fertility required to provide the animals that eat it with even close to good nutrition. What about yours?

You can only manage what you correctly measure. Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.

For consulting or educational services contact:

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

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

Soil test as soon as conditions permit to add lime or other needed nutrients for pasture and hay crops.

Number 163

IN PRACTICE 21

THE MARKETPLACE

2016 DATES!!!!

CORRAL DESIGNS

Holistic Management Trainings February 8-13, 2016 Albuquerque, New Mexico with instructor Kirk Gadzia We improve the way you manage your land, human and financial resources.

Introduction to Holistic Management Feb. 8-10: $495 Advanced Training Session (Requires prior attendance at intro session.)

Feb. 11-13: $495 Comprehensive Holistic Management Training Feb. 8-13: $895 Remember, profitable agriculture is not about working harderâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about making better decisions!

Pasture Scene Investigation

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:

www.rmsgadzia.com

GRANDIN LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS

Kirk L. Gadzia, Certified Educator

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

Information and Registration:

Resource Management Services, LLC Bernalillo, NM ~ 505.263.8677 kirk@rmsgadzia.com

22 IN PRACTICE

September / October 2015

970/229-0703 www.grandin.com

On-site Introductory HM Course

North Star Bison Seminar, Birchwood, WI

Sept. 21-24, 2015 Limited to 30

Durham Ranch Seminar, Wright, WY

Feb. 22-25, 2016 Limited to 15 Register now for this dynamicparticipatory course involving the Ranch staff and Roland Kroos, HMI certified educator.

Contact

Roland or Brenda Kroos (406) 522.3862 s kroosing@msn.com

www.Crossroadsranchconsulting.com

THE MARKETPLACE

Graeme Hand

Insight. Advice. Priceless.

New from ACRES U.S.A .

A Holistic Ve et’s Prescription for a Healthy Herd

CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

+61 418532130

• graeme.hand@bigpond.com

Enterprise design so you never run out of grass

RICHARD J. HOLLIDAY, DVM & JIM HELFTER

Systematic training and consulting in Holistic Management & Planned Grazing for excellent animal performance and land productivity

Learn to heal your cattle by treatin ng t h e cause and not the sym mptoms. ˞˦ˢ˥ˤ ˒ ǢŸ¯ǼOŸɚsNj ˒ ˠˣˣ Ƽ ¶sǣ ˒ ̱ˡ˟ʳ˟˟

The Art & Science of Shepherding

Improvement in soil health after 2 years supervised Planned Grazing

MICHEL MEURET & FRED PROVENZA, EDS.

Discover how traditional herding methods are more fitting to many landscapes than even the most progressive rotational grazing and moveable feencing systems. ˞˦ˢ˟˧ ˒ ǢŸ¯ǼOŸɚsNj ˒ ˣˢˣ Ƽ ¶sǣ ˒ ̱ˢ˟ʳ˟˟

1-800-355-5313ÊUÊwww..acresusa.com

Treatment

Control

Holistic Management Course Series Achieve success with — People: Learn to differentiate Canadian Holistic Management for Non-Brittle Environments Ontario, Quebec and Maritimes Tony McQuail HMI Certified Educator Contact now for upcoming courses in the fall of 2015 and winter 2016 mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca meetingplaceorganicfarm.on.ca 519-528-2493 Lucknow, ON

between standard of living and quality of life

Land: Leave a legacy,

Central Community College Hastings, NE Introduction to Holistic Management December 3-4 2015 Instructor Ralph Tate

improve the land

Holistic Financial Planning

Finances: Make a profit

January 29-30, 2016 Instructor Ralph Tate

every year

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

March 31, April 1-2, 2016 Instructor Ralph Tate For more information and to registration contact:

Bob Shields bob.shields01@gmail.com 308.379.1361 Number 163

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

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

Books and Multimedia

■

■

___ Grazing Planning Software (single-user license) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $100 ___ Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . electronic $30, hardcopy $45

Pocket Cards

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Planning and Monitoring Guides

___ Introduction to Holistic Management, August 2012, 128 pages . . . . $25

___ 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:

Software

___ Holistic Financial Planning, August 2012, 58 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

___ 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

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