#146, In Practice, Nov/Dec 2012

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2012

Farm Profit

NUMBER 146

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

by ERICA FENAY

~ INSIDE THIS ISSUE ~

Making a Life and Living from Your Farm

Financial Planning

M

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FEATURE STORIES

For such a simple concept, profit is a surprisingly slippery term.

Most people know that Income – Expenses = Profit. The problem lies in how people use the term. Let’s consider three examples that are laid out as black-and-white; in real life there are more nuances and combinations: Farmer A doesn’t include his own labor as an expense, and may also not include overhead costs, so when he subtracts his expenses from his income, the results for his chicken and strawberry enterprises each look pretty fantastic. He uses these figures to calculate his price, which is significantly lower than his full-time farming neighbors charge for a similar product. He has an off-farm income source with no aspirations to terminate this arrangement. He refers to his farm as being profitable, but his operation wouldn’t stand on its own financially without significant price increases.

Farmer B also doesn’t include her labor as an expense, but she keeps track of her hours invested in each enterprise. Then, when she subtracts expenses from her income, she takes the “profit” that’s left and divides it by the number of hours she put into that enterprise, coming out with an hourly wage for herself. She bases her product prices on the hourly wage she wants to have, and divides her overhead expenses among her mix of enterprises. She culls enterprises that don’t pay her well enough for her time, and is able to support herself full-time on her farm.

Farmer C tracks all his labor and includes a $13/hr wage for himself as part of his expenses ($10/hr + taxes and social security). When planning for profit for any one of his

Land & Livestock

Three Takes on Profit

Financial Planning is a critical tool for business success.

Read about how Joe and Peggy Maddox went from $3 million in debt with holistic financial planning on page 4.

Financial Planning is Adaptive Management

PEGGY SECHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Getting Out from $3 Million in Debt

PEGGY MADDOX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Learning How to Create Profit

JEFF ADAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Flooding and Investments

DON CAMPBELL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Cows and Pronghorn—Improving Wildlife Habitat

CHRIS GILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Price vs. Inventory Value Relationships— A New Way to Consider When and What to Sell

WALLY OLSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Little Land and Cattle—Stewards of the Land

HEATHER SMITH THOMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Moving to Higher Stock Densities

SALLIE CALHOUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

News & Network

y husband and I started Shelterbelt Farm in Caroline, NY last year, joining the ranks of new farmers across the country capitalizing on direct marketing opportunities and the demand for local food. Like most beginning farmers, I’m coming into a farming career from outside the production agriculture sector. I have been working on food and farming education for 14 years, but my experience running a farm business was nearly nonexistent. So I had a lot of the same questions as the new farmers who contact me in my role as coordinator of the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project. One of the first questions these new farmers typically ask is “How much profit can I expect my farm to generate?”

What they’re really asking is “Will I be able to support myself and my family from my farm income? Would I be able to quit my office job if I chose to?”

I’ve learned from dozens of conversations with farmers that the short answer is maybe. No one will be able to give you a magic formula with a list of crops to grow for the best bottom line. It depends on your scale, location, soil, skills, efficiency, and markets.

Ten different farms all growing a similar mix of crops will likely have vastly differing levels of profitability. This was well illustrated in the “Grower to Grower: Creating a Livelihood on a Fresh Market Vegetable Farm” study published by the University of Wisconsin in 2006, which followed 19 diversified vegetable farmers over the course of two years, and documented profitability in the form of hourly wages paid to the farm owners. The wages of the farmers studied ranged from $2.26/hr to $14.90/hr for their work. You can find this study online at: http://www.cias.wisc.edu/crops-and-livestock/report-helps-fresh-marketvegetable-growers-understand-and-share-finances/ Your profit potential also depends on what you mean by “profit”, and on your goals.

From the BOD Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Reader’s Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Kids on the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Farm Profit

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

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

STAFF Peter Holter . . . . . . . Chief Executive Officer Kelly King . . . . . . . . . Chief Financial Officer Ann Adams. . . . . . . . Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE and Director of Education Sandy Langelier. . . . Director, Communications and Outreach Frank Aragona . . . . . Director, Programs Matt Parrack . . . . . . . Director, Development Peggy Sechrist. . . . . Development Advisor

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crops, he subtracts all expenses (including his labor and a portion of the farm overhead), and still expects there to be money remaining as profit, which he can use for retirement savings, kids’ college, reinvestment into the farm, or any other purpose. This method of calculating profit reduces the farmer’s risk by ensuring that he could pay someone to take his place should he break a leg or get sick.

None of the examples above is “right” or “wrong”; they can each work for different people.

And in fact there is a lot of gray area here: examples B and C overlap in real life. The point is to make sure you understand which type of profit a farmer means when they say “The profit margin on culinary herbs is fantastic” or “We were profitable in our first year.” Most farmers will tell you that it takes 5-9 years to achieve true profitability, though it is possible sooner if you have very low overhead and advanced production skills. And make sure you understand which method of calculating profitability best fits with your farming aspirations.

Conclusion

Peggy Maddox . . . . . Director, Kids on the Land Program

Farm Goals

Peggy Cole . . . . . . . . Project Manager, Texas

Profit doesn’t just happen; you need to plan for it and make it happen. Most farms in the US, regardless of size, have some source of offfarm income, whether by choice or necessity.

How your farm fits into your lifestyle and your livelihood—and how much profit it generates to support your family--is up to you.

Like many small farmers, my husband and I started out homesteading, with a desire to produce as much of our family’s food as possible. Now that we are growing into a commercial operation, feeding our family is still a high priority. We know that our farm will need to be profitable—using the Farmer B meaning here—but profit is secondary to our quality of life, like having free time in the winter, eating really good food, working outdoors, and being our own bosses. We will probably always have an off-farm income source, by choice, as my husband loves his carpentry work, so there are some things (like health insurance and retirement savings) that we don’t necessarily expect the farm to provide.

Other farmers meticulously plan their operations to generate the greatest possible profit. Richard Wiswall points out in The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook that it is entirely possible to make a living on a small farm that is competitive with doctors’ or lawyers’ salaries. You can earn enough to fund your retirement and to put your kids through college.

You can do this and also still have some of the

Mary Girsch-Bock . . Grants Manager Carrie Nelson . . . . . . Store Manager / Customer Support

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sallie Calhoun, Chair Ben Bartlett, Past Chair Clint Josey, Vice-Chair Jim Shelton, Secretary Ron Chapman, Treasurer Gail Hammack Wayne Knight Judi Earl Zizi Fritz Jim Parker Christopher Peck Kelly Sidoryk

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT In Practice (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by: Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: hmi@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org

Copyright © 2012

2 IN PRACTICE

quality of life benefits mentioned above.

But you must be devoted to the focus on profit; persistently culling crops or animals that don’t meet your profit goals, gaining efficiencies and cutting costs that aren’t essential.

If you are not willing to put in that kind of intensive management work and focus on return-on-investment, you can still make a living on your farm, but you’ll likely still need some off-farm income.

November / December 2012

Despite popular thinking, farming can be enormously profitable. Why shouldn’t it be?

Producing food for people is a critical community service that requires no less skill than doctors or computer programmers possess.

Still, an important role for an ag service provider is to ensure that first-generation beginning farmers don’t enter this profession too starry-eyed. It’s especially important for a new farmer to understand that just because she saw local organic chicken fetching $6/lb or meslun mix at $18/lb at the farmers market doesn’t mean that those farmers are getting rich. More likely it means that they have done a full accounting of their farming costs and have set prices that will cover these costs and also pay themselves a “livable” wage (which may still be quite low).

Be clear on your goals, have a good understanding of your costs, and set your prices accordingly. With a bit of skill and luck, you’ll be able to achieve your farm profit goals and make a good life on the farm for you and your family.

Erica Frenay is co-coordinator of the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project, www.nebeginningfarmers.org, housed at the Cornell Small Farms Program. She is also co-owner and operator of Shelterbelt Farm in Caroline, NY, www.shelterbeltfarm.com. She can be reached at ejf5@cornell.edu or 607-2559911. This article was originally published in Small Farm Quarterly Magazine in June, 2011.

Financial Planning is Adaptive Management

by PEGGY SECHRIST

F

inancial Planning. A dreaded time for many. The term financial planning reminds me of numbers, and that reminds me how intimidated I became of numbers in seventh grade. I had a coach pretending to be a math teacher, and he sat at his desk and read from the math book.

We were suppose to learn (on our own apparently) how to do the calculations.

Financial planning is a lot more than number crunching so if you’re like me, you can breathe a sigh of relief. There is some number crunching to be done in holistic financial planning, but more importantly there are decisions to be made. Lots of them.

Financial planning is about “planning,” not just record keeping. It is an empowering approach to planning for a profit and managing your operation to achieve it. In this way, there are fewer surprises that sometimes suck all the air out of your gut. If those changes do occur, you usually become aware with enough time to make adjustments.

My husband and I have been through numerous changes and adjustments in our operation over the past 18 years. Here is one short story.

Gross Profit Analysis In the fall of 2011, we began some planning for 2012. We currently manage two enterprises: a small cow/calf enterprise where we keep the weaned calves to finish on grass and market the beef locally. My husband’s off-farm job is managing a CSA-type enterprise we call a Co-op in partnership with a farmer friend who

Gross Profit Analysis Projected Income: (from 8 weeks of labor) 270 chicks – avg. 4 lbs. at $ 4.25/lb = $ 4,590.00 Direct Expenses: 300 Chicks Oregano oil Propane Feed Processing fees Projected Profit:

$ 365.00 50.00 200.00 1,688.00 810.00 $ 1,477.00

grows organic vegetables and fruits.

Locals from surrounding communities join and then receive a box of produce every week for 25 weeks and buy beef from us whenever they wish. This collaboration meets many values and objectives in our holistic goal.

Because we have experience producing pastured poultry, many members of our Co-op want us to raise them again. The weak link to doing so was having a way to process the chickens. When it looked like that weak link was remedied, we began taking a look at production by completing a Gross Profit Analysis.

In doing our Gross Profit Analysis we allowed for a 10% death loss and projected a 33% margin on processed birds. Plus if we choose to, we have the capacity to double the production to 600 chicks for very little additional labor further increasing our return for an eight-week production period.

Looking fairly good so far. Next we look at the financial weak link testing question. This question raises the question, “Is there a weak link in our financial chain of production: resource conversion — product conversion — marketing?”

Well we know from sending out an email that all the chickens we can raise and process will be sold, so marketing looks strong. Now looking at product conversion, based on past experience, we feel confident that link is strong.

Finally, we come to resource conversion.

This one causes us concern. 2011 was the hottest, driest year ever on record in Texas.

Forage just burned up and disappeared.

Weather forecast for 2012 improved somewhat yet came with strong caution. Research tells us chickens on pasture fill their diet with approximately 30% in forages. This is what increases the omega 3 fatty acids and is a major reason Co-op members want our chickens. The feed cost in our Gross Profit Analysis (GPA) is based on the ability of our chickens to consume forages along with their feed. If weather conditions impact the volume of forage we can grow, we could make up the shortage by feeding the chickens out of a bag… …and our GPA goes way out of whack. It would be really easy with forage shortages to lose all

Peggy and Richard Sechrist have learned the value of financial planning to help them know what enterprises are right for them regardless of market demand. our profit margin into extra feed. We also know that a dry ground creates a lot of dust; and chickens do not do well with dust.

Using our values and experience to help us make a decision, we decide to hold off starting chickens. We set a “go/no-go date” that fit our needs in order to assess the climate.

And when that date came, we knew we were not going to begin any chickens this summer.

Having that date and being clear why were making that decision and the financial ramifications took the stress and uncertainty out of that decision. It allowed us to more easily adapt to the current situation.

Maybe our story will help you see how financial planning is as much about planning and decisions as it is numbers. It provides a way of seeing ahead of time where your profit can be made or lost which is a valuable tool for a farmer or rancher in uncertain times.

Peggy Sechrist is a Certified Educator who lives near Fredricksburg, Texas. She can be reached at: peggysechrist@gmail.com.

Number 146

IN PRACTICE 3

Getting Out from $3 Million in Debt

by PEGGY MADDOX

A

s we look back over our life in the ranching business, there are sign posts that appear and one can say, “I was changed at this point in my life.” Joe and I have three such sign posts we can point out that changed us.

The Maddox family began practicing the principles of Holistic Management in 1986. The road that took us there is the same as for many others—“We aren’t making it in ranching. After 70 years of ranching, spanning four generations, we were nearly bankrupt.” We could see that the land was deteriorating, more bare ground and invasive species, and we knew that our stress level was only increasing.

Our ranching operation was located in Mitchell and Nolan Counties of West Texas. We ranched 22,000 acres of owned and leased property. The livestock was pastured using a light, continuous grazing management practice.

Over the years, we had tried cow/calf, sheep, custom grazing, and winter wheat farming. We even summer grazed yearlings on what is now called the Valles Calderas Preserve at Los Alamos, New Mexico. If you were in the ranching or farming business in the 1970s it was believed that the way to continue to make a profit was too get bigger—get more land— expand. Money was easy to borrow and so we fell right into that trap. You went to the bank and asked for a bigger loan, somehow never expecting to make a profit, but just get by one more year. And that’s the way we had been doing it. We just mortgaged more assets. Maybe it would rain more, or prices would go up. But by the late 1980s we were heavily in debt.

Continue to Learn In 1981 and 1982, our children, Marjori and Dalton, went off to college. I went back to college also because I knew I needed a job to bring in some income. By 1985, I had graduated

and was teaching school. Our daughter was married, and we had convinced Dalton to stay at Texas A&M and get a master’s degree because we were not going to be able to stay in the ranching business. It was at this time that Joe heard about a guy who said you could double your stocking rate. He went to San Angelo, Texas, and listened to a talk by Allan Savory. He came home very excited about the possibilities of our being able to stay in ranching. Joe decided he had to go take a course in Holistic Management. Our first lifechanging sign post.

Then Joe did a remarkable thing. He took me and our son, Dalton, with him to that course in Albuquerque. The course was 7 days long, and by the end of it we had gotten the message that our situation was our own fault. It wasn’t the weather, cattle, sheep, or wool prices, the government, the banks, or anything else. It was us and the way we managed and made decisions. We never were thinking for ourselves, just going with the flow or simply doing what we had always done. So we had gone to Albuquerque to learn how to double our stocking rate, but we learned a new decision making framework. We learned that we had to decide what we wanted—what was important to us—as a family and in our business. It was great that Joe took the family with him because we all were ready and felt like we knew how to change things.

Be Proactive We wrote our first holistic goal in our pickup on the way home. It was pretty simple—we

want to be out of debt. At that time it was $3 million—interest $900 a day. We questioned everything we were doing. We put all our livestock together into one herd—5,000 ewes and 400 cows. We sold property; we sold equipment; we monitored our expenses every day. At one point, we were using a team of mules and a wagon to move things on the ranch. We took more Holistic Management courses.

After learning Holistic Management financial planning, we went to the bank and we asked them not to foreclose. We asked if they would let us just cash flow the next year, and because we had the financial plans that we had learned to put on paper, they agreed. We became proactive, not reactive. In the past, we were always reacting to a crisis. Debt was controlling our lives. We took back control when we began to look at things holistically and with an open mind to a world of ideas. We were not afraid of being creative anymore. We did not borrow any money that year and the bank did not foreclose.

Get Creative One of the creative things we did was to involve others. The main ranch we had was 17,000 acres and it was leased property. It had been leased by the Maddox Family for 60 years. That ranch was held in a trust by a large bank in Fort Worth, Texas. We went to them and told them about Holistic Management because our land was not the only property they held in trust. We convinced them to send someone to a Holistic Management course. They were able to see the importance of what we were trying to accomplish on the land. After that, we were able to get financial help from the trust to build the infrastructure we needed for the whole ranch land plan. Our owned and leased property was divided into 13 paddocks. Over the next few years, we eventually had the property divided into 65 paddocks. The paddocks varied in size from 95 acres to 1,050 acres.

Hard Work Pays Off

The Maddox Family in 1990— Joe, Peggy, Dalton, and Gretchen

4 IN PRACTICE

November / December 2012

“Grazing our sheep and cattle together, using Holistic Management planned grazing, became a great benefit,” says Joe. “In just six years, bare ground decreased from 28% to 14% without any seeding of new grasses. Dozens of new and preferred plant species such as Indian grass, Texas blue grass, Arizona cotton top, big blue stem, and hooded windmill cropped up where only prickly pear once stood.”

Changes in the natural environment of our property were very rewarding. Before we never considered the work the dung beetles and microorganisms like earthworms were doing for

us. We began to celebrate the signs of their work. And then one day, we found a new spring on the ranch or an old one that had been recharged. We knew we were trending toward the future resource base in our holistic goal.

And then the next big advancement the family made happened when Bud and Eunice Williams came to live at the ranch. Our second life-changing sign post. Low-stress livestock handler, Bud Williams, taught the Maddoxes his techniques for handling all kinds of livestock, managing for predators, plus shearing our sheep the Australian way. Handling the livestock became easier. The stocking rate increased from the recommended one animal unit per 30 acres to one to 13.5 acres. The ranching operation was supporting 30 rams, 900 ewes and lambs, 650 cows and calves, and 800 yearlings.

Over the next 12 years, we continued to improve our financial situation, our land, and our lives, just like we had written in our holistic goal.

Dalton returned home and married Gretchen soon after. Their honeymoon was in Amarillo, Texas, for a course in Holistic Management. She told us, “I am a city girl, but I love the ranch and want a family raised in the country.”

Dalton and Joe worked the ranches together. Dalton added a hunting operation to the ranch enterprises. He was always thinking of new ways to bring in income. We changed our bottom line from debt to profit. I was always trying to cut expenses and we had some lively discussions at our planned team meetings. We increased our average gross income to $1400 per day. We cut our cost from $100 per head per year to $20 per head per year.

Each year, when it came time to do our financial planning, we tried to make it a special time, even getting away from the ranch for the planning. We always included more training as part of our wealth generating expense. Dalton used his knowledge, whether it came from his agriculture background or his ability to think “outside the box” to keep the ranch improving its bottom line. As part of our quality of life, we added a family vacation every two years as a must for us. We began that tradition in 1989 and have continued it every two years since.

Adaptive Management Training in Holistic Management saved our family from disaster. I think that the looming financial disaster was what made it so easy for our family to make the changes needed and not look back. Over the years, allowing ourselves to think creatively, has helped us to move forward.

In 1999, we learned that the trust was planning to sell the 17,000 acres of our operation that had been leased by the Maddox family since

Learning How to Create Profit

by JEFF ADAMS

R

With improved financial planning came improved grazing planning and improved range productivity leading to more income generation.

One sign of improved land productivity was water returning to a dried up spring on the Maddox Ranch. the 1920s. Once again we were looking at debt as we began to proactively plan for that sale.

This time, the debt required to buy the irrigated land we wanted was not so scary. We knew we had the tools to make the debt work for us.

When the sale came and the ranching infrastructure of our home place was moved off, we found our next sign post.

Joe and I received a call from HMI, asking us to check out a property the organization had inherited near Ozona, Texas. Later in 2001, Joe, and then I, in 2002, went to work for the organization whose training had taught us so much. Dalton and Gretchen and their family built a house and moved to the newly purchased irrigated farm. He continues to manage the ranches today while running a real estate business on the side. We have since started our own herd of cattle suited for grass finished beef.

As the family has grown to include 6 grandkids, one married, 3 in college, one in high school and one in elementary school, family vacations are more difficult to plan, but we have one coming up in 2013. We don’t know where we are going yet, but we know we have a tool that will help us keep on track to move toward what we value and help us create the life we want.

Peggy Maddox is a Certified Educator who lives near Ozona, Texas. She can be reached at westgift@hughes.net.

ecently the ole light bulb came on when I had a financial epiphany of sorts. Before I dive into the epiphany let me provide some background. Recently Ginny and I attended a two-day financial workshop taught by Holistic Management International as part of their Future Farms series in the Upper Piedmont of Virginia.

This is a course that challenges many of my farm paradigms.

The two day course revolved around a simple accounting formula known to many: Income – Expenses = Profits

Many of you may have seen this formula on more than one occasion.

The thing is Holistic Management turns this traditional formula on its head. Math is math and math allows the change so that the new formula is: Income – Profit = Expenses There is even a third version of the formula that I have never seen, but as long as you have two of the variables you can determine the third: Expenses + Profits = Income The first formula is a line in a 1960 presidential campaign by then Senator John F. Kennedy, who said: “the farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.” This line sums up the traditional commodity farmer. A commodity farmer is in a position of acceptance. These farmers often work under contract to large multi-national corporations.

They accept whatever prices the large corporation’s demands they work for.

The corporation is concerned for the corporation and doesn’t care about the farmer’s plight.

You purchase many of these products from the grocery on a weekly basis, you know them: milk, poultry, beef, corn products, wheat products, etc. Let me explain. If you look at a typical dairy operation, the farmer sells his milk to a CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Number 146

IN PRACTICE 5

Flooding and Investments

I

want to share a couple of personal experiences dealing with flooding. The first involves my dad. Our ranch is on the flood plain of the Beaver River. In the 1950s flooding was a major concern. In 1956 we experienced a spring, a summer, and a fall flood. Times were difficult. I clearly remember Dad thinking about relocating. In the end he didn’t, but it was a possibility. Instead of relocating Dad bought some land that didn’t flood. He also was instrumental in forming the Beaver River Ranchers Association. This gave our local producers more power to lobby and was a useful tool.

Dad was also able to make a deal with Ducks Unlimited (DU). This resulted in extensive diking on our land and flood control gates to help us benefit from water in the spring and not be flooded at other times. The DU deal has benefited our ranch for over 45 years now.

The benefits will continue into the future.

The second incident occurred in July 1997.

We were being flooded and decided to move some of our cattle through the flood plain to higher ground and grass. The move was a mini disaster. When darkness fell we had cow/calf

by DON CAMPBELL

pairs spread over 2 miles of land. They were all in the flood plain. In the flood of 1974 the water had risen 5 feet in one night. I knew this was a remote possibility in 1997. I clearly remember lying in bed and thinking: “What would happen

Remember that life’s trials are not meant to break us but to make us. if the dike broke before we could finish moving the cattle?” The answer was clear. They would all drown.

I needed to sleep, but couldn’t until I reached some degree of peace. I thought about it and decided that if all the cattle drown we would be OK. We would have a much lower net worth, but we could continue to ranch and have a great life. This allowed me to get some much needed rest. Of course the dike didn’t break and the cattle didn’t drown but that experience has stayed with me ever since that day. It has helped me have a good perspective about life

Learning How To Create Profit creamery who converts the raw product into a gallon of milk on the grocery self. The creamery sets the price on both ends. The creamery gives the farmer a price that he can take or leave. 99.9% of the time the farmer is forced to take the price, to keep a roof over his head.

What you may not know is that in this arrangement the farmer generally losses money on every gallon of milk he sells. The creamery is the middle man, and the middle man is making the money. This is why so many dairy farmers go out of business every year.

Commodity farming is defined by:

continued from page five

exchange. But I am not a commodity farmer.

The formula Holistic Management is teaching puts me in the driver’s seat. It is a formula of control not a formula of acceptance.

Income – Profits = Expenses

and what really matters.

We know that even with our dike system we will be flooded from time to time. We have about 1,000 acres of land that doesn’t flood. Most of this land is very sandy and light. The traditional production has been very poor. Part of our flood strategy has been to improve that land. We are doing this by planned grazing and bale grazing.

The next time it floods we will have 1,000 acres that isn’t flooded just like we have always had, but we will have production from that land that will look like 5,000 acres. This is an ongoing project. We plan to build a road this year that will allow us to access more of this land and continue on our flood insurance plan.

I realize I haven’t told you anything you don’t already know. My hope is that this gentle reminder may help you refocus, use the knowledge you have and move ahead in a positive manner. If talking would help you please feel free to contact me.

Don Campbell is a Certified Educator who resides in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. He can be reached at: doncampbell@sasktel.net or 306/236-6088.

have known about the formulas, but I couldn’t see the proverbial forest, because of the proverbial trees. But it does explain why I would turn people down offering to make a purchase at lower than listed prices.

It took a week to have the epiphany, but I am so grateful to Seth Wilner, our instructor, and HMI for opening my eyes to a simple life changing formula.

By selling at farmer’s markets I control my income, and the course has given me the tools to sharpen my pencil on expenses. No longer Jeff Adams owns Walnut Hill Farm at Elm will I sit back and accept. This epiphany has Springs, LLC, near Fredricksburg, Virginia. my mind going a thousand miles per hour. It He can be reached at: jvadams@verizon.net. has given me a boost of much needed energy.

I am looking at so many changes on the farm because of a simple Income – expenses = profits formula change—it is unbelievable.

Before I always accepted If you made it this far, here is the epiphany.

Under this type of farming the farmer is a slave expenses never understanding that I could control expenses; not in little to the formula. The farmer can’t control his income, and by and large he can’t control his ways but in big ways. Gone are the days of trying to lower an electric expenses—sad but true. When I take my bill by $5.00, when I should look at calves to the sale barn I have two basic choices: 1) accept the bid price or 2) carry the seriously reducing a $40,000.00 feed bill. Bigger bangs mean bigger calves back home. This really isn’t a choice because the tractor payment is due tomorrow. bucks.

Jeff Adams on Walnut Hill Farm at Elm Springs In the back of my mind I must This is true throughout the commodity moving cattle.

6 IN PRACTICE

November / December 2012

LIVESTOCK

&

Cows and Pronghorn—

Improving Wildlife Habitat

by CHRIS GILL

T

his is the second in a series about how domestic animals like cattle can help wildlife and habitat in desert grasslands. Our first introduced Cows and Quail, HMI’s new range and wildlife program which focused on quail.

Our topic in this article is the most characteristic large mammal of far-West Texas and New Mexico: the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana).

Unlike bison, pronghorn were never found outside the high plains and grasslands of the American West nor ever far from bison. When bison were most plentiful, there may have been 50 million pronghorn! This close association of pronghorn with bison contains the main clue to their conservation and restoration.

No Cows, No Pronghorn Far-West Texas pronghorn numbers have declined about 80% in the last 20 years. No “expert” can say why, or what to do. During these same years, cattle, which in many ways are like bison, have been moved off the ranges and into feed lots. Sadly, connecting the dots between these facts seems to have eluded our academic, range and wildlife bureaucracies.

The smart and dedicated people working on this problem have been trained not to question the core assumption that removing large grazers from desert ranges is good for habitat and wild animals.

The key insight to understanding and reversing pronghorn decline is this: Pronghorn, as a species, is dependent upon other large grazers.

That’s it. As the manager of the 250,000-acre Armendaris Ranch in the Jornado del Muerto observed to our Cows and Quail class, “No cows, no pronghorn.”

When the nomadic herds of bison and other wild animals disappeared, cattle, sheep, goats, burros and horses replaced them. But for decades now, an unprofitable ranching economy and negative institutional advice have combined to remove livestock from our Southwestern desert grasslands. The universally-accepted range theory of the land grant universities, and government agencies says that land and wildlife must be protected from large numbers of animals.

While it is true that conventional grazing has damaged our Western ranges, the disappearance of large grazers and of diverse animal communities creates another phenomenon called “over-rest.” This is as deadly as over-grazing: For a long time now most range damage has come from over-rest, not from over-grazing. Ask the next person who tells you total rest restores desert grasslands how his own lawn would look if it went 30-years without mowing or fertilizer!

While pronghorn are physiologically complex, their “must-have” list is

short. Like the canary in the coal mine, pronghorn is a “bellwether” species which disappears first when ranges decline. Pronghorn need healthy habitat that contains free water, the ability to move across large areas to food, lots of forbs to eat, tall grass and plants in which to hide fawns, and generally-open country where they can see their enemies coming from a distance and be able to flee. Let’s look at these critical needs.

■ Food: As there is no artificial feed that pronghorn will readily take, they are dependant on naturally-occurring forbs (“weeds”): To find these, pronghorn must move across large areas to where these grow after often distant and spotty desert rains. Pronghorn will show up 2 days after a rainstorm, having moved many miles: How do they know to do this? Many ranchers think that weeds are useless to their cattle. In fact, cattle get about 30% of their diet as forbs. So a healthy weed community, something that over long-term depends on soil disturbance from large animals and their fertilizing dung and urine, is good for both domestics and pronghorn. Brush poisons like Spike kill weeds for many years: use with extreme caution if at all!

■ Fences: Sheep net or other low-to-the-ground fences are problems because pronghorn will not jump fences. These are widely-blamed by experts for pronghorn decline. At Circle Ranch we modify as many of these as we can afford in any year by lifting the bottom to be 18” above the ground. But, long after net fencing came to our ranges, we still had large pronghorn numbers. Sheep and goat ranching, the reason for these fences, disappeared 35 years ago. During this same period of pronghorn decline many old fences have been falling down. The disappearance of the sheep and goats once concentrated within has harmed pronghorn more than the old fences themselves because we have lost the animal impact that kept plants healthy. Modify your fences so that pronghorn can scoot under them. This allows them to flee predators and travel to food.

■ Predation: Another “problem” for pronghorn is predation. 80% of pronghorn fawns die within 60 days, and 80% of these are taken by coyotes. Pronghorn fawns need covering grass where they can be hidden by their mothers. Unlike other big animals, pronghorn will not stand and defend their young. The reason pronghorn can outrun any predator is that they evolved with meaner, more numerous and faster predators than those that are left. So they evolved to usually drop twins and to run away, and to herd with bison which will attack predators Mr. Coyote, however, is an effective little “wolf” who, with no predators of his own anymore has become more numerous. Coyotes are particularly effective against baby pronghorn. So we have to have dense plant cover if pronghorn babies are to survive. Destocking the ranges causes weeds and grass to die, causing bare ground and brush invasion.

Brush hides predators. Allies are missing; smaller numbers are more CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Number 146

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Price vs. Inventory Value Relationships— Cows and Pronghorn

continued from page seven

A New Way to Consider When and What to Sell

by WALLY OLSON

Editor’s Note: The following article is an explanation of a way to explore marketing cattle in the way taught by Bud Williams.

T “Circle Ranch pronghorn numbers, as seen here, have increased during a period in which far-West Texas has seen an 80% decline.

But the Circle has been under grazing of some kind since 1880 and under holistic planned grazing since 2000.” vulnerable. With respect to the “obvious” solution of helping pronghorn by eradicating coyotes remember this: The history of wildlife management proves predator eradication eventually backfires and harms the animals we wish to “protect.” Nature has worked this out better than any wildlife “manager.”

Pronghorn need grass cover, weeds, open country, and a ‘big brother’, not predator eradications. Cattle will help with each, provided we plan grazing to leave high residual forage. This is a win-win: Planned graziers have discovered that cattle performance improves if just the upper third of the growth is grazed. High residual grass conserves soil moisture. Plants recover faster, providing food and cover for wildlife and allowing earlier re-grazing.

■ Drought:

Drought is another factor. Many experts are blaming pronghorn decline on weather. But the long-term decline in range conditions across the West has continued through several wet and dry cycles. Some experts say that climate change is the culprit even though the climate has not changed (yet). All our droughts are more intense because rainfall has become inefficient as plant cover has been replaced by bare ground. Most far-West Texas rain runs off or evaporates immediately. Planned graziers understand this because we study ecosystem processes, especially the water cycle, including plant spacing, soil crusting, and whether or not there is turf and root mass to catch rain like a sponge. Since pronghorn need free water, the water that we provide cattle helps them, but note: Common cattle practices such as cutting water off in order to move cattle will harm your pronghorn and quail.

■ Worms: Another problem for pronghorn is worms. With the loss of animal impact on the ranges, we lose the forbs that are found in these plant communities. Pronghorn have a big liver that allows them to digest toxic weeds. What would poison other animals including worms nourishes a pronghorn. To the extent pronghorn decline is caused by parasites, we are likely seeing some disruption of nature’s worm medicine associated with habitat decline. Some now-missing plant or organism used to suppress worms. Worms are symptoms, not root causes. Animal CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

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oday the price of cattle is high in relationship to where they were. They may be cheap to where they may be going. We don’t know what the market is going to do. What we do know is what the market is today and the relationship of the price to what we have in inventory.

The inventory is made up of three things: 1) animals that we own; 2) grass; and 3) money.

Time is a fourth resource we have both from the perspective of what we do with it or how much time we keep an animal before we sell it.

There is a risk of the market changing in animals that take a long time before selling so we need to factor that into our decisions.

To find the relationships of the animals that we own, we need to compare the value of them and the cost to carry them to the weight or time frame when they are overvalued. The prices that are used are good only for “TODAY” to compare and find the ones we want to sell and keep.

Cattle Prices Example: Joplin Sale 2/13/2012 425# Steers @$202/cwt = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $858 425# Heifers @$175/cwt = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $743 Young Bred Heifers & 6 Year Old Cow. . . . . . . $1,700 7-9 Years Old Cow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,400 Old Cow 1050#@.89/# = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $934

Cost Comparisons ■ Heifers

vs. Steers: All marketing is based on the numbers and relationship between the values of different classes of animals. The first relationship is steers to heifers. The $115 dollar difference ($858-743) is based on a $27 dollars/cwt difference.

Value to me is a $10 spread between steers and heifers. In other words, when the spread between steers and heifers is over $10 the heifer is undervalued and the better buy. Or, in this case the heifer is the one to keep because she is undervalued to the steer. Because the steers are overvalued to the heifers, they are a sell.

■ 425 lb. vs. 475 lb. Steer: Now that we know the steers are a sell to the heifers. We need more numbers to find out if the time is right to sell them. The numbers that we need are the cost to carry and the value of that gain. My cost to carry a calf on dry native range plus 38% cubes is 50 cents per day. That is the value of the grass at custom rates and the cost of the cubes. They will gain about ¾ pound per day.

425# steer @$202/cwt = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $858 475# Steer @$195/cwt = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $926 50# gain value = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $68 50# gain cost = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $33 > Net value = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35

We now know that if we keep the 425-pound steer to a 475-pound steer we will gross $68. It will take 66 days to get there and the sale date will be April 19. At a cost of $33 dollars, the net dollars are $35. The value of gain was $1.36 ($68/50# gain).

■ 425

lb. vs. 525 lb. Steer:

425# steer @$202 = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $858 525# steer @$182= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $955 100# gain value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 97 100# gain cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $66 > Net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $31 By adding 100 pounds we got $97. It would take 132 days at a cost of $66. Net dollars would be $31.The value of gain was $.97/pound. When you compare the 475 pound steer to the 525 pound steer the value of gain drops by $.58. Carrying the 425 pound calf to 475 pound was good, but the next 50 pounds was not. For me in Northeast Oklahoma, it easy to sell into grass fever which is in April when the 475 pound calf would sell.

The 525# calf would sell in June when the fever is out of the market.

What the numbers tell on the steers is that 425# calf is a buy compared to the 475# calf “TODAY” and the 525# tells that “TODAY” the market is not paying as much for the 50# from 475 to 525 pounds as it would for the 50 pounds from 425 to 475. This information tells me I should sell the 475-pound calf.

■ Heifer vs. 6-Year-Old Cow: When looking at the heifers and cows we see that value of the young cows is higher than the heifers and also the old cows. We will now look at the relationship of the heifers and cows. My cost to carry a heifer to the point it is bred is $255. This cost is based on custom grazing rates for the grass and labor and feed at cost. The numbers tell us that a 6 year old cow will drop in value as she becomes a 7 year old.

Sell 6 year old cow =. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,700 Keep 425# heifer = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $743 > Cost to carry = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $255 > Cash from Trade = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 702 What we have done is sold a 6 year old cow and keep one of our heifers. By doing this we have given up the sale of the calf the cow would have had which at today’s market is worth $720 ($800 calf value x90% calf crop= $720). By doing this trade we have sold a cow that is ready to drop in value and replaced her with a heifer that is appreciating in value.

We also have $702 in cash in the bank. The difference in the cash we have now and the sale of the cow’s calf is $18 dollars. However, there are other gains with this trade including: picked up 4 years in a younger cow, removing the cost of carrying the cow for a year, and reducing the market risk with the time of carry to sale.

■ 7-

to 9-Year-Old Cow vs. 10-Year-Old+ Cow:

Sell 7-9 year old cow = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,400 Keep heifer = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $743 > Cost to carry = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $255 > Cash = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $402 Old cow = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 943 Keep heifer = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $743 > Cost to carry = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $255 >

The calves from 6 year old cows and older carry a big depreciation cost, but you can see how the longer you hold on to a cow the more costs there are as well.

As I gain more knowledge of the relationships of the market two things are paradigm changes for me: Paradigm 1 – When calving with nature, not only are costs lower, calving rates go up and animals sell into the best markets.

Paradigm 2 – Longevity may carry some costs with it. Depreciation is not a straight line. It’s more like going over a cliff. With longevity you need to know the value to you and how you are going to handle the costs along with its benefits.

Wally Olson ranchers near Vinita, Oklahoma. He can be reached at: olsonranch@junct.com

Cows and Pronghorn

continued from page eight

impact will work better than worm poisons to deal with this, and it will avoid the unintended consequences that come with chemicals and poisons.

■ Habitat Fragmentation: Another reason given by the experts for pronghorn decline is habitat fragmentation: The subdivision of huge areas into smaller areas. And yet, we have huge areas of unfragmented habitat across Texas from which pronghorn have completely disappeared. Examples would be the Wildlife Management Areas, state and federal parks, the International Biosphere Reserves, and many vast ranches. All have in large measure been destocked. Large domestic grazers like cows are one (but not the only) common-sense substitute for the missing bison.

In summary, habitat decline and missing protection of large grazers is the root cause of pronghorn decline: not hunting, coyotes, cattle, fences, worms or weather. Pronghorn decline is a symptom of rangeland decline—especially loss of forbs. Animal impact under attentive planning and management is the only effective medicine. Collaborative grazing efforts between neighbors are also critical. These are blocked by prejudice to ‘exotics’, and not just cows.

And this brings us to Cows and Quail. We are teaching ranchers, wildlifers and agency personnel what planned graziers have proven worldwide: That domestic animals can bring the plant community to greater health. But here we must pose a major caveat: Unless this tool of planned grazing is applied with an understanding of the needs of all these species, it can harm wildlife. Fortunately, it turns out that the needs of pronghorn, quail and wildlife converge with the needs of cattle. Planned grazing works for all animals provided that we consider the physiology of plants and animals, are attentive managers, and continuously monitor results.

Watch for a Cows and Quail near you. Tell us where you think classes like this would be useful.

Chris Gill and his family own the Circle Ranch near Van Horn, Texas where they are using cattle to improve wildlife habitat. www.circleranchtx.com

Cash = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . < $55 > Number 146

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Little Land and Cattle—

Stewards of the Land

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

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he Little family has been working with land and livestock for several generations, finding a balance that is productive for grass, grazers and the humans who manage them. It all began when Andy Little came to Idaho from Scotland in 1894 and arrived in Caldwell with just a suitcase and 2 border collies. He traveled on foot to a ranch near Emmett, Idaho to start working as a herder for another Scotsman. Eventually he bought land of his own in that area, and with his son David their operation became one of the largest sheep producers in the world.

The Journey to Planned Grazing Brad Little (3rd generation) says the family branched out into cattle, and then his father (David) sold the last of the sheep in 1962. “I bought another sheep operation about 30 years ago and sold it about 15 years ago, but we continued to have cattle all along,” he says. The operation now has about 20,000 acres of private land and has also depended on grazing on BLM allotments, but has given up their Forest Service allotments.

“From a grazing standpoint we are probably very traditional in our grazing practices, but we’ve always tried to improve the land as well as the livestock. My dad had a big battle with the Forest Service over an anadromous (migrating) fish stream on the edge of a wilderness area. He spent a lot of money in that battle, ended up winning, but decided there had to be a better way,” says Brad.

“At that time my dad became acquainted with Gus Hormay (a silviculturalist who became the father of “rest rotation” grazing management systems (that were adopted by the land management agencies in the 1960’s). My dad went to one of Dr. Hormay’s schools. At that time, Dr. Hormay was under contract with the Forest Service.”

“My grass monitoring photos of our grazing areas go back to some that Gus Hormay took during the mid-1960s when we’d go out and look at the range. Dad was pretty rigorous about implementing full-blown rest rotation,” recalls Brad.

A few other ranchers also started rest rotation programs about that time, but it didn’t catch on overnight. “Like Allan Savory once said, some of these ideas are picked up by a ranch in the next county or two counties away because many ranchers are reluctant to adapt to what their close neighbors are doing. But there are some ranchers here in Idaho who are firm disciples of rest rotation, and this is also still a part of our management system,” says Brad.

“One of the biggest challenges in implementing any kind of planned grazing is the time it takes, and the need for more training in these principles. But over time we have tried to use holistic planned grazing in conjunction with traditional rest rotation,” he says.

“We seem to have big fires about every 20 years. We had Gus come here in 1986 after the big fire that year and we consulted with him, and he basically just told us to keep doing what we were doing.”

Beyond Rest & Rotation The Littles became more involved in Holistic Management, and feel that it has given them a much wider view of options in resource management. “Back then, holistic planned grazing meant putting in lots of fences. I went through this, and when I first went to one of those schools Allan Savory did a really good job of ticking me off, telling me that 10

Land & Livestock

November / December 2012

From Left to Right: Judy Little Hinman, David Little, Gus Hormay, Jim Little, Brad Little everything I did was wrong, and that the universities and range scientists were stupid. It’s a good thing I’d paid a non-refundable fee or I might not have made it through that school! But I stuck it out,” he says.

The school was in Albuquerque and the demonstrations were on some land that was pretty tough. “I realized there was quite a bit of logic to Savory’s ideas. Then I went to a couple more of his schools after that.

The man who runs the ranch for me (for 25 years now) also went to one of the HRM (Holistic Resource Management) schools.” Every ranch is different and you have to adapt these ideas to fit your own land and situation.

It’s hard to quantify the results that the Littles have achieved through their greater use of planned grazing. When asked if their move toward Holistic Management has increased production (grass, animals, financially), Brad says that it’s hard to say, because all of their grazing applications have been combined with their traditional types of planned grazing.

“It’s an on-going learning process, but our efforts have given us a deeper appreciation of biological diversity. Grazing systems are very dynamic and require constant monitoring,” Brad explains.

“Our operation has changed a lot over the past several decades.

We’ve given up all our Forest Service ground,” he says. “There was too much bureaucracy and too many hoops to jump through.”

“They’d tell us that if we’d spend another $20,000 building fence they’d allow us to continue using a certain area—and then something else would come along to make it difficult or impossible. I had an allotment that didn’t have salmon in it, and then they planted salmon in the stream. After that they basically put me out of business because of all the complications to take care of the fish. We had to deal with the Department of Commerce and all the fisheries, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, etc—about 4 different agencies. It became so cumbersome we had to give up on it,” he explains.

Growing More Grass The Littles purchased additional ground, moving toward more private base for the operation. “We leased some industrial timber ground that

was mainly trees—and managed it under a rest rotation system. We are probably implementing more rest rotation and planned grazing management on our own private ground, however. One piece of land we bought had been seeded to brome grass. All the old-timers up there said a person had to cut it and put it in windrows before the cows would eat it. I wasn’t going to use a bunch of fossil fuel to do that,” says Brad.

The Littles made it work by putting a lot more cattle on that pasture, using it at a different time during the growing season with intensive grazing. “I fly over Idaho now and then, and when I fly over that valley it’s easy to see that our place is the greenest. We put the cows in there early, graze it off, and move on to the next pasture.”

There’s almost always some regrowth on those pastures, and this is also where all the game is, in the fall. “They’re in there at night, not the daytime, because it’s out in the open,” he says.

The land has improved and today is much healthier than it was when the Littles bought it. “The former owner had been farming it, trying to grow grain and then trying to grow grass seed,” says Brad. “I kept thinking I should seed it to some different grasses, but we just kept grazing it and it just kept recovering. Native grasses started showing up. From a production standpoint it has far surpassed my wildest dreams. We kept picking up more ground, leasing some places around it, and have been very happy with those pastures.”

There were some big fires on their middle range, and after the fires they seeded those pastures lightly with a mix of grasses and forbs. “We seeded it all from an airplane and I think one time I only used 4 pounds of seed per acre and another time I used 6 or 7. We added forbs, legumes and different grasses, but not so much that it would have a negative effect on the native perennials. We’ve been very happy with that seeding. What used to be just annual grasses (cheat grass, medusa rye) 30 years ago is now a nice mix of perennials,” he says.

“The higher elevation pastures have a little better soil and recover a lot faster. The lower elevations have been rewarding, however, to see the change. We are basically just using rest rotation on those pastures. One of the main reasons we don’t rotate them more often is that they are big areas and we don’t have enough water. We would move the cattle more if there was more water available,” explains Brad.

Teaching Others “One of our neighbors up there was originally a logger from California.

He bought his place for use as a big game ranch. The first year he had a few deer and elk there, and the next year there were less. He wasn’t grazing it at all, and by the 4th year he didn’t have any game on his place.

Then we caught him hunting on our side of the fence. We asked him what he was doing there and he said we had all the game. My foreman helped educate him about the value of grazing management and he’s now become a disciple. He developed a lot of water on his place and is adamant about having us graze his ground because the grazing has improved the wildlife habitat. Since he has a cabin there and lives there a lot, he really sees the difference,” says Brad.

Proper grazing helps abused land recover, and also allows for more plant diversity. “I told my son David that we don’t need to seed any more of our land. We have enough diversity now, and we can just keep going with good grazing management. We have some other pastures that if they burn we might introduce some seed, but for the most part the right kind of grazing is all you need to do.”

His son is now working with their longtime foreman in helping run the ranch. “I think he plans to spend a little more time looking at a broader view of some of the alternatives. When I was in the sheep business I learned a lot about land management because we did high intensity grazing (and not staying very long in any one place). We started the sheep right at the Oregon line in the spring and went clear to the backside of the Sawtooths. We followed the Boise River all the way up there. We had a few tough spots where all the sheep bands in the area went through, right behind each other. We kept them well spread out most of the time—with big numbers like 2,000 to 2,300 in a band,” says Brad.

“One of the interesting things about that showed up when we were on a tour with the Forest Service, on some tree plantations. They showed us one they’d just planted and told us we had to stay off of it. Then there was one they planted a couple years earlier. My foreman had been working for the sheep operation since 1958 and had been on that ground for almost 50 years running the sheep on it. He said to the Forest Service person: ‘You know that tree plantation you told us we could go back on in a year or two? We’ve been taking a band of sheep through here every year.’

There were 2 people on the tour—the range person and the tree person and they could see where the sheep had come in. That was the end of numerous tree plantation meetings that we’d had.”

“When the plantings are brand new, we stay off them, but after that the grazing is beneficial for young trees,” he explains. The seedlings do much better when the competing grass is grazed down—and this also removes some of the cover used by the rodents that damage the trees.

“On our own cattle operation we do the same thing. We were leasing part of our grazing land from Boise Cascade and in the early 1960’s Gus Hormay convinced their timber manager of the value of rest rotation; he CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

The Little’s main ranch is the Harvey Ranch that sits just south of Emmett.

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Little Land and Cattle

continued from page eleven

was a good disciple of managed grazing. They did the same thing—they planted some trees and fenced out the cows, but the fence crew missed part of the area where the plantation was. So they had an exclosure and an inclosure with the same seeding. Where the cattle grazed, the trees all did very well, and where the cattle were fenced out (no grazing) the tree seedlings all died out. That was a great test showing the benefits of grazing,” says Brad.

“Some of our riparian areas look a little tough right after the cattle graze there, but if you look at those areas during any of the rested years they look absolutely great. The Department of Environmental Quality did an analysis and we had a neighbor up there with a season-long use pasture inside of ours. He grazed his ground all year round, every year.

When he saw the government people out there he was worried—because he knew his ground was going to look tough, next to our rested pasture.

Today that pasture has been incorporated into our system and it looks good—whether it was bitterbrush regeneration or perennials.”

Biological Community Challenges Their biggest challenge now is ground squirrels. “We have too much bare soil in the area they’ve taken over. The hunters shoot all the predators so there are no coyotes to prey on the ground squirrels. There is hardly any raptor habitat in that region so we don’t have those predators either. The badgers come in after the squirrels and that makes it even worse. This area used to be habitat for long-billed curlews and burrowing owls—both of which are sensitive species. They were doing great until the squirrels came in.”

In earlier years there were a few badgers and some pocket gophers, but no ground squirrels. “Perhaps they will eventually have some kind of plague and die off, but right now there is a huge overpopulation of them.

We’ve had to lease other places and winter the cows on corn stocks because we’ve lost so much winter feed to these squirrels. Their population is definitely out of balance because we don’t have adequate predator pressure. Of all the challenges we’ve had (including noxious weeds, grasshoppers and fires), the squirrels are the worst,” says Brad.

The Littles have had some success controlling the weeds. “We really watch for yellow star thistle but we don’t have any of that yet. The leafy spurge we can control if we get right on it when we find it. We discovered that the tall perennial pepperweed, skeleton weed and whitetop can be eaten by cattle at certain times of year to help control those. When we

The Littles also run their cattle on a ranch in Round Valley (just south of Cascade).

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were moving the cattle off the desert in the spring to rest it, we saw what they were eating while we trailed them through; they will eat those plants at a certain stage. So we will change our management next spring to have the cattle hit these when they are palatable,” he says.

The Right Animal for the Right Place Having the right animal for the unique needs of certain grazing areas is also a piece of the Littles’ grazing planning. “A friend of mine operates solely on irrigated pasture and does a lot of research. He told me he is going to make his cows smaller. He’s done the math on cow efficiency and after all the years of making our cattle bigger he’s now going to make his smaller. He’s buying the pasture for them—and it’s all private and irrigated. We know that some of our cattle were getting too big also, so we’ve been selecting for more moderate frame size. We want the cattle to match up with our resources and be able to get out and work in our pasture conditions,” says Brad.

“We used to take all our yearlings to the mountains, but now run them on our neighbor’s place (the hunting ranch) because they are so much easier on the riparian areas than are cows and calves. It also makes better cattle out of them; we were spoiling our replacement heifers for awhile, keeping them on easy pasture.” Yearlings are the best group to utilize the rougher country because they are ambitious and will climb the steepest mountains, and want to explore what’s over the next hill. They don’t spend as much time down in the bottoms around the riparian areas.

“One time we went to gather the yearlings and they were in country so steep that we couldn’t get up there to them; we had to wait until later in the fall when they came down on their own. I don’t think they were coming to water but every 2 or 3 days,” he says. In cool weather, in good feed, cattle will often get by just watering every other day.

“We are exploring the possibility of more use of our rough country with yearlings. Some of the ranchers in the Owyhees are having a hard time with their riparian areas and I’ve talked to some of them about converting to yearlings in the canyon lands. They have pressure from the land management agencies because they have slickspot peppergrass on one side and sage grouse on another side. This is a real problem for some of those ranchers. Some of the windows they are being given to graze those species are making life pretty miserable for those ranchers,” he says.

The Littles continually monitor their pastures and try to improve the health of the land and forages. Today they use digital cameras to monitor the changes. “With the old cameras we often spent a lot of time trying to find our old picture-taking spot. We may convert to a new digital camera that has the GPS coordinates on the photo. It will simplify the monitoring.”

Moving to Higher Stock Densities

by SALLIE CALHOUN

T

his month I am going to take off my Board chair hat, and talk about the fun stuff—grazing, fences, water and grass. I am so excited about what the team at the Paicines Ranch has done over the last 18 months that I just have to share it with folks who will appreciate it. It has been a great adventure, lead by ranch manager Chris Ketcham, with lots of help from Gabe and Ricardo. Over that brief time period, they implemented a new land plan that increases stock density on average by a factor of 5 and lets us really control where and when cattle graze.

Grazing Implementation Changes The seeds of this effort go back a few years. Chris and I were trained in Holistic Management in 2004 and 2005, and we have been practicing on the Paicines Ranch since then. We were running a cow-calf herd and seasonal custom grazing using mostly set stocking in large paddocks. We did not figure out how to do holistic planned grazing in any meaningful way until we decided to sell the cow herd (a drought and high cow prices helped with that decision) and concentrate on planned grazing with a seasonal herd of steers.

We implemented holistic planned grazing in the 2009-10 season with our existing large paddocks after making minor improvements to the water system. We had a single herd of about 2,000 steers from midOctober until mid-June, and we moved them through most of the paddocks once during the grazing season. Our two largest paddocks were 1,100 and 1,500 acres, and the grazing time in these paddocks was as long as 40 days. We were getting great recovery times for the few perennial grasses we had, but there was the probability of over-grazing the perennials at times, and also the roller coaster ride of animal performance, as pointed out by Ian Mitchell-Innes at a workshop in March 2011. The good news, though, was that after just two seasons we could see an impact on the number and variety of perennial grasses in our predominately annual grassland—an important part of our future landscape description. It was enough to be motivating.

Devil in the Detail We needed the motivation because Chris and his staff were not optimistic about the smaller paddocks and more frequent moves. No one in the group had had good experience with electric fence, and they held many common beliefs, including: 1. Moving cattle that frequently was going to be a lot of work.

2. Electric fence would not really work.

3. Maintaining the electric fence would be a problem.

4. The animals would be more stressed with the moves.

5. How much difference would it all make with an annual grassland?

6. Installation was going to take a lot of time and money.

In spite of these concerns we decided to take the plunge and move to smaller paddocks on all 7,000 grazed acres for the 2011-12 season. A number of wise advisers suggested moving slowly, and dividing only part of the ranch, but Chris felt strongly that if he was going to go to the effort to train the steers, the whole ranch should benefit. He spent a lot of time planning the new paddocks during the spring of 2011, including a week spent with Frank Aragona and Brady Gibbons of HMI mapping the existing water system, fences, and new electric fencing. We used all single wire permanent electric fence and went for an average paddock size of 200 acres, giving us an average stock density of about 5,000

lb/acre at our current stocking rate. The plan allowed us to set up the smaller paddocks on the entire ranch without any further water system work—all it took was 29 miles of wire installed between June and December, with the last bits done as the cattle approached the new paddocks during the grazing season.

Behavior Modification To say that we learned a lot this season would be a dramatic understatement. The cattle started arriving in mid-October, with much of the new electric fencing installed. The first challenge was training the incoming weanlings to the fence in groups of 100-200 animals. Chris developed a system using hot wire in the corrals over a period of 3-4 days, followed by a few days in small paddocks nearby. Once it was clear that the new group respected the fence, they were moved out on to the ranch to join the growing herd, which was moving every 3 days. Over about 6 weeks, we received, processed, trained, and moved out 1,800 steers, ending up with a single herd moving according to our grazing plan.

The good news was that the electric fence and the trained steers were working perfectly. The bad news was that there was no rain. In central California we bring in steers in October when the rains start and plan a drought reserve through late January or early February. This season we got one large rain early in October and then nothing except wind and warm temperatures. Our wettest months are normally January and February, but still nothing. The hills finally turned green in early April. Fortunately, we had a large amount of feed from the preceding season because of late spring rains, but the steers were on dry feed until early April. Our only fencing problems were with older, barbed wire fences, some of which did not hold up well under the higher densities. Luckily, our neighbor was very understanding about having 1,800 steers appear one night.

Water Challenges Our big problem was water. Parts of the ranch have natural water – the San Benito River, the Paicines reservoir, and natural springs, but on about half the ranch we rely on city water, a livestock well, and some stock ponds. When we started grazing one large herd in 2009 we added additional troughs and tanks. Our standard trough installation consists of 3 4-feet x10-feet concrete troughs placed end-to-end. This gives us 1,500 gallons and 64 feet of drinking space.

Unfortunately, most of the pipes throughout the ranch are only ¾ inch, CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Importance of Family Farms Three key features of U.S. Agriculture highlight the importance of family farms.

1. Small family farms (those with less than $250,000 annual sales) make up 88% of all farms.

2. Large scale family farms – about 10% of all farms – account for disproportionately large 72% share of value of production.

3. Farming is still an industry of family businesses. Nearly 98% of farms are family-owned and account for 88% of production.

SOURCE: USDA ERS(ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE)

Number 146

Land & Livestock

13

Moving To Higher Densities

continued from page thirteen

so recharge time is too long. Before we divided into smaller paddocks we had more than one water source in many of the paddocks, but not after the change. The water situation was marginal at best, and it was exacerbated by the lack of rain. There was no water in the stock ponds, and with dry feed, the steers were drinking about 30 gallons/day, rather than the 20-24 that we had planned on. When the troughs went dry, valves got broken. We ended up having to move the herd at times because there was just no water in a paddock, and we even hauled water on a few occasions. Grazing this part of the ranch was not fun.

There were many positive surprises and learnings during the season, though, including, 1. It takes a lot less time to check 1,800 steers spread over 200 acres than 7,000 acres or even 1,500.

2. It is easier to keep troughs and fencing working in one paddock at a time.

3. Training the steers is not that difficult, though it takes time.

4. The deer go over the fence, and the pigs go under, so there is little maintenance, unless the neighborâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wild cow gets in.

5. The herd gels faster than you would think, and at least 80% of the cattle move themselves.

6. In a drought situation being able to easily put all the animals where you want them is a huge advantage.

7. It is easy to move electric fence 8. You need a lot more space around water troughs than you would think.

9. When troughs donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t recharge quickly enough things get broken.

We did, of course, finish the season with a long to-do list, including: 1. Major water system improvements 2. Some small fence moves to facilitate herd movement.

3. Some clearing in the riparian corridor for more electric cross fencing and easier moves.

4. A plan for using temporary electric fencing to divide some of the more productive paddocks.

5. A plan to coordinate grazing and oak tree planting.

And, of course, we wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the real impact on the grasslands for years.

Improving the water system is our big action item for this off-season.

We are still in the planning stages, evaluating 4 different proposals. We are designing for a herd of 3,000 steers, but are also evaluating proposals based on the possibility of going higher than that, or needing more water for a cow/calf herd in the summer.

The leading plan at this point would give us 500 gallons/minute up on the ridge. From there we would run 3-inch pipe to the troughs and would be able to eliminate an old booster pump that requires hauling fuel. We are still evaluating costs and other elements of the various proposals, like ongoing labor required, maintenance issues, and side benefits.

This decision is particularly challenging because we are at the point of having to make a big wealth-building investment that will impact the ranch for 50 years or more We have done the incremental changes and now are just up against a limit, but if we are committed to large herds and planned grazing, something like this has to happen. Our plan is to get the new system installed for the coming season.

The end result of our aggressive move to smaller paddocks is that everyone involved in the cattle operation is totally sold on electric fencing and comfortable with frequent moves. We are just beginning to understand the possibilities presented by our new level of control over the tool of grazing and are excited about what is happening with the perennial grasses. So, even though we had terrible weather, the effort was a great success. I have read plenty of these stories over the years in IN PRACTICE, but it is really exciting when you see it on your place. If you have been thinking about moving in this direction, but hesitating, I would encourage you to give it a try. Feel free to contact us if you have specific questions about our experience.

Sallie Calhoun is HMI Board Chair and owner of Paicines Ranch. She can be reached at: sallie@paicinesranch.com.

Ranch Manager Chris Ketcham by some the current watering system for the Paicines Ranch.

Stock density can create challenges for watering system as the herd moves toward the watering troughs.

14

Land & Livestock

November / December 2012

From the BOD Chair

DEVELOPMENT CORNER

Collective Impact—The Way To Make a Difference

by SALLIE CALHOUN

H

MI is on a fast track—growing every aspect of the enterprise to reach out, collaborate, and make a measurable difference—in line with its mission: “To educate people to manage land for a sustainable future.”

One thing our CEO, Peter Holter, continually talks about is the value of collaboration. He often says, “…together, we can do what we cannot do alone.”

At the Board level, we feel the HMI team is on the right track, reaching out to other organizations, agencies, and individuals who share our concerns and value our mission. In turn, we see real value in the work many of these folks do as complementary to HMI’s mission. In order to accomplish our mission and make our efforts successful, we want to incorporate and share the best of all worlds to bring the smartest solutions to the table.

The initial results of these collaborative efforts have been positive—from more attendance and participation at HMI events— with positive feedback, and increased and measurable impact, to growth in funding and revenue, to positive responses to HMI efforts in the social media—and among many of the collaborators. As we introduce a model that measures impact—changes in knowledge, changes in behavior, changes in triple bottom line results , and changes in overall community impact—our ability to fit in to a collaborative model grows.

More and more, funders and granting organizations are asking for two things 1) What is the true impact or return on investment we will see for this investment of money? 2) Who are your collaborators? Those organizations that measure impact perform better and evolve faster, and discussions around measuring impact almost always lead to new ideas about effectiveness and efficiency.

One Foundation—the Mulago Foundation— has this definition of measuring impact: “Impact is a change in the state of the world brought about by an intervention. It’s the final result of behaviors (outcomes) that are generated by activities (outputs) that are driven by resources (inputs).”

The Mulago Group goes on to say that “impact can always be generated by spending a ton of money, but that approach won’t give good value for the philanthropic dollar and it won’t be scalable (and it probably won’t last). Stick with the key impact you’ve chosen; don’t get sucked

into the current trend of trying to monetize every social impact you can think of.”

The real value of HMI’s mission statement, its holistic goal, and its core business strategies is that it imposes a discipline on the organization to “stick to its knitting” and not try to be all things to all people. As our CEO likes to say, “For real results, consolidate and focus!”

It turns out HMI’s efforts are right in line with the latest thinking on the subject in the rapidly changing world of non-profit enterprises.

Accountability, impact, and measurable results are—now more than ever—critical to success. A recent article from the Stanford University Social Innovation Review speaks clearly to the need for collective impact in the non-profit sector, citing the difference between “isolated impact” and “collective impact.”

As the article indicates, “the nonprofit sector most frequently operates using an approach that called ‘isolated impact.’ It is an approach oriented toward finding and funding a solution embodied within a single organization, combined with the hope that the most effective organizations will grow or replicate to extend their impact more widely. As a result of this process, nearly 1.4 million nonprofits try to invent independent solutions to major social problems, often working at odds with each other and exponentially increasing the perceived resources required to make meaningful progress.

“Despite the dominance of this approach, there is scant evidence that isolated initiatives are the best way to solve many problems in today’s complex and interdependent world.

“Collective impact initiatives depend on a diverse group of stakeholders working together, not by requiring that all participants do the same thing, but by encouraging each participant to undertake the specific set of activities at which it excels in a way that supports and is coordinated with the actions of others.

“This requires a fundamental change in how funders see their role, from funding organizations to leading a long-term process of social change. It is no longer enough to fund an innovative solution created by a single nonprofit or to build that organization’s capacity. Instead, funders must help create and sustain the collective processes, measurement reporting systems, and community leadership that enable cross-sector coalitions to arise and thrive.

Family Farm Planning with Beginning Women Farmers

by JESSIE SCHMIDT

F

or the past three years, I have had the privilege to coordinate the Whole Farm Planning for Beginning Women Farmers course at UVM Extension as part of HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Program. This unique course offers women farmers training in Holistic Management, a farm business planning strategy based on personal values and respect for the triple bottom line— financial, environmental and community sustainability. But beyond the valuable training, the opportunity for women farmers to gather—sharing their knowledge challenges, questions and concerns—has proved one of the most lasting benefits of this course.

Consistently, women in the course share the struggle of balancing family and farming, creating a viable business with being true to their values, and honoring themselves while nurturing the life they are responsible for all around them.

Many beginning women farmers are drawn to farming because they want to create a lifestyle for their family that fosters a connection to the earth, allows them to work from home and with their children, and gives them the ultimate control over their schedules and lives.

But often, this vision is complicated by the demands of farming itself. One farmer shared the story of being in the barn at night, feeding livestock with one arm, while nursing her infant daughter in the other arm. She remembered thinking, “What am I doing? This is crazy!” Other women shared apprehension about starting families, wondering how they would continue growing their new farm businesses while pregnant or with an infant. Some were juggling parenting, farming and off-farm employment needed to keep the farm financially afloat, and wondering how long they could manage. Many participants were pursuing farming as a second career with adult children, and shared their struggles both from their CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

Number 146

IN PRACTICE 15

Development Corner continued from page fifteen

previous careers and from bringing multiple generations into the farm business.

Through the discussions and commiserating, no easy answers arose and all admitted that the juggle was a challenge. But we know this is not unique to farming. A recent article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” in the Atlantic Monthly by Anne-Marie Slaughter lays out the myths about pursuing a corporate career while being a mother. She also points a critical finger at the prevailing culture that still values commitment to work over commitment to family, and supports only a linear progression from the start of a career up the ladder of success, with pauses or lateral moves putting career success in jeopardy.

In reflecting on the article, I recognized the paradigms held by many farmers—that they need to work 80 hours a week to have a successful business. Bigger is better. All other priorities come second to the success of the farm. Slaughter presents a pathway to a new definition of family-work balance. However, women farmers in Vermont are clearing a path

Future Farms Program Upper Piedmont

T

hirty-eight enthusiastic participants in the Upper Piedmont Future Farm program gathered in Sperryville, Virginia, July 16 for their first workshop in Holistic Management principles. This group grew out of a very successful HMI program requested by Cliff Miller two years ago. Cliff wanted his community and his county to learn to make wise decisions that would preserve the rural beauty of this gateway to the Shenandoah area of Virginia.

If farmers could look toward a future of sustainable practices that would help them ecologically improve the land and succeed financially, while contributing to the quality of life that brought these folks here, they could keep

by example, shaping their farm businesses to complement their commitment to their families.

Julie Rubaud, mentor for the Whole Farm Planning course participants in 2010, is the owner of Red Wagon Plants. She transitioned from produce farming to a plant business in part to allow her more flexibility to be with her children. Penny Hewitt, mentor in 2012, focuses on intense direct marketing of her farm products while homeschooling her children—using the farm as their year-round classroom. Mentor Kristan Doolan, works with her husband fulltime on their goat dairy and cheese making business. They focus on thoughtful growth that keeps what they love, their family and

The 2011 Vermont Whole Farm Planning Class

the land in agriculture and resist the demand to subdivide and sell, as many other areas close to Washington, D.C. are doing. He asked HMI to help.

Cliff’s vision resulted in a pilot class in 2011 with 9 farms /12 individuals. The class was a success and this year has grown to 24 farms with 40 individuals. These producers from farms in Rappahannock County and the entire Upper Piedmont region hope this whole farm planning training will help them all become more sustainable, so they can remain on the land and their communities can remain rural. They brought a variety of experiences and farming operations to the training led by Certified Educator Peggy Maddox and Project Manager Peggy Cole.

The introductory session taught by Peggy Maddox in July was experiential and fun resulting in lots of learning and positive evaluations. The class had the visual of her slides, the warmth of her personal stories, the aural of her hotel Certified Educator Peggy Maddox leading the Rappahannock course.

16 IN PRACTICE

managing their land and animals, at the heart of their life.

Holistic Management shows how using personal values to guide and shape the development of a farm will build a successful business as well as a fulfilling life. While there are no easy answers, the management strategy allows women farmers to value their commitment to their families alongside their commitment to their farm businesses, visioning for themselves what it means to be a successful farmer. And as the number of women farming in Vermont grows, the networks they are creating mean that no woman has to struggle with these issues alone.

Jessie Schmidt works for University of Vermont and is the Vermont State Coordinator for HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer Program. She can be reached at: jessica.a.schmidt@uvm.edu.

November / December 2012

bell at the “remember this” statements and the kinesthetics of role-playing a case study.

The participants left looking forward to their next sessions, which includes webinars and on site class training. The class self-selected into learning pods in order to gather at sites near their farms for the webinars so that they can learn better in small groups and begin a permanent network of peer support.

In August New Hampshire Certified Educator, Seth Wilner joined Peggy Cole and the class in Little Washington for Holistic Management Financial Planning. Seth kept the class engaged and chuckling as he explained the importance of knowing what it costs to produce each product in your enterprise selection. Lecturing no more than 22 minutes at a time (the average adult attention span for lecture), Seth alternated explanations and exercises that had the students filling out worksheets on all sorts of financial bits leading toward a sustainable plan for making profit and investing it in the business wisely.

Another offsite webinar with the learning groups provided management teams support to work through some logjams and adverse factors with suggestions flowing from their peers. HMI’s Excel-based template complete with formulas that make analyzing enterprise expense sheets seamlessly into the annual plan was a big help for the participants.

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 awarded USDA grant

H

MI is excited to announce that we received another USDA NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant to fund our Beginning Women Farmer Program for three years through 2015. We will be offering whole farm planning training to 360 women in New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Texas. The total grant amount is for $671,377 of which HMI is matching 25% through support from foundations and donors. If you would like to make a contribution to the program please contact HMI. If you would like to learn more about how to participate in the program, contact HMI at hmi@holisticmanagement.org or 505/842-5252.

Oklahoma Dollars & Sense Workshop

O

ver 50 agricultural producers and educators attended the Dollars & Sense Workshop in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on August 9-10th. This two-day workshop was focused on introducing key components of Holistic Management to participants including farm and ranch goal setting and decisionmaking, biological monitoring, and grazing planning. Instructors included Ann Adams, Frank Aragona, and Kirk Gadzia. In attendance also was a strong contingent from the Oklahoma Young Farmers Alliance. In the evening, long-time rancher Wally Olson led a session on Bud Williams livestock marketing.

Thanks to Kim Barker and Wally Olson of the Oklahoma Land Stewardship Alliance for their efforts in organizing this event. Thanks also to sponsors, Dixon Water Foundation, Oklahoma Grazing Land Conservation Association, and American Farmers and Ranchers.

National Small Farm Conference

D

r. Ann Adams presented a poster at the 6th Small Farm Conference in Memphis, Tennessee on Sept 18-20, 2012. The poster presentation was on the results of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Empowering Beginning Women Farmers in the Northeast through Whole Farm Planningâ&#x20AC;? that was funded through the USDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program from 2009-2012. HMI has had that grant renewed to continue that training in

Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Vermont, and Texas. Over 700 farmers, Extension educators, government employees, and non-profit agencies attended the conference. Whole farm planning was one of the key short courses offered at the beginning of the conference and there is great interest in effective online instruction for farmers and ranchers. HMI is working to fill that need with online courses that will provide similar outcomes to our place-based programs which show high levels of implementation of planning processes and attendant results including improved decision-making, profits, and land productivity.

2012 Saskatchewan Tour

C

ertified Educators Ralph and Linda Corcoran held their first graduation tour at their ranch in August. The tour consisted of the people from the first 5 courses they taught since 2009 until April 2012.

Dave and Val Pogson introduced Kids On The Land with a Canadian twist. The kids did activities while out touring the land and also while the parents were in classroom. The program immediately got the children together and very interested in what they saw on top of and below the ground and in the surrounding environment.

The objective of the tour was for people to meet each other and to answer questions that occurred in the first year or two of Holistic Management.

When the participants were questioned about what they wanted to get out of the tour and what concerns they have run into in their first year or two of Holistic Management, networking and being with like-minded people was as important as seeing the grass.

While the adults did a pasture walking talking about animal performance, grass recovery periods, and host of other topics, Dave and Val had the kids throw hula hoops and study the grass, soil, other plants and insects inside the circle.

After lunch the kids colored a horse picture and worked on an animal search puzzle. Dave dug up some plants and soil plugs for the kids to look at and see how the roots and soil work together. This project included studying earthworms under a magnifying glass and describing their role in the soil. The kids

Dave Pogson explaining and getting ready to throw the hoop

released the worms and watched them burrow in the soil.

In the evening people from the local Holistic Management Club arrived for games and supper. The group was divided in half and each group did an activity. Supper time was spent visiting with new and old holistic managers.

The second day of the tour was an introduction to Holistic Management. The objective of this day was to give people that wanted to learn about Holistic Management more information and a hands-on look at the land.

The enthusiasm was high on both days.

They liked what they heard about keeping costs, stress, inputs and work load low while profits go higher. One and two day tours are very good educational tools with those educational workshops and field days as investments that pay solid dividends. With people traveling as far as 300 miles away, people were eager to learn and network and explore additional training opportunities.

To learn more about these educational opportunities in Saskatchewan, Canada contact: Ralph and Linda Corcoran (306) 5324778 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net Langbank, Saskatchewan or Dave and Val Pogson (204)825-7684 dvpogson@xplornet.com Clearwater, Manitoba.

In Memoriam

I

t was with great sadness that HMI learned of the passing of Bruce Ward in New South Wales Australia. Bruce was one of the first Australians to complete the Certified Educator Training Program (in 1994) and went on to train many practitioners throughout Australia. As a highly respected and knowledgeable educator he also served as an educator mentor for HMI as well as serving on HMIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Technical Review Committee and helping with curriculum revisions. He will be greatly missed. He is survived by his wife Suzie, sons David and Andrew (and their respective wives Camilla and Sally), and four much-loved grandchildren.

Number 146

IN PRACTICE 17

Reader’s Forum

by SAM LAMB

Learning the Questions to Ask

W

hen given the opportunity to think about my farm in depth, I always add the fanciful. I observe the way the light looks through the barn in the early morning as I let the sheep out to pasture. Meandering towards the house, I adore the line of ducks that make their way down to see what stray grain my milk cow Ohio is flinging from the trough in her excited eating.

While sitting peacefully upon the steps leading up to the side door, I am happy to see the rows of vegetables putting on large yellow blossoms.

On this particular Friday morn in August, at the Dollars & Sense workshop held by Holistic Management International in Oklahoma, I was soaking in the words of Dr. Ann Adams as she asked me what I like about farming. I explain the undiluted wonder my livestock provide for me every day. For the rest of the day we discussed the running of my farm and its further development into what I want out of my farm.

Being a young farmer, this question is always foremost on my mind. What do I want out of my pasture? What do I want out of the types of animals I keep? What do I want out of the produce I grow? The important element is to ask the right questions. For the whole of my Friday and Saturday, I was taught the necessary questions, and given the freedom in a holistic manner to think about my role as steward of the land. I say steward because the common thread between most of the farmers in the room is that we were all looking for a sustainable way to succeed at our tending to the land, which in turn creates the forms that our farms will take.

Dr. Ann Adams taught me the practical skill of thinking about my acreage in a detailed way.

She asked the correct questions for me to determine what my farm can handle and what factors are necessary for me to focus on in order to succeed. In addition, she approached even the weak links, whether it is a person or a patch of barren soil or the lack of funds (Money is usually a problem at my farm.

I judge my accounts in new fence links and gates) in a holistic way, where I was able to judge my problems in terms with my end goal… of what I want.

One of the teachers, Frank Aragona, was no stranger to me. I had been listening to his AgroInovations podcast for a while before this workshop. I am fascinated by soil science, and for five years now I have been studying the effects of different cover crops, such as field 18 IN PRACTICE

peas and various grains, and what effects the different combinations have on soil. I have read many a book on soil fertility and how to achieve it, and try to play out those ideas with my animal husbandry, so I was excited to listen to Frank’s perspectives on soil composition and learn from his experience what it will take to bring the barren patches at Early Bird Acres (my farm) back to a thriving field of forage. I now feel more confident in building up my soil composition in such a way as to better keep and catch those precious rains.

Frank asked the necessary questions about my land to make me realize how to get what I want out of those acres. He encouraged me in my path of animal-based soil sustainability and taught me the limits of how much my grass can take when it comes to grazing. “You can literally feel the amount of grazing a field has been under,” he said as he touched the ground. It made me even more excited that I would soon picking up my third batch of baby pigs, given the lovely work they do for my soil, all while growing

bacon upon their backs.

Another teacher, Kirk Gadzia, discussed the concept of paddocks and the planning of one’s grazing. This piqued my interest since eventually I hope to maintain a small herd of Jersey and British white cattle for my organic dairy business. He made me imagine all of the different areas of my acreage and what each area might look like at different times of year, and with that, plan a very holistic grazing schedule. I had never done the math on the recovery time for all of my paddocks. It made me feel more secure on the number of animals I could keep without shelling out thousands of dollars in supplemental feed.

Overall, I would highly recommend the Dollars & Sense Holistic workshop for any farmer of any age. I was happy to observe old cattle farmers truly wanting to better the land they steward and the cattle they graze. For more information about how to bring this class to your own area, contact HMI at hmi@holisticmanagement.org.

Dollars and Sense Workshop organizers and instructors (left to right): Frank Aragona, Ann Adams, Kim Barker, and Kirk Gadzia.

From the BOD Chair

continued from page fifteen

“What might change look like if funders, nonprofits, government officials, civic leaders, and business executives embraced collective impact?”

At HMI, we are embarked on this journey as outlined in the Stanford University Social Innovation Review through our programs like the Beginning Women Farmer Program, Cows and Quail, Future Farms, and workshops like our Dollars and Sense program in Oklahoma and collaborators like Cooperative Extension agencies, Natural Resource Conservation Services, foundations like the Dixon Water Foundation, and many NGO’s. Each of these programs is a collaborative effort working on key issues to support the changes happening in sustainable agriculture today.

If you have an idea about a collaborative project you’d like to see HMI involved in, please contact HMI at hmi@holisticmanagement.org or 505/842-5252.

November / December 2012

Kids on the Land at

69 Ranch

O

n September 18 and 19, Katherine Dickson and her family opened the gates of the 69 Ranch near Maryneal, Texas to fourth and fifth grade students from Roscoe, Highland and Blackwell Schools to engage them in HMI’s Kids on the Land program. Peggy Maddox, Director of the program said, “Only 4th grade participated last year and when the schools asked to expand it to 4th and 5th grades in 2012, the Dickson family graciously agreed.” The Infigen Energy Company and the Nolan County Soil and Water Conservation District made generous donations in support of this year’s program.

As the thunder, lightning, and rain rolled across the 69 Ranch on the morning that seventy-two 4th graders were due for their Kids On the Land day, the 12 volunteers looked anxiously at each other. School officials were calling, but as the buses arrived, the sun came through the clouds.

With only a few adjustments, the day continued. Working through activities to connect the 4th graders to the place where they lived they learned to identify the plants of the Rolling Plains eco-region. Students really got involved when they gathered in groups of twenty to practice drumming to communicate as the Native Americans did on the plains over a century ago.

The following day, 60 5th graders arrived to participate in a program called, WWW—Wind and Water Work for Us. They rode in a cattle trailer to a site with wind mills and wind turbines to learn how a windmill pumps water and wind turbines generate electricity. Later in the day at the 69 Ranch headquarters, the students visited an aquatic environment to collect and identify macroinvertebrates from the spring-fed Sweetwater Creek.

Another activity was led by Katherine Dickson who helped students find fossils in the limestone bedrock after hearing how the 69 Ranch land was once covered by ancient sea. At another site, 5th graders monitored the landscape for clues of a healthy water cycle.

The Kids On the Land program always involves the local community as leaders for the activities. This year there were 12 local volunteers and Michael Nickell from the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, Texas, plus Anadarko engineer, Scott Hanson. Infigen Energy sent Josh Boston as the wind energy specialist. Thanks to all our collaborators and volunteers for making this event possible.

Entomologist Michael Nickell helps students identify macroinvertebrates found in Sweetwater Creek.

Book Review

by ANN ADAMS

Permaculture Design: A Step By Step Guide

By Aranya • pp. 208 Chelsea Green Publishing

O

ver the years, many people have noted how there is a lot of overlap between Permaculture (the development of sustainable and selfsufficient agricultural ecosystems) and Holistic Management. The design principles for Permaculture are spelled out more explicitly than the design principles of Holistic Management and for that reason, many people have turned to Permaculture to help them when they are using the holistic land planning process. Holistic Management’s forte is the integration of livestock on to farms and the financial planning process that helps people develop their land plans profitability. When you marry the two processes you get some pretty powerful results.

So it was with great interest that I read Permaculture Design by Aranya, a very knowledgeable Permaculture instructor. I immediately liked his approach as he noted in his preface that the focal point of this book was to help those who had some basic understanding of Permaculture be able to actually integrate the principles and quickly develop some designs from templates and worksheets. As one review said, “This book is like having a teacher on hand all the time.”

As with so many processes, the key to success is a paradigm shift. If we look at both Holistic Management and Permaculture, one of those shifts is to slow down in our design and decision-making process. If we make good decisions and designs up front then we waste a lot less precious human, financial, and natural resources in the process of implementing our plans. By slowing down we can engage with the issue and think long-term as well as shortterm to get the best results. This is not fight or flight thinking.

Having a larger context like your holistic goal can help you take the long view and slow down.

As one would expect this book is beautifully designed with great color photographs and lots of graphics to explain concepts. Equally it is accessible and useful which is important to the more pragmatic, implementing reader.

For those of you who are educators, there are also great exercises and materials to share. The “systems game” exercise is worth the price of the book alone.

If you want an easy checklist and how to’s for every step of the Permaculture design process as well as ideas of how to engage individuals and groups in the initial assessment, this is the book for you. If you’ve been considering combining Holistic Management with Permaculture, Permaculture Design is a good book to help you take the next step in that process.

To learn more about this book, go to: http://media.chelseagreen.com/permaculture-design/

Number 146

IN PRACTICE 19

Certified Educators

U N I T E D S TAT E S

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

◆ These educators provide Holistic

For more information about or application forms for the HMI’s Certified Educator Training Programs, contact Ann Adams or visit our website at: www.holisticmanagement.org.

Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

These associate educators provide * educational services to their

ARIZONA

MAINE

*

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

NEW YORK

WASHINGTON

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

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

communities and peer groups.

U N I T E D S TAT E S

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

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

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

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

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

*

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

MONTANA Roland Kroos 4926 Itana Circle Bozeman, MT 59715 406/522-3862 • 406/581-3038 (c) kroosing@msn.com Cliff Montagne P.O. Box 173120, Montana State University Department of Land Resources & Environmental Science, Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079 montagne@montana.edu

*

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

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

IOWA

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

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

November / December 2012

WISCONSIN

*

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

I N T E R N AT I O N A L AUSTRALIA Judi Earl 3843 Warialda Rd, Coolatai, NSW 2402 Australia 61267296185 • 409151969 (c) judiearl@auzzie.net Graeme Hand 150 Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 3302 61-3-5578-6272 (h) 61-4-1853-2130 (c) graeme.hand@bigpond.com Dick Richardson Frogmore, Boorowa NSW 2586 61-0-263853217 (w) 61-0-263856224 (h) 61-0-429069001 (c) dick@hanaminno.com.au Brian Wehlburg Pine Scrub Creek, Kindee, NSW, 2446 61-2-6587-4353 brian@insideoutsidemgt.com.au

Linda & Ralph Corcoran Box 36, Langbank, SK S0G 2X0 306/532-4778 rlcorcoran@sasktel.net Allison Guichon Box 10, Quilchena, BC V0E 2R0 250/378-4535 allison@guichonranch.ca

*

Blain Hjertaas Box 760, Redvers, Saskatchewan SOC 2HO 306/452-3882 bhjer@sasktel.net Brian Luce RR #4, Ponoka, AB T4J 1R4 403/783-6518 lucends@cciwireless.ca Tony McQuail 86016 Creek Line, RR#1, Lucknow, ON N0G 2H0 519/528-2493 mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca Len Pigott Box 222, Dysart, SK, SOH 1HO 306/432-4583 JLPigott@sasktel.net

NEW HAMPSHIRE

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

20 IN PRACTICE

Mae Rose Petrehn 86904 Delmar Ave. Newport, NE 68759-5520 913/543-1344 (hm); 913/707- 7723 (c) treadearthintometaphor@gmail.com Paul Swanson 5155 West 12th St., Hastings, NE 68901 402/463-8507 • 402/705-1241 (c) swanson5155@windstream.net Ralph Tate 1109 Timber Dr., Papillion, NE 68046 402/932-3405 • Tater2d2@cox.net

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

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

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

I N T E R N AT I O N A L KENYA Richard Hatfield P.O. Box 10091-00100, Nairobi 254-0723-506-331; rhatfield@obufield.com Christine C. Jost International Livestock Research Institute Box 30709, Nairobi 00100 254-20-422-3000 254-736-715-417 (c) c.jost@cgiar.org

*

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

NAMIBIA Usiel Kandjii P.O. Box 23319, Windhoek 264-61-205-2324 kandjiiu@gmail.com Wiebke Volkmann P.O. Box 9285, Windhoek

264-61-225183 or 264-81-127-0081 wiebke@mweb.com.na

NEW ZEALAND

*

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

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

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

For more information about or application forms for the HMI’s Certified Educator Training Programs, contact Ann Adams or visit our website at: www.holisticmanagement.org.

Holistic Goal Setting & Facilitation Services Are you ready to make the most out of your resources?

Do you need help dealing with critical human resource issues?

Has change taken you by surprise?

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

Benefits of Holistic Management Facilitation Include: ,

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

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

THE MARKETPLACE

KINSEY AGRICULTURAL SERVICES Educating Growers about Effective Soil Fertility Programs Q: How do you create an effective soil fertility program?

A: If all soils on a ranch or farm were alike, it would all look the same, feel the same and grow the same.

But that is seldom the case. Where the soil has any major differences in texture, color, or plant population—even different weed or grass/legume populations—chances are the fertility will be significantly different as well.

Using one soil sample to fertilize an entire field that has obvious differences will not properly solve such issues. You also can’t count on it to help you determine what should be done to fertilize all the fields on the whole farm.

The various positive benefits of using a comprehensive soil fertility program can only be realized when a worthwhile experimental plan is instituted and accomplished! It should be first proven that for the betterment of the land, crops and livestock what the soil analysis shows genuinely needs to be done. Then comes educating each grower with the understanding of those needs so deeply that no one can deter him with erroneous ideas that may come along and result in more harm

than good for the land or the bank account.

Providing growers in every part of the world the experience, knowledge and understanding concerning how excellent soil fertility works to build up the soil then becomes the most important issue for all concerned. That is our real goal, to help each individual grower learn how useful this fertility program can become.

Spend the money where it is most needed.

Without testing that usually doesn’t happen even on the best land. Prove on a small scale that it is worth the cost before you invest the time, effort and money that is required for the rest of the land. Managers who try this on a reasonable area learn firsthand what a difference a program that can accurately detect true fertility levels and specific nutrient requirements needed to build or restore land for fields and crops can make in terms of increased yield and nutritional values. Start small and then expand as the fertilizer budget permits.

One year of experience using this program is not usually enough to prove or disprove its worth. Most areas will need to be tested and fertilized accordingly for three consecutive years to determine what degree of added production the increased nutrients can

provide for crops and livestock. Choosing an area large enough to gain the economies of scale for products like lime or gypsum yet small enough to avoid serious problems if something goes wrong has consistently provided worthwhile progress.

By supplying the correct form of nutrients the first year, certain elements will not be needed again for several years thus reducing expenditures the second year. After three years participants will know what the program can provide for that land, especially where you split a field and keep doing what has always been done on the other portion.

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 neal@kinseyag.com WE ACCEPT CREDIT CARD ORDERS (VISA, MC)

Number 146

IN PRACTICE 21

THE MARKETPLACE

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

CORRAL DESIGNS

February 4-9 Albuquerque, New Mexico with instructor Kirk Gadzia

Introduction to Holistic Management Feb. 4-6: $495 Advanced Training Session (Requires prior attendance at intro session.)

Feb. 7-9: $495 Comprehensive Holistic Management Training Feb. 4-9: $895

5HPHPEHU SURĹ? WDEOH DJULFXOWXUH LV QRW DERXW KDUGHU ZRUN ,WÄłV DERXW PDNLQJ EHWWHU GHFLVLRQV For more information and registration, visit our website: www.rmsgadzia.com

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

22 IN PRACTICE

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

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

27 corral layouts. $55.

Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59.

Send checks/money order to:

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

November / December 2012

970/229-0703 www.grandin.com

Phil Metzger

2013 Holistic Management Trainings

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENTÂŽ CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

Over 30 years of hands-on experience with individuals, farms, small businesses, and groups of all types and sizes. â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

Goal setting Improved decision making Financial planning Grazing planning Land assessment Biological monitoring Group Facilitation

Let me help you maximize profits, regenerate your land and improve your quality of life.

Free initial phone consultation.

Contact Phil at 607-316-4182 or pmetzger17@gmail.com.

THE MARKETPLACE

Owen Hablutzel CERTIFIED EDUCATOR 310-567-6862 • go2owen@gmail.com

Whole Systems Design, Consultation and Education

We improve the way you manage your land, human and financial resources.

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

On-site Introductory HM Course

Durham Ranch, Wright, WY

Feb. 4-7, 2013 March 12-15, 2013 Register for this dynamic-participatory course involving the Durham Ranch staff and Roland Kroos, HMI certified educator.

(Limited to 15, register NOW!) Contact

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

www.hminmotion.com

20

At Home with Holistic Management As a Holistic Management Certified Educator, mediator, and mother, Ann Adams has created a workbook that helps individuals and families easily understand Holistic Management and put it into practice.

$

40

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

Let’s discover solutions together!

To order call 505/842-5252 or visit www.holisticmanagement.org

Holistic Management Handbook ORDER

TODAY!

Group Facilitation

$

Healthy Land, Healthy Profits

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

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

~SAVORY LAND CRUISER FOR SALE~ Allan Savory’s personal vehicle-1980 Toyota Land Cruiser (1979 1/2 FJ-40) $10k. Call Boyd Lewis (580)927-0619, (580) 927-9000 (noon or night), e-mail: bwlewis49@hotmail.com.

See the Big Picture ~ Respond to Change ~ Be Sustainable

Get Started Today – Join Our

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

All you need is a telephone, a computer is NOT needed. Learn at your own pace; apply what you learn to your situation and get results now!

Don’t change your life to learn.

Let your education change your life!

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

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

Offered By Whole New Concepts, LLC P.O. Box 218 Lewis CO 81327 Number 146

IN PRACTICE 23

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