#152 In Practice, November/December 2013

In Practice a publication of Holistic Management International

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2013

NuMBER 152

w w w. h O l i s t i C M a N a g E M E N t. O R g

Planning with the Next Generation in Mind—

A Whole Farm Approach to Succession Planning

~ INSIDE THIS ISSUE ~

Grazing For Results

by ANN ADAMS

A

Don and Bev Campbell and their extended family with whom they ranch.

FEATURE STORY

Larson Farm— Healthy Food & Land HeATHeR SMITH THoMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Land & Livestock

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Holistic grazing planning and implementation has helped many producers create profitable livestock operations and improved their land health.

One example is Jay and Krista Reiser.

Read more about their story on page 8.

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Jay and Krista Reiser— A Successful Start to Ranching with Holistic Management HeATHeR SMITH THoMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Fettig Ranch— Custom Grazing and Improved Pastures HeATHeR SMITH THoMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

News & Network

n estimated 70% of farms in the U.S. will change hands in the next 20 years with over 500,000 farmers retiring during that time period. If you are involved in one of those farms or ranches you might be interested in learning how Holistic Management has been used as a whole farm planning approach for succession and estate transfer planning.

Many families have found the tool of a Holistic Goal, and testing decisions and creating plans with that goal in mind, to be the foundation for their succession plan, and that foundation has been tremendously helpful. As most estate and succession planners will tell you, having the important conversations and getting the right professionals involved at the right time is the key to a successful transition. After all, a successful succession plan is one that results in a successful transition for all parties for many years, not just after the older generation has passed on. For that reason, a succession plan is well in place and skills and resources have been developed before the final transfer happens.

Depending on the size and complexity of your operation, you may have a number of professionals involved in your succession plan including whole farm planning facilitators, estate planners, financial planners, attorneys, accountants, and conservation organizations. As I have talked with numerous Holistic Management practitioners over the years, one common theme came up—they had been setting the stage for a successful succession plan for years before they actually created that plan— by having a Holistic Goal and using it to create a successful family business.

Most Holistic Management practitioners operate a family business. They began practicing Holistic Management because they liked the idea of incorporating a valuecentered, decision-making and planning process that focused on the triple bottom line.

They also found, even if they were not initially aware, that a Holistic Goal creates ownership across the family and is a valuable tool to improve family communication

Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Reader’s Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Certified educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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Planning with the Next Generation in Mind

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 Curtis. . . . . . . . Chief Financial Officer ann adams. . . . . . . . Managing Editor, IN PRACTICe and Director, Community Services sandy langelier. . . . Director, Communications and Outreach Frank aragona . . . . . Director, Programs Matt Parrack . . . . . . . Director, Development Peggy sechrist. . . . . Development Advisor Peggy Maddox . . . . . Program Advisor Peggy Cole . . . . . . . . Project Manager, Texas Mary girsch-Bock . . Grants Manager Carrie Nelson . . . . . . Store Manager / Customer Support Julie Kare . . . . . . . . . Instructional Design Specialist

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HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT In Practice (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by: Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: hmi@holisticmanagement.org.; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2013

2 IN PRACTICE

and relationships. The goal setting helped begin the conversation and clarified the critical family values. Using the Holistic Goal as part of the ongoing business management meant that key relationships and skills were developed over the years. In fact, by its definition, Holistic Management/holism helps people to focus on creating more rewarding, symbiotic relationships. That focus has resulted in strong family teams that are managing their businesses with a resilience that will help any business succession (planned or otherwise) result in more favorable outcomes for that family.

Road Map for Succession The first steps in Holistic Management are to create a management inventory and a Holistic Goal that articulates the quality of life that those decision makers desire including the systems and processes necessary to create that quality of life. The Holistic Goal also helps decision makers articulate the big picture of what they want that business to look like far into the future. So, in essence, you have a big picture document that provides not only the vision and the culture of that business, but also outlines the necessary plans, processes, and systems to get there. It also encompasses the present as well as the future; encouraging the conversation to be about both the present and making the most of it to get the future you (the decision makers) desire.

It may take a little time, but I’ve found that when families have articulated their Holistic Goal and have ownership from within the management team, then people begin to also take ownership in how to move the business forward by putting those systems and processes in place. Consistently I have seen families setting and holding weekly or monthly meetings that deal with the issues around roles and responsibilities, plans, implementation of those plans, financial reports, testing key decisions, developing strategic or business

Key Components of Farm/Ranch Transfer 1.

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Goal Setting & Communication Business Plan Land Use Retirement estate Plan Asset Transfer Management Transfer

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plans, and a host of other issues.

Having a guiding document (the Holistic Goal) and a decision making process that focuses on outcomes rather than agendas or blame allows families to function at a higher level with little to no “organizational development” training. They quickly learn when they need to get professional help for complex plans or issues and are willing to pay for those services knowing the value it will bring to moving them toward their Holistic Goal. As noted by Land for Good, an organization that helps people step through farm transfers, there are seven key components to a Farm/Ranch Transfer and people sometimes confuse an estate plan with a succession plan.

Some parts you may be able to complete with little help, and other parts may require significant support by professionals.

The “soft” issues around communication and feelings end up being the hard issues to discuss, and if not discussed can result in greater conflict down the road, which often means wasted resources and destroyed families. Those families that have taken the time to sit down and develop a team approach to a succession plan have been successful because they put goal setting and communication in the forefront which then improves their ability to develop their business, land use, retirement, estate, asset transfer, and management transfer plans as part of a comprehensive succession plan. It is within this context that families begin to more effectively develop their social, financial, and biological portfolios as they address each of the key components of a Farm/Ranch Transfer.

Social Portfolio Many business owners understand the concept of a financial portfolio and a business plan that will articulate that financial picture in order to attract investors. But a whole farm plan really is about building your social and biological portfolios as well. By doing so, that family business becomes more resilient and develops further assets for the inevitable transfer that will happen. When considering the idea of a social portfolio for a succession plan, it is just as important to consider what the older generation is going to do and what their roles and responsibilities will be as those of the younger generation (think retirement and management transfer plans). Without clear ideas of who is responsible for what and what might be meaningful and enjoyable activities for those with more free time, then the status quo can bog down any planned changes. For

example, the older generation may start a B&B or some other less physically demanding role to keep them engaged in the farm but not in the business of the cow/calf operation or dairy that they used to oversee and is now being overseen by the younger generation.

Moreover, I know of many business owners who, after going through Holistic Management training, realized that they were the only ones making decisions for the business because they had liked the control that gave them. However, after training and beginning the process of setting a Holistic Goal, they saw how that the current business structure left their families vulnerable if something were to happen to them. It kept the other family member(s) from gaining the necessary decision-making skills for when another manager or generation would be stepping up to the plate. Likewise, it also meant that other decision makers had less ownership in the outcome of those plans or actions and, ultimately, the business. one of the most challenging outcomes for today’s agricultural businesses is getting the next generation to be able to make a living on the family land. In the past, family businesses were likely to just pass to the next generation.

Such transition was assumed. Today, many farmers and ranchers don’t have offspring that want to farm or ranch or there isn’t the economic means to have both generations make a living off the land.

Luckily, a Holistic Goal helps the decision makers identify a quality of life they want and encourages the tool of human creativity to help develop a plan or action that will result in the desired outcome for all those involved. For example, Kress Simpson, an organic dairy producer and owner of KTS Farm in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, used Holistic Management to identify opportunities to improve his quality of life. He used seasonal dairying as a production strategy to give him a break from full-time

dairying and then again to determine how he could afford an employee. He later used it to help him transition the dairy business to that employee, Mike Geiser. That transition was made easier because Kress had been using the HMI Holistic Grazing Planning Chart, which helped Mike understand and continue to implement the grazing strategies and system plan, which contributed to a successful management transition at KTS Farm.

Financial Portfolio

George Work symbolically handing over the reins to the ranch to his son, Ben.

Likewise, Kress had to determine the appropriate structure for transitioning the business to Mike. He needed a financial portfolio that was resilient enough to afford both families the opportunity for this transition. Using mineral dollars from gas leases, Kress invested in the transition. Kress will continue to mentor Mike and he gave him the pick of his dairy herd to buy and a 5-year lease on the land and equipment with an option to re-lease. Kress’ management focus will be on growing more feed for the herd, and Mike will purchase the feed. Likewise, Kress and his family will continue to live on the farm. With Holistic Management, Kress has the equity to sell the cattle to Mike, offer him the lease, and invest in the infrastructure of a milking parlor that will allow Mike to manage the herd without Kress.

To make his succession plan work, Kress needed a successful business, clarity about land use and management roles, as well as determining which assets to transfer to Mike.

Kress and Tammy have children to consider; the asset transfer to them will take place as part of their estate planning.

The James Ranch is another example of a family who has used Holistic Management to create opportunity for adult children to return to the ranch and develop their own enterprises.

Where once there was just enough money to support the parents, Dave and Kay James, now there are four additional enterprises—Jennifer and Joe Wheeling, taking over the beef operation, Dan and Becca James with their cheese and herdshare dairy and WheyGood Pork enterprise, Cynthia and Robert Stewart with their Mike Geiser is now taking over the seasonal dairy at KTS Farm Harvest Grill and Greens food from Kress Simpson. (Left to right): Back row: Michael and cart, and John and Julie ott Mike. Front row: Jacob, Hunter, Taylor, and Tess.

with a free-range layer operation and landscape tree business.

To effectively manage these different enterprises while sharing the common asset of the land, the family formed a Limited Liability Limited Partnership (LLLP) that owns the land and all 5 siblings are equal partners. each of the enterprises that make use of the ranch is leasing from the LLLP. Any decisions that affect how the land is used, or have the potential to affect the financial well-being of the others, must be approved by the partners. This structure requires that they work together as a team which has worked well for them as they have used Holistic Management.

Major decisions require unanimous approval at the regularly scheduled family meetings, which usually last three hours. For instance, if a new enterprise or the expansion of an existing effort means building on communal property, then the family running that enterprise is required to notify the others of its intent, provide as much information as possible, and answer all questions. These decisions are made at one of the 4 quarterly formal meetings (which include agendas).

Working through the issues that arise out of these meetings can be challenging, but it’s essential to do so. “The family dynamic thing is what people tend to focus on the least,” Dan James says. “That’s because it’s a touchyfeely thing. But in the end, the family has to sit down and figure out how to deal with each other. That requires honesty, and it takes significant effort.”

Biological Portfolio While financial planning and increasing profit off the current asset base through additional value-added enterprises has been an important piece in these families’ abilities to CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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Planning with the Next Generation in Mind continued from page three

create more opportunities for the next generation to be on the farm or ranch, increasing biological capital has also been a critical component as well. In this way, these families have been building their biological portfolio as well. Many Holistic Management practitioners have been able to double or quadruple the carrying capacity of their land by investing in the land through improved infrastructure and management to feed the soil rather than constantly taking everything off to cash flow the business. Through effective financial management, producers are able to maximize profitability of their businesses with the idea of investing back into the business and resource base so that the biological capital continues to grow and support multiple generations.

Gabe Brown, from Bismarck, North Dakota, is an example of this investment in biological capital. He has spent the last 20 years focused on increasing the organic matter of his soil. He and his wife, Shelly, purchased their 5,400-acre farm from Shelly’s family and the average organic matter was 1.7-1.9%. After years of experimenting with no-till, polyseeded cover cropping, with livestock treatment to improve the soils, they have built the organic matter up to 5% in some fields and are working to get them up to 6-7%. This increased organic matter has translated into increased production and profit as well as greater resilience in the system when dealing with droughts and floods.

The Right Structures Gabe and Shelly have worked to create the

A Whole Farm Approach to Succession Planning 1.

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Develop your Management Inventory and Holistic Goal Create the necessary systems and processes to grow your business Identify and engage the next generation for your business and land Identify the necessary organizations and professionals for your transition Use these tools and resources as you make your decisions and plans Monitor results toward your Holistic Goal Adapt and respond to changing circumstances enjoy the rewards of your planning

right management and asset transfer structure to turn the ranch over to their son, Paul. “We knew Paul wanted to come back and ranch,” says Gabe. “We sat down with him and his sister. We told them that Paul gets to work into the operation and we made different outcomes for his sister. When Paul came back from school, we wrote up a 20-year plan so that 5% of the ranch is turned over each year to him. I had seen way too many instances where parents wait until they are ready for retirement before making transition plans. That is not good for the parents and certainly not for the children, especially any children involved in the operation. Shelly and I were 50 years old and Paul was 24 when we developed this plan so we all knew what the plan for transition was up front. We formed a Family Limited Liability Limited Partnership. Shelly and I are the principle partners and we can transfer portions of this to Paul over time. This insures a smooth transition without estate tax ramifications, should unforeseen circumstances develop.”

Again, the right structure and process of asset transfer really can’t be done effectively without the important conversations up front and the ongoing mentoring and family

The new pastured poultry enterprise is an enterprise that Paul Brown started when he came back to the ranch.

engagement through a decision making process that provides the right communication structure to help make those conversations constructive. “There is no better feeling than working with one of your children,” says Gabe.

“We look upon it as blessing and do what we can to make it work. We also told him that any new enterprises he wanted to start up, he’d get 100% of the income from them. By doing this he learns financial planning and decision making.

Paul took Holistic Management training so he is well versed in these processes. We are challenging him to push himself and think outside the box.”

Creating Win-Win Outcomes George and elaine Work, from San Miguel, California, spent quite a bit of time determining the roles and changes in responsibility that were the result of transitioning the Work Ranch to their son, Ben. “We still have the home place, about 1,000 acres,” says George. “My son and his family have been running the ranch for several years and we’ve been trying to get things figured out on how to get it transferred to them. We finally made this transition, and now we just work at trying to keep peace in the family. In most families, once Mom or Dad or both are gone, the family comes apart and it’s difficult to continue on with the ranch. There again, the key is communication. The thing many parents don’t do, regarding the issue of estate planning, is look at whether it needs to be fair or needs to be equal. These are completely different things.”

“We sat down with our kids early on and told them the only way we can divide this ranch equally is to sell it and divide the proceeds. Fair is a different story. Who decides what’s fair?

This can be different to different people. It all goes back to communication. The kids need to hear it from mom and dad, regarding why the parents think it’s fair.”

These are the kinds of conversations that CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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November / December 2013

Larson Farm—

Healthy Food & Land

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

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ich and Cynthia Larson have enjoyed their farm in Wells, Vermont for many years, but enjoyed it even more after they started using Holistic Management. “We were educated conventionally in the 1970s at land grant colleges. We both studied agriculture at U-Conn.

As I think back to those times, I jokingly say that what we learned at college was to plant corn for silage and pour more cement,” says Cynthia.

A Conventional Beginning “Rich and I were married in 1975 and came to Vermont because there were more opportunities for dairying. We’ve been on our farm now for 38 years, have raised our 8 children and home schooled them here. We were conventional, those first years, and milked 140 cows,” she says.

“Partly because of the poor quality of our soils, we began to appreciate grass more and planted less corn. With careful manure management we reduced our purchased inputs.

For 10 years our forage program was totally grass-based, supplemented by purchased highmoisture corn. our permanent orchard grass and reed canary seedings yielded high energy and protein, reducing the need for grain.

However, the profit margin became tighter every year, and we decided to sell the diary herd in 1993,” says Cynthia.

“By then we had also started another business, farm real estate appraisal. Much of that work is with farmland conservation easements. We find it very satisfying to work with landowners and conservation organizations in the sale of development rights to permanently keep farmland in production,” she says.

After selling the dairy herd, Cynthia couldn’t bear the thought of buying processed milk, so she bought a Jersey cow. “Somewhere I got the idea of rotational grazing because I had her tied

with a rope to my old Saab and daily moved her around the farm that way. I milked her by hand and kept all my necessities in the trunk!”

That was the start of a different direction.

She and Rich developed a passion for the health benefits of raw milk. “This was partly from our own experiences and partly through our association with the Weston Price Foundation. We started selling raw milk from two cows, then 4, and then 6. We were asked by a local raw-milk cheesemaker if we would produce milk for their high quality cheese, and we were delighted. That’s how we evolved to where we are now—milking 40 Jersey cows,” she says.

Managing for the Whole Cynthia started reading about Holistic Management, and it made sense. “It seemed to encompass what I think is innate and intuitive knowledge about managing your whole life. It gave me a language to express that, and a framework for making good decisions. Until then, all of our conventional education and personal experience up to that point had pushed for us to think of everything independently rather than as a whole. I remember being embarrassed that I wanted our farm to be beautiful, in the old days before this became part of our lives. Holistic Management helped with our understanding of the benefits of diversity and thinking in wholes. We went to our

first training session in october 2009 with Seth Wilner in Pennsylvania,” says Cynthia.

“In the old days we called ourselves dairy farmers, and then began thinking of ourselves as grass farmers, and now we think in terms of soil microbes. We have an ever-deepening commitment to soil restoration as we realize that the future of our bio-diverse planet depends on it. I’ve noticed my mind change.

I think differently. Now we think of our farm as one organism—the land, the soil, microbes, grass, cattle and us and our management and love for it. I don’t think of the cattle as a separate entity anymore, but rather as a part of this organism that we are managing, part of the whole,” she says.

“Another thing that was really meaningful to me was to be able to have a quality of life statement. This enabled me to incorporate my dearest-held values into all of our decisionmaking. I’ve been trained out of my earlier thinking,” she says.

“Holistic Management facilitates thoughtful decision-making. It helps us sort out all the choices. We are inundated with what seem like a thousand decisions to make, on a daily basis.

It’s still not easy, but this new way of thinking helps put them into manageable slots. We are less often wavering and wavering until we end up making a decision by default. I feel like we have a structure, and as long as we pay attention to it, this will work,” she explains.

“I now think of farming as a biological process rather than an industrial one. We were taught by the world and by our education that a cow is not a cow (or a being), she is a production unit. Life is so much more delightful when you see the herd as a unique, living complex, and each cow as an individual— a sometimes quirky part of the team, worthy of our respect and affection. Another thing that struck me right away is the concept of the triple bottom line—financial, social and CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Cynthia and Rich Larson with daughter, Mercy, and farm apprentices, Annie and Caroline.

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Larson Farm

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environmental. This has changed our thinking,” Cynthia says.

“My husband says that Holistic Management allows us to evaluate different entities of our lives as part of the whole and not just profits. It also helps us to think longer term. Now we have a life-encompassing passion to improve our soils, and a picture in our minds of what we want the farm to look like in ten years,” she says.

For example, they recently planted hedgerows. “We are 60 years old, and we just planted these, knowing that there is no shortterm benefit, but this will be a long-term improvement for biodiversity. This will be better for our cows, more beautiful for the landscape, and will have many other benefits, some yet unknown. our goal is to maximize independence from the regular ag marketplace, and to produce high quality food from carefully stewarded land,” she says.

Improving the Soil Their interest in Holistic Management led to Rich and Cynthia hosting a field day in June 2013 with Ian Mitchell-Innes, a South African rancher and Holistic Management educator.

That field day was filled with even more learning.

“When I think of Ian, I really appreciate his drive to keep people on the land,” says Cynthia.

“This commitment is heartening. Ian’s focus on low-input farming and long-term planning with flexibility fits in so well with our holistic goal. He encourages us to select for adaptation rather than making expensive changes to the environment to suit the cow. What we learned from him is to constantly look at the big picture and work on natural systems to bring ourselves to profit, and think outside the box.”

“He teaches us to be resourceful, and to

think. His own large cattle farm in South Africa demands creativity and management to be profitable. You can’t keep buying things for that many cattle or that much land. When you think about it, is our own farm economy that much different? We couldn’t buy everything the cows need at retail prices, to turn into milk to sell wholesale. So it was very refreshing to hear from him about resourcefulness and about adapting our operation to the local natural and economic environment,” she says.

“He taught us to look at the animal, not the grass, and to realize that no formula works all the time. He tells us to look at this as one organism, and to think in terms of feeding the microbes that feed the soil that feed the grass that feeds the cow. This was a new thought to us. He also talks about substituting thinking and management for formulas. Between Holistic Management and the jolt of listening carefully to Ian, we’ve been able to see a long-term vision for our place in the world. We keep this in mind now while we are making our decisions, large and small. Improving the soil is exactly what we want to do,” she says.

“When Ian was here he threw out seed ideas that were so outside the box that Rich and I still laugh, but as we think about these things they may very well change our whole focus, to be more profitable and to raise our quality of life. We love our cows, and sometimes become entrenched in doing things a certain way. Ian told us that we should get rid of all the cattle, and that we could graze 200 animals just for the summer, and then take the winter off from working with the cattle. This was a total jolt to our thinking!”

She and Rich have made a few inquiries about how to do this, and what their fee might be to graze animals for the summer. “We need to look at this as a possibility that could be much more financially rewarding, even though it might not be quite the dream that we had in the beginning.”

The Larsons purchase much of their winter feed but estimate that they are getting 20-30% of the hay value as imported fertility since it is fed out on the fields.

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November / December 2013

“The biggest change in our life is the whole idea of the health of the soil. Land grant colleges taught us that soil was just a vehicle in which to grow corn, and it didn’t have any other meaning. We are just now beginning to scratch the surface of fascinating information about the complexity of soil life. every day is a new adventure in learning, especially as we see the animal response to these new management ideas,” she says.

Improving the Nutrient Cycle “We basically have two herds—the delicate Jersey dairy cows and the beef herd,” says Cynthia. We’ve thought about getting out of the beef cattle, but they provide a wonderful landscaping service. The dairy cows get the best forage with tall grazing and frequent moves. The beef cattle can more effectively graze tops off the mature swards, trampling the rest in their small paddocks. We are finding very quick recovery with this top-grazing and heavy trampling,” she says. The steers that are getting ready to market are grazed with the dairy cows, so they get the best gains and fat cover.

Pasture management is the key to their feed program. With good perimeter fences, polywire paddock dividers, and a relatively low-cost network of plastic water pipes, the cattle have constant access to top-quality pasture, shade and water. With small paddocks, frequent moves and grazing the top one-third of the plants, they are getting good production with limited grain even on spring grass and pasture recovery times are dropping. A future goal is to implement some type of season extension; they are exploring stockpiling of forage and interseeding of winter rye.

Rich and Cynthia make hay for their beef cattle. The large round bales are stored on the high ground on the field in which they are made, and in winter rolled out down the hill for the cattle to eat. There is minimal waste, no “sacrifice areas” and the nutrients of both the wasted hay and manure are evenly recycled back over the land.

Winter feed for the dairy is more challenging.

Because the milk is sold to a specialty cheesemaker, the dairy cows must not consume any fermented feeds. Dry hay is the only acceptable forage. The Larsons make some of their dairy hay, but purchase most of it. The price for good dairy hay is high in New england, but Rich calculates that 20 to 30% of that cost is plant nutrients (N, P, K and trace minerals) that are moving from someone else’s farm to theirs.

Rich and Cynthia are fanatical about making sure that every nutrient gets recycled back onto the land. It is this kind of thinking that enabled them to convert their worn-out hay land (the

nutrients depleted by renting it to neighboring farmers for 15 years after the former owners sold their herd in 1993) back into productive perennial pastures.

Biodiversity A Driver Rich and Cynthia are also becoming more innovative with grazing management and forage. Some of the things they’ve planted are experimental, including willows. “We want to see if eventually we can use willows as a small piece of our forage mix. Through Ian and other people we’ve learned to move the cattle through pasture segments so quickly that when they go through a field they would just eat a little bit of willow every day and wouldn’t eat enough to destroy them. This idea is several years down the road because right now the willows are just little sprouts. We also planted some hardwoods and fruit trees to increase the biodiversity in the insects, animals and bird life,” she says.

The variety in plant and animal life brings Rich and Cynthia joy. “We like to take a hike on Sunday and assess the state of our fields and flocks. We generally do a little picnic, rain or shine—to take a little extra time to observe the grass and the cattle. This gives us a lot of satisfaction, and we also see things that need improvement,” she says.

“We have a long ways to go, but it’s such a dynamic process that a person never arrives at the goal. There is always something more to do.” The important thing is the journey, not necessarily the destination. She feels that close relationship to the natural world and the challenge to improve is what human life is supposed to be.

Rich and Cynthia would like to create a model for small dairies in Vermont, in their temperate climate. “The best thing that grows here is grass and clover. It’s the most low-input resource. our hilly landscape is best and most beautifully used for grass. Unfortunately we have not achieved this goal yet. We are going in the right direction. We first met Ian at a seminar in western Pennsylvania in 2011. We spent 3 days with him then. We came home and changed our management and have seen vast changes in our grass productivity, animal health and production,” she says.

“We’ve found that eggs work well as an entry-level farm purchase for customers looking for healthy food. People come here and don’t know what to think about buying their food at a farm rather than a store, but they feel safe buying a dozen eggs. The eggs are marvelous, and nothing like what they’d be getting at a store. So it gives them a place to start when it comes to purchasing food directly from a farmer,” explains Cynthia.

“This helps with the fulfillment of our other passion, which is educating the public. We are willing to sustain a small loss on the eggs in order to help people learn about healthy sustainably-grown food.” After enjoying the eggs, they may want to try the milk or the grassfed hamburger. Raw milk is one of the healthiest foods, but is also a controversial issue, so she doesn’t try to talk customers into buying it; she lets them make that decision. She provides educational materials and websites for them to look up.

The farm also has an intern program, with young people coming from all over the U.S. and around the world. “The objective is education for them, and it is help for us on the farm. only a couple of our children live at home now. We have this large house so we split it into 2 threebedroom apartments. The interns have their own space. We meet in the morning briefly to lay out plans for the day, and once a week we have a longer-term planning meeting. We eat lunch together every weekday, and rotate who cooks,” says Cynthia.

“This is a beautiful social piece of the whole. I feel satisfied that we are doing something good for these young people,” she says. Some of them find out that farming is not for them and they don’t want to pursue it, while others embrace it.

“We stay in touch with many of them,” she says. one of their interns graduated from

Cornell University and wanted to be a veterinarian but had no large animal experience. “He stayed with us for almost a year, and by the time he left, he knew a lot about large animal handling. He also left with a new appreciation of alternative and organic management. This is rare, in a veterinarian!

He’s in the Cornell Veterinary School now, and I hope he keeps that appreciation,” she says.

“A lot of young women from New Jersey somehow end up here; they often come here from a vegetable internship and want to learn about the animal side, or go to one when they leave here, as they try to round out their education. I salute them for having the courage to do something in which they will make so little money. We pay the interns $100 per week, until they become more experienced, and then we may pay them more when they can do more things unsupervised. They are clearly here, taking this space in their lives, just to educate themselves, and I think this is courageous,” says Cynthia.

The Larsons sometimes think about retiring, but when they daydream about it they start thinking that they’d want a little farm, a small herd of cows, and their thoughts evolve toward exactly what they are doing now. “We get a lot of enjoyment out of raising food,” says Cynthia.

The Larsons have tried to manage the land with methods they have learned, but more importantly they have tried to utilize their own observations, with their own situation and conditions. “We have learned to rely on our own thinking and personal research rather than on experts or sales people,” says Cynthia. In doing so, they have learned how to raise healthy food and create healthy land.

Heather Smith Thomas is a regular contributor to IN PRACTICe

Teaching Others The Larsons also have free-range laying hens, producing eggs with organic non-soy grain. “We lose money with the eggs. Not much, but a little. We’ve thought many times that we should get out of this enterprise, but the reason we stay in it is because of our passion for wholesome food.

The Larsons put up hay bales on their high ground during the growing season so the cows can unroll them down the hills in the winter.

Number 152

IN PRACTICE 7

LIVESTOCK

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Jay and Krista Reiser—

A Successful Start to Ranching with Holistic Management

more land than they have cattle to graze. “So we take in custom-grazing cattle to help with the annual cash flow. This also enables us to keep heifer calves from our own cows and grow our herd from the animals we want—rather than having to go out and buy cattle just to fill a pasture,” he explains.

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

I

t’s difficult today for young people to get a start in agriculture, with the high costs of land and other necessary inputs. Jay and Krista Reiser (on a ranch located near Washburn, North Dakota) found it wouldn’t pencil out—even just leasing the land—until they decided to try Holistic Management.

Getting Started “Jay and I met in college, at North Dakota State University, and both of us had a desire to ranch. We’ve been married 6 years. He’s originally from the central part of North Dakota and I am from the southeastern part of the state but grew up with livestock,” says Krista. They were offered a chance to work into Jay’s grandfather’s ranching operation, but things didn’t work out as intended.

“We realized we couldn’t make a conventional ranch profitable,” she says. Their initial cash-flow analysis showed a negative balance of $38,000 for just one year, if they tried to do things the way the grandfather wanted them done.

“A financial ag advisor from a local university helped us come up with that figure. We knew that going into that situation was not a good business decision. We wanted to strike out on our own, but leave the grandparents on good terms,” says Krista.

They decided to try something different. “My background from college was in range management and soil science and Jay’s was in animal science and range science. I thought there had to be some way to make ranching pencil out. I’d heard about mob grazing, and we started researching this method and finding names of people to contact,” she says.

“A current neighbor had a relative looking for someone to live on an abandoned family homestead. The neighbor was kind enough to give the gentleman our name and we moved a house onto the property and fixed up the broken corrals. We bought some cows of our own and leased some additional cows. We are trying to build our herd, debt-free, by using leased cattle,” she says.

Jay grew up in this area, and through various acquaintances was able to acquire more grazing land. “Some of this land the owner wants managed more for wildlife than anything else. We’ve made a name for ourselves as individuals who will treat the land the way the landowner wants it to be treated,” Jay explains.

This helped them find willing landlords, and currently they are renting 8

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Keeping Out of Debt “When we were trying to get started, we figured that if we were starting out like a conventional young farmer in this area, we would have had to max out our FSA loan,” says Krista. “This loan was just for cattle and equipment purchases, and did not include any land purchase. That’s where our cash flow analysis showed that we would have gone backward about $38,000 and only increased our net worth that year by $9,000— and we would not be able to pay our loan,” she says.

“We realized it wouldn’t work. We knew that most conventional cow herds require too much labor, versus working off the farm. We were both just out of college, and knew what we could earn in other jobs. Doing the numbers on the cows, we realized that if we want cows they need to make money. otherwise, we have other opportunities that would be lost— in other jobs.”

Another thing that makes it difficult to get started ranching is that grazing land in most areas is over-valued. “In most places in North and South Dakota a lot of it is being converted to cropland,” she says. even though soils in many regions are poor, this puts an artificially high value on grazing land and it is difficult to try to pay for it with cattle.

“We had to get creative. With some of the land we graze for wildlife habitat, the owner gives us a bit of a discount, and it also helps us build a good relationship with the land owners. We are also willing to step outside the box and try different things—willing to learn and change,” she says.

“Many of the other young ranchers get new pickups or have a nice tractor, but we know that we have to be satisfied with our life now (without going into debt). The quality of life will be better at some point, with the goals we have now,” says Krista.

“We are potentially forfeiting some of the luxuries of life right now,” says Jay. “We feel we will be better off, farther down the road. Right now other ranchers might be getting a new pickup after they sell their calves, but we’d rather be looking at saving a few more heifers to keep. We want to get to our long-term goal of having a cow herd of our own, and having it faster, and debt-free, rather than being tied to a bank and a loan officer who tells us what to do. I don’t think there are any loan officers in our area who are open to some of the things that we are doing,” he says.

Krista says they have been pretty lucky, and have stayed out of debt at this point. “We want to stay away from interest payments that eat up a lot of money. We have an operating loan as back-up, in case we need it— perhaps if the right opportunity came along and our custom grazing check

hadn’t come in yet.”

“It has helped that our family has been very supportive. They might think we are doing things a little weird but they are happy to see us succeed. Also we couldn’t ask for better neighbors. We live in a very supportive community,” she says.

“We’ve had the opportunity to rent more land, away from home, but we’ve turned some of it down because it doesn’t produce enough, or it’s too far to get there, with the price of fuel, or we can’t get there and manage it the way we’d like. The cost of management would be too high.

Some people think you have to have more, more, more, but we try to focus on what we have. Unless it works well, and fits into our current system, we turn it down,” she says.

In the future they hope to have a ranch of their own or a more permanent lease. At this point, however, they continue to grow their herd of cattle. “We’d like to diversify and add sheep or goats or some other livestock,” says Krista. “We are open to ideas but haven’t yet figured out the right time and the right species.”

A “Natural” Herd Getting started gradually this way, they can take time to find the genetics they prefer. “We had trouble at first, then we found someone who was calving late April, which wasn’t ideal for us, but at least it wasn’t January or February,” says Krista. We were looking for May calvers. We were able to find someone who would buy the cattle for us and put them on a lease to us,” she says.

They were also looking for low-input bulls, and were impressed with Kit Pharo’s program. “We follow closely what he does. We calve in midMay, in sync with nature,” says Krista.

They also try to manage their cattle more naturally. For instance, they don’t use much chemical control of parasites, since that disrupts the dung beetle populations. “We are trying to develop a more parasite-resistant herd. The cows have been on a Redmond salt/mineral for about a year, and look pretty good,” she says.

“We want cows to fit our environment, and they have to be set up correctly in order to work for us—by picking the right bulls, and calving at the right time, so we don’t have to work as much.” even with efficient cattle, you have to set them up properly, to be able to succeed. As Jay points out, it’s hard to have a low-input herd if you plan on calving in

February.

“We also try to run as few groups as possible. This is hard sometimes, with custom grazing. We can’t run our herd with those cattle because of our different calving season. Fewer herds—having most of the cattle in one group—is better for the land, to get better trampling, and more rest and recovery, and it’s a lot less labor,” says Krista.

They also tried something new this year, running the calves with the cows all winter. “They were born in May and June, and we weaned them this spring in late March, with fence-line weaning. We were very satisfied with this weaning method. After about 4 days they stopped bawling, and some didn’t bawl at all. They were old enough that they were ready to wean,” she says. When they moved the calves away from the cows, most of the calves were more interested in the new hay than they were in trying to find their mothers.

“We’ve always run our heifers with the cow herd, because we want them to learn from their mothers during winter—how to winter graze, and where to go to get out of the wind, etc. They get some smarts from the cows,” she says.

In past years they used the nose-flaps, keeping the replacement heifers with their mothers. “We sold the steer calves and the heifers we didn’t plan to keep straight off the cows, and put the nose flaps in the replacement heifer calves so they never had to leave their mothers’ side,” says Jay. At that point they were only keeping about 30 heifers. This past fall, however, they kept all their calves through winter and decided to leave them on their mothers and do fenceline weaning.

Currently they are running 110 pairs, and about 80 yearlings. “We are working on building the cow herd, and for our custom grazing we are expecting about 190 pairs this summer,” says Jay. “Last year we ran some pairs and some fall-calving cows, but that didn’t work very well.

The fall-calving cows we were custom grazing didn’t do as well and we realized we don’t want to do that again.” Sometimes a person learns the most from the mis-experiences.

Making the Move to Planned Grazing early on, Jay and Krista became interested in mob grazing, Holistic Management and regenerative agriculture. “We learned about the North CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

By putting on bales in pastures in the fall, the Reisers were able to bale graze their cattle to improve land health and reduce labor and fuel costs by 400%.

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Jay and Krista Reiser

continued from page nine

Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition and their mentors,” says Jay. “With their mentoring program, if you have a question about a certain subject you can call that person and they can give advice from their own experience. Learning from other local producers really helped us. Krista was exposed to Holistic Management by one of her co-workers at that time, Joshua Dukart, who was working on becoming a Holistic Management Certified educator.”

Jay and Krista went to a workshop in South Dakota and listened to Holistic Management educator, Ian Mitchell-Innes, and were excited about his ideas. When Joshua Dukart offered his first Holistic Management course in North Dakota they signed up for it. This helped them in their goal-setting, developing a path they wanted to follow.

The ranch they were on had been continuously grazed from the time it was homesteaded in the early 1900’s. There were no crossfences, so they had to do all their grazing management with temporary electric fence. Jay builds a lot of electric fence. “Almost everything we do here is temporary, since we don’t have a long-term lease on the land,” he says.

“We had been exposed to mob grazing a year before we left my grandparents’ place. We were hoping to implement some of these ideas on his place, before we parted ways. When we started here, we were able to use some of the techniques and tools that we had learned about.

We seldom leave cattle in an area longer than about a week, or 2 weeks at most,” he says.

“These longer periods would generally just be when we are on vacation, or late in the growing season when grass isn’t growing as much,” explains Krista. “We build our plan by what the land needs. If a certain piece needs a mob grazing treatment we work it in. If it needs to be rested and merely winter grazed, we work that in. We try to determine if a pasture needs high-carbon litter or low-carbon litter. With our winter grazing we’ve seen some good changes because the litter is very high-carbon.”

In winter, the forage residue is dry and brittle and breaks into more pieces—and covers the ground better. “In other pastures, we may see that the soil needs more nitrogen, and low carbon. But we are most concerned about getting our bare ground covered. With the continuous grazing from earlier years, our pastures were in really poor shape, with a lot of bare ground. We knew we needed to mob graze, to get that ground covered and start building soil health,” she says.

“We feel that soil health and feeding the soil biology are very important. If we can start to get this to work properly, everything else will fall in line. our grazing system is mainly about getting the cows to the right place, at the right time, for the right reasons,” she says.

Regarding grazing, Jay says it’s been helpful going through Holistic Management. “People tend to get stuck into a certain way of thinking. each year when we are planning how to graze for the year, we try not to box ourselves into a certain scheme like saying we’re going to move cows once a day or every other day. There are times we may need them in a tight mob with frequent moves and other times we might move them every 3 to 5 days to do the best job on that particular piece of ground,” he says.

Krista currently works off the ranch, for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and Jay stays busy taking care of the cattle and moving them from pasture to pasture. “Depending on production on the rangeland pastures, 10

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Drought Plan ay and Krista also have a drought plan, which they hope they don’t have to use. “We are still very dry, here. Just 20 miles to the east they had significant snow, but we hardly got any this winter. Last summer it was dry, and last fall we didn’t catch any fall rains. If we don’t get any rain in May we will be looking at selling our grass calves—that we kept for the first time this year. We are hoping to reduce our custom herd. If we have continued drought we will be reducing the custom herd by about 25%,” she says.

“It seems strange to be thinking about drought because in 2011 we had too much moisture and flooding. The creek bed flooded for a month and a half and we had 250 acres underwater—on land that we’d planned to graze that spring.

We had to switch our plan around for what we were doing,” says Krista.

J

we’ll move the cattle 3 to 4 times per day on the areas that require frequent moves,” says Krista. “We continue to move them during winter, for winter grazing. We do bale grazing as well, when the snow gets too deep for pasture grazing or our hay stockpile is getting too old and we need to use it up.”

Grazing Results For some of the grazing management, they received a SARe grant (Sustainable Agriculture Research and education). “When we were getting started, we had very little money, and were looking for various ways to get help,” says Krista. “We wanted to try mob grazing and found we could apply for a grant. We titled our grant: Use of Mob Grazing to Improve the Sustainability and Profitability of a Ranch in Central North Dakota. We received funds to help buy our equipment, and we held a tour, which was part of the requirement for the grant,” she says.

Part of the grant proposal included monitoring. “Before we mob grazed, we had 18.8% bare ground, and the litter was 33%. After just one season of mob grazing, our bare ground decreased to 2%. our litter increased to 50.4%,” says Krista. “our forbs stayed relatively close to the same number, but our grasses actually increased from 35% to 40%,” says Jay. They are excited to see what the results will be this year after mob grazing for 2 years in a row, along with the winter grazing and bale grazing.

The Reisers’ 4-wheeler is equipped with all their temporary fencing materials to help them better manage the leased land they are grazing on.

Photo on the left was taken in May 2010 showing the result of continuous grazing. In July 2011 after the tool of rest had been applied to allow plants to recover, the forage stand was dramatically improved.

Bale Grazing Jay and Krista found that bale grazing is a good way to add more litter and organic material to the soil. “We’ve also seen more diversity in plant species after the bale grazing, including more native plants coming into our pastures that were predominantly Kentucky bluegrass or crested wheat,” Krista says. “our corral is right next to a creek, so our goal is to keep the cattle out of the corral as much as possible. We don’t want those nutrients running off into the creek.” It’s better to keep nutrients on the land where they will be helpful rather than harmful.

“With the bale grazing, we can set up almost all our winter feeding the fall before—placing the bales where we want them,” says Jay. They can improve the poorer pastures by putting bales there—to add organic matter from the hay residue, and manure from the concentrated group of cattle.

“Doing bale grazing, we don’t have to worry about taking feed to the cows through deep snow. It would almost be impossible most years, because the tractor we have is inadequate. our winter fuel bill for the 2 years we’ve done mob grazing and bale grazing was much lower. The first year (2010-2011) our winter fuel bill was $700. The second year, our winter fuel bill was $360. I don’t know of many ranchers in our area who can get through a winter on $700 worth of fuel,” he says.

“That was a really bad winter,” says Krista. “That fuel bill included blowing snow out of the yard. our area received a little over 100 inches of snow.”

With the bale grazing, which is much less labor-intensive than traditional cattle feeding, Jay is able to work off the ranch during winter.

“This helps generate more cash flow and some extra income. When we are bale grazing it takes us about 2 hours, once every 5 days, to feed the cattle—and that’s mainly because the strings are frozen onto the bales and it takes time to take them off,” he says.

He and Krista put together a system 2 years ago for feeding about 100 animal units for 98 days, and figured out all the costs—to encompass the bale grazing. “For feeding the cattle those 98 days, it came to $1,390.

This is for the time and labor, not counting the value of hay. We were comparing the cost of bale grazing versus conventional feeding methods.

This was about $14 per day for the herd, or about 14 cents per head per day for the labor and fuel,” says Jay. They looked at what it would cost for conventional feeding, taking hay to the cattle every day. “The fuel and time cost came out to just under $5,700. Thus it is 4 times more expensive to feed daily rather than bale graze,” he says. And with the time saved, being able to work off the

ranch, Jay was able to bring home extra income. So the benefits from bale grazing include more ground cover, less labor, less expense, and the opportunity to bring in more money from an off-farm job.

Improving Land Health Jay says their goal for the land is to look at everything in terms of whether they are improving soil health. “The first goal is to make enough money to stay in business, and soil health is the engine that runs our system,” he says. The mineral cycle and water cycle are important.

“We want to be very efficient in everything we do, and do it for the right reasons,” adds Krista. Many people overgraze because it seems necessary when they are short on forage, and they think they will change next year. She feels a lot of ranchers get stuck in that mentality, and then the next year comes around and they are still worried how they are going to make a profit.

“They get stuck in that cycle and never change. We want to do what’s best for the land because it is so degraded. Future generations won’t have a lot to work with, and we won’t be able to have a ranch if we treat the land that way. We try to plan the best we can, even though some things come up unexpectedly. At least when you have a plan or a goal, you know what you are working toward,” she says.

“After we went through Holistic Management and knew what direction we wanted to go, we began using the ecosystem processes and everything that goes into this. Holistic Management really laid it all out for us. We could understand it a lot better, and how to use it,” says Krista.

Jay says they have seen noticeable benefits with rest. “This is the primary tool we use, just because the land had never seen rest except from November through May. It had cows on it every year, at least in the history we can find about this place. Some of the benefits we’ve seen with rest have been spectacular. The land has responded phenomenally to rest and winter grazing,” he says. Rest is probably the most under-utilized land management tool, yet it’s the simplest thing to do.

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Fettig Ranch—

Custom Grazing and Improved Pastures

by HEATHER SMITH THOMAS

T

he Fettig Ranch in south central North Dakota has seen several generations and many innovations. “My grandfather started our ranch when he moved here as a German-Russian immigrant and purchased the land,” says Steve. “My brother Chuck and I took over the ranch from our dad in 1981. The ‘80s were a tough time for agriculture. In 1986 we were trying to find a way to improve our bottom line, within our own operation, without having to purchase any more land.

That year we attended the Holistic Resource Management course taught

by Allan Savory. our present management evolved from that,” says Fettig.

The Move to Custom Grazing “When we took over my dad’s operation we had 180 stock cows, and built up our herd to 400 cow-calf pairs over the next 10 years. In 1997 the cattle market was down, and calves were only bringing 65 cents a pound.

We had a tough winter in 1997-98 and were running out of hay. We thought we had enough hay on hand, but the way the winter went, we had to feed extra hay. With the price of calves it didn’t make sense to borrow money for hay, and there wasn’t any hay for sale at that time,” says Fettig.

Rather than go into debt, they sold their stock cows and started a custom grazing operation with 1,000 yearlings. They’ve pastured as many as 1,300 yearlings annually, and have been doing custom grazing ever since.

There is more flexibility in numbers, with yearlings, regarding when you can send them back home, but you also have to please the person who owns the cattle. “We were trying to get as many cattle on every acre we could, so we were running 1,300 head of yearlings for the gentleman who owns the cattle. We were grazing them for 120 days, sending them back about mid-September,” he says.

“This was working well for us, but the cattle owner was putting them in the feedlot at that point and they were finishing too soon. He wanted us to keep them longer on grass so he could finish them later in the spring. To do that, we had to make adjustments, since the pastures will only produce a certain amount of forage. To lengthen the grazing season, we cut back on cattle numbers. We ran 1,100 head last year for 150 days, and did all right, in spite of the dry summer,” Fettig says.

“When we were running 1,300 head for 120 days, this was the equivalent of 156,000 total grazing days. When we did the math for 150 days, we could run 1,100 head—and we achieved this in spite of the fact we only had 6 inches of moisture. Being able to plan the grazing season enables us to get through the dry years as well as the good years. This was one of Allan Savory’s points: if you plan for a drought you’ll be ready for it, and if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. At first glance, it looks like our operation has been lucky, but you have to create your own luck,” he says.

In order to succeed, you have to set up the conditions to be conducive to success.

Improving Grazing Management With good grazing management flexibility is the key. “We pick different pastures to graze at different times of year. We have tame grass pastures as well as native grass. We used to crop 900 acres of wheat, barley and oats. We converted those to hayfields when we increased our cow herd 12

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The Fettig Family (left to right): Steve, Sherry, Tyler, Stephanie, Michael, and Nicole.

because we needed more hay. Much of our soil is poor, in class 4 and 5, which are thin uplands and gravel-based. Rather than try to keep up with new machinery required for farming, we decided to turn those hayfields into pastures,” says Fettig. This was a way to improve the soil, using cattle to add soil nutrients.

The ranch now has about 800 acres of tame pastures, so there are some different places the cattle can start grazing in early spring. “We don’t always start in the same cool season/early season pastures. We rotate between those, and go into the native pastures at a different time each year,” he says. This gives the native plants more chance to grow.

“We used to do a twice-over grazing program, but we were not getting quite enough response. It worked very well at first, but some years it didn’t give plants enough recovery time. We looked at some of the other ranches in the area that were doing planned grazing, and they were doing a onceover. A couple years ago we switched to that grazing scheme,” says Fettig.

“We do graze some of the cool season hayfields twice because they will regrow within 40 to 60 days. But we try to graze the native pastures only once during the year. Last year we saw a lot of benefit in having that forage stockpiled,” he explains.

It’s amazing what the soil and plants can do when the plants have a chance to mature, go to seed, and have the residue trampled to add organic matter to the soil. “All too often people look at soil as just a medium to hold plants upright, and then think they have to feed the plants. However, if you feed the soil, the soil will in turn feed the plants, and they cycle the nutrients back into the soil. The soil will grow the plants for you, and if you harvest the plants efficiently and give them some recovery time, along with the dung and urine from the cattle and animal impact, this invigorates the soil again. Then you get a healthier, thicker grass stand,” says Fettig.

“You don’t want to stress your pastures or your animals to the point that they are going backward. You only get strong animal performance if you have a pasture recovery rate that can sustain it. If you are only grazing a pasture once in a year, it doesn’t matter where a certain plant is in its stage of growth when you graze it, because it will have a chance to regrow. Not every plant grows at the same rate, and if I am changing up my rotation—changing the time of season of grazing use on that pasture each year—I will give that plant a chance to grow back at some point,” he explains.

Good Grazing Systems Based on NRCS stocking rates for season-long grazing, the ranch has more than doubled its grazing capacity. This shows the benefits of

planned grazing. With the increase in herd numbers, it was also necessary to increase availability of water in each pasture. “This was a gradual process, and we took advantage of some of the cost-share programs to develop water lines. We now have about 4 miles of pipeline and 8 pasture wells. These supply multiple tanks; we try to make each tank set supply water to at least 2 to 4 pastures, so we have about 15 watering sites. our total number of pastures is currently 32, and we have plans to increase this to 45. We’ll do this gradually over the years. This year we plan to add about 3 more crossfences to On left, standing litter after grazing 2012, 1,115 head divide pastures into smaller segments,” of cattle were in an 80-acre pasture for 2 days. On says Fettig. right, a close up of the litter trampled down onto the “With 1,000 to 1,300 head in a herd, soil surface in the same pasture. we like our pastures fairly small. We seem to get good animal impact on pastures that are about 40 acres in size.

We don’t see quite as good an impact on pastures that are much larger than costs—and eliminates the need to haul hay out to the cattle. that. If a pasture is 120 to 160 acres we don’t get quite as much benefit “The other part of that equation is not only planning the grazing as in a smaller pasture with higher herd numbers.” seasons, but keeping the grazing days in each pasture short, and giving it “We have some areas that were severely damaged by season-long a longer recovery time. If you can get enough animals concentrated into a grazing in earlier years, and there were some big gullies carved out by small area, they will knock the litter down on the soil, which then feeds the erosion and trailing. We’ve been able to heal those, and I have photos soil biology, which can then produce new forage growth for next year.” dating back to when we started giving them some recovery time in the This is the best way to add organic matter and nutrients to the soil. on early 1990s,” he says. He took the first photos in 1990, and by 1999 you poor soils you may not have much response at first, but after that it starts can see quite a lot of improvement. The photos from october 2012 show to build. how dry it was, but you can still see how the sides of the gully have healed up.

The Benefits of Grazing for Soil Health Sharing Lessons Learned When Fettig gives presentations about grazing, he uses photos to get his points across. “Pictures say more than words. Most people who have seen my presentation respond to the photos. That’s what generates their questions. I find it’s more helpful to try to answer their questions than to try to explain things that they don’t really want to know about or are not ready to understand,” he says.

He started giving grazing presentations in 2000, after changing to custom grazing. “The big thing people need to realize when planning their grazing systems is that they need a starting point. You can improve your forage just by giving it time to regrow and replenish the root systems.

Along with that come many other advantages including the beneficial insects such as dung beetles. This all helps to improve the forage base, which increases the stocking rate,” says Fettig.

In a recent presentation he used the analogy of feeding cattle. “everybody understands how you feed cattle. If you have 100 bales of hay, you know how many days you can feed the number of head of cattle in that pen. But if you want to feed 100 bales of hay for a longer period of time, you must have fewer cattle. Pasture is the same. If you know how much forage you can produce in your pastures, this tells you the length of grazing season you can have. This is the start of your plan.”

If you are going to winter graze, this will tell you how much grass to stockpile to get through the winter, and how many animals you can run on your ranch through the summer while still stockpiling forage to graze through the winter. The winter forage creates a huge savings in feed

Fettig takes temperature readings on various soils. “We have a gravel pit with very little plant cover and the temperature there was 106 degrees on the day I was checking soil temperatures. It’s hard to grow anything there. on a neighboring pasture that had continuous grazing, I checked the soil temperature where the growth was very short. You could see the manure pats from the road, so there wasn’t much cover to shade the ground. The soil temperature there was 98 degrees. I did a soil temperature test on our pasture and it was 85 degrees.” This is a lot healthier for the plants; they don’t dry out as fast.

“At that temperature you are not losing as much soil moisture to evaporation. It’s also more conducive for soil bacteria staying alive rather than going dormant. You can also get plant regrowth at that temperature, whereas at 95 and above the regrowth is significantly retarded,” he explains.

“We’ve seen a lot of native legumes come back into our pastures just because of the extended recovery time. They are not constantly being grazed off and going dormant. They have a chance to grow back,” says Fettig. It makes a big difference when the cattle can’t continually come back to the same plants and keep eating them into the ground. “one of the plants we’ve seen increase—and a lot of people view it as a bad plant—is locoweed. It’s a legume, however, so it is fixing nitrogen into the soil. We haven’t had any problems with the cattle grazing it because we have so many cattle in one herd, in a small area, that none of CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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Fettig Ranch

continued from page thirteen

them can eat enough of it to cause sickness. It is diluted with all the other forage plants they are eating,” he says. Also, some varieties of locoweed are not as toxic as others.

Another plant that shows up is Absinth wormwood, which is another weed in this region. The cattle graze these plants and keep them held back to where they don’t take over a pasture. Mob grazing tends to eliminate the selective grazing that allows the less preferred plants to proliferate. “It gives the grass plants more chance to compete with the weeds. It has also enabled us to thin out the stands of buck brush (western snowberry),” Fettig says.

Planned grazing keeps certain plants from taking over, and also allows more variety of species to come back into a pasture. “We have improved the types of grass plants that are coming back. In this area we tend to have a dominance of Kentucky bluegrass, and we’ve been able to get more of the warm season native species coming in, like green needles and big bluestem. Having more of a mix is more sustainable during drought, rather than having a single species.”

A gully caused by many years of conventional, season long grazing with 40 dairy cows. The Fettigs started planned grazing with 60 beef cows summered in this pasture in 1987.

1999

2012

Fall of 2012 (a drought year with half the normal rainfall). Gully sidewalls healing even further.

14

Forage Quality “one thing we noticed, when changing from our twice-over grazing to the once-over, was that the cattle seem to be a lot more content. With the twice-over they were always eager to move to the next pasture. I was reading some information about this; the plane of nutrition on the twiceover pastures was actually too high in protein because of the lush regrowth. The cattle were not getting enough energy, with the high-protein diet. The protein was by-passing through their digestive system, so the cattle were always looking for something else to satisfy their diet needs.”

They craved something else to balance the diet.

“We noticed that the diet quality improved a lot with the once-over grazing, going from the splashy manure patties to more of a pumpkin pie consistency. The cattle were more content and not rushing the gate to get to the next pasture, like they were earlier.” A broader variety of diet—with plants in varying stages of maturity—satisfies their needs and their rumen requirements (for proper digestion) much better than the lush high-protein diet.

Flexibility & Innovation

1990

(Middle) Gully sidewalls are healing with grass as 1,300 head in one herd graze 3 days with recovery of 75 to 360 days.

In this way there is always something that is able to grow, instead of all the plants maturing and getting dry at the same time. There are always some plants in the pasture that are palatable and nutritious. “This keeps the cattle on a higher plane of nutrition, having a more varied diet with more species for them to eat,” he explains.

Land & Livestock

November / December 2013

Flexibility is the key to successful management. Sometimes we have to think outside the box and do things a bit differently than we’ve been taught. Fettig is glad to see that some of the younger people involved in leadership roles are willing to try new things. “This may be a slight change in the right direction. We are changing the mentality of the people who have been thinking that all cattle are bad on rangelands.

“We are trying to create sustainability, but it was created long before we came on the scene; we just need to work with it,” Fettig says. Just a few years ago, mob grazing and planned grazing were looked upon as something odd, but now more people are beginning to understand these grazing principles and these ideas are gaining more acceptance.

“This happens because individual ranchers have to try to become sustainable, on their own—and do things that will fit their bottom line,” says Fettig. Many ranchers realize that if they keep doing things the traditional way, they will go broke. They know they must do something different and this makes them more open to changing, to find ways to make things work better on their own place.

“The North Dakota Grazing Coalition has been putting on a workshop for the past 10 years, and it’s gone from having just 20 to 30 ranchers show up at these meetings, to up to 500 now. More people are coming to sit in and listen, and hear about new ideas. The mindset of the people attending these workshops is very open. They are looking for this kind of information; the questions they ask are very in-depth.

They have an idea about how things really should be, and are just looking for information to help them achieve the results,” says Fettig. People are interested in finding out how other ranchers are making things work, and want to know how they might apply some of these principles to their own grazing operations, and how to address the challenges.

“When Allan Savory spoke to us in 1986 in Bismarck, North Dakota, I thought there was no way I would be able to achieve what he was talking about—because it was such a new concept.” Some of the things Savory was saying didn’t seem to fit the situations on the plains and western pastures of the U.S. Most ranchers weren’t

able yet to look at how we could adjust and make it fit.

“The advantage for the younger ranchers who are just getting started today is that they don’t have the paradigms built into them that our fathers and grandfathers instilled in us as we were starting ranching. It makes it easier for the younger generation to move ahead, and not have to overcome the old ideas that were all we knew,” Fettig explains.

“When you keep moving forward every year, you sometimes forget where you’ve been, because it has been so gradual. Then when you look back you realize how much change you’ve made. To go from 180 cows and wondering if we should rent more pasture, to increasing the herd to 400 cows and not having to buy or lease any new land is an amazing change. The fact we’ve been able to double our stocking rate is huge, and this is what has kept us in the ranching business. We went from wondering whether we could stay on the place, to improving the situation to where we’ve become more financially sound. We can stay on the ranch and enjoy the daily benefits, rather than running around helter-skelter, working so hard trying to survive. In that situation you don’t take time to stop and monitor the forages and assess the direction you are going.”

The Next Generation While he sometimes doesn’t have the time to notice the improvement he’s making, Steve is very clear one of the key motivations in improved land health is to keep the family ranch going. Steve and his wife, Sherry, have 4 children. His son Tyler is 22 years old, and Michael is 14. He says his two daughters are more interested in cats than cows, but his sons seem interested in ranching. “The younger one, especially, is interested in what we are doing, going to meetings with me and trying to learn more about this. He’ll be able to figure it out in leaps and bounds over the time it took me, because he has been able to grow up with it,” says Fettig.

“We want to keep the ranch sustainable to where this 4th generation can continue to be on the ranch. My brother Chuck is also involved, and we also have an older brother who rents us 960 acres. His son is in the NRCS. They share the same goals we do—of keeping the land in grass and improving the forage with good grazing management. My older brother and nephew have helped, developing water sources on their property.

They have the same goals of keeping the ranch together as one unit, and passing it on down the line to our children.”

Planning with the Next Generation in Mind can only be had when all the necessary parties can participate. There are many different processes for finding out who is attached to what, but many people are afraid of stirring up a hornet’s next. The problem is the hornet’s nest will be stirred at some point and it’s less likely to be an issue of there is some leadership by the parents in how things are being divvied up and how the strength of the family relationships are the most critical. If parents or owners don’t feel competent to provide that leadership themselves, then they can delegate that role to an outside professional.

Succession as Opportunity

continued from page four

The James family has multiple enterprises on their ranch that has allowed many of the adult children to come home and make a living.

Photo credit: Graze Magazine.

Succession planning is an opportunity for families to develop the resilience for the family and the business.

Many people may shy away from this type of planning, fearing the changes that may occur or the conversations that arise and subsequent feelings. But resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb change while still maintaining its basic structure or function. Ignoring or resisting the element of change and surprise increases risks and vulnerabilities. So, if you resist change, you are decreasing your family’s resilience.

Succession planning begins with the development of your Holistic Goal and continues as you use that guiding document to make your annual and strategic plans and your day to day decisions about how you engage with other decision makers and your resource base. It is in those decisions and plans that clarity will arise for you in your next steps toward greater levels of transfer. Likewise, your financial and strategic plans, land plans, and grazing plans, which have been developed and implemented by your management team over many years, will have increased your team communication so that there won’t be so much “devil” in the details of major transitions. In this way, whole farm planning helps you increase your chances of keeping your family business whole.

Don Campbell, a Holistic Management Certified educator and rancher from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, has seen the results of practicing Holistic Management. That practice not only lead to a successful succession plan where his sons take the lead on the management of the cattle operation, but also to a wonderful quality of life. “I had a failed inter-generational transfer with my 2 brothers in 1972,” says Don. “I am convinced that if we had known about Holistic Management at that time the results would have been different. I have had a most successful inter generational transfer from me and Bev to our sons and their spouses. This would not have happened without Holistic Management. We wouldn't have had the financial or people skills to make it all work. I enjoy the fruits of that transfer daily. Working with people that I love, doing the work I like, having the time to consult and spread Holistic Management. I can't imagine my life being any better.”

Number 152

Land & Livestock

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DEVELOPMENT CORNER Veteran Farmer Program Erin Rich of Hip Chik Farm hosted the first Veteran Farmer on-farm visit.

MI is honored to partner with the La Montanita Coop of Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Veteran Farmer Project to teach Holistic Management Whole Farm Planning to military vets and active service personnel here in New Mexico. HMI Director of Community Services, Dr. Ann Adams will facilitate both classroom sessions and on-farm sessions starting in September of 2013 and ending in February 2014. on-farm topics include: • Holistic Grazing Planning • Holistic Land Planning • Low-Stress Livestock Handling • Holistic Biological Monitoring The classroom sessions will focus on the essentials of Whole Farm Business Planning, including how to set a whole farm goal, effective on-farm decision making, record keeping, financial planning, and enterprise analysis.

At the conclusion of the workshop series, vets should be well positioned to begin developing successful, sustainable farms.

H

WSARE Professional Development Grant MI was excited to learn that we had received a grant from Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and education for $60,400 over 3 years. “A Distance Learning Approach to Whole Farm Planning Training for Agricultural Professionals in the Western U.S. is designed to train Western region professionals in whole farm planning, with the expectation of additional outreach performed by each program participant. According to a survey completed by HMI, professionals from five western states (New Mexico, oregon, Utah, Colorado, and Washington) are interested in this training, with HMI projecting to train 35 agricultural professionals in Holistic Management whole farm planning.

HMI will use both online distance learning, focusing on whole farm planning course

H

16 IN PRACTICE

content and virtual classroom/meetings and teleconference discussions for participants to discuss effective learning techniques for farmers. Learning tools such as listserves, YouTube videos, and web-sharing documents will be used for training purposes. Participants will be required to assist two agricultural producers in their region with preparing at least one component of a whole farm plan (financial planning, grazing planning, etc.) These producers will evaluate their learning experience and be tracked in order to effectively evaluate knowledge and behavior change. To apply, contact Ann Adams at: 505/842-5252 x105 or anna@holisticmanagement.org.

Beginning Women Farmer Program Update t’s been a whirlwind summer as we have been gathering and processing the data from HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer (BWF) Program in preparation for reporting on the outcomes to the USDA/NIFA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program that funded our program.

We now have the data for Connecticut, Maine, New York, and New Hampshire which is summarized below. For the full reports for these states, visit HMI’s website where we have blogged on each state. In the next issue, we’ll be reporting about the program overall.

Connecticut: The Connecticut BWF began in october 2012 and ran through May of 2013. 15 women were accepted into the program and 10 completed the program successfully. The State Coordinator was Sherry Simpson working with Connecticut Northeast organic Farming Association. Program mentors were elysa Bryant, Allyson Angelini, and Christine Farrugia.

Most participants experienced increased confidence in key farm/ranch management practices (81-100% participants) for such practices as developing a whole farm goal,

I

November / December 2013

communicating with workers, managing time, identifying logjams, pricing products, prioritizing expenses, and developing plans or implementing production in such areas as finances, business, land planning, and grazing.

Participant behavior change included 80% completing a whole farm goal, 70% a financial plan, and 60% a marketing plan.

There was an 84% satisfaction rating for the program mentors and a 92% satisfaction rating for the state coordinator. 83% or more of the participants noted knowledge change in all sessions. That knowledge change varied depending on content of session with a 39-128% increase in knowledge change for key topics. overall satisfaction of the program was 88%.

Participant demographics showed that: • The average years of farming was 2 years • The average acres farmed was 2 acres under production • The total customers of all participants: 251 Maine: The Maine BWF Program began in January 2013 and ran through May of 2013. 19 women were accepted into the program and 15 completed the program successfully. The State Coordinator was Gail Chase of Maine Women’s Agricultural Network. Program mentor was Diane Schivera of Maine organic Farmer and Gardener Association.

Most participants experienced increased confidence in key farm/ranch management practices (65-100% participants) for such practices as developing a whole farm goal, communicating with workers, managing time, identifying logjams, pricing products, prioritizing expenses, and developing plans or implementing production in such areas as finances, business, land planning, and grazing.

Participant behavior change was in the 50100% range with 100% completing a whole farm goal.

There was a 94% satisfaction rating for the program mentors and a 90% satisfaction rating for the state coordinator. 82% or more of the participants noted knowledge change in all sessions. That knowledge change varied depending on content of session with a 41-134% increase in knowledge change for key topics. overall satisfaction of the program was 92%.

The participant demographics showed that: • The average years of farming was 2 years

• The total acres farmed was 307 acres • The average age was 43 • Total customers of participants: 295 Massachusetts: The Beginning Women Farmer Training Program in Massachusetts began in November 2012 and ran through May of 2013. 15 women were accepted into the program and 13 graduated. The State Coordinator position was shared by Devon Whitney-Deal and Kristen Wilmer of Community Involved in Supporting Agriculture. Program mentor was Katie Campbell-Nelson of University of Massachusetts.

Participant behavior change was mostly in the 45-82% range where there was sufficient time for developing plans or taking action during the program, with an 80% or higher developing a whole farm goal, a financial plan, and a grazing plan. Also of note, an extremely high percentage of participants reported increased satisfaction with aspects of farming including higher quality of life (80%), better communication (89%), improved time management (89%), increased ability to determine profit (100%), and improved ability to make complex decisions (100%).

There was an 86% satisfaction rating for the program mentor and a 94% satisfaction rating for the state coordinator. In 9 out of the 10 sessions 82% or more of the participants noted knowledge change. That knowledge change varied depending on content of sessions, but was as high as 84%. overall satisfaction with sessions were 89% or higher for 9 out of 10 sessions with 86% of the participants satisfied with the program overall.

Participant demographics showed that: • The average years of farming was 4 years • The average acres farmed was 4 acres • The total customers of all participants: 456 New York: The Beginning Women Farmer Training Program in New York began in January 2013 and ran through May of 2013. 16 women were accepted into the program and 10 completed the program successfully. The State Coordinator role was shared by Lauren Lines and Sarah Williford from Central NY RC&D. Program mentors were was Barbara Jefts, Christy Smith, and Kylie Spooner.

Most participants experienced increased confidence in key farm/ranch management practices (92-100% participants) for such practices as developing a whole farm goal, communicating with workers, managing time, identifying logjams, pricing products, prioritizing expenses, and developing plans—financial, business, land, and grazing. Participant behavior change was mostly in the 50-100% range.

There was a 76% satisfaction rating for the

program mentors and an 82% satisfaction rating for the state coordinator. In 9 out of the 10 sessions 88% or more of the participants noted knowledge change. That knowledge change varied depending on content of session with a 64-100% increase in knowledge change for key topics. overall satisfaction of the program was 96%.

Participant demographics showed that: • Average 4 years of farming • 58 acres under production • Total customers of all participants:336 New Hampshire: The Beginning Women Farmer Training Program in New Hampshire began in January 2013 and ran through May of 2013. 11 women were accepted into the program and 11 completed the program successfully. The State Coordinator was Kate Kerman of Small and Beginning Farmers of New Hampshire. Program mentor was Christine Pressman of Nomadic Farms Most participants experienced increased confidence in key farm/ranch management practices (92-100% participants) for such

practices as developing a whole farm goal, communicating with workers, managing time, identifying logjams, pricing products, prioritizing expenses, and developing plans—financial, business, land, and grazing. Participant behavior change was mostly in the 80-100% range where there was sufficient time for developing plans or taking action during the program.

There was a 76% satisfaction rating for the program mentor and an 82% satisfaction rating for the state coordinator. In 9 out of the 10 sessions 88% or more of the participants noted knowledge change. That knowledge change varied depending on content of session with 78100% of participants experiencing knowledge change. overall satisfaction with sessions were 89% or higher in 8 out of 10 sessions with 84% of the participants satisfied with the program overall.

Participant demographics showed that: • Average 4 years of farming • Average 5 acres under production • Total customers of all participants: 135 CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

READER’S FORUM The Value of Shared Knowledge

by GEOFFREY SMITH

e had the very distinct pleasure in May to host Dr. Sergio Capareda from Texas A&M and 3 Cochran Fellows to tour The Barry Farm this spring. These foreign nationals have won a grant from the USDA to visit the United States to learn of our agricultural practices and hopefully to take some of our techniques back with them to their home countries. Dr. Capareda has been a follower of our farm blog for the past few years and asked if we would be willing to host them for a tour. Renee and I never turn down tours if our schedule permits it because education is part of our Holistic Goal (more on that later).

The fellows first stop on their journey here in the U.S. was to our farm then on to two confinement chicken operation, then to visit 3 cattle concentrated animal feed operations then finally to commercial dairies in central Texas. Dr. Capareda told me he wanted to start with us to show them that there is an alternative to what they were going to see and desired to give them a balance of what American agriculture can be. I have never been prouder to be the alternative voice to American agriculture. If Dr. Capareda would have asked me a year ago I would have been glad to have them but would have far less perspective than I have now. Like most journeys worth taking in life, farming has a huge learning curve. That curve is what keeps me engaged, challenged, and looking for more out of our farm.

My wife, Renee, was thankfully selected to HMI’s Beginning Women Farmer and Rancher program last year and it has changed our farm methods greatly. HMI and the relationships we have formed have transformed our approach to grazing, focused our business plan, and taught us the “triple bottom line”. As we walked our pastures and spoke of the kind of farm we are, I kept hearing myself evoke HMI principles and cite people like Joe and Peggy Maddox, Bud Williams and Greg Judy.

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

Number 152

IN PRACTICE 17

DEVELOPMENT CORNER

Knowledge, attitude, and intended behavior changes due to program

continued from page seventeen

HMI Open Gate Program Update s if on cue, the rain clouds built as 36 participants showed up at HMI’s open Gate Ranch Day at Mesteño Draw Ranch in Mountainair, New Mexico, the third of 8 open Gate events scheduled for 2013.

Participants came to learn about effective grazing management practices and how to monitor land health to make effective grazing management decisions during a drought—even when the rains begin.

HMI Director of Community Services and Certified educator, ann adams facilitated this ranch day, hosted by Joan Bybee of Mesteño Draw Ranch, which involved many opportunities for small group exercises and peer-to-peer learning focusing on riparian and upland monitoring as well as discussions on the challenges of how and when to graze plants that were stressed by the drought. Many participants expressed their appreciation for Joan’s willingness to share her experience and challenges as well as the information shared by ranchers Melvin Johnson of Ranney Ranch in Corona, New Mexico and Brian greene, another Mountainair rancher. Kenneth lujan, NRCS District Conservationist for Mountainair and the Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water

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Reader’s Forum

continued from page seventeen

When we talked of the question of ”what does your farm make,” I knelt down separated the thigh-high grass to expose the soil life and channeled HMI and Greg Judy and explained all we make is great soil biology and our efforts are into making that community thrive.

When asked about the business of the farm I redirected their questions toward the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and societal success—each one of those needs to be balanced in order for a farm to be a success and, even more important, a valued indispensable member of a community. If a farm cannot make enough money to not only sustain itself but to provide a living for its farmers then it is failing the economic bottom line. If it smells like manure, pollutes the water or mines the earth of all its nutrients then it is not passing the environmental bottom line. If your farm is hated by its neighbors, has kids that are not proud of it and is an eyesore then it is failing the societal bottom line.

I’m glad that HMI has equipped small family farms like ours to be a practical voice for a better way in American Agriculture—to point out what used to be normal 70 years ago and have the guts to fight to bring what was lost back. I’m also glad for Dr. Capareda had the vision to include our farm in his presentation to foreign nationals of what American farms can be like. Thank you HMI for giving us the knowledge and tools to speak knowledgeably about the sustainable process that can revive American farms. And thank you Dr. Capareda for allowing me to share my vision and experience of the potential of family farms who dare to put their heart and back into their dreams.

18 IN PRACTICE

November / December 2013

% of Participants

Would recommend this program to others expanded network Intend to change management practices Monitor ecosystem health Improve riparian health for increased forage production Analyze ecosystem health

96% 96% 50% 80% 72% 72%

Conservation District also provided critical information about plant health and grazing practices.

There was a great diversity of participants with approximately 25% of participants who did not ranch but wanted to learn more about sustainable ranching practices. Some of these participants were smallland holders who owned horses. Approximately 50% of the participants were beginning ranchers who had been ranching for less than 10 years.

There was a lot of great learning from the small group work with plant identification as a particular favorite. Participants were excited to learn the practical skills of forage assessment and biological monitoring that they could then take back to their operations and land. Likewise, the large group discussion had everyone engaged in how to apply what they had learned about the landscape regarding the issues of animal performance, destocking strategies, financial ramifications, and value-added marketing to address profitability in reduced production areas due to drought.

Thanks to our host for the day, Joan Bybee. Thanks also to our funders and sponsors, the Chs Foundation, adelante Consulting services, Claunch-Pinto swCD, Rocky Mountain Farmers union, New Mexico land link, la Montanita Cooperative, the southwest grassfed livestock alliance, and the Manzano Mountain arts Council. evaluations of the program show that 100% of the participants were satisfied with the program. 88% of participants experienced some knowledge change with an average of 44% change in knowledge.

Participants manage over 196,644 acres which will now be managed differently as a result of this program.

A very engaged crowd at HMI’s Open Gate Mesteño Draw Ranch Day.

(left to right) Brian Green, Joan Bybee, Melvin Johnson, and Ann Adams talking with Open Gate participant.

Certified

Educators

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

TEXAS

◆ These educators provide Holistic

Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

*

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

NEW YORK Erica Frenay

*454 old 76 Rd. • Brooktondale, NY 14817

U N I T E D S TAT E S

607/539-3246 • efrenay22@gmail.com

ARIZONA

NEBRASKA

tim Mcgaffic

Paul swanson

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

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

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

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

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

NEW HAMPSHIRE Kerman *350Kate Troy Road, Marlborough, NH 03455 ◆ seth wilner

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

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

◆ Rob Rutherford 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

NEW MEXICO

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

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

IOWA

P.o. Box 694, ozona, TX 76943-0694 325/392-2292 • 325/226-3042 (c) westgift@hughes.net

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

VERMONT

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

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

WASHINGTON sandra Matheson

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

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

228 e. Smith Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226 360/220-5103 • mathesonsm@frontier.com

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

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

SOUTH DAKOTA

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

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

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

Peggy Maddox

Calley hastings

Randal holmquist

◆ ann adams

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

Elizabeth Marks

603-876-4562, kkerman@phoenixfarm.org

Richard King

guy glosson

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

torray & Erin wilson

*4375 Pierce Ave., Paullina, IA 51046-7401

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

712/448-3870 • wilsonee3@gmail.com

MAINE Vivianne holmes 239 e Buckfield Rd. Buckfield, Me 04220-4209 207/336-2484 • vholmes@maine.edu

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

MISSISSIPPI Preston sullivan 610 ed Sullivan Lane, N.e.

Meadville, MS 39653 prestons@telepak.net • 601/384-5310

MONTANA

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

graeme hand

Cliff Montagne

*P.o. Box 173120, MSU, Dept of Land Resources and environmental Science, Bozeman, MT 59717 406/994-5079 • montagne@montana.edu

250/378-4535 • allison@guichonranch.ca

Blain hjertaas Box 760, Redvers, Saskatchewan SoC 2Ho 306/452-3882 • bhjer@sasktel.net

Brian luce

Dick Richardson

tony McQuail

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

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

*Box 10, Quilchena, BC V0e 2R0

150 Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 3302 61-3-5578-6272 (h), 61-4-1853-2130 (c) graeme.hand@bigpond.com Frogmore, Boorowa NSW 2586 61-0-263853217 (w) 61-0-263856224 (h) 61-0-429069001 (c) dick@hanaminno.com.au

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

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

NAMIBIA wiebke Volkmann

allison guichon

RR #4, Ponoka, AB T4J 1R4 403/783-6518 • lucends@cciwireless.ca 86016 Creek Line, RR#1 Lucknow, oN N0G 2H0 519/528-2493 • mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca

Pigott *Boxlen 222, Dysart, SK, SoH 1Ho

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

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

NEW ZEALAND John King

*P.o. Box 12011, Beckenham, Christchurch 8242 64-276-737-885 • john@succession.co.nz

SOUTH AFRICA wayne Knight

306/432-4583 • JLPigott@sasktel.net

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

KENYA

Solar Addicts, P.o. Box 537 Mokopane, 0600 South Africa 27-0-15-491-5286 +27 15 491 3451 (h) • +27 82 805 3274 (c) theknights@mweb.com.za

UNITED KINGDOM Philip Bubb

Christine C. Jost International Livestock Research Institute Box 30709, Nairobi 00100 254-20-422-3000 • 254-736-715-417 (c) c.jost@cgiar.org

*32 Dart Close, St. Ives

Cambridge, Pe27 3JB 44-1480-496-2925 (h) • +44 7837 405483 (w) pjbubb99@gmail.com

Number 152

IN PRACTICE 19

Book Review by ANN ADAMS Cows save the Planet and Other improbable ways of Restoring soil to heal the Earth; unmaking the Deserts, Rethinking Climate Change, Bringing Back Biodiversity, and Restoring Nutrients to our Food

by JUDITH SCHWARTZ • Chelsea Green Publishing • 2013 • pp. 240

A

s humankind faces more news stories about numerous natural resource issues including climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, and wildfires, a certain despair and apathy becomes almost palpable. For that reason, the need for books that show people what can be done has never been greater. I believe that’s why Cows Save the Planet by Judith Schwartz has touched a cord for so many readers (currently #17 on Amazon for books about sustainable agriculture).

I have noticed that one of the key motivators for beginning farmers and ranchers these days is that agriculture has the capability of actually allowing people to create healthy land while they make a living. That cannot be said for many other businesses.

As Schwartz points out properly managed soils can address the natural resource issues noted above as well as other issues such as rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity (think nutrient dense food).

By weaving stories of people managing the land for improved soil

health—a veritable who’s who of Holistic Management: Allan Savory, Gabe Brown, Peter Donovan, Christine Jones, Abe Collins, Ian Mitchell-Innes, Gene Goven, Colin Seis, Jim Howell, and Zachary Jones—with the research of many of the top climate change, soil, and water scientists, she provides the case and motivation to step up and join the carbon revolution.

My only criticism regarding the book is that Schwartz often seems to confuse Holistic Management with Holistic Planned Grazing. For example, she notes, “With Holistic Management, it’s livestock that get it all going.” I would say that it is the people who can manage their land effectively and partner with Nature to improve land health that get it all going. Livestock are one very good tool, especially when managed with Holistic Planned Grazing, but we have a host of tools in our toolbox and it is the tool of human creativity that will help people improve soil function. Holistic Management is the whole farm planning tool that will help the blueberry farmer in Maine as well as the cattle rancher in Texas make their little piece of the planet a better place.

So, if you want a book that simultaneously tells many engaging stories of people who are passionate about finding ways to manage the land for increased health and productivity and explains the intricacies of soil health and the economic and social forces at play, then Cows Save the Planet is the book for you. You can purchase it from HMI’s store at www.holisticmanagement.org.

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

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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.

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thE MaRKEtPlaCE

Healthy Pastures Grow Healthy Foods –

Western Canadian Holistic Management Conference

Choose Milk, Meat and Eggs With Benefits!

Research has shown that meat, milk and eggs from grass-fed animals have higher levels of Omega-3, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and Vitamin E than from animals not fed fresh grass.

Save the Date!

Grass-based farms are healthier for the environment because they reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, use less petroleum, pesticides, and fertilizer, and provide habitat for grassland nesting birds and wildlife.

llOyDMiNstER agRiCultuRal ExhiBitiON lloydminster, saskatchewan

Feb. 10-11, 2014

The NYS Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative provides technical assistance, education and political advocacy to assist farmers and others to promote clean, green, and profitable agriculture.

SPEAKERS and PRESENTERS INCLUDE:

NEw yORK statE gRaZiNg laNDs CONsERVatiON iNitiatiVE ...working to develop and sustain productive grazing lands in harmony with the environment 99 North Broad st., Norwich, Ny 13815-1387 Ph: 607-334-4632 • Fax: 607-336-2918 • www.glci.org

Jim Reger Jill Clapperton Seth Wilner Kathleen Charpentier

Please make check payable to: West-Central Forage Assn. #1 5013 50 Ave, Box 360 evansburg AB T0e 0T0 office: 780-727-4447 cell: 780-218-8890 www.westcentralforage.com

Plus, PRODuCER PaNEls aND BREaKOut sEssiONs!

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

HANDS-ON AGRONOMY BASIC SOIL FERTILITY GUIDELINES Now Available on DVD

BUY THE DVD TODAY! Runs 80 minutes and covers the following topics:

$30

• Feeding and Balancing the Soil • The Albrecht System • Soil Testing • Considering Soil Test Results • Sulfur • Calcium, pH, and Liming • Potassium and Sodium • Nitrogen • Manures, Green Manures

(postpaid to US addresses)

For consulting or educational services contact:

Kinsey Agricultural Services, Inc. $30 (plus shipping) (PAL orders add $5)

297 County Highway 357, Charleston, Missouri 63834 Phone: 573/683-3880; Fax: 573/683-6227, neal@kinseyag.com WE ACCEPT CREDIT CARD ORDERS (VISA, MC)

Number 152

IN PRACTICE 21

thE MaRKEtPlaCE

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

Holistic Management TTrrainings a

CORRAL DESIGNS

NEW 2014 DATES!!!!

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

Achieve success with â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

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

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

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

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

22 IN PRACTICE

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

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

27 corral layouts. $55.

Low Stress Cattle Handling Video $59.

Send checks/money order to:

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

November / December 2013

970/229-0703 www.grandin.com

People: Learn to differentiate between standard of living and quality of life Land: Leave a legacy, improve the land Finances: Make a profit every year

Holistic Management Facilitators: DON & BEV CAMPBELL Box 817, Meadow Lake SK S9x 1Y6 306/236-6088 â&#x20AC;˘ doncampbell@sasktel.net

thE MaRKEtPlaCE 2013 a ac cres u.s.a. conference & trade show

ecological

farming f the for

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

real world re cember 12-14 inn springfield, illinois Photo courtesy of TThhe Misso Missourian

At tend a lecture by Holistic Management trainer Ann Adams!

Russ Kremer

jo robinson

mark kastel

F OU N DE R, OZAR K MOU NT TAI N P OR K COOPE RATIVE, ORGAN IC PORK FARMER

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On-site Introductory HM Course

Durham Ranch, Wright, WY

Feb. 24-27, 2014 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

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Acres U .S.A. Pre-Conference

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CARING FOR Y YOU OUR FARM ANIMALS

FINDING PROFIT & PRODUCTION THROUGH ADVANCED GRAZING METHODS

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Greg Judy 2 days (Dec. 10-11), $395

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re gistra ation ati registration s $!9 0!33 $195

APPL LYING BIOLOGICA AL FARMING TO CONVENTIONAL CORN/BEAN CROPS TOP RESULTS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, CROP QUALITY & YIELDS

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advanced learning workshops

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HMI GRAZING PLANNING SOFTWARE • User-friendly excel-based interface • Let the computer do the math while you plan • easy SAU and ADA calculations • Account for multiple herds • Grazing Manual hyperlinks • Livestock and Land Performance Worksheet • And many more features

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en us a many “This tool has already giv ial investment init fold return beyond our to use it.” and we have just begun — Arnold Mattson, Branch, Agri-Environment Services Canada Agriculture and Agri-Food

TO LEARN MORE or TO ORDER: Call 505/842-5252 or visit us at www.holisticmanagement.org/store/

Number 152

IN PRACTICE 23

NoN-PRoFIT oRGANIZATIoN U.S. PoSTAGe PAID ALBUQUeRQUe, NM PeRMIT No 880

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

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

Holistic Management Mail Order Emporium

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

Software

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

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___ Back issues Collection CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25

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

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

Planning and Monitoring Guides ___ introduction to holistic Management, August 2012, 128 pages . . . . $25 ___ holistic Financial Planning, August 2012, 58 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ holistic grazing Planning, August 2012, 63 pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

Books and Multimedia For more titles, visit our website at www.holisticmanagement.org. ___ Cows save the Planet, by Judith D. Schwartz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17.95 ___ you Can Farm, by Joel Salatin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 ___ salad Bar Beef, by Joel Salatin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35 ___ Kick the hay habit, by Jim Gerrish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $27

___ holistic Biological Monitoring—Croplands August 2012, 26 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15 ___ holistic Biological Monitoring— Rangelands and grasslands, August 2012, 59 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . $17 ___ holistic land Planning, August 2012, 31 pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15

___ hands On agronomy, Book w/DVD by Neal Kinsey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45 ___ holistic Management handbook, by Butterfield, Bingham, Savory. . . $40 ___ at home with holistic Management, by Ann Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20

Planning Forms ___ annual income & Expense Plan, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . $17

___ holistic Management: a New Environmental intelligence . . . . . . . . $10

___ worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7

___ how to Not grow Broke Ranching, by Walt Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $30

___ livestock Production worksheet, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . $17

___ stockmanship, by Steve Cote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $35

___ grazing Plan & Control Chart, padded, 25 sheets/pad . . . . . . . . . . . . $17

___ Comeback Farms, by Greg Judy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $32 ___ PBS Video: the First Millimeter: healing the Earth (DVD) . . . . . . . . $25 ___ the Organic Farmer’s Business handbook, by Richard Wiswall . $34.95

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