Community involvement can be many

things to many people. For my father it

meant being involved in the local

neighborhood clean up day and writing letters to

local and federal politicians and newspapers. For

my mother it meant active involvement in her

church and its ministry. For both of them it meant

giving to organizations to which they felt

allegiance. The message I received in watching

their efforts was that part of a fulfilling life was

figuring out how your skills and interests could

best serve the community and becoming actively

involved in making the world a better place.

As a parent, one of my main contributions to

my community has been my involvement in my

son’s education and in AYSO (American Youth

Soccer Organization). For those of you not

familiar with the AYSO phenomena, it is the

organization that runs the recreational soccer

program all over the U.S. and keeps parents

hopping every Saturday.

AYSO is structured to ensure that parents

volunteer in some capacity such as coaching,

refereeing, or fundraising. While some parents are

avid supporters who attend each game and even

watch practices, many parents drop the kids off,

relieved to know they are in a “safe” place for a

couple of hours. At the end of the season they

express their gratitude to the coaches for putting

all that time and effort toward their kids.

As one of those coaches, I am always rather

surprised at being thanked for doing something I

have enjoyed so much. In coaching the team, I get

to play with my son and his friends and help

them improve as soccer players and as team

members. But when those parents say thank you

to me in that relieved sort of manner, I suspect

that for them coaching soccer is comparable to

listening to nails scratched across a chalkboard.

From my point of view, I am exceedingly

grateful that through soccer I have this avenue to

be involved in one aspect of my local community

and one of my son’s extracurricular activities. To

engage with others’ children is an added bonus. I

like to think that these 13- and 14-year-old boys

might view the world a little differently after

being on a team with a female soccer coach than

if they hadn’t had that experience. I know I have

certainly been affected by coaching these boys

and gained a greater appreciation for their ability

to be open, adapt, and grow.

A Life We l l - L i ve d

When I think of volunteering, membership,

or community involvement, I think about a line

from a Kate Wolf song: “Find what you really

care about, then live a life that shows it.” Like

Holistic Management, that song reminds me that

it is important to determine what gives our life

meaning because once we do so we can move

mountains, and even have fun in the process.

I think our holistic goal helps us define what

we find enjoyable and important in our lives.

With that knowledge we have greater clarity

about what we can bring to our work, our family,

and/or our community, as well as knowing what

skills we need to acquire ourselves or through

collaboration to succeed. Working with this

understanding is one of the reasons Ernesto

Sirolli’s Enterprise Facilitation (see “Growing

Community Power” on page 5) has had such

success in rural economic development.

And as Dennis Wobeser points out in his

interview (see “From Feedyard to Grassfarming”

on page 4), jobs are performed better and people

enjoy their work more when people know what

they are good at and have the opportunity to do

it. This might not be news to some readers, but

look at the number of people not doing what

they are good at or perhaps doing things they

do not enjoy for any number of reasons.

In contrast to such demoralizing

circumstances, the McNeil family (see “Doing the

RiGHT Thing” on page 7) has achieved

incredible results not only for themselves, but for

their community. By making a difference in how

they have lived their lives and run their business,

they have been better able to expand their

success into their community. Such community

involvement is an outgrowth of a life well-lived.

For me, such a story suggests the incredible

possibilities if each of us were to have the same

success at what we felt assionate about. I hope

these stories inspire you toward that end.

in t h is I s su e

From Factory Farming to National

Prosperity

Allan Savory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

From Feedyard to Grass Farming

Peter Donovan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Growing Community Power

Peter Donovan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Doing the RiGHT Thing

Rio de la Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

LAND & LIVESTOCK—A specialsection of IN PRACTICE

The Nonbrittle Pampas of Argentina:

A Pastoral Paradise

Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

On the Slick Rock Ranch: Big Dreams

and Stark Reality

Jim Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Savory Center Bulletin Board . . . . . . .16

Development Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

How are you involved in your

community? As many holistic managers

have found out, community involvement

is often necessary to move you toward

your holistic goal. The McNeil family is

a prime example of such involvement

and what they have been able to

accomplish with Holistic Management.

See their story on page 7.

Making a Diffe r e n c eby Ann Adams

JULY / AUGUST 2001 NUMBER 78

HOLISTICMANAGEMENT IN PRACTIC EP r oviding the link between a healthy environment and a sound economy

2 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #78

The Allan Savory

Center for Holistic Management

The ALLAN SAVORY CENTER FOR

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT is a 501(c) (3)

non-profit organization. The center

works to restore the vitality of

communities and the natural resources

on which they depend by advancing the

practice of Holistic Management and

coordinating its development worldwide.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lois Trevino, Chair

Rio de la Vista, Vice Chair

Ann Adams, Secretary

Manuel Casas, Treasurer

Gary Rodgers

Allan Savory

ADVISORY BOARD

Robert Anderson, Chair, Corrales, NM

Ron Brandes, New York, NY

Sam Brown, Austin, TX

Leslie Christian, Portland, OR

Gretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA

Clint Josey, Dallas, TX

Doug McDaniel, Lostine, OR

Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, Mexico

Bunker Sands, Dallas, TX

York Schueller, Santa Barbara, CA

Jim Shelton, Vinita, OK

Richard Smith, Houston, TX

STAFF

Shannon Horst, Executive Director; Kate Bradshaw, Associate Director; Allan Savory, Founding Director; Jody Butterfield, Co-Founder andResearch and Educational MaterialsCoordinator ; Kelly Pasztor, Director of Educational Services; Andy Braman,

Development Director; Ann Adams,

Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE andMembership Support Coordinator

Africa Centre for Holistic Management

Private Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

tel: (263) (11) 213529; email:

rogpachm@africaonline.co.zw

Huggins Matanga, Director; Roger

Parry, Manager, Regional Training Centre;Elias Ncube, Hwange ProjectManager/Training Coordinator

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT INPRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is publishedsix times a year by The Allan SavoryCenter for Holistic Management, 1010Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102,505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email:savorycenter@holisticmanagement.org.;website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2001.

Ad definitumfinem

From Factory Farming to

National Prosperityby Allan Savory

Editor’s Note: This editorial discusses the

far-reaching results that can occur when

people cooperate at a community level to

achieve the quality of life they want.

hile many agricultural producers

know that current agribusiness is

not a pretty picture, most of them

don’t know how to do things differently, given

their economic constraints. For the most part,

producers want to earn a profit while

consumers need food they can afford. Few

think beyond this simplicity to the bigger

picture or longer term.

The current agricultural system can offer

short-term profit, but at what cost? We have

only to look at monocropping and factory

farming to know the price is too high.

Currently high numbers of livestock (fish,

shellfish, pigs, poultry and cattle) are produced

in factory settings by good people making

good money. Profits are in large measure

due to economies of scale and many hidden

subsidies that favor such factory-style

production. We need to relook at such

policies for a couple of reasons.

Conventional economists, who have

masterminded today’s agriculture, do not

account for costs commonly called

“externalities.” These are costs that do not arise

immediately, or close to the operation, and are

thus hard to calculate. However, the fact that

flooding has become our leading weather-

related cause of deaths, and that eroding soil

outweighs all our exports from all sources

combined annually, carries a cost of enormous

consequence. Economies of scale for corporate

America are, in fact, dis- economies of scale for

Americans who eventually have to pay the bill.

Liabilities to Assets

There are immediate concerns with factory

style animal production (apart from such

emotional issues as humane treatment). First,

high numbers of animals are desperately

needed on the land where dung, urine and

trampling are priceless assets if we are to

reduce forest fires and biomass burning,

as well as to reverse land degradation

(desertification) and store carbon once more

in the soil, in order to combat global climate

change. In contrast, dung and urine, are costly

polluting liabilities in animal factories.

Water, our urban/industrial Achilles heel, is

required in vast amounts to produce a pound

of feedlot beef, while little is required to

produce that same beef off the land. Further,

those animals, on the land, could be reducing

floods while more than doubling the soil’s

capacity to hold water for later use. The

amounts of water that can be held, and

gradually released, from soils over our vast

water catchments makes the water stored in

dams look ridiculously miniscule. And

water held in the soil does not cause the

environmental and social damage attributable

to dams. With cities running out of water this

factor alone would dictate the need to get the

animals out of feedlots and back on the land.

Those of you raising grassfed livestock

need to fully market all you are doing to heal

the land. Many of you already promote the

healthful qualities of your product as these

animals are less susceptible to the diseases that

plague factory-raised livestock. The current

mad cow (BSE) and foot and mouth disease

outbreaks in Europe as well as high antibiotic

usage are, I believe, unquestionably linked to

factory farming and/or animals too static on

land. Last year in the U.S. over 20 million

pounds of antibiotics were used on animals,

mostly for growth promotion. And in a recent

study, 74–100 percent of wild fish near fish

farms had residues of the antibiotics used in

those fish factories.

As sustainable producers you are also the

leaders of a new agriculture. Your success

will encourage those who are still involved in

feedlots and animal factories. Surely no one

wants to pass on the pollution, and potential

health problems to their children or their

neighbors’ children. Nor do these producers

willfully want to contribute to the land

deterioration (desertification) and social

problems associated with it. Yet many continue

to choose that option as if there were no

other choices, whether out of habit,

desperation, or misinformation. Your success

will change that not only for the producer

but for the consumer.

W

To be able to market the environmental

benefits of grassfed beef you do, however,

need also to understand that the labels

“grassfed” or “organic” are not sufficient.

Throughout history by far the greatest beef

production has been, and much continues to

be, grassfed and organic. However, the manner

in which graziers handle the animals has led to

the development of the world’s major deserts

and is now contributing globally and in the

U.S., more than any other factor, to floods,

increasing droughts and desertification. Such

grassfed organic production is also not socially

sound simply because degraded land always

leads to poverty, social breakdown, violence,

and more.

Graziers can offer increased quality of life

opportunities for themselves, their families,

their employees, and the consumer because

not only can they offer a higher quality,

healthier product but they are also capable

of using their livestock to regenerate the land

and water resources of the nation as many

who are managing holistically are doing.

As consumers become more

environmentally conscious, the demand

for land restoration and more socially,

environmentally and economically sound

policies will grow—whether related to noxious

weed infestations, choked and increasingly

fire-prone National Forests, desertification of

America’s grasslands and savannas, loss of

wildlife habitat, or sustaining urban water

supplies. However, most consumers still do not

see the connection between what graziers can

do to produce healthy food and to address

environmental problems that also concern

them. In other words, they do not yet

understand that livestock are the greatest

tools for land restoration we have available.

Consumers, however, cannot be blamed for

ignorance of such facts when many livestock

producers are equally ignorant. Or if they are

aware, they do little to change how they run

their livestock on the land—be it private or

public. Those of us who want healthy land

and abundant wildlife and water must educate

the livestock industry, agricultural leadership,

and consumers until it is common knowledge

that graziers can produce healthy food and

healthy land. Graziers face two choices of

concern to all Americans:

• Run their animals so they continue the

destruction of land, water, wildlife and rural

economies while polluting and producing an

unhealthy product, or

• Run their animals in such a manner that

they become the most powerful tool for the

their community. But we need to move

beyond that to a regional, national, and

international level.

Regional Cooperative s

If we look at the short-term urgent problem

graziers face, it is clear the principle area of

difficulty is distribution and marketing rather

than production. Any grazier can learn to

manage holistically. But, what can the ordinary

person do about shifting a national subsidized

marketing system?

Most farmers and ranchers simply do not

like marketing, and with most beef marketing

in the hands of a few mega companies, graziers

feel helpless. A few have done well individually

or in small groups niche marketing their clean,

grassfed beef. But we need massive marketing

transformation to realistically tackle America’s,

let alone the world’s, problems of

environmental degradation.

While I don’t know how that change will

ultimately happen, I suspect that an early

step would be well-led, large-scale marketing

collaboration between producers. Organic dairy

farmers, such as those involved in Organic

Valley, offer one approach. This company now

markets more than dairy products for members

from many states and is increasingly getting

their products into mainstream retail stores

even outside of Wisconsin.

As more of the grazier industry is able to

create similar alliances and corporations so that

they can meet consumer demands in the short-

term while educating consumers and policy-

makers for the long-term, their success will

affect government policy, consumption, and

supply. As feedlot owners see the writing on

the wall, they will change their production

methods proactively or be forced to do so by

consumer demand, subsidy changes, and

energy costs.

As individual graziers you can do

something to change the current agricultural

system that leads to environmental

degradation and unhealthy food. By keeping

the goal of healthy food and land in mind

we can find the means to change this system

to benefit everyone. It will take a level of

moral courage to move beyond the status quo

and make the extra effort of informing

yourself, your consumers, your fellow

producers, and the leaders of your agricultural

organizations. I believe many of you who

work closely with the land and animals you

love possess the fortitude to create that

change from which personal and national

prosperity will arise.

restoration of land, water, wildlife and rural

economies while producing a healthy clean

product.

Catching the Wa ve

People and corporations currently heavily

committed to feedlot production, and its

associated meat packaging and marketing, will

maintain that they cannot change as so much

is invested. While acknowledging this problem,

I feel those who are wise should heed the

warnings of impending massive change as

many corporate leaders are doing.

Over the next few decades entire industrial

sectors and many corporations will disappear

and whole new industries will appear, simply

because the sleeping giant of public opinion,

concerning social and environmental issues, is

awakening.

People and corporations heavily invested

in animal factory production have a choice to

change early, proactively and profitably, or to

do so later in crisis with great loss. While

changing production, handling, and marketing

may warrant national financial help, it will

take years to gain the level of national

understanding required for such dramatic

policy shifts. So what can graziers do in the

meantime?

Individually they can do a great deal

by simply producing cleaner, more

environmentally beneficial products. I know

many graziers are concerned about how they

will survive in the short-term as they make

this shift, given USDA policies that favor

diseconomies of scale, feedlot production,

and marketing in the hands of virtual

monopolies.

But remember, there are graziers who are

not only surviving but also thriving in this

current unfair situation. Using the Holistic

Management™ model and other tools such as

humane livestock handling, continually

improving temporary fencing technology,

and their own human creativity in marketing,

they have been able to make changes on an

individual and local level for themselves and

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 3

Consumers . . . do not yet

understand that livestock

are the greatest tools for

land restoration w e

have available.

4 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #78

In 1999, Dennis and Jean Wobeser, of Hi-

Gain Ranching, in Lloydminster, Alberta,

won the Emerald Award in the small-

business category. This is a major Canadian

environmental award, and this is the first

time it has been won by an agricultural

operation. In the words of the press release

that accompanied the award:

“Dennis and Jean Wobeser have been in

the cattle business since 1963. For over 20

years they ran a custom feeding and feedlot

company that, at its peak, handled 7,000 head

of cattle. In the late 1980s, the Wobesers, along

with daughter Kelly, son Brady, and four

employees, decided to transform their high-

technical/high-input commercial feeding

operation to a low-input, nature-based grazing

operation. Hi-Gain Ranching now manages

4,500 acres (1,822 hectares) with most of

that land dedicated to seeded pasture and

maintenance of natural areas, supporting

600 cows and 600 to 800 yearlings.

“The Wobesers’ approach has resulted in

healthier and higher-volume grass, increased

organic matter in the soil, more diversity

in plant species, and an increase in

beneficial insect species. Bare ground

has decreased and healthier land has

increased due to disallowing pesticides and

chemicals. The effects of floods and drought

have been reduced due to a layer of thatch

(dead and decaying plants) on the surface

of the ground, which increases the water

holding capacity of the soil and reduces

erosion and runoff. Hi-Gain Ranching is

truly a demonstration of a healthy and

vibrant ecosystem.”

The following is from a too-brief

interview with Dennis Wobeser. Thanks

much to Brady Wobeser for his comments

and contributions.

Dennis: I graduated from university in

1961. There’s never been a faster explosion

in technology in agriculture than there was

in the twenty years after 1960. Now we’re

finding out that not only do you go broke

buying things to help you, but you’ve

destroyed the soil, the base. That’s the

turnaround.

All my life I’ve wanted to be a cattleman.

When I got into Holistic Management I

the financial planning stuff, and I can still

stumble around and go to a market or two

and do the marketing, so we’ve got a pretty

good team.

The key to the whole thing is the people

aspect. If you can just get the people thinking

right, there’s no stopping you. There’s so

much potential out here right now.

In our club (the Devon management club

meets monthly), we’re weak on the people,

goal aspect [quality of life], particularly the

men. They’re so prone to jump out and go

recreational fencing or farming—it’s the hardest

by far to get people into the people aspect.

But once you get involved in this aspect,

it flows. For our management club, the

biggest thing has been the

involvement of the entire family

[in management]. To get more

involvement [in that] by everyone

has been key.

The feedlot was right for the

times, but then we realized we had to

do something totally different, or get

a lot bigger. When we looked at the

financial aspect of the inefficiencies

of growing and feeding grain to

confinement livestock, we didn’t like

it. Now we’re exceptionally glad we

made the change [to a nature-based

operation]. Now everybody’s yowling

about the price of diesel fuel and gas,

and we don’t need very much around

here, and that helps a lot.

Working with nature instead of

against nature looked exciting. And the

economics—we were going through vast

amounts of money here and hanging on to

very little of it. Neither Kelly nor Brady

wanted to carry on with the feedlot. And

it was a rat race.

Brady Wobeser: The grass management

beats slogging around the mud in the feedlot

by a long ways. With the feedlot, we didn’t

have time to do anything.

Dennis: Everything—labor, money, effort,

land—everything was geared to supporting

this feedlot. It devoured everything. We

said, there’s something wrong here. Let’s get

back to managing the land. If there’s some

aspect to the feedlot where it can fit into

realized that collecting solar energy through

growth on the land was more important than

the animals, and the animals were only tools.

Begrudgingly, I had to drop my sacred cows

from number one to number two, and put

growth ahead of it. We’ve got friends just

south of us, Larry and Toby Bell, who told

us that we weren’t looking deep enough

yet. They convinced us that all our future

and everything is dependent on the

health of our soil. If you have healthy

land, you’ll have healthy plants, which you

can then harvest by livestock if that’s the

way you choose. Now the cows are the third

priority: put the soil first, then the growth,

then the animals.

People said, what did you learn from

Holistic Management? I said, I finally learned

that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,

and no, it isn’t just another freight train. That’s

when the quality of life thing started to come.

Allan Nation (editor of The Stockman

Grass Farmer ) keeps saying, when you’re 50,

you’re running out of steam, so you have to

use your expertise and the young people’s

energy to put it together. Ernesto Sirolli (see

next article, “Growing Community Power”)

says that the three things that are key are

production, finance, and marketing. We’re

very fortunate here. Our son, Brady, has got

the energy and can do the production. Our

daughter, Kelly, is just really good and likes

Meet Dennis Wo b e s e r —

From Feedyard to Grass Farmingby Peter Donovan

Dennis Wobeser outside what used to be his

7,000-head feedlot before he shifted to a grass-based

operation.

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 5

production, and the soil has started to come

alive again.

What we just finished doing with the

feedlot wasn’t necessarily wrong. It might

have been right at the time. But the whole

key is that the most difficult thing for society

to accept is change. We have to learn to

accept change. Nature cycles, everything is

trying to do that to us. And we get in real

trouble if we start to ignore that.

I’ve enjoyed [educating others]. The feedlot

started that. It was a custom lot. It was a

people place, so we learned to work with

people. We’ve enjoyed helping people.

Brady: When we quit custom feeding it

was like a ghost town around here, because

people weren’t coming in. Now it’s just about

as many people coming in—related to renting

grass, etc. Our neighbors don’t think we’re

crazy anymore.

This excerpted article first appeared

in Patterns of Choice . You can learn

more about this journal at

www.managingwholes.com or by

calling Peter at 541/426-6490.

continued on page 6

that, we would still do it. Otherwise, no, we

won’t do it.

We wanted to move the feedlot outdoors.

We wanted the cattle to work to find their feed,

and we wanted them to spread the nutrients

back on the land in the form of manure.

We’ve always bought a lot of the feed.

The biggest breakthrough was when we

found out a cow can lick snow instead of

having to have water. That allowed us to

move the herds away from home, to where

they’re doing some good on the land.

We grew up with the European

philosophy, that all the cows were tied in the

barn. I often wondered why that was. That’s

the way my dad was; you tied everything

up in the barn.

We have a lot of opportunity here, and

we’re just starting to scratch the surface. If

the consumer keeps demanding more

healthy food, then we’re really on the right

track. But we’ll always have cycles and so

forth. We’ve got to try and not pattern our

operations after price, we’ve got to pattern

them after cost. Do the best you can with

what you have, where you are. We keep

uncovering more adaptability and flexibility

in these cattle.

We’re a long ways away from the grass-fed

thing in North America because we still have

political manipulation trying to encourage the

production of grain. As long as we have that,

we’ll have cheap grain that we have to dispose

of through livestock. The bottom line still

comes back to cheap production on grass.

We’ve also now realized that the cow can

survive strictly on byproduct during the

winter feeding period. Our cows are wintering

on bales of straw, with the chaff put back in

the straw, and supplemented with a pea/lentil

screening pellet.

We’ve got some neighbors growing milling

oats. The oats have to be hulled. The oat hull,

ground up, is producing an extremely good

cow feed. We’re got a lot of cows in this

district—by and large people who are

involved in Holistic Management—existing

100 percent through the winter on

byproduct feed.

So we’ve more than doubled our

a subtly designated elite, who by virtue of

their professional backgrounds and civic

commitment “know” what is best for others.

T h ey develop plans and strategies to remedy

the deficiencies, write for grants, and hire

exe c u t i ve directors and program officers. The

perceptions, knowledge, skills, and techniques

to create change in any other way did not

exist in our community.

H owever, two things occurred. We gained

skills, experience, and success in envisioning

and running programs, which helped us gain

and even share power. We also began to

experience some dissatisfaction with the

results, and with the way we were looking

at the problems.

The Holistic Management™ decision-making

f r a m ework was a crucial turning point for me.

But when a community sees itself as controlled

by outside forces, as lacking power, setting a

holistic goal appears to be an abstract exe r c i s e ,

like a two-dimensional drawing of an

“impossible” three-dimensional geometric

shape. Most could not see how to get “there”

from “here.”

Editor’s Note: Enterprise Facilitation is a rural

d e velopment process developed by Ernesto

Sirolli that focuses on creating locally

d e veloped enterprises to increase the economic

health of a rural community. For more

i n formation about Enterprise Facilitation see

the book review of Ripples from the Zambezi

i n IN PRACTICE # 7 6 .

Here in northeast Oregon’s Wa l l owa

C o u n t y, our local economy has

depended on the export of

commodities—lumber, cattle, and grain. People

feel powerless, as if their future is being

dictated by outside markets and money, urban

environmentalists, and federal regulations.

When you are powerless, you can’t hide the

fact from the younger generation. They leave .

By nature they want a chance to play, on the

“A” team perhaps, and to swim with the current

instead of against it.

When you are powerless, you depend on

others for your money. An eroding tax base

increases your dependence on grantwriting. Yo u

become adept at depicting the distress of yo u r

c o m m u n i t y, rather than its strengths (ex c e p t

when it comes to selling real estate). Absentee

ownership of real property increases.

When you are powerless, you are

guaranteed to be in conflict. Here the wo r d

d e ve l o p m e n t has tended to bring out suspicion,

fa n t a s y, avarice, hopelessness, or active

resistance, depending on who you talk to.

People disagree on what development is,

where it comes from, why it occurs, and

whether it is a good thing. The phrase

sustainable dev e l o p m e n t doesn’t help, because

people have radically different notions of what

sustains what. For some, agriculture sustains

civilization. According to others, civilization

should sustain agriculture.

Good Intentions

O ver the years, there have been many

e fforts in Wa l l owa County to do something

about high unemployment, social problems,

degraded riparian conditions, weeds, fiscal

problems, and more. All too often, these

e fforts have been characterized by a top-dow n

approach, focused on the problems or

symptoms, rather than on the

p owerlessness itself.

The participants in these efforts are

typically capable and well-intentioned people,

G r owing Community Powe r by Peter Donovan

6 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #78

meaning of engaging an outside consultant to

help us move in that direction. Again, this wa s

about power. Would engaging an outside

consultant really change things for us and our

community? Would this be a series of seminars

or strategy sessions, interesting perhaps, but

only resulting in plans and documents that sat

on a shelf? Did we need to do it

on our own, to “reinvent the

w h e e l ? ”

Some people called board

members and facilitators of

projects in the Midwest. We built

confidence that the Enterprise

Facilitation strategy would wo r k

for us, and Sirolli came again to

Wa l l owa County in Nove m b e r

1999 and spoke to more people,

enlarging our circle. We began to

fundraise the $170,000 that wo u l d

make possible a two - year trial.

We concluded that in making the

radical shift from top-down to a

bottom-up approach, we could lessen our risk

by engaging an outside authority who had

d eveloped through experience a proven and

c o s t - e ffe c t i ve method. The “packaging”—the

community operations manuals and the training

p r ovided to board and facilitator by Sirolli—has

helped to protect our effort against the

tendency to seek control, to suppress dive r s i t y,

and to implement projects from the top dow n .

The interest and cooperation of positional

leadership has been crucial. Certainly Sirolli’s

passionate advocacy of an empowe r m e n t

approach to development threatens some

traditionalist economic deve l o p m e n t

p r o fessionals. However, Lisa Lang, our local

economic development director, was an active

proponent from the start, and raised much of

the money needed for our project from state

and federal government grants.

Four months after Myron Kirkpatrick, our

full-time facilitator, hit the ground here, we have

s everal startups and expansions in the wings.

(Baker County to the south also began an

Enterprise Facilitation project after Sirolli’s visit

to them in February 1999, and preceded us

in fundraising and implementing it. Their

facilitator, Ruth Townsend, has helped with

13 startup enterprises so far.) We are trying to

shift our funding base to include more local

and private-sector dollars in order to take

responsibility more fully and to grow powe r .

The Power of Beliefs

The primary barriers to the practice of

Enterprise Facilitation are beliefs—for ex a m p l e ,

Ripples from the Zambezi

One of the notable failures of our linear,

needs-based, top-down approach was in economic

d evelopment, where our county failed to recruit

or retain major employers after much effort and

expense. In November 1998, after learning about

Ernesto Sirolli’s Enterprise Facilitation method

from Washington State University’s Don Nelson, I

was intrigued enough to go to Hastings,

Minnesota to visit a project. I spent time with the

facilitator there, Ron Toppin, meeting clients and

learning about how Enterprise Facilitation wo r k e d .

I read Ripples from the Zambezi at one long

sitting in a coffee shop.

Here was a path we could fo l l ow in

Wa l l owa County that would create new

economic activity quickly and cheaply. Here

was a practical and proven social technology fo r

a l l owing passionate individual entrepreneurs,

rather than speculators and planners, to chart

the future. By encouraging development from

within, by building on our strengths of

c r e a t i v i t y, resourcefulness, intelligence, skill, and

commitment, by helping serious people build a

foundation of sound management under their

ideas (rather than using incentives to create

often-rickety superstructures), we would grow

p ower locally, and begin to resolve some of our

conflicts about deve l o p m e n t .

In February 1999, Sirolli came to Enterprise.

He outlined his background, philosophy, and

method to 25 people in the basement of the

t own library. I made 30 audiotape copies of a

speech Sirolli had given in Spokane. Liberals and

c o n s e r va t i ves were galvanized by his message.

A self-selected core group of about a dozen

people met monthly, with a good deal of

additional interested participation. We used the

consensus circle, asking ourselves,

“What is the situation with regard to

economic development here?”

“What are the worst possible outcomes of

change?”

“What are the best possible outcomes?”

“What are the beliefs, behaviors, strategies,

and actions needed to foster the best possible

outcomes?”

This was a simple way of testing whether

the Sirolli Institute’s community package wo u l d

m ove us in the direction of our best outcomes.

We decided that it would, although we had

some issues around the expense and the

G r owing Community

P ower continued from page 5

that the people in your community are not

c r e a t i ve or resourceful, that they must be told

what to do, and that development comes from

s o m ewhere else. Or, that private enterprise will

a l ways seek to damage natural and social capital

in order to prosper, and that “sustainability” is

t h e r e fore achieved through control.

What helped us go

fo r ward is our local sense

of the “entrepreneurial

r evo l u t i o n ” — t h e

a forementioned creativity,

resourcefulness, and

commitment, the sense that

people across the social

and political spectrum are

increasingly committed to

right live l i h o o d s .

Like many areas in the

rural West, Wa l l owa County is

at a pivot point about powe r .

For twenty years we have

implemented programs from

the top down. These have helped build the

necessary skills, knowledge, and commitment.

N ow we are able to try something different, in

a conscious manner, while taking advantage of

what we have learned.

F i n a l l y, the implementation of Enterprise

Facilitation requires champions or leaders who

see the possibilities and can help others see

them, who understand that the primary barriers

are beliefs that are disguised as fact and

experience. Who these people turn out to be

may surprise you, as will the motivated people

with ideas who will come fo r wa r d .

In changing beliefs, an effe c t i ve technology

helps. Galileo’s telescope played an important

role in the collapse of the belief that the

sun revo l ved around the earth. Enterprise

Facilitation, by making competent management

coaching available to the grassroots, is show i n g

itself to be an effe c t i ve technology fo r

e m p owering people who have dreams for a

better life, and for helping people see each

other’s assets.

Peter Donovan, who lives in Enterprise,

Oregon, edits and publishes Patterns of Choice:

A journal of people, land, and money t h a t

reports on what people are learning from

conscious attempts at managing wholes rather

than parts. The Patterns of Choice w e b s i t e

contains many articles based on firsthand,

on-site reporting, including several on

Enterprise Facilitation projects

in the Midwest and Canada:

w w w.managingwholes.com

Peter Donovan

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 7

more and more of the hay fields, cycling them

in and out of hay production. They also reduced

the amount of hay they cut and returned to an

old-time practice of simply cutting the hay into

w i n d r ows and piling it with a dump rake rather

than putting up bales. In this wa y, they could

use portable electric fence to dole the hay out to

the cattle. However, the McNeils plan their

grazing to allow sufficient regrowth so the cattle

can go through the pastures and find adequate

standing forage in most seasons.

The McNeils have also changed their calving

season to a June/July calving so that their 800

mother cows can be dry and pregnant through

the cold months and be on fresh green grow t h

and warmer temperatures during calving,

lactating and rebreeding. This change has also

greatly enhanced the McNeils’ quality of life .

As Mike likes to relate, “I

used to say that I wished I live d

s o m ewhere where we didn’t have

to put up hay all summer and

c a l ve in January. Then I finally

realized, I live in that place!”

To further enhance their

quality of life, the McNeils have

decided to take “non-use” on their

Forest Service grazing permit

(which they have used to

summer graze 600 yearlings in

the past) and run the entire herd

on their own land. With their

many years of experience and

very careful Holistic

Management™ grazing planning,

t h ey are confident the land can

carry this increased number of

animals and sustain the health of the grasses

and biodiversity at the same time.

A Better Quality of Land and Life

All of these management changes have led to

very measurable improvements in the McNeil’s

l i ves and land. From a production standpoint,

their enhanced planning has allowed them to

sustainably increase the carrying capacity of their

land by approximately 30 percent—perhaps eve n

more. The earlier panic of how to feed their

l i vestock is long gone and their independence

from public lands gives them a real sense of

security given the political and social pressures

Doing the RiGHT Thing—The McNeil Ranchby Rio de la Vista

continued on page 8

hat underlies a successful,

holistically managed ranching

operation? How does a family in a

high altitude, 6- to 8-inch (15- to 21-cm) rainfa l l

va l l ey in southern Colorado win national

a wards for their progressive management?

If there is one common denominator in

these questions, it seems to be the willingness

and ability to change with the times and

respond effe c t i vely to the demands of the day

while looking into the future. And that’s how

the McNeil family have protected a heritage of

100 plus years of ranching on the Rock Creek

Drainage on the southwestern slope of the

San Luis Va l l ey (SLV) in South Central Colorado.

Waking Up From Tr a d i t i o n

The McNeil family originally

m oved to Colorado from Vi r g i n i a

in 1890. To d a y, the ranch is run by

the fourth and fifth generations

of McNeils: Mike, with his wife ,

C a t h y, their 13-year-old daughter,

K e l l y, and nephew, Michael, along

with two long time employe e s .

T h ey run 800 mother cows on

3,033 acres (1,228 hectares), with

a p p r oximately 1,200 of those acres

irrigated. In the past, they have

also run their cattle on an

a p p r oximately 30,000-acre (12,146-

hectare) summer grazing permit

in the nearby National Forest.

As a young boy, Mike spent

summers irrigating hay fields,

driving tractors to harvest 3,000

tons of hay or riding the herd in

the high country range. He spent the cold

winters of his youth feeding that same hay to

the herd and, in the tradition of the area, calving

in the deep freeze of January. He also studied

agriculture briefly at Colorado State Unive r s i t y

until the bottom fell out of the cattle market,

and he returned home.

When Mike’s father, Bill, passed away in 1983,

the family had to deal with the challenges of

inter-generational land transfer issues, especially

the looming estate taxes. They were able to take

financial planning steps to protect the fa m i l y

and the ranch, albeit through some extreme and

very ex p e n s i ve measures.

Then, in the drought of 1989, the Forest

Service told them they had to remove half

their herd from their grazing allotment. Such

an unexpected situation could well have been

disastrous, but some summer rains saved them

at the last minute. This “wake up” call made

them realize that “business as usual” was

getting more and more risky, if not

d ownright untenable.

So Mike and Cathy began to explore other

options and new ways to manage their ranch.

Having heard about “HRM” (Holistic Resource

Management) and thinking it was “a way to

double their stocking rate,” they decided to learn

more about it. They began to study va r i o u s

a l t e r n a t i ve approaches, with their training in

Holistic Management providing a framework

for integrating these new ideas and practices

into their operation.

Rather than try to make immediate changes

in their livestock operations, they realized that

the real “logjam” at the time was in their fa m i l y.

So their first “new idea” was to address fa m i l y

issues and begin to heal some of the schisms

that existed. Difficult and challenging as it wa s ,

over time and through honest communication

and family meetings, many old issues we r e

r e s o l ved and this led to a more creative and

r e l a xed environment.

Greater Sustainability

From there, the McNeils began to make

gradual changes in the actual operation of the

ranch itself. Over the years, they began to graze

W

Sandhill cranes rising from the waters of the Monte Vista National

Wildlife Refuge. The McNeils have worked with this refuge over the past

five years to help protect the water rights in the area as part of their

conservation ef forts.

8 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #78

Trust is now backing the effort through support

of a local project coordinator and direct land

protection efforts.

The list of partnering organizations now

also include: the U.S. Fish and Wi l d l i fe Service,

Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ducks

Unlimited, the Trust for Public Land, Colorado

Wetlands Partnership and the SLV We t l a n d s

Focus Area Committee, Colorado Division of

Wi l d l i fe, the SLV GIS/GPS Authority, Colorado

Cattlemens Agricultural Land Trust, the Rio

Grande Headwaters Land Trust, and many more.

At the same time the Rock Creek Heritage

Project was developing, it became clear to the

McNeils and their colleagues that they also

needed a local land trust to work throughout

the San Luis Va l l ey for protection of agricultural

land and water. As the founding President of the

Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT),

(See IN PRACTICE #70) Cathy McNeil has

brought her rigorous thinking, contagious

enthusiasm and the family’s good community

standing as long-term land owners and

successful ranchers to the effort. In partnership

with the many national and regional

c o n s e r vation organizations that are also wo r k i n g

to conserve the tremendous ecological and

agricultural resources of the Va l l ey, RiGHT

also offers educational and management help

(including Holistic Management training).

Making A Diffe r e n c e

The McNeils’ work on the land and in their

community has not been ignored. In 1999 they

r e c e i ved statewide recognition for the health

of their land when they were named

“ C o n s e r vationist of the Year for Ranching”

by the Colorado Association of Soil

C o n s e r vation Districts.

on public lands grazing in the U.S.

From a financial standpoint, they have

stabilized their operation, kept the entire ranch

intact, and remained debt free, (even when

Mike’s mother passed away and they had to

deal with a massive inheritance tax). They have

cut their annual operating expenses by about

20 percent since 1991, operating the same ranch

with more cattle for about $60,000 less per ye a r

while paying their help the best wages of

a n yone in the area. All of their employe e s

continue to receive training in Holistic

Management and other progressive management

ideas and are invo l ved in the financial, grazing

and infrastructure planning, and biological

m o n i t o r i n g .

Changes in the Community

While their own land base and operation

became more stable, profitable, and increasingly

h e a l t h y, the McNeils could not ignore the fo r c e s

of change going on around them. They wa t c h e d

the intensifying second-home growth and

d evelopment pressures that are resulting in

tremendous loss of agricultural lands and wa t e r

throughout the state of Colorado.

The impacts came very close to home as the

McNeils realized that the Rock Creek Drainage

was one of very few undeveloped stream

corridors remaining in the entire 8,000-square-

mile (3,239- square-hectare) basin. With upstream

neighbors threatening to sell out to deve l o p e r s

for subdivisions, they conceived a project that

could include all the landowners in the drainage

in a collective conservation effort through a

combination of donations and sales of

d evelopment rights. The Rock Creek Heritage

Project has now been underway for three ye a r s

and is working to protect approximately 15,000

acres (6,073 hectares) and associated water rights

adjacent to the 14,000-acre (5,668-hectare) Monte

Vista National Wi l d l i fe Refuge over the nex t

three to five years.

The startup of this landowner initiative

was originally supported by The Nature

C o n s e r vancy and the Great Outdoors Colorado

(GOCO) Trust Fund through a capacity building

grant which funded landowner education and

initial negotiations for donation and purchase

of conservation easements with participating

ranchers. Because of the outstanding

opportunity to protect a significant block of

agricultural land and water rights, as well as

exceptional wildlife habitat, American Farmland

Doing the RiGHT Thing—The McNeil Ranchcontinued from page 7

In 2001, the McNeils also received national

recognition for their community contributions

and good stewardship when they were named

American Farmland Trust’s “2001 Steward of the

Land.” The McNeils were selected from more

than 75 farmers and ranchers from 35 states

because of their efforts “to stop the loss of

p r o d u c t i ve farmland and promote fa r m i n g

practices that lead to a healthy environment.”

The McNeils were also honored by the

Environmental Law Institute for their

contribution to wetlands protection, restoration,

and education and were named winners of the

2001 National Wetlands Award in the Land

S t ewardship and Development category.

Such awards demonstrate how many live s

the McNeils have touched as they have active l y

shared information about their management

practices and sponsored Holistic Management

training for other ranchers and agency

e m p l oyees over many years. In the past ye a r

alone, three classes have been held for Rock

Creek landowners, conservation organization,

and government agency personnel and others.

These workshops have included eve r y t h i n g

from basic Holistic Management to riparian

restoration using cattle as a tool.

The McNeils are doing their best to manage

their own land with innova t i ve and sustainable

practices (often against the tide of public

opinion and “tradition”). But just as importantly,

t h ey are actively sharing creative approaches to

resolving local and community-wide problems

and creating a viable future for agriculture as

t h ey pour their hearts, minds, time, and money

into conservation efforts they support.

By first attending to business at home and

within their own fa m i l y, the McNeils have

created a foundation for contributing to their

community and are helping to restore the land

and provide new management and marketing

options for land owners throughout the San Luis

Va l l ey. In doing so they have created

opportunities for many others to participate in

agricultural life, conservation, and enjoyment of

the land while creating and protecting habitat

for the animal and plant life that shares it.

Undoubtedly their enthusiasm, creativity, and

generosity have touched many people in their

community and beyond and will indeed prov i d e

a heritage long beyond their years.

Rio de la Vista is a Holistic Management™

Certified Educator and Vice-Chair of the

Center’s Board of Directors. She is also

American Farmland Trust’s coordinator for

the Rock Creek Heritage Project and can

be reached at riodelavista@hotmail.com

“I used to say that I wished

I lived somewhere where

we didn’t have to put up

hay all summer and calve

in January. Then I

finally realized, I live

in that place! ”

IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 9

LAND L I V E S TO C K& A Special Section ofIN PRACTICE

JULY / AUGUST 2001 #78

continued on page 10

For those who get their kicks out of grass, cows, horses, and

gorging on beef, the Argentine Pampas are hard to beat. In

March of this year, my wife, Daniela, and I led a group of

American beef producers on an intensive, technical grazing tour of

this incredibly productive region, one of the world’s great natural

grasslands. We visited dairy, beef finishing, cow/calf, and organic

cropping operations. Some outfits were specialists in one or two

enterprises, while one place integrated all of the above.

Holistic Management hasn’t found its way to Argentina yet, at least

not on a notable scale, but holistic thinking is alive and well, even if

nobody calls it that. Each farm and ranch on our itinerary, without

exception, consistently emphasized its focus on the long term ecological

health of its resource base. Each place was likewise equally focused on

generating a healthy profit, with ranch personnel deeply involved in

strategic as well as day-to-day decision making. With the addition of

some of the key insights offered by the Holistic Management decision

making framework, these producers could emerge as leaders in the

Holistic Management movement.

Beef from Grass

The heart of the Pampas comprises one of the earth’s truly blessed

environments. With precipitation ranging from 700 to 1300 mm (28 to

52 inches) per year, and evenly spread over all 12 months, warm humid

summers, early springs, late falls, mild winters, deep fertile soils, and flat

topography, this is grass-growing heaven. On our 2500-mile journey, we

were seldom out of sight of several herds of 100 or more head of cattle.

Altogether, the Argentine beef herd totals about 40 million head.

Alfredo Villegas Oromi, our local guide who works with most of the

farmers we visited on our tour, told us during his pre-trip orientation

that “We Argentines are beef eaters. We consume 80% of our

production and export only 20%.” The average Argentine puts away

about 140 pounds (65 kg) of beef per year, over twice the consumption

An Argentine gaucho. “Ranch personnel on all the places

we visited are deeply involved in strategic as well as day-

to-day decision making.”

The Nonbrittle Pampas ofA r g e n t i n a —

A Pastoral Paradiseby Jim Howell

of the average American (they’re a lot thinner than the average

American, too).

Nonetheless, it was difficult to imagine that this country of 36 million

mouths could keep up with that many bovines. But they do, and 90%

of that beef comes straight off the rich grass of the Pampas, with only

10% produced in now-failing feedlots. Two years ago, feedlots were the

new fad. They just don’t work in Argentina, but that’s another story.

This story is about grass.

The humid temperate core of the Pampas stays just cool enough

through the summer to allow cool-season perennial grasses to thrive,

and just warm and humid enough to permit subtropical warm-season

perennials to likewise succeed. It’s also the perfect environment for

alfalfa. There aren’t very many places in the world where perennial

ryegrass, orchard grass, tall fescue, white clover, alfalfa, paspalum, and

bermuda grass (not to mention a broad assortment of native cool- and

warm-season grasses and legumes) can blossom within the same square

meter. On our trip in early March (the northern hemisphere equivalent

of early September), we saw pasture after pasture with each of these

species in a beautiful vegetative condition.

This pastoral paradise is of course a big reason the Argentines are

famous for their grass-finished beef. It’s like having the best of both

Minnesota and Mississippi, but without the seasonal extremes of either.

North Americans who are dubious of the practicality of developing a

grass-finished beef industry in their country might cite this Argentine

advantage as “the reason they don’t need feedlots and we do.”

I would argue that with partnerships between northern and

southern graziers, we have the potential to produce grass-finished

beef nearly as efficiently as the Argentines. But to do so, we’ll need to

become much more sophisticated in our grazing management.

On that note, let’s examine a couple of these operations and

10 LAND & LIVESTOCK IN PRACTICE #78

see what we can learn.

Estancia San Ricardo

Estancia San Ricardo, owned by Pedro Landa near the town of

General Villegas, covers 690 ha (1700 acres) of flat grassland in an

800-mm (32-inch) precipitation zone. This little patch of the Pampas

supports 300 mother cows and 1400 steers, year round. It lies on the

edge of the northern subtropical zone, so Brahman-cross cattle do just

as well as or better than straight British breeds. Pedro prefers to stock

San Ricardo with eared cattle, partly due to their adaptability, but

mainly because he can typically find good deals on large bunches of

Brahman-cross cattle from the more tropical northern provinces.

Animals usually arrive as early-weaned calves weighing about 140

kg (310 lb.). They tend to spend nine months on the ranch, after which

they’re sent to slaughter at a grass-finished weight of about 360 kg (790

lb.). That’s an average daily gain of 1.8 pounds (.8 kg) over 270 days, or

a total gain of nearly 450 pounds (200 kg). Not bad, especially at a

stocking rate of 4 steers per hectare (1.6 per acre), and considering the

fact that San Ricardo is managed organically, with no chemical fertilizers,

herbicides, or insecticides.

Focus on Profit

How is this possible? Juan Goldaracena, the ranch manager, quickly

pointed out to our group that the overriding aim of this operation is

profitability per hectare, and to maximize profit per hectare requires a

high stocking rate. Instead of stocking according to seasonal lulls in

pasture production, San Ricardo maintains a stocking rate that nearly

matches their spring production peak. In other words, when plant

growth rates are peaking from September to February, they don’t have

much leftover grass. That’s San Ricardo’s first principle of profitability.

More on that in a minute.

The Alfa l fa-Grass Challenge

The second principle deserves a more detailed agronomic

explanation. The San Ricardo pasture base includes a diversity of species

closely resembling that described above. Some 30 to 40 percent of that

forage mix is composed of alfalfa, and it is the alfalfa that, according to

Juan, makes everything else possible. It is the best producer in terms of

total dry matter production, it is the most valuable in terms

of quality, and it builds soil fertility through nitrogen

fixation. The hitch is that an alfalfa/grass-based pasture

requires a very sophisticated level of management.

Over the course of a year, each pasture on the ranch is

typically grazed a total of eight times, and usually for 1-day

grazing periods. Recovery periods range from 21 days in

spring, to 40 days in summer and fall, to 120 days in winter.

During the spring and much of the summer, growth rates

are so fast that grazing periods longer than one day can lead

to overgrazing. We stopped and looked at one pasture that

had been grazed two days prior, and the cool season grasses

already had about an inch (2 cm) of regrowth. Juan pointed

out, however, that the alfalfa hadn’t started to recover yet.

He explained that Argentines tend to be so focused on

alfalfa that they tend to ignore the health of the grasses.

Alfalfa won’t start to recover until a week following a

grazing, so most Argentine managers assume they can get

by with one-week grazing periods without hurting the

alfalfa, and they’re right.

The problem is that the grasses get hammered, because

as we could clearly see, if conditions are right, after two

days they’re already trying to recover leaf area. If regrazed

within a week of the first bite, the grasses get set back

significantly, but the alfalfa isn’t hurt at all. After that first

week, however, the alfalfa starts to take off, quickly catching

up and eventually overtaking the grass. If the grasses have

been stunted due to excessively long grazing periods, this

growth rate discrepancy is even more marked. But if grazing

periods are kept to one day and the grasses are protected

from that second bite on tender regrowth, both the alfalfa

and the grasses tend to reach a recovered, high quality vegetative state

at the same time.

With one-day grazing periods, combined with adequate recovery

periods, much more sunlight is trapped, resulting in greater overall

forage production, which translates into higher stocking rates. Since

all forage species are kept in a more vegetative condition, animal

performance benefits as well. With week-long grazing periods, the alfalfa

recovers before the grasses. If grazed at that point (when the alfalfa has

A Pastoral Paradisecontinued from page 9

The “cuerpo” herd on San Ricardo. Because they get mo ved every day in a low-

stress manner, they’re almost like pets.

The “cabeza” herd on San Ricardo after a half day in a paddock of alfalfa, cool-

and warm-season perennial grasses, and annual warm-season grasses and forbs.

At the end of the day they’ll move to the next paddock.

IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 11

recovered), the grasses will be overgrazed once again. If the recovery

period is extended to allow for full recovery of the grasses—a more

common practice on most finishing operations—the alfalfa loses much

of its quality.

Topping the Alfa l fa

San Ricardo goes one

step further to maintain

equal rates of recovery

and high quality pasture.

During the spring and

summer seasons, most

pastures are mowed within

two days of grazing. The

purpose of the mowing is

to clip off the tops of the

alfalfa stems (the top 4-5 inches of a 10-inch residual stem) that remain

post grazing. If this isn’t done, much of the regrowth on the alfalfa

sprouts from growth points along the stem. If that stem is clipped,

however, all of the regrowth comes from the crown. This new material

coming from the crown is not only higher in quality than the stem

regrowth, but much greater in total dry matter production as well. So

again, timely clipping is another way that total forage production and

quality, and hence high stocking rates, are maintained.

The key is in the timing. The clipping has to be done before any

regowth of grasses or alfalfa starts to take place. Juan admitted that

pasture clipping is only viable if done by on-farm labor.

Contractors frequently aren’t able to get the job done at

the critical time, plus the rates they charge question the

practice’s economic viability. The local government

research station (INTA) has done trials showing that timely

alfalfa stem clipping ends up costing one cent for each

additional kg of dry matter produced. If 1 kg of forage can

produce .1 kg of beef (assuming a 10:1 feed conversion

ratio), and each kg of beef is worth 80 U.S. cents (or 36

cents a pound—the price at the time of our visit), each kg

of forage is worth 8 cents, or a net of 7 cents. That’s a 700

percent return. It’s hard to argue with that.

Stocking Rate is Key

Now that we know a few details of just how this

productive alfalfa/grass sward is managed, let’s take

another look at San Ricardo’s first principle of

profitability mentioned above—that of matching stocking

rate to the peak of the pasture growth curve. Obviously,

if nearly every leaf of forage is being consumed during the spring and

summer growth peak, there won’t be much dry matter left over to

conserve as hay or silage to make up for forage deficits during the slow

growth period. Here in General Villegas slow growth starts in March

and continues through August. The San Ricardo model makes up for

this forage deficit by the direct grazing of mature corn, grown on about

100 of the 690 total hectares. Starting in late summer/early fall (mid-

March), cattle are put into the cornfields at night, and then moved back

onto pasture during the day. The 1400 steers on the ranch are divided

into three herds, referred to as the cabeza, cuerpo, and cola (head, body,

and tail). The cabeza herd is closest to finishing and the cola herd

contains the lightest, youngest animals. In March, only the cabeza herd

grazes the corn, the rationale being to get them to a finished condition

and off the farm prior to winter. By June (beginning of winter), each

herd gets nightly access to the corn.

Here’s the interesting part. Juan and his employees have figured out

how much of each cornfield they need to ration out per nightly feeding

to result in an intake of 3 kg/head (6.6 lb.) per night of actual corn. This

rationing is done with portable electric polywire. If they were feeding

this 3 kg as whole shelled corn, they would also have to feed round

bales to balance out roughage intake, but since the cattle have access to

the whole corn plant (as well as lots of volunteer grasses and weeds

growing amongst the corn—remember, they’re organic), there’s no need

to put out round bales. More significantly, the tedious steps of harvesting,

storing, and then hauling the corn back out to the cattle are all bypassed,

as is the cost of baling and feeding out round bales. Juan says they end

up wasting about 5%, which is the same they would waste if they did all

that handling. The result of all this careful management is a net annual

profit per hectare of $250.

The Problem of Alfa l fa Persistence

The San Ricardo model does have one black spot: at this point, Pedro

and Juan can’t figure out how to get around the necessity of replanting

the perennial pastures every six years. The reason for the replanting is

due to alfalfa die out. On the whole, the pastures are still healthy and

productive after six years, but the alfalfa declines to the point that beef

production per hectare drops below economically acceptable levels.

Renovating pastures is one of their biggest expenses, not only due to the

direct costs of establishing the pasture, but because it requires nearly

20% of their land area to be out of production at any one time.

Additionally, replanting causes a setback to humus buildup in the soil,

harms earthworm activity, etc.

I asked if growing alfalfa was really that necessary. “Couldn’t you have

a ryegrass/white clover based pasture, like the New Zealanders, who

never have to replant?” The answer was no, white clover doesn’t produce

like alfalfa, especially during their fairly hot summers. Even with 20% of

the ranch out of production at any one time, Juan claimed the total

production with an alfalfa base would be more than with the whole

ranch in permanent white clover/perennial ryegrass pasture.

Two years ago, feedlots

were the new fad. They

just don’t work in

Argentina, but that’s

another story. This story

is about grass.

Hereford steers close to finishing weight right after moving into a fresh paddock.

Notice how full they are and that they’re not desperately hungry—a key to preventing

bloat on alfalfa-based pastures. Estancia Santa Elena, Buenos Aires Province

continued on page 12

12 LAND & LIVESTOCK IN PRACTICE #78

After leaving the ranch, I had an idea. Because of their high stocking

rates and their clipping program, the pastures are in a perpetual

vegetative condition. They

never have the chance to

head out and produce a

new bank of mature seed. I

wondered if it would be

possible to skip a couple of

grazings in the late spring

early summer, say once

every other year or so, to

allow this new seed source

to accumulate. That might

be all that’s needed to help the alfalfa persist. If that would work,

it would certainly result in a lot less time “out of production.”

This question was partly answered on our visit to Estancia La

Invernada, owned by Rodolfo Zechner, in the center of the province

of Santa Fe. Rodolfo farms 1700 ha (4200 acres) of country similar to

San Ricardo’s. In addition to finishing 1800 yearlings, running 400 brood

cows on his bottom land, and growing organic wheat, soybeans, corn,

sorghum, and sunflower, he also milks 500 grass-fed Holstein cows twice

a day. All production is certified organic, and the milk is all processed

into several types of organic cheese in the local cheese plant—but back

to this alfalfa persistence question.

We walked out into one of Rodolfo’s pastures, which was currently

being used to finish heifers, and the diversity of plants—cool and warm

season, native and introduced grasses, forbs, and legumes, plus a healthy

dose of alfalfa—was amazing. It was a true salad bar. The really exciting

thing is that many of Rodolfo’s pastures are going on 30 years without

being turned over and replanted.

Rodolfo’s management is similar to San Ricardo’s, but with one major

difference. He intentionally lets his pastures get away in late spring/early

summer. He can do this because, believe it or not, he isn’t stocked to the

absolute maximum. Rodolfo claims this chance to “get away” is critical

to maintaining soil fertility on an organically managed farm, where soil

amendments tend to be minimal. The excess growth looks a little

unsightly for a few weeks in the summer, but as growth rates slow

down and the pastures get regrazed at high densities for 1- to 2-day

grazing periods, this extra organic matter gets laid down on the soil

surface, forming an outstanding mulch. On our visit, it was rapidly

decaying into the soil profile. Allowing the grass to grow tall and rank

also shades out developing warm season weeds, and of course it results

in the production of a new seed bank.

Rodolfo admitted that they still find it necessary to interseed alfalfa

every six years or so, but unlike San Ricardo, this seed is direct drilled into

the existing sward at far less cost. In my view, it was a more ecologically

sound approach, but I don’t want to take anything away from San Ricardo.

Both operations are models of sustainable, if not regenerative, production.

Even with their pasture renewal program, the soil organic matter

percentages on San Ricardo have increased from 2.6% to 3.6% since 1992.

What about Bloat?

One final point: most Americans I know are terrified of grazing alfalfa

due to the risk of bloat. Make no mistake, Argentine cattle are just as

bloat-prone as their northern relatives, and it’s definitely something

Argentine graziers have to be aware of. The difference is that it doesn’t

scare them. First of all, they claim that bloat is mainly a problem in the

spring when the alfalfa is just starting to become an important

component of forage intake. The rumens aren’t yet adjusted to the

alfalfa, so they have to be careful.

This problem is partly prevented by only letting alfalfa

comprise a maximum of 40% of the sward. Also, by planning short

grazing periods at high densities, animals graze a greater percentage

of plants than they would under more lax management. This helps

ensure daily intake is balanced with a high proportion of grasses.

Finally, cattle are always kept full. They never move onto a new

break of pasture hungry and empty. This is done by leaving high

post-grazing pasture residuals. On San Ricardo, the aim is for

animals to enter a pasture with a cover of 2200–2600 kg dry

matter/ha (this translates to roughly the same quantity in lb/acre),

and removing them with a residual of 1200 kg dry matter/ha. On

our trip we looked at several dozen herds of intensively managed

cattle—i.e., big herds at high stock density being moved daily to

every three days. Not once were we met by a bawling mob of

bovines waiting to be moved.

The good managers know what these pasture masses look like out

on the ground, so these estimates are made with quick visual assessments.

For those of you who want to do this on your own non-brittle pasture,

you’ll initially have to clip and weigh forage samples, or measure pastures

with an electronic pasture probe (much easier) to get an idea of what

different sward heights equate to in dry matter per acre or hectare. After

doing a few of these measurements at different heights in different

seasons, you’ll quickly develop an eye for estimating pasture mass.

Argentina is still a “developing” country with plenty of problems, but

sometimes such challenges stimulate a level of creative adaptivity that

is slow to occur where things come easier. Make no mistake, there are

plenty of Argentine producers who are managing unsustainably, and the

ranches on our tour were definitely among the country’s best. Overall,

though, with their focus on forage finishing instead of feedlot finishing,

the Argentines are sure ahead of their North American neighbors when

it comes to the efficient, ecologically sustainable, and profitable

production of beef.

The hitch is that an

alfalfa/grass-based

pasture requires a

very sophisticated level

of management.

Our group discussing pasture establishment after cropping on Alfredo

Oromi’s ranch in the province of La Pampa. The plan in this paddock was

to let succession, combined with good grazing planning and high stock

density, dictate which species would establish, rather than seeding.

A Pastoral Paradisecontinued from page 11

IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 13

I’ ve had the opportunity to personally

visit a broad range of grazing operations

around the world, and on nearly every

outfit, from the tropics to the alpine tundra,

people on the land complain about the hardships

they have to overcome in their particular

environment. The only exception was a grass

finishing operation I visited while on a field trip

in college, somewhere on the North Island of

New Zealand. That particular spot was so

productive and climatically benign that the

manager was at a loss to find something to

bellyache about. Of course, everything is relative.

Most places do have their share of challenges, and

without a doubt, some have more than others.

Last February I spent the day with Dave

James on his public lands winter grazing

allotment in the canyon lands that surround the

one-building town of Slick Rock in western Colorado. Some places

have poorer feed than Dave’s place and some have rougher terrain

(but not much rougher). Some have a more erratic precipitation

pattern and more bare ground, brush encroachment, and biodiversity

loss. Some places get hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.

Some are administered by less reasonable bureaucrats than Dave gets

to work with, and some are even a little farther from civilization. But

when all of those potential challenges are weighed, considered, and

combined on the Slick Rock Ranch, I’m not sure I’ve ever been on a

tougher place.

From Dreams to Reality

I first met Dave

James and his family

at the Center’s

annual gathering in

Albuquerque in 1995.

At that time my wife,

Daniela, and I were

managing the High

Lonesome Ranch in

southwestern New

Mexico, which was

another pretty tough

place. We found out

that Dave and his wife,

Kay, were friends of the previous owner of the High Lonesome, and

they’d visited the ranch, so that gave us something to talk about. We

also learned that Dave and Kay had been ranching for 35 years in the

lush, irrigated Animas Valley near Durango, Colorado. Dave said that

On the Slick Rock Ranch—

Big Dreams and Stark Realityby Jim Howell

Dave James on the Slick Rock

after learning about Holistic Management and hearing all this talk

about transforming brittle environments into Gardens of Eden with

cows, he was hankering to expand beyond the Animas Valley to give

it a try. “I really want to find a brittle ranch to try some of this stuff

on,” I remember Dave telling me.

Now, six years later, his dream has come true on the Slick Rock.

But like many of us who found our way to arid, brittle environments,

Dave has realized this kind of country is nearly overwhelming in its

challenges. But while it may be challenging, Dave hasn’t been deterred

from his goal of creating a holistically sound cow outfit in the brittle

West. At 62 years young, he acts, talks, works, and continues to dream

as if he were 30. I’m 32, and I could barely keep up with him.

The Slick Rock allotment comprises 40,000 acres (16,200 ha) and

ranges in elevation from 5,500 to 7,100 feet (1,670 to 2,150 meters).

Precipitation varies from 12 inches (300 mm) at the low end to 17

inches (430 mm) on the top. The ranch lies in a transition zone

between a mild steppe and a cold steppe environment. Unlike a mild

steppe, where adequate winter moisture can result in green forage in

the winter months, it stays too cold through the winter to grow any

new grass on the Slick Rock. Unlike a truly cold steppe, light snows

received through the winter tend to melt rather than accumulate as

standing frozen moisture, so the spring green-up isn’t as reliable.

Summer rain can bring excellent growing conditions, but those

exceptional growing seasons tend to be few and far between due to

the erratic summer rainfall pattern. This all equates to a high level

of brittleness, with very little biological decay taking place at any

time of the year. Ungrazed plants stagnate and oxidize, eventually

dying from overrest.

continued on page 14

Like most new holistic

enthusiasts, Dave was

keen to get straight to

work concentrating his

cattle, planning the grazing,

and watching the land

spring back to life.

14 LAND & LIVESTOCK IN PRACTICE #78

Reality Bites

Like most new holistic enthusiasts, Dave was keen to get straight to

work concentrating his cattle, planning the grazing, and watching the

land spring back to life. But after a winter of trying to keep big

bunches of cattle concentrated on rough rocky ledges, and watching

his fat red bovines slip down to body condition scores of three and

four, Dave realized he had to back off and take a different approach.

He realized that cattle have to be able to select from a broad range of

plants to meet their needs in this type of country. With mainly

dormant low quality grasses like galleta, three awn, and cheat grass,

mixed in with higher quality, but much less abundant, blue grama and

Indian rice grass, cattle need to be able to browse on the randomly

spaced salt bush, winter fat, shad scale, and rabbit brush scattered

across the range to meet their protein needs. The tighter cattle are

concentrated in this country, the tougher that becomes, and

performance starts to suffer.

So Dave has relaxed his stock density. And his two riders, Al and

Jerry Heaton, who run 100–125 of their own cows on the allotment,

loose-herd the 500 head (according to a grazing plan devised prior to

the winter grazing season) up and down the various canyons, benches,

and plateaus comprising the ranch. The side canyons usually have live

water, and the ranch’s main canyon (containing the Dolores River)

always has open water, even during cold snaps in mid-winter. The

narrow benches traversing the canyon walls have been developed with

dozens of stock ponds. The high mesas between the canyons are also

well supplied with water, but those areas of the ranch are tough to

utilize until late winter/early spring, after the ice melts off the ponds.

For parts of most winters, the cattle are also able to meet their water

needs by licking snow, which tends to hold in shady spots and on

northern exposures

A Sagebrush Dilemma

As we gained elevation on our way to one of these high plateaus,

I noticed the low growing snakeweed and other lower elevation

shrubby species gradually giving way to sagebrush and greater

concentrations of pinyon and juniper trees. Once on top, the low

growing shrub canopy was completely dominated by sagebrush, with

very little grass growing between the sagebrush plants, and lots of

bare ground. Dave pointed out the deeper and more fertile soil, and

claimed the sagebrush was the only thing holding back an explosion

of grass. He reasons the sagebrush has come to dominate the

landscape due to a total suppression of fire over much of the past

century, although he does recognize that if grazing is planned to

minimize overgrazing and improve animal impact, grasses should

dominate the landscape instead of sagebrush.

I wasn’t convinced on the fire suppression theory. The

Dominguez-Escalante expedition explored this region of Colorado in

1776, and they repeatedly described “long sagebrush stretches” with

“very little pasturage for horses,” a description remarkably similar to

much of this area today. My theory is that once the big herds of

original megafauna were eradicated from this area of the West by the

first American immigrants 10,000 or so years ago, and replaced

by scattered bands of desert bighorn sheep, mule deer,

pronghorn, and elk, the shift to brush was inevitable. The lack

of periodic animal impact and heavy grazing would have led

to an overrested soil surface and a shift to nearly 100% woody

shrubs, especially on those hard-to-get-to mesas that are far

from natural water.

No matter the reason, a near monoculture of sagebrush

doesn’t fit Dave’s future landscape description. Moreover, he has

identified energy conversion to be his weak link in the financial

chain of production, which means he needs to grow more grass

and less sagebrush if he is to produce more pounds of beef. In

addition, Dave sees the need to plan for longer recovery periods

than one year, which has been the practice to date, to help

improve energy flow. With at least two growing seasons between

grazings, plants will have the chance to accumulate material to

not only feed the cattle, but to provide a source of soil-covering

litter as well.

In this arid, brittle environment, bare soil is the most critical

impediment to improving the water cycle, and hence all the

other ecosystem processes, including energy flow. By grazing

most areas of the ranch every year, even for relatively short

periods during the dormant season, this litter source never has the

chance to accumulate. If these sagebrush-dominated areas had more

grass, longer recovery periods would become more feasible.

Cause and Effe c t

If fire suppression were the cause of the sagebrush, controlled

burning would pass the cause and effect test. If overrest were the

reason, high doses of animal impact, preferably in the form of herd

effect, would pass. Both treatments have practical difficulties. Burns

are hard to pull off due to weather conditions needing to be just right,

and because of the bureaucratic maze that needs to be negotiated to

get the okay to burn, mainly due to the archeological primitive sites

prevalent in this area. When there is little to no grass for the cattle

to graze, thousands of difficult-to-access acres needing treatment,

Big Dreams and Stark Realitycontinued from page 13

One of the hard-to-get-to benches without water. Cattle were concentrated

here at high density three years prior and water hauled in at great expense.

Grasses have fully recovered and probably should have been grazed the

previous year because old material is starting to accumulate. It will,

however, provide litter once the animals get there to trample it down.

IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 LAND & LIVESTOCK 15

relatively few cattle, very limited labor resources, and a narrow

window of opportunity due to a short season of use, applying the

tool of animal impact starts to look pretty far-fetched, too.

To deal with these practical challenges, Dave has elected to take a

little aspirin in the form of technology through a one-time herbicidal

spraying Tebuthiuron (called spiking), and so far has treated 1,000

acres. Spiking kills about 90% of the sagebrush and is done in a

mosaic pattern, leaving patches of sagebrush intact for wildlife cover.

Dave realizes spiking doesn’t directly treat the cause of the sagebrush

being there in the first place, but sometimes it makes sense to treat a

symptom if that makes it easier and more practical to deal with the

cause. More on that below.

These 1,000 acres were

treated in 1999, and the

BLM (Bureau of Land

Management—the public lands

agency that administers this

land) has insisted that this

area be deferred from grazing

for two years. After two years

of recovery, the quantity of

grass on the treated area is at

least five times that of the

untreated area (even though

both areas had been deferred

from grazing). That still isn’t

much, however. We estimated

there were about 7 ADA

(animal days per acre) of

forage on the treated area.

This treatment costs Dave

$7.50/acre. The total cost is actually $15/acre, but the BLM picks up

half the bill. If an animal unit month (AUM) of forage is worth $15

(the standard rate in this area), and 28 animal days comprise one

AUM, that additional 7 ADA of forage is worth $3.75. Since it takes

two years to grow that much forage, it’s actually a value of $1.88/year.

So including the two years of mandatory rest after the treatment, it

takes six years to recover the initial investment of $7.50/acre.

Now, back to addressing the cause. Dave recognizes that he will

have to get tighter control of his cattle if he expects the newly

released grasses in these treated areas to thrive. They’ll need to be

managed to minimize overgrazing, especially in the early spring when

the ice melts off the ponds, the grass is starting to green up, and these

mesas can begin being utilized. He’ll have to create high enough

density to achieve at least some degree of animal impact, and he’ll

have to give long recovery periods (probably two years) to allow

for these newly released plants to increase in vigor and produce

sufficient leaf and stem to both feed the cattle and begin covering

the soil with litter.

Without spiking the sagebrush and releasing the stunted grasses,

this is pretty near impossible. But now that there is a reasonable

amount of forage, it’s realistic to bring cattle to those areas, and to

manage them in a way that will do some good. Again, if management

doesn’t change, the sagebrush will probably come back.

A Ye a r-Round Range Outfit

You may be thinking that Dave is a little off his rocker to have

elected to take on this kind of challenge at this stage in life.

Amazingly, this is only half the story. Before buying the Slick Rock

Ranch, the James Ranch cowherd was wintered on the Durango

property by feeding hay on their snow-covered meadows. With the

Slick Rock addition, the cowherd has only been spending the green

summer months in Durango. But after years of careful, well-planned

grazing on these productive irrigated pastures, Dave has created a

grass sward that will put five pounds a day on a yearling steer. For

the past several years, he has realized that this forage is too valuable

to put through a mother cow.

As luck would have it, a U.S. Forest Service summer range

allotment 20 miles down the highway from the Slick Rock Ranch was

up for sale. Dave saw an

opportunity to keep his

cows on the range all year,

freeing up the irrigated

grass in Durango for more

value-adding enterprises.

The plan is to expand their

production of grass-

finished, direct-marketed

“Valley Sweet Beef” by

grazing yearling steers

produced on the range

outfit, and to start a grass-

based dairy, concentrating

on the production and

marketing of fine cheeses,

which son, Dan, and

daughter-in-law, Becca,

will operate.

True to form, Dave made the deal of a lifetime and bought this

beautiful 40,000-acre (16,200-ha) summer range, in addition to 10,000

more acres (4,050 ha) of winter range that lie at its base. The summer

range is permitted for 900 cows for 6 months, and its highest point

tops out at 8,100 feet (2,500 meters). Most of the range is on a broad

flat mesa covered with a mosaic of aspen forests and grassy mountain

meadows. Dave plans to run a base herd of about 600 head between

the entire 90,000 acres he now controls, and to stock up with

yearlings during the summer to fill out his summer allotment. This

summer will be the first year running in the high country, and Dave

is looking forward to it with the enthusiasm of a young man just

starting out on his career.

Dave and his riders, Jerry and Al, are also in the process of

developing a rustic ranch vacation business—horseback all day, wall

tent accommodation, simple, hearty grub. Adventure-seeking groups

who know how to ride and are keen to work should definitely get

their fill. Dave sees the main draw being their vast tracts of rugged,

diverse, incredibly scenic terrain.

To restore the biodiversity of the arid brittle West in an economically

sound manner, we need tough but idealistic people who love the land

and aren’t afraid to dream big. The West is full of tough, practical people.

It’s the idealistic and visionary qualities that are rare. Dave James is a

modern western rancher who combines all of these traits. He is a genuine

leader in the new rangeland industry. I’m glad I drove down for a visit.

Dave James can be reached at james_ranch@frontier.net.

The Slick Rock’s main canyon always has water—the Dolores River, bottom right.

16 HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE #78

N ew Africa Training Program

The 2001 class of the Africa Certified

Educator Training Program just completed

their first two-week training session at the

Africa Centre for Holistic Management

Training Center near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

The session, taught by Director of Educational

Services, Kelly Pasztor, and Allan Savory,

proved to be a great learning experience for

everyone.

Those attending the session included:

Christine Jost is Assistant Professor in

the International Programs/Center for

Conservation Medicine at Tufts University. She

is interested in bringing Holistic Management

into the curriculum at Tufts.

Colin Nott and Bernard Roman work for

Integrated Rural Development and Nature

Conservation (IRDNC) in Windhoek, Namibia.

Moses Nyapokoto works for the Zimbabwe

permaculture organization Fambidzanai and

will bring Holistic Management into that

organization and its curriculum.

Colleen Todd, from northern South Africa,

is a botanist who teaches at the University

of Venda where she works with indigenous

students.

Douglas Uuandara, a communal

farmer/rancher/herdsman from Namibia,

works for the Sustainable Animal and

Rangeland Development Program, a German-

sponsored project

We are excited about these trainees as

they are a diverse group and are already

working at the community level.

Excitement Down Under

Over 200 people spent two days in

Christchurch, New Zealand in April,

learning, discussing, challenging and sharing

ideas in one of the most stimulating Holistic

Wiebke Volkmann at 264-61-22-4325 or

wiebke@iafrica.com.na

In Memoriam

The Savory Center

staff were

saddened to learn of

the death of long-time

member, Les Davis, 81.

Les was the third

generation to run the

sprawling CS Ranch in

Cimarron, New Mexico

which he led for more

than 35 years. Novelist

Max Evans, who wrote books set in the CS

Ranch area, says, “[Les was] an institution in

northeastern New Mexico, and his family were

pioneers in many different dimensions all over

that part of the country.” And so they were

and still are. For 18-plus years they have

worked to practice Holistic Management and

shared what they could with their community.

Les leaves behind his wife, Linda, their six

children, and eight grandchildren—all of whom

remain closely involved, as the fourth and fifth

generations on the CS Ranch.

S o f t ware Upgrade Ava i l a b l e

The long awaited Office 2000 version of the

Savory Center’s Holistic Management™

Financial Planning Software is now available.

If you use Microsoft Office 2000 (Excel 2000),

you can now use our financial planning

software! Also included in this new version is

a small-stock worksheet that works like the

livestock production worksheet. So if you also

run small stock, you’re going to find this makes

the planning a breeze. See the back page for

ordering information.

Holistic Gathering Registration Open

The Colorado Branch is still accepting

registrations for the Holistic Management

Celebration, “Whole Land: Healthy People,”

being held at the Chico Basin Ranch in

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 27-29, 2001.

This gathering promises to bring inspiring

Holistic Management practitioners and

educators from around the world to share

their experiences. Allan Savory will be

present throughout the gathering and will

lead several workshops. Camping on the

ranch is available.

Registration is limited to 300 people, so

please get your registrations in early. Those

interested in receiving more information

should contact Cindy Dvergsten at

970/882-4222 or cindydv@reanet.net.

Management conferences yet. The

conference attracted folks from

various parts of New Zealand, a large

contingent of Australians, a handful of

North Americans and several farmers

from southern Africa, among others.

The conference theme—The Future

Resource Base: Continuing the

Challenge for Change—was highlighted

again and again by an inspiring array

of speakers: New Zealand’s

parliamentary Commissioner of

Environment; the manager of Banrock

Station winery and its wetlands program; a

British actress turned community activist; a

variety of farmers/ranchers from New Zealand

and Australia; a practical research botanist; a

specialist in managing water’s natural energy

levels; and from the U.S., Enterprise Facilitation

creator Ernesto Sirolli, and from the Savory

Center, Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield.

That such a conference took place in

New Zealand is a credit to Certified Educator

Bruce Ward (and his wife Suzie) who has

been running training programs over the last

three years in New Zealand. There are enough

practitioners now that the desire to get

together and exchange ideas was considerable

and there was no lack of determination in

making it happen. The excitement this

conference generated will subside at some

point, but there were lessons learned to last

a lifetime.

Congratulations, Kiwis!

Namibia New s

The Namibia Centre for Holistic

Management began working on a land

reform initiative for Namibia after their annual

meeting last year in October. Among those

gathered were Certified Educator Wiebke

Volkmann, Namibia Centre members, and

representatives from the Ministry of Land,

Resettlement and Rehabilitation and the

Ministry of Agriculture. The focus is to help

commercial and communal farmers, among

other stakeholders, begin to discuss land issues.

They are in the process of expanding the core

planning group to include a broader spectrum

of organizations and individuals dealing with

these issues.

The 2001 Annual Gathering will be held on

October 2-3, 2001. For more information contact

S a vory Center Bulletin Board

Left to right: Chris Jost, Ben Roman, Moses Nyapokoto,

Colin Nott, Douglas Uuandara, Colleen Todd.

Les Davis

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE • JULY / AUGUST 2001 17

H ewlett Increases Support

The Savory Center is pleased to announce

the receipt of a two-year grant from The

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for

$250,000. This general support grant will help

with overall operation of the Savory Center and

our programs in 2001 and 2002.

The Hewlett Foundation, through their

Environment Program and Program Officer

Michael L. Fischer, has been a major supporter

of the Savory Center’s mission and our

programs since 1994.

Flora Family Grant

e are also pleased to announce that we

received a two-year grant from the Flora

Family Foundation for $80,000 for our work on

the National Learning Site in the Lost Rivers

Valley in Idaho.

Africa Donations

e would like to thank the following

members for their recent donations to the

Africa Centre and to the Village Banking

initiative as part of the Matetsi Project. We will

provide an update on this effort in the next

issue of IN PRACTICE.

Sam J. Brown, Austin, TX

Harriett Faudree Dublin, Midland, TX

Stephen, Betty, and Jack Greenhalgh,

Salt Lake City, UT

Doug McDaniel & Gail Hammack, Lostine, OR

Jane Reed, New Castle, CO

Dean William Rudo y, Cedar Crest, NM

In-Kind Donations Support Savory Center

We would like to take this opportunity to

thank all those donors who have offered in-

kind donations of goods and services. If you

have a product or service that you think would

benefit the Savory Center and our work, please

contact Andy Braman at 505/842-5252 or

andyb@holisticmanagement.org to discuss your

donation. This year’s contributors include:

Christina Allday-Bondy, Austin, TX

Ellen Ashbrook, Tajique, NM

Kitty Bennett, Sonoita, AZ

Julie Bohannon, Altadena, CA

Sam Brown, Austin, TX

Mary Child, Mo yers, WV

Ken Dickinson, CGI USA, Houston, TX

Mark Gardner, Dubbo, NSW, Australia

Gifts in Kind International, Merrifield, V A

Guy Glosson, Snyder, TX

Ken Jacobson, Albuquerque, NM

We would hope that pledges made for the fiscal

year of 2001 would be paid by the first week of

January 2002.

Q. What is the minimum amount a month I

can pledge?

A. Any gift of any size is always appreciated

and will be invested wisely in the Center’s

work. If you wish to pay your pledge monthly

we will mail you a reminder monthly. To help

in the cost of reminders, stationary, printing and

postage we would ask that you pledge $25 or

more a month.

Q. How much does the Savory Center need to

raise though contributions this year?

A. The Center has a goal of $250,000 to raise

this year through individual and corporate

donations.

We hope you can give again this year, and

maybe even a little more than last time. Your

gift to the Center is an investment in Holistic

Management and its continued growth. We’re

grateful for your support.

C o r r e c t i o n s

In the Memoriam for Laurence (Rummy)

Goodyear in IN PRACTICE #77, we should have

reported that Rummy left behind five, rather

than four, children, as well as his wife, Lorraine

Gallard.

We would also like to correct the listing

of one of our Savory Center Supporters. We

wish to thank the Charles & Betti Saunders

Foundation from Houston, Texas for their

contributions.

Robert Pasztor, Albuquerque, NM

Colleen Reeves and The Red Corral Ranch,

Austin, TX

Steve Saunders, Dallas, TX

Lois Trevino, Nespelem, WA

Vicky Turpen, Albuquerque, NM

Bill and Paula Woodward, Buf falo, WY

Annual Campaign Underwa y

The Savory Center has launched a new fund

drive called the Savory Center Annual

Campaign. Our Annual Campaign is very

similar to a university or college Annual Fund

Drive or a church’s Every Member Canvas. The

intent of this campaign is not to take the place

of the Center’s end of the year Annual Appeal

but to supplement it. The plan is to contact

about 200 of the Center’s past donors and donor

prospects by mid-summer for their support. The

Center’s Development Office with the help of

the Advisory Board will be working diligently

over the six weeks making these contacts.

Here are some answers to some questions

asked about the new Campaign:

Q. Can we make a pledge of our gift?

A. Pledges are great! A number of Savory

Center contributors have made pledges, some

for the year, a few for two or three years and

one for five years. Pledges really help with

financial planning and forecasting of income.

D evelopment Corner by Andy Braman

W

W

As always, I read IN PRACTICE with a

mixture of appreciation and awe. So many

environmentalists have no appreciation of

the interrelationship of animals, domestic or

wild, with their habitat. As advocates for

rare breeds of livestock, we must constantly

point out that most livestock are grazers or

browsers that evolved over millennia to

forage on living plants, not grain and

processed feed. If we are to have healthy

ecosystems, animals must be integrated.

Since we must feed an ever-increasing

human population, food-producing animals

must have an integrated role in these

ecosystems.

Allan Savory’s article on the “New

Agriculture” in Issue #75 is brilliant and

articulates many of the same issues the

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

espouses for the conservation of genetic

diversity in livestock. I hope that his use

of the term “large herbivores” also includes

sheep and goats. Other cultures might

include llamas, alpacas, guinea pigs, and

rabbits. Geese are well utilized in Eastern

Europe as herbivores, and other monogastrics,

such as pigs and other poultry can contribute

to mixed species production on grassland,

forest, and in rotation with crops.

I was pleased to see the article about

Karl North and his sheep dairy—another role

for sheep to play in North America—and

appreciated all the articles by Jim Howell.

Don Bixby

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

Pittsboro, North Carolina, www.albc-usa.org

Readers fo r u m