#099, in practice, jan/feb 2005

INS IDE THIS ISSUE

January/February 2005 * Number 99 www.holisticmanagement.org

Recently I was invited by the SavoryCenter to submit a newsletter articledescribing my 18 years of observations

regarding learning and practicing HolisticManagement. Doing so required me to take time to reflect over that long period of time—something I would not normally take time to do. I was grateful for that opportunity because itgave me the motivation to spend some timeconsidering how my observations fit togetherinto a holistic pattern that could serve as alearning experience for me and perhaps forothers as well.

The work that went into that article occurredat the same time that I was reading a newlypublished book called Presence by Peter Senge,Joseph Jaworski, C. Otto Scharmer, and Betty SueFlowers. This book discusses the authors’ 20+years of studying holism. I found their viewsand experiences as presented in their bookhelped me to better understand the observationsthat I wrote about and enabled me to put theminto a much larger context, that is a transition toa new emerging future.

In 1996, Frijof Capra wrote in his book, TheWeb of Life, “. . .what we are seeing is a shift inparadigms not only within science, but also in thelarger social arena . . .The paradigm that is nowreceding has dominated our culture for severalhundred years, during which it has shaped ourmodern Western society and has significantlyinfluenced the rest of the world.” Capracontinues with a description of the old paradigmbased on a view of the universe as a mechanicalsystem and noting we carried this view intomedicine, social, and even economic arenas. Hethen presents, “The new paradigm may be calleda holistic worldview, seeing the world as anintegrated whole rather than a dissociated

Holism—The Emerging Futureby Peggy Sechrist

a p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e s a v o r y c e n t e r

INS IDE THIS ISSUE

IN PRACTICEIN PRACTICE

Savory Center Grapevine . . . . . . . . . . .15Savory Center Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Certified Educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

FEATURE STORIES

NEWS & NETWORK

Progress at The West RanchPeggy Maddox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Terra Madre—Celebrating Food andThose Who Produce It

Jody Butterfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3Terra Madre 2004—Bringing A GlobalPerspective to the Table

Sandra Matheson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Holistic Management in Nebraska—ATwenty-Year Perspective

Roland Kroos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6Learning to Create a Passionate &Profitable Livelihood—In the WyomingHinterland

Andrea Malmberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

continued on page 2

Because nature functions in wholes, weknow that collaboration, not competition, is a key natural principle. In this issue,many of our authors discuss this insight,including Andrea Malmberg as she writesabout her experience at Twin Creek Ranchon page eight.

LAND & LIVESTOCKSTAC

Dick Richardson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Wildlife-Friendly Fencing Made EasyWayne Burleson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

News From the FrontBruce Ward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

collection of parts. Living systems at all levels arenetworks, we must visualize the web of life asliving systems (networks) interacting in networkfashion with other systems (networks). The webof life consists of networks within networks.”

Along with Allan Savory’s book, HolisticManagement, Capra’s writings have providedexcellent leadership in helping us betterunderstand the networks that exist in nature andthat connect us with nature. One could evensay that we are a member of nature’s networks.

I will wager that most of the successesachieved by holistic practitioners to date haveoccurred in this arena. The new book, Presence,takes us deeper into learning about socialnetworks including our marketplace anddiscusses how these networks might changefrom the old mechanical paradigm to the newholistic paradigm—something, I believe, we donot yet understand well.

The authors remind us that even socialinstitutions are living systems and “a livingsystem continually re-creates itself.” You and Ieasily understand that process as a change ofseason and by the new cells replacing old in ourbody. “But how this occurs in social systems . . .depends on our level of awareness, bothindividually and collectively.” Once a socialnetwork becomes aware of themselves as aliving system, “they can then become a place for the presencing of the whole as it might be,not just as it has been.”

The authors suggest that a new holisticfuture is always trying to emerge through thewhole networks that make up our universe.They believe this because they believe theuniverse fundamentally functions as wholenetworks. If we become aware and open to this

new innovations using the discovery and changeprocess that is outlined in their book. Our questis to learn how to work as a living network,

better understand foodsystems from a holisticpoint of view, and thento identify changes wecan implement to help itbecome more sustainable.This will be a greatlearning experience forme, and I will share mylearning with youthrough this newsletter.

I’d like to learn how to assist an emergingholistic future. How about you?

Peggy Sechrist is a Certified Educator inFredricksburg, Texas. She can be reached at:[email protected]. This article first appeared inthe HRM of Texas Summer/Fall Newsletter.

2 IN PRACTICE * Januar y / Februar y 2005

SavoryCENTER

TheSavoryTHE SAVORY CENTER is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. The Savory Center worksto restore the vitality of communities and thenatural resources on which they depend byadvancing the practice of Holistic Managementand coordinating its development worldwide.

FOUNDERSAllan Savory * Jody Butterfield

STAFFTim LaSalle, Executive Director

Kate Bradshaw,Director of Finance and Administration

Kelly Pasztor,Director of Educational Services;

Constance Neely, International Training Programs Director

Ann Adams,Managing Editor, IN PRACTICE and Director of

Publications and Outreach Terri Telles, Finance Coordinator

Donna Torrez, Administrative Assistant

BOARD OF DIRECTORSRio de la Vista, Chair

Leslie Christian, Vice-ChairTerry Word, Secretary

Richard Smith, TreasurerJody ButterfieldJudy Richardson

Bruce Ward

ADVISORY COUNCILJim Shelton, Chair, Vinita, OKRobert Anderson, Corrales, NM

Michael Bowman,Wray, COSam Brown, Austin, TX

Leslie Christian, Portland, ORLee Dueringer, Scottsdale, AZGretel Ehrlich, Gaviota, CA

Cynthia & Leo Harris, Albuquerque, NMClint Josey, Dallas, TX

Krystyna Jurzykowski, Glen Rose, TXDianne Law, Laveta, CO

Guillermo Osuna, Coahuila, MexicoJim Parker, Montrose, CO

Dean William Rudoy, Cedar Crest, NMYork Schueller, El Segundo, CA

Richard Smith, Houston, TX

Africa Centre for Holistic ManagementPrivate Bag 5950, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Tel: (263) (11) 404 979; email: [email protected] Matanga, Director

HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE (ISSN: 1098-8157) is published six times a year by The Savory Center, 1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, 505/842-5252, fax: 505/843-7900; email: [email protected].; website: www.holisticmanagement.org Copyright © 2005.

AD DEFINITUM FINEM

CENTER

The Holism—The Emerging Future continued from page 1

future, we can “sense it” and assist its emergence.They further suggest that “The key to ‘seeingfrom the whole’ is developing the capacity notonly to suspend ourassumptions but to‘redirect’ our awarenesstoward the generativeprocess that lies behindwhat we see.”

This book hasopened up a whole newawareness of holism forme. I was privileged tobe invited to participatein a two-year project organized by the GlobalLeadership Initiative, an NGO founded by two ofthe authors. The group I joined is made up ofrepresentatives from government, industry, andNGO’s from the U.S., Europe, and Brazil. We willspend the next two years exploring the conceptof a sustainable food system and searching for

The authors remind us that even social institutions

are living systems and “a living system continually

re-creates itself.”

hat a year for moisture! The WestRanch has received 41 inches of

rain as I write this in November 2004.The normal rainfall is 16 inches. We have nothad a freeze as of November 20, so grass and winter weeds are making for a very green landscape.

We began the year withthe purchase of livestock.We bought the 120 cowsand two bulls and 600 hairsheep that were here onpasture lease. We have sold451 lambs and kept 150 ewelambs, so we now have 750 hair sheep. We will beselling our calves soon. Our hunting program isprogressing, so our incomehas been better thanprojected.

Our monitoring has shown progress towardthe future resource base in our holistic goal. Our 2002 transect data showed we had 65percent bare ground with heavy infestation of

cedar and prickly pear. This year our monitoringshows a 10 percent decrease in bare ground.Several people have asked us if we are going touse fire to deal with the cedar infestation as thatis the common tool here. However, our focus hasbeen increasing the health of the ecosystem

processes. Nonetheless, we thought we wouldtest that action. Here’s how it tested.

Progress At the West Ranchby Peggy Maddox

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continued on page 14

At The West Ranch the land and livestock are responding to improved grazing management and lots of rain.

Number 99 * IN PRACTICE 3

There is a rapidly growing internationalmovement that brings togetherproducers of quality food and

consumers who want to make sure thoseproducers remain viable. Slow Food (as opposedto Fast Food) International, now nearly twodecades old and 81,000 members strong, felt thetime was ripe to celebrate these consumer-producer partnerships and to honor and supportthe thousands of producers who continue toprovide high quality food in environmentally-respectful ways. The result was Terra Madre, the world’s largest ever gathering of small-scalefarmers, ranchers, nomadic herders, fishers,foragers and food makers who met in Turin,Italy October 20 – 23, 2004.

Six months prior to that, leaders from SlowFood USA visited the Savory Center to requestthat we put together a delegation of livestockproducers, led by Allan Savory, to attend TerraMadre. “You are teaching the world veryimportant knowledge,” said Slow Food USAChairman Michael Dimock, in explaining whywe were invited to participate. Our delegation of 30 turned out to be one of the largest sentfrom the U.S., which included 600 in all.

Each of Terra Madre’s 5,000 delegates, from128 countries, represented a particular “foodcommunity” such as Cordoban prickly peargrowers, or artisan bakers of Alsace. The SavoryCenter “community” represented livestockproducers from all over the U.S. who not onlyproduce meat, but also restore and enhance their land at the same time.

Delegates took part in two days ofworkshops covering environmental issues linkedto agriculture, such as desertification and theeffects of pesticide use, political issues related tosustainability and production of individual cropsand products, such as corn, beef, and coffee. Inone room, delegates from Bulgaria, Kazakhstanand Spain talked about the challenges ofsupporting or reviving nomadic herding cultures.In another, a man from Cuba talked of theorganic agriculture revolution in his country. A woman from India told of her community’sstruggle to promote and protect theirenvironmentally sensitive region through aspecial “designation of origin” label for theirproducts. A Colorado heritage turkey producer

explained how he had quickly developed amarket for his turkeys with the help of a Slow Food group in Denver.

Allan Savory gave two well-receivedworkshop presentations on Caring for the Land and Reversing Desertification, and Certified Educators Guy Glosson, of Texas, andBill Burrows, of California, were applauded for their powerful and heartfelt contributions in a workshop on Creating Models for Sustainable Agriculture.

As thought-provoking and rewarding as theworkshops were, The Savory Center delegationfound the most satisfaction in connecting witheach other as well as people from around theworld who shared many of the same challengesand occasionally the same victories. Nearly all ofThe Savory Center delegates said the experiencewould influence their practice of HolisticManagement, but one summed it up best: “It has increased my commitment to the decision-making process, since it is the only way we canthink through all these complex challenges weface as a society without losing sight of ourdirection and purpose.”

Until a few months ago, many of our

delegation had never heard of Slow Food. In theU.S. there are close to 200 “convivia,” or chapters,where good-food-loving urbanites buildrelationships with producers, campaign toprotect traditional foods, encourage chefs tosource ingredients locally, and occasionally go tobat for producers when regulations or legislationneed changing. The Slow Food movement’sstunning growth in the U.S. since 2000, whenSlow Food USA was founded, attests to the factthat these producer-consumer partnerships aremuch needed and greatly valued. And they are

already beginning to have an impact on“the way we do food” in America.

Most of the Savory Center delegatesplan to link up with Slow Food “convivia”in their areas. One delegate, AndreaMalmberg, has already started a Slow Food“convivium” near Lander, Wyoming (thefirst in that state). All of us came awaywith the view that Slow Food and SavoryCenter members are natural allies who areseeking the same things, and we all had adesire to explore closer linkages. And it’salready happening.

Following Terra Madre Slow FoodUSA’s Michael Dimock wrote expressing his wishthat Slow Food USA and The Savory Centerbecome “active partners in working for theproducers,” and said that he looks forward to“further collaboration and unique experiencestogether.” He has invited The Savory Center tobe involved in planning for a California TerraMadre in 2005 that would include theparticipation of the California HolisticManagement community.

And there’s good news from Mexico as well.Certified Educator Ivan Aguirre was part of aTerra Madre delegation of Mexican livestocksproducers and he reports that opportunities forcloser collaboration between holistic managersand Slow Food members in Mexico are alreadybeing explored.

If you would like to learn more about Slow Food USA, contact them atwww.slowfoodusa.org. or 212/965-5640.

Other country organizations exist, but allexcept Japan are in Europe. If you live outsidethe U.S., visit the international website:www.slowfood.com for more information.

Terra Madre—Celebrating Food and Those Who Produce It by Jody Butterfield

Just a few of the Terra Madre participantswho listened to Allan Savory’s presentation in the workshop on desertification.


Terra Madre 2004—Bringing a Global Perspective to the Tableby Sandra M. Matheson

You never know where HolisticManagement will take you! In April Ireceived a letter from the Savory Center

informing me that I had been nominated tobecome a US delegate to Terra Madre, a worldwide conference for sustainable food producers, to be held in Turin, Italy. I read it again and thenonce more. Since my grandparents immigrated tothe U.S. from Sicily, and I had always enjoyed myItalian relatives and longed to visitthe homeland of my ancestors, thiswas the opportunity of a lifetime!

Overcoming Obstacles

Many hours were spent inanticipation of Terra Madre. Wewanted to be well prepared for the whole experience. We knew itwouldn’t be right to go to Italy andnot visit Rome. So, we did someresearch, applied for passports,studied maps, bought Italian books,and worked on plans to make thisthe best family journey ever.

Even the best planned journey can have a fewroad blocks. The first big one was the brokenankle. Mine to be exact. I have been walking outin the pasture nearly every day of life. One daythis past summer, after moving the herd, I stoppedto look back at a cow. The next step taken, stilllooking back, was in a hole and down I went. Mylife has not been the same since. With multiplefractures in my ankle and foot, I still wear awalking cast. I have since learned new meaningsfor frustration, patience, and tolerance! I have seenthe cow herd only twice in the last few monthssince I am limited to walking on level ground. Inspite of the challenges, I was not going to give up our family’s trip to Terra Madre.

I did as much research as I could about Italianlife, culture, transportation, and what to do ifsomething went wrong. Money was also a factor in our decision-making. Three of us missing twoweeks of work is a significant economic loss.Money could be remade in time, but the TerraMadre experience might not come along again.Time out of school was an issue we discussed aswell. We all agreed that what we could learnthrough this experience couldn’t be taught in

school. Finally, there was the concern of leaving the farm for that long. We were anxious andexcited, but certain that it would all work out. The decision to go passed the testing.

International Insights

On October 18, 2004, with crutches in hand andcast on leg, I, along with my family, started on ourway. Our flight was to leave from Seattle and travel

over Canada, Greenland, Iceland, across the Atlantic,and on to Europe.

When approaching Frankfort, we got anexcellent view of the German countryside. There isa lesson to be learned from the Germans. They havea sensible and more sustainable concept of land usethan we seem to have in the U.S. Communities andcities were clearly defined by distinct boundaries.There was no sprawl nor did “ranchettes” dot thelandscape. Simply, there were cities surrounded byfarmland. Also noticeable was how the small fieldswere shaped to the contour of the land withdifferent crops planted in adjacent plots. Themajority of the crop fields were lined with brushand trees. I did not see large fields of monocultures.Instead, there was functional diversity.

The reality of the trip sunk in when wediscovered that our flight from Frankfort to Turinwas filled with Terra Madre delegates. Excitementpermeated the air as introductions were made andstories were swapped.

Community Dynamics

The bus ride to Palazzo del Lavoro waseducational. Once we got accustomed to Italian

style of driving, we noticed that nearly every patchof ground was being used. Gardens filled everylittle plot of open ground, even right up to thepavement of the freeways! It was apparent themost Italians have a closer connection to their food than do most Americans.

We exited the bus and entered the enormousand unusual “mushroom columned” building thatwould be home to Terra Madre for the next severaldays. I was almost overwhelmed at the sight of so many different people, in differentstyles of dress, speaking many different languages.Yet different as we all were, it soon became evidentthat we shared something in common: A vision of people working together to

heal the earth and produce healthyfood in a sustainable manner. Itwas a beautiful collage of color,sound, and culture, which signified hope for the future!

There were many topics ofdiscussion at the plenary sessions,earth workshops, and fringemeetings. They included:genetically modified foods;patenting of living organisms;globalization; industrial agriculture;poisoning the earth; lack ofconnection to our food; fast food,children, obesity, and disease; and

disappearing farms and farmland.The themes included: Let Us Become Co-

producers; Food is Beautiful; A Tribute to theEarth’s Caretakers; Lunch Should Become An Academic Subject; Local—Not Global; Heal The Earth; Promote Biodiversity; Celebrate Life’s Diversity.

The speakers came from all regions of theworld and talked about every food-related subjectimaginable. Headphones were available totranslate into seven different languages. They

Delegates sold their products at Terra Madrein either formal displays or simplyspreading their wares on the floor.

The Savory Center delegation for Terra Madre 2004.

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Doc Hatfieldfrom Oregon,Daniela andSavannahHowell fromColorado, and Teresa Maurer from Arkansasmembers of the Holistic Managementdelegation.

were farmers and dignitaries, politicians andranchers. We were delighted by a surprise visitfrom Prince Charles, a strong advocate of smallscale sustainable farming. Opinions were plenty,

but so were the creative ideas.It was an inspiration to hearand see what others around theworld are doing for sustainableagriculture.

The message was clear. Weare brothers and sisters, eachwith our own identity andculture, who are dedicated toproducing healthy food and willing to take whateveraction is needed to do just that.

The Savory Center Community

The bus rides back to our hotel, located nearthe base of the Alps, provided opportunity to meetnew friends and revisit with old friends. Our groupin itself was diverse in background, experience, andage. Our daughters, Megan and Molly were theyoungest of our delegates, with Savannah Howell(age 3) being the smallest and most entertainingmember of our community. Evening meals wererelaxing and enjoyable as we learned about eachother while sharing food, drink, and ideas. The foodwas outstanding and the company was great. Wewere fortunate to share the hotel with delegatesfrom Israel, Canada, and Iceland.

Slow Food International must be commendedfor their commitment, perceived clout, marketingability, and the Terra Madre “miracle” they pulledoff. They are an example for us in HolisticManagement of what can be accomplished byworking together. I hope we will be able tocollaborate with Slow Food in the future. Ourprofound thanks to the Savory Center, Slow FoodInternational, the Italian Government, and theCity of Turin for this experience of a lifetime.

Sandy Matheson is a Certified Educator livingin Bellingham, Washington. She can be reached at:360/398-7866 or [email protected].

On her small farm in Arkansas, Teresa

Maurer and her husband, Jim, raiseKatahdin hair sheep for breeding stock

and meat. She has been very active in hercommunity promoting consumer awareness oflocally produced foods. Teresa states, “I personallymet farmers from thirty countries and chefs fromfour countries, tasted food from forty countries,and heard heartfelt presentations ‘from the ground’from people I never would have been able tolearn from otherwise . . . I feel that I came awaywith a much deeper and direct understanding ofwhat Slow Food is trying to achieve.”

Daniela Ibarra Howell was happy to return toItaly where she spent many years of her early life.Certified Educators Daniela and husband, Jim,ranch in Colorado and have begun a textileenterprise featuring original designs. Daniela sawTerra Madre as a great opportunity to meet peoplewith unique and creative ideas. She gained someinsights into producing and marketing as well asways to increase awareness that “your product isthe best choice.” Her practice of HolisticManagement will be enhanced because the Terra

Madre experience “deepens our convictions, bothsocial and ecological . . . using practices that canstill be profitable.”

There are many new opportunities for HolisticManagement. Daniela says, “We are not alone. BringHolistic Management and give them a frameworkto advance the movement. With the harvesting ofideas and energy, I cannot see anything but positivethings. Relationships have been formed. . . creatinga bigger pool of resources.”

Molly Galloway, age fifteen, the youngestofficial delegate of the Savory Center community,enjoyed seeing and meeting people from all overthe world and learning how they did things. Shesaid, “I think the whole trip helped me see abigger picture of the world . . . The people fromfar away that I read about and see on the newsare now not so far away. I had a chance to meetsome of them in person.”

She did admit that not everything she learnedwould be applied at home. At the AlternativeMeats workshop, she and her sister, Megan, learnedhow to boil a Guinea Pig and roast it on a stick. “Idon’t think I’ll be eating any Guinea Pigs, but it

makes a great story!” she said.“Come, learn, and advocate” was the

philosophy of John and Dorothy Priske ofWisconsin. They traveled to Terra Madre tosupport the Slow Food movement because “theysupport us . . . they are receptive people.” Johnwanted to share with other people what they aredoing at home. The Priskes’ diversified theiroperation from row cropping to a grass basedranch using animals as a tool to harvest, utilize,and improve the land. They market their Highlandbeef directly to consumers and run a bed andbreakfast on the ranch. John also sought to learnfrom other parts of the world, “their problems,challenges, and triumphs.”

Dorothy expressed that her expectations wereexceeded and enjoyed being part of the SavoryCenter community. “The bus ride to and from wasjust as educational and uplifting as the sessions atTerra Madre.” John concludes: “I feel comfortable inthe direction I have chosen . . . We all have a storyto tell . . . We tell it over and over, change it, and itgets better.” John and Dorothy’s products will befeatured by a chef at an upcoming Slow Foodfundraising dinner. John says about the TerraMadre experience, “Now I can tell our story withmore confidence.”

Interviews with Holistic Managers

Megan Galloway (18), Lyle Galloway, Sandra Matheson, and MollyGalloway (15) in front of a seafood display at the street market.

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Holistic Management in Nebraska—A Twenty-Year Perspectiveby Roland R.H. Kroos

Editor’s Note: This article is a continuation ofthe interviews Certified Educator Roland Krooscollected this summer as he visited ranches inNebraska he first visited 20 years ago as hebegan learning about Holistic Managementwhile working for the NRCS. Some of theseranchers joined him in those first introductoryworkshops on Holistic Management in 1984.

Higgins Brothers Ranch Tom and Lynn Higgins, and Jerry Higgins

hen we attended our first Holistic Management course, the ranch was owned

by our dad and uncle. We were starting to getinvolved with management; however, thetraditional ranch management practices just didn’tseem to be working. So, we went to our firstHolistic Management course in October of 1984.

What changes have occurred since 1984 when you

first attended the Holistic Management course?

Tom—Attending the Holistic Managementcourse gave me great confidence, and I was readyto change the world (at least the ranch we weremanaging). Initially we changed our grazingpractices by running large herds of cattle.However, we lost money due to poor planningand struggled with our financial records. Ibecame depressed as I met resistance when wetried to change and felt we were under-achieving.I felt we weren’t practicing Holistic Managementas Allan Savory implied it should be done. Today,I’ve regained that confidence and understand thatHolistic Management is only a process.

Lynn—It opened new avenues for us andhow we view people, land, and dollars. We havehit some highs and lows in the last 20 years, butI feel we kept moving forward. It gave us hopeand encouraged us to get help when needed. I’velearned that we don’t have to be perfect and thatit’s not the end of the world if we make amistake. Now we are not afraid to try a newidea. We listen better; it’s our goal to be teamoriented, and we continue to work on it.

Jerry—When I attended the HolisticManagement course I was a practicing alcoholic.So initially I had a great fear of failure andworried about what others thought, especiallyour dad and uncle. We didn’t discuss finances,and I wanted to set up a better financial plan. I

felt we were making a lot of mistakes and thatwe needed to slow down. Our windmillscouldn’t keep up with the large herds of cattle,and this was creating even more problems. Thenin 1992, I quit drinking, and I learned how tocope with people. We have made mistakes, butwe learned from them and changed ourmanagement because of them.

So where is Higgins Ranch today? We acquired the ranch from our dad and

uncle. The ranch has increased in size to 24,000acres (9,640 ha), and it has a base cow herd of1,200 head which calve inMay and June. The ranchsells yearlings in the fallmost years. Based on thecurrent infrastructure andpersonnel preference, wehave found it best to manageherds of 700 head. Most ofthe cows spend most of thewinter on grass andsupplement. We stockpilegrass for the cows in thewinter, so we don’t have tofeed them hay.

The ranch does havesome debt due to recentland purchases. It has goodequipment and a new homefor Chris and Patty Joewithout having to borrow money. Despitemaking changes in the grazing and livestockmanagement program, we still haven’t gotten ridof our livestock health problems. We continue tobattle scours and pneumonia problems despitethe fact that we seem to be spending more andmore on vaccinations. By moving our calving tolate spring, we have more health problems todaythan we did before. However, we like calving somuch better now we are not ready to move ourcalving date back. There has to be anothersolution to our problem.

The ranch now supports four families: Tomand Lynn, Jerry and Donna, Chris (Tom and Lynn’sson) and Patty Joe (4 children), and Deb (Tom &Lynn’s daughter) and Casey (one child). Tom saidthere is always room for more family members ifthey want to work and help manage the ranch.Tom is ready to move on, only we haven’t come

up with a good succession plan for familymembers to take over. Tom feels it is time becauseChris is 40 years old and needs to be moving intothe driver’s seat in managing this ranch.

We are still using the Holistic Managementprocess to guide our decisions. However, we stillfind ourselves making decisions based on oldhabits and paradigms. We are still doing thegrazing planning and move livestock based onthis plan and our observations. We develop ayearly plan and try to have monthly meetingswhere everyone has input into what is going on.

Do you believe you would be where you are today,

if you hadn’t attended the Holistic Management

course 20 years ago?

No, Holistic Management helped me to facemy alcoholism. If I hadn’t done that, I would bedead. Without Holistic Management, we wouldbe like our neighbors struggling to survive.

If someone was just getting started in

practicing Holistic Management, what advice

would you give them today?

Make a list of what you want, and thenestablish your holistic goal. If you’re not gettingsupport from your team, look beyond it andreach out. Ask lots of questions and look aroundat how other people are practicing HolisticManagement. Learn from their mistakes. Findother Holistic Management mentors and don’t beafraid to ask for help.

Three Bar Cattle CompanyJohn & Cheryl Ravenscroft What have been some of the biggest changes you

have made in the last twenty years?

The Three Bar Cattle Company was purchasedby our dad and granddad in 1959. When

Casey, Tom, Chris, and Jerry Higgins of Higgins Ranch beganmanaging holistically after attending their first workshop in1984.s

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what the Ravenscrofts are doing on the ranch.

What has been your biggest learning or discovery

over the last 20 years?

Cheryl—Family communication; it is soessential yet difficult to maintain. We are stillworking on it with our sons and their families.

John—Financial planning; plan what is goingto happen and then take control to make sure itdoes.

Are you still using the Holistic Management

process today?

Yes, but we feel we have plateaued in ourpractice. We are still doing the financial planning.We are no longer doing the grazing planning onthe Holistic Management grazing form, thoughwe are still moving cows and yearlings throughthe pastures and minimizing overgrazing. Weneed to get our sons some training in HolisticManagement and engage them more in thisprocess.

If someone was just getting started in practicing

Holistic Management, what advice would you give

them today?

Find a mentor to provide you with somesupport and encouragement. Do not be afraid toask for help, even if that means having to hire aHolistic Management consultant. Acknowledgenow that you will need more training.

Calf Creek RanchA.B. Cox What have been some of the biggest changes you

have made in the last twenty years?

The first Holistic Management course I attendedwas when I went with Wayne Eatinger, Floss

Garner, and Roland Kroos to Albuquerque in early1985. The holistic approach I learned at that courseallowed me to understand the personal, financial,production, and land aspects of my operation—how everything interacts, and how you can’t affectone facet of the operation without affecting thewhole. So I’ve used the Holistic Management®

model, as I recognize it to be, to help me makedecisions towards my holistic goal.

Speaking of the model, I don’t refer to itevery time I make a decision. I equate the modelto the vehicle manual you can find in most carsor trucks. Once I understand the basic parts ofthe vehicle and how they operate, I don’t referto the manual every time I want to drive totown. That’s not to say that I don’t use theHolistic Management process to help me makedecisions; I do.

Through the Holistic Management process

I’ve learned to observe an action or event, suchas, “It rained one inch last night.” I then ask“How will this event/action help take metowards my holistic goal? Will it add value? If ittakes me to where I want to go, I go with it. If ittakes me away from where I want to go, I takethe corrective steps as needed.

So, I’m more satisfied with where I’m at thanI was 10 years ago. I’ve build a new house, mydaughter is entering the University of Nebraska,I’ve taken some trips around the world with mydaughter, and the ranch operation is runningsmoother. With the exception of 1996, the ranchhas made a profit every year. The ranch isoperating on almost twice as many acres as itdid 20 years ago, and I have less debt.

What are some of the biggest challenges you have

faced in the last 20 years?

The team approach. I’ve been single most ofthe last 20 years and have no parents involved inthe operation. So it’s tough to be creative orcritical, when you are the only person makingall the decisions. My employee has had notraining in Holistic Management and is operatingwith conventional paradigms.

So where is Calf Creek Ranch today?

The ranch operates on 20,000 acres (8,032 ha),of which 15,000 acres (6,024 ha) is owned by theranch. The ranch provides groceries for

approximately 800 cows that calve in April and800 yearlings. The work on the ranch iscompleted by me, one full time employee, andtwo summer employees. What the introduction

Cheryl and John Ravenscroft have made aprofit every year since taking their firstHolistic Management course.

A.B. Cox has found it challenging to manageholistically alone.

continued on page 8

James (John’s brother) and I attended our firstHolistic Management course in the fall of 1985,we were involved in the management of theranch. The older generation allowed us to trynew grazing strategies, such as putting all thelivestock into one large herd. By changing ourgrazing practices, we have significantly improvedthe grass and the health of the land. Today weare continuing to run 60 percent more livestockthan we ran 20 years ago. Not only that, butsince 1986, we have only had to feed hay to ourcows one year, otherwise they winter on therange and we provide them cake (supplement).Today we are running 1,400 cows and 2,500yearlings on the 30,000-acre (12,048-ha) ranch.

Another great change has been our finances;we have made a profit every year since we tookthe Holistic Management course. This financialsuccess has allowed us to buy another ranch forJames. Cheryl and I are now sole owners ofThree Bar Cattle Company. We anticipate beingout of debt in two years. This financial successhas also encouraged our sons to come back tothe ranch. Eric and Shannon (wife) and Kevinare living and working on the ranch. Brent, whois in the Air Force, may eventually come back tothe ranch.

Do you feel Holistic Management was responsible

for these changes?

Absolutely! Tradition and neighbors did notsupport the changes we made 20 years ago.Without the knowledge and support of otherHolistic Management practitioners in the area,we never would have made these changes.Today, there is an acceptance and support of


of Holistic Management to Nebraska 20 yearsago spawned is remarkable. Today theUniversity of Nebraska offers a Grazing LandManagement Degree from which I hire one totwo interns each summer. There is a Nebraska

What would you have done different looking back

on the last 20 years?

One of my failures in my practice of HolisticManagement over the last 20 years is that I did notestablish and consistently monitor the health ofthe land. I cannot prove to you that the land hasimproved, though I know it has.

I also should have spent more timedeveloping a comprehensive water developmentand land plan. I started with existing water

hen I first drove onto Twin CreekRanch I was awestruck. The landscape

breathtaking, but more inspiring wasthe ecological health around me. I saw adifference—willows, tall grass, beaver ponds,covered soil, and many wild animals defined this place. Tony Malmberg was living up to hisreputation as an exceptional land manager, and I was falling in love with him even more.

My bliss escalated up the eight-mile scenicdrive. Then, like a bucket of water on a hotcamp fire, my ardor fizzled on arriving at theheadquarters. I nearly turned around and headedhome to Montana. I groaned at the house-trailers,mud, and filth. Although I never thought Iwould say such a thing, I exclaimed, “This placereally needs a woman!” What it really neededwas someone who could create human habitatas well as Tony had enhanced wildlife habitat.

Three years after our marriage, I rejoiced asthe last house-trailer went down the road. Wemoved in and refurbished a little 1930s log cabinto live in and built a guest lodge. Now, we havea place for people from all walks of life togather and learn about stewardship and findsolitude and renewal. Often, the human habitat—wholesome food, comfortable accommodations,live music, art and gardens—allow this wild toenter and become a protagonist in people’s lives.When this happens, they shed their stress andtransform. Creating habitat so that people cannurture their highest selves and live well with all beings is my passion.

Piloting Passion

For me, creating the retreat house enterpriseat Twin Creek was simply a matter of piloting

my passion. I had the skills and education tohave that high paying job off the place, butTony and I wanted to craft a more meaningfullife. We wanted to make a living close to theland, and we wanted to do work thatrepresented our values.

We have found camaraderie with HolisticManagement practitioners because you too wantto create passionate and profitable livelihoods.But creating that quality of life found in ourholistic goals is often easier said than done—especially when it comes to having the discipline to do those despicable tasks—likefinancial planning!

Often we hire other people to do tasks wedon’t like. But unless an employee is actuallypassionate about doing the task, excellence iselusive. Research shows that if you quit a jobyou dislike and take one that you do like, yourlevel of happiness over time does not increase.So how do we solve the problem, rather thanaddress the symptom?

Luckily we entrepreneurs like most of ourday-to-day work because we created our jobs.The question remains, how do we deal with allof the tasks that can drag us down? Mostrecently, I found an answer in AuthenticHappiness. – The New Positive Psychology. Theidea is that to maximize work satisfaction, youneed to use your “Signature Strengths” in yourwork every day. As Martin E.P. Seligman states“Recrafting your job to deploy your strengthsand virtues every day not only makes workmore enjoyable, but transmogrifies a routine jobor a stalled career into a calling.” You can findyour Signature Strengths by taking the VIPSignature Strengths Survey at the website:

www.authentichappiness.org.

Passionately Planning for Profit

When our ranch partnership broke up, Icame heads on with a task I despised. I wassuddenly responsible (or should I sayirresponsible) for keeping the books. This newtask was very intimidating for me, and it resultedin many arguments in our household. Tony andI just didn’t have a common language to talkabout our finances, and we realized we didn’tknow beans about how to do it—holistically orotherwise. When it came down to it, there wasnothing I wanted to shove off to someone morethan financial planning.

Personally, I felt insecure when doing ourfinancial planning. For the first twenty-five yearsof my life, no one was there to teach me how tobalance a checkbook, keep a budget, managecredit cards, let alone plan for profit. I found outthat it was “deeper than me” when I had to tellmy dad I needed to get off the phone because Ihad to “do the books.” He said, “Oh, you are notgood at that; you can’t do your ranch’s books.”That hit me. Why not? My genes? My gender?My personality? No, I have never allowed mySignature Strengths to shine through to makemy financial planning a fulfilling part of craftingmy passionate livelihood.

My top five Signature Strengths are: (1)Appreciation of beauty and excellence; (2)Creativity, ingenuity, and originality; 3) Curiosityand interest in the world; (4) Fairness, equity,and justice; and (5) Leadership. In order to enjoykeeping the books and finally integrate holisticfinancial planning into our operation, I neededto engage these strengths to make money

Holistic Management in Nebraskacontinued from page 7

Learning to Create a Passionate & ProfitableLivelihood—In the Wyoming HinterlandBy Andrea Malmberg

Grazing Lands Coalition that is promoting manyof the grazing concepts Allan Savory introducedto Nebraska 20 years ago.

I still do the financial planning and makingsure each enterprise passes the Gross ProfitAnalysis. I’ve gotten lazy with the grazingplanning, in that I don’t do the planning as I’vebeen taught. I’m managing six different groupsof cattle. Each grazing cell involves anywherefrom 3 to 16 paddocks.

W


facilities and tried to add storage. Most windmillsare not capable of providing enough water forany herd larger than 300 head. I should havedrilled new wells or buried 2 inch (50 mm)pipeline to many of the water points. I don’t feelI’ve used money to the best advantage, and I’mstill trying to piece it together.

I got carried away with improving thegenetics of my cow herd and the magic ofartificial insemination. I lost sight of grass

friendly genetics, and I ended up with cows that wouldn’t breed back on the grass and feed I provided them. I’m moving back to amoderate size cow that can breed back on thegrass I grow.

If someone was just getting started in practicing

Holistic Management, what advice would you give

them today?

1) Start slow; 2) Use your existing facilities

and resources; and 3) Identify your weakest link.With flexibility, it will surprise you how far youcan go. Of course, define your holistic goal.

Roland Kroos is a Holistic ManagementCertified Educator and owner of Crossroads &Company, a range management consultingbusiness. He lives in Bozeman, Montana andcan be reached at: 406/522-3862 [email protected].

management more gratifying. Once I allowedthese strengths to shine through all my dailyactivities, dealing with finances became ahappiness producing part of my life.

So, here is how it works for me. Those thathave appreciation of beauty and excellence astheir number one Signature Strength obviouslyvalue good food, art, and the comforts of life. But more importantly for our discussion, theyvalue good decision-making, seeing things welldone, no dust bunnies under the bed, and anaccurate accounting of where all the moneygoes. Applied to financial planning, this strengthallows me to be proud of my impeccable naturewith book keeping and financial planning.Though very geeky, I admit I’m a little bitexcited (rather than scared) to see how well our control sheet matches our plan.

Strength two and three both have to dealwith a love of learning. When my dad said Iwasn’t good at something, my natural defensessaid, “No way. . . I’ll learn it.” So now, when Icome across a tax question, I love to find theanswer. If I can ask a really competent financialmanager, I kill two strengths with one stone—obviously love of learning, but the appreciationof beauty and excellence makes me relishfinding excellence in any field.

Strength four, “fairness, equity, and justice”and “leadership” take me back to my passionand why I am compelled to share my insightswith you. Bill Molison, of Permaculture famestates my path well: “A determination to makeour own way: to be neither employers noremployees, landlords nor tenants, but to be self-reliant and individuals and to cooperate as groups.” But how can we do this without monitoring social, ecological, andfinancial health?

To find how your Signature Strengths canmake your dreadful tasks more gratifying,practice this simple exercise: Think of a task at work, which is necessary but less thanenjoyable. Then contemplate transforming that

non-gratifying task into flow-producing activityby drawing on your signature strengths. Forinstance, you might really dislike answeringemails. They pile up and then the task seemsalmost impossible. But you find that one ofyour Signature Strengths is kindness. You beginthinking about the people who took the time towrite the email and find that answering is nowabout showing kindness and respect.

components of our holistic goal. Our valuesbecome clearer because our Signature Strengthsfall into the six universal virtues of wisdom &knowledge; courage; love and humanity; justice;temperance; or spirituality and transcendence. It is easy to see how these virtues are expressedin holistic goals. For me, the expression of myholistic goal has always been quite easy. If thisis not the case for you, understanding yourSignature Strengths might excavate the wordsdeep within you—curiosity, perspective, integrity,perseverance, loving, citizenship, humility,gratitude, hope, humor, zest. . .

As I have discovered, the expression of theholistic goal is one thing and the monitoring isquite another. When I sat down to monitoringour financial plan, it always seemed likesomething got lost in translation. Was it a caseof “figures lie and liars figure?” Possibly, but theexplanation I’m going with is that my financialplan has never adequately correlated with myholistic goal. Now, with the awareness of howimportant utilizing my Signature Strengths are to achieving the life I desire, I now have thetools to effectively monitor my holistic goal’sinherent social and psychological components, as they are expressed through my finances. The funny thing is, that now when I look at the control sheet, I associate my feelings, desiresand needs—the movement towards my futurelandscape description—with the numbers, ratherthan simply measuring how close the planmatches the actual, as represented by the figures. As you can imagine, this has been quite liberating. Though I have a ways to go to find the desired profit in my passionatelivelihood, at least now I know I have mystrengths to help me along the way.

Andrea Malmberg is currently in TheSavory Center’s International CertifiedEducator Training Program. She lives nearLander, Wyoming and can be reached at:[email protected].

Andrea Malmberg during a visit to Africa aspart of her Certified Education training.

Leading With Our Values

Once you recraft your tasks using yourSignature Strengths, you may also want toemploy the happiness producing behavior oftaking long cuts instead of short cuts. Forexample, it helps me to do a little financialplanning more often, instead of waiting until thelast minute to complete the entire project. I’mmost productive when I do financial planningfirst thing in the morning. I put on some goodmusic, or listen to a book on tape, light a candle,and sip my goat milk latte. By taking long cuts,you are likely to find more gratifying outcomesand your quality of life will be expressed evenin your most mundane tasks.

Looking at the bigger picture, two of themost compelling aspects to understanding andutilizing our Signature Strengths are that ourvalues become clearer and we have a tangibleway to monitor the social/psychological

10 Land & Livestock * Januar y / Februar y 2005

2.5 percent of body mass intake as an average through the year. I use theMetabolic Unit calculation for my Stock Unit calculations and this is basedon a 450kg animal growing at 300g per day being 1 unit. The simplifiedeasy-to-use formula for up and down adjustments of different stock units is:

Mass of the animal x 2 plus 100 divided by 1000

For example, a 450kg unit is a 1 Stock Unit –(((450x2)+100)/1000) and a 400 kg animal is a 0.9 SU (((400x2)+100)/1000).

So at 25 lbs (11.25 kg) dry matter intake (2.5% of a 450 kg unit) for 1 SU (meat animal)the SDA/SDH (rounded off for easy use) are asfollows: Sole 12 SDA (30 SDH), Toe 24 SDA (60SDH), Ankle 36 SDA (90 SDH) and at Calf 48(120 SDH). These are the figures I would suggestone starts with in brittle environments withmixed to sweet veld.

The actual intake of dry matter of an animalreally depends on the rate of digestion takingplace. In lower-fiber, higher-energy feed, the rate of passage of feed is quick and animals eatmore dry matter per day. This figure on dairy

cows can go up as high as 8 percent. Then, when dietary fiber is high, thedigestive rate of passage slows down, and total dry matter intake will comedown as low as only 1 percent in some cases.

Iwas first introduced to the STAC method of assessing veld (forage) innon-brittle environments by Jim Weaver from Wellsboro, Pennsylvaniawhile we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the winter of 2004. Jim was

in The Savory Center’s 2001 Certified Educator Training Program and wehad met during that program’s graduation. When Jim shared this idea, I sawit as a valuable tool. After metricating it, I simply adapted it for use in brittle environments.

How It Works

STAC stands for Sole, Toe, Ankle and Calf.These are the points of measurement of thetop of the bulk of the grass sward (plant). Inother words look through the grass to identifywhat height the bulk of the grass stops so thatone measures bulk not stalks and wisps thatstick out the top. Jim demonstrated how toaccomplish this viewpoint by leaning down on to his head and looking backwards between his legs.

Having made the decision on bulk height,simply work out what feed is available. Theformula for dairy cattle is: Sole is 10 SDA (stockdays per acre) or 24 SDH (stock days perhectare), Toe is 20 SDA or 48 SDH, Ankle is 30 SDA or 72 SDH, and Calf is 40 SDA or 96 SDH.

Jim in his wisdom had simply translated this information from theoriginal STAC method he had learned, which expressed this information inpounds of dry matter available per acre. In other words Sole is 300 lb peracre, Toe is 600 lb per acre, Ankle is 900 lbs per acre and Calf is 1200 lbs peracre. So for reference, this translates to 327 kg/ha at Sole, 656 kg/ha at Toe,982 kg/ha at Ankle and 1309 kg/ha at Calf height. Jim then translated thisinto stock unit days using 3 percent of body mass intake on a 450 kganimal unit. That is in metric speech, of course. In other language it wascalculated on a 3 percent intake on a 1000 lb animal.

In the dairy industry, a 3 percent dry matter intake is applicable. In the beef industry in South Africa, however, we tend to work on only a

The STAC Method—Assessing Forage in Brittle Environmentsby Dick Richardson

Dick Richardson using the STAC method on horseback.

&L I V E S T O C K &

Forage Calculations for 1 SU based on 1000 lb (450kg) beef cattle with 25 lb (11.25kg) intake

Measurement SDA SDH SDA @ 50% SDH @ 50%Sole 12 30 6 15Toe 24 60 12 30Ankle 36 90 18 45Calf 48 120 24 60

Number 99 * Land & Livestock 11

STAC Adapted to Brittle Environments

First, do the steps as above, then work out what percentage of the grasssward is at the measurement. We do this by pacing ten paces and scoringeach footfall according to available bulk feed as follows: • Full (as per bulk height) scores a 1• Half the feed available only (half covered with bulk height) would score 0.5• If there is a bare patch with no feed available (no bulk present) youwould score it a 0.

(TIP: Count only on the one foot each time rather than on each footfall,it is a lot easier.)

This will then tell you what percent of the sward is not full, and youcan then calculate what feed is available with this figure and the originalbulk measurement. For example, if you count 10 footfalls and find 3 arebare, 4 are only half, while the rest are full that would mean that 50 percent of the sward measures to your original bulk estimate ((4 x .5) =2 + 3 = 5 or 50 percent). Say it was toe height; then 50 percent of 24 SDA or 60 SDH would equal 12 SDA or 30 SDH.

What I do if it is not consistent veld, such as if I am reassessing apaddock that has just been grazed, is to rate each footfall as part of the rateI expect the whole to be. For example, if I expect the whole area to be toeheight by the average of what I have measured, then I base each step on atoe height scale. If the plant is sole height then that is half of toe height andrates as .5. If it is calf height then I rate it as 1.5 of toe height. I then do thecalculating as above and determine the average within the 10 steps and base my forage assessment on that SDA or SDH.

The rules for this method of forage assessment are no different to the

rules one would use when doing squares or clippings for assessment. Do ittwice in a representative area, and always do more than one representativearea in a paddock where there is variation.

On a horse it is also pretty simple. First stand next to the horse’s frontleg and measure, sole, toe, heel and calf against the hoof, coronet, pasternand canon, etc. You will then have a picture in your mind of where theSTAC are on the horse. Lean out as you ride along and check the grass bulkheight against the horses hoof and leg to choose your STAC height. Thenjust as you did on foot, count the steps (one side only is far easier than bothon a horse) and work out what percentage of the SDA/SDH really counts.

A note of caution: On foot you must force yourself to put your nextfootfall where it should go, not where you may influence the score. Thehorse on the other hand, will choose to put its foot in the easiest walkingspot (i.e., alongside a bush not in it, or on the bare patch next to the grasstuft and not in it). This is not a problem if you work out where the horse’sfoot should have been, and improve the steering while leaning outwatching the footfalls.

I have double-checked this measurement method against the normalsquare method we use and am very sure they match up well. In fact, I amvery positive about it as the subjectivity of the square method really throws one out when the plants become tall with seed heads.

I have found these figures accurate, although the end of this non-growing season will tell us how accurate we really are with this method.

Try it out for yourself and see what you think. Good luck!

Dick Richardson is a Certified Educator from Vryburg, South Africa.He can be reached at: [email protected] or 27-53-927-4367.

fter years of studying, designing, and building hundreds of miles ofelectric fences, in all sorts of different situations, I’m still learning.

Some of those fences that I personally constructed have beendiscontinued, removed or converted back to standard 4-wire barbed or netwire sheep fences.

Why? One reason is wildlife movement. Big game animals such as deer,elk, moose and also livestock untrained to an electric fence, when excited,can raise havoc with most any fence.

I once heard a story about a big bull moose coming into contact with asmooth wire, high tensile 12.5 gauge electric fence. The big fellow must havebeen taken back by someone blocking his way. The moose evidently puthis horns down and proceeded to destroy the fence by wandering back andforth pulling out posts and dragging gobs of tangled wire all aroundthrough the woods.

During hunting season, herds of big game animals become startled andcan run right through most any fence. One ranch we worked on wouldknow when the hunters were active, by the fact the neighbors would becalling them, telling them that their cows were out on the county roadagain. Sure enough, they’d go look and find sections of their barbed wirefence laying flat on the ground.

But the right kind of fence, built with wildlife in mind, can actually save money and time in the long run. The first step is to train the peopleinvolved.

The People Part

A friend of mine a few years back introduced his dad’s ranch to thenew style of permanent electric fencing, resulting in one big wreck thatended up proving that this kind of fencing did not work on their ranch.

This young fellow had built a New Zealand style, hot wire fence at thebase of a hill. The hired men, who couldn’t see how such a simplisticlooking smooth wire fence would work on their rough and ready ranch,ran the cow herd down the steep hill right through the wimpy lookingwire, thus proving no way could you build such a simple fence and expect it to work!

Unfortunately, this is an all too common incident, and it just delays aninexpensive solution that fixes land health problems and, more importantly,addresses the profit related struggles many ranches are now facing. I’m not saying that just fencing fixes problems, but better management fixesproblems, and fencing is just one tool among many other tools.

After 30 years experience, I know that these fences can be veryeffective. If an electric fence will buckle your knees when you touch it, you and your animals will not forget that initial experience. This is why a good electric fence works so well. The brain remembers the pain.

This people problem thing at times gets in the way of problem solving.The learning curve about adopting new fencing technology does take time.

Wildlife-Friendly Fencing Made Easyby Wayne Burleson

A



That’s why anyone considering electric fencing should attend a fencingfield day or at least read and study the fence manual completely beforethey give up.

Strength & Flexibility

A recent client of mine stated his new fencing predicament very clearlyto me. “Wayne, this new pasture management thing (ten miles of new fenceto be built) better work, because we have lots of elk (400 head plus)coming and going on this ranch on a year-a-round basis.”

He continued, “I already have enough existing fences to contend with.You had better come up with a ‘bullet-proof’ fencing idea so that all theseelk cannot destroy or make my fencing repair work unreasonable. Wealready have a busy workload, and any more maintenance work just won’t fly around here.”

This time/labor/maintenance thing is a common predicament for manyfarm and ranches to deal with. To overcome the negative aspects andconcerns about electric fences, consider the following idea.

Buy large diameter fiberglass fence posts. We used 1.25-inch (31-mm)diameter, used-fiberglass sucker rod posts, cut 60 inches (150 cm) in length.They came pre-drilled with three holes. The big advantage here is howtough these posts are. They’re almost bust-proof.

To get these posts in hard rocky ground, we custom make a metal pipesleeve that just fits over the sucker rod post. The sleeve was designed withan extended welded cap on the top of the metal pipe. This pipe was placedover the fiberglass post and then the pipe sleeve and posts are poundedinto the ground using a massive, trailer mounted, hydraulic wood post driver.

The fiberglass post was so tough that we could raise the driver to fivefeet (150 cm) above the sleeved post and drop it without damaging thesucker rods. The post may split underground, but they would not break or crack above ground.

I learned how tough these posts really were, because once Ihydraulically drove one post in the wrong place and proceeded to pull itout. I was in a hurry (typical of a fencer by the job), and threw a chainaround the post and tried to pull it out of the ground with my pickup. It didn’t happen.

Then I drove my truck right over the post, hoping to break it off. Still itstood upright. So, I finally resorted to cutting it off with a hacksaw. Theseare some tough posts because the glass in the post still holds the postupright, even after it is broken.

Theother way to greatlyimprove thedurability ofthis style offence is toexceedinglyspread outthe line postas far as you can. I built our own boundary fence with the line posts at 120 feet (36 m) apart and it works just fine. Also the wire should not beattached directly to each line post. Instead the wire must float past each

post. This greatly increases the elasticity of the wire and the whole fence.To test to see if your fence is really “bust-proof,” you should be able to

step on the wire and push it to the ground without anything breaking onthe fence. Insulators easily pop off steel or wood posts. If you use fiberglassposts the whole post becomes your insulator. This eliminates the need to buy insulators.

Be sure tosecure the wire tothe fiberglass postin a manner that itfloats past eachpost. To do this,use cotter-key typewire ties. Theylook like bobby-pins. They aremade of softflexible wire thatlook like a 4-inch(10-cm) bobby pin, pre-bent with the round loop that slips over the fencewire. Loop these wire clips over the fence wire first and then feed the longend through the drilled hole in the fiberglass post. Be sure to spin the extratie-wire around the post and then over the fence wire in a loose manner.

You want the wire to have movement past the post. This gives thatstretching and movement flexibility that is needed to reduce fence damageduring animal contact.

The ten miles of fence we constructed on the ranch with all the elk hasalmost no problems with the elk crossing the hot wires. However, the elkstill are knocking down that rancher’s barbed wire fences. This rancher alsoleaves the fence charger on all year long, which helps remind any animalthat this style of fence hurts. This is another important key to keeping thefence maintenance work down.

Don Youngbauer, a full time dentist and ranch owner, can build, byhimself, 1.5 miles (2.5 km) of this kind of fence in rough rocky coulees(gully) in one day. He builds his fence in a zig-zag manner—not straight. Heused flexible fiberglass post with holes drilled in them. He said that whendeer or other large animals cross this one-wire electric fence, the outsideposts just tip in a bit, taking the pressure off the whole fence. If you buildthe fence perfectly straight and pull the wire tight, the pressure is muchgreater (the whole fence lacks the needed flexibility). When something hitsthe straight fence, all the increased pressure is on the line posts and you popinsulators off or pull the posts right out of the ground in low places. He alsoleaves the wire a bit loose, which as mentioned earlier, is very important.

This zig zag fence method I feel may be a real break-through inspeeding up the fence building time (saves $$$) because you don’t have tolook back to see how straight your fence looks, and it will greatly reducethe fence maintenance with less breakage due to the zig-zag stress reducer.

Smooth wire fencing, if designed right for the purpose you have in mind,is a great tool to improve pasture management. It just takes some learning,forethought, and a little extra time to keep this kind of fence working.

Wayne Burleson is a Holistic Management® Certified Educatorworking out of Absarokee, Montana. If you have any questions aboutelectric fencing, feel free to contact Wayne at 406/328-6808 [email protected] He also has an educational website athttp://www.pasturemanagement.com.

The key to wildlife friendlyfencing is flexibility.

The fence wire must float past the post formaximum flexibility.

Wildlife-Friendly Fencing Made Easycontinued from page 11

12.5 Gauge H

igh

Tensile

Wire

Wire Twist Tool - aids

tying the wire loose

Solid FiberglassFence Post - 7/8to 1-1/4inch dia.with pre-drilled hole

Cotter Key Wire - M

ust be tied

loose around fence wire

so the wire can move

Number 99 * Land & Livestock 13

Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from an article titled “South Africaand Zimbabwe” written by Bruce for IMPACT, the Australian newsletter.Bruce and a number of Australians toured South Africa and Zimbabwewith Certified Educators Jim & Daniela Howell in the spring of 2004 andattended the South African Holistic Management conference as part ofthat tour. The full article appeared in the June 2004 issue.

In South Africa, much of the area we visited is grassed almostexclusively by hyperennia Hirta, which we know in Australia asCoolatai grass. It is widespread in the Northern Tablelands of New

South Wales and southern Queensland, and is noted for being difficult to manage and achieve adequate animal performance.

South Africans Ian Mitchell-Innes and Ian Riddell appear tohave made breakthroughs onthis front, and it is possible thesewill have application for us inAustralia, in all sub-tropical andperhaps tropical environmentsas well. Please assume that allthe material contained in thisarticle may be wrong, andmonitor in your own situation,towards your own holistic goal.The information is just that,information, not a recipe.

The basis of their approachis that there is more than a 90 percent mono-culture of thisgrass, and that in the short termthe task is not to increase thenumber of species but to make theexisting species more effective in supporting their businesses. The tools fordoing this are time, density, and technology.

Time

Ian and Ian have moved their recovery period towards the 25 or 30 dayperiod. Both farmers are using careful observation of the pH of the urine ofthe cattle. By the way, they live in an area once well populated with sheep,which are now completely gone. They strive to maintain pH close toneutral (7.0), and have observed that pH rises sharply after about 30 days,and animal performance drops off rapidly. The technology involved is asimple roll of litmus paper, and daily observations.

Early in the growing season it is easy to maintain the recovery period in the cell, but after a while, growth exceeds the capacity of the livestockon hand. Cattle cannot be brought in to more evenly match pastureproduction, as they quickly die from the effects of the brown ear tick, soherd size is a function of reproductive capacity. As the grass volume movesahead of the stock, paddocks are progressively dropped out as a plannedevent, and become ‘haystacks’ for the non-growth season. The objective is to keep the animals on high quality feed throughout the growing season.

Density

Coupled with the management of time is the management of density,and they are striving much of the time for densities in the order of 500 to 2,000 head of cattle per hectare (200-800 per acre) during the growing season.

The effect of their efforts are quite remarkable. In the growing seasonjust finished, the rainfall was about 22 percent of average. Over the last fewyears both farmers have doubled their carrying capacity, and expect todouble it again over time. Our observation was that they already haveadequate fodder to achieve this result. What was also striking was thedramatic change in plant physiology. Hypperenia is conventionally a palegreen color, exhibiting a narrowish leaf. These blokes have a plant that isdark green in color with visibly wider leaf blades.

Both farmers expect that as the environment the plants live in becomeshealthier, they will be able to widen their recovery periods. Time will tellon this one, but it is clear they recognize that the short recovery periodsnow being used are not likely to increase biodiversity. What they are doing

now is staying ‘in the game’whilst they actively observe and plan the next steps.

The tick issue is a major onefor these farmers. They havefound that their own geneticslargely deal with the problem,but they do use a wick-wiperplaced over the entry to theirFree Choice Mineral carts. Thestock learn to dose themselvesaround the head, where thebrown ear tick resides, with apyrethrum-based liquid.

The Downside

There is always a downside to any upside. In South Africa,the problem appears to be a

widespread decline in herd fertility.In the case of the Speedie family, in recent years it has dramaticallydropped to below 30 percent, which would seem a little disconcerting. The problem does not appear to be management specific—all sorts of herdsrunning under a wide range of grazing regimes in all parts of the countryappear to be affected.

The finger appears to point towards the increasing use of molasses. The theory, so far not proven beyond doubt, but supported by significantanecdotal evidence, is as follows: There is a widespread use of the chemicalatrazine in the cane industry. The belief is that some of this material isretained in the plants at very, very low levels. The process of crushing thecane and producing molasses is one of concentration, and the chemicalmaterial is doing just that, concentrating in the molasses by-product of sugar production.

The sting in the tail seems to be that the presence of atrazine in amother cow during the first 30 days of pregnancy is thought to affect a female foetus, so that whilst it develops normally into an adult animal, andovulates normally throughout her life, she can never produce a viable egg

News From the Frontby Bruce Ward

Jim Howell inspecting a South African wick wiper for brown ear tick.



Cause and Effect—Does burning or the tool of fire address the cause ofinvasion of cedar? No. The cause of cedar invasion is the way the landhas been managed—rest from livestock and continuous grazing thatcaused diversity of grasses to die out—leaving bare ground—and knowingthat the ranch tends toward the brittle end of the scale means fire willjust cause more bare ground. Weak link

Social—Fire would not bother anyone as it is used widely in this area.Biological—Does notattack the species(cedar) when it is most vulnerable(germination).Financial—Our weaklink is productconversion so it does not address the weak link.Marginal Reaction—Doesn’t move us towardour holistic goalcompared to other actions like increasedanimal impact would.Gross Profit Analysis—Doesn’t apply.Energy/Money Source & Use—Doesn’t costmuch money or require energy, but doesn’taddress problem either.Sustainability—Does not move us toward ourfuture resource base as mentioned above.Social/Culture—Doesn’t feel good because ofthe air pollution and the damage it does to the wildlife and soil.

After some research, we learned that fire does not kill red berry cedarwhich is the predominant cedar here. Our conclusion was that cedar wasa symptom of the problem of bare ground and the way the land hadbeen managed. Through our financial planning, we are going forwardwith the land plan and building portable electric fences as the incomeallows and using Holistic Management® Grazing Planning to move ustoward the future resource base description in our holistic goal. We

began with four large pastures and now have two pastures cut into fourpaddocks, and by the end of the year another will be divided into threepaddocks and another into five.

Our intern program is on hold at the moment, but our last intern,Janice Ramirez-Castro, was here until July. Her eleven months with us wasvery successful. She also completed her distance learning program withDr. Dick Richardson of the University of Texas and received her degree in Mexico City in October.

The program for school children has continued to grow. We recentlyprovided two field days for students from the local school system. Fifty-seven kindergarten students from Ozona, Texas came for a day and

participated in activities to learn about ranchers, nativevegetation, and hair sheep. We also hosted the Ozona HighSchool FFA wildlife management class. The class spent their daylearning about key principles of Holistic Management and touredthe ranch to see how those principles are being put into practice.

In all we have had 242 Ozona school children here in foroutdoor learning experiences in 2004. We hosted a field day

with HRM of Texas, andalso The Savory CenterBoard meeting in June.We have had cooperationwith NRCS and TexasParks and Wildlife forseveral projects.

We are encouraged by the progress that hasbeen made, but are notsurprised by the land’sresponse to the change in management. As you look out over thelandscape that was

described as a moonscape by our first field day participants, you can see green, healthy grasses, among the cedar, rocks, and prickly pear, justwaiting to be grazed.

Peggy and Joe Maddox are Ranch Managers for The West Ranch.Peggy is also Director of Public Relations & Education for the WestRanch. She is also in The Savory Center’s Certified Educator TrainingProgram. She can be reached at: 325/392-2292 or [email protected]

in her lifetime! As I say, the theory is not proven, and is widely debated at the moment, but something adverse is happening to many people that is so far unexplained.

Molasses is widely, and increasingly, used in South Africa. It has a seeminglyvaluable part to play in assisting animals to consume the vast amounts of drygrass being carried into the non-growth season, so there is concern about thefuture for many people, and I feel we should be similarly concerned ourselvesin Australia.

One additional concern is urea. One of the speakers at Vryburg gavea most graphic account of the potential effect of urea used as a proteinsupplement in livestock. In particular, he drew our attention to thepermanent damage urea can make to the wall of the rumen, and theconsequent lifelong effect on animal performance. Perhaps the best one-liner of the trip came from this presenter, who said, “When youmess with the rumen, you mess with your bank manager!”

Bruce Ward is a Holistic Management® Certified Educator wholives in Milsons Point, New South Wales. He can be reached at:[email protected] or 61-2-9929-5568.

Ozona FFA students with Joe Maddox, ranch manager, looked at livestockand grass at West Ranch, while the kindergarten classes learned about the people, plants and animals at West Ranch.

Progress At the West Ranchcontinued from page 2

News From the Front continued from page 13


Development (IUCN), Forest Trends, and theWorld Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).Ecoagriculture refers to sustainable agricultureand associated natural resources managementsystems that embrace and simultaneouslyenhance productivity, rural livelihoods,ecosystem services and biodiversity. (The AfricaCentre’s work in Zimbabwe is one example.)

This was an important meeting fornetworking, for introducing new people toHolistic Management, and enhancing theknowledge of those who were already familiarwith its concepts. We look forward to working with this organization and the otherEcoAgriculture partners on implementing the conference recommendations.

Members Win Awards

Several Holistic Management practitioners wereawarded Honorable Mention from Sustainable

Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) for thePatrick Madden Award, including Fred Hays ofWest Virginia, Doc and Connie Hatfield of Oregon,and Kim Barker of Oklahoma. All nominees arenominated by a third-party and a reviewcommittee uses a competitive process to selectthose receiving awards. Awards are based on the producers’ profitability and value of theenvironment and their communities.Congratulations to all of you.

New Products

The Savory Center is offering several newproducts that you can order online or by

calling or faxing The Savory Center.Stockmanship: A powerful tool for grazing

lands management by Steve Cote, with fundingfrom the USDA NRCS and the Butte Soil andWater Conservation District in Idaho, is anextremely accessible and well-written book thatexplains the principles of low-stress livestockhandling and how it can help you achieve yourgrazing plan. Steve graduated from The SavoryCenter Ranch & Range Manager TrainingProgram and has a strong understanding ofholistic planned grazing so he sets the stage forthe need for good livestock handling skills. With

easy to understand diagrams and stories of manydifferent scenarios, this book is one of the bestexplanations of low-stress livestock handling thatserves well as a refresher or as an introductionto begin your explorations with livestockhandling.

Healing the Land Through Multi-Species

Grazing, a video created by Don Nelson as partof a his work with Washington State UniversityExtension and a Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Professional DevelopmentGrant, is a great introduction to the concepts ofmulti-species grazing as a land reclamation tool.It depicts the activities of this two-year regionalproject, including interviews with a variety ofstate and federal agency employees, ranchers,and county weed board employees. Its also has agreat explanation of Holistic Management andhow it ties into the effective uses of livestock asa reclamation tool and for collaboration.

Beyond the Rangeland Conflict: Toward A West

That Works is back by popular demand. We areselling Dan Dagget’s book, published in 1998,because it offers such excellent photo andwritten essays on how ranchers are making adifference on the land. These autographededitions are great presents for the rancher,environmentalist, or coffee table book lover.

Ordering information and prices for theseproducts are available on the back page.

AlbuquerqueOffice StaffChanges

Terri Telles is ournewest Savory

Center staff memberin the Albuquerqueoffice and replacesAlicia Schell as theFinance Coordinator.She brings to theposition three years of bookkeeping andaccounting experience from both the private andnonprofit sectors, most recently from herpositions at the First State Bank, Albuquerque,and Child Advocates San Antonio (CASA), Texas.Terri says that the pace and atmosphere of thenonprofit world suit her very well, as does theNew Mexican landscape. A native of west Texas,Terri loves the snow in the mountains andcamping. Terri is the mother of a seven-year-oldson, Mark. Both Terri and Mark are avid bowlers.Welcome, Terri!

Holistic Management andEcoAgriculture

llan Savory and Savory Center InternationalTraining Programs Director Constance

Neely represented The Savory Center at theInternational Conference on EcoAgriculture heldin Nairobi, Kenya, September 26-30. As a resultof their participation, two of the approximate 15recommendations coming out of the conferencewere specific to Holistic Management:• Urge stakeholders at all levels to support,adopt, and advance EcoAgriculture while usingholistic decision making frameworks thatseriously embrace complexity; and, • Build peoples’ capacities to engage in holisticpolicy development through education, training,networking, public awareness and negotiation at various levels; and creating mechanisms,frameworks and platforms to institutionalize the mechanisms that effectively engage thecommunity in policy development.

These recommendations were in part due toa special presentation on Holistic ManagementAllan was asked to give, and to a session onpolicy development facilitated by Constance.Approximately 250 people from 46 countriesattended the conference.

The Africa Centre for Holistic Managementand The Savory Center are members of theEcoAgriculture Initiative, a partnership initiatedin 2002 and jointly sponsored by theInternational Union for Conservation and

A

T h eGRAPEVINE

news f rom t he savo r y cen te r * peop le , p rog rams & p ro jec t s

As part of the EcoAgriculture Conference,participants visited the Maasai villages nearNairobi, where the Maasai are attempting tomake most of their living through tourism.

Terri Telles


Ireceived the September issue of INPRACTICE (#97) and noticed the story onWonderland Ranch on page six. I am

pleased to see an article involving somethingbesides ranching. However, upon reading itsome of it just did not make any sense to me.

It has been a customary linear practice to fertilize a pond to create a crash and cycle to take out weeds. A more holistic approach would be to look at what is causing theproblem by structured diagnosis. I won’t boreyou with that here, but just tell you theproblem is caused by humans and the tendency to create biodiversity loss.

So, if we are looking for what is missing, we look to ecosystem processes and at howthings would normally function to get movingin the correct direction. Indeed aquatic plantsplay an important role or two in this ecosystem.The normally accepted amount of weed cover is around twenty percent. The weeds serveseveral important functions at this level. Theweeds provide vital cover for small fish to avoid predation.

Twenty percent cover consumes excessnutrients in the water and binds toxic elementssuch as various metals. The same ratio providesan oxygen rich environment for aquatic life tosurvive without taking out too much oxygen atnight when plants consume oxygen rather thanmake it. When the sun is shining and the plantsare producing oxygen, the byproduct isbicarbonates which controls the pH level of thewater and prevents it from going too low in thewee hours of the morning, thus causing a crashand killing the fish.

This is the direct link to the soil mineralcycle. Most aquatic plants also put out naturaltoxins designed to stop competition in the formof algae, thus they keep the water clear andmore favorable to the formation of zooplankton, another vital piece that grows fishfrom hatch to fingerling just at the right time.

Without the plants, micro plants known asphytoplankton will dominate. Phytoplankton is

good food for various species, but game speciesneed zoo plankton, so a balance is needed,which again the plants are taking care of. Orworse, you may get a serious problem withlarger algae species, which can gum upeverything.

The problem with the linear scenariodescribed in Chad McKellar’s article is that thestage is set for not much life to go on in thepond. It is an imitation system destined to crash.Nutrients are supplied, algae grows quickly(known as a bloom) then crashes. The nutrientsremain, and now zoo plankton comes onquickly, then dies of starvation. This time, since it is animal, nutrients are first in the formof ammonia, which can and will cause a“turnover.” A turnover is when air movementslowly turns over the water in the pond, thusputting the dirty water from the bottom on topwith ammonia that in turn quickly depletes the dissolved oxygen and kills a large amountof fish.

The cycle described will repeat over andover at closing intervals as the amount oforganic matter not processed and flushed outby aquatic animals increases until you haveeventually created an aquatic desert. A moreholistic approach might be to allow andmaintain a certain amount of vegetation in the pond.

What else is missing? Aquatic herbivores areimportant. Having a few muskrats for bog plantsand the incorporation of fish that eat vegetationwill create the desired effect. I use the WhiteAmur (grass carp) and the common Koi carp.These fish consume the plants but don’teradicate them.

They process nutrients in such a way as todissolve them and pass them harmlessly backinto the water and soil, thus preventing a buildup of more and more dead organic matter onthe bottom, which consumes more and moredissolved oxygen from the water.

Unfortunately, the practice described in thearticle would indeed create a desert that wildlife

could find little use for and at some point evenpoison your livestock.

With the loss of wildlife interest, ourproblem is now crawling out of the water to the greater whole on land with all of itsimplications also. I hope this sheds some lighton the issue and again thanks for including this article.

Fred HaysElkview, West Virginia

Chad McKellar’s response

Fred is right. If there were no other plantsin the pond water then I would havecaused the wrong effect/results, but the

cattails take care of that link. We have 1/8th ofthe shores with cattails that provide the coverfor the juvenile fish. And just yesterday, as everyyear, I snap the heads off of the cattails, thuskeeping the population under control. Thistakes three plus hours, but the alternativewould be to poison the water and killing all thecattails and vegetation and probably screwingup the fish population.

It would take a truckload of freshmanure/fertilizer to get “too” much nitrogen,thus too much phytoplankton, so I’m neverconcerned about overdoing the algae. Thecattails just provide the habitats for the juvenilefish and do nothing for or to the algaepopulation. The addition of nitrogen/manure donothing for the grasses/forbs along the side ofthe pond. They just do there own thing. This isprobably our ninth or tenth year of doing this,and if anything I’ve made a healthier pond.

With a two-acre pond, I’ll use four burlapbags of my formula, and I’ll get a completecover of phytoplankton and no weeds at all. Yet if I use just two bags, I get spotted weedgrowth. One bag turns out to be too little.

Chad McKellarColorado Springs, Colorado

TheReader’s ForumIdeas, Suggestions, Comments & Corrections


ARIZONA

Kelly MulvilleHC1, Box 1125, Sonoita, AZ 85637520/[email protected]

CALIFORNIAMonte Bell 325 Meadowood Dr., Orland, CA 95963530/865-3246 • [email protected]

Julie Bohannon 652 Milo Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90042323/257-1915 • [email protected]

Bill Burrows12250 Colyear Springs Rd.Red Bluff, CA 96080530/529-1535 • [email protected]

Richard King1675 Adobe Rd., Petaluma, CA 94954707/769-1490 • 707/794-8692 (w)[email protected]

Tim McGaffic13592 Bora Bora Way #327Marina Del Rey, CA 90292310/741-0167 • [email protected]

Christopher PeckP.O. Box 2286, Sebastopol, CA 95472707/[email protected]

COLORADOJoel Benson P.O. Box 2036, Buena Vista, CO 81211719/395-2468 • [email protected]

Cindy Dvergsten17702 County Rd. 23, Dolores, CO 81323970/[email protected]

Rio de la VistaP.O. Box 777, Monte Vista, CO 81144 719/852-2211 • [email protected]

Daniela and Jim Howell P.O. Box 67, Cimarron, CO 81220-0067970/249-0353 • [email protected]

Chadwick McKellar16775 Southwood Dr.Colorado Springs, CO 80908719/495-4641 • [email protected]

* Cliff MontagneMontana State University Department of Land Resources &Environmental ScienceBozeman, MT 59717406/994-5079 • [email protected]

NEW MEXICO* Ann AdamsThe Savory Center1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102505/[email protected]

Amy Driggs1131 Los Tomases NWAlbuquerque, NM 87102505/[email protected]

Mark Duran58 Arroyo Salado #B, Santa Fe, NM 87508505/422-2280; [email protected]

Kirk GadziaP.O. Box 1100, Bernalillo, NM 87004505/867-4685 • fax: 505/[email protected]

Ken Jacobson12101 Menaul Blvd. NE, Ste AAlbuquerque, NM 87112; 505/[email protected]

* Kelly PasztorThe Savory Center1010 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102505/[email protected]

Sue ProbartP.O. Box 81827, Albuquerque, NM 87198505/265-4554 • [email protected]

David Trew369 Montezuma Ave. #243Santa Fe, NM 87501505/751-0471; [email protected]

Vicki Turpen03 El Nido Amado SWAlbuquerque, NM 87121505/873-0473 • [email protected]

NEW YORKKarl North3501 Hoxie Gorge Rd., Marathon, NY 13803607/849-3328 • [email protected]

NORTH CAROLINASam Bingham394 Vanderbilt Rd., Asheville, NC 28803828/274-1309 • [email protected]

NORTH DAKOTA* Wayne BerryUniversity of North Dakota—WillistonP.O. Box 1326, Williston, ND 58802 701/774-4269 or 701/[email protected]

OKLAHOMAKim BarkerRT 2, Box 67, Waynoka, OK 73860580/824-9011 • [email protected]

Byron Shelton33900 Surrey Lane, Buena Vista, CO 81211719/395-8157 • [email protected]

GEORGIAConstance Neely1160 Twelve Oaks CircleWatkinsville, GA 30677 • 706/[email protected]

IOWABill Casey1800 Grand Ave., Keokuk, IA 52632-2944319/524-5098 • [email protected]

LOUISIANATina Pilione P.O. 923, Eunice, LA 70535phone/fax: 337/580-0068 • [email protected]

MAINEVivianne Holmes239 E. Buckfield Rd. Buckfield, ME 04220-4209207/336-2484 • [email protected]

MASSACHUSETTS* Christine Jost Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine200 Westboro Rd.North Grafton, MA 01536508/887-4763 • [email protected]

MINNESOTATerri Goodfellow-Heyer4660 Cottonwood Lane NorthPlymouth, MN 55442763/559-0099 • [email protected]

MISSISSIPPI

Preston Sullivan610 Ed Sullivan Lane, NEMeadville, MS 39653601/384-5310 [email protected]

MONTANAWayne BurlesonRT 1, Box 2780, Absarokee, MT 59001406/328-6808 • [email protected]

Roland Kroos4926 Itana Circle, Bozeman, MT 59715406/522-3862 • [email protected]

Certified Educators

U N I T E D S T A T E S

* These educators provide Holistic Management instruction on behalf of the institutions they represent.

To our knowledge, Certified Educators are the best qualified individuals to help others learn topractice Holistic Management and to provide them with technical assistance when necessary. On ayearly basis, Certified Educators renew their agreement to be affiliated with the Center. Thisagreement requires their commitment to practice Holistic Management in their own lives, to seek outopportunities for staying current with the latest developments in Holistic Management and tomaintain a high standard of ethical conduct in their work. For more information about or application forms for the U.S., Africa, or International Certified EducatorTraining Programs, contact Kelly Pasztor at the Savory Center or visit our website atwww.holisticmanagement.org/wwo_certed.cfm?

Certified Educators


PENNSYLVANIAJim Weaver428 Copp Hollow Rd.Wellsboro, PA 16901-8976570/724-7788 • [email protected]

TEXAS

Christina Allday-Bondy2703 Grennock Dr., Austin, TX 78745512/441-2019 • [email protected]

Guy Glosson 6717 Hwy 380, Snyder, TX 79549806/237-2554 • [email protected]

Jennifer Hamre602 W. St. Johns Ave., Austin, TX 78752512/374-0104; [email protected]* R.H. (Dick) Richardson University of Texas at Austin Department of Integrative BiologyAustin, TX 78712512/471-4128 • [email protected]

Peggy Sechrist 25 Thunderbird Rd.Fredericksburg, TX 78624830/990-2529 • [email protected]

Liz Williams 4106 Avenue BAustin, TX 78751-4220512/323-2858 • [email protected]

WASHINGTONCraig MadsenP.O. Box 107, Edwall, WA 99008509/[email protected]

Sandra Matheson228 E. Smith Rd.Bellingham, WA 98226360/398-7866 • [email protected]

* Don NelsonWashington State University P.O. Box 646310, Pullman, WA 99164509/335-2922 • [email protected]

Maurice RobinetteS. 16102 Wolfe Rd., Cheney, WA 99004509/299-4942 • [email protected]

Doug Warnock151 Cedar Cove Rd., Ellensburg, WA 98926509/925-9127 • [email protected]

WISCONSINElizabeth BirdRoom 203 Hiram Smith Hall1545 Observatory Dr., Madison WI 53706608/265-3727 • [email protected]

Larry JohnsonW886 State Road 92, Brooklyn, WI 53521608/455-1685 • [email protected]

WYOMINGTim MorrisonP.O. Box 536, Meeteese, WY 82433307/868-2354 • [email protected]

AUSTRALIA

Helen Carrell“Hillside” 25 Weewondilla Rd.Glennie Heights, Warwick, QLD 437061-4-1878-5285 • 61-7-4661-7383 [email protected] Hailstone5 Lampert Rd., Crafers, SA [email protected] Hand“Inverary”Caroona Lane, Branxholme, VIC 330261-3-5578-6272 • [email protected] Mark GardnerP.O. Box 1395, Dubbo, NSW [email protected] Marshall“Lucella”; Nundle, NSW 234061-2-6769 8226 • fax: 61-2-6769 [email protected] WardP.O. Box 103, Milsons Pt., NSW 156561-2-9929-5568 • fax: [email protected] Wehlburgc/o “Sunnyholt”, Injue, QLD 445461-7-4626-7187 • [email protected]

CANADA

Don and Randee HalladayBox 2, Site 2, RR 1, Rocky MountainHouse, AB, T0M 1T0403/729-2472 • [email protected] McNaughton5704-144 St., Edmondton, AB, T6H 4H4s780/432-5492 • [email protected] PigottBox 222, Dysart, SK, SOH 1HO 306/432-4583 • [email protected] SidorykBox 374, Lloydminster, AB, S9V 0Y4403/875-4418 • [email protected]

MEXICOIvan AguirreLa InmaculadaApdo. Postal 304Hermosillo, Sonora 83000tel/fax: [email protected]

Elco Blanco-Madrid Cristobal de Olid #307 Chihuahua Chih., 3124052-614-415-3497 • fax: [email protected] Casas-PerezCalle Amarguva No. 61, Lomas Herradura Huixquilucan, Mexico City CP 5278552-558-291-3934 • 52-588-992-0220 (w)[email protected]

Jose Ramon “Moncho” VillarAv. Las Americas #1178Fracc. Cumbres, Saltillo, Coahuila 2527052-844-415-1542 • [email protected]

NAMIBIA

Gero Diekmann P.O. Box 363, Okahandja 9000264-62-518091 • [email protected] Nott P.O. Box 11977, Windhoek264-61-228506 • [email protected] Volkmann P.O. Box 182, Otavi, [email protected]

NEW ZEALAND

John King P.O. Box 3440, Richmond, Nelson64-3-338-5506 • [email protected]

SOUTH AFRICA

Sheldon BarnesP.O. Box 300, Kimberly [email protected] BlomP.O. Box 568, Graaf-Reinet 628027-49-891-0163 • [email protected] Mitchell-Innes P.O. Box 52, Elandslaagte 290027-36-421-1747 • [email protected] Neave P.O. Box 69, Mtubatuba 393527-084-2452/62 • [email protected] Richardson P.O. Box 1806, Vryburg 8600tel/fax: 27-53-927-4367 [email protected] ToddP.O. Box 21, Hoedspruit 138027-82-335-3901 (cell) • [email protected]

SPAINAspen EdgeLa ChaparraApartado de Correos 19, 18420 [email protected]

ZAMBIAMutizwa MukutePELUM Zambia OfficeP.O. Box 36524, Lusaka260-1-261119/261124/261118/[email protected]

ZIMBABWE

Liberty Mabhena Spring CabinetP.O. Box 853, Harare263-4-210021/2 • 263-4-210577/8fax: 263-4-210273Elias NcubeP. Bag 5950, Victoria Falls263-3-454519; [email protected]

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

For a list of our affiliate networks, please visit our website at:www.holisticmanagement.org/asc_net.cfm

#099, in practice, jan/feb 2005

Documents

t i o n o f t h e s

newlypublished book

v o r y c e n t e rins

holistic management

holistic pattern

new paradigm

allan savorys book

nature functions