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Grass farming

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My parents took the HMI last fall. Ifs not so much what you learn, but more about thinking about what you do before you make the decisions that are made on your farm. It gets you looking at quality of life, and where you want to be, and from there, you check to see if the management decisions, send you, your family and farm in that direction.
The new decision making process has you looking a what you are doing, and asking yourself, What would happen if I did it another way?

The group you will learn with, can become a "peer group" that can give constructive support should you bounce a problem or situation for the group to discuss. Their group is mostly beef producers, but they tell me that there are groups that focus around grain production too. The whole idea to enjoy what you do, by knowing where you are headed, by planning and focusing on that plan.

BTW....... I'm just taking dictation, this is what they are telling me.

Check out http://www.holisticmanagement.org/

They tell me its complicated to explain it.
 
I have..

I married a gal with a GOOD JOB amazeing how that helps yer bottom line :wink:
 
I have take the ranching for profit course. What specific questions do you have? It is an excellent course.
 
I've taken The holistic management and linear measuring courses recently. Just interested in other people's thoughts and experiences in using cattle and or sheep/goats to improve their grass by increasing soil fertility. Also grass friendly genetics. Heard a custom grazer from B.C. speak at a seminar. She said that with the right type of cattle and good high energy grass they were achieving gains of 5 lbs per day with some of their yearlings. This is a pretty lofty goal. They weighed their cattle monthly, and I believe these gains are possible.
 
handydandy said:
I have take the ranching for profit course. What specific questions do you have? It is an excellent course.
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I am curious if this course helped any in regards to adapting it to Kansas. most things I have looked into seem to be from some area where the practices are not really implementable in Kansas.

can you post a link to your info?
 
This course is definitely implementable in Kansas and worldwide for that matter. Not sure of the link . Just search holistic management. It started off in Africa and now the head office is in New Mexico.Hopefully you'll have a teacher(facilitator) in your area.If any problems let me know and I'll try to help. I know Gene Goven is a teacher from North Dakota. Very interesting speaker. Been doing this for over 20 years. His place is an oasis in a desert on dry years because of how he has used his cows over the years to increase his soil structure and water holding capabilities. The Sahara desert used to be prairie with 3 huge rivers running through it years ago. Tells how this happened and how to keep desertification from happening in other parts of the world.
 
Jigs, the Holistic management course is applicable to all environments, the land management is classified into brittle and non-brittle climatic zones, Canadian Cowgirl posted the correct link. I attended many of Alan Savories' workshops in Rhodesia, when the concept was still in the earlier stages (ad will continue to evolve by the nature of the ongoing planning involved) but I realy need to update, there are several courses between Nov 1-4, with early bookings being offered with discounts.
 
andybob said:
Jigs, the Holistic management course is applicable to all environments, the land management is classified into brittle and non-brittle climatic zones, Canadian Cowgirl posted the correct link. I attended many of Alan Savories' workshops in Rhodesia, when the concept was still in the earlier stages (ad will continue to evolve by the nature of the ongoing planning involved) but I realy need to update, there are several courses between Nov 1-4, with early bookings being offered with discounts.
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Andybob , have you ever run into Alan Dobb? He traveled around some with Alan Savory. I met him at an Endagered species work shop, quite a musician as well.
 
Successful and sustainable programs, and ideas (like HMI or R for P) are continually evolving as new ideas are found (that work). The opposite of evolving is extinction. The same goes for a farm or ranch.
 
jigs said:
handydandy said:
I have take the ranching for profit course. What specific questions do you have? It is an excellent course.
Click to expand...

I am curious if this course helped any in regards to adapting it to Kansas. most things I have looked into seem to be from some area where the practices are not really implementable in Kansas.

can you post a link to your info?
Click to expand...

I am from Ks and there are several alums from the ranching for profit school in Ks. They don't tell you whats right or wrong they help you figure it out for your situation.
An interesting note about HRM and Ranching for profit is the two guys that started each organization had a business together teaching in Africa and when they came to the USA they didn't have the same ideas about teaching so they split up... Meaning, they are similiar but different!

Call Dave Pratt at Ranching For Profit and visit -- he will enjoy talking to you.
Jon
 
Andybob , have you ever run into Alan Dobb? He traveled around some with Alan Savory. I met him at an Endagered species work shop, quite a musician as well.[/quote]
I have never met Alan Dobb, Alan Savory has a rather colourfull history, he worked with a relative of mine in the game conservation department, was the member of parliment for my area and taught tracking and bush survival in the army so it seems almost everyone knows him in one or another role.
 
andybob said:
Andybob , have you ever run into Alan Dobb? He traveled around some with Alan Savory. I met him at an Endagered species work shop, quite a musician as well.
Click to expand...
I have never met Alan Dobb, Alan Savory has a rather colourfull history, he worked with a relative of mine in the game conservation department, was the member of parliment for my area and taught tracking and bush survival in the army so it seems almost everyone knows him in one or another role.[/quote]

Alan Dobb knew him from the grazing end of things. He was probably just out of university at the time.
 
Back in the '80s. The group we had gave the course a fairly bad review. I wonder how it's changed since then? Alan Savory was one of 3.... maybe 4....instructors. It didn't really seem like what they were instructing was maybe as profound as they thought it was. I wish I could go back and review the materials, but sometimes you loan things out and they disappear.
 
Cal, get a copy of his book and see how the updated course compares with what you remember from the 80's. Most of his lectures in Rhodesia in the 60's and 70's were more to do with rotational grazing, the holistic concept was still being trialed by a number of ranchers, they have come a long way since then, and the successes are impressive.
 

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