Any good?
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
I’ve taken quite a few Holistic Management courses and read parts of the book. I found the whole process very cumbersome and confusing. I got a few tips from it , I thought their decision making process was quite useful but otherwise I found that it didn’t work for me. There are some pretty simple concepts in H.M which are delivered in a roundabout way. When I took the introductory course in Vermont with Abe Collins( Soil carbon fellow) he had an intern who had read The Holistic Management Handbook 9 times. I could never decide if this was a good thing or not.
I had hoped Holistic management would help me find solutions to certain difficulties I was having- so far no luck on that score.
A book that had a big influence on me recently is Ben Hartman’s The Lean Farm which uses the ‘lean ‘ production model developed at Toyota. It describes how to eliminate waste- in production, tools, thinking . Part of the waste on this farm has been an overabundance of ideas - I own and have read so many different books, I get sidetracked by some of them and I think too much. So I have got rid of lots of books and decided to focus my interest and reading to grazing , soils and animal health. One thing I found extremely helpful in finally getting a grip on my grazing management was the free grazing chart that Troy Bishop( The grass whisperer) offers online. He explains how to use it very well. I took a full day seminar with him, but the website is good enough.There’s also lots of good info on ‘On Pasture’ , including stuff from Troy.
I have had a subscription to Graze and Stockman Grass Farmer , both American, for years. I find Andy Williams’ and Gabe Brown’s articles really interesting. They are both on the web.
I just bought the U.S Department of Agriculture Yearbook for 1948 titled ‘Grass’. It has 892 pages devoted to grass and grazing.The first chapter is titled ‘ A permanent agriculture’ ( i.e. based on grass. ) Did they ever deviate from that one quickly and everyone else in the world followed suit.
And now here we all are trying to rediscover something we should never have forgotten in the first place.
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
I never wanted to own a tractor. I have a quad bikeand If I needed any heavy work done I would hire a neighbour. Otherwise the animals were expected to do most of the work of harvesting and manuring. Then I got older , the nearest neighbour got busy and so last year, after about 18 years without a tractor, I finally bought one . It has definitely been useful.But it has changed my approach a bit. Less planning now as that thing can push its way through mud and snow carrying round bales, so I can react to situations better rather than prepare for the worst at the outset.Once you have machinery it sure is difficult to give it up,Couldn't have said it better, really, that neatly sums up my own feelings on pasture management
Especially when I see reference to "NZ style grazing" - what the feck is that, I live here and have no idea what is meant by it;
Feeding animals with grass?
Pete style management though, I know what that is.
I know what outcomes I want and have a reasonable plan to achieve them, much of it really hinges on the FACT that my tractors--are something I want to leave parked up.
It is a cost.
It compacts my soil.
It uses fuel that I can't make here, and turns it into carbon emissions and wheel marks.
It is a handy thing when you need a handy thing, but my preference is to have the land and pasture and stock working together to achieve the outcomes, not have to mow, spray stuff, drag stuff around to do that.
Even in saying that, I mow, and spray stuff, and drag stuff around, but that isn't how I want to be - the world is full of these type of farmers and it causes good stuff, and bad stuff as well.
I want to mould our own systems so they take less input from me: I can think and look and do some things for free, so that is my "focus" if I have one - fortunately grass based farming really is easy if we step back and stop trying to intervene so much, being such a natural system it doesn't take much imagination or knowledge to graze around things you want to happen - long steady food supply, plant reproduction, good water and nutrient cycling, minimising parasite pressure, making decisions to reduce expenses.
That is probably NZ style farming 101, "achieve more by doing less"
-Australian style farming is probably even a better example as scale is bigger again, the climate is tougher again, so the landscapes are harder to put effective bandaids on if/when you cock up your management
Hence it is that ranch model we follow, we could do exactly the same on land too high/ dry/ steep/ rocky/ big to tractor around it all, or anywhere else that plants grow for that matter.... it doesn't look like the Great Plains but looks can be deceptive, the running costs/acre are very much the same, other than things outside our control the animal costs are similar as well
This is what i keep finding over and over again here. My grandfather and great grandfather had it right all along with a lot of things.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
- Location
- Cornwall
Well, I’ve just ordered Alan Savory’s book and Growing a Revolution by Montgomery for dads birthday. I’ll read them once he’s finished!
You lot are costing me a small fortune!
You lot are costing me a small fortune!
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I'm beginning to wonder whether I am so strange/unique after all - that is such a refreshing thing to read
Sorry to "bail out" in a way, have just swapped to nightshift from dayshift so I am in a phase of change....
I suppose even that is an example of making progress: dayshift I stand to make slightly more per shift, but I can't carpool and have to take the odd day off for farming / family reasons so nightshift has fewer costs to the environment (1 car vs 3 cars) fewer social costs (family and friends sleep as I work) which impact the financial element indirectly, but positively...
...it will also enable me to attend an event with Dr Christine Jones next week which I am in no doubt will be worth my time
I am starting to develop a "library complex" with all the reading material you guys are amassing
but good stuff, just the same
Ive got a pile of 4 new or secondhand books off this thread so far they arrived over the last 2 days. Now i just need to find time to read them and not trawl tff
SilliamWhale
Member
I wouldn't say we're rediscovering it. Its just contexted in new environment. We have tools like electric fencing. The future may have some transponder to prevent or control animals grazing. The one after that could be computer modelled. After that we'll be dead and the world will probably be vegan!
- Location
- Cornwall
This is a presentation made by a very good friend of mine to the Cornwall AONB conference recently. Thought it might ring true with a few on here.
Apologies, but the sound a not so good.
Apologies, but the sound a not so good.
SilliamWhale
Member
I've never been convinced of the whole Calcium thing to be honest
Good - we found something else to make you grumpy
PS, only joking so please don't report me.
- Location
- Cornwall
- Location
- Angus
HMI must have been listening: https://holisticmanagement.org/free...er&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=SM3Twitter
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
FonterraFarmer
Member
- Location
- Waikato, New Zealand
You can't cycle to work and not use car or ute?I'm beginning to wonder whether I am so strange/unique after all - that is such a refreshing thing to read
Sorry to "bail out" in a way, have just swapped to nightshift from dayshift so I am in a phase of change....
I suppose even that is an example of making progress: dayshift I stand to make slightly more per shift, but I can't carpool and have to take the odd day off for farming / family reasons so nightshift has fewer costs to the environment (1 car vs 3 cars) fewer social costs (family and friends sleep as I work) which impact the financial element indirectly, but positively...
...it will also enable me to attend an event with Dr Christine Jones next week which I am in no doubt will be worth my time
I am starting to develop a "library complex" with all the reading material you guys are amassing
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
36 km is a bit far in the dark unfortunately.You can't cycle to work and not use car or ute?
At least on nightshift it is a 3 way car-pool which is much easier to swallow