This year is quite the opposite. We received more snow in March here in Kalona, Iowa than the rest of the winter combined. April has shown itself to be very wet and cold. Grass is growing very very slowly, and I believe that cows will be out on grass a week to two weeks later than normal (May 1). However, soil moisture levels are recovering so that’s good.

That said, the swings in weather to a farmer mean several things:

• No year is exactly the same. The farmer must act and react to what nature gives.
• For true farm sustainability and longevity, the farmer must build flexibility into the system. Always keep stored feed on hand, and don’t overgraze pastures in the fall (as tempting as that might be).
• No to low-cost systems require a lot of thought but are well-worth the effort. Dependence on purchased feed can lead to catastrophic results if there is an extended period of drought or moisture.

I see farms all over the Midwest and West in the US. The farms that truly can sustain the test of time are able to swing and sway with extremes in weather. To be able to do this requires a dedication on the part of the farmer to a low-cost system.

What an amazing sight! Picture taken by John Choate (www.mrchoate.com)

We have seen this bird of prey for several days, along with an increasing amount of bald eagles. There are a couple of thoughts to this. One, our certified organic farm that is geared to increase biodiversity is achieving that goal and two, the presence of this owl only indicates that there are layers in the food chain that will support such a animal. All this is very good, in our opinion. The more species of wildlife we can attract to our farm, the more sustainable and balanced we believe our farm is.

What is important to know, now that the season is over and harvests are well underway, is the following:

1. The Media: The media really hyped the drought. Terms like “Historic Drought” and “Disaster”, pictures of  crops dying in the fields and cracked soil, sad farmers, etc all lent to the idea of an event of epic proportions.

2. Climate Change: Depending on which side of the global warming (or climate change) debate you find yourself on, the drought of 2012 was used in various ways to advance differing agendas.

3. What Actually Happened: The actual harvests though were actually very good, depending on where you live. Here in Iowa (and especially in Kalona) the rains began to come in August. For those folks who planted later, it was perfect for growing organic corn.

4. What to do: If you are grazing animals in a drought, it is very important to assess growth rates of grass, stocking rate of animals, current amounts of grass available, recovery time of grass and a rough assessment of future rain events. In short, start reducing the herd if you can, slow down the moves if you are rotational grazing, and try not to hammer the grass into the ground.

The season of 2012 is actually turning out to be a very good year for farmers. Not all farmers, but a lot of farmers. There is a lot of good-looking organic grain, the pastures are recovering, and there is good moisture now for the spring of 2013. The moral of this story is don’t always believe what the media is telling you. They need to sell their stories, and bad news sells much better than good.

However, having said that, born out of my experience selling lamb, eggs and vegetables directly and wholesale off my farm and negotiating with organic dairy farmers on price for my job I feel I have a good perspective on what a fair price really is to a farmer.  The following is a list of factors that determines a “fair” price, which means from a farmers perspective what is “fair” profitability:

1. The presence of competition. This is the most important factor, which farmers by in large “get” (as in they understand how it works). If there is competition for food commodities, that tends to drive price up. Without competition, the power is in the hands of the processor,  purchaser or customer and price will not be as high as it could be.

2. Supply and Demand. If supply is short and demand is long (like it is with organic milk right now), price goes up (given that there is competition). If everyone is growing good quality organic vegetables and wanting to sell into the same venue, price goes down. Believe it!

3.  Farm operations that are cost-effective: I see this over and over. Farmers always want the price to go up, but price and profitability are two different things. How the farm is structured in terms of equipment, know-how, layout of the land, land fertility levels, and my favorite “management effectiveness” etc are extremely important factors that effect farm profitability. Some farms need astronomic price levels to be profitable, others do not.

I’ve never yet seen a farmer say that the price was too high. Everybody always wants more money. What determines whether a farm is profitable or not though through the idea of a “fair price” truly in my opinion rests in the realities of competition, supply and demand, and how effective a farm operates at.

1. Slow down the moves.

2. Gave more access to the woods.

3. Watch closely for any drop in animal performance.

4. Fed a little bit of hay.

The owner obviously wants his animals to return to him in good condition. I obviously do not want to destroy my pasture. Having said that, its critical for the health of the entire system to give the grass a chance to recover. Regrazing grass that has not fully recovered results in eventual death of the grass and a more weedy pasture. By giving access to the woods the cows were able to graze leaves off of forbs, brush and low lying branches.

Bear in mind that slowing down the moves resulted in severe grazing for certain areas that were less productive (the grass wasn’t as prolific), but overall I was able to keep pretty condition on the cows while allowing for 70-80  days rest in July through the end of September. In Iowa that’s a pretty good stretch for that time of year, and now my grass looks in great shape. One thing to remember though – as moves are slowed or area grazed is reduced the stocking rate has increased. An increase in stocking rate has an effect on the pasture in terms of recovery if the plants have been grazed severely. Stocking rate is the amount of animals on a given amount of pasture for a given amount of time. One thing to bear in mind is that I’m custom-grazing 2 year-old dairy replacement heifers, who go back to the owner in late October. I don’t know if I would manage the same way if I had cows year-round.

Bottom line – the year worked out but it was not like last year. In fact, I’ve not had a similar year yet, which tells me that understanding grazing principles are key, as well as having a plan but being able to replan immediately.

WHY THE ORGANIC PASTURE RULE IS A GOOD THING

1. The large “organic” (meaning “fake”) operations will have to change (and already are). One of the major issues with organic dairy was the presence of essentially confinement operations in the West that did not allow animals access to pasture, or the pasture that was available was not adequate for dairy. Essentially the animals were fed their necessary ration for milk production in confinement, and then possibly allowed out for a short time (but didn’t eat anything). These large operations supplied major chains like Wal-Mart and others. Consumers were becoming more and more aware of this, and realizing what they thought “organic” meant was not what they were buying. This was extremely bad for the organic label.

2. Ruminant livestock in general will have to have more pasture in their diets. This absolutely is a good thing. Cows, sheep and goats are geared for grazing. The resulting meat and milk from these animals will be healthier. I know there will be those that disagree, but speaking as a producer and a processor I can tell the difference in a big way through taste and the health of my family.  One doesn’t have to look far to find study after study supporting the nutritional value and quality of organic foods vs non-organic. The information that refutes this is heavily influenced by large economic interests that profit off of confinement feeding with a lot of grain.

3.  The increase in opportunity. One opportunity that I can see is a custom grazing operation that would take replacement heifers from an organic dairy for the grazing season. This would have several positive benefits: (1) the dairy would realize a decrease  in labor in regards to not having to take care of those animals, (2) a decrease in feed requirement in terms of pasture,  and (3) an increase in pasture for the money-making milking herd OR additional land on the home farm for grain production. In addition, another local farm would have a good business helping the dairy adhere to the organic pasture rule and make some additional money. The more economic activity I see happening, the better it is for the local economy. I can attest to this: I graze a local dairyman’s replacements for the summer. It works very well, as I get paid per head/per day, the dairyman brings a grain mix as a supplement and minerals, I get animal impact on my pastures, and the dairyman can increase his milking herd and actually make more money in the long run.

WHY THE ORGANIC PASTURE RULE IS A BAD THING

1. The increased paperwork. One thing that grates on organic producers is the paperwork involved. It seems backwards that an environmentally better agricultural production model has to “prove” itself, when probably the reverse should be true.  I know for certain that the increased paperwork has resulted in organic producers making the decision to give up certification.  In the dairy world the increased paperwork has put off those that are on the fence of deciding to transition. Also, on the certification end of things that increased paperwork and scrutiny has resulted in increases in costs and fees, which increase the costs of certification — which could lead to an increase of cost to the end consumer. Someone has to pay for all of that.

2. The hit to the small guy. I say this with tongue in cheek, because the small guy needs to play by the rules as well. Already there is a move afoot to modify the Pasture Rule, only because of the unintended consequences to the small producer. HOWEVER, I think that generally speaking everyone needs to move towards increasing the amount of pasture ruminant animals have under their care for their enterprise to be certified organic.

This is just a short analysis of a very impactful ruling. One thing for sure that I believe will be the short-term result, and that will be a shortage of organic milk and organic meat. I havent’ even addressed the issue of pasture or access to pasture for organic chickens. That’s another story in itself.

Grassfed dairy products are much harder to profit by than meat or eggs due to the increased complexity in production and marketing. Interest of 100% grassfed raw milk are on the rise (but a very very very small percentage of the total milk that is produced out in the marketplace). Raw milk grassfed cheese and butter are  more feasible due to the storability of the product — butter can be frozen and cheese can be aged.  The biggest issues that grass-based dairymen face is marketing and useage – typically the volume of milk from a grass-based dairy is highest in the spring and early summer, and lowest in the late fall and winter (the typical reality of when grass is growing). The problem with this is the processors that buy the milk from these dairies have a glut of milk in April, May, June and part of July — right when school lets out. School lunch milk makes up a significant portion of milk useage. Also, consumption of bottled milk falls in the summer. Whereas non-organic milk makes up the bulk of school lunch dairy, this phenomenon effects all dairy – especially fluid milk.

So what you have is all this milk right when the processor and marketer doesn’t need it. To compound matters worse, people actually like to drink milk year round. They may drink more in the winter, but by in large not having milk available all the time is a very bad play for marketers. Grassfed dairies typically either stop producing milk or reducing the volume dramatically in the winter. This just does not work — processors, stores, marketers and consumers want what they want, and they want it all  the time.  Just like people want tomatoes and bananas all the time.

What can be done? In my thinking, 100% grassfed bottled milk is not feasible now, not until the mainstream consumer dramatically changes their eating habits. When you see Wal-Mart doing anything, believe that the groundwork was laid a long time ago for acceptance in the marketplace. What I do see is the potential for 100% grassfed cultured products like butter and cheese — BUT, this requires the industry to absorb the excess of these dairies out of the goodness of their own hearts — which is not something to base a business plan on.  Farmers that are wanting to be 100% grassfed should focus on local sales if possible, and develop strong relations with normal marketing channels like local dairies that will work with them. Consumers should understand the hit that these pioneers get financially, and should work overtime to support them.

Raw pastured eggs add a good dose of protein, as well as “good fats”. Coconut oil is also a source of beneficial oils. Here is short listing from the website “Organic Facts” concerning coconut oil  and good fats (http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html):

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing, etc.

We are not promoting kefir specifically persay, but more sharing the benefits of probiotics and getting those from sources that are readily available and healthy. Yogurt is another cultured milk product, but if someone is anti-dairy there are products such as kombucha that also are good (we make our own as well). I like using local organic whole milk as well as our own eggs because its one step in the direction of a more sustainable life, even though the presence of bananas and coconut oil are not “local” by Iowa standards.

If anyone has other sources of probiotics or comments, please share!

Without addressing any scientific reason, I’m wondering if there is a relationship between animals and the land (of course there is!), in terms of the effects of grazing (especially mob-grazing) versus running equipment over to make hay. Obviously, making hay takes off fertility and without adding that back the land will revert to species that can live in a less-fertile environment. Cattle grazing will eat the grass and hopefully return the nutrients via manure and urine. If the grazing is planned right, most of the manure and urine will not have to be hauled back out on the field via a manure spreader.

We are getting ready for winter already, and there is stockpiled grass for the sheep over the winter. Last year I fed my sheep five small square bales of hay for the entire winter season, and only did that in the end because I felt sorry for them during a ice storm. This year I hopefully plan to not feed anything. I keep you posted.

I can’t say enough about how this has clarified my focus and enabled me to make decisions that get me to my goals – based upon the “whole” that I manage. Holistic management is all about recognizing we live in wholes (our farm, our business, our school, our family, our whatever) that also are a part of greater wholes. The earth is a “whole”, a whole entire earth that functions interdependently within itself. The earth itself can be considered a whole apart of the greater whole of our solar system, and on and on. It’s important to recognize that when we identify our whole that we manage, we are impacted by the greater whole which our whole is a part of , be it our community, our nation, our earth. We don’t live interdependently, we are all networked (and we must realize it, especially on farms).

Once we identify our whole, then we develop our goal, which is comprised of three parts. A lifestyle or life goal, a production goal, and a future resource base goal. I won’t go to much into detail here, as there are other sites and literature that do this. What I will say is Savory and others have done is identify ecosystem processes by which tools for managing them are utilized to achieve your goals. There are testing questions that one uses as decisions are contemplated, as well as management guidelines that help clarify the issues.

For example, if  I identify my future resource base (in my case my farm) as something that increases in fertility yet decreases in cost, the tools that I would use would be grazing and animal impact.  I would monitor my decision, assuming my tools are wrong (which allows for quicker correction — usually when I assume I’m right I won’t change as fast).

I’m simplifying the ideas here, however, the bottom line is that this is a method that works! Holistic management is something that is not just for agricultural enterprises, as it also can be used in civic situations, family decision making, businesses etc.