For those of you who attended, implementing land stewardship strategies while they are still fresh in your mind is very important. Please keep in mind your raindrop commitments in the following weeks as we begin a new season with the land.

The grazing class on Friday was lead by Terry Gompert with a primary focus on the importance of creating a grazing plan. Getting animals to the right place, at the right time, for the right reasons to create healthier, stronger pastures. Supporting biologically active soil optimizes the use of rainfall.

LITTER IS THE KEY!!!! For all of you who did not attend the conference, litter means organic ground cover.

Feed your livestock based on the land, not the animal.

The social was a hoot! We constructed a river of opportunities whose headwaters began at the social gathering and flowed through out the Catching Rain Drops event. Thank you to Pioneer Water Tanks for providing dinner for all.

Steve Nelle took us on a virtual tour of the effects of water catchments function. Small adjustments in observation can make all the difference.

Followed by a talk with Malcom Beck, ace observer, explaining the miraculous ways nature moves and stores water naturally. We learned of the healthful, productive benefits of no-till farming and the wonders of soil diversity. Pat Richardson took us deeper into the soil to watch an amazing array of creatures at work and play inside the soil structure – a great incentive not to destroy their communities by tilling.

The afternoon featured event was a presentation by Terry Gompert aimed at empowering land managers with tools to maximize gathering water at its source. Catching raindrops where they first impact the soil.

David Langford walked us through the legislative issues on the ballot for this session, providing us with useful information for future contacts and how to make a difference in your area. It seems many state decision-makers are a little short on their understanding of the ecosystem processes and how those processes impact the water available to us. Some say there is no water shortage! Just an inability to effectively capture and use the raindrops we have.

Jenny Sanders tied the whole show together by presenting research on the different types of landowners and how their objectives for the land can differ. Despite our differences, I felt we all walked away with the most important objective in mind, the love and protection of our Texas lands.

Small groups gathered around their common management issues to get to know each other and discuss some of the ways this conference has influenced their ideas about what they can do on their land and in their communities and regions to make a difference in the way we act and think about abundant water for Texas. The raindrops presented below are a collection of the commitments and ideas produced in these small groups.

Thank you again to all of our speakers for opening the floodgates to a wealth of information.

The silent auction was very successful bringing in a grand total of $1529. Thank you to all who participated in this fund raising event.

The evaluations were full of great ideas for the next gathering and we will be working hard to meet your requests. Keep an eye out for upcoming events such as: Holistic Management Financial Planning, Biological Land Planning, and Holistic Goal Setting classes. Terry Gompert has agreed to host an advanced class on Holistic Management Grazing Planning and Biological Planning. Please stay tuned for dates and times.

I hope you all have a wonderful spring season enjoying your productive abundant lands. Please review the following raindrop commitments for ideas for great things to come.

—Jamie Corson, HRM of Texas

1. Look up and study current legislation that’s pending, dealing with water issues.
2. Think about it!
3. Increase litter on the property by moving litter from lush to desert areas.
4. Install composting toilets on the farm
5. Rework goals, objectives, and action plan ext. With the whole family.
6. Increase4 litter and conservation while creating a sustainable community.
7. Upgrade rainwater catchments from Sequin and Stockdale house roofs.
8. Display rainwater records from previous 40-50 years at our farm.
9. Find manure and add to fields.
10. Observe and record measurements to determine necessary changes on our ranch.
11. Make a plan for 2007 stocking rates, brush control and riparian areas.
12. Bring awareness to my community. Support no-till farming.
13. Write my legislature, Tracey King, about stopping HB 911 and HB 3 in favor of a new bill similar to bill 476.
14. Build electric fence and hay my stockers in intensive areas to build organic matter in poor areas.
15. Continue to manage land holistically with an emphasis on water catchments.
16. Prepare and review data for region F water planning. Get back to a planned written grazing schedule for the ranch.
17. Pray for Rain! Use less water but water more deeply. Re-use water from the kitchen sink. Wash my truck on the lawn.
18. Place mulch and verama compost in a few pivot ditches to retain water and improve the biology of the soil.
19. Continue with presentations on water conservation.
20. Call my state senator and explain how they could be helpful.
21. Work on diverting trailing.
22. Add litter to bare soil.
23. Move my ash and juniper chips to the orchard to encourage fruit this year.
24. E-news letter regarding HRM conference. Watch “Texas, a State of Springs” on PBS. Finish Preserve America grant proposal to promote paddling trails on Colorado River. Get on Colorado River Tuesday to assess what to do about downed sycamore across river. Find board members for Environmental Stewardship. Develop strategy to quantify state of soil for Bastrop co. Work on Austin/Bastrop river correction partnership vision report.
25. Not shower or brush my teeth! ….or maybe take shorter showers.
26. Increase litter.
27. Start a campaign to educate state representatives about benefits of HRM.
28. Draw 50 & 100 mile ‘circle of influence’ around property to understand what water, rivers, forests, and cities are nearby.
29. Talk to people I know. Think about how to increase the spread of information at the individual level.
30. Increase litter by spreading and feeding hay in areas that need better water retention.
31. Talk to state representative Monday.
32. Attack bare ground to develop cover. Monitor points.
33. Look for bare spots.
34. Put down compost to cover bare soil. Monitor points.
35. Start water measure system for my site.
36. Monitor points. Paddock plans for rotational grazing. Legislative issues.
37. Begin written grazing plan. Contact extension grant to organize public seminar for rainwater collection in new home construction.

Peggy Maddox called Senator Uresti's office about SB 476 - the one that connects water to land stewardship for the first time. The next day she spoke with JA Lazarus (woman) who is the policy analyst for natural resource policies in Uresti's office. She had seen David Langford and told him someone from HRM of Texas had called. He explained who we were and she wants to be on our mailing list and wants to know of anything we do dealing with these issues. Peggy asked how we could help and she said keep the letters and calls coming in. Ms Lazarus said she will keep us posted to the progress of the bill. She thinks it has a good chance of passing.

Hey! This works! We encourage all to contact your representatives and senators.

And anytime you are in Austin, go by Uresti's office and let them know who you are.

A CLEAN SUSTAINABLE SEGUIN?: Pleas for Actions

Conservation and Development of Sustainable Community (CDSC) implies quality life for all* for as long as possible in a local economy, without undue exploitation of Land or Nature--locally or globally. … Whether one believes systems of natural resource/energy reserves are half full or half empty, they are being depleted and this detrimentally affects sustainability. … … Herein are listed some needed actions toward CDSC I hope to do personally and/or facilitate to fruition in community. Listed first are those which are very doable and down the list are those which might be less accomplishable because of psychological and socio-political barriers, and current economic and cultural challenges. (Many good organizations are working toward perceptions of sustainability in Seguin; however, they are uncoordinated efforts, and much is lacking.) [*Species]

By example encourage biking and walking, car-pooling and mass transport. (Encourage folk to conserve and “be sustainable” in every little way they can)

List proposed sustainable actions regularly in local news media (printed in English and Spanish, German?). Check them off as we begin to realize them as a community

Set up a collection of books/materials (in English & Spanish, German?) related to “conservation and development of sustainable community” for folk to read in our library(?) & other appropriate locations w/ significant movement through of readers

Realize through collaboration with TLU some regular rational discussions which result in some critical/creative thinking about conservation & sustainability that is science-based

Encourage reduction of using disposable plastic bags. Begin to meet with managers of major stores, & attempt to spark a campaign of “Bring Your Own Bag”

Attend local governmental & political meetings and contribute to get-out-the-vote efforts

Look into ways of donating wild pig meat to the local food bank, or cooking it & distributing to the poor in other ways (wurst, spannferkel, tamales, feijoada, …).

Organize a local group (cautiously organized but open to anyone; self-selecting) which will systematically, holistically (comprehensive & in-depth), strategically, tactically plan toward a clean & sustainable Seguin

Develop a workable plan toward conservation and sustainability that involves participatory goal-setting, policy development, rapid appraisal, action plans, assessment, etc. w/ planned attempts for consensus buy-in by the “whole” community

Work toward having one spring Sunday afternoon where everyone in the city gets out in the streets & walks to the opposite side of town w/ a dozen flowers in their hand—exchanging stories and flowers along the way

Get 50% to everyone thinking about walking, biking or using the bus when getting around in Seguin

Develop a campaign for recycling organic matter/composting on individual lots, e.g. a component of this might be a “Don’t Bag It” campaign for lawn clippings

Encourage a city/county wide of REDUCTION, reusing, and recycling of “waste” (including water and energy). [Shoot for Zero Waste--and consider calling the program “Clean Sustainable Seguin’s Zero Waste Program”]

Begin rapid & long term dynamic and holistic appraisals of the ecological (socio-political, economic, ecological) resource base of Seguin (this would include a historical component)

Get local folk to consider ways of protecting our local natural resource base by: renovating existing buildings for use as homes & offices, and for industry; building smaller homes & buildings/artificial landscapes that are truly GREEN; using Wildlife Exemptions to property taxes; and considering the donations of Conservation Easements on their “undeveloped” lands

Lay down sustainable lines of communication with other communities actively involved in conservation & development of sustainable community

Develop & realize a Sustainable Community Symposium at TLU

Work with community to make participation in our local Martin Luther King March equivalent to that of San Antonio’s with respect to population percent

Help to increase local membership in NAACP and LULAC

Develop pocket-book card reminders about sustainability for distribution to the public (English and Spanish) and laminated sheets of similar information for local schools

Develop user-friendly, attractive and doable ecological educational programs dealing with names of local flora and fauna—native and non-native

Work with schools, churches & clubs, other organizations in getting more parents involved in learning “the basics”—reading, writing, math, foreign languages, names and interrelationships of local flora & fauna—and the edaphic, hydrologic & geologic conditions upon which they depend.

Develop an active participatory sports program and “get-to-know-your-watershed” & “love-Nature” programs for all in this Seguin community—young, old, physically/mentally-challenged, prisoners, …

Realize a program to have as much passive solar water heating, and passive cooling and heating, composting toilets, rain-water collection systems, community gardens, etc. as “possible” in the Seguin area

Begin to eliminate car traffic from parts of Seguin

Maintain/plant sustainable crops for local food, fiber, energy and shelter

Try hard to realize smart growth/reduction of growth. Stop the paving over of good non-renewable topsoil in this region and the destruction of stable & diverse healthy old-growth plant-animal communities. Campaign to reduce “buying” and mindless consumption. Promote the use of conservation easements, land donations for nature preserves, parks (large and small) to halt development.

Plant several acres of greens, turnips, beets, beans, squash, radishes, etc. (easy to grow vegetables, herbs and fruit) for picking by folk with urban gardens--to supplement what they personally grow, and for charitable organizations

Make celebratory community activities more “sustainable” & realize more celebration of sustainability (including pot-luck get-togethers w/ live music)

Develop some sustainability courses for TLU & St. Philip’s College--and continuing ed modeled after the many that exist at some of the more progressive colleges & universities

Work toward smaller neighborhood schools at all levels that are truly a part of the environment and not a part of the dynamic that separates us from the environment

Work toward comprehensive on-going energetics/ecological footprint study for the Seguin region

Work toward a local economy with robust entrepreneurships focusing on conservation & sustainability

Get a few local folk to regularly attend the Ogallala Commons meetings on the High Plains

Help to realize a national health care program that effectively covers the poor

As a community regularly discuss Wars--and conservation and sustainability implications of these destructive (but futile) attempts to solve problems--and ways of truly realizing long-term Peace from a local and global perspective

Have a community where we don’t have to think about sustainability—we just eat, drink, breathe, walk, bike, go, dance, paint, sculpt, party, and naturally conserve and think, are, do and act sustainably

paul bain martin, 605 Elm 372-0366 pbainmartin@gmail.com bkg: raised on small S. TX hog farm; worked on farmworker crews; attended Land Grant universities/entomology; researcher/teacher experiment stations, commun. college; coor. sustainable ag-TX Dep. Agr.; traveled to C. & S. Amer. and W. & E. Eur.

As part of these programs OLSA is intending to start grazing clubs in these areas, based on the format of the highly successful Red River Graziers, which straddles the Red River in SW Oklahoma and North Texas, which has been meeting for several years for the purpose of becoming better managers. They generally meet 5 or 6 times a year at someone’s place, spend two or three hours on a short tour, break for lunch, then do a SWOT analysis of what they have seen. SWOT equals Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Then the group suggests three things, things to START doing, things to STOP doing, and things to CONTIINUE doing. The purpose is to gain valuable input than can help improve your farm or ranch. The Red River Graziers has members that travel two or three hours to get to the meetings. They feel it is that valuable to them.

The drought management workshop will be taught by Walt Davis and Kim Barker. Some of the topics to be covered are understanding the likelihood of drought, importance of early reduction of forage demand and how to achieve this with the least financial loss, having a drought plan in place and pulling the trigger to implement it before it is too late, setting both stocking mix and stocking rate to suit the likelihood of drought, supplementation feeding vs. substitution feeding, how range damage occurs during a drought, grazing practices during and after a drought, the need for both financial and forage cushions, and mental preparation for drought.

There will be a ranch visit the second day of the workshop to go through the SWOT analysis to kick off the grazing clubs. For more information or to register contact Kim Barker at oklsa@pldi.net or 580-732-0244.

On March 6-9 at the ARS Grazing Research Lab west of El Reno is Dick Diven’s Low Cost Cow Calf workshop on cattle nutrition and cutting costs. To register for this session go to Dr. Diven’s website, lowcostcowcalf.com.

Holistic Management: Building a Profitable Ranch

OLSA is sponsoring a course in holistic management with the help of Kerr Center and RMA. The purpose is to help you build the farm/ranch of your dreams. Most of us in the agriculture business are here because we want to be. However, too many times our dreams are turned into nightmares because it is so difficult to manage the need to keep the land productive, make a profit, and not work 20 hours a day. Every decision is connected to every other decision, so when we begin to make decisions that account for all three areas up front, we begin to make progress towards our goal, instead of fighting the fires that consume our energy and profits. Holistic Management is a positive, proven process for creating the profitable farm or ranch of your dreams.

This course will be held April 25-27 at the ARS Grazinglands Research Lab west of El Reno. The instructors are Walt Davis and Peggy Sechrist. The cost is $300, for more information or to register for any of the events listed here contact Kim Barker at 580-732-0244 or email oklsa@pldi.net.

The ARS Grazinglands Lab is having a field day to talk about their research and show off their facilities on April 28, 2007. This is open to the public and lunch will be provided, so plan to come to learn how holistic management can help you reach your goal, and stick around and look around the Ft. Reno Grazinglands research lab.

We also have tentatively scheduled a field day at R. L. Dalrymple’s place near Thomas, OK for the last half of May. We are waiting to see how the spring is shaping up to make sure we do this at the most beneficial time, so more information will be coming in April about this event.

Our Dollars and Sense conference with OGLCA will be August 16-17 at the Biltmore in Oklahoma City. Confirmed speakers so far are Jim Gerrish, Greg Judy, and Terry Gompert.

For example, if a community’s housing is made up of rental properties owned by out-of- towners, or mortgages are held by branches of banking chains, most housing dollars leave the community. Or if electricity and gas are from non-local sources, then the energy dollars are leaving the community. Same with food and retail.

Dr. Kamyar Enshayan of Cedar Falls, Iowa did an analysis of an eight county area around Cedar Falls that showed approximately $250 million in farm subsidies were coming into that area while almost $500 million in food dollars were leaving that area. I imagine it wouldn’t be much different for any area of the USA. What community provides even a small fraction of its own food? Tremendous opportunities exist for farmers to begin to feed their home communities. This trend is in fact growing as consumers are searching for local sources of food.

Now let’s carry this another step and think about a leakage analysis for the farm or ranch. Several years ago, I asked Amish farmer David Kline of Holmes County, Ohio how much of his farm expense dollar went to a company with ties to Wall Street. He thought a little bit and said “I can’t think of any.” Now if we look at a typical modern farm we see a completely different story. Most of our expense dollars go almost directly to Wall Street, and in fact most of the new gadgets to “help farmers become more efficient” are designed for the purpose of siphoning more money off the farm.

Is it any wonder that our farms and rural communities are in trouble? With the leakages in our communities mentioned above and the leakages on our farms in the form of fuels fertilizers, chemicals, most equipment and seeds, and most of our markets which take commodities out of the community to be processed, there are many, many leaks that can be plugged.

Do you see doom and gloom here, or do you see opportunity?

We can plug many of the leaks on the farm by providing our own soil fertility with crop rotations, compost tea, cover crops, etc., - all things that build organic matter, and by using locally adapted seed where possible, by cutting fuel usage where possible, and by eliminating chemicals which are mostly band-aids anyway. These things can significantly cut costs while we start to produce in a way that is more acceptable to consumers and allows us to develop those local markets.

Many of our farms are themselves consumers. Imagine your farm has a mile-high fence around it with only one gate. Do more dollars come in the gate or go out the gate? Do more truckloads of produce go out or products come in?

To do a good leakage analysis we need to be brutally honest in looking at the things we do. We need to question everything. Why do we do the things we do? I have heard some pretty silly statements from people defending what they do. A few years ago a part time farmer told me he sprayed his pastures this week, I asked him “Why?”, and he said he did it every other year, again I asked “Why?”, he said “well, I just do!”

Another time we had a field day here and an old farmer asked if I ever sprayed my pastures. I asked him if he thought I should. He said “I always find I have more grass if I spray my pastures.” I asked him if he ran more cows. He looked rather sheepish and said “No.” I bit my tongue to keep from asking if he didn’t just add $50 per head to his calf cost that year.

One more example a friend of mine told me about. An old farmer was in the coffee shop and announced proudly that he was getting his wheat sprayed for green bugs that day. My friend asked if he sprayed those chemicals on his garden. He replied “No, I eat that stuff.”

It seems the things we do sometimes have a total disconnect from reality. We do things because we always have, we do things with no thought to the real economic consequences, and we do things with no thought to the fact we are raising food and we ought to be listening to the customer because he doesn’t want to eat chemicals either.

A leakage analysis whether on a community scale or a farm scale can help point the way out of some of our problems.

Tell Congress to Restore Funds to Important Sustainable Agriculture Program--ATTRA

• National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, Feb 20, 2007
• Straight to the Source

Last week, the Senate passed the "Continuing Resolution," which makes permanent funding decisions for the fiscal year already underway (Fiscal Year 2007), which wasn't completed before the last Congress ended. Distressingly, this resolution would IMMEDIATELY eliminate funding for a program crucial to sustainable agriculture! The Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) program is a highly rated national information service that answers practical questions from farmers and others across the US who call its 1-800 telephone number, print publications from its website, or attend its workshops. Congressman Boozman (R-AR) is circulating a sign-on letter to USDA to fund ATTRA's modest $2.5 million. It's crucial that you call, today if possible, and ask your House member to sign onto that letter. NOW is the time to ask them to sign on, as Congressman Boozman will take this message to USDA early the week of February 26. Senators are also sending individual letters to USDA with the same message. It's easy to call (and your call has a big impact). Please call the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the office of your representative and your two senators (this means 3 very quick calls). Ask to speak to the staffer handling appropriations. If he or she is unavailable, leave a message with your name, phone number and the quick message below.

The message is simple. For your representative: Please ask Congressman/woman _________ to sign onto Congressman Boozman's letter asking USDA to restore full 2007 funding to the ATTRA sustainable agriculture information service. (Tell the staffer for your Representative that they can contact Maggie Lemmerman at 202-225-4301 in Mr. Boozman's office to sign onto the letter.) ATTRA is a national valuable source of information to farmers across the US about how to farm using sustainable practices, and it shouldn't be cut.

For your senators: Please ask Senator ___________ to send a letter asking USDA to restore full funding to the ATTRA sustainable agriculture information service. (Tell the staffer for your Senator that John Lewis in Senator Baucus' office (202) 224-2651 can provide information on the wording of the letter that Senator Baucus sent if that's helpful.) ATTRA is a national valuable source of information to farmers across the US about how to farm using sustainable practices, and it shouldn't be cut. Background:

- For twenty years, ATTRA has been one of the most reliable sources of information for farmers and others who want fact-based information on a wide variety of agronomic, livestock, marketing, and entrepreneurial questions with reliable information, evaluated and summarized from its extensive database.

- ATTRA is an extraordinarily efficient program. Though its funding has remained far too small, at $2.5 million since FY02, it accomplishes great work for farmers and consumers around the nation! ATTRA's services are in great demand, exceeding 37,000 technical requests last year and drawing over 2.6 million unique visitors to its website, from which there were over 673,000 publication downloads. It is phone calls like yours that have protected ATTRA and other sustainable agriculture funding in the past. THANK YOU again for contacting your House representative and senators immediately to keep ATTRA's 2007 funding from being cut! For more about the ATTRA information service, click here www.attra.org

Sheilah Davidson
Administrative Director National Campaign For Sustainable Agriculture
P.O. Box 396
Pine Bush, New York 12566
Phone: 845-361-5201
Fax: 845-361-5204
e-mail: sheilah@sustainableagriculture.net
www.sustainableagriculture.net/

Patricia Whisnant, DVM
pwhisnant@americangrassfedbeef.com
Farm: 573-996-5333
Plant: 573-243-3107
Cell: 573-225-7078
www.americangrassfedbeef.com