Turning Desert into Grassland in West Texas
September 20-21, 2022 | 8:30AM – 5:00PM CST
Marfa Visitor Center USO Hall, 302 S. Highland Ave., Marfa, TX 79843
and Mimms Ranch of Marfa, TX
Dixon Water Foundation – 2017 Texas Leopold Conservation Award Winner
Held in conjunction with the 2022 Regenerate Conference (sold separately)
This two-day Advanced Grazing Workshop is for ranchers and those who want to learn how livestock grazing management strategies benefit rangeland and businesses with a focus on land literacy. Land and livestock managers who practice Holistic Planned Grazing monitor for results and rely heavily on their observations to effectively manage and adapt when conditions require. In doing so, they’re able to mitigate risk and loss.
In this in-depth workshop, we’ll focus on how to:
- Improve the landscape with planned grazing strategies
- Grow enough grass to feed your livestock, even in an arid climate
- Monitor indicators to avoid or lessen the effects of future risk
- Track animal performance to key milestones
- Consider animal density as a key tool for ecological improvement within the context of management
- Use tools to measure forage and how to use forage figures to effectively plan for drought
- Determine adequate plant and pasture recovery time
- Increase profits and ecosystem health (water and mineral cycles) with fewer inputs
This workshop will offer a deep understanding of the different grazing management strategies on Mimms Ranch and the comparative analysis of continual versus holistic planned grazing. Mimms Ranch offers a unique learning opportunity for any rancher, teacher, or student of rangeland ecology to see the impact different management has on water cycles, nutrient cycles, and forage production. We’re certain that the clear difference in covered ground in proportion to bare ground in such a brittle environment is enough to intrigue anyone interested in improving the ecosystem and biodiversity.
The Dixon Water Foundation promotes healthy watersheds through regenerative land management, to ensure that present and future generations have the water resources they need. Collaborators will include representatives from Audubon Conservation Ranching, Natural Resources Conservation Services, and Sul Ross University.
We will meet for classroom sessions at the Marfa Visitor Center USO Hall at 302 S. Highland Ave., Marfa, TX 79843 and travel to the Mimms Ranch in Marfa for on-the-ground sessions in the afternoon.
Registration and Lodging
$300, includes learning materials & lunch both days. Register soon, as we have limited space available.
Scholarship Deadline: Sept 7, 2022
Registration Deadline: Sept 14, 2022
Financial Assistance Available! (If you are in need of financial assistance please apply for a scholarship below.)
OR
Optional Lodging:
Lodging is not included in the workshop price; please make your own lodging arrangements.
Hotel Paisano
Special rates are available if you reserve before September 15, 2022. Tell them you are with the HMI/Dixon Ranch Workshop.
COVID-19 Policy:
Please note, the format and/or requirements for event attendance may change in light of shifting CDC and state public health guidelines. HMI will make every effort to communicate these changes in a timely fashion.
Media Policy:
By registering for this event, you hereby consent and agree that HMI has the right to take photographs, videotape, or digital recordings of you and to use these in any and all media, now or hereafter known, for HMI outreach and further consent that your name and identity may be revealed therein or by descriptive text or commentary.
About Dixon Water Foundation – Mimms Unit
The Mimms Unit of the Dixon Ranches encompasses 16,000 acres on the northwest edge of Marfa in Presidio County, an area that boasts some of Texas’ finest rangeland. This property is also a precious part of the Chihuahuan Desert region where desert grasslands are a critical ecosystem for many plants and animals, particularly migratory birds.
Learn more from our 2014 Open Gate Field Day at Mimms Ranch here.
Speakers
Casey Wade – Vice President of Ranching Operations, Dixon Water Foundation
Casey is the Vice-President of Ranching Operations with the Dixon Water Foundation and manages the Foundation’s North Texas and West Texas ranches. He is a graduate of Hardin Simmons University and has spent most of his career managing hunting and wildlife operations as well as livestock ranches. Casey believes it is our job to carefully study the land and wildlife, in order to work with, rather than against, these systems. In this way, people and livestock can be part of the solution instead of contributing to the problem.
Philip Boyd – Vice President – Science and Research, Dixon Water Foundation
Philip grew up in the dairy lands of Pennsylvania. He developed a love for wildlife and the outdoors through trips to visit family in Colorado and hikes along the Appalachian trail with his friends. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.S. from Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. Philip’s thesis focused on pronghorn restoration efforts in the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands. After graduating with his M.S. in Natural Resource Management, he worked as a research associate for the Borderlands Research Institute on landscape-scale conservation planning projects in the desert southwest. Philip began working for the Dixon Water Foundation in 2019. Philip’s duties with the Foundation involve identifying potential research projects with partners, coordinating and documenting research and monitoring efforts across the Foundation’s ranches, communications, and educational events in West Texas.
Wayne Knight – Rancher, Executive Director and Certified Educator, Holistic Management International
With 27 years of ranching experience using Holistic Management, Wayne has had an identity crisis. When he joined the 11,000-acre family ranching business he called himself a cattle rancher. He changed to calling himself a grass farmer. Later still, he called himself a soil-microbe farmer, though he has always marketed beef. Privileged to work with his father, Tom Knight, who was an early adopter of Holistic Management under Allan Savory – Stan Parsons consulting, Wayne enthusiastically increased and
intensified the practices HMI teaches. He became an HMI Certified Educator in 2006 and was actively involved with the Southern African Certified Educator community organization, Community Dynamics. He has spoken at numerous conferences in Southern Africa, trained and mentored farmers, hosted open days on his property, and has written about his positive results using Holistic Management. Before joining the team at HMI Wayne served as a board member of the organization for 8 years. Through his enthusiasm for Holistic Management, Wayne has traveled widely visiting farmers who practice high-density, long recovery grazing practices in Southern Africa, Australia, and the US. As a young graduate with a Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Natal, South Africa, he traveled across the US west working on ranches in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, California, and New Mexico. When not involved in Holistic Management you will find him fishing, birding, hiking, or exploring wild spaces and places with his family. An enthusiastic traveler, hunter, and photographer, he loves discovering new places and making new friends.
Thomas Schroeder – Audubon Conservation Ranching Program Manager for Texas and Oklahoma
Thomas works with beef and bison producers to certify and promote lands managed to promote birds and biodiversity. Thomas lives in Abilene, Texas with his wife and two sons where he also assists on the family’s cow/calf operation.
Thank You to Our Funder
Thank You to Our Collaborators
Scholarship funding support comes from the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation.
Sponsor This Event
| Friend - $100 | Supporter - $250 | Sustainer - $500 |
|---|---|---|
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Adelene is a resident of Arkansas and loves exploring the state’s natural trails. Her passion for education and technology led her to earn a master’s in learning systems technology from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. With her professional experience managing student/client databases and instructional design, Adelene will bring skill and understanding to her role as Office Manager & Instructional Designer at HMI. Her focus on making education more accessible to diverse communities is evident through her volunteer work as an board member for a scholarship program. Adelene is devoted to creating educational opportunities that align with HMI’s mission to promote healthy, resilient lands and thriving communities.
Seth Wilner has been a Holistic Management International Certified Educator since 2005. For 22 years he has worked as an agent educator with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension where he specializes in farm business management with an emphasis on whole farm planning.
Dana was first introduced to Holistic Management in the 1990s while working in the Texas Hill Country. She strongly believes that Holistic Management can positively impact families that are on the land, the communities they are a part of, and larger landscape resource regeneration efforts.
Sarah Robertson grew up in Taos, New Mexico and has always been passionate about land stewardship, growing things, and nurturing others. After completing a BA in Communication from the University of New Mexico and working with local non-profits, she started her journey as a first-generation farmer. Since 2015, she has been learning and growing alongside her husband on various leased properties in Albuquerque, NM and running a small market farm with goats, chickens, and a CSA. In her role as Programs Assistant at HMI, Sarah brings her enthusiasm for regenerative agriculture, devotion to supporting others, and drive for lifelong learning and growing.
Jozua Lambrecht is from South Africa and divides his time between their home in Somerset West and their family farm in Sutherland, one of the coldest places in South Africa, where they farm with sheep. He is married to his wife Therese and they have two daughters.
Alejandro Carrillo is a fourth-generation rancher, and he is quite familiar with the challenges of running a profitable cattle ranch in the Chihuahuan desert. Because annual precipitation seldom exceeds nine inches, every drop counts when it comes to growing more grasses. Grazing year-round with only sea salt as an input, he is not willing to waste any water in such a brittle environment.
Jared L Talley was born and raised in Southwestern Idaho and now seeks to help rural communities adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. He is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Service at Boise State University, earning his PhD in Philosophy from Michigan State University and his MPA in Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management from Boise State University. An environmental philosopher by training and an interdisciplinary scholar in practice, he seeks to better understand how communities relate to the land and how this relationship poses obstacles and opportunities for collaboration and governance. In doing so, he studies the role of science in collaborative policy, the role of place in environmental identity, and the role of the imagination in mediating both. Specifically, he studies grazing management and public land permitting, community-led conservation programs, rural education and entrepreneurship, place-based environmental governance, and the imaginative experience of our natural and built environments — all in the contexts of the intermountain American West.
