READING THE LAND TO OPTIMIZE GRAZING
@ Dixon Water Foundation’s Leo Ranch

Decatur, Texas
April 30-May 1st, 9am-4pm

Join us for this 2-day workshop led by Holistic Management International (HMI) at the Dixon Water Foundation's beautiful Leo Ranch in Decatur, TX.

This hands-on field event will help land stewards achieve better results through observation and interpretation. We will spend time on the land at Dixon Water Foundation, learning what to look for in your pastures so you can better understand what has happened in the past, and what would be best to do in the future.

Practical demonstrations and real-world examples will improve your skills in making grazing decisions that align with your soil, rainfall, livestock, finances, and goals. Dixon's ranch manager Jake McNamara will showcase their virtual fencing project and give you the opportunity to observe and discuss their livestock. We'll see a demonstration of how they do their biological monitoring and use this data to achieve their ecological goals.

Whether you're expanding your regenerative toolkit or looking to sharpen your decision-making, this workshop will help you step back, gain clarity, and manage with confidence.

The workshop will take place at the Dixon Water Foundation’s 5,000 acre award-winning Leo Ranch, which the Foundation maintains to demonstrate environmentally and economically sound ways to manage rangeland, while producing grass-finished beef.

$40, including lunch

Detailed directions and an agenda for this workshop will be emailed to those who register 2-3 days prior to the event. If you do not see that email, please be sure to check your spam. For questions, email smallproducers@txstate.edu.

INSTRUCTORS:

Dr. Ken Mix is the Program director of The Small Producer Initiative at Texas State University and currently teaches entomology, soil health, and crop production, with active research on small producer needs, soil, and water resources. He is a former vegetable producer and currently runs SKM Homestead, a small livestock and mixed produce 50-acre farm in Fentress, Texas.

Wayne Knight is Executive Director of Holistic Management International, with 27 years of ranching experience using Holistic Management. When he joined his family's 11 000-acre 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 a Certified Educator (CE) in 2006 and was actively involved with the Southern African CE community organization, Community Dynamics. He has spoken at numerous conferences, 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. 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.

Christine Martin is a Holistic Management International Professional Certified Educator and coaches clients in improving their land, their finances and their quality of life, moving them towards their dream life! On her ranch in Leon County, TX, she raises clean (no chemicals, hormones or antibiotics) and nutrient dense beef, chicken, turkey and eggs, which she sells direct to consumer. Using Holistic Management principles and practices, the livestock are managed to allow the four fundamental ecosystem functions to be restored thus improving the health and carrying capacity of her land.

Hilary Knight is an advocate for regenerative agriculture with deep roots in sustainable land management. Currently serving as Vice President of Finance & Operations at the Dixon Water Foundation in north Texas, Hilary manages finance, risk portfolios, and outreach initiatives while overseeing events at the Josey Pavilion, Texas' first living building. Through collaborative partnerships with like-minded organizations, she works to advance the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices across the region.

Jake McNamara is the General Manager of ranches for the Dixon Water Foundation. He lives at and runs the everyday operations of the North Texas ranch. Growing up, Jake raised sheep and showed club lambs. After high school, he attended Angelo State University where he received a bachelor's degree in Animal Science with a minor in Range and Wildlife Management. While attending college, he worked for the Texas AgriLife Sheep and Goat Research Station on their various sheep and goat ranches across West Texas until his graduation. Following graduation, he was hired as a ranch manager for the Bird Dog Cattle Company in Bronte, TX. There he managed about 15,000 acres of pasture and 2,000 acres of farmland with cattle and a small herd of sheep. In 2021, Jake was hired to manage the North Texas ranch for the Dixon Water Foundation and has been doing so ever since.

Philip Boyd is the VP of Science and Research for the Dixon Water Foundation. Philip lives near the Foundation's Mimms Ranch, in Marfa, in Far West Texas. He fell in love with the high desert grasslands while earning his master's degree in Range and Wildlife Management with the Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. After graduate school, Philip worked as a coordinator with the Borderlands Research Institute for collaborative landscape-scale conservation projects in the Big Bend region of Texas. He has been with the Dixon Water Foundation since 2019, where he coordinates research and monitoring efforts across the Foundation's demonstration ranches in two distinct eco-regions of Texas.

FUNDAMENTALS OF REGENERATIVE GRAZING
@ Pure Pastures

Canyon Lake, Texas
May 21-22nd, 9am-5pm

Join Holistic Management International (HMI) certified educator Christine Martin and the Eubanks family, owners of Pure Pastures, for a hands-on workshop covering the fundamentals of adaptive grazing

This will be a great workshop for those exploring and getting started in regenerative agriculture!

Topics to be covered include:

• Strategies for improving soil health and ecosystem resilience

• Tools for assessing the land and herd health

• Holistic planned grazing

• Stacked enterprises and direct marketing

• Balancing management goals, economics and quality of life

• Addressing weak links to improve profitability

• Programs to support small producers

  
  $40, including lunch

Detailed directions and an agenda for this workshop will be emailed to those who register 2-3 days prior to the event. If you do not see that email, please be sure to check your spam. For questions, email smallproducers@txstate.edu.

INSTRUCTORS:

Christine Martin is a Holistic Management International Professional Certified Educator and coaches clients in improving their land, their finances and their quality of life, moving them towards their dream life! On her ranch in Leon County, TX, she raises clean (no chemicals, hormones or antibiotics) and nutrient dense beef, chicken, turkey and eggs, which she sells direct to consumer. Using Holistic Management principles and practices, the livestock are managed to allow the four fundamental ecosystem functions to be restored thus improving the health and carrying capacity of her land.