Holistic Management International Magazine - Sept/Oct 09

Holisitic Management International Magazine - July/Aug 09

Holistic Management International Magazine - March/April 09

Holistic Management International Magazine -  July/Aug 08

Holistic Management International Magazine - March/April 08

Holistic Management International Magazine - Jan/Feb 08

Soil Carbon: Putting Carbon Back where it belongs - In the Earth

Only when the last tree has been felled, and the last fish has been eaten  - will we realise - that we cannot eat money.

Indian proverb

"The benchmark for stocking in our district on a set stocking base is 1 sheep to 3 hectares or equivalent of 120 dse days/ha. Under the Holistic Management planned grazing approach we are running at over double this rate of 250 dse days/ha harvested and the land (increasing perenniality and decreasing bare ground) is improving. As we improve our decision making and planning skills along with our infrastructure I can easily see more improvement in the land as possible. This double rate of production has come about without any additional production expense. It has been achieved though capital expenditure & planning".

Andrew & Megan Mosely 

Runner Up NSW Farmer of the Year 2009

Western CMA Carbon Cocky Of the Year 2008

Orana Regional Business Awards - winner - Environmental Achievement 

Andrew - Western Catchment Management Authority Vice Chair

The greatest and most important commitment to agriculture is through our training in and implementation of Holistic Management (HM). Holistic Management is a decision making process which provides a practical way to develop a clear, focused vision for our future and enable us to design and plan how to achieve this in an economically, environmentally and socially sound way. This is our family’s version of success.

We achieve profit and environmental improvement through making, testing and monitoring our decisions towards our Holistic goal. Profit in our family is not solely defined in dollars and cents but in the wider definition of family togetherness, a sense of achievement and purpose and the building of ecological and intellectual wealth.

Our personal commitment to this property is to make the changes we need to make to create a more viable and prosperous environment.

By the use of our Holistic goal we can ensure we are profitable in our business, happy in our family life and able to regenerate our land for the future. This in turn enables young people to return to the land, giving farming family’s inspiration and invigorating rural communities

Through the implemtation and use of a grazing chart we are making significant ecological improvement on our land. The key to this success is allowing the plants enough planned rest to fully recover between controlled grazings. Planned grazing also provides the best environment for the re-establishment of native perennial grass species which are so important to the health and biodiversity of the land. A critical element in this process is to gain control over domestic and feral animal grazing pressure, which is where fencing becomes so important. On Etiwanda we have fenced our boundary fences with 8/90/30 hingejoint and then subdivided the internal paddocks using the innovative and very effective Westonfence system. (http://www.westonfence.com)  The Westonfence dropper system is fast and easy to put up, with great distances being able to be constucted in a short period of time. The Weston fence system we have used provides exclusion of non domestic grazing pressure (bush goats and kangaroos) which is making a positive difference to our ability to properly manage our ecology and grazing plan.

Money spent on wire and water are never wasted dollars! For anyone wanting to effectively fence large or small areas we thoroughly recommend you contact the Weston Family and discuss the fencing options they have on offer.

Both Andrew and Megan have been recognised at the highest levels for their work with and involvement in Holistic Management. Megan was runner up in the 2003 Rural Women’s Award from a field of 150 highly motivated women and Andrew was a finalist in the NSW 2004 Young Farmers Award for excellence in farming achieving sound environmental, social and financial outcomes

L-R Megan Mosely, Allan Savory (founder of HM) and Andrew Mosely at the Holistic International Conference Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Nov 2007. See www.holisticmanagement.org for full details of this conference. It was sensational!