the_gurgler, The approach most people take for livestock is shocking, I agree. However, I've talked to a rancher in Mason, a couple in Fredericksburg, and one north of Austin who have nearly eliminated their inputs. Here's how that went... These people are all doing it the same way following Allan Savory's approach. They stopped medicating their animals. They get no shots, dewormers, or hormones. The few animals that get sick get slaughtered rather than medicated. In addition their offspring are slaughtered. This soon results in a herd of healthy animals that really do not get diseases or parasites. When you stop medicating for worms, the population of dung beetles returns to the pastures. Ask any modern rancher when the last time he saw a dung beetle was and he'll have to think hard about it. For the old timers it was back when he was a child. For the new kids they think dung beetles are a mythical creature. Then these ranchers stopped buying seed and fertilizer. Every year the universities come out with the latest and greatest seed varieties to make up for the problems with last year's seed. Of course there is a new fertilizer regimen for the new seed. But once you stop using seed and fertilizer, the only plants left growing are the natives that were here for millenia before we arrived to correct the situation by plowing and growing corn. The native plants are also known as forage for the animals that lived here for millenia. In order to ensure those plants return every year, these ranchers create lots of small paddocks out of larger pastures. They will put about 300 cow-calf pairs onto a 50-acre site for 1-2 weeks depending on how fast the forage is growing. Then they move them to another 50-acre pasture. By the time 2 weeks is up, these pastures look like the surface of the moon, so the animals are lined up in pecking order to move into the next paddock. When you have 15 pastures like that, it takes 30 weeks for the animals to return. In 30 weeks you are likely to get some rain and the forage will be waist high or higher. Interestingly, these paddocks are completely free of dung when the livestock leave, because the dung beetles process it on the fly (so to speak). Twenty-four hours after the animals leave, the dung is all processed and buried in the soil as fertility for the next season's crop. The secondary benefit of dung beetles (which I believe is the primary benefit) is they dig thousands of tunnels in the soil that allow for the complete capture of any and every rain that hits the ground. There is no runoff or erosion on these ranches. These ranches no longer use herbicide because everything that grows is forage. There is no such thing as weeds to livestock. If you get some plants that cattle will not eat, chances are excellent that goats or sheep will eat it. These ranches no longer use insecticide because that would kill the dung beetles. Besides these new "organic" fields are filled with birds now who are going after the dung beetles and other insects. The third benefit of the dung beetles is that any parasites that were in the cattle dung are "processed" along with the dung by the beetles. Those parasites die before they can infect the livestock because the livestock will not be back to that same paddock for six months. Flies are among the parasites that no longer affect these animals. The only input left is minerals to replace the minerals taken out by the cattle. It turns out that the major mineral removed is calcium but the cattle like other minerals, too. In particular they happen to love the minerals in seaweed. So by providing seaweed and calcium supplements freely to the animals, they will spread them back around on the ground and the dung beetles move them down into the ground. When the dung beetles dig their holes that capture water, the water is ALL absorbed by the soil and eventually gets used either for the forage plants above or it seeps into the water table, streams, or aquifers. This replenishes the water supply rather than allowing it to run off and away. Dry creeks and streams refill and the riparian areas return to health bringing birds, fish, and aquatic plants. The U Bar ranch in New Mexico was so successful with their riparian areas that they now have most of the entire world's population of the endangered southwestern willow flycatchers - and those birds were never seen in that area before the cattle were brought in to "fix" the soil. By fencing the animals into smaller paddocks and teaching them to walk through an open gate, there is no need for cowboys hooting and hollering and riding around trying to find the strays. There just aren't any. The total investment for infrastructure is for fence wire. The total input for animal maintenance and health is seaweed and calcium. Except for the seaweed and calcium, these ranches are completely self sustained. So what are the results? At the end of 9 months, the calves weigh in around 675 to 700 pounds. That is normal in anyone's book for cattle growth. While other ranchers spend up to $400 per animal on variable costs (meds, seed, fertilizers, herbicide, insecticide, cowboys, special dietary supps and extra feed, and special equipment), these ranchers spend more like $35 per animal. The sales bring the same back to all the ranchers so the ones with the lowest cost make the most profit. Can they do this on a sustainable basis? The ranchers I talked to have been doing it for 20 years and they only get better at it. They have generally doubled the customary stocking rate that their neighbors are able to achieve. As far as I know no other agriculture system in history has approached this sort of sustainability. The keys are fencing them into small areas and rotating them when the next paddock is ready. This system mimics the natural migrational type of grazing that animals do in the wild. They do not move on until they are out of food or predators push them on. The leave behind a soil that is free of vegetation and ready for the next rain. They migrate from the south in the spring and from the north in the fall. This gives them two passes at their forage during the year. I realize there is a no cow movement going on but I think that would be a disaster. The Earth has relied on grazing and browsing animals since the dawn of time. We just bungled livestock management until Allan Savory put all the pieces back together. His methods are in use in every continent and seem to work everywhere. It if works in the high dry desert of New Mexico, it should work just about anywhere.

I graduated from High School in 1942, long before most of you were born. I chose to take Academic Studies, even though I knew I would never be able to go to college. In fact, I was the only one of my parent's 9 children (the youngest) to finish High School. They all worked at a variety of jobs, and I worked while I was in school, at JCPenny starting when I was 16. My class graduated into a war situation, so many of the young men entered the armed forces. Memories have faded, but some things have stayed intact, even the names of some of the teachers. My English teacher, senior year, was actually the band director and the only thing I remember from that class is that he spent the whole time reading to us. The one book I remember was My Name is Aram Literature teacher was everybody's favorite. Her last name was Mallott and was known to us as Ma Mallott because of her caring ways. Algebra . . . I don't remember the teachers name, or very much of the Algebra now, but we did have to take Geometry also. Spanish, and I loved every minute of the two years. Our teacher called us by our last names preceded with Senor or Senorita, using a Spanish equivalent for the last name. Second year there were days in class when we could only speak Spanish. Extracurricular activities: I joined the Library Club and tried to master the Dewey Decimal System. Absolutely no smoking, even within a certain number of feet of the school building. We also had after school extracurricular activities; I joined the Riding Club, and had my first riding lesson. Also got to ride the Activity bus. It was a large school, 300 plus graduates in my class. I still have my year book, somewhere. After graduation we had annual reunions until there were too many passed on, or could no longer travel,but well past the 50th. The War had brought us all to a new degree of togetherness. Probably more than you need to know, right? But there are a couple more things I will add. Only one of the students, a boy, had his own car. There were no pregnancies, or drug problems among those students. Sue

For what its worth, Michelle Obama created a kitchen garden at the White House. I only know this because I am happy that she is promoting healthy eating and gardening as one of her causes. It's one of mine. From one of my favorite passages in "Farmer Boy." My grandmother also made these. Doughnuts 2 lbs. lard 1 egg 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt Pinch nutmeg (that comes from my grandma, not the cookbook) 1 cup sour cream 2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour Powedered sugar for dusting Safety notes: lard can reach really high temps so use a candy thermometer and don't let it get above 400 degrees (WOW!). Also make sure your utensils are bone dry, since water and oil makes a dangerous splattering situation here! Don't leave this kettle of boiling oil unattended. Also, keep the space next to the kettle on the stove clear in case you have to quick take it off the stove. And last but not least, keep a fire extinguisher (or a box of baking soda) handy if there's a flare up! Melt lard in a kettle over low heat. Beat egg, soda, salt and sour cream in the bowl. Beat in 1 cup of flour until well mixed. Continue towork in the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until you have a dough that can be rolled out. Roll the dough in a strip about 4x16x1/4 inches. With a floured knife, cut into 4 inch strips about 5/8 inch wide. Heat the lard to 375 degrees. Twist a strip like a corkscrew (it will strecth as you do this). Bring ends together and pinch them. Drop the twisted dough into the hot fat. In about 2 minutes the doughnuts should be cooked through. If they brown in less time the fat is too hot, if it takes more than 3 minutes the fat is not hot enough. Remove the hot doughnuts from the pot and drain on brown paper (special kraft paper or old paper grocery bags). Coat generously with powdered sugar. Serve immediately. Note, you can cut these out with a doughnut cutter, but then they have to be turned over in the fat. To me they seem a little bland (which was exactly how grandmas were and I was not super crazy about them) so you might add a little bit of sugar to the mix. Or just squeeze some honey on them to taste!

Thanks for the link. What fun! I entered, of course, George Gissing. When the map finally settled, there was my George in the middle and the other authors listed were wayyyyy on the far edges with no one anywhere near him. Does this mean George Gissing is one of a kind? The others on the outer fringes of the map were Upton Sinclair, Saul Bellow, Edward Rutherfurd, P.G. Wodehouse, Colin Wilson, Hermann Hesse, Ovid, Kafka, Conrad and Ken Follett. In my experience with these authors and George Gissing, they have nothing in common other than all wrote books. PAM