Texas Grazing and Land Planning Workshop for Land Stewards

HMI Executive Director Wayne Knight explaining forage inventory and biological monitoring tools to participants at the workshop.

On September 30 - October 4, 2025, HMI collaborated with The Dixon Water Foundation to host the Grazing and Land Planning Workshop in the Josey Pavilion at Leo Ranch in Decatur, Texas.  Throughout the week, the 15 participants were immersed in various field activities, classroom learning, and hands-on practice. 

To start the week, the group had an introduction to Leo Ranch and Dixon Water Foundation from their Vice President of Operations, Hilary Knight.  Next, students had in-depth discussion around Grazing Planning, Land & Infrastructure Planning, and Holistic Management Principles from HMI Certified Educators Kirk Gadzia, Owen Hablutzel, and Wayne Knight.  They also got out in the field for some hands-on forage assessments and livestock calculations.

In between sharing in community over meals, folks were taken out on the land to explore the Leo Ranch and hear from the ranch manager, Jake McNamara, who demonstrated moving cattle with virtual fencing from Halter and discussed their flerd method of raising sheep and cattle together. 

Workshop participants stepped through a grazing planning case study in the classroom portion of the workshop.

Next, it was back to the classroom to learn about biodiversity and preserving pollinator habitats from Dr. Elinor Lichtenberg from the University of North Texas.  She shared evidence-based research and a fervor for holistically managing land to increase biodiversity.

Later in the week, students worked in teams to create some potential land planning considerations for an actual portion of Leo Ranch, and the CEO of Dixon Water Foundation, Casey Wade, sat in and gave real-time feedback on the work.  Students flexed their creativity while thinking with the Holistic Management framework and using decision-testing questions to get all members of their group to agree.

Following the intensive land planning session, Bill Costanzo from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service presented on Livestock Guardian Dog basics and inspired the whole crew.

With so many great speakers, activities, and human connections, the Grazing and Land Planning Workshop was a truly regenerative four and half day event!  Post event surveys revealed that attendees were appreciative of all of the hands-on learning activities, field visits, livestock demonstrations, and the quality of the connections they made with like-minded land stewards and educators who could answer their varied questions about holistic grazing and land planning.

Thank you to Dixon Water Foundation for hosting and supporting this event.