Greg and Jan Judy of Clark, Missouri run a grazing operation on 1400 acres of leased land that is made up from 11 farms. Greg and Jan went from near bankruptcy in 1999 to paying off a 200 acre farm and house in 3 years with custom grazing on leased land and are completely debt free. Today they own 3 farms and lease 8 farms. Holistic High Density Planned Grazing is used to graze cows, cow/calf pairs, bred heifers, horses, and stockers. They also own a 250 head grass genetic cow herd, 300 head hair sheep flock, goat herd, and graze Tamworth pigs. They have also started direct marketing grass-fed beef, lamb and pork. Their website is: greenpasturesfarm.net. Greg is absolutely convinced that there is no better way to get into the grazing business then to lease some fallow land, employ high density grazing and use other people’s livestock to do it. Since switching from Management Intensive Grazing to Holistic High Density Grazing 3 years ago, the results have been breathtaking. The Judy’s use no lime, no fertilizer, no seeding, no chemicals, no equipment. The Judy’s focus solely on increasing animal density, trampling plants to form the litter bank, animal performance and long grass recovery periods between grazing. Plant diversity has exploded along with increased grass quantity each successive year combined with increased profit.
Greg wrote a book in 2001, entitled “NO RISK RANCHING, Custom Grazing On Leased Landâ€, which gives a complete breakdown on the methods they used to build their operation from scratch. In 2008 Greg wrote a second book “COMEBACK FARMS, Rejuvenating Soils, Pastures and Profits with Livestock Grazing Managementâ€. Greg’s new book covers all the methods they use with Holistic High Density Grazing, multi-species grazing, grass finishing animals, eliminating costly inputs. Greg has given numerous talks and schools all over the United States on the benefits of Holistic High Density Planned Grazing, leasing land, multi-species grazing, custom grazing and wildlife management. The Judy’s hold Holistic High Density Grazing Schools at their farms teaching the principles of HHDG. Greg does consultant work for other people interested in setting up HHDG grazing systems. Greg quit his off farm job of 30 years and is now a full time rancher.
