Whole Farm Planning - Holistic Management

Whole Farm Planning - Holistic Management

Summary

This three-year project was originally set up to develop a total of fifteen (15) educator participants of the eighteen (18) originally involved (10 Coop. Ext./NRCS, 4 non-profit, 4 independent). The focus was on learning the value of whole farm planning, preparing case studies and teaching and facilitating others while learning the principles of Holistic Management. Concurrent with their training, each participant is teaching improved decision making, through utilizing a more holistic perspective, to a learning community composed of farmers, individuals from the participant’s sponsoring agency/community and other interested parties.

Objectives/Performance Targets

As of December 2003 a total of eleven (11) participants are ready to complete their exit reviews as part of their regimen to become certified educators in Holistic Management. An additional three (3) participants will seek to complete an exit review in the spring of 2004 and two (2) participants are continuing their training on their own schedules due to personal circumstances. Two (2) participant have dropped out or discontinued training as of this date.

To date eighteen (18) draft case studies have been collected and are being reviewed and sharpened for publication.

Accomplishments/Milestones

During 2003 the participants’ primary activity was independent work by all in developing individual case studies to be reviewed by fellow participants and the Savory Center. Feedback will be utilized to sharpen the case studies and ensure that incidences of learning resulting from working with farmer partners is highlighted and articulated clearly. Educators worked closely with their learning communities, progressed on completing their case studies and checked in with their learning contracts to prepare for exit reviews to be conducted in February 2004. After an intense second year, where they completed three (3) training residencies on Financial Planning (January 19-25, 2002), Biological Planning & Monitoring, including Planned Grazing & Land Use Planning (April 20-26, 2002), and Policy Analysis & Design (October 19-25, 2002) they began to move into more of an implementation phase and facilitating the learning of others became a main activity. Incumbent with this was additional self-study and practice to sharpen their understanding of a holistic perspective and the new principles they had learned and were employing in their professional and personal lives. Additionally, each of the participant was asked to select up to three farms to work closely with in order to prepare the case studies, which would help highlight the learning that took place both by the educator and farmer participant. This is being accomplished by utilizing the documentation / profiles that were recorded showcasing the use of Holistic Management to form whole farm plans.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Activities Included:
· Teleconferences in May, June, July, August, October and November were used to maintain contact and share experiences challenges among participants as they continued their learning and assisted their learning communities. Incidences of unique hurdles were rare as participants found common challenges to overcome.
· Five participants from NY & PA got together twice (March 2003 & July 2003) to share information and provide mutual support to each other during 2003.
· Two of the educators gave a presentation (Introduction to Holistic Management) to the NESARE Board in Burlington, VT during February 2003.

Individuals –
· Educator team New York (2) & Massachusetts –
Three participants gave a day-long presentation to 10 farm couples introducing concepts of Holistic Management and its utilization in developing a comprehensive plan for a farm and/or farm business.
· Educator in New York –
Gave 6 presentations introducing Holistic Management to a variety of groups/audiences during 2003. These included the NOFA-NJ Winter Conference, Rutgers University, NJ (January), Audubon Farm Symposium, Dayton, OH and Consumers With A Conscience workshop, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY (February), Student Luncheon Speakers Forum, Tufts University, MA (April), Evening Speakers Forum, Three Rivers Environmental Club, Norwich, NY (September) and BOCES New Vision Agriculture & Natural Resources class, Norwich, NY (October).
· Educator in New Hampshire –
Conducted a three-day workshop with 15 attendees (including 4 farm couples) as a follow-up to one-day presentation introducing Holistic Management. This event focused on developing farm/family goals and learning how to improve decision making.
· Educator in West Virginia –
Expanded learning community to work with three USDA NRCS Soil Conservationists in learning the concepts of Holistic Management and how to apply this new perspective in their personal and professional lives including the agricultural producers they work with.
· Educator in New York –
Completed initial work with six farms in a learning community who he has been assisting since November 2000, numbering about 15 people in all. The group came together for monthly day-long meetings including potluck lunches. All farms completed farm goal statements and have developed some proficiency in using them along with other Holistic Management principles to improve decision making on their farms. The group has remained enthusiastic about the learning community experience. The group has visited and studied all the farms in the learning community and found these visits very beneficial due to the common frame of reference it created.
· Educator in Vermont –
Utilized what she has learned to improve personal and professional decision making. Examples included negotiating more beneficial professional subcontractual arrangements with an employer and personal relationship improvements. This Educator attended part of the intro session for the North Central SARE program and is networking with that group.
· Educator in West Virginia –
This educator utilized an improved decision making framework to address on-farm challenges in his own operation. This manifested itself through he and his spouse using their farm/family goal to test decisions toward to ensure they were moving in the desired direction. Examples include the construction of a new building and evaluating options on changing an off farm employment situation. Due to the testing that was utilized the decisions made turned out very favorable despite some serious concerns early on.
· Educator in Massachusetts –
This participant utilized the improved decision making framework he learned to improve family decision making. They tested three decisions (vacation plans, job restructuring, & local public service involvement) that had the potential to strongly impact the family and those relationships. They were pleased with the outcomes that tended toward favoring the family as a whole versus individual members.
· Educator in Maine –
This educator has progressed nicely with a women farmer group that is utilizing Holistic Management to improve the management of their enterprises and their personal lives. Examples of successes included improved financial planning, a better framework to work through challenging logjams and make progress and recovering from catastrophic circumstances by using the testing guidelines to make a sound decisions on the farm when under extreme stress.
· Educator in New York –
Reviewed progress with a new small organic farm that used Holistic Management to plan steps toward growing their enterprise. The farm couple reported that due to improved decision making they were able to have a successful first year and generally avoid missteps and unintended consequences due to improved planning and testing decisions prior to implementation.
· Educator in Pennsylvania –
Worked with a small dairy farm family who utilized the training to help improve family decisions involving balancing farm work and off farm activities with the children and vacation plans. Additionally, they felt that it reduced crisis management due leaving less to chance due to the clear picture they have of what they want their lives to be like, which was articulated in their farm/family goal statement. Specifically they also used the new decision making framework to look at and evaluate cow breeds for their particular land and enterprise.
· Educator in New York –
This participant worked with three producers who utilized Holistic Management to improve decision making, including a small dairy farmer, who used it to guide his decisions on many issues. These included: raising excess hay for sale, requiring buying hay handling equipment, which was rejected due to time commitments and because it appeared to move the family away from their desired quality of life; purchasing a self-propelled forage chopper and doing custom work, which was pursued as it provided numerous benefits moving them in the direction of their goals; and long-day-lighting in the dairy barn, which was adopted by utilizing a more energy efficient system allowing them successfully to add additional profits and still maintain the quality of life articulated in their farm/family goal statement.

Prepared December 2003 by Phil Metzger, USDA NRCS, Norwich, NY.

Collaborators: