Holistic management – what’s it all about?

Holistic management is about understanding the why and the what. Why do we keep getting up in the morning? What is our unique contribution?

It helps farming families and business owners identify how to make their farming operation sustainable, considering the three pillars of sustainability - social, economic, and environmental factors. The overall aim is to develop business goals (or holistic context), which can be used to cross-check decisions, e.g. if I do this, does it get me closer to my goals?

What does Holistic management look like?

In January, Canadian suckler producer Arron Nerbas visited the UK taking part in both the 75^th British Cattle Breeding Conference and three on-farm events organised by AHDB and supported by the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society. He spoke about holistic management and how it’s influenced his system.

Following an outbreak of BSE in 2003, the Canadian beef industry became unstable and caused farmers to question whether their businesses remained viable. Around the same time, Arron was returning to the family farm. After attending a holistic management ‘taster session’ the family decided to embark on the full course, with Arron and his brother, Shane, completing the five-day course in the first year and his parents following suit a year later. Arron emphasised that by his whole family being on-board and taking the course, the learnings were able to be implemented more successfully. The course attendees later formed a discussion group to provide support for each other and bounce new ideas around.

A key learning for Arron was to not change too much at once. It causes you to lose focus, struggle to assess what worked or didn’t work and potentially causes you to give up if things don’t go to plan – he stressed that it’s important to implement change in a considered and steady way which is easy to tweak if needed.

Arron and his family have always been ones to ‘think outside the box’, however completing the course enabled them to develop a clear focus for the farm - to let the system select the cows, producing beef from forage sustainably with a real focus on fertility and maternal traits. If she can’t perform on the system as it is, she doesn’t stay. Over time, this breeds a cow that thrives in a low input system and that can be managed to the benefit of the environment, biodiversity, the families’ social requirements and a profit that supports three households.

The questions Holistic Management asks?

In March, Liz Genever worked with Chris and Louise Elkington, AHDB Beef & Lamb Strategic Farmers, to start thinking about what their holistic management plan might look like as their time in the programme comes to an end.

The questions asked of the business in the process were:

• Who are the decision makers? Are they all bought in? Is your business missing people, resources or skills it currently needs
• What resources are already involved and are their other opportunities you’d like to take advantage of? This could look like upscaling, diversifying or specialising
• Ecologically, what’s important to you? Are there schemes you want to look at? What are the environmental or wildlife benefits you’re hoping for?
• What’s your vision? Is it to meet a financial target? Interact more with your local community? Spend more time with family or restarting a forgotten hobby? A well-rounded vision will result in a more sustainable business
• How are you going to get there? Start short-term working towards your goals – break it into quarters or months, whichever is easier. How can you get a small step closer to your vision in a tangible time frame and set priorities?

It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day and the never-ending to-do list, but there is definite merit to spending a few hours around the table, taking a step back and thinking about where you are, where you want to be and how you’re going to get there.