Holistic Management® Foundation
Conventional land management practices often fail to consider the unpredictable nature of farming and ranching. Join our Holistic Management® Foundation Online Course and develop a more comprehensive understanding of the 4 ecosystem processes, and discover how to continuously adapt and improve your plans to meet evolving environmental challenges and seize new opportunities.
Dates: Sept 24 – Nov 5, 2024, Tuesdays
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM MDT (live webinars are recorded)
Scholarship Deadline: Sept 17, 2024
Registration Deadline: Sept 24, 2024
Instructor: HMI Certified Educator Larry Dyer
-Joe Unger, Michigan, USA
In this course, you will learn how to effectively manage your farm or ranch through the principles and practices of Holistic Management —a nationally recognized whole farm/ranch planning process. You will have the opportunity to learn not only how to manage your farm/ranch for the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and financial sustainability) and more effectively manage resources, but also be able to ask questions of how to help others with that process. Learn how to improve your ability to observe, understand, and make decisions, based on what you can control and ask the right questions to facilitate that process for others. Through these new skills, you can improve your ability to work with nature and to increase your productivity, and share those ideas with others.
Holistic Management gives you the knowledge, understanding, and process to solve problems. This online course was created to give you a solid foundation to help you cultivate the farm or ranch of your dreams. Access tools and principles that guide you through challenges while keeping your core values firmly rooted.
Topics
- Eight principles and practices for effective resource management
- Developing a Management Inventory for better management of assets
- Goal Setting for effective decision-making, planning, and management
- Four ecosystem processes & how to work with them
- Seven testing questions for prioritizing actions
- Tools & their influence on ecosystem processes
Outcomes
- You’ll develop a whole farm/ranch (holistic) goal which clearly articulates the vision for your farm/ranch, the organizational structure, and the resources available
- Incorporate a triple bottom line analysis filter to help you make decisions more effectively (particularly in a group setting or where there are conflicts around key issues)
- Learn the principles of how nature functions and understand how tools affect ecosystem health
What are our Online Courses Like?
- Engaging – Learning includes live webinars, videos, reading, and written exercises
- Customized – Your homework is all about YOU and your farm or ranch
- Flexible – Live webinars are recorded for later viewing and assignments can be completed at your own pace (roughly 2-4 hours a week)
- Accessible – Ask questions and get feedback from your instructor
- Meaningful – Connect, learn, and find support with people from all over the world who share your values
- Time-tested – For 40 years, we’ve been educating land managers across the world who have transformed their farm or ranch businesses
- Affordable – We try our best to keep our prices low and offer scholarships
Fees and Scholarships
$350 per person
Eligible for Scholarships.
Money-Back Guarantee
HMI stands behind our training programs. If you participate fully in this training program by attending all sessions and completing all assignments satisfactorily, and if you are not completely satisfied within 10 days of program completion, we will refund your registration fees.
Technology /Language Requirements
- Computer (PC or Mac are fine)
- Reliable high-speed internet access
- Internet browser (Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari)
- Microsoft Word and Excel
- Telephone (cell or land line) OR Microphone
- E-mail address
- All classes are taught in English (unless otherwise specified)
Training with Results
- Participants who are motivated to change management practices after training: 89%
- A majority of trainees increased net profit an average of 39%
- Participants who had increased forage: 59%
- Participants who had improved herd health: 71%
- Increased water infiltration by as much as 800%
- Increased organic matter from 1% to 6%
- Participants who extended their grazing season: 59%
Participant Testimonials
“I took over managing our small ranch in west Texas when my parents died within 8 months of each other in 2010 and 2011. Before that time, I had been involved in the ranch operations, but not in a managerial role. In the last five years, I have been searching for a mindset and process that would make management of the ranch a more businesslike endeavor without spending a fortune in the process. Quite honestly, I stumbled across Holistic Management International while attending a Texas Cattle Raisers Association convention a couple of years ago. I picked up some HMI materials at the trade show and never gave it another thought until recently. I signed up for the Introduction to Holistic Management Course and knew that I had found what I had been thinking about and searching for in the last couple of years. This course gave me the information and the systematic thought processes that need to be put into place to make decisions about very complex situations regarding the ranch. Now, it makes sense to me that there is a complexity and interconnectedness of the biological, financial and sociological aspects of ranching. This has changed my view about ranching but also about what is important in other areas of my life. I have much to learn at this this point, but at least I have much better idea of where I need to be going.”
– Gary Terrell, Texas, USA
“I am so glad to have done this course. My wife and I are planning to go into farming very soon and it has helped us articulate and consider our resources and ideas in a really clear and structured way. We also really like how the processes encourage creativity, and respect for our ecosystem and our community.”
– Neil Johnson, United Kingdom
“It has given us tools and refined tools that we already had to make our place more ecology friendly and to help us understand our management system better. “
-Tim and Karen Stevenson, South Dakota, USA
“The introduction to holistic management course provided a method, served as the catalyst, and equipped me with the knowledge to assist my family in starting the long overdue process of holistic goal setting and farm planning. We have already benefited from the enhanced communication required by the process and I’m confident that if we effectively apply the concepts of Holistic Management, we can ensure healthy land and a sustainable future. I’ve already enrolled in my next HMI course and plan on participating in many more classes and events.”
– Patrick Jackson, South Carolina, USA
“I love HMI’s graphic planning tools. Also, I found a great group of people! People from all over the country who are at different stages of development. Now I know more people going through the same process! It’s great to know that I have people to talk to when I am want support or advice. I am already helping a couple friends with their operations, sharing this process and creating a little community around these principles. Thank you so much Julie and HMI!”
– Nick Livermont, South Dakota, USA
“The Getting Started Introduction to Holistic Management® course has given me new decision making tools and practices that I can use to achieve my holistic goal as I transition to organic farming.”
– Martin Schildroth, Ontario, Canada
“This course has helped me to formulate a holistic goal, and the knowledge and skills to get started pursuing that goal.”
– Jared Dressman, Washington, USA
Wondering about the results our courses achieve and the impact they make on our students? Find out here.
Scholarship funding support comes from the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation.
Adelene is a resident of Arkansas and loves exploring the state’s natural trails. Her passion for education and technology led her to earn a master’s in learning systems technology from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. With her professional experience managing student/client databases and instructional design, Adelene will bring skill and understanding to her role as Office Manager & Instructional Designer at HMI. Her focus on making education more accessible to diverse communities is evident through her volunteer work as an board member for a scholarship program. Adelene is devoted to creating educational opportunities that align with HMI’s mission to promote healthy, resilient lands and thriving communities.
Seth Wilner has been a Holistic Management International Certified Educator since 2005. For 22 years he has worked as an agent educator with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension where he specializes in farm business management with an emphasis on whole farm planning.
Dana was first introduced to Holistic Management in the 1990s while working in the Texas Hill Country. She strongly believes that Holistic Management can positively impact families that are on the land, the communities they are a part of, and larger landscape resource regeneration efforts.
Sarah Robertson grew up in Taos, New Mexico and has always been passionate about land stewardship, growing things, and nurturing others. After completing a BA in Communication from the University of New Mexico and working with local non-profits, she started her journey as a first-generation farmer. Since 2015, she has been learning and growing alongside her husband on various leased properties in Albuquerque, NM and running a small market farm with goats, chickens, and a CSA. In her role as Programs Assistant at HMI, Sarah brings her enthusiasm for regenerative agriculture, devotion to supporting others, and drive for lifelong learning and growing.
Jozua Lambrecht is from South Africa and divides his time between their home in Somerset West and their family farm in Sutherland, one of the coldest places in South Africa, where they farm with sheep. He is married to his wife Therese and they have two daughters.
Alejandro Carrillo is a fourth-generation rancher, and he is quite familiar with the challenges of running a profitable cattle ranch in the Chihuahuan desert. Because annual precipitation seldom exceeds nine inches, every drop counts when it comes to growing more grasses. Grazing year-round with only sea salt as an input, he is not willing to waste any water in such a brittle environment.
Jared L Talley was born and raised in Southwestern Idaho and now seeks to help rural communities adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. He is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Service at Boise State University, earning his PhD in Philosophy from Michigan State University and his MPA in Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management from Boise State University. An environmental philosopher by training and an interdisciplinary scholar in practice, he seeks to better understand how communities relate to the land and how this relationship poses obstacles and opportunities for collaboration and governance. In doing so, he studies the role of science in collaborative policy, the role of place in environmental identity, and the role of the imagination in mediating both. Specifically, he studies grazing management and public land permitting, community-led conservation programs, rural education and entrepreneurship, place-based environmental governance, and the imaginative experience of our natural and built environments — all in the contexts of the intermountain American West.
