Does it feel like you don’t have enough time, money, or energy to make your farm or ranch a fulfilling business? We’ll provide you with the integrated management tools that help you work with nature to develop a profitable business, reduce your stress, and increase land health and productivity.
Interactive Online Classes
Learn from anywhere in a live classroom with like-minded peers while receiving personal feedback from our instructors. Live classes are also recorded for later viewing. These courses are great options for those who enjoy learning in groups. Scholarships are available.
Holistic Management® Foundation
Sept 20 – Nov 1, 2022
Learn how to more effectively manage your farm or ranch for the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and financial sustainability). Improve your ability to observe and understand relationships on your operation. Make decisions and monitor results to avoid unintended consequences and reach your goals more quickly with fewer resources.
Financial Planning
Nov 8 – Dec 8, 2022
Learn how to work on your business, not just in your business. This step-by-step financial planning approach will help you understand the big picture view, plan for profit, control costs, and make critical production decisions based on a clear analysis of your different enterprises. You will develop a financial plan for improved financial decisions on both annual budgets and long-term investments.
1-on-1 Learning
A full 1-on-1 technical assistance program in Holistic Management with a Certified Educator. We help you address your most pressing business management issues as outlined in the module you select. Courses can be purchased individually or as a discounted package. Scholarships are available.
Holistic Management® Foundation
Learn how to more effectively manage your farm or ranch for the triple bottom line (social, environmental, and financial sustainability). Improve your ability to observe and understand relationships on your operation. Make decisions and monitor results to avoid unintended consequences and reach your goals more quickly with fewer resources.
Financial Planning*
Learn how to work on your business, not just in your business. This step-by-step financial planning approach will help you understand the big picture view, plan for profit, control costs, and make critical production decisions based on a clear analysis of your different enterprises. You will develop a financial plan for improved financial decisions on both annual budgets and long-term investments.
Grazing Planning*
Learn the key grazing planning principles and practices for improving land and soil health and animal productivity. Understand the relationships between forage and livestock, how to better monitor livestock health, and how to address critical grazing considerations. Learn how to determine available forage, monitor livestock health, and create a step-by-step grazing plan that allows sufficient range recovery and promotes long-term productivity.
Cropping Planning
Learn how to effectively manage your cropland to increase soil fertility and resilience as well as increase profitability. Learn the latest regenerative cropping practices and a step-by-step planning process to improve crop health and production in the context of regenerative and conservation agriculture.
Marketing / Business Planning
Learn key business model and planning concepts while exploring pricing, marketing channels, opportunities, and challenges. Create your own business plan while determining viable markets for your farm or ranch.
Biological Monitoring
Develop skills to “read the land” so you can evaluate ecosystem health on a daily basis and better understand the impact of your land and livestock management practices. Learn simple monitoring techniques to annually measure changes over time and determine which monitoring techniques will give you the information to increase productivity and build long-term biodiversity and resilience.
Land Planning
Develop a land plan that optimizes your farm or ranch infrastructure to fit your environment and supports your long-term production plans. Analyze strengths and weaknesses of your current infrastructure, and prioritize implementation of infrastructure changes for financial payback.
*FSA approved in several USA states.
Workshops
Our workshops are pack-filled days with boots-on-the-ground learning at Holistically Managed farms and ranches. Come learn together with like-minded peers, ask questions, and make connections.
Joining the James Ranch Journey: Holistic Management® for Family and Business Success
James Ranch of Durango, Colorado
August 16-17, 2022
The James Ranch is a working example of success where their extended family, friends, and community joyfully participate in ranch activities and benefit from Holistic Management. It serves as a model and inspiration demonstrating how managing a healthy ecosystem results in thriving regenerative soils, forage, water, livestock, birds, insects and wildlife. It’s also a model for multi-enterprise success which includes grass-fed beef, artisan cheese, whey-good pork, gardens, a nursery, a grill, and a market for their wonderful products. At this 2-day workshop, the James family will share their rich history, invaluable experiences, and lessons learned.
Wayne Knight, rancher and HMI Executive Director, will introduce tools you can use to improve your grazing operations. A mix of workshop and ranch visits will allow opportunities to learn and practice aspects of monitoring, animal performance milestones, and Holistic Goal setting. This event will help you apply techniques to improve your management and realize long-term success by balancing animal density, animal performance, and reduced drought risk.
Holistic Planned Grazing: Turning Desert into Grassland in West Texas
Mimms Ranch of Marfa, Texas
September 20 – 21, 2022
This two-day Advanced Grazing Workshop is for ranchers and those who want to learn how livestock grazing management strategies benefit rangeland and businesses with a focus on land literacy. Land and livestock managers who practice Holistic Planned Grazing monitor for results and rely heavily on their observations to effectively manage and adapt when conditions require. In doing so, they’re able to mitigate risk and loss.
In this in-depth workshop, we’ll focus on how to:
- Improve the landscape with planned grazing strategies
- Grow enough grass to feed your livestock, even in an arid climate
- Monitor indicators to avoid or lessen the effects of future risk
- Track animal performance to key milestones
- Consider animal density as a key tool for ecological improvement within the context of management
- Use tools to measure forage and how to use forage figures to effectively plan for drought
- Determine adequate plant and pasture recovery time
- Increase profits and ecosystem health (water and mineral cycles) with fewer inputs
Adaptive Monitoring: Analyzing Results for Improved Regenerative Ag Practices
Online Workshop
September 22 – November 10, 2022
After this workshop, you will be able to:
- Become systematic in making observations
- Easily analyze observations to improve management, marketing, and profitability
- Monitor ecosystem health
- Integrate biological monitoring with daily farm/ranch activities
This online workshop will cover:
- Key biological monitoring principles and practices about soil fertility and the influences of production practices
- Monitoring techniques for rangelands, pastures, and croplands
- Addressing natural resource issues with a simple approach based on monitoring data, past production practices, and potential new production practices
- Building resilience and increased productivity by managing for biodiversity
- Incorporating simple monitoring techniques into your daily routine
- Simple and effective monitoring techniques for rangeland, pasture, and crops
- Maximizing dollars from sunshine
- Techniques for quantifying ranch or farm performance
Del Cielo Farm Field Day: A Regenerative Farm for All
Del Cielo Farm of Albuquerque, New Mexico
October 6, 2022
Join us on October 6, 2022 for a special field day at Del Cielo Farm/Picaflor Collective in the beautiful South Valley of Albuquerque, the ancestral home of the Tewa Peoples. Discover how the Del Cielo Farm team has used regenerative agricultural practices and Holistic Management to help them reach their goals for a brighter, healthier future. Learn about farming practices that benefit soil health, principles that support the ecosystem, and how to gain more success by working with nature, not against it. Hear from Del Cielo Farm Owner and Holistic Management practitioner Sergio Schwartz, Grow the Growers graduate and Farm Manager Becca Marshall, plus many others!
A Holistic Approach to Farm/Ranch Succession Planning
Online Workshop
October 26 – November 16, 2022
Develop a step-by-step farm/ranch transition plan by utilizing Holistic Management.
A carefully thought-out succession plan is essential in shaping expectations to enable a smooth and equitable transition. In this course, we will explore how farm and ranch families have used Holistic Management to develop the trust, vision, and authentic communication required to successfully create transfer plans for their farms and ranches. Participants will learn about the Holistic Goal setting process and how it can be used to create a strong foundation for decision-making. Work in small groups with other land managers to practice using the decision-testing matrix. Leave with your own Holistic Goal worksheet to help you create a strong foundation for effective communication and conflict resolution in creating successful transfer plans.
Holistic Management® in Practice with Kirk Gadzia
Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
November 7-11, 2022
Few people in the Regenerative Agriculture arena have had broader exposure or more hands-on experience than well-known Holistic Management student, educator, and mentor Kirk Gadzia.
Our 5-day workshop aims to present the Holistic Management curriculum that will ground participants in a complete package with components that depend on and fit together for optimal ranch success. To complement Kirk’s facilitation, ranchers Wayne Knight and Linda Pechin-Long will add to the experience from their knowledge and practice of using Holistic Management in their operations.
COVID-19 Policy:
Of note, the format and/or requirements for event attendance may change in light of shifting CDC and state public health guidelines. HMI will make every effort to communicate these changes in a timely fashion.
Stay tuned for more upcoming 2022 workshops!
Certified Educator Training Program
Join our community of professional HMI Certified Educators and be a force for regenerative agriculture in the world! Graduates of our 1-on-1 learning courses have the opportunity to apply for our Certified Educator Training Program.
Not Sure Where to Start?
We will work with you on the best path forward for your farm or ranch operation. Complete our Holistic Help form for a free 30-minute phone consultation. No pressure, no strings attached!
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%