Why I chose to be a Holistic Management International® Certified Educator
My journey to becoming a Certified Educator teaching holistic management to land stewards and others has been fueled by a desire to live a more agrarian life. By agrarian life, I mean a life connected and nourished by the land.
My happiest moments during my childhood were times spent on my grandparent’s ranch in Argentina, on friends’ ranches in Brasil, and on our home acreage in Brasil caring for whatever small animals my father brought home and the garden he and my mother nurtured.
Adulthood took me away from the land while I pursued a few university degrees and pursued a career, despite working in an agricultural related industry. When I moved to Texas in 2001 for a job, the pull to get back to land was strong enough that I purchased five acres within an hour’s commute from the office. This was what I now call the official start to my journey.
Just because I had a desire to live a more agrarian life and felt pulled towards it, didn’t mean I knew how to take care of the land and to produce anything from it. I subscribed to Acres Magazine and Stockman Grass Farmer and read the articles as a source to teach me what I needed to do on the land. Then I found Joel Salatin and Greg Judy and tried some of their practices. Some of my implementations worked, but most did not. I was frustrated.
As an example, Joel Salatin’s poultry tractor design and Texas summer heat aren’t compatible. What works for Greg Judy in Missouri doesn’t work in Texas. (I admire and appreciate both men for all they have done in sharing their experiences and knowledge for many who are transitioning to agrarian living.)
Worldview Changing Concepts
It wasn’t until I was introduced to holistic management through a Holistic Management International® (“HMI”) Beginning Rancher and Farmer six-month course in 2015-16 that I learned why much of what I ‘copied’ from the articles didn’t work. The three biggest AHA moments were:
Nature has no boundaries and everything is interrelated. There are no parts, just wholes, with a lesser whole influencing a greater whole and vice versa.
To solve or address a concern, the root cause must be defined and addressed. Treating the symptoms won’t fix it and it’ll like create a new issue!
Every person is unique and has their own unique values and goals. What I want to create on my ranch might not be what you want to create on your ranch!
During the course, what really impacted me, and changed my entire worldview, was HMI’s decision testing questions! This is a set of questions that help you make sure you factor in social, financial and environment influences when making a decision. If I had known this earlier, it would have prevented me from making some very poor decisions! Now I don’t make any decision without running it through the 7 testing questions.
I’ve used it on every decision on the ranch: which type of fencing am I going to use, what livestock am I going to raise, which farmers market should I attend, should I seed cover crops for forage and soil health, should i produce value added meat products, should I increase the sheep flock, and many, many more decisions.
I’ve even used the decision for personal relationship concerns! (I’ll share the major decision I made when I get to know you better!)
Truly, it was life changing!
Especially when making a decision with respect to your ranch or farm, this decision testing framework helps you make sure you address several of the complex factors involved in dealing with nature and humans are you run your operation.
Teaching and Helping Others
Even before I completed the course, I knew I wanted others to know this life changing information! After discussing this desire with several of the course teachers, they suggested I pursue becoming a Certified Educator.
Before I felt comfortable going through the extensive training to become a Certified Educator with HMI, I had to implement what I had learned on my ranching operation. So for the next three years, I looked for the root cause when I encountered any problems, researched possible solutions and tested which one would work best, I continued studying about the ecosystem, I planned my grazing for the growing and non-growing season and saw an increase in forage production, I planned for my profit on the ranch which allowed me to reinvest on the ranch, and made mistakes.
The beauty about the Holistic Management ® Framework is that it includes a Feedback Loop. This is important because nature is complex and when we make a decision when managing land and the environment, we must assume that we are wrong (we do not understand all the complexity and how our decision is going to affect that complexity). To that end, we define and decide on a monitoring criteria and timeline to make sure that our decision or action is moving towards our desired outcome. We want to prevent it from being a train wreck way before there’s an inkling it’s going to be a train wreck! I’ve learned more from my mistakes in the 7 years I’ve been practicing holistic management on my ranch than anything else!
As I saw the improvements on the ranch, and learned from my mistakes, I became even more convinced that I really wanted to help others by sharing how the HMI framework can help farmers, ranchers and land stewards improve their land, be profitable and have the quality of life they desired.
If I could do it, anybody could do it!
In early 2019 my corporate work/ranch life balance was such that I felt that I could take on another project, so I started my Certified Educator training program where I had opportunities to facilitate online courses and in person workshops, teach the entire HMI framework to a Learning Community, and coach landowners through struggles they were experiencing on their land and operation. After completing my portfolio over three years, I sat for my final exam, and certified as a Professional Certified Educator!
I receive so much joy when I see the AHA moments on clients’ faces when they understand how life changing this framework is!
I hope that I can share this with many, many landowners and we can see most of the symptoms we are currently experiencing because of conventional agriculture be reversed!
If you want to learn more about how the Holistic Management ® Framework can help you, I offer a free one-hour consultation to discuss how it might help you!
