A Holistic Response to COVID-19

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Holistic Crisis Response & Adaptation Steps

1. Keep the Big Picture in Mind (Think Globally, Act Locally)

2. Inventory Your Resources (social, economic, natural)

3. Manage for What You Want (holistic goal/ context, whole farm/ranch goal)

4. Consider All Options and Tools

5. Determine How Your Actions Impact the Situation now and long-term (testing questions)

6. Develop Early Warning Monitoring Criteria

7. Adapt

8. Repeat Cycle of the work that we do and some discomfort in the reality that our days have changed very little while others lives (for now) have changed so much.

There’s a great example of this kind of thinking written by Gabe Brown and Shane New titled “Salvaging a Profit in the Current Cattle Market.” In this article, the authors discuss the resources available to a livestock producer who has to consider the current cattle market.

We are still able to work and grow and provide food. Our supply chain is quite local. The grass for our cattle grows here. We purchase grain from the neighbours for the pigs and chickens. The mineral we use for our chickens comes from a local colony (although they do have to source some of the ingredients beyond borders). We have a local butcher shop 30 minutes from home that does all of our processing for us. Of course, we do rely on things from afar (egg cartons, paper bags, butcher paper, fencing supplies, some manufactured equipment, parts to fix equipment etc) but they are still all available. Fortunately, we are in the business of producing food that often travels 100s of kms not 1000s.

Resiliency for our farm comes in the form of diversification, production principles that are healing for the land and take advantage of solar capture, and producing food to feed our (local) community.

Our customers have expressed concern for us, however, it is diversified direct to eater farming system like ours that produce food for people that I suspect will be ok. We are used to some risk (weather, predation, price fluctuation in feed grains etc) and have already built some risk mitigation strategies into our farm. The biggest risk for us is that one of us becomes ill, unwell or injured or that relationship on the farm suffer making it difficult or impossible for us to do our work. This is always a concern, even before the pandemic.

We know that overtime we have to work to build our farm team and build in resiliency on the human resources front. So much of what we do is about the land, the animals, food and community and we know that we also have to take care of our people here at home.

We were concerned with the prospect of not having full time seasonal farm labour this year. We had anticipated having someone from Germany but understand that that is not possible now. We do have some part time local help but without full time help will be taking on some extra work. In future, we may try to run a farm employment co-op program for local students interested in agriculture.

They note that you need to look at all your current economic realities including debt and the timing of payments. Are either of those parameters negotiable? They also discuss taking an inventory of current feed so you have a clear sense of the parameters you are facing there. Then they begin to explore options by thinking about the big picture and managing for what they want. In this case, they explore the possibility of using livestock to graze a cover crop as a means to address soil fertility issues and increase the value of the livestock and the crop coming off the land in a depressed market.

In this case they look at eastern Kansas land rent rates and assume $100/acre for cropland rent. Using what seems to me very conservative pound per acre production and potential weight gain, they calculate that running some calves on the cover crop would result in $59.80/acre in income during a first graze. If you can run those animals again through the cover crop that would be an additional $101.25/acre in revenue for a total of $161.05/acre. They then subtract the

$120.24 in direct costs for the cover crop and rent, which results in a net of $40.81/acre by the time mid-June rolls around. They then list a host of any number of other crops that could be grown at that point which would add profitability to the farming enterprise while increasing the resilience of the land through these soil health practices.

This is just one example of many where regenerative agriculture producers are adapting and responding to the challenges they are facing, by using Holistic Management to respond to the current reality rather than just reacting out of fear and panic. We all are very concerned about how this virus is and could potentially affect our loved ones and communities, and we need to keep the big picture in mind as we determine the appropriate course of action. I hope you take the time to step back and remind yourself about what the big picture means to you and how you can adapt within this current situation to survive and thrive.