Management is an essential aspect of the farming business. Farm management is the collective term for various management strategies and methods employed to keep a farm productive and profitable.
Holistic Farm Management focuses on productivity, efficiency, and the economic well-being of most growers. Their families depend on making strategic decisions that can impact the whole farm’s present and future efforts. The Holistic Farm Management training sessions will be composed of an entire planning system that helps farmers better manage their agricultural resources to reap sustainable environmental, economic, and social benefits. This training will allow farmers to understand the relationship between plants, livestock, people, the environment, succession planning, risk management, land, and property right. Participants will also gain a greater understanding of financial statements (Balance sheet, Cash flow), E-Authentication and its benefits, farm-business planning, use of renewable energy resources, USDA current programs, services, etc., the financial aspect of these unique elements. The concept of holistic management considers the well-being of everything involved in managing a farm and those impacted by the farm and the farm family.
Farm Management training sessions will be held four times per year or one meeting per quarter on Saturdays to fit the farmer’s schedule. One of the four sessions will be a farm educational field trip within and the surrounding states designed to reiterate the other three session materials and information sessions. Each meeting is one day per quarter except the field trip, where holistic farm management and practices will be illustrated and demonstrated.
The participants that complete the training will be granted a certificate for Holistic Farm and Financial Management Best Management Practices, with 24 hours of classroom and field sites and 24 hours of field over one period nine days, over three years of on-field activities. Forty participants per year, will be selected from an application process. Each potential participant will be required to meet minimum criteria from the selected 17 counties within the targeted audiences’ of Mississippi.
