Publication Date
1993
Description
We have been gathering experience in Whole Farm Planning since our involvement with the Potter Farmland Plan, 1985-1987. Our concerns rose when we reviewed the welfare of the basic finite resources; soil, water, biodiversity and air. We believed those resources were suffering as they supported us, our sheep and cattle enterprises and all other living things, Our concerns caused us to reexamine the purpose of farming. Many farm planners attempt to plan around inherited grazing, economic and trading systems without first questioning the appropriateness of those systems. We attempted to open our minds, remove the existing "fences" and commence farm planning from the grass roots up, This paper seeks to discuss the effects of that review on our farms, both in the present and for the future. We sought a better way of farming than the previously fundamentally flawed system. This involves a gradual introduction of enterprises such as earthworm farming which will be complementary to the present sheep and cattle enterprises. In that way our over-reliance on sheep and cattle will diminish. But it was also important to "fine tune" our current enterprises and land management actions to better suit environmental and social concerns. In this regard we have attempted to follow nature's model. We reduced the need to supplementary feed our stock, we stopped selection for fast animal growth and we lessened the need to drench our stock. We are exploring ways to diminish the drain of nutrients from our farms in environmentally benign ways, including organic farming techniques. We have engaged in extensive revegetation and pasture improvement programmes. In addition to repairing past damage we are pronctively planning for a sustainable living fulllre. That has involved n move away from a monocultural, fossil-fuel dependent agricultural system. Instead we are planning for more workers on less land by facilitating the introduction of many pennaculture cells onto our farm by the year 2200.
Citation
Milne, Bruce, "Planning for a Farming Future" (2025). IGC Proceedings (1993-2023). 3.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc/1993/session53/3
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
Planning for a Farming Future
We have been gathering experience in Whole Farm Planning since our involvement with the Potter Farmland Plan, 1985-1987. Our concerns rose when we reviewed the welfare of the basic finite resources; soil, water, biodiversity and air. We believed those resources were suffering as they supported us, our sheep and cattle enterprises and all other living things, Our concerns caused us to reexamine the purpose of farming. Many farm planners attempt to plan around inherited grazing, economic and trading systems without first questioning the appropriateness of those systems. We attempted to open our minds, remove the existing "fences" and commence farm planning from the grass roots up, This paper seeks to discuss the effects of that review on our farms, both in the present and for the future. We sought a better way of farming than the previously fundamentally flawed system. This involves a gradual introduction of enterprises such as earthworm farming which will be complementary to the present sheep and cattle enterprises. In that way our over-reliance on sheep and cattle will diminish. But it was also important to "fine tune" our current enterprises and land management actions to better suit environmental and social concerns. In this regard we have attempted to follow nature's model. We reduced the need to supplementary feed our stock, we stopped selection for fast animal growth and we lessened the need to drench our stock. We are exploring ways to diminish the drain of nutrients from our farms in environmentally benign ways, including organic farming techniques. We have engaged in extensive revegetation and pasture improvement programmes. In addition to repairing past damage we are pronctively planning for a sustainable living fulllre. That has involved n move away from a monocultural, fossil-fuel dependent agricultural system. Instead we are planning for more workers on less land by facilitating the introduction of many pennaculture cells onto our farm by the year 2200.