Whole farm planning fits nicely with sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is agriculture that is ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just. Whole farm planning can be seen as the process to carry out sustainable agriculture. Whole farm planning is a process for on-farm decision-making that includes all aspects of the farm. It can be used by the farm family or farm unit to balance the quality of life desired with the farm's resources and the desire for profitability and stewardship of the land.

Whole farm planning takes a systems approach to farm planning and integrates all of the aspects of farm planning. To carry out a systems approach, it takes integrating many aspects into one plan. In Minnesota, we recognize that there is not one way to plan and not one entity, agency, or consultant that can fully integrate everything into a plan. Therefore, the Minnesota Whole Farm Planning Working Group (working group) was formed to discuss, network, experiment, and ensure that the concepts of whole farm planning are understood and included in agricultural and natural resource agencies around Minnesota. The working group consists of farmers, natural resource agency representatives, researchers, non-profit organizations and consultants.

The working group is experimenting with implementing the concepts of whole farm planning through a series of workshops. These workshops are to help farmers, their families, and their resource people work together to pull the numerous aspects of the farm together into a written plan. To pull these different aspects together we have presenters who are farmers, from non-profit organizations, natural resource agencies and the University of Minnesota. Presenters know their own area of expertise but also understand the importance of relating their specialty with all of the other aspects of the farm.

These workshops are flexible to allow the farmers in the workshops to design the aspects of the farm they want in depth information on. The working group feels that goal setting, natural resource inventories, and economic analysis are essential and need to be included in each series, but it is important that the participants have the chance to gain experience in planning other aspects of the farm important to them. For example, at the workshop series in Marshall the participants were interested in more information on marketing strategies and presenters were brought in to address marketing strategies in Minnesota.

At these workshops there have been a variety of farm types from dairy, deep bedded hog systems, niche markets for specific meat type hogs, alternative crops, direct marketers, to horses. Not only is each farm different in how the farmer manages, but the enterprises raised and the way the products are marketed are unique. These workshops are designed to give the farmer basic information on how to pull a whole farm plan together, how the farmer actually does that is up to the farmer.

To gain some practical experience in how the process of whole farm planning works it is helpful to learn from people who are going through the process. Following is an article written by Greg Booth on his experience with doing a whole farm plan. Greg and his wife, Vickie Kettlewell, attended the first workshop in Little Falls in 1998.