BU-06985 1998

To Order

Whole Farm Planning: Combining Family, Profit, and Environment

III. Farm Planning Tools

Whole Farm Planning Tools vs. Farm Planning Tools

Many different tools and resources are available to help you move in the direction of Whole Farm Planning. Most of the tools available are not Whole Farm Planning tools in and of themselves, because they do not cover all four steps in Whole Farm Planning. Rather, they are farm planning tools, which can assist you in specific areas of farm management. When used in combination and in the context of the four Whole Farm Planning steps, these tools can provide most of the elements needed for a good Whole Farm Plan.

Descriptions of Farm Planning Tools

In the rest of this publication, nine farm planning tools are described and compared to assist you in selecting those that you could use in your own Whole Farm Planning process. They were selected by our project team because they are in widespread use and/or are readily available in Minnesota. We have focused on those which are oriented toward forward planning, recognizing that other tools are available from public and private organizations which focus on record keeping and other tasks required in farm management. The nine farm planning tools included are:

Holistic Management
PLANETOR
Farm*A*Syst
Field*A*Syst
NRCS Comprehensive Farm Plan
Dutch Yardstick
AgriSource
FINPACK
Manure Application Planner

Each farm planning tool is based on different philosophies and has its own strengths and weaknesses relative to the four steps of Whole Farm Planning and the three resource areas. You will want to use more than one in developing your Whole Farm Plan, capitalizing on the strengths of each. The descriptions summarize this for each tool. Contact information for each tool is included in its description, as well as in a comprehensive list contained in Section 5.

In addition to including descriptions and contact information for the farm planning tools, we have also included farmer profiles. These profiles show how farmers have used individual farm planning tools to help make decisions on specific aspects of their farms. They are not Whole Farm Planning examples, but illustrate how the farm planning tools are used and what they are best at, helping you to see how they might fit into your overall four-step Whole Farm Planning process. The outcomes in the profiles are not the same outcomes other farmers will have when using the same tools. The farmer profiles are not intended to endorse any particular outcome or farming system.

The cost of each tool has not been included in the descriptions below because it will vary depending on how you obtain the tool, what situation you use it in (on your own, in a workshop, or with a consultant), and whether you have any associated costs (for example, computer expenses, travel, or lab/field tests).

Table 1, in Section 4 of this document, summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the nine farm planning tools with regard to the four essential elements of Whole Farm Planning. The most important thing to remember is to make sure you use farm planning tools in the context of all four steps of Whole Farm Planning, with goal setting coming first. Planning and implementing actions on your farm without first setting your farm and personal goals and relating actions back to them could actually leave you farther from your vision than you were when you started.

Commitment to Whole Farm Planning

Farm planning tools provide some of the structure and information necessary for a good Whole Farm Plan. They cannot, however, eliminate the time and effort required for goal setting, on-the-ground review of resources, quality records, and evaluation of alternative strategies. The amount of time each specific tool requires will vary depending on the condition of your farm records, your familiarity with using the tool, and whether you use it on your own or with the assistance of someone trained in its use. But remember, all planning takes time. It is the commitment to the Whole Farm Planning process, not specific tools, which both requires time and delivers results.

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