Creating a Farm that Feeds You, Not Drains You
- 22 hours ago
- 2 min read
While many people are drawn to the farming life because they want to be able to feed others and share their love of the land with their community, those same farmers can feel drained and frustrated with a poor quality of life as they run around trying to get all the animals fed and all the chores done.
If that sounds familiar and you'd like to learn how to farm in a way that feeds you and improves your quality of life, sign up for HMI's Holistic Management Foundation's Online Course today!
Stuart and Nikki Oke, who own and manage Rooted Oak Organic Farm in North Augusta, Ontario, Canada, are new farmers who have been able to farm with their values because of Holistic Management. During Stuart’s years of working on other farms to learn the business, he worked on HMI Certified Educator Tony McQuail’s farm (Meeting Place Organic Farm) in 2010. Then in 2021, Stuart came back and took a Holistic Management course with Tony to deepen his learning.
As Stuart notes, "We (Rooted Oak Organic Farm) have now been in operation for 7-8 years, and we’ve been really conscious about creating a business that allows for other things in addition to running the farm business.”
It is that conscious focus that have allowed Stuart and Nikki to achieve their farm goals in a relatively short amount of time through exploring creative options to getting access to land for a permanent home for their farm. Likewise, their focus on effective decision-making and financial and strategic planning has helped them create a farm that allows them to live their values and support causes that are important to them.
“Conceptually the Holistic Management practices resonate with us because that is how we live our lives, with conscious focus on our values,” says Stuart. “It was not a stretch to integrate these concepts into our lives, and it has helped us make thoughtful and intentional choices.”
Learn how to develop a holistic goal for your farm or ranch and make on-farm decisions to support the quality of life you want today by signing up for HMI's Holistic Management Foundations Online Course.