Holistic management - part 7: completing the feedback loop
The book Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making (affiliate link) sets out a guide to developing a holistic goal for your farm or business.
Part 7 is short - only one chapter, but an important concept. Anyone familiar with the the basic Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle will recognise the need for "completing the feedback loop". The basis of this chapter is monitoring the effect of your decision after implementation to make sure you got it right. Even though you will have tested the decision as per part 6, you will have had to make assumptions, and if any of these were wrong, or you missed something, maybe it will turn out to be the wrong decision, despite best efforts. Savory says to always consider that you could have been wrong. The earlier you can realise this and change direction, the better. Maybe you will have to vary plans slightly to make it work, or maybe you will have to cancel the whole project, but the earlier this happens the best chance you have of saving your money and effort for a more successful endeavour.
Part of the planning process should be considering how to monitor progress. In some cases this might mean using a small test batch or area instead of investing fully. For example, when we wanted to try perennial pasture, we only planned a few acres to start with. We checked it weekly, at first it looked like the pasture was not growing and whole thing had been a disaster, but then it started to grow and is now doing well. We learnt which grass varieties thrived, we didn't need fertiliser, and it takes a couple months for the pasture to look good. We are waiting for a good time to plant the rest of the paddock now. If it hadn't gone well, we would have had an opportunity to revise the plan before spending time and money on the entire area that needed to be planted.
Savory also suggests looking for evidence such as plant spacing, soil litter cover, soil density, aeration or organic content, quality of water run-off and insect activity to monitor long-term changes.
Do you have examples where you have monitored a plan and made changes?
Joel Salatin's books
Peter Andrew's books on Natural Sequence Farming
Permaculture Principles
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