Whole Farm Management: From Start-Up to Sustainability

Had some good insight for our small operation. Well written. Some parts certainly didn’t apply, but the majority was useful and worth the time to read.

Garry Stephenson has been studying small farms and farm marketing for decades and I trust what he has to say. It was Dr. Stephenson and his colleague Larry Lev who years ago noticed that it isn't the cost of items at a farmers market that limit what people buy, it's the weight! They recommended that markets invest in trolleys or that the pay teens to carry purchases to shoppers' cars. Garry Stephenson has an excellent eye for reality."Whole Farm Management" is a curriculum in the form of a book. The training is also available online. The book is divided into 6 chapters that can be read in any order. Buying it in book form is a bonus because you can refer to any chapter at any time.Building a successful commercial farm is a circular activity. Discovering what you can grow and discovering what you can sell profitably are the yin and yang. One cannot exist without the other. This book is a starting place for exploration. There are lessons here for aspiring farmers and people with years of experience. The principles are eternal.If I were to discuss all of the good information in this book, my review would go on for pages. It is better just to say that if you are interested in starting to farm or want to gain deeper insights into the work you are already doing. Please try this book.I received a review copy of " Whole Farm Management: From Start-Up to Sustainability" edited by Garry Stephenson from Storey Publishing through NetGalley.com.Dr. Stephenson writes that royalties from the sale of the book will support the Oregon State University Center for Small Farms & Community Food Systems and its work in sustainable agriculture and community food systems.

We used this as a textbook for a beginning farmer training program to help teach about basic farm business and operations management. It's perfect! I really appreciate the example and case study pages as it grounds all the "theory" and "best practices" in the reality of actual farm businesses. Besides it makes it much more engaging to read :).The content is all well-written by a variety of well-versed authors, easily accessible, with enough detail to be of actual use to someone who's starting a farm or already has an operating business, but without diving into so much detail that it makes it hard to get through or super-long. I especially appreciated the "vision it" and "manage it" sections, as these related very well with the content we were delivering in our programs. They provided a good solid perspective and approach to these topics and then our workshops provided related case studies and examples. I've read a few farm business handbooks and I think this is one of the better ones that I've seen. It has an integrated, holistic approach and is ground-truthed with real farmers. There's a section near the end called "reality check" about work/life balance that's also extremely helpful and important.The worksheets at the end are a good starting point. Some of them feel a little short or over-simplified to really flesh out the whole topic. But I think they are meant to get the mental wheels turning and then you can create your own documents that make sense for yourself and your business, and for that I think they are great.Highly recommended!

I work with a non-profit that does beginning farmer and rancher training, and I am also a beginning farmer myself. This book is not only beautiful, but also full of useful, practical information, presented in a logical and easy to follow format. I also really appreciate the profiles of real farmers, which are so helpful in taking the abstract concepts of business planning and making them real. We used this as a textbook for our advanced training programs this past year, and will continue to do so in the future, and I will personally return to this book as a resource as well. Thanks Gary for putting together such a great guide and helping pave the way for more future farmers!

I like the Holistic Management framework used in this book and the Case Study approach that uses real farmers as examples for key concepts being presented. It presents the usual topics of a farm business planning book in a very readable, accessible way. The chapter called “Grow It” is a nice addition, given the emphasis on holistic management, including “Managing the Whole Farm Ecosystem”, because it covers a lot of the very relevant and current concepts around Regenerative Agriculture.I plan to use the book as a resource for upcoming workshops and courses for beginning farmers and to recommend it to others.

A must for any beginning farmer! Incredibly informative book for any new farmer.