8 Thoughts On Setting Farm Goals for your Soil Health Roadmap
Learn the crucial importance of determining your farm goals before creating your Soil Health Roadmap
A Soil Health Roadmap (SHR) is a comprehensive approach to improving the health of your land.
I’ve always believed that the health of my land is the basis of the health of my livelihood.
But figuring out how to translate that belief into actionable strategies that truly improve soil health has proven more difficult. In the beginning years of my farm, I put together a thorough organic systems plan.
But with respect to soil health, my approach was largely ad-hoc. I’d always tried to reduce off farm inputs, and I was reticent to spray or apply anything in my fields that might unintentionally disrupt the plant/insect/soil interactions. I mulched where I could, and kept heavy machinery off of vulnerable soil in wet conditions.
I’d read about all manner of ways to “improve soil health,” but honestly, some years it was all I could do to get some cover crops broadcasted out in the fields at the end of the market season.
What I didn’t understand at the time - but what I came to understand - was that not only did I need a strategic organic systems plan, I also needed to understand my farm’s soil and determine my farm goals to achieve its optimal soil health.
What do you want to do at your diversified operation and why? What are your goals?
Completing a SHR is an opportunity to step back and reassess the purpose of your work. The goal-setting step of the SHR process requires you to establish a clear direction for your operation.
What is working well and what isn’t? What are you hoping to achieve and why? With a solid plan, you won’t be endlessly pulled in multiple directions every time some new-fangled approach turns up. Instead, you can make a note to evaluate it as part of your annual planning process without skipping a beat.
Getting crystal clear about what I’m doing and why has both increased my confidence and substantially reduced my stress level. As I go about implementing my annual work plan, I don’t have to wonder if I’m devoting precious resources to the right project or focusing on the most important thing.
I also no longer wonder if the effort I’m expending really matters. That’s because I took time to establish what is most important to me, and what I hope to accomplish by farming.
Articulating your goals can provide you with necessary guidance to create strategies that will get you where you want to go. This can make work infinitely more fun.
But how?
I remember learning a great deal about different goal setting-theories during my MBA graduate school organizational management classes. There are so many resources and methods for crafting goals.
Here are a few different approaches to crafting your farm goals:
How to Write a Holistic Goal by Holistic Management (Suitable for all times/scales of ranch and farm operations.)
The Organic Farmer's Businss Handbook by Richard Wiswall (See the chapter on goal setting.)
Systems Thinking Resources by The Donella Meadows Project (A systems-thinking approach.)
Goal Setting (University of Minnesota Publication) (Dated, but comprehensive.)
A number of years ago, when I started giving presentations to young agricultural entrepreneurs, I created my own framework to help others and to evaluate potential new enterprises.
No matter what approach you take to goal setting, here are a few tips based on my twenty years of practice:
1. Use a process that works for you.
At heart, I am a creative writer that loves to muse about grand visions and wild ideas. Sitting down with a notebook and free-flow journaling about my goals is easy!
By contrast, my farming partner Brad is a very structured thinker. He has a background in logistics and operations. For him to come up with a set of goals based on how he wants to “feel” is totally nonsensical. (Ask me how I know.)
What makes more sense for him is to use what I call the optometrist strategy. Roughly outline a number of potential future scenarios. (Roughly. Don’t get caught in the weeds here. You don’t have to have all the answers as to how you’ll get there or even particularly like them- this is just a starting point, a doorway in if you will.) Pick two to start with and pose the question, is scenario A or scenario B a better fit?
“A” you say? Ok, then refine, change up or add another scenario on your list. Then pick, “A” or “C”? Keep going!
For some of us, it can be easier to hone in on the right future vision using an iterative process (and then back into the goals that will accomplish that vision) than to figure out how one wants to “feel.”
2. Goal Setting isn’t often equated with research, but that’s exactly what it entails.
It’s a personal excavation of beliefs, desires and motivation combined with a clear understanding of the characteristics and potential of one’s land and community.
Just as we don’t expect a scientist’s research project to be completed in a few short hours, we need to realize the process of goal setting takes time. If you are feeling uninspired, honor that feeling, vow that you’ll keep mulling it over, and go work on another project!
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a light bulb moment of clarity occur while I’m in the middle of mowing a field or transplanting lettuces or pruning my vineyard. Motion often helps me think better. I keep a 3x5 index card and pen in my pocket to capture these sudden insights, and I’ve also recorded notes on my smartphone. More than once, the ah-ha has been so powerful that there is no way I could forget it.
After a decade of experience, I can say with absolute certainty that my field work improves the quality of my desk work, but you’ve got to be patient and aware.
3. Pay attention. Be curious.
What elements of your work make you smile? What parts do you have to muster the strength to get through?
Can you brainstorm ideas to move your work more towards your strengths, and what you enjoy?
If it’s hard for you to envision how anything can change, maybe you could enlist the help of a colleague, friend or family member to widen your vision. Ask them to reflect back to you what they perceive to be your strengths, and what they appreciate about your operation.
Use their insights as a jumping off point.
Often we are told that setting goals is a solitary process. But that’s unrealistic.
All the answers to our questions don’t always come from within us. Yes, it’s important to look inward, but we need exposure to other producers and mentors and their practices and processes to help provide clarity for our situation.
Remember too, that sometimes the best insights come from moving outside our own discipline. In life, who inspires you and what specifically is it they are doing/creating that resonates with you?
4. Goal exploration can be a messy process. That means you’re doing it right.
As you brainstorm, a flow of ideas can come. Or sometimes, just a single word may crop up. You may have small or very specific thoughts such as I want to have milking cows.
Other ideas may seem impossibly intangible such as I want to not have to work so hard.
Whatever it is, write it down, and write it down in a way that works for you. Maybe that is on Post-it Notes, a big tablet of paper, or in a spiral notebook.
Later, you can organize, edit and group your initial thoughts.
But at the start, your job is to get all those emotions, dreams, feelings and desires of what you want to be, do and have onto paper. Also, don’t worry about having the right words or the right phrases, accept what rises up and be the scribe.
In the beginning, don’t worry if any of it makes sense. Just get down what comes, when it comes.
5. Dig deeper.
After your brainstorm session and after you’ve organized your thoughts, it’s time to examine why you want or don’t want to have or do something.
If you initially wrote, I want to not have to work so hard, now drill down.
Ask yourself:
What does that look like for me?
Does it mean you want to have fewer projects?
Fewer employees?
Does it mean you need more employees?
Would growing fewer crops help?
Would managing fewer animals be a better idea?
Do you need a true vacation from your work every year?
Can you work shorter work hours?
Would having better equipment that doesn’t break down so much help?
Would hiring a mechanic to annually service your equipment be a better fit?
Get the idea? There is no universal right answer to the question, How can I not have to work so hard?
But there’s a definite subset of strategies and/or approaches that are exactly the right fit for you.
6. Don’t edit before it’s time.
How many times have you dreamed a wild dream, then abruptly told yourself, well that isn’t possible. Or, I could never do that. Or, there’s no way I can afford it.
Often our brainstorming sessions are overshadowed by unspoken assumptions. We cut ourselves off at the knees, instead of first allowing ourselves to envision the direction we want to set off in.
Goal setting is not just one discrete activity, but rather a set of interconnected tasks. There’s ample time for editing and refinement.
But if you don’t allow yourself to dream at first, your goals will simply end up a reflection of your fears.
They’ll be, by design, self-limiting and uninspiring.
This coming year, (or in ten or six or eighteen years- you decide), what do you want to be doing, with whom, where, and how? Take off your blinders and for a time, allow yourself to be free of roadblocks, no matter how huge or impossibly immoveable they seem.
7. Setting goals is an iterative process. Be strategic and give yourself time.
Assess your goals on a regular basis and then decide how you want to adjust your plan going forward.
Are your goals from last year still aligned with all the knowledge you’ve gained about yourself, your land and your business?
Each year, from early November to mid-December, at the conclusion to the growing season, I take a break.
In my climate and on my land, I could be growing and marketing crops year-round. But I intentionally choose not to, because a self-imposed ‘pause’ is absolutely essential to my well-being.
I still take care of our daily livestock and do farm chores, because that’s a wonderful part of my life. But I look forward to each November when I can rest from the constant churn of growing, tending, harvesting and marketing crops.
This break gives me space and time and the luxury of thinking slowly and methodically about my work.
I ask myself what went exceptionally well? What did I love doing? What do I never want to do again?
Every year, I reevaluate my goals and reaffirm, does my current way of operating my business still ring true?
Without my annual winter break, goal setting would feel like trying to fix an engine while it’s running.
8. Thoughtful is better than perfect.
There are a lot of rules about how to write “good” goals, like: make them actionable, use the future tense, write in an active voice.
While there is merit in such guidelines, the most important thing is that your written goal statement captures your primary focus and beliefs.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you.
For example, my goal statement highlights my belief in farmers as stewards, that soil health is absolutely essential to my work, and that I am interested in supporting my community.
It’s not perfect, but for me, it's a perfectly workable tool to help make sure potential opportunities and farm management changes align with what matters most to me.
Every year, I spend time ruminating on my goal statement. Is it still meaningful? Is it still inspiring?
As I grow and change, so do my goals.
April Joy Farm Goal Statement
I seek to steward a diversified enterprise that provides a financially comfortable livelihood while protecting the health and integrity of my farm ecosystem. I am devoted to improving soil health and thereby increasing farm resilience. I want my farm to be a community-focused asset that affords area residents access to healthy, high quality food.
Establishing the overarching goals of your operation is absolutely essential to creating a feasible, meaningful SHR. As you dive into the details of crafting your SHR, there will be numerous decisions you need to make.
Your recommendations will rely heavily on your goals. You’ll be referring to them frequently to help guide you in establishing creative ideas and changes that will work for your operation. These recommendations will move you closer to the vision you have for your operation.
A set of intentional goals are like the edges of the riverbank.
A lot of motion and change can still occur within the channel, but well-thought out goals provide much-needed structure and purpose to all that energy, ultimately guiding your work in ways that help your farm flow.
When it comes to improving soil health, diversified producers face significant challenges.
It can be difficult to figure out exactly what practices to focus on and also how feasible they are to implement.
A SHR is a comprehensive, systems-based approach to managing soil health—one that maintains the unique nature of every producer and their land. For more information on creating a SHR for your operation, read about the components of a SHR here.