On August 20th, 2024, we launched our exciting three-part webinar series tailored specifically for EOV farmers. This thought-provoking series was designed to challenge how you perceive your farm and to inspire breaking free from conventional, often broken systems.
In the daily grind of farming, it’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of reactionary decision-making, constantly responding to immediate challenges while losing sight of our greater purpose. These webinars offered a valuable opportunity to share EOV farmers’ voices, take a step back, and holistically consider what true health means for both farm and family.
Along with the Ata Regenerative team and fellow EOV farmers, we were thrilled to welcome special guest Te Radar, a renowned comedian and TV personality who is a passionate advocate for regenerative farming practices. Joining him was Malcom White from Bairnsdale Farm, a seasoned practitioner of regenerative agriculture and holistic management. Malcolm shared his wealth of experience, discussing how he navigated challenges and the rewards of persevering through difficult times.
Below, we’ve compiled some of the most insightful moments from one of the original regenerative farmers, Malcom White. These snippets offer a glimpse into the transformative power of rethinking our approach to farming and embracing a more holistic, regenerative mindset.
Conversation snippets from EOV webinar one
Hugh Jellie: Malcom, you’ve mentioned a pivotal moment in your farming journey. Can you tell us about that?
Malcom: In the late 2000s, we had three lower-than-normal rainfall years and basically what we felt was three droughts on the trot. Things were looking pretty bleak, and the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council set up a cool day run by John King, the title of which was ‘Never Run Out of Grass’. So, I went there, and it caught my attention. I went to listen to him, and I told him this was all very well, but at that stage, I blamed the weather for the situation. I said, what can you do about no rainfall?
He told me to go back and look at the roadside, which I was quite insulted by, but when I did go look at the roadside, I saw that it wasn’t Waikato dairy pasture by any means, but there was pasture, and the contrast with the dust and nodding thistles in my paddock was extreme. That was a pivotal moment because it made me realise then that what was going on in the paddock was what I had done. It was our management, it wasn’t a capricious act of the gods or anything.
Hugh Jellie: How did that realisation impact your approach to farming?
Malcom: It was purely mismanagement. So, ownership of responsibility actually gives you agency. It empowers you because if you’ve created the situation, then obviously, you can now correct it.
Hugh Jellie: You’ve talked about the state of your farm before making these changes and potential social pressures to moving away from a ‘conventional’ system. Can you describe that?
Malcom: If you’ve really flattened the battery and the farm’s not looking a picture, you’ve got no social kudos. From that point of view, there was nothing to lose.
Hugh Jellie: You’ve discussed the role the introduction to Holistic Management played in your change. How did you start to bring those principles into the farming operation? And how did Holistic Management really help you?
Malcom: Holistic Management was the process, how we did it, and the whole framework by which we started to operate. Many people think holistic management is about the grazing system, but it’s not. It’s about identifying your context and what you want from the farm and then testing your decisions to see if they align with that context. Part of your context is your four ecosystem processes, I’d suggest.
One way of defining it is that all four ecosystem processes are improving, and ideally, you want them humming. They’re musketeers, aren’t they? They’re kind of one for all and all for one. You can’t have the great water cycle and everything else flat; they either rise together or collapse together. So, what you’re trying to do is, as you mentioned earlier, you question how do I capture the most solar energy and to ask, ‘how we bring that into the system?’ And then, from there, everything else falls out. Of course, it’s a holistic system.
Hugh Jellie: What keeps you motivated to continue with this approach?
Malcom: What keeps us going? It’s just so much! It’s given us agency back. But we’re free to stuff it up, and we’re free to make it better. We’re no longer sort of victims of weather, or, you know, capricious fates, or anything. It’s down to us; that’s empowering; the changes we’ve seen, the increase of insect life and bird life, are just a source of great joy. We go out to move the cows, and we just got hundreds of swallows and fantails just flitting around. Everything goes quiet because falcons come flying over, and then everything comes back out again. It’s just beautiful. It’s fun, to be honest, it makes it incredibly interesting. You kind of lose the fear. I’m no longer afraid of grass getting away. I’m no longer afraid of anything really. bring it on! We’ll cope with it. Touch wood.
“Holistic management is about identifying your context and what you want from the farm, and then testing your decisions to see if they align with that context you’ve identified.” – Malcom White
Hugh Jellie: How has this approach impacted your family and community?
Malcom: Okay, the most exciting thing for us is that Nikki, our daughter, wants to come home and carry it on because it’s gripped her interest. Our son, Chris, is the same. He’s much more interested in what’s happening on the farm now than he ever used to be. So that social aspect is just wonderful for us.
I reckon nature’s default is one of abundance, and anything shy of abundance is what we have done. Therefore, it’s up to us to try to find, through the context of the ecosystem principles, ways to steer the ship back towards potential abundance.
Hugh Jelle: How do you work out what you think makes sense from the screeds of information available on line; for example, the concept of planting a sunflower being regenerative?
Malcom: That’s a great question I think about often. I guess there has to be some level of intuition. It sort of sings to you, or it doesn’t. But there are some things you read, and you go, Yep, that makes sense, and that fits with my worldview. So happy to explore it. And other times you come along, you go, No, I don’t think so.
Bruce McGregor: Malcom, I wonder if a lot of people don’t really realise that their battery is flat.
Malcom: Yes, I agree with you, and that’s why I talk about nature’s default being abundance. The real problem here is that if you set your compass, you’re heading towards the unknown because we don’t know what a fully charged battery looks like.
If I could just follow up with one insight that dawned on me, it was that ecosystem processes are musketeers are all for one-on-one for all. You can’t have an effective water cycle, solar cycle, or mineral cycle without increasing biodiversity. It just won’t happen. So that’s what makes increasing biodiversity such a key, I believe, fundamentally important focus.
Bruce McGregor: Is it fair to say that whether we like it or not, we’re managing those four musketeers at any given tick of a clock?
Malcom: Absolutely. And it goes, for better or worse. That’s why you have to monitor it. Because it’s so complex, you don’t always know. You can’t know if you’ve got it right at the start. You can only learn from experience.
Join the growing number of EOV farms
Thank you to all the EOV farmers and guest speakers for one of the most valuable conversations this year. Here is a recording of the full webinar.
Every region, farm, and climate has unique biodiversity, and EOV allows farmers to “hear” their land, understand what needs to be done, and determine the best way to get there.
Becoming part of the EOV programme is a step towards realising the unrealised potential in your soil, people, organisation and community.
If you wish to bring further farms into EOV or know of farms wanting to join, please get them to contact Alex at alex@ata.land.
If you would like to learn more about EOV, enquire through info@ata.land.
Watch out for more valuable insights from our second webinar, and finally, thank you for exploring insights from our first webinar. As Te Radar said, “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t believe in a better world.”
