Tocal College (NSW DPI) and Vanguard Business Services are running a ground-breaking new program that is designed to help farmers take your business to the next ecological level. Farm Business Boot Camp Green has been built on a foundation of best practice in practical land management - mixing business, production and ecological topics. The program will incorporate principles of Allan Savory's holistic management, in a dynamic network setting. The speakers will include a range of farmers sharing their experiences, and participants will receive easy-to-read manuals as well as a range of computer spreadsheets and materials to help you put your learning into practice.

The program is being offered for FREE for up to 20 participants, through funding from the NSW Department of Education & Training Strategic Skills Program. If you are interested, you will need to submit the Commitment Form (available to download below). The course will start on Tuesday 5th June 2012, in Wagga Wagga.

The program will involve a series of six one-day workshops, with participants also required to work at home on assignments relevant to your own farm. The aim is that when you have worked through the program, your land will start to show positive impacts and your overall business will improve from the ground up, making a lasting change to how you see and manage your land.

The program will cover:

1. Goal formation, decision making and your farm's ecological policies: How to make more effective decisions on good land management, focussing on grazing management and low cost land management tools


2. Understanding your farm’s natural ecosystem and biodiversity and the importance of this to soil health: Building soil carbon, monitoring your land health and identifying how you can use grazing management to improve your land


3. Production management: Pasture cropping, biological farming, grazing management and recent land management innovations and technologies that improve farm ecology, production and profit, focussing on grazing management


4. Mapping out the future of your farm: Taking into account innovations in fencing, water and monitoring technology to run a simple low cost operation to create a farm plan for the future


5. Designing a paddock restoration project: Bring together all of your learning to identify paddock based problems, research their causes and plan, budget and implement practical solutions.

For more information, or to register your interest, please contact Amanda Furney at Vanguard Business Services:

• Email: Amanda.furney@vbs.net.au [1]


• Phone: 68 851 925


• Fax: 68 855 737