Whole Farm Planning: Setting the Baseline
From 2025 the Scottish Government is introducing a new requirement for all farms and crofts in receipt of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments to complete a Whole Farm Plan. The scheme aims to help identify ways to make farms and crofts more efficient, productive and profitable, particularly through improving:
- Emissions associated with a business
- Environmental condition of farms and crofts
- Health and welfare of livestock
- Use of fertilisers and pesticides.
A whole farm approach can help build resilience to economic and climate shocks while delivering public goods such as reducing GHG emissions, increasing carbon sequestration and enhancing biodiversity.
An example of a farm using whole farm planning
Charles Ekin is a new entrant owner of a 140-hectare farm in Southern Fife, which sits about 300 feet above sea level. It is a mix of improved and unimproved grassland, with 25ha of arable land which is currently in winter forage for sheep. The pasture is contract grazed with sheep in the winter and 120 head of cattle with calves at foot in summer.
Charles uses whole farm planning as a holistic approach to inform and support the long term, strategic planning for the farm – a decision-making framework, taking the entire holding and natural capital assets into account.
“I try to take a step back and have a helicopter view of where the farm is now and, more importantly, where it's going and what I want that to look like”.
The main areas that Charles would like to address with a whole farm planning approach are to rebuild soil health and fertility, reduce the carbon footprint, and build resilience to the changing climate, particularly in the context of water management, shelter and habitat.
Audits and baseline data
In taking on a new farm, and with a lot of decisions to make, Charles is building up the baseline data for his farm through the audits which make up a whole farm plan, and using the information to make decisions and review what actions are needed to achieve the required goals: “You can't make a plan based on looking at just one small part of the pie. It's utterly vital to look at the whole.”
Whole farm plans comprise of five audits, which look at:
- The emissions from a business – through a carbon audit
- The environmental condition of their farms and crofts – through a biodiversity audit and soil analysis
- The health and welfare of their livestock – through an animal health and welfare plan
- Their use of fertilisers and pesticides – through an integrated pest management (IPM) plan.
So far Lumphinnans has carried out a carbon audit, a biodiversity audit and soil analysis though new, holistic, farm-benchmarking platform Soil Association Exchange. Charles will work with his tenant going forward (by 2028) to carry out animal health and welfare and IPM plans.
Advice on woodland creation and management
There are currently no hedges and very few trees on the farm – Charles (subject to funding) is planning to plant hedges and shelterbelts and hopes to turn two the most unproductive areas into timber-producing woodland using a productive broadleaf model. In addition to this there are plans for creating shelter for cattle and sheep through in-field agroforestry, which could also improve biodiversity and farm resilience to climate change. He has had free specialist advice on woodland creation and management, which farmers can access through Woodland Trust Scotland and the Farm Advisory Service.
According to Charles, accurate data-gathering constitutes best practice for whole farm planning, and follows an overarching principle – if you have bad data at the beginning, you can't accurately compare it: "Gathering accurate data provides a baseline that you can measure against in five years’ time... Make sure your initial data is accurate, because if it isn't, then you can't make a good decision based on bad data".
A transition to sustainable and regenerative farming
The whole farm plan operates as a live project with flexibility – a basic inventory of the farm, including natural capital, supporting the process of setting objectives and considering priorities for farm business. Taking a Whole Farm approach enables Charles to address the challenges in an integrated way: “It will hopefully improve the soil health and biodiversity over time. It will focus my mind on the profitability of the farm and goes hand in hand with the other objectives of reducing carbon emissions, reducing inputs and improving animal health and welfare”.
Charles Ekin believes that a whole farm approach can and should accelerate a transition to sustainable and regenerative farming: “85% of farms in Scotland are not profitable without subsidies. The Whole Farm Plan framework could support a transition towards more profitable and sustainable farming practices, which provide public good as well as high quality food”.
Read more about our Planning 4 Change programme here.
Access our Whole Farm Planning resources here.