Spend 10-12 hours spread over each week for 10 weeks working through the renowned Regrarians Platform® based farm planning process guided by the world-class Regrarians® Team led by Darren J. Doherty.
Save $1000’s by doing this unique and holistic farm planning program — put the money you would have spent on consultants into regenerating your life, your farm and your community.
Two (2) live GoToWebinar-based sessions per week, weekly Google Drive-based task work with feedback, a super active Slack-based REX forum and support from the experienced Regrarians Team the whole way.
Have access to the program materials (including recordings of the twice-weekly live sessions) for as long as you need after the 10 weeks and also to the exclusive and professional Regrarians® Network of world-leading practitioners.
There are two live sessions each week: Live 1 and Live 2. The dates that appear below are for the different time international time zones — i.e. OCT 15-16 means that the Live 1 session of that week will be on the 15th of October in the EU/Americas and on the 16th of October on the other side of the International Date Line in places such as Oceania.
Live 1 Timetable:
Live 2 Timetable:
Since it was incepted in 2012 the Regrarians Platform (‘RP’) has provided a large number of people with a planning process that is holistic, inclusive and thorough. Its 10 layers are based on the 8 factor ’Keyline® Scale of Permanence’ that the renowned P.A. Yeomans outlined in 1958 and forms the basis to all of Regrarians Ltd. trainings, farm planning consultancies and media outreach. A RP farm plan is not just a design on a map — its a detailed and holistic process that brings together the contexts of an individual, their family, their team and their community with that of the climate and the landscape and region they’re operating in.
“…If you’re not designing your life then someone else is…”
Striking words from Javan, words that hit the chord of how important it is to establish what Regrarians’ founder, Darren J. Doherty, calls the ‘climate of mind’. The Holistic Context is a potent framework for refining what is truly important in you, your family’s and your teams lives and how that is expressed in the enterprises you work on and the landscapes and communities you work in.
The development of a Holistic Context is a critical part of the pathway to creating an achievable farm plan. Within the Regrarians Platform it becomes the benchmark against which all land management and enterprise decisions are made. Develop the understanding about what you really stand for, what makes you and your family (and team) happy, how you can work most productively and how you can build a foundation of landscape, enterprise and community wealth.
The advent of the free Google Earth® software has been a boon for land managers the world over — its become a ‘universal translator’ of sorts between all manner of more sophisticated and expensive software and has democratised the power or geography. Learning how to use it effectively and understanding its limits are important steps in building a farm plan. Its also important to set up your Google Earth folders from the start and Regrarians Platform layers are the natural order of these folders.
“…Water is the principle planning medium. Water comes before roads and fences and everything. If you get the water right, you get the roads right and you plant the trees in the right place, and no-one does that…”
– P.A. Yeomans, 1979
A primary step in the Regrarians approach to farm planning is to use Keyline Geographic Analysis to understanding the principal landscape elements. Once established these elements inform the placement of most of the design features that make up the Development layers of the Regrarians Platform. Using the Keyline Geographic Analysis is at once liberating and powerful as the landscape ‘speaks to you’ (P.A. Yeomans), ‘telling’ you where to put different elements such as water, road, tree, building and fencing systems.
The Regrarians Platform (RP) process is holistic and therefore thorough. The RP Checklist that goes provides an ‘A-Z’ list of points to consider when formulating a farm plan that will work for you and puts you and your landscape at the centre of the process.
Understanding the ecosystem processes of your landscape and how these interact with the built elements are critical to building an effective farm plan. Using your farm map as a base and applying some simple and yet effective site analysis techniques will help you now and into the future as monitoring landscape function is a key component of holistic land management. We’ll introduce you to the brilliant ‘Bullseye!’ monitoring methodology that our original Holistic Management Certified Educator (HMCE) Kirk Gadzia co-authored. Also to the great work of another experienced HMCE and Regrarians Ltd. associate/mentor in Graeme Hand, who will help you understand landscape function better and is a co-facilitator at this module’s webinar.
At this stage of the farm planning process you should have a good idea of what development-based elements should be placed on the farm map. From our perspective its a strong case of “less being more” — whereby planning is focussed on what is needed in the short to medium term though with an eye to future plans and capacity. Typically concept plans will focus on the ‘development layers’ of Water, Access, Forestry, Buildings and Fencing. This might involve planning water storages and a network of pipes, designing some farm roads, orchards and shelter belts, placing farm buildings, the homestead grid of fencing.
Over the course of the last eight weeks you will now have a very sound idea of your Holistic Context and how this is reflected in the development and management of your farm through your concept plan. Now its the time to be ‘Strategic, Pragmatic & Incremental’ — zoom into the planning work you’ve done so far as you look to take the next steps and actualise what you’ve planned. The testing decisions in the ‘Holistic Management Framework’ for decision making will help guide you to what do and what not to do, and when. Does your project need a big ‘D’ development approach or is it a big ‘M’ management approach that’s best for you (or vice versa) ? This is the time to look at deciding which levers you should pull.
Our last week! Do you still have more questions than answers or are you completely ready to dive in? Each of you will be at different stages in where you are at right now. We get that. This week is all about you using the time to open right up about what’s holding you back and where to next and how the Regrarians® Network can help you. Regenerative Agriculture is not just about building a new farm, its also about building new communities and continued professional development. The Regrarians® Network can help you in a lot of ways so that you are not alone out there and that farm by farm, acre by acre we build the world that we all know is possible when we put our minds and hands and hearts to the task.
With the advent of the Regrarians Ltd. non-profit in 2013, Darren has shifted his service profile to being that of a volunteer of that organisation, and is a leading attendee at conventions and conferences organised in conjunction with local organisations and individuals all over the globe.
Darren is a 5th generation Bendigo region farmer, developer, author & trainer and has been involved in the design & development of well over 2000, mostly broadacre projects across 6 continents in over 50 countries, ranging from 1 million hectare cattle stations in Australia’s Kimberly region to 110,000 acre Estancia’s in Patagonia, EcoVillage developments in Tasmania to public:private R&D agroforestry & education projects in Viet Nam, novel AG Machinery development + family farms across the globe with a range of private, corporate, government & non-profit clients.
A true ‘integrationalist’, Darren has more recently been the originator of the Keyline® Design (2006), Carbon Farming (2006), Carbon Economy (2007), Regenerative Agriculture (along with RegenAG® {2009}) & Regrarians® (2012) and Regrarians® REX, ROC & RAP conventions and conferences across Europe, North & South America and Oceania. This wide experience has created an international reputation of achievement plus and enviable & expansive network that integrates many disciplines. Globally many of Darren’s alumni and client base of well over 15,000 people are at the cutting edge of the movement towards regenerative agriculture & living systems.
Darren is the originator of the Regrarians Platform process which outlines a strategic & logical process to the development of regenerative agricultural systems, and is the program extensively outlined in the Regrarians Handbook which is now being released chapter by chapter as an eBook.
Darren is married to Lisa Heenan & together they have three children, Isaebella (24), Pearl (17) & Zane (15). Lisa, Darren & Isaebella are all Directors of Regrarians Ltd., a family-operated non-profit attending conventions and conferences across the world, whilst organising Australian-based events, development, AG products & multi-award winning media out of the Bendigo region of central Victoria, Australia.
Lisa and Isaebella are the multi-award winning Producers, Directors and Cinematographers of the critically acclaimed feature film, ‘Polyfaces‘, which was released in late 2015.
Stuart Muir Wilson, Architect, Australia http://www.designforhumanity.org.au/
…Not only did I gain the knowledge in how to transform a desert into an abundant landscape over broad acreage, through pragmatic, incremental and economical viable options, with a working aspiration to the vision Regrarians state in repairing the biosphere. I learned how business strategies, keyline, permaculture, holistic management have beneficial outcomes. Transform the climate of mind form one of competition to one of cooperation and self-actualisation. I cannot speak highly enough of the ethics, values, principles, practical knowledge, business skills, presentation tips, resources and leadership Darren and Lisa have given me over the years. This wisdom has empowered my career to one of regeneration in conflict zones and humanitarian projects…
Gautier Gras, GreenSinai, Farmer, Sicily, Italy
I cannot recommend highly enough Darren as a teacher, and the REX as a course for professional regenerative land design.
Integrative, structured, and to the point.
Byron Joel, Oak Tree Designs, Margaret River, Western Australia http://www.oaktreedesigns.com.au
In this line of work there are so many points to be taken into account when designing that it is quite easy to be swamped by what feels like an endless sea of details, variables and potential choices. For me this course felt like a culmination point of years of study and practice coming together to be organised and directed into a clear design template. The Regrarian Platform is the next major node in the regenerative agriculture movement.
Meghan Giroux, Vermont Edible Landscapes, Bristol, Vermont, USA http://www.vermontediblelandscapes.com
I’ve been a participant is three of Darren’s Farm Planning classes. Each time I’m pleasantly surprised by Darren’s ability to make complex information palatable using a teaching style that feels both welcoming and inclusive.
Charl Crous, Farmer, South Africa
Ecologically, Socially & Financially, Darren empowers farmers to not only be the change they wish to see in their context and community. He includes a lifetime of “walking the talk”, his knowledge, skill and experience are priceless.
Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm Inc. Swoope, Virginia, USA
Darren is the foremost farm water and hydration planner in the world.