Meadow Lake rancher Don Campbell has long been a holistic management advocate and a catalyst for change. Campbell and his wife Bev are household names within the global holistic management community, but Campbell also garnered a mainstream audience of beef and forage producers as a long-time contributor to Canadian Cattlemen.
Campbell’s career as a rancher and holistic management instructor has demonstrated that making changes at home on one’s ranch and in one’s family can have a big-picture impact on people, profit and the environment.
Holistic history
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Campbell had many years of ranching under his belt when he took his first holistic management course.
“It opened my eyes to a better way of doing things,” he says. “I thought I was a successful 40-year-old rancher but there were so many ways I could do things differently.”
Campbell emphasizes that holistic management is first and foremost a decision-making process. “It’s not about bale grazing or managing your cattle intensively, it’s about encompassing socially sound, environmentally sound and financially sound management.
“Look after your people, improve your land, make a profit,” he says. “If you manage your grass but you don’t have a profit, or you manage your grass and are profitable but not looking after your people, it’s only a matter of time until you fail.
“When I got into holistic management, I made some changes on grass and that worked,” Campbell says, but adds that networking with like-minded people prompted a deeper growth. “I started to associate with different people who were an open-minded sort and had balance in their lives and that inspired me to be more like that.
“The biggest benefit was becoming a lifelong learner and I became a better person, or I’m better than I used to be,” Campbell says. “Personal growth was a main one for me.”
Don and Bev became holistic management educators to help others who were seeking change.
“Bev’s love and support were vital to my success as a man, a rancher and an (holistic management) facilitator. When she joined me in my teaching career, my effectiveness skyrocketed. So much of my success is directly linked to Bev.”
Planting seeds of change
Throughout Campbell’s career, his family has helped many producers change and challenge their paradigms.
“I came up with a saying years ago: ‘If you want to make small changes, change how you do things; if you want to make big changes, change how you see things.’”
He says one challenge to change can be believing in yourself, but starting with an achievable target can help. “Pick something that you can do, and there’s nothing like success to increase your motivation.
“One thing holistic management teaches is that you are the expert on your farm. Holistic management can help you become a better manager and give you the tools to make better decisions.”
Campbell is conscious of his words when explaining holistic management. “Mostly what I share, is my personal experience. I got to a point a long time ago, I’ve never tried to convince anyone of anything. If you’re interested, I’ll tell you more. If you aren’t, we’re still friends.”
He adds that sometimes simply phrasing things as a question will make people see things differently. “For example, ‘Would things in your life be better with more balance?’”
Conventional agriculture tends to focus efforts on production, which is often a strength for many producers. Campbell urges producers to figure out their profit, rather than production, and that finding balance means prioritizing people.
“In Canada, in farming communities and in my own life, people tend to be the weak issue. Being a man, we don’t like to think about that. We’d rather pound a post or drive a tractor,” he says, but adds that emphasizing people needs to be a focus.
“Find your weakness. That’s the most important place to work.”
Writing with purpose
Campbell wrote a holistic ranching column for Canadian Cattlemen for 13 years, during some of the industry’s toughest times.
“I just started writing out of the clear blue sky,” he chuckles.
Sharing ideas and putting concepts in print can take courage, and he shared insight on many complex topics including drought, species at risk, price insurance and succession.
When reflecting on his column, his incentive was simple. “I think my motivation is that I care about people. I care about people I know and people I’ve never met.”
Not everyone is going to pen a column, but one thing Campbell insists people should write down is a goal.
“When it’s written it’s real. When you write it and share it with the important people in your life, you give them the opportunity to hold you accountable. If it’s not written down, it’s like a wish.”
Goal setting is a key part of holistic management and was integral to their personal ranch transition plan when Don and Bev transferred responsibilities to the next generation. The Campbells worked with Kelly Sidoryk to help them put together a goal that the entire family subscribed to.
“That goal is the single most important thing that kept us in business. The first year (after transition) we had a drought, then BSE.”
When they encountered big challenges and had to consider what their next steps should be, they always looked to their goal for answers.
Past achievements, a positive future
Campbell describes having the support and buy-in of his family members as “the best success of his life.”
“When we took holistic management, our kids were young, maybe 10 years old, and they grew up with that mindset and grew up with planning and having a goal.”
As their children turned 18, Don and Bev nudged them to leave the ranch, where they worked and learned from others in different regions. When the children returned, they returned as equals, he adds.
“We moved from father-son to partner(s).”
He acknowledges that shift can be hard, but the opportunity for everyone is the payoff. “The father has to give up some stuff and the son has to be confident.”
Using an example from their own ranch, Don and Bev hired one of their sons as a manager, with a contract outlining responsibilities and a discussion around advice. “I told him, you are to get advice when youthink you need it, not when I think you need it,” says Campbell, who observed a lot of growth in his children as they gained responsibility.
“He watched me for 20 years. What was watching me for 21 going to change?”
The Campbell family and the B-C Ranch have won prestigious awards and honours, including the national environmental stewardship award (TESA) in 2008.
“The TESA was nice and we got that for growing the grass,” says Campbell, adding that accolades like that help to promote the message that holistic management is effective.
More recently, Don and Bev were honoured at the 2023 Western Canadian Holistic Management Conference.
“I was very honoured and very humbled,” says Campbell. “Most of my success is because of the people I’ve associated with — they knew what my goal was and supported me.”
Five years ago, Campbell stepped back from facilitating, taking his own dad’s words of wisdom to heart. “My dad was involved in a lot of things and he always said ‘Do what you can and quit when you’re still good.’ It was time to turn over and let the younger educators do the work.”
These days, Campbell continues to work in the summer, ride his horse and occasionally write for Holistic Management International and Holistic Management Canada.
He continues to draw daily inspiration from people and practices he has fostered. “I see people creating the life they want and living their dreams. They increase production from a set land base, which gives them more profit. They work with nature, which gives them more time.
“Holistic management helped us find those things and we want to help people find those things too.”
– Tara Mulhern Davidson is a writer and a beef and forage consultant. She ranches with her family in southwestern Saskatchewan.
