Holistic Management Comprehensive Training

A farm is one system. Learn to make decisions that keep land, livestock, finances and people working in the same direction.

The Holistic Management Comprehensive is an intensive training programme for farmers, aspiring farmers and agricultural professionals who want to understand and apply the whole Holistic Management framework.

This is not a collection of regenerative techniques or a recipe for how a farm should be run.

It is a decision-making framework designed to help you make better choices in your own context, with your own land, people, resources and constraints.

Apply for the 2026 training

The next Comprehensive

In-person training blocks:

5–8 November 2026
19–22 November 2026

The course includes 8 in-person training days in two four-day blocks, supported by several shorter online Zoom sessions.

The practical ecological monitoring session is held separately in summer, when there is actually something meaningful to monitor in the field.

Location: Polgár, Hungary
Training language: Hungarian

The 2026 training is taught in Hungarian.

If you would like to attend a future English-language Comprehensive in Hungary, let us know.

Participation fee

€1,380 / person

Early bird: €1,240 / person

until 15 October 2026.

The fee includes the 8 in-person training days, online sessions, summer field monitoring session, lunch and refreshments on the in-person training days.

Discounts

Additional participants from the same farm: €1,100 / person — the first participant pays the normal or early-bird rate; each additional participant from the same farm may use this rate.
Alumni: €830 / person — for participants who have previously completed a Holistic Management Comprehensive with us.

Accommodation is not included.

Apply

What is Holistic Management?

On a farm, soil, grass, livestock, money, family, labour and time do not exist as separate systems. Yet we often try to solve problems as if they did.

Holistic Management starts from the recognition that these elements form one complex whole. Rather than prescribing exactly what a farmer should do, it provides a framework for deciding what makes sense in this particular place, at this particular time, with these particular people and resources. It brings ecological, financial and human decision-making into one management process.

What does "Comprehensive" mean?

The Comprehensive is not simply a sequence of separate Holistic Management modules. Its value lies in seeing how the whole system fits together.

Financial planning, grazing planning, ecological monitoring, ecosystem processes, land planning and decision-making can all be taught separately. But none of them, by itself, is Holistic Management.

The purpose of the Comprehensive is to understand how these tools interact inside a real farm business, and how decisions made in one part of the system affect the others.

How is the training structured?

The Comprehensive is delivered in two intensive in-person blocks: 5–8 November and 19–22 November.

Between and after the in-person sessions, we continue the work through shorter Zoom discussions and follow-up sessions, returning to questions that arise during the course or in participants' own farms and projects.

The practical ecological monitoring component is deliberately not squeezed into November. We meet again in summer, in the field, when vegetation and soil conditions can actually be observed and assessed properly.

That is also part of the logic behind Holistic Management: use the right tool at the right time.

What will we cover?

Holistic context and decision-making

What kind of life and business are you trying to create? What resources do you have available, and what conditions must exist in the future for the system you are building to remain viable?

We work with the holistic context as a practical foundation for both day-to-day and strategic decisions.

Ecosystem processes

We examine the four fundamental processes that shape every agricultural ecosystem:

water cycle,
mineral cycle,
energy flow,
community dynamics.

We also work with the brittleness scale and explore why the same management action can produce very different results in different environments. This is particularly important in continental and drought-prone farming conditions, where copying a practice from another climate can be a very expensive lesson.

Holistic Financial Planning

This is not simply annual budgeting.

Holistic Financial Planning is designed to help identify where money should be directed to address the most important limiting factors in the business, while deliberately planning for profit. The aim is not simply to spend less. It is to make financial decisions that move the whole farm towards the future you are trying to create.

Holistic Planned Grazing

How do we plan livestock movement while considering, at the same time:

plant recovery,
livestock needs,
forage quantity and quality,
season and weather,
labour and infrastructure,
operational realities,
longer-term ecological objectives?

We do not teach a fixed rotational grazing recipe. We teach an adaptive planning process.

Ecological monitoring

How do we know whether the land is actually moving in the direction we want? Monitoring is not about producing a score for its own sake. Its purpose is to detect the direction of change early enough to adjust management.

We cover the logic and role of ecological monitoring during the main training, then return to the field in summer for the practical monitoring session, when vegetation conditions make that work meaningful.

Land and infrastructure planning

Water, roads, fencing, livestock movement, buildings and other infrastructure all affect how a farm functions.

The aim is not simply to build more infrastructure. It is to identify what is actually needed, how different investments affect the whole system, and in what order development should happen.

Who is it for?

The Comprehensive is primarily designed for people who want to go beyond individual farming techniques.

Farmers who want to build a more resilient, profitable and functional farming system.
Aspiring farmers who want to understand the whole business before making expensive structural decisions.
Advisers and agricultural professionals who want to work with more than isolated technical problems.
Conservation and land-management professionals working with agricultural landscapes and grazing animals.

Previous Holistic Management training is not required.

This is not a regenerative recipe

There is no universally correct stocking density.

There is no single grazing system that works everywhere.

There is no tillage, cover-crop or livestock practice that is automatically regenerative in every context.

Climate, soils, people, finances, goals and available resources differ.

That is why the Comprehensive focuses less on practices to copy and more on decisions you can defend in your own context.

Built on real farm experience

This training is grounded in practice, not only in classroom theory.

I use Holistic Management every day in my own commercial farming business, so we do not only discuss how the framework is supposed to work. We also look at what happens when it meets drought, limited labour, forage shortages, financial pressure, imperfect information and all the other things real farms provide so generously.

Regena is the Hungarian Savory Hub, connecting Hungarian farmers and professionals to the wider international Holistic Management community.

Instructor

Zoltán Lengyel

Regenerative farmer, Holistic Management educator and Savory Accredited Field Professional.

Zoltán is the founder of Táncoskert, a regenerative livestock farm in Hungary, where Holistic Management is used as the farm's everyday decision-making framework.

His practical and teaching experience includes work in Europe, North America and Africa, including farming and training in very different ecological and social contexts.

Connection to Regena's year-round programme

The Holistic Management Comprehensive is a standalone training and can be taken independently.

Participants in Regena's year-round regenerative farming programme may join the Comprehensive at the beginning of their programme, before continuing through further seasonal and practical sessions during the year.

You do not need to join the year-round programme in order to attend the Comprehensive.

I'm interested in the year-round programme

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to own a farm?

No. The training is also suitable for aspiring farmers and agricultural professionals. If you already manage a farm, however, you will be able to work directly with your own situation throughout the training.

Is this only useful for livestock farmers?

No. Holistic Management has strong historical roots in grazing management, but its decision-making and financial frameworks are much broader than livestock management.

Will I receive a certificate?

Yes. Participants who complete the training receive a Regena certificate of completion. This is not the same as an official Holistic Management examination or professional accreditation. Regena does not administer that examination or professional certification process.

When is the ecological monitoring session?

We cover the principles and role of ecological monitoring during the main course. The practical field session is held in summer, when vegetation is in a suitable condition for meaningful monitoring.

What language is the training taught in?

The 2026 training is taught in Hungarian.

Is accommodation included?

No. Accommodation is not provided, but we can point participants towards nearby options if needed.

Are meals included?

Yes. Lunch and daytime refreshments are provided on all in-person training days.

Next Holistic Management Comprehensive

5–8 November 2026 and 19–22 November 2026

Hungary

8 in-person training days in two four-day blocks, complemented by online Zoom sessions and a practical ecological monitoring day in summer.

Standard fee: €1,380 / person
Early bird (until 15 October 2026): €1,240 / person
Additional participant, same farm: €1,100 / person
Alumni: €830 / person

The fee includes the training, online sessions, summer monitoring session, lunch and refreshments on all in-person training days.

The 2026 course is taught in Hungarian.

Apply for the 2026 training

Interested in an English-language training?

The 2026 Comprehensive is taught in Hungarian. If you would like to attend a future English-language Comprehensive in Hungary, let us know.