Impacts of holistic planned grazing with bison compared to continuous grazing with cattle in South Dakota shortgrass prairie
Paper assesses Holistic Planned Grazing outcomes in shortgrass prairie of the Northern Great Plains of North America. Researchers compared key ecosystem functions on the ranch of long time Holistic Management practitioner Mimi Hillenbrand who grazes bison, with those on neighboring cattle ranches using set stocked light continuous (LCG) and heavy continuous grazing (HCG).
Resilience on the Prairie Edge: The 777 Buffalo Ranch (2010)
The health and resilience of the 777 Buffalo Ranch is directly related to the abundance and diversity of its plant and animal species. On the ranch, plant diversity is increasing having many species of native cool and warm season grasses, flowering forbs, shrubs and trees.
777 Buffalo Ranch – South Dakota (2014)
This 2013 case study follows Mimi Hillenbrand of the 28,000-acre 777 Bison Ranch in South Dakota, USA. Among other impressive results, over 20 years bare ground has decreased significantly from 34% to under 10%, there are virtually no signs of erosion, and low production grasses are being replaced by deep-rooted native species like Green Needlegrass and native herbs such as Echinacea.
