Benefits of multi-paddock grazing management on rangelands: Limitations of experimental grazing research and knowledge gaps
This paper refutes recent research that finds no benefits for vegetation or animal production under “multi-paddock rotational grazing” in comparison to continuous grazing. It finds that these studies were small scale and fixed protocol experiments that did not adequately match the experience of successful managers.
Multi-paddock grazing on rangelands: Why the perceptual dichotomy between research results and rancher experience?
This paper explores how perceptions differ among rangeland managers who have effectively used multi-paddock grazing systems and the research scientists who have studied them.
Who’s afraid of Allan Savory? Scientometric polarization on Holistic Management
This paper uses “scientometrics” to understand the structure of science on Holistic Management (HM) to better understand the controversy underlying it. Results show that those who take a positive position on Holistic Management are those doing farm-scale (rather than experimental) work in dry climates.
The Need for a New Approach to Grazing Management – Is Cell Grazing the Answer?
This paper investigates the comparative vegetative impacts of cell grazing and continuous grazing on three properties in Australia during the 1990s and finds cell grazing superior in all measured parameters, including plant basal diameters, most desirable species, contribution to dry weight, and percentage ground cover. It is reasoned that these vegetative impacts may have long-term benefits with respect to ecosystem function, including erosion control, nutrient cycling, hydrological function and the stability of animal production.
Biodiversity as an organizing principle in agroecosystem management: Case studies of holistic resource management practitioners in the USA
Twenty-five farmers and ranchers using Holistic Resource Management (HRM) were interviewed on the role of biodiversity in the sustainability of their operations. Since HRM began influencing their decisions, all of the interviewees reported positive changes in some of the ecosystem processes on their farms or ranches, 95% perceived increases in biodiversity (particularly with respect to plants), 80% perceived increase in profits from their land, and 91% reported improvements in their quality of life because of changes in their time budgets.
From the Ground Up: Holistic Management and Grassroots Rural Adaptation to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy across Western Canada
This study examines the impacts of and adaptive responses of producers in western Canada to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which has adversely affected farmers and rural communities around the world. In particular, it explores how holistic management (HM), with its combined focus on environmental, social, and economic sustainability, might mitigate the effects of BSE.
Steps toward Sustainable Ranching: An Emergy Evaluation of Conventional and Holistic Management in Chiapas, Mexico
Members of a holistic ranching ‘‘club” in the Frailesca region of Chiapas, Mexico have moved away from decades of conventional management by eliminating the use of burns and agrochemicals believed to decrease the biodiversity and forest cover of ranch lands, and by implementing sophisticated systems of rotational grazing and diversifying the use of trees. Holistic ranches were found to have double the “emergy” (embodied-energy or “energy memory”) sustainability index values of conventional ranches. The results from this study show that productivity can be maintained as the sustainability of rural dairy ranches is increased, and that local knowledge and understanding of the surrounding ecosystem can drive positive environmental change in production systems.
Grazing management impacts on vegetation, soil biota and soil chemical, physical and hydrological properties in tall grass prairie
This paper finds that adaptive management using multi-paddock grazing produced superior outcomes on vegetative cover and soil. In a comparison of four grazing schemes: light continuous (LC), heavy continuous (HC), multi-paddock with adaptive management (MP), ungrazed areas – exclusion (EX), the MP lots were better in almost every measure. Factors measured included soil organic matter (SOM), water infiltration rate, water volumetric percentage, cation exchange capacity, fungal/bacterial ratio, percent bare ground and standing biomass of desirable and undesirable plants.
Effect of grazing on soil-water content in semiarid rangelands of southeast Idaho
This papers shows that soils under a grazing method called “simulated holistic planned grazing” have the highest percent volumetric-water content of soils tested under three different grazing methodologies that also included “rest-rotation”, and “total rest”. Although this study was a simulation, it demonstrates the potential for soils managed with Holistic Planned Grazing to increase their water-holding capacity.
Sustainability of holistic and conventional cattle ranching in the seasonally dry tropics of Chiapas, Mexico, Decision Making
Eighteen (18) conventional and seven (7) holistic, dual-purpose ranches were studied using three sets of sustainability metrics combining economic, social, technological, and environmental indicators. Holistic ranchers have more pasture divisions, higher grazing pressure, greater lengths of time between pasture burns, greater milk productivity, larger forest reserves, lower cow and calf mortality, purchase less hay and feed, and use less herbicides and pesticides than their conventional neighbors, with holistic ranches demonstrating superiority for nine of ten indicators. Higher soil respiration, deeper topsoil, increased earthworm presence, more tightly closed herbaceous canopies, and marginally greater forage availability were found in holistic ranches, suggesting that holistic management strategies are leading to greater ecological and economic sustainability.
