Controlled intensive grazing: Savannah Grasslands, Africa
This chapter appears in a book about sustainable land management, the development of water buffers, and the business case in favor of investment in natural resource management.
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.
GHG Mitigation Potential of Different Grazing Strategies in the United States Southern Great Plains
This paper demonstrates that enteric emissions (methane) from cows are not a climate impediment when the animals are managed in a way that builds soil, thus, capturing carbon. Specifically, using a life cycle assessment that weighs emissions against sequestration, it calculates a net drawdown of approximately 2 tons of carbon per hectare per year (0.8 tons per acre per year) after a conversion from heavy continuous to multi-paddock grazing.
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.
Cell Grazing – The First 10 Years in Australia
This paper tracks the progress of Cell Grazing in Australia from 1990 when it was first taught, to 1999, from 2 perspectives. Cell Grazing was found to boost business profitability and improve soil as well as to increase rainfall use efficiency and, usually, biodiversity. Described as a high-level, time-control grazing method, Cell Grazing differs from a variety of rotational grazing systems.
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.
