Holistic Management and Adaptive Grazing: A Trainers’ View
The authors avoid the usual debates on whether or not Holistic Management, Holistic Planned Grazing, or any its many derivatives deliver outcomes as claimed by practitioners, and instead focuses on their contribution to managing complexity. Holistic Management’s biggest acknowledged contribution to the grazing world is (arguably) its emphasis on adaptivity, strategic decision-making, goal-setting, and ability to manage complexity. Based on data gathered from educators in American and Canada who have trained many farmers and ranchers, the authors conclude that Holistic Management represents systems thinking in practice.
Climate change mitigation as a co-benefit of regenerative ranching: Insights from Australia and the United States
This paper argues that the infusion of holistic decision making into the practice of planned grazing, or “regenerative ranching,” results in a suite of ecological, economic and social benefits that are the main factors keeping adherents on the regenerative path. Climate change mitigation is only a ‘co-benefit’ or after-thought. The use of holistic decision-making in the implementation of managed grazing amplifies its effects and increases regenerative potential, and, by extension, climate change mitigation potential.
Transformational adaptation on the farm: Processes of change and persistence in transitions to ‘climate-smart’ regenerative agriculture
This paper analyzes the experiences of farmers in Australia who have undertaken and sustained transitions from conventional to regenerative agriculture, the majority of whom are Holistic Management practitioners. The authors conclude that transitioning to regenerative agriculture involves more than a suite of ‘climate-smart’ mitigation and adaptation practices. Rather, it involves subjective, nonmaterial factors associated with culture, values, ethics, identity, and emotion that operate at individual, household, and community scales and interact with regional, national and global processes.
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.
Managing the grazing landscape: Insights for agricultural adaptation from a mid-drought photo-elicitation study in the Australian sheep-wheat belt
This paper compares the landscape perceptions of HM graziers with those of more conventional graziers. HM graziers described their use of adaptive farm management techniques to gain outcomes for production and ecosystems alike, demonstrating a system-based understanding of their farms conducive to farming successfully under increased climate variability.
Working in tandem with natural variability: New paradigms for livestock grazing in Australia
This submission to the Australian House of Representatives summarizes how grazing with Holistic Management (HM), a proactive, low-tech solution, (1) provides flexible management options in the face of climatic uncertainty, and (2) enhances the resilience of the natural environment, thus leaving it better prepared for climatic variability.
