Holistic Management Shifts Ranchers’ Mental Models for Successful Adaptive Grazing
This study explores how Holistic Management transforms the way ranchers think and make decisions—shifting them from control-based approaches to regenerative mindsets grounded in values, systems thinking, and ecological feedback.
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.
Whole-System Approach Managing Grazing to Restore Soil Health and Farm Livelihoods
This paper is a literature review on the ecological impacts of grazing, and finds that where managed properly (employing a “whole-systems approach” and “adaptive, goal-directed grazing methods”) livestock are essential to ecosystem service sustainability and improvement. Soil organic matter increases were sufficient to yield a net sink of 2 tons of carbon per hectare per year.
What place for livestock on a re-greening earth?
This paper contemplates the role of livestock and livestock management in providing helpful ecosystem services, “re-greening the earth,” through a literature review considering both the well documented injurious and highly beneficial outcomes of ruminants on landscapes.
