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.
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.
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.
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.
Resiliency Down Under Drought-Proofing in New South Wales
In 2006-2007, southern Australia faced historic drought conditions, with the Coughlin family’s Tarabeh property receiving 8 of the 17-inch average, and Moombril receiving 10.5 of the normal 30. They survived the drought with more cattle than they started and without buying a pound of hay. This case study details the conditions they faced and the tough decisions that were made to make it through.
Surviving or Thriving in Drought
Analyzing ecological monitoring data from 1999 to 2007, Tony Malmberg of Twin Creek Ranch and Jim Howell assess how Twin Creek’s drought-induced management adjustments enabled them to maintain the integrity of their ecosystem processes. Malmberg also discusses his “ah-ha” moment after hearing Howell’s hypothesis that low production, brittle environments likely evolved under grazing patterns with longer (sometimes multi-year) recovery periods compared to brittle environments with higher production.
