Holistic Livestock Management

Holistic management as advocated for by the Savory institute gives one the capacity to regenerate grasslands from an ecological, economic, and social perspective, and while regenerating Earth’s desertifying global grasslands.

Holistic Management is so much more than just grazing. Holistic management provides a framework for decision-making – rooted in the fundamentals of ecosystem processes – and with a suite of planning procedures that include planned grazing, land planning, financial planning, and ecological monitoring.

a. Rotational grazing

In agriculture, rotational grazing, as opposed to continuous grazing, describes many systems of pasturing, whereby livestock are moved to portions of the pasture, called paddocks, while the other portions rest.

The rotational grazing system is developed by subdividing a large pasture into smaller paddocks and grazing these paddocks in a planned sequence and only stocked heavily for short periods. This provides rest periods for plants while others are being grazed. Once all the paddocks have been grazed, the sequence restarts with the first pasture that has been rested the longest being grazed.

If done correctly, rotational grazing has many benefits including increased forage production, animal utilisation of pasture and overall profitability. Rotational grazing allows plants to remain healthy by renewing energy reserves, rebuilding plant vigour and giving long-term maximum production. Manure nutrients are more evenly distributed across the field as well in higher proportions.