Properly managed cattle using Holistic Management
Holistic Management teaches people about the relationship between large herds of wild herbivores and the grasslands and then helps people develop strategies for managing herds of domestic livestock to mimic those wild herds to heal the land. It gives land managers, farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, policymakers, and others the insights and management tools needed to understand nature and work with it, resulting in better, more informed decisions that balance key social, environmental and financial considerations.
Four Principles
Holistic Management is based on four key principles that highlight the symbiotic relationship between large herds of grazing animals, their predators and the grasslands that support them:
Nature functions in wholes
You can’t control or change one thing in one area without having an impact on something else in another area.
All environments are different
It is crucial to acknowledge nature’s complexity and that an action can produce completely different results in different environments.
Properly managed livestock can improve land health
When domestic livestock is properly managed to mimic the behavior of wild herbivores interacting with grasslands, they can reverse desertification.
Time is more important than numbers
Overgrazing of plants is directly related to the amount of time the plants are exposed to the grazing animals and the amount of time that lapses between consecutive grazing events.