Dan Hemesath's Blog

Blog #3

Savory started his Holistic Management  over 40 years ago.  Now it is being used by farmers, ranchers, policymakers who are developing a greater understanding of the strategies for managing domestic livestock in a cost-effective and nature-based manner.

Today, there are successful Holistic Management practitioners spread across the globe, from

Canada to Patagonia and from Zimbabwe to Australia to Montana.   More than 10,000 people have been trained in Holistic Management and its associated  grazing planning procedures and over 40 million acres are managed holistically worldwide.

Of course there is a long way to go before we reach the billion or so acres that could benefit from planned, intensive grazing worldwide.  But this kind of grazing is definitely on the upswing worldwide.

To find success stories of farmers and ranchers who not only salvaged their operation, but turned around their bottom line check out the following sites: https://holisticmanagement.org/holistic-management/success-stories/ and http://savory.global/institute.

This is not to say that everyone who attempts this method is automatically successful.   It is more than a simple method.  Success depends on several factors, such as having all decision makers on board, setting a common goal, adapting the plan to the situation, climate, and other variables, and investing the time and effort required. 

Holistic Planning as outlined in Savory’s basic textbook: “Holistic Management” by Allan Savory with  Jody Butterfield, is a beautiful, logical guide. I read this book very slowly from cover to cover.   As I read, I kept looking for weaknesses in Savory’s thinking, but couldn’t find any.   To the contrary, I kept thinking: “This is great.” or “This is really important”,  or “This point should not be overlooked if the process is going to work”.”

I’m may be a pie-in-the-sky dreamer, but as a 78 year old student auditing classes in the Fresno County Ag Dept.,  and as a gadfly, wannabe catalyst, I would like to see plans made, grants proposals written etc., to have students and professors set up and do research on a Savory style planned, intensive grazing project at the experimental farm north of Fresno where the beginnings of such a partnership between the Forest Service and Fresno State already exist.

This entry was posted on December 20, 2016 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.