Field Exchange
Brookfield Farm
Holistic Management Explained
- RoseVeal
Statement of Purpose
To leisurely, profitably and perpetually farm an aesthetic landscape and to produce the highest quality meat possible.
What is Holistic Management?
Framework for making the best management decisions for the land & life within nature's chaos.
Financial planning, Land planning, Grazing management, Ecologic monitoring.
Why Holistic Planned Grazing?
Abundance - Diversity - Resilience
Responsive dynamic management, seasonally and long-term
Soil, plant and animal health
Producing the best tasting nutrient-dense beef possible
Land to market - the story and inspiration
What do you want your future landscape to look like in 100 years?
Beware of Baseline Reset Syndrome - generational degradation becomes the norm for the next generation.
We need to explore and hypothesise at what the full potential of our landscape really is.
Tools for Land Management
Four Key Insights
Wholes - natural systems function in patterns and wholes, not reductionist parts
Brittleness Scale- frequency of rainfall throughout the year 1-10
Predator-Prey - grass co-evolved with herbivores and predators
Timing is Everything - Recovery (Andre Voisin)
The Brittleness Scale
Predator-Prey
Timing is Everything
Period of grazing & Recovery Period
Pasture Plant Physiology
Leaves containing chloroplasts are solar panels
Requires herbivore to defoliate
Shedding roots
Root/crown holds carbohydrates reserves for regrowth - recovery time - Voisin
Roots exudates - conduit between the sun and the soil
Four Ecosystem Processes
Understanding the language of the land
Water Cycle - soil health
Mineral Cycle - growth and decay
Community Dynamics - age and species
Energy Flow - photosynthesis to the max
Community Dynamics
Browse - Welfare
Energy Flow
Sunlight harvesting
Energy flows not cycles
The Ecosystem Processes are all interconnected, they are four different ways to look at the same thing.
They allow us to interpret what we are seeing and read how has our management influenced the land so we can more accurately steer that management.
Holistic Planned Grazing
The right animals, in the right place, at the right time, with the right behaviour for the right reasons.
Use the livestock as a tool on the land to regenerate soil health and pasture quality and address different issues in different fields - animal impact and well timed grazing.
Improve nurtrient density by increasing the diversity of plants
Extend your grazing season - Instead of focusing on grass utilisation you focus on managing plant recovery time.
Healthy plant population curve - diversity of plants at different stages in their life cycles
Grazing tall
Leave move solar panels for faster recovery
Time reserve of fodder vs area reserve
Parasites live at the bottom of plants
Striking that balance between what is good for the cow and what is good for the grass. (Sarah flack)
Observe nutrient requirements and forage cycles (dry cows for winter grazing)
Herd Impact
Tramped Grass is not Wasted Grass
•Gardeners call this green manure mulch
•Natural systems do not have bare exposed soil
• It is plant residue that has stored nutrients and minerals taken from deep in the soil and placed the on top of the soil.
•The soil biology is fed with organic matter.
•Soil structure is protected from the weather. Baking sun, driving rain and heavy frosts.
•Studies have shown this has potential to sequester carbon faster than mature woodland
Adapted Animals
Behavior
Fertility
Type - Function follows form
Performance
Get to the root cause - Keep asking why?
Plan - Assume you are wrong - Monitor - Replan
Picture of the good hedge
And the hawthorn on the hill
“Where nature thrives is a great place for a cow to live” (Geraint Powell)