This document discusses the importance of soil health and holistic management for profitable ranching. It explains that soil food web structure and succession increase productivity over time. Different stages in the soil food web are described, from bacteria to forests. The tools of holistic management planning are outlined, including grazing, rest, technology, animal impact, fire, and living organisms. The progression from a simple to complex community with greater stability is depicted. Maintaining covered soil is emphasized as key to building soil structure, plant volume, and balanced populations.

1. Profitable
Ranching
Starts with the Soil
By Ian Mitchell-Innes

3. 3

4. • Financial Planning
• Grazing Planning
• Land Planning
• Biological Monitoring
Holistic Management
Planning Procedures

6. Soil Food
Web Structure
through Succession
Increasing
Productivity
F:B = .01
F:B = 0.1
F:B = 0.3 to 0.5
F:B = 0.75
F:B = 1.1F:B = 2.1 to 5.1
F:B = 5.1 to 100.1
F:B = 100.1
to 1000.1
BareParentMaterial
100%Bacterial
Cyanobacteria
TrueBacteria
Protozoa
Fungi
Nematodes
“Weeds”
- HighNitrates
- LackofOxygen
EarlyGrasses
Mid-Grasses
Vegetables
LateSuccessional
Grasses&RowCrops
Shrubs,Vines,
Bushes,Cotton
DeciduousTrees
ConiferousTrees
Old-GrowthForests

12. • Prairie Grass Species
• Used Grasshoppers instead of Cattle
• Obtained results of overgrazing
• And short duration grazing
Wayne Burleson’s Experiment

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The Tools in Detail
Grazing
• Overgrazing occurs when a plant is re-grazed
while it is still growing on stored energy.
• Holistic Management® Planned Grazing
involves the careful planning of animal moves
to achieve healthy plants, maintain high
animal performance and to enhance the
physical break down of dead plant matter for
optimal carbon cycling.

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Rest
• Rest is the absence or partial absence of
disturbance to soils and plants by animals
or technology.
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Technology
• This category includes all human artefacts
used to influence aspects of the
environment.
• It is usually the first tool that people turn to.
The use of technology will not lead to the
cycling of carbon, if used on it’s own.
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18. 18
Animal Impact
• The trampling, dunging urinating etc effects
of bunched animals on the soil surface.
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Animal Impact
Animal impact can be achieved through:
• HERD EFFECT: bunched animals behaving
as under the threat of predators or so tightly
bunched that they are not looking where they
put their feet.
and / or
• STOCK DENSITY: the number of animals on
a unit of land at a moment in time.
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Fire
• The burning off of organic waste and
residual plant material.
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Living Organisms
• Adding a living organism will totally change
the dynamics of a community, and usually
result in additional organisms moving in to
further develop the community.
• The loss of any organism from a community
will change the dynamics of the community to
such an extent that there is likely to be a
resultant loss of a mass of other species that
relied on the presence of that species.
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35. COMMUNITY DYNAMICS (Succession)
35
SIMPLE COMMUNITY
GREAT FLUCTUATION
BARE
SOIL
SOIL
SURFACE
COMPLEX COMMUNITY
STABILITY
Degree of variation
in populations
SOIL SURFACE CONDITION IS KEY
COVERED
SOIL
• PLANT VOLUME
& HEIGHT
INCREASES
• MICRO-ORGANISMS BUILD
SOIL STRUCTURE & DEPTH
• AGE STRUCTURE IS
MORE BALANCED
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