Holistic grazing is a regenerative agricultural practice that subdivides pastures into smaller paddocks and rotates livestock between the paddocks to allow for longer rest periods for forage regeneration. This improves soil health by building deeper root systems and increasing drought resistance compared to rotational grazing. The grazing time depends on the plant growth rate and season, with longer grazing in wet seasons when growth is rapid. Holistic grazing has benefits like increased milk production, soil protection, and the potential to make wildlife and livestock grazing compatible.

1. Regenerative agriculture:
Holistic Grazing
Group 3:
Akram,Muhammad Shaheryar - 537719
Tanmay Kokate - 533740
Omerovic Izabela - 540784
Bhargavi Parthasarathy - 535210
My owner has taken up a
new method for our food
routine . Do you guys
want to know about it?
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2. Contents
• Regenerative Agriculture
• Principles and practices
• What is Holistic Grazing?
• Difference between Holistic and Rotational grazing
• Why there is need for Holistic planned grazing?
• Factors influencing grazing
• How to determine the grazing time?
• Factors affecting grazing time
• Advantages of such grazing practice.
• Conclusion
• Reference
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3. Regenerative agriculture
• Regenerative agriculture is a food and agricultural system conservation and restoration method.
• Primary Areas of Focus include:
 boosting topsoil regeneration,
 increasing biodiversity,
 improving the water cycle,
 expanding ecosystem services,
 increasing climate change resistance
 strengthening agricultural soil health.
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Yadav, Govind Kumar, Sunil Kumar Dadhich, and Mukesh Chand Bhateshwar. "Recent
Innovative Approaches in Agricultural Science."

4. Principles and practices under Regenerative
agriculture.
Principles Practices
Improvement of soil biology Use of Animal Dung,Powdered Charcoal
Supplementing nutrients (micro
and macro)
Increase of Soil Fungi by foliar spray
Minimal disturbance of the soil No Ploughing
Permanent soil cover Hedges and agroforestry for protection from wind,
space for animals, birds and insects.
Species-rich green manure Direct seeding. Avoid monocultures.
Keep livestock in proportion to
arable land.
Holistic Planned Grazing, Rotational Grazing
Include agroforestry multi-species cover crops
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Giller, Ken E., et al. "Regenerative agriculture: an agronomic perspective." Outlook on agriculture 50.1 (2021): 13-25.

5. What is Holistic grazing?
• Only one portion of pasture is grazed at a time while the remainder of the pasture “rests.”
• Pastures are subdivided into smaller areas (referred to as paddocks) and livestock are moved from
one paddock to another. Resting grazed paddocks allows forage plants to renew energy reserves,
rebuild vigor, deepen their root system, and give long-term maximum production.
• Grazing involves longer rotations of ideally 30+ days, which gives grass time to fully recover
before being regrazed.[fwi.co.uk]
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6. Difference between Holistic and Rotational
grazing.
Factors Rotational grazing Holistic grazing
Grazing period Constant Varies
Recovery period Not considered Primary concern
Size of paddock Varies Constant
Use of herd effect Not included Essential
Wildlife and other land
uses
Not included Incorporated
Drought planning Reserve grazing area Reserve time in pastures
Fire prevention Not included Incorporated
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Weber, Keith T., and Shannon Horst. "Desertification and livestock grazing: The roles of sedentarization, mobility and rest." Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 1.1 (2011): 1-11.

7. Why Holistic grazing?
• Leaving the grass to rest for longer periods builds resilience in the soil.
• More energy is harnessed from photosynthesis, creating a stronger and deeper root system.
• This improves water infiltration and storage capacity, reducing flooding as well as making the
grass more drought-tolerant.[fwi.co.uk]
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8. Factors that influence the grazing.
• The fundamental foundational blocks/ ecological concepts for attaining a good output out of
holistic grazing are:
1. Succession of plants, animals and soils together as one entity
2. Water cycle in the ecosystem
3. Mineral cycle in the ecosystem
4. Energy flow through the ecosystem
• The key to the management of all four of the foundation blocks, to produce the desired goal, lies
principally in manipulation of the soil surface.
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Seems like everything is my
responsibility.
Savory, Allan. "The Savory grazing method or holistic resource management." Rangelands Archives 5.4 (1983): 155-159.

9. How to determine the grazing time?
• No matter how short the grazing periods, overgrazing will result unless the grazing periods are
what I call "time-controlled" which means that the grazing periods relate to the daily growth rate of
the plants in the growing season.
• There two seasons which affect the grazing time i.e. Wet and Dry season.
1. Wet season (the growth rate of plants are high due to abundance of water source).
2. Dry season ( Shortage of water source for the regeneration of plants).
Fun fact: The grazing pattern was found to be different
for wildlife and livestock animals.
For example, elephants and zebras prefer grazing at
night when there is no interference from livestock
herds and people.
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Lalampaa, Priscilla K., et al. "Effects of holistic grazing management on milk production,
weight gain, and visitation to grazing areas by livestock and wildlife in Laikipia County,
Kenya." Ecological Processes 5.1 (2016): 1-12.

10. Factors affecting grazing time
• The grazing time on the range has always to be linked to three things simultaneously.
These are:
1. the actual plant growth rate during the grazing period;
2. the time when the animals are likely to return to graze that land and the plant growth rate during
this time;
3. the availability of forage to meet the nutritional requirements of the animals.
• Short grazing periods such as used in Short Duration Grazing which are not "time-controlled" can
only prevent overgrazing if long rest periods are constantly given, regardless of the growth rates of
the plants.
10
Savory, Allan. "The Savory grazing method or holistic resource management." Rangelands Archives 5.4
(1983): 155-159.

11. Advantages
• This is expected to improve food security and income for pastoral households.
• It provides the technology for halting the desertification process.
• It is economically sound and thus can be initiated or applied with little capital and can generate
income from production.
• It can be simplified enough in application for illiterate people to be able to run it successfully with
periodic advice.
• It can be applied universally, including to lands with nomadic populations.
• It is a management technique which can make wildlife and livestock ranching compatible and this
could bused in buffer zones around some of the dwindling and threatened national parks.
• It leads readily to better livestock performance and management including more efficient
application of some of the latest genetic advances.
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Savory, Allan. "The Savory grazing method or holistic resource
management." Rangelands Archives 5.4 (1983): 155-159.

12. Conclusion
• Holistic grazing is a useful technique for
1. Maintaining soil health
2. Increasing productivity of the soil due to less soil erosion and less growth of weeds.
• The grazing time can be depends on the plant growth rate and the season
• There was an increased milk production and decrease in desertification process.
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This technique is quite simple
and good.
Savory, Allan. "The Savory grazing method or holistic resource management." Rangelands Archives 5.4 (1983): 155-159.
Lalampaa, Priscilla K., et al. "Effects of holistic grazing management on milk production, weight gain, and visitation to grazing
areas by livestock and wildlife in Laikipia County, Kenya." Ecological Processes 5.1 (2016): 1-12.

13. Reference
1. Giller, Ken E., et al. "Regenerative agriculture: an agronomic perspective." Outlook on agriculture
50.1 (2021): 13-25.
2. Savory, Allan. "The Savory grazing method or holistic resource management." Rangelands
Archives 5.4 (1983): 155-159.
3. Lalampaa, Priscilla K., et al. "Effects of holistic grazing management on milk production, weight
gain, and visitation to grazing areas by livestock and wildlife in Laikipia County,
Kenya." Ecological Processes 5.1 (2016): 1-12.
4. What is holistic grazing and what are the benefits? - Farmers Weekly (fwi.co.uk)
5. Weber, Keith T., and Shannon Horst. "Desertification and livestock grazing: The roles of
sedentarization, mobility and rest." Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 1.1 (2011): 1-11.
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