From Barron's Penta blog:
How do you cash in on other people’s cattle and add value to your ranchland?
The first part is straightforward enough: manage other folks’ cattle
and collect fees based on how much weight the animals gain. The other
part is a little more complicated. But John Fullerton, former managing
director at JP Morgan, is betting on the “holistic management and
planned grazing” practices developed by Allan Savory, a controversial
Zimbabwean biologist and rancher.
Savory’s TED talk, “How to Green the World’s Deserts and Reverse Climate Change“,
has received over 1.3 million hits on-line since getting posted in
March 2013. Whereas ecologists blame livestock for degrading the world’s
grasslands, Savory controversially insists that animals can restore these lands. ”Mimic nature,” he exhorts.
What he means by that is, emulate the behavior of wild animals of
by-gone eras, which, chased by predators and moving with the seasons,
roamed the plains in tightly knit herds. Their migrating, trampling
hooves break up the surface of the land, so it can absorb rain like a
sponge, while their dung fertilizes the plains.
“This is permaculture on a huge scale,” Fullerton explains, referring
to a concept that brings together whole-scale sustainability with
respect to energy, waste, water and fields. (For more on this concept,
read Penta’s profile on Narendra Varma in our December cover, “The Giving Generation.”) Not surprisingly, Prince Charles is an avid fan of the Savory Institute and its ideas....MORE
From a July 2007 post, "
Cattle, Carbon and Conifers":
Many years ago my father told me about his experience with a cattle operation (the tax deal du jour).
One fine spring day he decided to head out to South Dakota; He had a good excuse for a road trip.
The
way he told it, he and some of the ranch staff were standing on a ridge
looking out over hundreds, if not thousands, of head of cattle and he
asked the assistant foreman "which ones are mine?" "None of them", the
cowboy responded,
"Yours all died"
