permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

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I have read this from Dick Richardson, and though how appropriate it was as
part of Permaculture, and how much it related to the problems of moving
from the present farming techniques to a sustainable alternative.
I like many other people in farming made myself very vulnerable by 
committing resources and thinking to that change.
My thinking lead me to build a "Byzer" appropriate for HRM but recognised
by the Soil Science Division of the CSIRO as a tool every farmer should have 
and use in the reduction of erosion etc..
Vic.
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Hi, Richard. Let's examine your assumptions first. It may save you a "wild
goose chase."

Your interpretation of a "testable" model in the sense of an hypothesis is
inappropriate for Savory's process. It's a tool for aiding anyone to make
better decisions about anything, and include those aspects beyond
"production" that keep people working together and life fulfilling. It's
like testing if a bicycle can be ridden. It's functionality depends on the
skill in using it, not it's validity. I use the process in organizing and
executing my classes, and moving along on my professional career path, and
in my family. I have students in the business school using it in the
software development industry, and in managing preserves that do not have
livestock on them as a source income. If you want to see how I teach the
process and help students develop personal skills, you might check out my
course in natural resource management
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/resource/ Keep in mind that the web site will
be changing when the class begins in January, and if it isn't, then I'm not
using Holistic Management properly.

In some of the student projects, grazing livestock is used as a tool, but
neither for sale of animals nor sale of range productivity. The animals
actually may be leased, sort of like going to a store to "rent a herd".
Holistic Management is a powerful approach for choosing which kind of
herbivore is used, ranging from geese, to llamas, and including cattle,
sheep, pigs and goats. Each species, indeed, each sex and age of a breed of
species species, acts differently. If one's holistic goal includes changing
the vegetation, and then the community of plants and animals, different
tools are used in different places in the transition from where one begins
to where one is going. It makes a great difference if one allows the dung
beetle population to increase in how the organic matter is distributed in
the soil, and whether earthworms also increase in density. The density of
animals of any species, sex, or age is a variable that has major and unique
effects on the vegetation, soil, insects, and wildlife. The timing of the
treatments applied, whether burning, weeding, grazing, mowing, resting,
reseeding, spraying, etc., etc. is as critical as turning the front wheel
when you are riding a bicycle, or substituting a push on the pedals
coordinated with a movement of the body and adjustment of the handlebars.
It makes a difference how the animals are treated, and have been treated.
Holistic Management won't give me the answers, nor teach me the skills, nor
show me what I need to know. But, it will show me what I need to know, and
help me gain the skills I need to use the tools mentioned above more
effectively to move toward the holistic goal.

I hope this helps you understand that this is not a "testable" model. The
only "testability" is how skillful a person is using the process. If it
"fails" then the person was not up to the challenge, or lacked the
resources needed. If the process needs improvement, then the person or
people using it need to modify the process. Many times I do not use the
exact process, or even the words that Allen Savory uses, but the roots of
what I am doing comes from what I learned from him and many other people,
including my father and grandfathers, mother and grandmothers, professors,
neighbors, many skilled managers, ... and trial and error. The process of
good management and learning how to do it better, whether you call it
Holistic Management or common sense, is basically the same. The ONLY thing
I can say that recommends Holistic Management is that it helped me put
together what I knew, and what I continue to learn, in an organized way and
recognize when I didn't do it holistically or skillfully. The failures are
more easily examined to give me some notion about what needs to be changed,
making them a better "learning experience." I usually don't even capitalize
the words "holistic management" because if Holistic Management isn't
changing, then one is not using it properly. It MUST evolve with the needs
and development of skill, and the context of its application. The seemingly
more "static" form of Holistic Management is a starting point only. It is
used to go from where you are to where you want to get to, but, equally
important, it helps you clarify where you want to go, and what resources
you will need to get there.

Good luck in giving it a try, and seeing if it helps you do a better job,
regardless what it is you are doing or with whom you are doing it. I'll
copy your request to the listserv for Holistic Management (previously
called "Holistic Resource Management") and see if there are others, some in
Africa, who can help you if you'd like some "on the ground" demonstrations
of skill ... and lack of it. (All us us have more examples of lack than
adequate skill! Such is life.)

Cheers,
Dick Richardson


At 01:57 PM 10/12/97 +0200, Richard Reynolds wrote:
>Hi there
>
>I located your e-mail address on the internet and hope that you will be
>able to assist me in locating information for a review on the practicalities
>of Alan Savorys H.R.M. model.  I am looking for un-biased information on
>animal production that can be used to either refute or support the model,
>as well as data concerning the practicalities of animal handling and
>movement.
>
> Here in South Africa this data seems to be in very short supply, with
>almost all farmers consulted having abandoned the model because of
>un-profitability.  
>
>
>Thank you for your time.
>Richard Reynolds
>
> 
>
R. H. (Dick) Richardson                     (512) 471-4128 office
Zoology Dept.                                     471-9651 FAX
University of Texas                               
Austin, TX 78712