Holistic Land Management

What is Holistic Land Management? In a nut shell: Holistic land management is not looking at raising a singular species, rather it looks at raising an entire ecosystem.  From raising large mammal species down to the tiny microbes living in our soils. 

 

Here at Lucky 8 Ranch we aren't just bison managers, we are also in the business of managing: grass, water, soils, energy, and a community.  By maintaining a proper balance of each of these systems, our bison herd can flourish.  Key principles to keep in mind when using this kind of land management are: nature functions as a whole and all environments are not the same.  With properly managed land resources, you can build biodiversity and improve production.  However you cannot control one thing without impacting another.  Our goal is to increase our biodiversity in our lands.  The more biodiversity you have, the more sustainable your environment becomes.  

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We strive for healthy soils without the use of chemicals.  By better understanding how different ecosystem process work, it helps us determine how well the system is operating and how to work more effectively with these natural processes to create a healthier, more productive land.   There are four key systems to maintaining and improving the quality of your land; water, mineral, energy, & biological community.  

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Here at Lucky 8 Ranch we are new to this practice and every year is an improvement on the past.  We have taken bare land that had been abandoned without any management or grazing herds and turned it into a manageable ecosystem fit for our bison and their visitors.  We've helped nudge this process by cutting out the weeds and following a strict rotational grazing plan to allow the native grasses to flourish.