The nuts and bolts of Holistic Management

People often confuse Holistic Management with land management, when in reality the former is a flexible decision-making and planning framework. Brothers Roland and Sholto Kroon, who farm in the Eastern Cape, spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the philosophy behind this approach to farming, and how it is working for them.

- Glenneis Kriel

FAST FACTS

Different Holistic Management (HM) practices will have different outcomes, depending on the brittleness of an environment, or how much moisture it receives in a year.

There is no specific ‘recipe’ for HM, as each farmer’s production context is different.

All HM decisions made should be continually monitored, and changed if need be.

The Kroon family has always been environmentally conscious, with brothers Malcolm and Norman Kroon erecting fencing in the 1950s to reduce the size of the camps and rotate their Merino sheep and Angora goats across their farm, Klipdrift, near Graaff-Reinet.

When their Namibian farm was expropriated in the 1960s, the family sought the help of an independent ecologist to provide proof in court that the land was worth more than what the government was offering. That ecologist was Allan Savory, the pioneer of Holistic Management (HM).

Inspired by Savory, Malcolm fenced Klipdrift into 50 paddocks in the shape of wagon wheels, with the cells of the ‘wheels’ opening out into central areas where the animals could be managed, and where they could drink and receive additional feed.

The sheep and goats were then divided into mixed flocks that were rotated from one cell of the wheel to the next every five to seven days. Cells were given 60 to 70 days to recover before being grazed again.