pasture permaculture

Holistic management of grazing ruminants -- sheep, goats, and especially cows -- is the biggest single step we can take toward permaculture in its original sense of 'permanent agriculture'. Only when our agriculture can continue into the future can we hope to build the second meaning of 'permaculture', that is, 'permanent human culture'.

We'll only be able to stay here if we can feed ourselves.

native and naturalized perennial pasture and cows

All of the things that make for a truly 'permanent agriculture' are just naturally part of an intelligent grazing system. Multi-layered solar energy capture is exactly what happens in a deep, biodiverse native pasture. Closed loop energy systems? Green sunlight that goes in the front end of a grazing animal comes out the back end to feed the soil and push up more (and better) grass. Polycultural guilds? This is good grazing in a nutshell: animals, plants, insects, worms, bacteria and fungi in an endless loop loop of mutual assistance and advantage.

This is very different from the present Western commercial farming model. A 'permanent agriculture' – one we can reasonably expect to extend into the future – cannot be essentially dependent on imported, finite energy sources. Neither can it generate wastes, which eventually build up to be 'pollutants' and 'nutrient deficiencies'. All the results of permacultural farming must become feedbacks into the system.

Instead of an energy flow of machines, petroleum, and annual commodity monocrops, permaculture directs natural forces like gravity, rainfall, sunlight, shade, and self-regenerating biological communities, in such a way that the resulting healthy, stable landscape supplies all the needs of its living populations – including humans.

We can't think of a better description of really good pasture management