education + training

Holistic Planned Grazing

Ecological Monitoring

Holistic Land Planning

Holistic Financial Planning

Holistic Context Design and Foundations 

The Holistic Context Design and Foundations module is the essential starting point to understanding core holistic principles and how to identify and develop them in your own life/operation. The framework established in holistic context design brings together personal values, resources, challenges, and support networks to tell the full story of an individual and their relationship to the land. From this, we uncover the core values and needs that drive decision making. 

For ranchers who are shifting grazing operations to a regenerative model, producers who want to optimize profit through a system-based approach, government agencies or Tribal Nations seeking a process for creating community-based decisions, or an individual passionate about redefining their journey toward holistic and regenerative life, Holistic Context Design creates clarity and structure to develop decisions and build resiliency for all beings to thrive.

Holistic Planned Grazing

The integration of livestock with land regeneration is the foundation of holistic grazing. Holistic Planned Grazing helps ensure that the right type of livestock are in the right place, at the right time, and with the right behavior.

The UVE Holistic Grazing Planning course focuses on developing comprehensive plans for managing the complex relationships between livestock, crop production, forage growth cycles, and wildlife habitat in a way that ensures ongoing land regeneration, animal health and welfare, and profitability. 

During the course, participants work alongside UVE Guild experts to identify objectives for timing and duration in relation to cycles of grazing coupled with adequate periods of plant recovery periods. Through careful timing of grazing, analysis of stocking rates related to forage availability, and assessment of growing and non-growing season timeframes, we are able to effectively decrease the amount of bare ground and increase the mass of plants year over year. In doing so, we increase the availability of forage over time, increase carbon sequestration by keeping active root growth beneath the soil surface, and enhance biodiversity by creating an integrated relationship between grazers and wildlife. 

Ecological Monitoring

Ecological Outcome Verification™ (EOV) is a science-based monitoring methodology developed by the Savory Institute that provides data and land health information. Stewards and land producers benefit from this deep data capture and analysis by effectively tracking land health trends (including carbon, water, and biodiversity) in order to inform land management decisions. 

Using this system-based analysis, stewards and producers can quantify the value of their management practice through looking at the increase of land potential over time. In this course participants learn how to interpret ecosystem processes to inform their land and grazing planning. Course attendees learn to interpret core indicators of ecological health such as plant litter incorporation, dung decomposition, soil capping, and presence of desirable plant species to determine what potential management practices can be implemented to meet their desired outcome.