Grass Productivity

by Andre Voisin, Allan Savory (Introduction), Philosophical Library Pub. (Preface by)

Overview

Grass Productivity is a prodigiously documented textbook of scientific information concerning every aspect of management "where the cow and grass meet." Andre Voisin's "rational grazing" method maximizes productivity in both grass and cattle operations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780933280649
Publisher:	Island Press
Publication date:	12/01/1988
Series:	Conservation Classics Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Andre Voisin is a member of The Académie d'Agriculture de France in Paris. He was a biochemist by training, but a farmer by inclination. He was known to spend long hours watching his cows grazing his fields in Normandy, which inspired his "rational grazing" management plan theory.

Allan Savory is cofounder and president of the Savory Institute. Born in Zimbabwe and educated as an ecologist with degrees in zoology and botany, Savory has had a decades-long career in African and Middle Eastern government and politics, private consultancy, and teaching. His work in resource management started in the mid-1960s in an effort to find workable solutions ordinary people could implement to restore degraded lands. He and his wife, Jody Butterfield continue those efforts today, reaching a global audience through the efforts of the Savory Institute. 

Table of Contents

Foreword
List of Tables
Table of Figures
Note: Conversion from Metric to British Units
Introduction to The Island Press Edition
Introduction: The Meeting of Cow and Grass
 
PART I. The Grass
Chapter 1. What Is a Herbage Plant?
Chapter 2. The Curve of Grass Growth
Chapter 3. Rest Period and Annual Production of Grass
Chapter 4. Seasonal Fluctuations in Grass Growth
Chapter 5. Influence of Fertilisers on the Vigour of Growth and on the Production of Grass
Chapter 6. An Immense Army of Lilliputian Ploughmen Bury the Phospho-Potassic Fertilisers Applied to the Pasture
Chapter 7. White Clover, A Factory for Free Nitrogen Production
Chapter 8. At What Height Should Grass Be Grazed?
Chapter 9. The Composition of Grass
 
PART II. The Cow
Chapter 1. How the Cow Harvests the Grass
Chapter 2. The Quantities of Grass Harvested by the Cow
Chapter 3. Quantities of Milk Produced by the Cow when She Harvests Her Own Grass
Chapter 4. The Cow Is a Gourmet
Chapter 5. Conversion of Nitrogenous Substances in the Stomach of the Cow
Chapter 6. Grass Tetany
 
PART III. Laws of Rational Grazing
-Requirements of the Grass and of the Cow
 
PART IV. Principles for the Conduct Of Rational Grazing
Chapter 1. Definition of the Basic Elements
Chapter 2. Determination of the Number of Paddocks Is the Basis of the Rational Grazing Plan
Chapter 3. Division of the Herd into Groups
Chapter 4. Compensation for Seasonal Fluctuations in Grass Growth
Chapter 5. Compensation for Seasonal Fluctuations in Grassland Production by Varying the Number of Paddocks in the Rota
Chapter 6. Compensation for Seasonal Fluctuations in Grassland Productivity by Application of Nitrogen
Chapter 7. External Methods of Compensating for Seasonal Fluctuations
 
PART V. Rational Grazing In Practice
Chapter 1. Flexibility in Management Is Essential
Chapter 2. Putting Out to Grass in Rational Grazing
 
PART VI. Common Errors in Supposedly Rational Systems of Grazing
Chapter 1. Rotation Was Recommended by the Encyclopedists of the Enlightenment
Chapter 2. Pioneers of Rotation Failed to Recognise the Importance of the "Time" Factor
Chapter 3. Untoward Acceleration
 
PART VII. Tethering and Rationed Grazing, Special Systems of Rational Grazing
Chapter 1. Tether Grazing
Chapter 2. Different Forms of Rationed Grazing
Chapter 3. Does Rationed Grazing Produce 25% More Than Rotation?
Chapter 4. Rational Grazing Allowing a Variable Grazing Area But No Area of Pasture that Has Already Been Grazed (One Group Only)
Chapter 5. Rationed Grazing Where the Animals Have Access to an Area that Has Already Been Grazed (One Group Only)
Chapter 6. Rationed Grazing with Two Groups
Chapter 7. Grazing Rationed in Time
 
PART VIII. Division of Pastures
Chapter 1. A General Problem
Chapter 2. Watering Points and Access Corridors
Chapter 3. Divided Pastures
 
PART IX. Rational Grazing Transforms the Flora
Chapter 1. Extremely Rapid Evolution of the Flora
Chapter 2. Simplified Examples of Flora Evolution
Chapter 3. Common Grazings at Rengen (Germany)
Chapter 4. A Personal Experience and Some English Experiments
 
PART X. Salient Points of Rational Grazing
-Synopsis of the General Principles
 
PART XI. Wealth of Our Pastures
Chapter 1. Simplified Method of Calculating Pasture Productivity
Chapter 2. Production of the Voisin Pastures in 1954
Chapter 3. Comparison of Yields Obtained from Arable Crops and Permanent Pastures
 
PART XII. Difficulties of Yesterday and To-morrow
Chapter 1. The Principles Have Always Been Known
Chapter 2. Two Educational Difficulties of the Future
Chapter 3. Difficulties of Research into Pasture Management
Chapter 4. Rational Grazing and the General Economy of the Farm
Chapter 5. ''Grass Productivity''?, A State of Mind Essential in the Future
 
Conclusions: Green Pastures
Bibliography
Index f Names