Introduction

Holistic science has always featured in grassland improvement, and in the last three decades there has been a major change of emphasis towards the systematic modelling of the component processes of grassland production and their interaction with each other, and towards systemic studies which would improve the prospects for the realization of change.

At the IV International Grassland Congress R.G. Stapledon (1937) stated: ‘Grass (and when I say ‘grass’ I mean, of course, grass and clover) properly used ensures soil fertility, grass marries the soil to the animal and the solid foundation of agriculture is the marriage of animal and soil’. Although the substance of research papers at this time was focused on reductionist science and the innovations which might emerge, most grassland agronomists were generalists with close links to the farming community. The agenda of the International Grassland Congress dealt with aspects of the soil—plant—animal system and there was little space for the social sciences, but significant numbers of farmers attended the meetings and the transfer of technology was a central goal. P.V. Cardon (1952) encapsulated an ethos: ‘These measures … seek only to subjugate by exact knowledge the natural obstacles that impede human progress towards a more abundant life’.