Episode 24- The Native Seeds Were Already There

In this brief episode, I share a recent pasture walk with my NRCS grazing specialist, we spotted Indian Grass and other natives already thriving — no expensive seed needed.

I share how simple grazing management can unlock the seed bank, and why shifting from “What do I fix?” to “What moves us toward our desired goal?” changes everything.

I’ll go deeper into these mindset shifts in the Regenerative & Resilient Pathway Masterclass — September 15–17, live and virtual, 12:00 PM CST each day.

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Transcript

Christine Martin: 0:19

Christine here, and I'm just in from spending some time out in my pastures here in East Texas, and I wanted to share a story from my own land. One that reminded me yet again, the power of managing for the whole W-H-O-L-E instead of chasing parts. So today I spent some time with my NRCS grazing specialist. And he came out to tour the pastures with me. We do this frequently so that we can discuss my management and we can observe to see what's going on, and also to document what we're seeing on the land. And honestly, I wasn't expecting much just another assessment walk, but as we were looking closer, guess what we started finding? I'm so excited about this. We actually found some Indian grass, which is a higher successional native grass, and it's quite edible for livestock and it has a pretty decent root base. And we also found some other resilient grasses and forbs in there too, including lupines, which are very high protein grass. Anyway, I'm super excited about finding these things. And especially because these are plants that I did not seed I didn't spend thousands of dollars on native seed mixes. They were already there waiting in the soil, in the seed bank, waiting for the right conditions. And here's the thing, as I said, I didn't buy these plants. They came from the seed bank activated when the management. Gave them space to thrive. When, management had created the environment in the soil to allow for the seeds that are in the seed bank to germinate. What made the difference that after I grazed, I allowed for adequate recovery, changing my recovery times based on the time of year. My grazing timing when I decided to graze that specific pasture. And also stock density. How dense did I put the animals? Did I give them more selection or did I give them a small area to graze on? This is not a silver bullet. It's also not a big invoice from a seed company, just management decisions that created the conditions for nature to do her thing. This is the classic difference between reductionist and holistic thinking. A reductionist says, we need to fix this pasture. Let's spend money on seed. A holistic land steward says, what decision moves us toward our desired goals? And in this case, the decision wasn't to fix the poor pasture and throw money at it. It was to adjust the management and let the land's own resilience show up. This is the beauty of managing for the whole. We stopped chasing the problems part by part, and we start noticing that hidden potential that's already in there, and often it surprises us, as it did for me today, that Indian grass in the pasture. Is unexpected forage diversity, it's resilience showing up without us forcing it. The land is always talking to us. It's always communicating with us. The question is, are we listening to it? Are we reading the land so that we can adjust our management accordingly? So here's my question for you. What hidden potential have you seen emerge on your land once you shifted your management? Take a moment and think about it. Maybe it was a native plant showing up, like I've shared today. Maybe it was better animal performance because your forage is better quality because of your grazing management and because you've reduced inputs that affect that forage quality. Maybe it's just healthier water cycles, right? Your soil has more water, so your plants are thriving better. Whatever it was, let that be your reminder. You don't always have to buy the solution. Sometimes it's already waiting beneath your feet. This is exactly what I'm gonna be talking about in my masterclass, Regenerative and Resilient Pathway that's starting September 15th through the 17th, it will be live, it will be virtual, and we will start at 12 o'clock Central standard time. I'm gonna focus on those mindset shifts that stops the symptom chasing. I'm gonna talk about how the human steward, how me, how you, our, habits are conditioning shape, the results that we're seeing. If you ever felt like you're constantly chasing problems instead of seeing the bigger picture, this is the class for you The link for registration is in the show notes. If you follow me on Instagram, you can DM me'Resilient' and I'll send you the link to register for that masterclass. Until next time, and remember the land doesn't always need fixing. Sometimes all it needs is the right management and a chance to let her shine. Talk to you next episode.