The Magic of New Growth

From Abbey's newsletter - September 4, 2026

I usually write my newsletters on my laptop at the kitchen table, and often in the evening when it's dark out. Well, today I’m coming to you straight from the field. I'm sitting here watching my herd graze on luscious cover crops.

My family grows cover crops after our wheat crop. It's a mix of cereals, legumes, and brassicas that we seed to improve the health of our soil. The plants keep the soil covered to prevent erosion and add organic matter, along with a host of other benefits. And when they are growing in the field next door to my pasture, like this year, they also make nice feed for my ladies!

So anyways, I’m out here being a shepherd today. Which is what I do every day to some degree, always moving the girls on to fresh grass, but true shepherds live and move with the herd; they're always with their animals. I usually set mine up and then go do other jobs.

There are still people around the world that live this way (read Hoofprints on the Land by Ilse Kohler-Rollefson!), and it seems like a pretty decent life to me, but I might be biased, lover of cows that I am. I'm definitely enjoying it today. There's a gentle breeze, it's quiet and peaceful, and there aren't any distractions here for writing this email like in my office (aka, the kitchen).

There are a few reasons for my being a shepherd today. For one, the cover crop fence is only temporary, so I'm bringing them out to graze and then leading them back to the main pasture overnight. There's peace of mind in supervising them, even though they're so well-trained that they won't touch the fence, but also because the neighbourhood is really looking out for my girls and I keep getting calls that they've escaped! It's pretty hard to see the fence from the road and cattle out in the field is not a common sight around here. (Let's hope my girls never get out, but if they do, it's evident I've got lots of good folks keeping an eye - thank you!).

Another reason for being a shepherd? It's just plain enjoyable, and I may not have a lake and dock in my backyard, but I do have this. I've been tired lately, and there's nothing more peaceful than watching cows graze.

And so - there's my little spiel about cover crop grazing. Which is not actually the main topic I intended to write about today. What I really want to talk about is growth.

I literally watch my grass grow every day, and not in the way people usually mean by that statement. I walk this land every day, and I observe. I watch as the pastures change. I notice the weeds growing and when to dig them out. I watch the red-winged blackbirds make their nests in the grass and then watch them leave the nests behind. I see the blooms of the sweet clover open up and then die away. I notice the day the cowbirds show up and perch on the heads of my cattle to eat flies. I see seeds germinate and open up their first leaves. I observe as the grass regrows and when it is ready to be grazed again.

I move the cattle every day, usually twice, on to fresh pasture, using electric fence. The land they leave behind gets to regrow and recover for around 25-40 days, so the pastures are always in different states: Full growth, trampled to the ground, and various stages of regrowth.

Here's a before and after shot to show what an impact the cattle have.

This is an ancient, natural process. Animals graze and trample, leaving behind manure, then move on to a fresh area and return when it has regrown. Historically, predator pressure would have kept the animals moving. Today, I use electric fence.

See these little grasses growing? It will forever be the most wondrous thing to me, seeing the first shoots of regrowth poke up their heads. I found these in my South Creek pasture this morning. With all this rain and moisture we've had, the ground is soft and squishy, easy for little blades of grass to push through. They didn't have to work too hard and came up quickly, in less than a week.

Here's the same pasture regrowing, but back in July. July is dry, cracked soil, hot sun beating on the ground. It took weeks for those shoots to fight their way out, waiting for rain to help them out.

Sometimes you look back at the ground you're leaving behind and wonder how anything could ever grow here again, but no matter how much impact the cattle leave, the regrowth always comes.

The cows and the grass keep me grounded in life. Change will happen and the regrowth will come, but how long will it take? And do you even notice when it has? Don’t you wish it was always as obvious as a green shoot of grass?

The regrowth always comes, we just have to be patient.