Welcome to our podcast, Fat Wallets
I am Jim Elizondo, your host for Real Wealth Ranching. I hope you are well and prepared for the coming Holidays!
There’s a special kind of quiet that settles over a ranch in December.
Not the empty quiet of nothing happening—because something is always happening on the land—but a deep, reflective quiet. A pause between the seasons. A pause between decisions. A pause between who we were as ranchers this year… and who we want to become in the next.
And this year, that quiet carries something extra for me.
Because today, I’m welcoming 49 new students into the Total Grazing Academy—our Fall 2025 cohort.
Forty-nine ranchers, farmers, graziers, and land stewards who raised their hands and said:
“I’m ready.
I want to better understand my land.
I want more life, more production, more profits, more health—without more stress.”
If you’re one of them, welcome.
If you’re a long-time listener, welcome back.
If you’re still grazing with questions, curiosity, or a little bit of skepticism… you’re welcome here too.
This is a blog about you, about them, and about why winter—yes, that cold, quiet, sometimes unforgiving season—is actually the best time to reset your grazing mindset.
Winter is a teacher.
Sometimes gentle.
Sometimes brutal.
But always honest.
And today, I want to talk about that honesty, and how it creates the perfect environment for growth—whether you’re in the Academy or following along from wherever you are in your grazing journey.
Every TGA class has its own personality—its own “energy,” if you’ll allow me to use a word that fits better in a yoga studio than a ranching blog. But it’s true.
Some classes come in with wide-eyed enthusiasm.
Some come in with heavy frustration and are looking for solutions fast.
Some come in quietly determined.
Some come in skeptical but hopeful.
Some come in because they’ve tried everything else and nothing has given them peace.
This fall class—the forty-nine of you—feels curious and courageous.
Curious, because you’re not satisfied with the old answers anymore.
Courageous, because you’re willing to question traditions, neighbors’ expectations, and even your own deeply held habits. I have never had so many questions before! And I love that!
To me, that combination—curiosity + courage—is the foundation of a transformational grazier.
You have people who run tens of thousands of acres.
You have people with small acreage determined to make every square foot count.
You have ranchers who have been grazing their whole lives.
You have new landowners who still feel like they’re “not real ranchers yet.”
You have folks from humid climates, brittle climates, cold climates, dry climates, dairy, beef, sheep, and even folks dreaming of mixed species grazing one day.
And all of you share a simple but powerful desire:
“I want my land to respond better.”
That’s it. That’s the core.
Land that responds—
with more growth,
more forage density,
more water infiltration, and better water holding capacity
more resilience,
more biodiversity,
more organic matter,
more profits,
and ultimately…
More peace.
Because when the land is responding, the rancher breathes easier.
Now, even if you’re not in this cohort, this blog is still for you. Because the principles I’m about to share are the same principles I encourage every rancher to reset and reflect on each winter.
Winter is the equalizer.
Winter is the truth-teller.
Winter exposes the gaps but also shows you the path forward.
I’ve taught grazing for decades.
I’ve consulted in dozens of climates and countries.
I’ve seen ranchers succeed wildly, and I’ve witnessed ranchers struggle even with the best intentions.
And if I had to choose one season where learning hits the deepest, it’s winter or the dry season, depending on your hemisphere.
You may think winter is “the off-season,” but I would argue—and I believe many seasoned graziers would agree—that winter is the planning season, the awareness season, and the mindset season.
Why?
Because in winter:
A) The land is honest.
Nothing hides in winter.
No flashy green growth to distract you.
No “pretty grass” to make you feel better than the numbers tell you.
No lucky rains.
No accidental wins.
Winter shows you exactly what you built all year.
Stockpile reveals whether you managed recovery well, not just for quality but for quantity.
Residuals show whether your cattle were grazing selectively or uniformly, at low or high harvest efficiency.
Bare soil patches reveal whether you protected your grasses or over-grazed them.
Animal condition tells the truth about nutrition, fiber, and rumen function.
The land is like a report card pinned to your refrigerator by Mother Nature herself. No sugarcoating.
B) You have more mental space.
Summer is action.
Fall is preparation.
But winter gives you room to think.
Most ranchers finally have a little space—not a lot, I know (ranchers never really “stop”)—but enough to reflect without feeling rushed.
This is when you can actually ask:
Reflection is a powerful tool—but only when you have bandwidth for it.
C) Winter slows the land… and the rancher.
When the environment slows, your decision-making can deepen.
Ranching in the green season feels like racing a clock—grass growing faster than your livestock can eat it, cattle moving through paddocks, rain windows opening and closing, weeds popping up, salt tubs emptying faster than you thought.
Winter reduces that rush.
And with that reduction comes clarity.
D) Winter encourages humility, which opens the door to learning.
Winter humbles everybody.
It humbles ranchers with too much confidence.
It humbles ranchers who lack confidence.
It humbles those who thought they were ahead and those who thought they were behind.
Because winter doesn’t care about your opinions—it shows you reality.
And humility is the best soil for learning.
The ranchers who succeed the most are never the ones who pretend to know everything.
They’re the ones who keep looking at the land and asking questions—even if they’ve been grazing for 50 years.
This is the part many ranchers try to avoid.
But winter won’t let you hide from it.
If you see:
…winter is giving you a standing ovation.
Those signs mean you spent your summer building resilience into your land.
You gave it recovery.
You let grasses reach maturity when stockpiling
You stockpiled intentionally.
You balanced animal demand with forage flow.
You treated the land as a partner instead of a factory.
But winter also exposes weaknesses… and we must talk about them honestly.
If you see:
…those are messages from the land. Not accusations. Not failures.
Just information.
And I’ll tell you this:
Every great grazier you may admire has had winters like that.
I’ve had winters like that.
More than once.
The key is not whether winter exposes imperfections—it always will.
The key is whether you use that exposure to reset your grazing mindset!.
I’ll share something I tell every single Total Grazing Academy student, no matter their experience:
Your land will teach you faster than I ever can—
But only if you pay attention to what winter reveals, only if you observe!.
Grazing is simple, but not easy.
Nature has rules.
Plants have rules.
Animals have rules.
Soil microbes have rules.
They don’t change their rules just because we want convenience.
Grass grows fast.
Mistakes can hide behind good rainfall.
Rotations feel good even when they're not actually improving anything.
Cattle appear content because everything tastes fresh.
But winter strips away the illusions.
If your stockpile is thin, you didn’t allow enough recovery.
If your cattle aren’t ruminating, you didn’t get them to consume enough fiber.
If your hay feeding started too early, you did not plan correctly.
If your manure is sloppy, the diet was too rich and not diverse enough.
If your soil is bare, your plant community wasn't protected from overgrazing.
Winter turns down the volume on everything except the truth.
And that is a blessing.
Because when a rancher is ready to see the truth, a rancher becomes unstoppable.
I said earlier that this class feels both curious and courageous.
Let me explain why that matters.
A) Curious ranchers don’t give up—they investigate.
Curious ranchers don’t say:
“It didn’t work.”
They say:
“Why didn’t it work?
What can I learn from this?
What is the land showing me?”
Curiosity is what transforms grazing from endless guesswork into confident management.
B) Courageous ranchers are willing to change—even when neighbors aren’t.
Progressive ranchers—our listeners, our students—are often the ones doing things differently than everyone around them.
They’re the ones:
Courageous ranchers lead change.
And this group is full of them.
C) They joined at the right time of year.
Many ranchers try to learn grazing systems during the busy season.
But this group joined when:
This timing sets them up for success next year.
Because learning the Total Grazing Program in winter means spring doesn’t surprise you—you meet it prepared.
Let’s step beyond Total Grazing Academy now.
Whether you are a new rancher, a seasoned one, or still evaluating your next steps, winter is the invitation you didn’t know you needed.
Here are questions every grazier should ask this time of year:
The best graziers I know ask these questions every winter.
And the answers shape their entire next grazing season.
Awareness is the beginning of everything.
You cannot fix what you cannot see.
You cannot improve what you do not measure.
You cannot change what you are not acknowledging.
This is the subtle reminder I want every reader—student or not—to take from this blog:
Grazing improvement doesn’t begin with moving livestock.
It begins with awareness.
Awareness of the land.
Awareness of recovery.
Awareness of forage flow.
Awareness of your own habits.
Awareness of the way livestock respond.
Awareness of soil conditions.
Awareness of mistakes—without shame.
Awareness of successes—without pride.
The ranchers who change their grazing for the better are not the ranchers who work harder.
They are the ranchers who see clearly.
Winter sharpens that vision.
Ranchers don’t often talk about emotions.
We talk about rainfall.
We talk about the cow's body condition.
We talk about carbon, microbes, and weeds.
But we rarely talk about the emotional landscape of ranching.
Yet winter brings emotions to the surface.
If your stockpile is abundant, you feel calm.
You trust your decisions.
You trust your land.
You trust yourself.
If stockpiled grass runs short, you feel stress.
You worry about hay bills.
You worry about body condition loss.
You worry about next year.
Nature always gets the last word.
For the livestock that teach us.
For the land that keeps giving.
For the mistakes that become lessons.
For the resilience we didn’t know we had.
For the community we build together.
And this year…
For the 49 new students who just joined this journey with us.
Winter is not passive.
It is not quiet for no reason.
It is an invitation.
Here’s what winter asks of you:
1. Look honestly at your land.
Not with judgment—just with curiosity.
2. Notice what worked and what didn’t.
Everything is information.
3. Don’t repeat habits just because they’re familiar.
Familiar does not mean effective.
4. Prepare your mindset before you prepare your fences.
Management starts inside the mind.
5. Become aware of patterns—good or bad.
Awareness is the first step toward improvement.
6. Decide what kind of grazier you want to be next year.
Your land will respond accordingly.
7. Let winter slow you down enough to think clearly.
This clarity will pay dividends all year long.
To our 49 new TGA students:
You joined at the perfect time of year.
Not because the calendar says so.
But because your mindset is ready.
You’re stepping into a new season—not just on the ranch, but in your understanding of grazing itself.
You’re going to learn how to read your land, not guess.
You’re going to learn how to graze with nature, not against it.
You’re going to learn how to build long-lived soil carbon, real soil fertility, not short-term green-ups.
You’re going to learn how to graze calmly, profitably, peacefully.
You’re going to learn how to trust the land—because you understand it better.
And to every reader who’s been following along:
Whether you ever join our Total Grazing Academy or not, I want you to know this:
**You’re capable of transforming your land.
You’re capable of doubling your stocking rate.
You’re capable of regenerating soil.
You’re capable of grazing with confidence and joy.
You’re capable of more than you think—
And winter is here to remind you of that.**
So take a walk on your land this week.
Look at it with winter’s honesty.
Look at it with a grazier’s curiosity.
Look at it with a rancher’s hope.
Look at it with a teacher’s patience.
Because your land is speaking.
Winter just makes it easier to hear.
And whether you’re a new student or a long-time reader, this season is offering you something precious:
A chance to reset.
A chance to see clearly.
A chance to begin again.
And that, my friend, is where transformation always starts.
Thank you for being here and listening with attention, if you need, listen to this podcast again
May God bless you, and as always, subscribe to our weekly blog and our email letter at www.rwranching.com
Until next time!
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