The pine needles got me to thinking more about it and its something I guess I’ve never given much thought to because I was focused on food plotting concepts….but the amount of carbon the trees are dropping on the soil is changing the dynamics of the C:N situation as opposed to the same spot without those trees present…..Imagine if you create an oak savannah for example, you’ve got a pretty significant amount of carbon being deposited on the soil each year through leaves……That’s not a bad thing because these carbon sources are what makes topsoil……You just have to have the N units to efficiently process it……That means the percentage of legumes and broadleafs to grass that you’re growing in the understory needs to be a good bit higher than if those trees weren’t there…..more legumes even less grass…….Isnt this how an oak savannah typically grow naturally??

Again, this is where a grazer would go a long ways to alleviating that nitrogen demand the system is needing……The more carbon you can process into the soil the more you can grow the soil organic matter %........ The higher levels of organic matter the more top end plant diversity the system will “vibrantly” grow with good plant color…..Grazing herds are natures helpers with carbon processing…..There’s not many other ways of feasibly managing at top end potential without them……You just don’t have the ability to process the same high end carbon loads……. Applying fertilizer at that same scale to meet N demands would cost a crazy amount…..

Until this is understood ^^^^ you’re not seeing the whole picture…… smile

Folks that know don't shoot old does........ wink