Cows and Effect

Helloooooooooo listener. That's just me doing an impression of the classically handsome Mr Michael Blanche. Hello listener (I did that one in my own voice).   Welcome to this bonus episode; a compilation of the Series 1 jokes. It's funny stuff. And. STOP PRESS. We're going to be speaking at Fields Good, the sustainable farming event in Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland that all the cool kids will be going to on 5th September 2026. There's talks, demonstrations, trade stands, food and drink. It's 09.00 hrs to late evening on Saturday and it sounds very informative and a whole lot of fun. There are some great speakers, including Dr Joel Williams (we are not worthy) and some that are okay on a good day; Michael is chairing a panel about TBC and Paul is wanging on for an hour (that's right; 60 whole minutes) on the subject of Regen Livestock Farming; Science or Woo-woo ? In the evening, we're doing an On the sofa with ....... session, which could be brilliant or a disaster; come along and find out which way it tips. It's only 2 hours from Scotland on the ferry and then 20 minutes from Larne ferry terminal. Check out www.fieldsgood.co.uk for more details of the programme and ticketing.  At time of publishing, we're in the first week in August and the weather seems like it might be turning a bit. Let's hope so. Toodle Pip listener.

A momentous episode listener; it's the last of the first series of the cult science and farming podcast Cows and Effect. For a while anyway. We are mulling over a second series (TBC). Look out for some occasional "Meet the Authors" episodes over the summer. We'll be monitoring the email address [email protected] , so drop us a line; maybe suggest some topics/questions for Series 2. You know the drill by now. Dear Michael and Paul, Loving the show. Michael is the best. Etc.  The regular listener will know that sometimes we fill episodes with science and sometimes it's mainly us droning on about other stuff. As a treat, we threw off the shackles of convention and rammed both science and talking nonsense into this final episode until it couldn't take any more. There's loads of papers and some completely pointless ramblings including half an hour on our favourite films, which all came about because neither of us had been to the pictures lately, but we thought we would talk about films anyway. And then Paul went to the pictures after the main record, so we spoke about that as well in the outro. Good grief, you are a lucky bunch. Be warned. It's a very long episode.  Here are the links to the science.  We covered some foundational work looking at mob grazing in Texas. Teague, W.R., Dowhower, S.L., Baker, S.A., Haile, N., DeLaune, P.B. and Conover, D.M., 2011. Grazing management impacts on vegetation, soil biota and soil chemical, physical and hydrological properties in tall grass prairie. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 141(3-4), pp.310-322. Grazing management impacts on vegetation, soil biota and soil chemical, physical and hydrological properties in tall grass prairie - ScienceDirect This one is for Craig. Hayman, J.M. and Saville, D.J., 1981. Comparison of rotational grazing with set stocking of ewes and lambs in spring on irrigated pasture in Canterbury. New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 9(1), pp.11-16. Comparison of rotational grazing with set stocking of ewes and lambs in spring on irrigated pasture in Canterbury - Hayman - 1981 - New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science - Wiley Online Library We talk abou an "invited review". This is it. Stanley, P.L., Wilson, C., Patterson, E., Machmuller, M.B. and Cotrufo, M.F., 2024. Ruminating on soil carbon: applying current understanding to inform grazing management. Global Change Biology, 30(3), p.e17223. Global Change Biology | Environmental Change Journal | Wiley Online Library South America !!! Moojen, F.G., Bremm, C., Laca, E.A., Machado, D.R., Savian, J.V. and Carvalho, P.C.D.F., 2022. Herbage allowance and stocking method effect on grazing systems: Results of a long‐term experiment. Grass and Forage Science, 77(1), pp.45-54. Grass and Forage Science | Grassland Science Journal | Wiley Online Library The big one. Billman, E.D., Williamson, J.A., Soder, K.J., Andreen, D.M. and Skinner, R.H., 2020. Mob and rotational grazing influence pasture biomass, nutritive value, and species composition. Agronomy Journal, 112(4), pp.2866-2878. Mob and rotational grazing influence pasture biomass, nutritive value, and species composition | Agronomy Journal You, the owl-eared listener, may be here looking for the link to Andrew McGuire's blog with the heated discussion about soil organic matter, that Michael promised to post on the shownotes. Nothing heard on that score from Old Mr Reliability, so here's a link to McGuire's main page. Happy reading. Andrew McGuire's Homepage | Grant County | Washington State University Stop the press. This just in from Mr Last Minute. Regenerative Agriculture: Solid Principles, Extraordinary Claims | Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources | Washington State University That's it. Well done on getting to the end. Toodle Pip. Have a good summer. See you at Groundswell?  

Sorry, sorry, sorry. We were a couple of days late getting this one out. It's a busy time of year and Michael found it difficult to fit in all the preparation and research that he needs to do to for the podcast. You wouldn't believe the number of distressed listeners that messaged us, asking if we were OK. So, what to say about this one? We were brilliant on the first take; 45 minutes of pure gold. Then we found a "technical issue" and had to do it again. Second take; a lot of tension in the "studio". Third take; judge for yourselves. We have had a listen and cannot believe that none of the following words and phrases appear in the episode; symptoms, mental health, undiagnosed, broken, dysfunctional, impairment, childhood trauma, disorder, treatment, white coats, & oversized butterfly net.   Stick with it listener, we promise that the science does finally arrive. We talk about two substantial pieces of work; two research papers that report long term grazing trials. Fajardo, M., Morgan, S.A., Chilibroste, P., Lee, M.R.F. and Rivero, M.J., 2025. Animal and pasture responses in contrasting temperate pasture-based cattle management systems: set-stocking versus cell grazing. animal, p.101635. Animal and pasture responses in contrasting temperate pasture-based cattle management systems: set-stocking versus cell grazing - ScienceDirect and Andrade, B.O., Shropshire, A., Johnson, J.R., Redden, M.D., Semerad, T., Soper, J.M., Beckman, B., Milby, J., Eskridge, K.M., Volesky, J.D. and Schacht, W.H., 2022. Vegetation and animal performance responses to stocking density grazing systems in Nebraska Sandhills Meadows. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 82, pp.86-96. Vegetation and Animal Performance Responses to Stocking Density Grazing Systems in Nebraska Sandhills Meadows - ScienceDirect This is McGuire's blog page. Andrew McGuire's Homepage | Grant County | Washington State University Roots so Deep literature page. Published Research | AMP Research, Soil Health, And Grazing This is the Roth paper that looked at how cattle select leaf over stalk, when grazing grass.    Roth, L.D., Rouquette Jr, F.M. and Ellis, W.C., 1990. Effects of herbage allowance on herbage and dietary attributes of Coastal bermudagrass. Journal of Animal Science, 68(1), pp.193-205. Effects of Herbage Allowance on Herbage and Dietary Attributes of Coastal Bermudagrass | Journal of Animal Science | Oxford Academic Futher reading for the nerds.  A good review paper. Rouquette Jr, F.M., Sollenberger, L.E. and Vendramini, J.M., 2023. Grazing management and stocking strategy decisions for pasture-based beef systems: experimental confirmation vs. testimonials and perceptions. Translational Animal Science, 7(1), p.txad069. Grazing management and stocking strategy decisions for pasture-based beef systems: experimental confirmation vs. testimonials and perceptions | Translational Animal Science | Oxford Academic And good old Dr Wang. Wang, F., Apfelbaum, S.I., Thompson, R.L., Teague, R. and Byck, P., 2021. Effects of adaptive multiple paddock and continuous grazing on fine-scale spatial patterns of vegetation species and biomass in commercial ranches. Landscape Ecology, 36(9), pp.2725-2741. Effects of adaptive multiple paddock and continuous grazing on fine-scale spatial patterns of vegetation species and biomass in commercial ranches | Landscape Ecology | Springer Nature Link See you at Groundswell listener and don't forget to email in. It's [email protected] Toodle Pip.

Sorry about this one listener. Calving's started, Paul's been busy with "contract work" and we just didn't get the work done to put out a proper episode with research papers and all that. We did our best and had a good old chat. Think of it this way, it's probably not as bad as the "difficult fifth episode" and it's still free to air.    We promise we'll do better next month. The next two episodes will be about grazing and particularly Regen style grazing. Then we'll have two ask-the-scientist episodes; including Dr Shackleton (is she a-relation or no-relation?), Professor Metin Erin (we love him, he's our new best friend) and a genuine, internationally renowned, titan-in-his-field, physicist who will address the question that is on everyone's lips; does the Heisenberg joke work or not? So don't forget to send in your questions. It's [email protected] . Join the many thousands of listeners that have already contacted us via electronic mail on the interweb.

Howdy, yee-haw and yippee-ki-yay buckaroos. Get your ears on, because we're headed west of the Pecos for the rootin' tootin' episode 3. of Lab Rat Jazz Club, where things are fixing to get plumb loco down in the lab. Hot-diggerty-dawg. As usual, there's the odd cuss word, but not the big one.  Here's the link to the paper, but listen first and read after. Link to Dr Eren's fine research paper. Here is a link to the Supplementary Data, which has all the photographs in it.  It's true, they actually did it. Email questions, comments, suggestions and Michael Blanche fan mail to  [email protected]. You should probably open with; "Dear Michael, loving the show; oh my goodness, you are so fab (etc, etc.)" We really can't be arsed with the admin for social media or fending off all the inevitable and well deserved online abuse, so help us out listener. In the unlikely event that you 1. enjoy the podcast and 2. don't mind people finding out that you enjoy the podcast; then tell your friends. You know the drill by now; "Have you heard about Cows and Effect? It's a farming podcast with the charming, handsome and and brilliant Michael Blanche. You know, the guy from The Pasture Pod and that time thing. He's amazing. I love him. There's another one, but I've forgotten his name. It doesn't matter; did I say it's got Michael Blanche in it?"  Somehow, we keep coming back to polar explorers and we finally got around to Scott. Links to short films about Scott's last expedition.  Geordie of the Antarctic Scott's equipment list