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, disfunctional, 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 cowsandeffectpodcast@gmail.com

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 cowsandeffectpodcast@gmail.com . 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 cowsandeffectpodcast@gmail.com. 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

This festive episode comes out on 25th December 2025, so Happy blooming Christmas listener. If you're anything like me, the morning so far will have been; 1. Put the turkey in the oven around 06.00 hrs; 2. Check round the stock, 3. Get back to the house in time for a late morning snifter, 4. Check how the turkey is doing, 5. Turn the oven on, 6. Explain that Chistmas dinner is running late.

There's some robust swearing in this one listener, including the big swear at around nineteen minutes in. Sorry about that. We know a lot of people don't like the big one, but think it's canonically justified in this case. We'll try to avoid it in the future.

The original recording included my favourite ever Christmas joke, but Michael cut it out and burned the tape. I thought it was funny, but he explained that being funny isn't always enough to avoid being taken off air. We have exchanged Christmas presents. I don't understand why I received a £50 voucher for therapy, but Michael says that me not understanding that there is a problem is "just another symptom". Micheal has only very recently realised why he received a dictionary with the word "canonically" underlined.

As promised, this month we're in Denmark and looking at Nitrogen transfers from legumes into grasses and herbs. Which legumes are good at fixing? Which are good at transfering Nitrogen to neighbouring plants? Which non legumes are good at acquiring the Nitrogen? Only one way to find out the answers listener.

Actually, there is another way. If you just read the paper, you don't have to listen to the chaos and the big swear. Here it is. Pirhofer-Walzl, K., Rasmussen, J., Høgh-Jensen, H., Eriksen, J., Søegaard, K. and Rasmussen, J., 2012. Nitrogen transfer from forage legumes to nine neighbouring plants in a multi-species grassland. Plant and soil, 350(1), pp.71-84. Nitrogen transfer from forage legumes to nine neighbouring plants in a multi-species grassland | Plant and Soil

Unfortunately, once again, it's behind a paywall. Sorry about that. I only realised at the last minute. Karin has very very kindly messaged us to say that if you want a copy of the full paper, she will send you one. You will need to email her on pirhofer@weltacker-berlin.de to request a copy.

Our expertise in internet stalking of scientists revealed that this is where Karin works now. It's Weltacker Berlin and they all look like they are having fun. Weltacker Berlin | Weltacker . Weltacker is a global agroecology demonstration and education organisation (the Berlin site was the first). They are not for profit (which definitely aligns them with our sort of farming). Check it out. Welcome to 2000m2 .

For the real nerds, who like an old reference.

Fred EB, Baldwin IL, McCoy E (1932) Root nodule bacteria and leguminous plants. University of Wisconsin, Studies in Science. ‎Root nodule bacteria and leguminous plants - UWDC - UW-Madison Libraries

And our old mate Frank, FRANK, B. 1889. Ueber die Pilzsymbiose der Leguminosen. Ber. Deut. Bot. Gesell., 7: 332-346, 1889. Ber-Deutschen-Bot-Ges_7_0332-0346.pdf

And proving that scientists absolutely love citing themselves, the earlier work with just three species; Høgh-Jensen, H., 2006. The nitrogen transfer between plants: an important but difficult flux to quantify. Plant and Soil, 282(1), pp.1-5. The Nitrogen Transfer Between Plants: An Important but Difficult Flux to Quantify | Plant and Soil

Sheep / halal statistics.

England and Wales slaughter statistics 25-02-14 Slaughter Sector Survey 2024 (REVISED)

UK sheep slaughter numbers Lamb market outlook | AHDB

Scottish sheep numbers RESAS Agricultural Statistics Hub

Northern Ireland sheep numbers Slaughtering of cattle and sheep since 2001 | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs

Hello listener. How's things?

You'll be relieved to know that this episode is much shorter than the last one and really delivers on the science. Yes, that's right; back by popular demand, this is the second episode of Lab Rat Jazz Club and, this time, we hear about the work of the brilliant Professor Smith (he's the best, Paul loves him).

The main paper; Smith, M.L., 2014. Xxxxx xxx xxxxx xxxx index by xxxx location. PeerJ, 2, p.e338. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.338

Find Professor Smith's other work here; https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user=lREVIHgAAAAJ

The Berkley paper on pain thresholds; women (not girls) vs men (cited 1,673 times!). This could be behind a paywall, but there's at least an abstract. Berkley, K.J., 1997. Sex differences in pain. Behavioral and brain sciences, 20(3), pp.371-380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X97221485

The career of our other hero; Justin Schmidt. Starr, C.K., Jacobson, R.S. and Overal, W.L., 2024. Justin Schmidt's originality. Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 97, pp.297-306. https://jhr.pensoft.net/article/121387/

Edith Piaf - Non, Je ne regrette rien

Where to begin listener? Well, you could begin about 45 minutes into this unfeasibly long episode, because that's how long it takes to get to this fascinating research paper and it's 45 minutes of your life you will never get back.

Salomon, M.J., Demarmels, R., Watts-Williams, S.J., McLaughlin, M.J., Kafle, A., Ketelsen, C., Soupir, A., Bücking, H., Cavagnaro, T.R. and van der Heijden, M.G., 2022. Global evaluation of commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculants under greenhouse and field conditions. Applied Soil Ecology, 169, p.104225. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929139321003486

Apologies listener, you will only find the abstract and some section snippets, because the full paper is behind a paywall. Michael just tried to make me feel better by saying, "Surely no-one actually reads them, do they?"

This is the review paper that sets off all the nonsense in the first 45 minutes; the one with the peloton. It's got an abstract.

Genre, A., Lanfranco, L., Perotto, S. and Bonfante, P., 2020. Unique and common traits in mycorrhizal symbioses. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 18(11), pp.649-660. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-020-0402-3 Another bloody paywall, but you can read the abstract and here is the peloton picture. https://share.google/images/droIULxU1yL85Lrgl

We promise that we will definitely do more science next time with data, graphs, tables and statistics. Well, not exactly next time. Next time (Ep. 6.) is Ep. 2. of Lab Rat Jazz Club. But, definitely the one after that. Episode 7. will be just science with no funny business. Promise.

Three punch lines; in one joke; brilliant.

Do you like your agricultural scientific research sumarised in easily digestible form or described at length in mind numbing detail? Oh, OK, nevermind; how about this then? Have you ever asked yourself what happens to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal mediated phosphate supply when stressed plants stop supplying sugar-like carbon molecules to the fungi? No? Seriously? Nevertheless, buckle up and welcome to the School of Biology at Leeds University, West Yorkshire. Eee by gum, ey up, etc.

Michael makes a couragous attempt at humour, based on the marvelous premise that AMF (the phosphate supplying fungi) sounds a bit like EMF (the 90s band), but Paul doesn't understand what's happening and it falls a bit flat. We alienate another potential sponsor and the cats continue to carry the show.

Links

The main paper; Charters, M.D., Sait, S.M. and Field, K.J., 2020. Aphid herbivory drives asymmetry in carbon for nutrient exchange between plants and an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus. Current Biology, 30(10), pp.1801-1808. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30294-3

Great judge of character, Professor Katie Field on The Infinite Monkey Cage, with Professor Brian Cox and popular fungus botherer Dr Merlin Sheldrake (not kidding). https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fwww6q

EMF doing their thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfCLt0kTd5E&list=RDsfCLt0kTd5E&start_radio=1

The Swiss work on how AMF protects maize against pathogenic fungi. Lutz, S., Bodenhausen, N., Hess, J., Valzano-Held, A., Waelchli, J., Deslandes-Hérold, G., Schlaeppi, K. and van der Heijden, M.G., 2023. Soil microbiome indicators can predict crop growth response to large-scale inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Nature Microbiology, 8(12), pp.2277-2289. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-023-01520-w

The British Society of Soil Science webinar with Dr Anne Bhogal and Professor Richard Bardgett; see proper scientists putting themselves out there and talking to normal people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RggdJPe6nio Don't tell Professor Bardgett (eminent respected academic, titan in his field, behemoth, etc), but Paul thinks that the evidence that biodiversity (species richness) causes agroecosystem productivity is weak, because he's been thinking about it for almost a year now.

The paper about soil and bacteria and fungi and that sort of thing. Howe, J.A., McDonald, M.D., Burke, J., Robertson, I., Coker, H., Gentry, T.J. and Lewis, K.L., 2024. Influence of fertilizer and manure inputs on soil health: A review. Soil Security, 16, p.100155. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667006224000297

The it's-a-network paper that shows unstressed plants transfering extra Carbon to AMF, which makes up for neighbouring stressed plants being a bit crap. Durant, E., Hoysted, G.A., Howard, N., Sait, S.M., Childs, D.Z., Johnson, D. and Field, K.J., 2023. Herbivore-driven disruption of arbuscular mycorrhizal carbon-for-nutrient exchange is ameliorated by neighboring plants. Current Biology, 33(12), pp.2566-2573. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30294-3