Cows and Effect

Paul Allison and Michael Blanche
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Natural Sciences
  • Monthly

Welcome to this occasionally mildly interesting farming podcast (it's a science podcast), hosted by award winning podcaster Michael Blanche (200m swimming badge 1978) and not-yet-not-a-real-doctor Paul Allison. We talk about recent research into soil, pasture, cows and sheep. People say that it's the podcast they didn't know they wanted or needed, and they definitely didn't ask for it. It's sometimes a bit sweary (not the big one). It's fine. Cows and effect sounds like cause and effect. It's a play on words. That's funny stuff. Warning: Following legal advice the listener should be aware that the views and information shared in this podcast do not constitute professional advice or even unprofessional guidance. For God's sake consult someone who knows what they are talking about before making any changes to your farm management practices. Logo image created in https://BioRender.com

  1. 6 days ago

    Episode 12. Cutting corners, a funeral and he can't remember more than one name at once.

    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 cowsandeffectpodcast@gmail.com , 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?

    2h 41m

  2. 30 Apr

    Episode 11. One job, identifying roadkill, and he had to go and live in London.

    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 cowsandeffectpodcast@gmail.com Toodle Pip.

    1hr 44min

  3. 24 Mar

    Episode 10. Winnie-the-Pooh, the c**tosphere, and a big box of explosives on the other parachute.

    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.

    1hr 10min

  4. 26 Feb

    Episode 9. Mr Tickle, a cloud of low energy photons and Tom Cruise is going to come round and punch you.

    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

    1hr 40min

  5. 28 Jan

    Episode 8. A pirate, a confidence player and everyone's right; animals are complicated.

    Happy New Year listener. Eight episodes in (hard to believe for many reasons) and it's a bit different this month. There's absolutely no big swears; there's a few mediums, but not the big one. And also because we talk about lots of research papers addressing two subjects; small cows and short tails in sheep. Listeners to Michael's "exceptional value" Pasture Pod Patreon channel will have heard about these slightly niche topics before. Do smaller cows cause less damage to soil in pastures than heavier cows? Are the intakes of cows proportional to their weight? If you breed for short tails in sheep, will you impact lamb weights and spine lengths? These are the questions that keep Michael awake at night. We have an email address listener. It's cowsandeffectpodcast@gmail.com Please email your questions for the authors of the papers that we have discussed. Subject to the restraining orders, we'll try to get them lined up for Episode 12. Feel free to email in with any other questions or suggestions. Please start your emails with this phrase, "Dear Michael, loving the show. You are my favourite. It's only a shame that the other one keeps interupting you. You're the best. I love you. Oh my goodness, you're so handsome." Michael doesn't read the show notes so it will be a lovely surprise for him and make everybody else's life that bit easier.   See the Episode 7. shownotes for how to get in touch with Karin. The three papers on the ground effects of heavy vs light cows Fraser, M.D. and Vale, J.E., 2014. Breed type differences in hoof volume in beef suckler cows. The Future of European Grasslands, p.362. https://www.europeangrassland.org/fileadmin/documents/Infos/Printed_Matter/Proceedings/EGF2014.pdf#page=819 Negrón, M., López, I. and Dörner, J., 2019. Consequences of intensive grazing by dairy cows of contrasting live weights on volcanic ash topsoil structure and pasture dynamics. Soil and Tillage Research, 189, pp.88-97. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167198718305415?casa_token=A1nd7b22ygcAAAAA:CSyGKxQKsQlj03n9X4Ru4VMqmcvqvFXMjrMcrrhhtj9bdDXsiDM5zNFYZVbkSetlf4Dgy_cJ Tuohy, P., Fenton, O., Holden, N.M. and Humphreys, J., 2015. The effects of treading by two breeds of dairy cow with different live weights on soil physical properties, poaching damage and herbage production on a poorly drained clay-loam soil. The Journal of Agricultural Science, 153(8), pp.1424-1436.https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-agricultural-science/article/effects-of-treading-by-two-breeds-of-dairy-cow-with-different-live-weights-on-soil-physical-properties-poaching-damage-and-herbage-production-on-a-poorly-drained-clayloam-soil/4B005421D226B9499038330C38C4C082 Two books and a couple of papers on how much cows eat. The AFRC book Alderman, G. and Cottrill, B.R., 1996. Energy and protein requirements of ruminants.   The review paper that says that the AFRC books under estimates beef cow intakes and needs revisions. Cabezas-Garcia, E.H., Lowe, D. and Lively, F., 2021. Energy requirements of beef cattle: Current energy systems and factors influencing energy requirements for maintenance. Animals, 11(6), p.1642.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/6/1642 The paper from french France that says that Paul's cows are the best. Sepchat, B., D'hour, P. and Agabriel, J., 2017. Production laitière des vaches allaitantes: caractérisation et étude des principaux facteurs de variation. INRAE Productions Animales, 30(2), pp.139-152. https://productions-animales.org/article/view/2240/4630 The INRA book. Noziere, P., Sauvant, D. and Delaby, L., 2018. INRA feeding system for ruminants (pp. 640-p). Wageningen Academic Publishers. Order it from your local independent book seller or;  Amazon link Moving on to short tails in sheep. The webinar that started it all for Michael. Low Input Sheep Progeny Test: Virtual Field Day Hannah's paper. Hummelchen, H., Wagner, H., Brügemann, K., König, S. and Wehrend, A., 2025. Effects of Breeding for Short‐Tailedness in Sheep on Parameters of Reproduction and Lamb Development. Veterinary Medicine and Science, 11(1), p.e70138. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/vms3.70138 Scobie, D.R., O'Connell, D., Morris, C.A. and Hickey, S.M., 2007. A preliminary genetic analysis of breech and tail traits with the aim of improving the welfare of sheep. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research, 58(2), pp.161-167. https://connectsci.au/cp/article-abstract/58/2/161/128623/A-preliminary-genetic-analysis-of-breech-and-tail?redirectedFrom=fulltext The South African one. Teubes, M., Cloete, S.W.P., Dzama, K. and Scholtz, A.J., 2023. Is there sufficient genetic variation to breed Elsenburg Merino sheep with shorter tails?. Animal Production Science, 63(11), pp.1043-1051. https://connectsci.au/an/article-abstract/63/11/1043/20642/Is-there-sufficient-genetic-variation-to-breed?redirectedFrom=fulltext A big sample size in this one; 57,760 lambs. Hodge, M.J., Brown, D.J. and Walkom, S.F., 2025. Genetic evaluation of tail length in Australian sheep. In Proceedings of the AAABG 26th Conference (p. 407). Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics. https://www.aaabg.org/aaabghome/AAABG21papers/Greeff21237.pdf Well done if you got this far. I'm going to have a lie down.

    1hr 32min

  6. 25/12/2025

    Episode 7. Folk dancing, pocket meat and the Malmo shipyards.

    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

    1hr 45min

  7. 27/11/2025

    Episode 6. Free honey, a faraway look and a copious flow of mucus.

    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/

    1hr 7min

  8. 29/10/2025

    Episode 5. Chain drives, mushroom tea and a professional.

    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.

    1hr 45min
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About

Welcome to this occasionally mildly interesting farming podcast (it's a science podcast), hosted by award winning podcaster Michael Blanche (200m swimming badge 1978) and not-yet-not-a-real-doctor Paul Allison. We talk about recent research into soil, pasture, cows and sheep. People say that it's the podcast they didn't know they wanted or needed, and they definitely didn't ask for it. It's sometimes a bit sweary (not the big one). It's fine. Cows and effect sounds like cause and effect. It's a play on words. That's funny stuff. Warning: Following legal advice the listener should be aware that the views and information shared in this podcast do not constitute professional advice or even unprofessional guidance. For God's sake consult someone who knows what they are talking about before making any changes to your farm management practices. Logo image created in https://BioRender.com

Information

  • Creator
    Paul Allison and Michael Blanche
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    Cows and Effect
  • Provider

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