Interest Rates

What does a humble grass farmer do with all the extra grass they grow? We wouldn’t want to let it go to waste now, would we?

Perhaps we would. I believe there is not any inherent waste in nature, only wasted potential. When I let my cows stomp down my knee-high grass, trampling a layer of green, firm stems to the ground, it is easy to feel like I have wasted my grass. 

‘Oh well, I'll graze it better next time’

But just a day ago, when that very same grass was still swaying upright in the wind, untouched, it was cause for celebration. ‘What a good crop’, ‘that would make great hay’, ‘be a shame to graze that’.

What precisely about a short duration of grazing with cattle has ‘ruined’ this crop so quickly? At surface level (literally), it looks as if those thoughtless cows of mine have crushed every plant, surely killing or stunting each one. But, I remind myself, the grass was nearing full maturity. It wasn’t really growing much anyway; its energy was going to its seed head and roots. It was just begging to be grazed, I could practically hear it.

So during the massacre that was the grazing period, ideally every plant got knocked back in some way. It either got eaten by a cow and shortly became a cow-pat, or it got stepped on, snapped, bent, or buried. 

Let us compare the different banks available to trust our deposit of grass with:

The Litter Bank. The litter bank is an investment portfolio. Our fund manager, mother nature, will surely accept your deposit with gratitude and get to work straight away. Having a litter bank, in most contexts, will pay you back interest in more than one way. Feeding the soil with all that organic matter helps build biology and resilience. Covering the soil surface prevents moisture loss to evaporation, whilst also creating an insulating layer against the cold, the wind, or the heat. It also helps slow down rainfall so the soil can absorb more of it, and creates a microclimate for new seedlings to sprout and for insects to thrive.

I also have several accounts open with the Cow bank. The cow bank pays good dividends. When I deposit grass into the cow, she digests it, absorbing nutrients and making beef, which I can sell. Now, I concede, very little becomes beef, the vast majority becomes cow-pats. But is this wasteful? No! Half-Digested grass is more bioavailable to soil life than fresh grass. And this grass is being returned-to-sender in a big warm, wet, steaming pile of fertiliser.

Depending on your climate, landscape and context, you may vary where you invest your grass and at what time of year. You could even take some money out by making hay, and moving it to another branch! Ts & Cs apply.

You can’t waste grass. You can only waste potential.