Farming Simulator…

Being back in France offers the opportunity to play a little Farming Simulator. Action packed adventure! It is like GTA crossed with the Wurzels – not that you would know what either of those are…

To maximise the yield in each field you have to apply fertiliser in the game. There are two ways to do this. The first is with a cover crop called oil-seed radish (Raphanus sativus) – it is a member of the brassica family of which you can read more here. This is a deep-rooted plant that naturally aerates the soil and draws nutrients up from deeper down. It gets ploughed in as a natural fertiliser and not harvested. Bacteria, fungi and animals like earthworms help to break it down in the soil releasing nitrogen (nitrate) and other nutrients into the soil. It can also help to reduce pests such as sting nematodes because the leaves contain chemicals that drive away pests.

The other way to add nutrients to the soil is by adding them directly. This can be done with animal waste (manure or slurry) or by using chemical fertiliser, such as ammonium nitrate. I have written about Fritz Haber who developed the process for making nitrogen fertiliser. I prefer to use chemical fertiliser because it only takes one trip across the field to apply. The organic solution of planting a cover crop has to be balanced against the extra fuel used to first plant it then plough it in. This has a potential impact on carbon dioxide emissions and hence climate change.

Nitrogen fertiliser needs to be applied at the correct time. If the young plants are not at a growth stage where they can use it then it might be washed out of the soil and into waterways. This encourages the growth of algae (single-celled plants) and other aquatic plants which can lead to algal bloom. The plants grow so much that they block out their own light supply. They then die and rot which uses up the oxygen available in the water. This leads to everything else dying except anaerobic organisms such as bacteria. Any farmer caught polluting the water in this way faces very hefty fines from the environmental protection agency.

The following work of genius is the Wurzels singing Don’t Look Back In Anger by Oasis.

.

Perhaps an idea for a repeatable gag in the Leavers’ Revue could be songs from Mrs Stoop’s play in the style of the Wurzels. It would be pretty easy to do…

Questions…

1. Members of two invertebrate phyla are mentioned in the passage above.
   (a) name the animals and the phyla to which they belong
   (b) what are the defining characteristics of those phyla (some research required!)
2. What does it mean to be an ‘anaerobic organism‘?
3. What group of chemicals do plants make with the nitrate that they absorb from the soil.
4. Suggest another function that roots serve apart from absorbing dissolved minerals.
5. Name another way that nitrate can get into soil other than those mentioned in the passage.
6. How does a bacterial cell differ from a human cheek cell?