Beef And Dairy Network - Episode 1 - Dr David Pin

Episode Date: July 22, 2015

Mike Wozniak joins in for this month's episode in which we interview Dr David Pin from the European Space Agency and hear your letters about getting too attached to meat beasts. By Benjamin Partridge and Mike Wozniak. Stock media provided by Setuniman/Pond5.com and Soundrangers/Pond5.com.

The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is sponsored by Grazex, the latest grass replacement pellet from Mitchell's. If it's not Mitchell's, get back in the truck. Grazex contains zinc, amino acid 52, and selenium yeast, which is widely recognized for its effect on hoof integrity. For 10% off all orders over 15 tons, quote Beef and Dairy when you call or visit our secret headquarters.

Hello and welcome to the Beef and Dairy Network podcast, the number one podcast for those involved or just interested in the production of beef animals and dairy herds. The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is the podcast companion to the Beef and Dairy Network website and printed magazine, brought to you by Grazex. They've actually sent us a box of Grazex and it's going down quite well in the office. It's quite tough to chew on, but once you warm it gently in milk and salt it slightly, it creates a really satisfying warm cornmeal, which can also be used as a cement to patch holes in a wall, or fix a decorative lion to the top of a wall. Coming up in the show today, the beef forecast, the milk prices, and a big interview with scientist David Pinn. But first, an opportunity

to win a space on a beef tenderness webinar next week with Christine Marriott. The webinar will feature tips on anti-mortem factors, post-mortem factors and preparation techniques that affect tenderness. And information about how tenderness techniques can be incorporated into your business. To be in with a chance to win one of five places on the webinar, please do us a drawing of the concept of tenderness and send it to beefanddairynetwork at gmail.com. Now it's time for the beef forecast. Strong beef in the south, beef of plenty in the north, coastal beef, stationery and fine.

And the milk prices, semi-skimmed is up four against skimmed with gold top topping out at 1,000 yen. Yoghurt and cream are pegged to the dinar and the creme fraiche is fresh. Now it's time for this week's big interview with Dr David Pynne. I started by asking David to introduce himself and his work. My name is Dr David Pynne. I am the head of the extraterrestrial fauna unit at the European Space Agency and I'm based here in Frankfurt. Can you just tell us about some of your latest work? I think it might interest some of our listeners. At the moment, we are trying to establish whether or not

we can prove the presence of microbial life on Mars. What is it that you're actually looking for there? In the first instance, we've been looking to see if we can find areas on Mars where we believe microbes could live or have lived in the past, for example, looking for signs of water, ice and so on. But now we've stepped that up again and we're actually looking for the microbes themselves.

Have you ever seen a hoof print on the surface of Mars? What do you mean? So you're looking for signs of this life and I wondered whether maybe just in the sand, is it sandy? kind of rocky? well it's rocky terrain there is desert

certainly it looks like so if a hoofed animal had walked across the desert you'd be able to see where the hoofs had been impressed into the ground well I mean there's a couple of things we're not we're not looking for hoofed animals this is not a search for extraterrestrial ungulates so you're telling

me that if you saw uh evidence of a hoofed animal you would just disregard it say i'm not interested in that clearly if i saw an alpaca on mars i would let someone know but it wouldn't be my department uh obviously but that's that's don't you think that's an example of rather siloed thinking? No. If there were hoofed animals on Mars, we would know about it by now. Let me tell you. We photographed huge swathes. It doesn't sound like you're looking for them.

Okay. We haven't seen any signs of anything resembling mammalian life or any of the larger multicellular organisms on Mars. And I think we would have done by now. The limited atmosphere that there is on Mars suggests that's highly unlikely that that sort of life would exist. But what is possible is microbial life, is singular-celled organisms. What if a hoofed animal had just visited the planet? singular-celled organisms. What if a hoofed animal had just visited the planet?

Again, I mean, I argue it's possible that there are extraterrestrials somewhere in the universe that are hoofed. I think that's highly unlikely that intelligent life would evolve from a hoofed animal. I don't know why they would visit Mars. And even if they were visiting Mars, they probably just wouldn't do it in their bare feet, would they? They'd probably have some sort of space boot

over the top of their hoof. But I mean, this is not what we're doing here at the European Space Agency, not in my extraterrestrial fauna unit. We're not looking for hoof prints, okay? You can get a Marwell Zoo to see a hoof print or your local small holding. Okay, well, I'm happy to move on if you are. Yes, please. your local small holding okay well i'm happy to move on if you are yes please i think maybe obviously the impact of you finding life on mars will be will be huge and obviously it would have quite a big impact on our culture for example i mean is there a chance that when you find or if

you find this this life on another planet whether it could yield a fifth meat. A fifth meat? Yes, so currently we have the four meats, beef, lamb, pork and chicken, but I wonder whether you could find a fifth meat on a different planet. We're not looking for anything that big that would yield meat. If we find lots of microbes, it could probably make some sort of tofu out of them,

but we're not looking for a fifth meat. That's not what this is. Okay, I mean, let's just say if it were theoretically possible that there were a fifth meat in the universe, how do you think that would affect the world of sources? This is not what we're here for.

This is not the remit of the European Space Agency to ascertain new sources. Plenty of people are doing... What is this podcast? As you can hear, the interview was a humdinger, and so there'll be more from that to ascertain new sources. Plenty of people are doing... What is this podcast? What is this podcast? As you can hear, the interview was a humdinger, and so there'll be more from that interview later on in the podcast.

Now, on the network this week, we've been struck by the responses to one of our articles on the website. In this month's main feature, Aaron Spaulding, a farmer from Essex, wrote movingly about getting attached to meat beasts. Here are just some of the responses we've received. Here's the first one. It's never a good idea to get too attached to your animals. Most years, I have a favourite who I name. The intention is that I will not slaughter this animal and keep it as a pet. However, the

lure of money always gets the better of me and the animal is killed and butchered. Thanks to Peter from Derbyshire for that. Mr Renwick from Edinburgh says, 10 years ago I got attached to a meat animal. I called her Phyllida Quinn and I built her her own islands to live on. Thanks Mr Renwick. Pete from Dorset says, I learned the dangers of becoming too close. I got too attached to my herd and when the day came to transport them in the wheat wagon I spared all of their lives. As a result I was plunged into serious financial difficulty and my wife left me. Then because of the situation I was in, the sadness and the levels of stress I experienced, I later slaughtered all of the cows in frustration and revenge. Thanks Pete. If you have any thoughts on the topic, please get in touch on our email, beefanddairynetwork at gmail.com.

Now it's time to go back to our big interview with Dr David Pynne. I asked him whether man would ever live on Mars. Well that's a very interesting question, and thank you for asking that. It's something that is discussed, of course it's usually in the remnants of science fiction but that said were we to find evidence that simple life forms have been able to exist in the past on mars then we could be able to speculate further would it be possible to colonize mars starting with very simple uh units self-sufficient units, living in colonies a bit like space chattels, eventually widening and broadening. Would we be able to develop agricultural Mars? That's the big one. And that goes to the very heart of this microbial question. Of course, if we were, it would be many hundreds of years away, but it's a very exciting thought.

Does anyone know how a cow reacts to a zero-G situation? Does anyone know how a cow reacts to a zero-G situation? No. No, and I will tell you why we don't know, because it's a bloody waste of time. Has a cow ever been in space? What? Has a cow ever been in space? Not to my knowledge, quite frankly, no.

I'm quite happy to say no. I mean, who knows what the Soviets got up to in the late 70s? It's perfectly possible they fired up all sorts of things up there they might have fired up a cow might have fired up a camel and iguana for all i know i don't know i know we've sent up monkeys and humans and that's it and when they're in zero g they float so i think we can assume that a cow would also float i could i mean it's got i can imagine it's got four stomachs so there might be a bit of a gas distribution equilibrium, so they might have more difficulties with ballast and floating. Maybe a sort of fizzy milk would be in evidence.

No, zero gravity is not the same as entering a solar stream. In a way, wasn't the discovery of the Higgs boson particle a discovery of a fifth meat in the universe no so you can't eat a Higgs boson particle no you can't eat a Higgs boson particle

of course you can eat a Higgs boson we don't the scientific community is divided as to whether or not it even exists particle, of course you can eat a Higgs boson, we don't... The scientific community is divided as to whether or not it even exists, the Higgs boson, so no, you can't eat it. We have to establish if it exists first, and then

even if it did exist, we know that you wouldn't be able to eat it. Okay? Because it would have a very subtle taste? That's right, because it would have a very subtle... It would give you the squids. That's why the research being done on the Higgs boson is being done in the middle of nowhere, buried in tunnels three miles underground,

and you have to wear special anti-squit suits. That's why. I don't think you're taking this seriously. I am taking this... I've tried to take this at you and wasted my time, and I'm off, quite frankly. I've got a barbecue with a bunch of cosmonauts, and good day.

A big thanks to Dr David Pynne for that wonderful interview. And if you're listening, David, I know you're probably eating handfuls of microbes and dehydrated protein space juice, but I hope you enjoyed your barbecue. If you're after more beef and dairy news, get over to the website now where you can read all the usual stuff alongside some great features in our off-topic section, including a guide to the Brasseries of Manchester and some thoughts from TV evangelist Philip St John on the age-old problem of how to bury a witch.

Until next time, beef out.