{"id":67986,"date":"2026-11-06T15:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T04:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=67986"},"modified":"2026-11-06T15:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T04:51:08","slug":"seven-ruminants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=67986","title":{"rendered":"Seven Ruminants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-67987\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Seven_Ruminants.jpg\" alt=\"Seven Ruminants\" width=\"512\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Seven_Ruminants.jpg 512w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Seven_Ruminants-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"xdj266r x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">The bison show what happens when you swap the grazer for the plough.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Tens of millions once roamed the Great Plains, grazing, trampling and fertilising the grass as they moved. The prairie under them built some of the richest topsoil on earth.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">By 1889 fewer than 1,000 were left. The plough moved in behind them.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Within fifty years, that topsoil was blowing away in the Dust Bowl.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">The herds took thousands of years to build it. The wheat took about two generations to lose it.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bison show what happens when you swap the grazer for the plough. Tens of millions once roamed the Great Plains, grazing, trampling and fertilising the grass as they moved. The prairie under them built some of the richest topsoil on earth. By 1889 fewer than 1,000 were left. The plough moved in behind them. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=67986\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Seven Ruminants&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67988,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67986\/revisions\/67988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}