What a difference one word can make, even if the meaning is the same.
William Shakespeare had that figured out in terms of roses but I speak here of a word common to prairie farming and ranching: manure.
Frank Larney, a scientist at Agriculture Canada, made the same point at a recent manure management conference.
“” Manure is a bad word. Compost is a good word,” he said. “They are essentially the same thing but it’s just in the name. If we give manure a makeover, we can call it compost.”
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He was talking about the benefits of manure application as a soil erosion remedy but perhaps his remarks could have wider application.
Manure and its more prosaic four-letter name are certainly in habitual use around prairie farms, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. What if we were to take Larney’s suggestion and make the substitution?
Farmers would establish compost piles after feedlot cleaning and build compost lagoons to store liquid product. They would use compost spreaders to fertilize their fields. Often when this activity occurs, compost hawks, a.k.a. seagulls, would dive in to eat insects stirred up in the process.
As we know, there are occasions when the compost hits the fan, or when farmers find themselves at the short end of a composty deal. Those are the times when they might find themselves in a world of compost.
However, some won’t give a compost and some will just write it off as ordinary bull compost that occurs whether you like it or not.
Let us hope it doesn’t affect their self-esteem, in which case they run the risk of feeling like dog compost.
It will be eventually be determined that “oh compost” is the most common expression used by farmers and by pilots just before the moment of impact between machinery and stationary objects or the ground.
Such events are not necessarily their fault, though, because sometimes the manufacture of machinery is just not worth a compost. In fact, occasionally you have to wonder if the people who make certain implements even know their compost from their compostola.
Upon further reflection, I’m doubtful that Larney’s substitution will be effective in many cases. But there is one incontrovertible fact:
Compost happens.
