When you consider all of the must have for an agriculture operation to run, you begin thinking about manpower, land, equipment, even water.  On a list of readily made resources or a producer would have various barns or sheds, stacks of hay or silos filled with grain, acres of farmland and range, the irrigating pivots and lines that stretch across the fields, and all the tractors to work the land from spring planting to fall harvest.  But on that list I would bet there is one thing missing that every farmer and rancher has at their disposal and desperately needs- life giving sunshine.

That might sound overly dramatic but have you ever really thought of the magic of the sun?  A resource given daily, at no cost, no request, and without it, not a single ag operation would survive.  Truthfully, it is a marvel that is all too often overlooked.

As the days begin to grow longer, that warm sunshine has begun melting the winter snow and bringing up the small tufts of spring green marking the beginning of a new growing season.  While we might appreciate the sun and the warmth necessary for new life to grow, have you ever really thought about how the sunshine transforms barren fields to lush crops?

Let's break it down.   

All life requires energy.  And according to the First Law of Thermodynamics, energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change form or be transferred from one object to another.  Humans and animals get their energy from the things they eat, taking in energy already created.  Plants on the other hand, take in energy from the sun to create usable energy through the process of photosynthesis.  

Within every plant cell is a structure responsible for absorbing and storing the energy from the sun's light waves.  Those light waves are made up of ultra microscopic chargeless, massless particles called photons.  As the photons in the light wave hit the plant, they transfer their energy and excite the chlorophyll within the plant cell that begins a chain reaction to create ATP, the energy currency of all living things.  

In both plants and animals, ATP is stored as glucose.  ATP and glucose are constantly being created and broken down, used and stored, to keep up with the organisms energy needs.      

In plants, glucose is not only used as energy for the plant to grow and function, but also to build cellular structures as it is converted into cellulose, the main structural component of plant cell walls, providing rigidity and support.  Some excess glucose is also stored as starch, a complex carbohydrate, which serves as a long-term energy reserve for the plant.  As the plant is consumed by people or animals, the stored energy is then taken up to again be stored or used.

Not only does the sun provide the solar energy to excite and begin the cascade of energy acreating reactions, it also provides thermal energy.  This energy we experience as warmth, causes the enzymes and molecules within the plant cell to move more quickly, lending to a higher number of collisions.  More collisions, the way molecules combine, mean more opportunities for the enzyme substrates to be made, increasing the rate of photosynthesis.  In short, the warmer the temperature, the faster a plant’s reactions will create energy.

On warm spring days when the sun is beating at its best, farmers and ranchers will tout that the grass has jumped or their crops have suddenly sprung up.  In a real sense, they are right.  Those plants had a jump in energy delivered by the sun, both in the number of photons exciting the chain reactions and the temperature that increased the reactions within the plant.  The sudden increase in energy from the sun stimulated greater growth in the plant, so much that it is visible to those closely watching.

Science has proven capable of providing similar solar and thermal energy to support plant life like the sun, but it is impossible to create the amount of sunshine spread daily across the agriculture world.  Without the almost magical power of the sun, food production from potatoes to strawberries to wheat to alfalfa would cease to exist.  Cattle couldn’t harness the power of the sun, eating grass grown from its rays, and then turning it into mouth watering steaks.  Pigs couldn’t create pork chops or bacon and chickens wouldn’t produce eggs or tasty wings. 

There are a lot of resources we need, some absolutely crucial to maintaining our operations.  But likely, none more important than the constantly renewing, freely given, power of the sunshine that makes agriculture possible.  Maybe as you step out in the morning tomorrow, feeling those first rays across your face, give a little thanks for those beams that provide all life.