To: Farmer Jack

From: Grass Company

Date: October 17th, 2017
Subject: Best grass to produce the most hay

In order to maximize the amount of hay you can produce, the best grass for you to pick would
be the one that grows the fastest and produces the most plant material. In order to recognize
which species of grass grows the fastest, it would be useful to have some background
information on photosynthesis and respiration rate. Photosynthesis is a biochemical process
where energy from sunlight and carbon dioxide from the air are used to build carbohydrates.
The first step in photosynthesis is harnessing light energy from the sun. A plant does this
through a series of reactions known as light reactions. These reactions take place in the
thylakoid membrane, which is located in an organelle known as the chloroplast. The products of
light reactions are NADPH and ATP, which are used to power the Calvin cycle. Chlorophyll are
the molecules responsible for capturing light energy. There are two types of chlorophyll. One
type is referred to as antenna chlorophyll and these pass light energy that they’ve absorbed to
adjacent chlorophyll molecules. The other type of chlorophyll are those that contain reaction
centers. These molecules use light energy to increase the energy state of an electron. This
excited electron then gets passed onto an electron acceptor. This is how light energy is
converted to chemical energy. This chemical energy manifests itself in two different molecules,
ATP and NADPH. ATP and NADPH are then passed to the Calvin cycle, and their energy is
used to synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide. This cycle consists of 3 main steps:
carboxylation, reduction, and regeneration. During the first step, carboxylation, carbon dioxide is
added to a 5-carbon molecule known as RuBP. The resulting 6-carbon molecule is unstable, so
it breaks into 2 3-carbon molecules of 3-PGA. Then, using NADPH and ATP, 3-PGA gets
reduced into G3P, which is the final product of the Calvin cycle. However, in order to ensure that
the cycle can continue, G3P molecules must be taken to form more RuBP so the cycle can
continue. This is the regeneration step. G3P is a very important molecule in biology as it is a
building block for many different molecules, glucose being one of them. Finally, plants also use
the carbohydrates that they produce to power processes within their own cells. This is done
through a process known as respiration. So using this background information, we know that the
grass with the highest photosynthesis rate will be the one producing the most carbohydrates in
the shortest period of time. On top of that, we know that the grass with the highest respiration
rate to sustain growth will be the grass that grows the fastest. Therefore, the best grass for your
purposes would be the one with the highest photosynthesis rate and the highest respiration rate
to sustain growth, as this will be the grass that grows the fastest and produces the most
biomass. Therefore, you should grow tall fescue grass to maximize the amount of hay you
produce.