Farm & Ranch

El Nino to return in October

Published

9 years ago

September 17, 2015

NTFR

By Rayford Pullen

The word from those in the know is that the El Nino should return in October. Now if you’re anything like me, I have not been
able to keep the El’s straight, or whether the El Nino or the El Nina was what we wanted or needed. Now I think I have it figured
out since El Nino ends with an O, to me it now means “O Boy, it’s going to rain.” If it ends in an A, I guess that means it “ain’t going
to rain.” (Wouldn’t my English teacher be proud of me.) Hope this helps you as much as it will hopefully help me keep
all this weather terminology straight and know when to get excited and when to get worried. Class dismissed.
Now, let’s get back to talking about cattle topics. Fall is when cattlemen who calve in the spring will be getting
their payday for the year and, as always seems to be the case, the market has gone through a correction the past few months. That
sounds better than “going down,” so I thought I would borrow that wording from the stock market reporters who are quick to report
that the stock market is going up but that it never goes down; it just makes a correction. To read more pickup the October 2015 issue of NTFR.

Farm & Ranch

Hazards of Backyard Poultry

Published

4 days ago

April 21, 2024

NTFR

By Barry Whitworth, DVM

Having backyard poultry is a popular agriculture enterprise. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 0.8 percent of all households in the United States have chickens. People keep chickens for a variety of reasons with table eggs being one of the more common reasons.

Unfortunately, some of these poultry producers are not aware of the hazards that come with keeping poultry because many times they carry pathogens but appear healthy.
Chickens are carriers of several zoonotic diseases. These are diseases that can be passed from animals to humans. According to a recent survey in Pennsylvania, a majority of backyard poultry producers were aware of the dangers of avian influenza. However, this study also revealed that far fewer producers were aware of the risk of possible exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter.

The lack of knowledge about the hazards of raising poultry likely contributes to the continued issues of Salmonella outbreaks associated with backyard poultry. In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,072 illnesses of Salmonella linked to backyard poultry, and 272 of those patients required hospitalization. Oklahoma reported 43 individuals with the disease.

To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.