Farm & Ranch

Cowboy Culture – To Be Well, Or Not To Be Well…

Published

7 years ago

March 16, 2017

NTFR

By Clay Reid

Hello, everybody. I hope all is well since our last visit. Being well is just what my topic for the day is going to be…or the lack of being well, anyway.
You see, being a cowboy ain’t always good for your health, and just the other day the realization of how lucky I am to be alive came to a head when

I went to counting up just a few of my episodes. Here is just a few. Broke neck and concussion.

One day I was fixing to head out when my old daddy calls and asks if I could come out and help him pen a set of yearlings. He says, “You won’t even need a horse because I got them penned up in the little trap, so just bring your four-wheeler. It won’t take but a second.”

Well, as I am pulling up into the wheat field heading up to the trap I can see that my old daddy just couldn’t stand prosperity and has decided he would see if he could pen them himself with his pickup.

Well, all he got accomplished was to run them through the fence and they were headed across the wheat field headed to the heavy brush and a sure fire escape at a very fast pace.

To read more pick up a copy of the March 2017 NTFR issue.

Farm & Ranch

Hazards of Backyard Poultry

Published

6 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.