Over the past few days, spring has sprung, and according to the
National Weather Service, we can look forward to mild nights, and
warm days for at least the next week. Here in the country, I know
it’s spring, because irrigation sprinklers have come alive, a
necessary evil for farmers in the Four Corners. I remember that an
old farmer I met years ago told me, “This durn irrigation is like
milkn’ cows. Oncen’t you start it, you can’t stop it till the
water’s all gone.“
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While a lot of us
are hunkered down, practicing social distancing, and riding out the
pandemic, farmers and ranchers are doing what they normally do in the
spring, harrowing pastures, working ground, calving cattle and
lambing ewes, planting crops, and getting ready start irrigation.
Social distancing is normal for these folks, because they’re to
busy chasing daylight getting ready for the eminent growing and
grazing season to socialize very much.
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When I started working with farm and ranch families in 1984, we were
in the height of the 1980’s debt crisis. The way forward was
pretty murky for many of them, who had listened to the “get big or
get out” rhetoric spouted by, first U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Earl Butz, and often repeated by university agricultural experts,
agricultural lenders and popular farm publications. Decisions to
farm more land, buy bigger equipment and borrow more money based on
the inflated value of land that they or their families had owned for
years pushed many of the families to the breaking point when crop
prices plummeted and interest rates soared. Some were able to
weather the storm, others moved on to different occupations, and
tragic a few opted to not go on.
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Colorado State Veterinarian Keith Roehr is repeating the message of
state and national food producers that the coronavirus and resulting
COVID-19 illness are NOT food-borne. The Colorado Beef Council has
said it has learned that some anti-meat advocates are pointing at
beef and animal food products as part of the problem. But Roehr
points out that scientists believe that indirect exposure through
external packaging or through other means of transmission is unlikely
to be an important factor in the transmission of the disease, because
the disease spreads mainly by human to human contact and aerosol
particles from coughs and sneezes, so we should follow what health
professionals are saying, “prevent the spread of the disease by
covering our coughs and sneezes!”read more
The
U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued guidance on Thursday
concerning
the critical
industry workforce that should continue as the country addresses and
responds to the COVID-19 outbreak. U.S. food and agriculture was
included among the
16
critical industries. The
agency stated that if
you work in a critical infrastructure industry, as defined by the
Department of Homeland Security, such as healthcare services and
pharmaceutical and food supply, you have a special responsibility to
maintain your normal work schedule. This
directive indicates that farmers and ranchers and businesses that
support them are included in this directive. However, Dr. James
Lowe, College of Veterinary Medicine at University of Illinois, told
participants of the Farmdoc Daily webinar, that COVID-19 needs
everyone’s attention, because it
much like many animal
diseases, that
are
difficult to determine which
animals are infected vs. which animals are carrying the disease
that
may be spreading it to other animals in the herd.
As a result, the big challenge facing this pandemic is understanding
case definition.read more