Back in 2020, we talked with Shannon Latham who runs a pumpkin farm up in Northern Iowa. Well, now that 2022’s pumpkin season has rolled around, we headed back to the pumpkin patch to find out what the latest news is for Shannon and Enchanted Acres.

An AI generated transcript is available.  

Shannon shared are lots of decisions to make when it comes to running a pumpkin farm. And while people tend to think about pumpkin patches for six weekends in the fall, farm families have something on the calendar most of the year with planting, pest management and there’s all that time thinking about what to plant.

Pumpkin Patch Basics

Shannon told us that the seed catalog for pumpkin growers is a half-inch thick and full of different pumpkins. Each pumpkin has its own unique characteristics. She struggles to keep her plantings down to only 20 varieties from the hundreds available to choose from laughing while saying some women really like shoes, clothes or whatever, for her it’s pumpkins!

Some are sweet and suited to baking, others big with thin walls for carving Jack-o-Lanterns, and still others are huge and can only be moved with a forklift or a tractor! And that’s not the half of it! You’ve got warty pumpkins, pumpkins that look like Cinderella’s coach, white pumpkins, green and yellow speckled pumpkins, and on and on and on.

And you can find many of these at the pumpkin patch, whether that’s Enchanted Acres’ pumpkin farm or your own local pumpkin patch.

The most important thing to consider is what you want to do with your pumpkin. Do you want to cook it, carve it, paint it, etc? Knowing that will help you decide which pumpkin to get when you visit your pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin Season Recipes

Pumpkins are tasty any time of the year, but especially now that there’s a chill in the air and the leaves are starting to turn.

Shannon gets so excited talking about cooking with fresh pumpkin that you’ll be hungry by the time you finish listening to the episode.

Here are some of Shannon’s favorite recipes using pumpkins, and a couple of bonus squash recipes!

• Pumpkin pudding (like pumpkin pie without the crust!)
• Pumpkin pie in a bag
• The family’s favorite pumpkin muffins
• Savory pumpkin recipe from the gourmet cooking club
• Sausage & Squash Soup
• Butternut squash bake

What’s the latest?

2022 has been a record-breaking year for the Enchanted Acres. Shannon was happy to share that they had more visitors this year than any other year, and their pumpkin crop has been amazing!

Her favorite pumpkin is still the Cinderella pumpkin because it reminds her of Cinderella’s magic coach!

Even with the excellent year, 2022 will be the last year they will be hosting the pumpkin patch. She started out with a 10 year plan and failed to stop at the decade. She also admits it just isn’t the same since her father passed away — adding she and her brother had no idea how many hours dad must have been putting in. And her own kids have gone to college and are beginning to build some of their own things.

They have returned to the past, putting a great pumpkin back out to bring some wonder to evening drives in the area.

Enchanted Acres is looking to the future, and dreaming beyond the pumpkin farm. Shannon says the farm and venue will remain a part of the community but she hopes someone else decides to plant lots of pumpkins.

Farming is all about looking toward the future, so we are excited to see what that holds for Enchanted Acres!

The post Pumpkin Patch & the Passing of Time Means We Need An Update appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

When most folks think lavender, they imagine soaps, lotions, a few drops of essential oil on a pillow to help them sleep. Of course, I think of all of those things, too. I love lavender, and if something smells like lavender (actual lavender, not just weird and sweet and purple), I’m all for it. But I also like to keep lavender in my spice pantry because what a lot of folks don’t realize is how easy and delicious cooking with lavender can be!

Lavender is actually wonderful in a variety of dishes, both sweet and savory, and while I typically cook savory main dishes with it (keep reading for my pork chops recipe!), Janice brought back a couple of baking mixes from her visit to Long Row Lavender farm for me to surprise my family with over the weekend, and they were a hit!

Lavender & Chocolate?

I didn’t realize what a perfect match lavender and chocolate are! The Lavender Brownies were phenomenal, with the lavender adding just enough brightness to the flavor to elevate the whole dish from plain after-dinner brownies to something that felt fancy. It turned our dull Tuesday dinner into a special occasion. Then on Saturday, I snuck out the Lemon Lavender Bread. What a bright, fresh breakfast! Topped with a lemon-powdered sugar glaze, it was like lavender lemonade on a hot day! A perfect start to our weekend.

Now here’s the thing to remember about cooking with lavender. It compliments sweet dishes, but that is precisely because it isn’t sweet. The flavor of lavender is bright and almost astringent, similar to fresh rosemary.

Cooking with Lavender

In fact, if you aren’t sure where to start with incorporating lavender into your cooking, look for recipes that include rosemary. Many times, lavender can make a good substitute for the more familiar kitchen herb. If you want to go even easier, grab yourself a jar of herbes de Provence! Herbes de Provence is a simple blend of herbs – usually things like rosemary, thyme, basil, tarragon, and of course lavender – that is great on everything from fish to chicken to pork to salads and pasta sauces.  You can make your own, but Long Row Lavender sells a blend that is made with culinary lavender, so you know that one will be delicious and fool-proof. A great, all-purpose spice mix that can make a simple meal feel so elegant.

And that is exactly what I use for my pork chops. These pork chops are one of my go-to recipes for when I need to get dinner on the table in a hurry after coming home from Taekwondo practice and before we head off to a band concert or Girl Scout meeting. It’s just as fast as frozen chicken nuggets and so much tastier.

Pork Chops de Provence

(Even the name makes it sound special!)

The keys to this recipe are the cast iron skillet and making sure you’ve got thick, bone-in pork chops. You can do this with boneless. Heck, you could even do it with chicken breasts. But the bone-in pork chops really taste the best. The other key is the brining. Brining the pork chops ahead of time ensures they are juicy and flavorful all the way through. Yes, it is an optional step, and one I sometimes skip, but the flavor difference is apparent. Brining makes an already good dish into a great dish.

For the brine:

• 1 cup boiling or very hot water
• 4 Tablespoons kosher salt
• 3 cups cold water
• Optional aromatics in any combination: a couple of smashed garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns, a piece of lemon peel, a sprig of fresh rosemary, a bay leaf, juniper berries, etc – feel free to get creative here, or just follow my standard of garlic, peppercorns, and bay.
• 4 bone-in, thick cut pork chops

Add the salt and aromatics to the boiling water and stir until the salt is completely dissolved. Add the cold water and cool your brine to room temp. Sometimes the cold water is enough to do this, other times an ice water bath does the trick. Once the brine is cool, pour it over your pork chops (I use a big casserole dish for this) and refridgerate for 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

To cook the pork chops:

• Olive oil
• Herbes de Provence
• Freshly ground black pepper

Place your big cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 4oo degrees. A smoking hot cast iron skillet ensures your chops will get that all important sear. Give it at least 20 minutes to heat.

While the oven and skillet heat, pull your chops out of the fridge and dry them thoroughly. If you leave them wet, they won’t sear. They’ll just steam and get weird. No one likes weird pork chops.

Rub olive oil all over your pork chops. You won’t be oiling the skillet, so make sure you get a nice thin layer all over the chops. Season with the herbes de provence and the pepper. Really rub those herbs in, even around that strip of fat at the edge. They are going to taste delicious when they sear. Now you can let your pork chops rest and relax until the skillet is ready.

Once the skillet is blazing hot, carefully pull it out of the oven and place it over high heat on the stovetop. Lay your chops carefully into the skillet in a single layer. Once you put them down, leave them alone. Don’t scoot them around or flip them or fiddle with them or peek at the underside. Just let them sizzle and sear. They will smoke a little. You may need to open a window. This is all normal.

Allow the chops to sear for 3-4 minutes. Use tongs to flip them. Not a fork. A fork will let the juices out that we’ve worked so hard to seal in. The chops should lift effortlessly from the skillet. If they stick, let them cook a little longer until they release.

Immediately after flipping the chops, transfer the whole skillet to the oven. Roast until the chops are cooked through, with an internal temp of 140-145 degrees F. This takes anywhere from 6-10 minutes.

Remove the chops from the oven and allow them to rest for at least 5 minutes. This will allow the juices to distribute through the pork and will allow the temp to come up another 5 degrees. Tent them with foil to keep them from getting cold.

Serve with a wedge of lemon, rice, and a side salad! Simple!

Would you believe I have never taken a picture of these pork chops? Probably because I’m so focused on getting them on the table so we can get the kids fed and off to their evening activities. In fact, I’ve got this meal on my meal plan for this week. Tomorrow is another one of those crazy days, so we will be having these simple, but elegant-tasting pork chops. Way better than mac and cheese and freezer chicken nuggets!

If you try this recipe, let me know in the comments! Or if you have a favorite way of cooking with lavender please do share! I love new food ideas, and Janice’s lavender farm visit got me thinking about all things lavender. What do you think about a roasted chicken with lavender? I usually use rosemary and lemon, but I bet I could sub in the lavender for the rosemary. Or a garlicky lavender foccaccia! My imagination is running wild with all the ideas here. What ideas have you tried?

The post Cooking with Lavender? Absolutely! appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Urban agriculture. I can’t imagine many people used that phrase 20 years ago but it is certainly a phrase that has grown in prominence. And I think it’s awesome! The more ways we connect ourselves to the production of food — both in the city and the countryside — the more we will appreciate the effort it takes to produce it, the relationship between our food and the environment and I think that simply by prompting us to think more about these things, we think more about eating better. We become more mindful of our food.

We’ve talked to some larger-scale city-farmers in our podcast. Both Natasha Nichols up in Chicago and Tony Tomato here in St. Louis farm in or very close to the city. But urban agriculture can mean a lot of things, even down to pots on a balcony.

Gardens:  Long-Time Urban Ag

Personal gardens have long been a part of the urban landscape. My parents and grandmom liked to garden, my sister has occasionally had a square-foot garden, and I have had container gardens for years and tried raised bed gardening when I moved to St. Louis.  I’m not sure if those things fit the dictionary definition of urban agriculture, but they are all part of my definition of urban ag since they fill a great role in providing people in cities with a touchstone for the farm, soils, and fresh food.

The gardens my parents and grandmom did for years were some of the earliest community gardens in Memphis. We would go to the garden plots laid out at Shelby Farms in the 1970s regularly to plant, pull weeds, water, gather fresh vegetables, and more.

It is great knowing that the gardens continue (at least they are still listed on the Shelby Farms site) and that in recent years they have been thriving! An article from the Memphis Flyer said that interest is gardening had been growing significantly:

“One morning, I saw 30 people,” Griffin says. “The economy probably plays a part. Plus, it seems cool this year to grow your own vegetables. Everywhere you look people are talking about it.”

Early last month, with a phalanx of elementary school children at her feet, first lady Michelle Obama started the first victory garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt lived there. But the national attention to vegetable gardening was already under way.

Seed companies are flourishing, with the nation’s largest — W. Atlee Burpee — reporting a 25 to 30 percent spike in seed sales this year. The National Gardening Association says 19 percent more Americans plan to grow their own fruits and vegetables this year. Even the University of Memphis is getting in on the act, starting a pilot project to grow organic vegetables on its main campus.

The reasons are as varied as the seeds people plan to plant: the taste of fresh produce, the exercise, the fresh air, and the joy of seeing something grow.

via Bumper Crop | Memphis Flyer.

More Urban Agriculture

In the last few years, there have been increases in other types of urban agriculture including urban farms. One of the urban farms I got to see spring to life is Urban Farms in Memphis’ Binghampton neighborhood. And more recently I’ve watched as the food roof project by Urban Harvest STL for downtown St. Louis has sought funding.

The folks at Urban Harvest STL have some great numbers that help you understand the current look of the city — they point out there are “13,000 downtown residents, 88,000 downtown employees, 1 community garden, 30 urban farmers, 920 lbs of food grown in 2012, 182 lbs donated to charity and 860 volunteer hours.” I have to say, I look forward to seeing the numbers grow.

If you are interested in helping grow urban agriculture, what are you waiting for? There are projects popping up all over you can support or you could start one. The EPA has a list of steps to help people create a community garden or expand urban agriculture in their area as well as a page filled with urban agriculture success stories. The steps are:

• Survey the property and identify potential risks and contaminants for testing.
• Test your soil. Consider likely environmental contaminants, pH, organic content, and soil nutrients needed for healthy plant growth.
• Clean contaminants and add soil amendments to create a safe growing environment.
• Consider garden design including location, crops, water, sunlight, lighting, and accessibility.
• Construct the garden to accommodate children, the elderly, and people all abilities. Raised beds, wider paths, and benches can all be used to create a more usable space.
• Plant a safe and healthy garden and enjoy your growing community.

And our friend, Natasha Nichols is working hard to grow farming in her urban landscape. She’s got a vibrant online community, and We Sow We Grow is seeking donations to help acquire more space for teaching and community development on Chicago’s South Side. And more recently we talked to Tony Tomato about his farm that’s in suburban St. Louis and serves the city.

The post Urban Agriculture – Growing More Food in the City appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

There is so much science behind the food we eat, and we’re about to get a little nerdy about some plant science basics! We’ve talked to plant breeders from around the world, Dr. Lee Hickey who works in a plant breeding lab in Queensland, Australia and Dr. Priyanka Gupta who is working on the grasspea in Morocco. Thing is, while plant science as a whole is wildly complicated (there’s a reason Drs. Hickey and Gupta have Ph.D.s), there are some reasonably easy concepts we can all get our head around.

I think a great way to start is to understand how plants move water, nutrients, and energy through themselves. I mean, we’ve all seen how a plant can go from wilted and shriveled to up and perky again after you water it, right? So of course, it’s got to be moving stuff around in there somehow. Plants have vascular sustems just like we do, which is pretty cool when you think about it. Instead of moving blood through arteries and veins, plants move the water and nutrients using their xylem (prounounced zeye-lem) and their phloem (flow-’em – sounds like a football cheer).

Understanding Plant Science & Vascular Systems

Just like for us, the primary components of the vascular system of plants are really the way to transport critical pieces around the plant’s body.

from the Cotton Foundation’s physiology manual

The vascular system on sprouts would be really small and the vascular system of a sequoia would be huge. These systems are designed to transport nutrients, water, and sugars around the plant. The website Biology4Kids.com has a great page (yes, I like the simple language it has compared to my cotton bible, and I’m going to reference it a lot) called Plants: Xylem and Phloem where the vascular system is described in an easy to understand way:

It all starts with a top and a bottom. Logically, it makes sense. Trees and other vascular plants have a top and a bottom. The top has a trunk, branches, leaves, or needles. The bottom is a system of roots. Each needs the other to survive. The roots hold the plant steady and grab moisture and nutrients from the soil. The top is in the light, conducting photosynthesis and helping the plant reproduce. You have to connect the two parts. That’s where xylem and phloem come in.

Xylem Provides the Supply of Water & Minerals

The xylem of a plant is the system of tubes and transport cells that circulates water and dissolved minerals. As a plant, you have roots to help you absorb water. If your leaves need water and they are 100 feet above the ground, it is time to put the xylem into action! Xylem is made of vessels that  move water around. The roots of a plant are what help the plant reach water and nutrients. They help absorb the critical components for nourishment. As that stuff gets into the plant, the xylem takes over. The Biology4kids page says:

The xylem of a plant is the system of tubes and transport cells that circulates water and dissolved minerals. As a plant, you have roots to help you absorb water. If your leaves need water and they are 100 feet above the ground, it is time to put the xylem into action! Xylem is made of vessels that are connected end to end for the maximum speed to move water around. They also have a secondary function of support. When someone cuts an old tree down, they reveal a set of rings. Those rings are the remains of old xylem tissue, one ring for every year the tree was alive.

I wish I could find some old photos I took when I was in the field with one of the company’s soybean breeders because the photos showed a disease called fusarium wilt that shut down the vascular system, basically starving the plant. You can see some pics on the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences website. It is dramatic what happens to the plant with the vascular system stops working.

Phloem Moves Sugars/Energy

Photosynthesis is a process we all learned about in grade school. It’s the way plants convert sunshine into energy. Again, Biology4Kids basic explanation of phloem makes this understandable.

Most plants have green leaves, where the photosynthesis happens. When those sugars are made, they need to be given to every cell in the plant for energy. Enter phloem. The phloem cells are laid out end-to-end throughout the entire plant, transporting the sugars and other molecules created by the plant. Phloem is always alive. Xylem tissue dies after one year and then develops anew (rings in the tree trunk). What is the best way to think about phloem? Think about sap coming out of a tree. That dripping sap usually comes from the phloem.

So like we have veins and arteries, plants have xylem and phloem. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but it can help you get your head around the idea of how plants move the water, energy, and nutrients from their roots to their leave and their leaves to the roots. Plant science is one of those things I geek out about, so I really hope you’ve enjoyed this plant-themed mini-anatomy lesson.

The post Plant Science Basics – Xylem, Phloem, and Vascular Systems appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Will Kornegay knows a lot about sweet potatoes. His family has grown them for years. And when I met him, he was repoing sweet potatoes hard online. Eventually I interviewed him to clear up some confusion and I thought it would be good to share the info here too!

Will Kornegay

Back when I chatted with Will, he worked for Ham Farms. He has since moved on to start and be CEO of Ripe Revival, a company that is helping to solve the problems of food waste and hunger. And because he lives in a part of North Carolina where sweet potatoes are grown, he still catches up with lots of sweet potato farmers.

Now I LOVE sweet potatoes. Seriously, have you had sweet potato tots? And you can never go wrong with some sweet potato fries. I also think a baked sweet potato is something to get all excited about. And I remember with a big smile the day each year when a truck would deliver sweet potatoes to our office from a customer in Louisiana. So I had to find a way to sit down and chat with Will.

My Q&A with Will

Why do people get sweet potatoes & yams confused? What are the differences & the similarities?

What is marketed in the United States as “yams” are really a variety of sweet potato, grown in the South. A true yam is a starchy edible root of the Dioscorea genus, and is generally imported to America from the Caribbean. It is rough and scaly and very low in beta carotene.

Yams? Sweet Potatoes? Can you tell?

“Yams,” as the industry and general public perceives them, are actually sweet potatoes with a vivid orange color and a soft moist consistency when cooked. They tend to have a sweeter flavor. Other varieties of sweet potatoes are lighter skinned and have a firmer, drier texture when cooked. Sweet potatoes are smooth with skins that can vary in color, depending on the variety, from pale yellow to deep purple to vivid orange. Flesh colors can range from light yellow to pink, red, purple or orange.

So where did all of the confusion come from? Many years ago when orange flesh sweet potatoes were introduced into the southern United States, producers and shippers desired to distinguish them from the more traditional white flesh types.  Many newcomers to America saw the sweet potatoes and referred to them as yams due to the similarities that were seen from between the sweet potatoes and their native “yam”.  The African word “nyami” referring to the starchy, edible root of the Dioscorea genus of plants was adopted in its English form, “yam”.

Yams in the United States are actually sweet potatoes with relatively moist texture and orange flesh. Although the terms are generally used interchangeably, the US Department of Agriculture requires that the label “yam” always be accompanied by “sweet potato.”

If you want to see if you can get this down right, you can take the sweet potato or yam quiz!

Are they grown in similar geographies?

Sweet potatoes and yams are grown in different geographies.  Yams grow in tropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean.  Sweet potatoes can be grown where there is a long frost-free period with warm temperatures in the growing season. Most cultivars require a minimum frost-free period of 100-125 days, with a minimum average daily temperature of 77 degrees. Sweet potatoes also require almost an inch of water per week uniformly distributed throughout the growing season for highest yields.  These conditions are primarily found in the southern US.

Since the crop is grown in several southern states, what makes those areas similar? What kind of soils are best, the type of season that is best, etc.?

Farming Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are grown primarily in the southern US because the conditions of the climate and the lands geographical makeup are somewhat similar.  Sweet potatoes are grown in sandy, loamy soils, and the season is dependent on the climate conditions mentioned above.  In each of these regions, there is one growing season each year.  Sweet potatoes are a storage crop, which means that they are grown, harvested, and stored throughout the year.  March – October is the average growing cycle for a crop of sweet potatoes from start to finish.  They are then stored to be packed for production until the next crop is harvested.

Here’s how they do it at Ham Farms:

“Each year, our qualified staff soil sample every field during the winter months. This will allow us to make proper fertilization decisions for the upcoming crop.

As a NC Certified Seed Producer, Ham Farms cultivates micropropgated, elite plants in our greenhouses. These plants are transplanted into our fields and roots harvested will become seed stock for the following year’s crop. Using certified seed will ensure a healthy, disease-free crop that is more uniform.

In early March, our seed stock will be bedded in the field. These beds will produce our sprouts or slips for transplanting in May. Precision transplanters are used for planting, to ensure slips are spaced uniformly in rows. Transplanting will usually conclude before the end of June.

Our staff will work diligently after transplant to ensure that fields are cultivated regularly in order to control the emergence of weeds. Sampling of fields and harvest planning will begin in July, as roots will have grown to a marketable size within 90 to 120 days.

During harvest, field rows are turned up using a modified disk which uncovers the sweet potatoes. Roots are hand harvested and graded in the fields. The roots are then transferred into bulk containers and transported to one of our controlled atmosphere storage facilities for curing.

The curing process takes between 4 to 7 days. Curing heals cuts and reduces decay and shrinkage in storage because it allows the periderm to thicken and to reform. Curing also converts some starches to sugars, enhancing the sweet potatoes’ natural flavor.”

What do you rotate sweet potatoes with?

We rotate our sweet potatoes with several crops, mainly soybeans, wheat, cotton, cabbage, peppers, and other the vegetable crops that we grow.

Do most farmers plant different crops?

Farmers choose to plant the crops they plant for many different reasons.  Most farmers plant multiple crops.  Crop rotation is a major motivating factor.  Many farmers will choose to specialize in growing a crop or a few specific crops, and will use other crops to aid in their crop rotation.

For most crops you can see the crop mature, that doesn’t seem as easy with tubers, how do you know sweet potatoes are ready to be harvested?

How do you know when sweet potatoes are ready for harvest? You sample them!

This is done by field testing.  Provided that growing conditions and climate have cooperated; sweet potatoes are mature between 90-120 days.  Once the crop hits 90 days, our farm managers will turn up hills as a sample to see what the condition of the crop is.  Random sampling will give a good idea of each field’s makeup, size profile, and readiness for harvesting.  Once they crop appears to be ready the harvest plan is put into action.  Ham Farms grows over 8,000 acres of sweet potatoes.  Strategy and planning play a very large role in the planting/harvesting process.

What’s your favorite way to have sweet potatoes? Any recipe or cooking tips you want to offer?

Personally, I like sweet potatoes cut up and grilled as fries.    You can also check out a bunch of recipes on the North Carolina Sweet Potatoes website.

For More on Sweet Potatoes and Yams

Farmers like Will have been so helpful in getting grounded on things! I’ve got even more on sweet potatoes from another friend of mine, Todd O’Neal, who told me all about his sweet potato farm in Louisiana on the podcast! We chatted as a part of my holiday foods series back in 2020, but I love sweet potatoes so much that I don’t just consign them to the holidays. They’re great year round!

The post Sweet Potatoes? Yams? What’s the Difference Anyway? appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

In our episode talking about farming chickens, Lauren mentioned biosecurity. Another big word connected to livestock and human health is zoonoses.

The word zoonoses…. seeing that on my screen makes me wonder how many of us giggle at the idea of zoo noses. You know, like an elephant’s trunk or the orangutan’s smooshed-up nose? But, amusing name aside, zoonoses (one word) are a really serious topic for livestock farmers and ranchers, especially in our current COVID-era world. The World Health Organization gives a good definition for it:

A zoonosis is an infectious disease that has jumped from a non-human animal to humans. Zoonotic pathogens may be bacterial, viral or parasitic, or may involve unconventional agents and can spread to humans through direct contact or through food, water or the environment. They represent a major public health problem around the world due to our close relationship with animals in agriculture, as companions and in the natural environment. Zoonoses can also cause disruptions in the production and trade of animal products for food and other uses.

Zoonoses comprise a large percentage of all newly identified infectious diseases as well as many existing ones. Some diseases, such as HIV, begin as a zoonosis but later mutate into human-only strains. Other zoonoses can cause recurring disease outbreaks, such as Ebola virus disease and salmonellosis. Still others, such as the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, have the potential to cause global pandemics.

via WHO | Zoonoses.

The current pandemic is a zoonotic illness. It is hardly the first. In fact, Marybeth Feutz as a vet & cattle farmer talked about diseases like this –and it won’t be the last–so I think it’s important to talk about what zoonoses mean to farmers and agriculture.

My Background with Zoonoses

Not zoo noses, zoonoses.

I tell folks regularly that I love ag but I was a hardcore crop person a long time. In the last decade, I have learned a lot about livestock and good animal husbandry from friends who farm. And as I get to thinking, I remembered a dear friend and one of the best neighbors ever left Mississippi years ago for a job in DC metro with USDA’s APHIS Wildlife Services to work on wildlife diseases. Somehow I had forgotten that all the things Seth took time to teach me about wildlife held consequences for livestock and people.

See, Seth took that job as avian flu was a big concern. It was a time when folks like me who love to travel around the world were being more cautious. Extra shots for various things didn’t seem as big of a deal and we wished there were shots for avian flu. We also weren’t sure whether we could get medicines while traveling in other world areas so before we went to the airport, we’d get prescriptions and hold onto them. Well, Seth was one of the front line forces in monitoring diseases that may move with wildlife migration, how those animals could cause problems for farms and ranches and potentially on us as people.

As I looked around for resources online, I actually found some research Seth compiled on feral hogs, those wild pigs that run loose in the South. If you aren’t familiar with them, count yourself lucky. Those are some mean sons of guns. In the Delta, I heard of people being chased up a tree by them! Well Seth and some colleagues wrote a paper about a program they had to monitor feral pigs, diseases carried and their proximity to livestock, etc. It is the kind of thing I never had thought of until Seth took that job. What’s cool as I looked through the info, it seems Seth and the experts agree that the US has a vigilant program that has done well staying on top of these potential threats. He’s moved around the country a bit, still doing wildlife work, but that research seems even more relevant today since we know that COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease.

Emerging Zoonotic Diseases

Thinking about what the potential issues are, I found the WHO website interesting as it explained:

Zoonotic pathogens can spread to humans through any contact point with domestic, agricultural or wild animals. Markets selling the meat or by-products of wild animals are particularly high risk due to the large number of new or undocumented pathogens known to exist in some wild animal populations. Agricultural workers in areas with a high use of antibiotics for farm animals may be at increased risk of pathogens resistant to current antimicrobial drugs. People living adjacent to wilderness areas or in semi-urban areas with higher numbers of wild animals are at risk of disease from animals such as rats, foxes or raccoons. Urbanization and the destruction of natural habitats increase the risk of zoonotic diseases by increasing contact between humans and wild animals.

via WHO | Zoonoses.

Preventing Problems with Zoonoses

Ryan Goodman and I talked about how seriously they take the health of their cows on a recent episode of the Grounded by the Farm podcast. It’s a lot more complicated and hands-on than most folks realize, but as Ryan said, “If it wasn’t well cared for and well-fed, it wouldn’t be here for us to eat.”

Back in March of 2020, back in the earliest days of the pandemic, I did one of my first virtual interviews with Marybeth Feutz, a beef farmer and veterinarian. Her experience as a vet gives such an interesting perspective on animal health and keeping cattle safe from illness. Check out the second part of our 2 part series where we talk cow respiratory health and coronaviruses. Realistically, because of the fact that livestock doesn’t often interact with big crowds of people, there’s not a lot of danger in us getting a respiratory illness from cows and other livestock. The way the food system in the US and Europe is structured largely prevents this. But we need to take care to protect them so that our illnesses don’t transfer from us to them. This is why you can’t just drop in on a pig farm or chicken barn. The farmers need to keep their animals safe from outside illnesses.

A Tough Spot for Farmers

Another farmer friend of mine, Val Wagner had a real problem with deer a couple of winters in a row, which brings to mind the recent concerns of white-tailed deer testing positive for COVID-19. Val wrote about this situation a few years back when they struggled with how to handle their white-tailed deer population. They not only monitored it on the farm but got fish & game involved when the numbers seemed problematic. There just weren’t many good options that didn’t have really sad results. Val wrote:

So, you see, we’re in a tough spot. If we don’t feed the deer, they will get sick and die. But may expose our cows to all sorts of unwanted stuff.

If we feed the deer, they won’t leave, and could still get sick and die. And we will still have exposure to whatever it is they are carrying.

We have already spent money on buying panels to place all around our feed, such as the silage that we cut and the freshly-ground hay. Game and Fish suggest that we space our hay stacks closer together, but our insurance insists that our hay stays further apart. I personally don’t believe that where our hay is located would make much difference to this large number of animals.

The amount of money that has been lost through the hay and feed that has been destroyed is almost nauseating. But the danger to the health of our herd is what has us the most concerned. We are doing all we can to protect our livestock, but it would be nice if there was a better system in place to assist producers that come across these issues.

via Ever increasing problem | Wag’n Tales.

Talking Coronaviruses and Zoonoses with Dr. Stephanie Langel

Recently, in a live session for Grounded and Rising (a membership & training site we run), I was able to sit down and chat with my friend Dr. Stephanie Langel. She’s a faculty member at Duke University with a Ph.D. in Virology who is teaching and doing research. Specifically, she studies coronaviruses and how they impact animal health and human health. She’s also got an ag background which gives her a unique perspective on zoonoses and COVID-19. We talked in-depth about the basics of what viruses are and how they are different from other things that make us sick, and why coronaviruses are so important to study. It was a deep conversation and gave a detailed picture of why the current pandemic is something farmers are staying aware of with their livestock herds. You can check out the highlights that we posted on the Grounded and Rising blog.

Ultimately, zoonoses often don’t get a lot of attention. But maybe we all need to know more, like we’ve seen with COVID-19, understanding what they are and their impact on livestock and human health, is important in understanding why many farmers work so hard to keep their animals separated from wildlife.

The post Biosecurity or Zoonoses: What it Means to Keeping Livestock & People Healthy appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.