Monthly Archives: October 2007

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Twelve cattle on a southern Indiana farm died of a condition called grain overload, which caused acute rumen acidosis, according preliminary findings of Purdue University veterinarians.

WOOSTER, Ohio - Many beef producers struggle with priorities when it comes to genetic selection. One part of them knows the market rewards a focus on the end product.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - For years, South Carolina peach growers have planted grafted trees, the union of fruit wood to rootstock that is resistant to soilborne diseases and nematodes.

FOMBELL, Pa. - Numbers float through Brant Cooper's mind. Forty-two, the number of years he's lived, and 22, the number of years he's been married to the girl he met at the Big Knob Fair.

SALEM, Ohio - Farmers and farm supporters may soon get a new way to show their enthusiasm for Ohio's No.

AKRON - "Hmm, what was that?" Three judges raise plastic spoons to their mouths, pressing their lips together and slurping the amber liquid they've doled out like gold.

MARIETTA, Ohio - For as long as Neil Lane can remember, he never wanted to do anything except farm. He loves the open space, the fresh air, the hard work.

The problem. In 2006, Stark County farmer Jerry Dickerhoof planted corn in a field at the intersection of Kenmore Street and Parks Avenue.

What does it feel like to face foot-and-mouth disease? What does it feel like to have your farm quarantined? To have an entire geographic region closed to animal movement? To lose generations of livestock genetics in the blink of an eye? To receive little compensation for dumped milk or for meat? For all we know about farming here in the United States, we know little about the terror, the frustrations, of farming in the midst of a major animal disease outbreak.

I was talking to a sweet woman one day this past week, and she mentioned that her little Westie dog is getting old and feeble.