OUT BEHIND THE BARN (where I come from)

December 28, 2004

Well, I wish I could say I had K.C.s blind faith in the goodness of the advice

from " the neighbor down the road " and the notion that the average " down to

earth " farmer home remedy would be kind, non-toxic or even effective.

Especially given what can be purchased from the farmer's coop, Fleet Farm

or any livestock catalog you want to open up. These days it's a toxic waste

dump out there, folks.

After growing up with farmers all my life and after being a large animal vet in

the countryside I guess you could say I've seen enough bad farmer medicine

to rattle your faith forever in the integrity of " organic certification " or any

other

standard that relies on " word of mouth " by the farmer. One bad apple ruins it

for the rest of us.

Farmers I've know are wont to pull dystocia calves with a tractor and log

chain, many the time I've seen baling twine (or worse) used as an elastrator

band and I've seen everything from gasoline to sulfuric acid cruelly poured on

wounds. It's common to see used crankcase oil applied for fly repellant, and if

the label says 10cc's I've rarely seen a farmer that won't use 20. I've rarely

been to a barn that doesn't have a cabinet in the corner somewhere that's

chuck full of scary poisons and potions to throw onto or into a downer cow.

You might say there ain't nothin' I haven't seen done or that I can't imagine a

farmer doing to his or her livestock in the name of saving a nickle or doing it

" the way dad used to do it " . No experiment has a control group and each

experimental group is made up of one animal. Failures are forgotten instantly

and successes are remembered forever (just the opposite of when the vet

does it!).

In defense of my profession, I will say some of us have spent an enormous

amount of (totally unpaid and totally unappreciated) time preaching and

teaching against some of the cockamamie notions of makeshift, ill-informed

and toxic applications of poisons and chemicals (especially wormers). It's just

the other 98% of my profession that give the rest of us a bad name.

OK, I'll be nice now,

Will Winter

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