Doc's Blog

Several ago, Mauricio, a cattle broker from Colombia, South America, requested that I come to Bogota to present a couple of years on calf diseases and proper care of freshening dairy cows. I have known Mauricio for over 30 years. I met him in his meanderings through Ohio, where he purchased Brown Swiss cows for export to Colombia. I often completed the necessary health tests and paperwork for him.

So, I knew that Mauricio was an incredible tightwad who found every opportunity to avoid parting with money if he could get someone else to ante up. Nonetheless, I quoted him my usual consulting fee, plus travel expenses. This, I figured, would test how much he really wanted me.

Of course, he dickered over my fee, but did invite my late wife, Kris, to join me on the trip. He agreed to cover her plane fare and expenses. This was a significant enticement, so we came to an agreement. My negotiating position was significantly weakened, as Kris really wanted to go.

In their book Time to Eat Your Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living, New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale wrote that, based on their analysis of popular brands of dog food, a medium-size dog consumes about 360 pounds of meat and 200 pounds of cereal each year. Calculating the land required to produce that amount of food and figuring in the energy to manufacture and distribute it, they determined that a medium-size dog has an annual carbon footprint of about two acres – about twice the footprint left by an SUV driven 6,000 miles in a year.

They contend that owning a dog is an extravagance at the expense of our environment. They add that other pets aren’t much better. Cats, they claim, have a carbon footprint of nearly a half acre – equivalent of operating a Volkswagen Golf for a year. Shrunk to a further extreme, hamsters have a carbon footprint equivalent to that of a plasma television. And a gold fish requires energy equivalent to that used by two cell phones. Could owning several dogs, a few cats and maybe a gerbil or two be equivalent to keeping a fleet of oil burning, pedal-to-the-metal junker taxis on the road in Beijing?

You’ve probably read or heard the news about a dairy technology that’s new to Ohio … robotic milking machines. For some time, robots have been welding and assembling cars at Honda. Now some have gone country… milking cows on a few Ohio farms.

These robotic milking systems allow each cow to let her milk down as often as she feels the need – up to six times daily … any time … day or night.

By Don 'Doc' Sanders

I want to tell readers about a unique individual who passed away years ago but was a hero to me and many others. When he was alive, he was the ultimate "live life to the fullest" kind of guy. He was the lead pharmacist at a small downtown pharmacy in Urbana, Ohio, with a sincere, dedicated attitude toward his responsibilities, his customers, his spiritual life, and his community.

The best way to describe him is simply to share a few stories. He passed away in the 90s from liver cancer, and right up to the end he lived his faith, good deeds, and humor.

The Morrill Act of 1862 gave federal public lands to states to fund colleges focusing on agriculture, education, and the mechanical arts. Sponsored by Justin Morrill and signed by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862, One of the tenets of the Morill Act was the education caveats to provide educational benefits to American youth. This became the impetus to develop youth clubs in agriculture. It was called 4-H.

I imagine that most of you are familiar with 4-H and may even know that educator A. B. Graham, who was born in Champaign County, Ohio and grew up near Lena, founded the youth organization in 1902.  My kids actually completed their primary education at A.B. Graham Schools, that encompasses all of western Champaign County, Ohio, near Lena. A sidenote is that 4-H was formed as a part of the development of a national agricultural extension program.

The Age of Artificial Intelligence is here despite my first instinct is to be in denial. We are past the Age of Computers, and the “experts” now are pointing out that to process the data being produced everyday is bogging down society because we don’t have the means to quickly process, categorize, and make quick decisions based on the available data.

We have computer data centers generating information that, if it were done only by humans, would take eons to solve. Currently, we are building data centers on farms and vacant land adjacent to cities. The pros and cons of these new data centers are controversial primarily because of location, electrical power required, and the amount of real estate for each one.

These centers can process literally tons of data in short order providing conclusions to numerous questions that would take incredible manpower and time - even decades for companies and society to evaluate the answers. While these would seem to be a great answer for mankind, there are serious implications.

I decided to write about a topic that has for a long time been troubling for me.   Consequently, this is about one of those issues everybody in academia talks about but does nothing to solve: the high cost of a college education.

The news is full of stories and commentaries on college students incurring $50,000 or more of indebtedness a year. It isn’t unusual for students to graduate owing $300,000 plus. From my experience, veterinary medicine students encounter this same situation, but they also have four additional years of education beyond their undergraduate studies to pay for.

This story I wrote was published in regional farm publications such as The Ohio Country Journal to add information and often some levity to agricultural science and current ag topics.

Recently I made a trip to Russia to present several seminars on dairy cattle management. My mission also included meetings regarding American-style dairy planning with government dignitaries, such as the governors and agriculture directors of the Kostroma and Krasnodar Oblasts (an oblast is similar to a state here in the U.S.).  A veterinarian from the Holstein Association accompanied me to promote the sale of U.S. dairy cattle genetics.

We covered a lot of territory during this visit, and learned a lot about the country’s past and present. Russia has a land mass more than double the U.S., encompassing 11 time zones and accounting for 12.5% of the world’s terrain. Yet the Russian population is just half ours and is dropping by a half percent each year while ours is increasing by one percent and the world’s by one and a half percent.

Advice on Caring for Your Canine Friends

For many years Dr. Judy and I maintained a mixed animal practice. We were happy to examine and treat any animal upon request and counsel the owner if treatment wasn’t indicated.

Generally, we found, owners want what’s best for their pet or livestock, barring financial restrictions.

Farm dogs like Ol’ Shep often have to earn their way, either as a working dog or a lone sentry, watching for burglars or alerting everyone when the cows are out on the road at 3 a.m.

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. When my wife, Judy, and I operated our private veterinary practice, farmers in the field meant that we could take a leisurely lunch together or perhaps slip away to the Farm Science Review for part of the day.

Farmers became totally focused on corn and soybean harvest, with little time for the coffee shop or to call the vet. They usually focused so intently on harvest that they had no time for levity, waxing philosophical or taking part in local events.

During this year’s crop harvest I have had more time to reflect on past autumns, good times with Judy and my downtime ventures into mischief. Regarding the latter, I offer you the following true story from several years ago. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. I call this “The Sting.”