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Post Archive

The Fur, Farm, and Fork Post Archive

Turns out, when a website is around long enough, most of the content is buried far past the front page. Not great for a reference site like mine.

Browse older FF&F content below. It’s probably still good, I keep my website well below 41ºf.

This page is still under construction, I’m adding a few posts whenever I have a chance.

Article review: Effects of early pregnancy diagnosis by palpation per rectum on pregnancy loss in dairy cattle

A review of the article: Effects of early pregnancy diagnosis by palpation per rectum on pregnancy loss in dairy cattle. (Romano Et. al, 2011)

Article review: Mechanisms of Viral Emergence

A review of the article: Mechanisms of viral emergence (Domingo, 2010)

Article Review: Epidemiology of Surgical Castration in the United States

A review of the article: Epidemiology of surgical castration of dogs and cats in the United States (Yang & Lund, 2011)

Newsworthy: Branding and Microchips

A review of the article: Branding or microchip implant for identification: Tradition or stress? (University of Veterinary Medicine – Vienna, 2011)

Article Review: Ocular lesions associated with systemic hypertension in dogs: 65 cases (2005–2007)

A review of the article: Ocular lesions associated with systemic hypertension in dogs: 65 cases (2005-2007) (Leblanc Et. al, 2011)

Newsworthy: Ruminant Epidemics, Rinderpest and Goat Plague

Discussion of the eradication of Rinderpest in 2011.

Newsworthy: Vaccine linked to “bleeding calf syndrome”

A review of the article: Vaccine-induced antibodies linked to Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP) recognize cattle Major Histocompatibility Complex class I (MHC I) (Deutskens Et. al, 2011)

Article Review: Effects of intravenous administration of Lactated Ringer’s solution on hematologic, serum biochemical, rheological, hemodynamic, and renal measurements in healthy isoflurane-anesthetized dogs

A review of the article:  Effects of intravenous administration of lactated Ringer’s solution on hematologic, serum biochemical, rheological, hemodynamic, and renal measurements in healthy isoflurane-anesthetized dogs (Muir Et. al, 2011)

Article Review: Animal Play and Animal Welfare

A review of the article: Animal Play and Animal Welfare (Held and Spinka, 2011).

Book: Animals in Translation (Grandin)

A review of the book: Animals in Translation (Grandin)

Article Review: A review of the causes of poor fertility in high milk producing dairy cows

A review of the article: A review of the causes of poor fertility in high milk producing dairy cows (Walsh, Williams, Evans, 2011)

Article Review: Leptospira and Leptospirosis

A review of the article: Leptospira and leptospirosis (Adler & Moctezuma 2010)

Book: Domestic Animal Behavior for Veterinarians and Animal Scientists – Katherine A. Houpt

Review of an awesome textbook covering animal behavior: Domestic Animal Behavior for Veterinarians and Animal Scientists (Houpt)

Research: Transport, nutrient restriction, and effects on health and performance of cattle

Review of research proposal: Research: Transport, nutrient restriction, and effects on health and performance of cattle

Incorporation of Sexed Semen into the 7‐day CO‐Synch + CIDR Estrous Synchronization Protocol

Review of research proposal: Incorporation of Sexed Semen into the 7‐day CO‐Synch + CIDR Estrous Synchronization Protocol

Effects of Bovine Somatotropin Treatment on Performance, Reproductive, and Physiological Responses of Replacement Beef Heifers

Outside of my cringey undergrad angst intro, a review of the research proposal: Effects of Bovine Somatotropin Treatment on Performance, Reproductive, and Physiological Responses of Replacement Beef Heifers

Effects of disposition and acclimation to human handling on feedlot performance and carcass characteristics of feeder steers

Review of research proposal:  Effects of disposition and acclimation to human handling on feedlot performance and
carcass characteristics of feeder steers (Cooke Et. al, 2011)

The Craigslist Hermaphrodite Chicken

This post continues to be popular, and still has the ability to nerd snipe me. I had stubled across a random craigslist ad that was trying to sell a rooster that apparently had previously been a hen…subsequently led me to asking OSU’s animal reproduction prof some follow up questions, all with the conslusion of…maybe? Chickens are weird.

Sources of Stress in Captivity, Part II

Continued review of the article:  Sources of stress in captivity (Morgan, 2007)

Article Review: Sources of Stress in Captivity, Part I

Review and initial thoughts and an awesome literature review on animal stress. Sources of stress in captivity (Morgan, 2007)

Effects of acclimation to human interaction on performance, temperament, physiological responses, and pregnancy rates of Brahman-crossbred cows

Rocking my Temple Grandin interests at the time. Discussing the research paper titled: Effects of acclimation to human interaction on performance, temperament, physiological responses, and pregnancy rates of Brahman-crossbred cows. (Cooke Et. al, 2009)

Newsworthy: Males Make Pregnant Horses Abort

First Post! Discussing the research paper titled: Promiscuous behaviour disrupts pregnancy block in domestic horse mares (Bartos Et. al, 2011)

FF&F Guest Content Elsewhere

IFSQN Content

Document control – make it less of a chore and more of an asset

We’re all working way too hard on the minutia of document control. Here are some tips and tricks that I picked up along the way to making my system leaner.

Making sense of the SQF code: so what the heck is a “register”?

SQF has a lot of special definitions and language that can cause confusion for companies working to get newly certified. There are several mentions of “registers”, but the word register isn’t ever defined in the SQF glossary. The short answer is that a register is simply a list of all materials supporting that section of the code. But again, SQF leaves it up to us to decide what that list looks like, and each list has different needs. In this post, I’ll cover several ways to make these registers and the pros and cons of each.

Meeting the new requirements of SQF 8.0: 2.7.2 Food Fraud

Having been through one of the first round of SQF 8.0 audits, I wanted to help other folks who may be sweating some of the new clauses. So, here’s an example of the approach I took to get me through my audit in February that may help other SQF practitioners.

FoodGrads Content

Assessing the “Quality” of Your Next Employer

However, there are two parts to every job offer: first they choose you, then you choose them back. As a FSQA individual, it’s important to not only evaluate the position itself, but also to get a feel for what level of management commitment you’ll have to work with as you build or support a food safety culture. Here’s some recommended interview preparation tips that will not only help you evaluate the company, but also demonstrate the type of detail-oriented sleuthing I look for in promising FSQA candidates.

Saving the world is…complicated, and what small role will you play?

Determining whether the decisions we’ve made were the “good” ones is unfortunately only knowable by future-us. I do think it’s fair to assume that most food safety professionals are doing the best we can to make things better within the knowledge we have and the power we’re willing to use.

Food Safety and Quality Assurance Phylogenetic Tree

As you progress through your career in QA and look for the next step, you have to think about what sort of skills the role and size of company is going to need, and where you can be the most valuable. That’s more like a flowchart. So if I wanted to show relationships in a flow…boom, college micro-flashback. Let’s make a phylogenetic tree of QA roles and how they’re related.

Introducing – The World of Food Quality, with Austin Bouck

The million-and-one different areas that quality folks spend their time on contribute to one goal: making sure that the customer receives what they expect. This expectation not only includes the actual performance of the food itself, but also the trust that the business who made it did so safely, legally, and ethically.

Other Content

Animal Science News: Guest Post: University Research. What They Do and Why It Matters.

Hoo boy. That’s an old one. I was all excited to talk about my internship, so I wrote a love letter to research and extension. Young Austin was very excited.

LinkedIn: If you gave me the capital I could give you the world – show it with an ROI!

For technical departments tucked away in labs or document control, it can be difficult to demonstrate how much can be gained if we apply lean principals to all areas of business, not just manufacturing. The higher cost of laboratory supplies and wages of microbiologists, quality technicians, analysts, and other scientists means that there are simple and lucrative opportunities for OEE, if only we can articulate them.