Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Loading Docks 01

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Loading Docks 01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Large Catfish Farm & Market: This place was not only a farm but the owner (who had a phat house, obviously loaded; aquaculture has been particularly good to him) had opened a market where farmers could bring fish to him, he would buy it from them, and then sell it about 800km north of there.

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Loading Docks 02

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Loading Docks 02
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Large Catfish Farm & Market: The loading docks, more fish being loaded, sorted, and unloaded. Here there was *no* fishy smell, i was kinda amazed, fish everywhere but no smell; ya know how to tell if its fresh? bury your face in a bunch of fish, no smell? its really fresh.

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Large Catfish Farm & Market:Here are the left over trash fish from the mornings feeding. Remarkably they didn't smell much; apparently they were about a week old and straight from the docks (I was informed that they were probably iced while out at sea)

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Large Catfish Farm & Market:Here are the left over trash fish from the mornings feeding.

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed07

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed07
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Large Catfish Farm & Market: This is the slurry they made from grinding up the trash fish and rice bran together and feeding it to the catfish.

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed08

Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed08
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Large Catfish Farm & Market: This is the machine used to make the slurry

Second Shrimp Farm - Feed bag w English

Second Shrimp Farm - Feed bag w English
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: Here is a bag of the feed they use, mostly Thai but also was one of the few bags i saw that had english on it as well.

Second Shrimp Farm - Government Certification for approved Seed farm 01

Second Shrimp Farm - Government Certification for approved Seed farm 01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: This place also raised shrimp fry to sell to local farmers. This was certification of thier seed (I am guessing certifying they have pure bred disease free fry)

Second Shrimp Farm - Netting Sample of Shrimp01

Second Shrimp Farm - Netting Sample of Shrimp01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: This is the guy netting a sample of shrimp for us to look at.

Second Shrimp Farm - Netting Sample of Shrimp03

Second Shrimp Farm - Netting Sample of Shrimp03
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: In one cast he netted a buckets worth, more than any of the other operations we went to. Those buggers looked like a pain to untangle from the net.

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Artemia 01

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Artemia 01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: They raised artemia at another one of thier facilities. This is one of the pools they used.

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Artemia 03

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Artemia 03
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: Here is the artimea seed they used to raise the artemia

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 01

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: I don't know what is making the pool reddish but this is a pool full of shrimp fry.

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 04

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 04
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: Here are some more pools used to raise the shrimp larva/fry

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 05

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 05
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: And yet another set of pools (for different stages of the life cycle)

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - pregnant females

Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - pregnant females
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: Here are some mommies with egg sacks ready to pop.

Second Shrimp Farm - Typical motor and aerator 01

Second Shrimp Farm - Typical motor and aerator 01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: Here is another typical multipurpose motor, this time powering an aerator.

Second Shrimp Farm - Typical motor and aerator 02

Second Shrimp Farm - Typical motor and aerator 02
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Second Shrimp Farm: And here is the aerator

MidSized Catfish Operation - aerating chicken oil (reduce smell)

Aerating chicken oil (reduce smell)
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here he aerated the chicken intestine oil for about a day and that apparently killed the smell. I am not sure why he was so concerned about the smell (I doubt it bothered the fish) but hey, i thought it was neat.

MidSized Catfish Operation - Casava Mash - Chicken Intestine Oil

Casava Mash - Chicken Intestine Oil
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This guy had an interesting setup, he was also really interesting to talk to (though albeit through an interpreter). He fed primarily cassava mash byproduct (apparently the "juice" from cassava is used as a tapioca substitute, and is exported everywhere, like the Netherlands to Heineken). This is cassava mash (right) and chicken intestine oil (left)

MidSized Catfish Operation - New custom casava and oil mixer and cooker

MidSized Catfish Operation - New custom casava and oil mixer and cooker
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

He just had some people make him a custom cooker/mixer out of stainless steel. Now he can mix a few tons of this stuff an hour and simultaniouly cook it. not bad, Thai can be pretty creative.

MidSized Catfish Operation - old custom casava and oil mixer w 2 stage grinder

MidSized Catfish Operation - old custom casava and oil mixer w 2 stage grinder
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here is the old setup he had (before his stainless steel wonder) that had to mix/grind the feed in two stages

MidSized Catfish Operation - Pump for fresh water from canal

MidSized Catfish Operation - Pump for fresh water from canal
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This is a truck converted into a massive pump. He uses this to pump fresh water from the public canal into his ponds

NonContract Red Tilapia Operation - Cages 01

NonContract Red Tilapia Operation - Cages 01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This was an independant Red Tilapia farmer who had cage cultures on the river. I didn't know this but apparently Red Tilapia are pretty high value, 35 baht/kg (I knew they were worth more but not that much [these guys can net 600,000 baht a year; thats pretty damn good in Thailand])

NonContract Red Tilapia Operation - Cages 02

NonContract Red Tilapia Operation - Cages 02
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here is another angle of the setup the independant (as opposed to contract) farmer had.

Thai Aquaculture Tour

I just finished up a whirlwind tour of some aquaculture operations in the Bangkok area (well within 2 hours of bkk). Some of them were really interesting, others hohum. I am going to post pictures (just like the Cambodia thing) over the next few days as I have time. Enjoy!

Shrimp and Regional Bias

A record-setting billion pounds of shrimp was imported for seafood lovers in the United States in 2003, but most consumers don't realize where the popular food comes from, said Public Citizen today as it released another section of its Pharmed Shrimp Series. As part of its continuing public education campaign on imported farm-raised shrimp, the group again urged consumers to be cautious when buying and eating shrimp. The report, Shrimp Stockpile: Importing America's Favorite Seafood, is the third in a series that documents the dangers of shrimp aquaculture. Shrimp aquaculture uses a factory-farming model that douses shrimp with pesticides, antibiotics and other chemicals; most shrimp farms are in Southeast Asia, where labor and environmental standards are considerably weaker than in the United States. Recent news reports have tied some of the devastating effects of last month's tsunami to the destruction of mangroves which historically lined the coasts in many countries in Southeast Asia. Mangroves are often destroyed to make room for shrimp farms. When they're cut down, a natural barrier to the ocean is eliminated, making it easier for tidal waves to reach the shore. Today, in the United States, shrimp is the No. 1 seafood choice, and nearly 90 percent of it is imported. More than 80 percent of the shrimp imported from foreign markets is farm-raised. The whole article can be found here.

But that is a fairly misinformed, super one sided argument; most likely funded by US shrimpers. I have been to shrimp farms, talked with farmers here, none of them use antiobiotics or pesticides. They don't need to, few of the farms had disease problems. I would be willing to bet that western (maybe not european since they are so paranoid about it) producers use as much or more medicines and such than thier poorer asian counterparts (I know this is true in swine production). As with anything, don't read one article and think you know it all.

…

Cage Culture - The Feed

Touristy_Cage_Culture-2131
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Remember the splashing blood thirsty catfish? (it was the previous post) well they were thrashing about trying to get to these tasty little rigor mortis morsels. Nope, haven't a clue as to what kinda fish they are but the catfish seemed to approve.

Cage Culture

Touristy_Cage_Culture-2129
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here is another cage culture I saw at the "Floating Village" near Siem Reap. I got there just in time for dinner so they were flailing around like made trying to munch on the smaller fishies that were being fed to them. I later found out that they were "Iridescent Shark-Catfish" for those that were curious.

Poultry Feed

Poultry Feed
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

While gawking at Layers and Broilers I noticed that the road was strewn with snail carcasses (aka shells). It occurred to me that in many shrimp operations they feed snails for protein so my guess is that they feed snails to the chickens here. Thatâ??s kinda interesting since I have never heard of/seen that before.

Pond Aquaculture

Pond Aquaculture-003
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here is 1 of the 4 aquaculture ponds they have at RDIC. I was told they added goat manure for fertilizer (but given the number of goats I saw etc I will assume that the fertilization was supplementary). They have Tilapia and a few varieties of carp but rely on Silver carp as the cash fish. In one of the ponds (behind me) they had duckweed which they used to feed the other pond(s). One of the biggest problems they have with it is other fish spontaneously appearing in the duckweed pond; they have no idea how, the fish just appear, there is not connection between the ponds its like the fish hoped from one pond to the next, over land.

Palm Candy Production

Palm_Candy_Production-002
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

While running around in Siem Reap we noticed these little tables set out in front of some of the houses in a village we drove through. They were stacked with something wrapped in what looked like palm leaves. Our guide informed us that it was "Palm Candy". He knew exactly where to go, a family had the whole setup right there for people to see, the sap extraction, the boiling down of the sap/syrup etc. Here is a picture of the "packaged" candy. They make it into little wafers and then wrap it up in palm leaves, three of those packages for $1. At first they taste so-so but they are quite addictive (laced with coca?). The taste is similar to maple based candies if you have had those before.

Mid level swine production

Mid_level_swine_production
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This was a pig operation we passed by. It was kind of interesting, a far cry from the huge US farms but a step up (of sorts) from having the pigs running around the yard. They had a compost pile of sorts (to the right, not in the picture) but I saw them spraying off large chunks of manure so I assume that they aren't using the composting all the time. The runoff just pooled up beside the pens, I noticed a very week attempt to dig a trench leading from the pens to what looked like some grapes (some sort of viney things) growing nearby but the runoff wasn't reaching them. I think I liked the Korean method better, and I would think it would be less work.

Low Maintenance Compost

Low Maintenence Compost
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This was a nifty little example of really low maintenance composting at RDIC. You just have your compost "pile" in between your rows of crops and throw on weeds, dirt, and poop as you have time. I do have a few questions about this though; does the composting get particularly hot? it is pretty close to the plants, and temperatures that are too high can be detrimental to plants. If it does not get particularly hot (and it looked like it was pretty loosely maintained and aired out pretty well) does it kill much of the weeds/seeds that are in there (via manure or weeds)? Either way I am sure something is better than nothing.

Layers

Layers
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here are some layers, I am sure of that (unlike the broilers). This setup isn't bad, I it would suck to be a layer but in terms of efficiency I have seen much less efficient setups.

Korean No-Smell Sty

Korean_No-Smell_Sty
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

So this would be an example of a low-tech solution to piggy stench. They had a demo sty setup using a method that was developed in Korea. Its pretty nifty and simple and I think actually requires less labor. You just make a sty with a deep floor to hold some sort of material (in this case rice hulls). As piggy poops and roots and walks around the poop and peed on material works its way to the bottom. After awhile you have a nice fat piece of unprocessed bacon and a boat load of rich compost! not bad eh?

It kind of reminds me of a setup that was mentioned in Joel F. Salatin's "You can farm". He talks about raising cows and chickens in a barn while occasionally throwing some saw dust and corn kernels on the floor when it gets messy. After the cows are removed put pigs in the barn and they will root for the corn (they can smell and dig, trust me) and as a result you get your compost turned and aerated!

Fried Spiders

Fried_Spiders
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

And the only thing more finger lick'n good than whole fried chicks has got to be fried arachnids. Yep, take a closer look, those suckers (literally?) are big juicy tarantula sized spiders just waiting to be munched on. I have heard about this before, and have seen worse (such is the life of an animal aggie) so I was able to hold my cookies down but whoa to the weak stomached individual that came across this. I am curious what goes into raising these spiders though. Do they catch them? raise them in cages? what do they feed them? How long does it take to get them that large?

Fried Poultry!

Fried_Birds
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Mmmmmmm, nothing like whole fried birdie bites (minus the feathers) at your local bus stop! Yep, we got off the bus (one of many time [but that, and the outhouses at each stop, turned out to be a blessing in disguise due to the bug my intestines were battling]) and deep fried poultry was right there just begging to be bought! No really, I am usually not up for digesting whole birds I can certainly admire cultures that utilize much more of the animals than many some other (more wasteful) cultures do. I am also kinda curious about the economics of this, that is the turn around time has got to be alot shorter especially if these are indeed chicks and not fully mature. Also is there a greater demand for these due to thier being more tender (assuming Khmer care anything about their meat being tender [yes the younger the more tender, same idea as veal]).

Goats

Goats
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I also visited RDIC (Resources Development International - Cambodia) while in Phnom Penh. They have a bunch of research projects going on, one of them is raising goats and improving the genetics of goats in Cambodia. They also use the goat manure to fertilize the fish ponds. I wonder about the fertilization part though, goats don't poop in large viscous piles like say pigs or cows, they poop pellets. I am curious as to how well these pellets dissolve in the water and how well their nutrients are taken up compared to bovine manure.

Fishery Museum: Exhibit 6

Fishery_Meuseum-007
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This is a miniature of some of the cage fish farming setups they had in the area. I passed by one from a distance but the picture from my dinky 3 megapixel 3x zoom camera just wasn't decipherable but you get the idea here right?

Fishery Museum: Exhibit 5

Fishery_Meuseum-005
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Mmmmmm snakes, the thought of munching on a slithering leg-less reptile appeals to me only slightly more than say deep fried spiders (though I did have some sort of snake in China, not bad but not something I can't wait to try again either). They didn't have much info on this guy, perhaps it was there more for tourist-shock-value than anything else (kinda like the crocs).

Fishery Museum: Exhibit 4

Fishery_Meuseum-004
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I wish I had a higher resolution camera but oh well. This is just a list of all the fish native to the area (or so I was told).

Fishery Museum: Exhibit 3

Fishery_Meuseum-003
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Nope, no fish in this picture. They are busy gasping for breath in the corner of the tank (I don't think the museum staff was too worried about their more "common" exhibits just croaking when they could easily replace them). I took this picture because these fish are the exact same type as the ones I took of a cage aquaculture in another place; apparently "Iridescent Shark-Catfish", or to me just plain ole' catfish.

Fishery Museum: Exhibit 2

Fishery_Meuseum-002
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I didn't get the name of this one but it isn't alive either, I just wanted to get a picture of it because it looked like the star of some oceanic horror film. It will certainly make me think twice about dipping my toes in murky SE Asian lakes (doesnâ??t it look like something that would take off with small children if it was alive and had the chance?).

Fishery Museum: Exhibit 1

Fishery_Meuseum-001
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This is apparently a "Small Scale Croaker". I am not sure if you can see from the picture but this is a whopper of a fish (for a guy who doesn't know much about fish). I would estimate that it is a good 30+lbs. In case you are wondering its not alive, but could probably use a change of formaldehyde (or water?)

Fishers

Fishers-001
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Fishers-002
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

While around the "floating village" (about 30 minutes outside Siem Reap) we saw *tons* of people fishing with nets. It made me wish I knew more about different fishing methods because I could tell there was a difference in the nets (I saw variations on the two that I posted here).

Crocodiles for Tourist

Crocodiles_for_Tourist
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This couldn't have been a real setup, it was on a boat in the middle of a lake, the logistics would be a nightmare (or so I would think). None the less they had a few crocs in the hold (I guess that is the right terminology) of the ship/house so tourist could look down at them from the deck. Our croc raising tour guide confirmed what I thought earlier, they would just be too much trouble. But there were some tourist there buying cokes for $1+/can so I am betting they are still making a nice living.

Crocodile Farm

Crocodiles_Farm-002
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Well turned out that our brother of a friend tour guide raised crocs on the side. It was really quite interesting and apparently more lucrative than I thought (about $200 a head at 50lbs/head selling for over a $1k/head once large enough). This was a small operation, only 30 head of crocs, with a total capacity of 40 max. I didn't get pictures of them but i am standing above the crocodile "stalls" where they have bedding that, come time to lay eggs, they pile up into a nest. This guy sells the eggs, apparently he does not find it worth it to raise them from eggs to a skinning size.

Crocodiles & Fishies

Crocodiles_Farm-001
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Well of course my camera would crap out after I got pictures of all the cool man-eating reptiles... oh well. Anywho on the other side of the wall was a pond filled with Tilapia fish. They fed some sort of grass to the fish, let them breed like rabbits for a week at a time and then once a week scoop out the larger ones and dump them on this side of the wall as crocodile munchies. The owner said he was quite impressed with tilapia in terms of their being so easy to raise. Really I have only read one other instance of tilapia being raised as animal feed (the other was for fish meal [which I question the economics of]). Apparently they are the cheapest source of protein in the area, trumping even offal.

Cage Aquaculture?

Cage
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

At first (from a distance) I thought this was a ship but upon closer inspection i figured it would be a bit porous for a ship. It ended up being a cage culture and you can almost see some sort of vegetation they were growing as well, mind you this is in the middle of a lake. I wanted to get closer but trying to get this across to our boat guy didn't seem worth it (plus we had a limited amount of time).

Broilers?

Broilers
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

While wandering around Siem Reap we noticed a sign that said something about chickens so we decided to check it out (trespassing?). The setup was fairly rudimentary but I have seen much worse. This seemed to be for broilers but I am not sure since these would make for fairly anorexic broilers (plus I know little about poultry in general)

Agriculture in Cambodia

I recently got back from Cambodia and took some photos of the Ag related stuff I saw. The following is some pictures i took and brief explaination of each.

Aquatic Macrophyte Waste Reuse systems

I love this sh*t! Why it is fascinating to me I have no idea, perhaps some irregular synapse misfirings. I was reading one of many articles about waste recycling systems and it occurred to me that I hadn’t professed my love for these models to the world quite yet. Actually, I do know one of the main reasons I like this stuff, it has direct feed implications for livestock, which is a reoccurring interest of mine. Duckweed in particular. It is a great source of crude protein (comparable to soybeans) can be given to fish, poultry, swine, and ruminants. As I think I have mentioned before feed costs are usually a really high (sometimes the highest) expenses in livestock operations and manure is a problematic by-product, especially in intensive systems. I wonder if duckweed could be grown in lagoons without disturbing the anaerobic process? Fascinating.

Promoting contraception

I was just looking some HACCP standards and they talk about capture fisheries and barely even mention aquaculture. For some reason that made me think about aquaculture and capture fisheries and environmental groups. Personally I think that capture fisheries have been completely abused and severe restrictions should be put on them, which would help fuel aquaculture. Not only would it help fuel aquaculture but it would help raise the price of those products thus making the regulation (i.e. more animal/environmentally friendly) of those products and their production facilities economically feasible (much of the time, especially in third world nations its pretty expensive to implement some of those types of measures).

But even more important is demand. Almost all products, ag products not being an exception, are produced when the are demanded. Much of the increasing demand (especially for basic products) is due to population increase (and increasing gluttony but one thing at a time). I think that many of these environmental groups should of course continue what they are doing but also make part of their efforts stemming population growth. There are just too many people now, and they all want food so they resort to unsustainable farming practices, or take more hand outs from over producing (or severely subsidized, usually both) western nations. People, reducing the number of people and many of the environmental pressures will be reduced.

Sustainability

I love the idea, and the practice is even more interesting. I have an idea of what I think “sustainability” should be but refer here(September 16, 2004) for some formal definitions. I was looking at my favourite news feed aggregator site kinja.com and found some articles on sustainability in Portland which lead me to Portland Oregon’s government agency on sustainability amazing, makes me wish I could live there… they are so many (light) years ahead of much of the *world* it is just uncanny… and takes away many excuses from those places/individuals who don’t bother.

Bangkok Baby!

Yep, the longer than usual lull in my posting is due to my head spinning. I just arrived in Bangkok last Thursday and have been working on getting accomodations (done), mobile phone (done), learn the language (not even scratched the surface), etc etc etc... it will probably take me alittle while, so all 3 of your readers out there might have to wait a bit.

Fuckthesouth.com? What gives?

Ya know, not everyone down there (this is home we are talking about) is a Bush lover, actually I seem to remember a story about a kid who committed suicide at ground Zero as a protest to bush’s re-election, he was from Georgia.

Russell Holliman over at mobilepodcast.org had an interesting point (you will have to listen to the podcast for details) about the county (I think it was the county) of the guy who posted some rant about the south.

I have little to no accent, consider myself to be right down the middle (“socially liberal, fiscally conservative”), and most of the time people can’t figure out where in the US I am from, but as soon as they here I am from the south they let into me, about the conservative, redneck (its not bad to be a redneck per se), beer swilling, truck-with-gun-rack driving, pigs… Yeah the Bushies are the majority in the south, the recent election is a very painful reminder, but the “more-holy-than-thou because I am ‘northern’” attitude just doesn’t work.

The south has plenty of redeeming features about it that are time and time again overlooked (and while *I* think it is a good thing we lost, I will remind the northerners that we tried to leave/split [and leave you to your own ideas/etc] but you guys didn’t seem to want that). If you want to call yourself some “open minded liberal/democrat” then try seeing the south (and the rest of the world) how it really is, and not as the TV media would have you see it.

"Waste recovery"

It is a Saturday (or at least is now, I’m writing this on my Treo90 and might not get around to posting it until later) in Rome, and I am heading to the office, having a life-can-be-rough-at-times moment (don’t shed too many tears for me, I’m going to go meet up with a friend in front of the coliseum at 4ish).

Anywho, the reuse of poop etc in livestock systems and increasing the efficiency of these systems has fascinated me. A component of that was feeding waste back into the systems but I had just generally referred to it as “livestock production efficiency”, seemed to be somewhat of a misnomer. I took a bit of work home and was reading a journal that made mention of “waste recovery”. Now I can say I am interested in increased livestock production system efficiency and “waste recovery”. I have always just referred to the whole thing less specifically as “efficiency”. Now I know. Sweet! (Ah the wild and crazy life of some Aggies).

Pets require responsibility

While listening to The Diane Rehm Show (broadcast on 2004-11-26) something the author said; it was something to the effect of “I am obligated to train the dog how to live in this world”. The statistics he spouted about how many people get bitten etc by (untrained) dogs and how only 3% of all dogs in the US are trained was astounding but then again unsurprising (worked in a vet clinic). That, to me, would mean that (at the risk of offending many people) 95% of the dog owners out there are irresponsible (to varying degrees of course).

He said it’s not as easy as you would think, I agree with him about say house training, but other basic commands were not that hard to train. I never gave my dog freebies, its not like I make her work all the time but if she wanted a treat she was going to have to do something; something simple like “come” or “stay” or looking before crossing the street etc.

I have often heard people say “I don’t have time”, that’s bullshit #1 if you really don’t have time then you shouldn’t have a dog, #2 I have taught my dog hand commands (think sign language) and voice commands just whenever. An example would be like after dinner (if you are easily grossed out read no further), I let her lick the plates (of course I wash the plates thoroughly afterwards but all the scraps on the plate would just go down the drain otherwise) and have her, do something before licking the plate off, its simple takes all of 5 extra seconds and reinforces the training.

Doesn't matter if its some old hunting dog or some little Chihuahua, pets DO require responsibility.

Podcasting for Aggies! (finally)

I guess I am somewhat of a minority, a guy who likes/works in Ag but also has a severe case of technolust. As a result I am constantly trying to find good, specific, RSS feeds for Ag, they barely exist, especially for specifics like ?waste recovery? or ?3^rd world animal production? (yes, these are recognized fields). I was listening to Adam Curry?s podcast the Daily Source Code and he mentioned an Ag podcast, well I rushed over to the Texas A&M AgNewsWeekly Radio site and found it. For all 5 of you techno-weenie Ag types out there, go check it out!

First time blogger!

I have finally been convinced to become a blogger myself. My gizmo oriented friends try so hard from time to time to keep me up-to dated with the gizmo world. For me, that means *trying* to use the digital camera, and also trying this blog entry. (Sad but true) I figured (or I was suggested that) since I am in Cambodia for my internship, I should write something about it. So here it is! I will write about some of my South East Asian experiences – with pictures, I hope...

Poop & Visera

I am tired of the paranoid critics of agricultural feeds slamming animal production industry for what they feed to the animals. There are a billion different things wrong with Western (and developing country) animal production models, but (for the most part) the feed is not one of them.

• Calves get their bacterial rumen from, mommy’s poop
  
• Entire African ecosystems based on hippo poop
  
• Cattle eat their own afterbirth (so do some women), they have 4 compartment stomachs, one of them is *just*like* the human stomach, able to digest animal matter.
  
• How many times have you seen fido eat or roll in poop? No, their not some rouge mutations due to domestication, the wild canines do it too.
  

The part that I will agree with is feeding ruminants to ruminants poultry to poultry etc (which is an issue that was highlighted with spongioform encephalopathy outbreak) but chicken poop to cattle or porcine offal to fish or poultry viscera to swine, no problem. My opinion is that way too much emphasis is put on things that would repulse us but in reality are harmless. Larger issues that I do not hear much about but think need to be seriously considered is livestock database so outbreaks of *whatever* can be immediately tracked, increased analysis of human and livestock feeds coming into the country, and household hygiene.

This isn’t some sort of Soylent Green type idea, we aren’t feeding people to people, or people to animals. There are loads of unused nutrients in poop/offal from many of the less efficient digesters, why let them go to waste?! When they can be utilized at many different levels of decomposition? (animal -> bio digester -> food/fertilizer).

Addendum

Well, just a note, was talking to my friend and he pointed out that many of these “rich Italian” farmers driving around in the super tractors could be a part of a cooperative, doh. But he is right, they could very well be which could be another way of explaining such nice equipment.

To trade freely or not to trade freely?

I got an email from a friend of mine today living in Slovakia, he noted how most of the produce there is from Italy, Poland, and Czech Republic because it is “cheaper” to produce those things in the mentioned countries than in Slovakia… I do find this a bit ironic since Slovakia is more agrarian than them but then again their agricultural systems are probably more advanced. Italy, that one stuck out to me though. I have been to the Czech Republic, really liked it there and what little I gleaned by driving by/through agricultural districts there I can see how that would hold true (also taking into consideration things being cheaper in Czech Republic) but not in Italy. In Italy I was constantly amazed by the mammoth Rolls Royce like tractors that many farmers had, it was like being in the American west where huge private farmers and corporate farms have enough land to justify such fancy/industrial machinery, but Italy… In Italy I get the impression (*only* from observations, I haven’t bothered looking up any facts) that many of the farms here are maybe 100-400 ha, that’s not particularly big (by American standards) so how can they afford such expensive machinery? Possibly by producing high quality/value produce, I can vouch for the extraordinary taste/quality of Italian cuisine, and Italian foods cost a bundle in the US; but if it was because of the high value/quality being able to be sold at a high price then it probably wouldn’t fare very well in Slovakia. No I think it is most likely subsidies, which much of European agriculture is notorious for.

In my school program I constantly hear organizations like the IMF and World Bank demonized for ideology like forcing developing countries to embrace free trade and reduce tariffs etc… I agree with the premise of that ideology BUT (and it’s a pretty big but) there are so many problems with it that I am not sure that they should heed the IMFs/World Banks prodding.

Developed countries don’t listen (while it’s not directly Ag related look at Gee Dubbya and the Kyoto protocol, *EVEN*THE*RUSSIANS* joined in on that (and having lived and visited around there I can tell you many people [though of course not all] there could care less about environmental issues). Europe and Japan are notorious for protective/exclusive tariffs, taxes, and other forms of trade bending, with the US following close behind. I think that it is the developing countries that should be somewhat protected and the developed nations that should be less protected. There are problems with that though. That assumes (unrealistically so) that the developing nations would develop areas in which they are the best at and that industries in developed nations would be able to hang on while the less efficient industries are weeded out… neither are reality the first even less so than the second.

Bush was right...

Ok ok you can get back in your chair; in the last debate he kept talking about education and how it is the answer to everything (or that is what he alluded to) that is one of the few things where he is right (though I don’t think is no-student-left-behind policy is working, or so most of the press says).

I notice how he was right when I see things here in Ag development, and example would be the rate of adoption of newer technologies by farmers in developing countries (probably in developed countries too). Across the board it is the ones who are more educated (can be something as basic as being literate enough to read feed ingredients, we aren’t talking PhDs here). Agriculture is about as basic a part of society as you can get, the underpinnings of society. So wouldn’t it make sense that if you strengthen the most basic part of a society the benefits will trickle down (up?) in the form of less poverty, cheaper agricultural goods, less agriculturally derived ecological abuses (chemical use, less land used more efficiently, less erosion, etc). Yes, Gee-Dubbya got that part right, now if he could only come up with effective policy to promote that for home and abroad.

Alternatives to "mulesing"

Just saw an article on mulesing, and of course lost the link but topix.net has a bunch of articles, never heard that term before, must be an Aussie thing. Apparently “The process — performed without anaesthetic — involves cutting away wool and skin from the animal's hindquarters to prevent them from becoming infested with blowflies.” The article is about finding an alternative to mulesinging (is that a word?) due to the inhumane nature of the mulesing process.
It was mentioned that the farmers said that the blowflies cause more pain than the mulesing, I am sure there are more than a few people out there that would scoff at that but who knows?

In undergrad I did an independent study on “animal pain”. No, didn’t lop off any bunny heads or anything it was mostly reviewing literature. At the time I was a vegetarian, too so enough with the sadism flack.

The question came to me, do animals feel pain like we do? Simple yes? Well not so simple, the example that made this occur to me was castrating piglets. Have you ever picked up a piglet? If you don’t hold them close to you chances are they will squeal, and loud, the kind of thing that you can’t imagine coming from an animal that small. But you are supporting them, not crushing them, nada; and as soon as you put them down its like you flipped a switch, the turn off, nothing they just trot off. Now, have you castrated a piglet? In many operations (including the one I worked in) you just have a razor, and some iodine, and that’s it. You cut’em rip the testicles out, then move on to the next piggy. The thing is, they start squealing at the top of their lungs as soon as you pick them up, the squeal just as much as you are cutting them, and as soon as you put them down they stop, totally (though albeit are a bit wobbly, I’d probably be a bit wobbly too though). While I am positive animals feel pain, I am not so sure it is in the same way that you and I feel pain. None the less, its good that they are looking into methods that don’t mutilate the animals. I think the livestock industry is prone to taking the easiest/shortest solution instead of the all around best solution.

Dry reading...

Remember my whining about “breeding Tilapia” (that assumes you read “Gaiko's Tabernacle of Infectious Net Notions”) and how I got tired of reading about it? Well I recently found that which bores me more, legislation regarding sanitation requirements of fish feed, I’m telling ya’ this stuff is bone dry reading. I have been sifting through various online law databases (FAOLEX and The EC’s Database) and ugh, between trying to figure out how to use them, and getting all the results that I don’t want and then trying to wade through the articles/amendments/annexes that I think might be relevant I am ready to go to the closest wine bar (God I love Italy!) and relax my eyes… and brain.

Increasing Ag/Animal Awareness

Saw an article about a “petting zoo” of sort as part of an agricultural fair (didn’t sound like a state fair). The purpose was to increase awareness of animals in agriculture (you know; so that all kids don’t think eggs magically come from the grocery store).

They mentioned that the attendance was down this year; that is just sad to me but I doubt that that trend is only happening there. People seem to care less and less about Ag, they just want their cheap food (well in the US, but I think that is a modernization trend that is happening to different degrees throughout the world).

I have three little cousins, two of which, in my opinion, had gross misconceptions about animals. I was pleased as punch when their tiny little brother practically had to be held back from our dog where as his sisters literally screamed once when I (without-thinking, sorry Emma) opened the door to let the dog in. Well I suppose they didn’t want to be out done by their toddler brother so they (cautiously) petted the dog (who is the antithesis of vicious, she is not the most playful dog but in the life game of “fight or flight” she is all flight) with the parting statement “well I guess I *might* like shbear [the dog] next time” well it’s a start.

It just shows how kids really need exposure to animals, yeah I know only a fraction of kids will actually work with animals but it helps; it helps to know not all animals are out to maul you, it helps to know where eggs come from. It helps to know that your hotdog comes from a living creature, shrimp aren’t naturally headless, and eggs don’t magically appear in the grocery store; food and where it comes from is not something that should be taken for granted.

Productive vs Un-Productive Water

I am presently working with aquaculture, dealing mainly with 3rd world systems in South East Asia. Many of these systems have a “fertilization” component which involves the addition of manure, thus promoting algal growth with intern provides a food for the fish (such as Indian Carp). It is interesting how “optimal water quality” (i.e. clean/cootie free) equals “unproductive water”. While “unsanitary water” equals “productive water”. I have been reading this FAO publication “Integrated livestock-fish farming systems “ and just found an online copy of it. Interesting reading if you have the time.

Posting via email...

This is a test to post via email, lets see if it works.

Toxic soda used as pesticide?

In this “Age of Organics” (well actually its only a fraction but as much as I hear about it you’d think it was the majority) and political correctness I wonder what this would fall under. Would Coke count as an un PC way of organicly protecting your crops? Is it that toxic? Nope... well no more than the usual CO2 and sugar OD’ing you get from quaffing a soda. Here are some farmers that started using coke as a low cost pesticide. Whatever works I guess.

My first Wikipedia entry!!

Ok, so it really wasn’t anything special but in agriculture some people (including myself depending on the company) refer to themselves as an “Aggie”. I hear it quite often but people don’t usually seem to catch it (kinda like using “Ag” as an abbreviation for agriculture, though watch everyone from here on out understand it) so I thought I would add a Wikipedia.org entry. Unfortuantely I am not skilled in the ways of writing so it is a measly 1 sentence entry, the most basic of the basic (so if you think you can do better then ***please*** go there and edit it (that is part of the idea for wikipedia)