Farms.com Home  › News

Agriculture This Week: Farming always evolving

When you have grown up on a farm in the 1960s and ‘70s it is almost beyond belief the changes in farming we see today. 

It was a mixed farm for me, and that meant pigs and grain. 

In my youth I hauled a lot of ground grain to feed the pigs using cleaned five-gallon pails that originally were filled with some weed spray, or another. 

Looking back over some 40-years it seems like it was such a crazy thing, but repurposing the pails was pretty standard. I’m pretty sure potatoes came from the garden to the cellar bin in similar pails. 

Of course I clearly recall Dad taking plugged nozzles off the sprayer, his gloves getting soaked in the process, and then simply blowing out the nozzle with his breath. 

Knowing what we do now it’s a wonder what health problems were caused in a time we didn’t know better, or were reluctant to change. Dad lived to a considerable age, his heart giving out one day, but one wonders. 


Trending Video

What It Takes to Stop African Swine Fever - Dr. Jishu Shi

Video: What It Takes to Stop African Swine Fever - Dr. Jishu Shi



In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, Dr. Jishu Shi, Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Kansas State University, discusses African swine fever prevention and vaccine development. He explains why ASF differs from classical swine fever and swine influenza, how the disease threatens trade and pork production, why immunization safety remains a critical hurdle, and what producers can do now to reduce the risk of introduction. Listen now on all major platforms!

"Before a safe and efficacious vaccine for ASF can be commercialized, what we really have is prevention."

Meet the guest: Dr. Jishu Shi is Professor of Vaccine Immunology and the Dr. Wayne & Hilda Appleton Endowed Professor at Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He directs the Center on Biologics Development and Evaluation and the U.S.-China Center for Animal Health. A veterinarian and vaccine immunologist, Dr. Shi has focused on vaccines for pigs and has worked on African swine fever vaccine development, control, diagnostics, and international training since 2018. Learn more from Dr. Jishu Shi on The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, available on all major platforms.