Doc's Blog

If you don’t already know about him, allow me to introduce you to Dr. Mark Morris. He was a veterinarian known for his extraordinary work in developing diets to manage dog and cat diseases. He graduated from Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1926.

In the late 1920s he built one of the first veterinary hospitals for dogs and cats, in Edison, New Jersey. His clinic focused only on dogs and cats. Something unheard of in those days. Then, veterinarians usually focused their practices on farm animals.

Dr. Morris was a pioneer in researching, diagnosing and developing treatment protocols for dogs and cats. Working with Rutgers University, his groundbreaking achievement was developing a nutritional program to manage dogs with kidney disease. He named his nutritional formula K/D, which many of you may recognize if you have had a dog with kidney disease.

May 2023

Remember Paul Bunyan, the giant lumberjack, and his massive sidekick, Babe the Blue Ox? You younger readers may have to Google them. Anyway, Paul and Babe were bigger than life in American and Canadian folklore.

As I reminisce reading years ago about Paul’s exploits, I ponder—now as a vet who has provided nutritional advice to cattle and swine producers—what kind of nutritional program would be required for an ox of Babe’s legendary mass?

I recently discovered that the answer could lie in the town of Totontepec in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. I’ve never visited there, though I’ve been in Mexico numerous times.

If there’s any place on earth that could satisfy Babe’s outsized nutritional demands, it’s got to be Totontepec. There they have a variety of corn that the locals call olotón. It’s been grown in the mountainous Totontepec region for a couple thousand years. And I’m not making this up: These corn plants grow 18 to 20 feet tall, in spite of the area’s low-fertility, rocky soil.

In this column, I draw your attention to the idea of reclaiming human urine for fertilizing crops. But don’t grab a Mason jar just yet.

The Rich Earth Institute¹ is postulating that human urine should be collected to replace synthetic fertilizers. The benefits of doing this, they claim:

• Reduces the use of irrigated water
• Cuts down on water pollutants (but I’m thinking, what about birth-control medications excreted fentanyl drug residue, or other addictive chemicals in urine?)
• Provides farmers a sustainable alternative to fertilizers
• Nourishes plants with major nutrients that are plentiful in urine, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (aka potash)

In this column I cover important matters to consider if you or your farmer friends are approached about leasing acreage for a solar array project. In preparation for this column, I have spent time reading about solar energy and talking with experts¹ who assist in developing solar panel projects.

I offer this disclaimer: The conditions I discuss here don’t cover every situation.

Each potential solar project has unique factors to consider, including the landscape and environment. I usually don’t advocate for solar farm projects, nor do I come right out and oppose them. But I do recommend that you conduct due diligence before you decide whether to commit any of your land to a solar project.

I’d like to introduce you to an interesting character in Champaign County history and lore: Professor David Orin Steinberger.^{1, 2} Steinberger, who became known as the Hermit of Mad River, was born in Clark County, March 25, 1857, and settled in Champaign County. His family had an extensive pioneer history in the area. His maternal uncle Isaac Funk was one of the founders of Funk & Wagnalls, the publisher of encyclopedias and other reference works.

A graduate of the National Academy of Design and Art League Schools in New York City, Steinberger taught art at Wittenberg College (now University) in Springfield, Ohio USA. His uncle and the other half of Funk & Wagnalls, Adam Wagnalls, had also studied at Wittenberg.

If you are like me, my consumption of chocolates goes up maybe 200% during the Christmas season. Truffles, Marie’s, Ghirardelli’s, chocolate turtles, chocolate drops, white chocolate, Belgium chocolates – how many more of them can I name? So other than putting on a few pounds or messing up my complexion, why worry?

Here is the real scoop. Chocolates contain relatively high levels of toxic heavy metals. Especially worrisome is cadmium and lead. Consumer Report reported that 23 of the 28 brands of all the dark chocolate candy bars tested contained levels of cadmium and lead heavy metals at levels that are considered toxic to humans. Brands checked included Dove, Ghirardelli, and lesser-known brands such as Alter Eco and Mast. You also can’t escape potential toxicity by sticking to milk chocolate. Milk chocolate has also a heavy metal contamination issue but not quite as high. Yet, I acknowledge that chocolate contains flavanols which are shown to promote the human immune response. Kind of counterintuitive, huh?

An estimated 200 million dogs and cats live in the United States, along with 330 million humans. More than 60 percent of American households are home to at least one pet.

You’ve probably seen the information out there about how people impact the environment. But how much do our pets contribute to this effect?

Do they really have a significant environmental impact? You bet your sweet bippy they do!

Demand for milk continues to decline despite dairy farmers’ stepped-up efforts to produce high quality milk while striving towards a carbon neutral environment. Several reasons, I believe, contribute to this problem in milk consumption.

High on the list is rising popularity of non-dairy milk alternatives, like oat milk, almond milk, soy milk – you name it. Companies are continually trying to glean higher profits with these products that offer the advantage of lower production costs compared to real milk.

Foodie activists have helped raise the popularity of milk alternatives by presenting them to consumers as a way to save the environment. Activists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, better known as AOC¹, promote false narratives that cow farts are a major contributor to global warming.

Another reason for real milk’s loss of beverage market share is the continuing growth of the massive soft drink industry.

Animals, especially at night, rely on their noses to lead them to a broad range of food sources. Hunters take advantage of this concept to attract deer and elk that are searching for their next dinner.

Famous University of Sydney ecologist Catherine Price, PhD, and her colleagues have published a study that details how animals use their sense of smell to find food. She also researched how animal owners may be able to use odors to lead astray fox, coyotes, and other predators, to prevent them from killing their livestock and pets.

This study really hits close to home for me. A raccoon got into the chicken coop my late wife Kristen maintained. Her chickens were all wiped out in one night.