Cooperative Extension: Agriculture

World Paradise By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD, MIM Consulting, University of Maine Faculty Associate, Belfast, Maine On my second day in The Gambia, West Africa, in May, I was having a conversation with a nice young man who was member of the hotel housekeeping staff and my “mini-bar” guy. He had just refreshed my mini-bar […]

Tanzania By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD, MIM Consulting I went to Tanzania the week before Thanksgiving last year. It was not only a new country for me but also a new continent. I was there as part of a three-person team representing the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and we were sent to evaluate […]

Which Came First? By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD I did a little supermarket research a couple weeks ago in preparation for a talk I gave at the New England Veterinary Medicine Association (NEVMA) meeting in Portland. A NEVMA Executive Board member had asked me to talk about farm animal welfare standards and certifying organizations. Since […]

Antibiotic Resistance By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD Since I began the Made In Maine: Thoughts on Food, Animals, and Agriculture blog a few months ago, I knew that one of these days I had to tackle the complicated topic of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use in food animals. I haven’t been looking forward to it […]

Only YOU Can Prevent … By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD On one of my recent flights out of Portland, it was a clear, cloudless morning and the plane flew right over the eastern end of Long Island, New York. As I admired the scene out the window at 33,000 feet, I noticed that I had […]

This Little Piggy By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD One snowy December a number of years ago, I witnessed three large (400-500 pound) sows fall through the floor into the manure pit of an old dairy barn in Turner, Maine, while they were eating stale donuts. It was about a 10-foot fall, but fortunately none of […]

Family Farms By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD I’ve been on a one-man crusade lately to abolish the term “industrial” or “factory” farm from the lexicon. I have a sinking feeling that it’ll be an exercise in futility, but I will persevere. Families own the vast majority of farms in Maine (and in America) and they […]

Don’t Forget to Vaccinate Your Horse (and Protect Yourself) By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD Over Labor Day weekend in 2009, we had a horse head, on ice, in a garbage can in our garage for four days. As you might imagine, my lovely wife, Lynn, was not too thrilled but over the 36 years that […]

That’s No Yolk By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD A couple weeks ago, my oldest daughter who lives on Cape Cod with her husband and our 18-month-old grandson, asked me if eggs needed to be refrigerated and it gave me the idea for my next blog. Did you know that the State of Maine is the […]

Just the Facts, Ma’am By Donald E. Hoenig, VMD Whenever I’m asked to talk about raw milk to a group of farmers or consumers in Maine, I always show a picture of two of my kids from about 30 years ago. They’re smiling, looking out the side window and door of our 1974 Volkswagen bus, […]