~ January 2010 ~

Renee Jones-Lewis
Pet Marketing/Canine Specialist
JeffersPet
800-533-3377 x 381
rsjones @ jefferspet.com

Renee Jones-Lewis, CPDT-KA is a professional dog trainer, having received instruction from canine behaviorist Dr. Pamela Reid, plus nationally acclaimed trainers Terry Ryan, Pia Silvani and Gary Wilkes, to name a few.
She works in Pet Marketing and as a Canine Specialist for JeffersPet and JeffersPet.com. She also owns a kennel and holds training classes.
~ ~

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If you know any last minute shoppers, make sure to spread the word that not only can we still get their order to them, we can ship it for FREE on Dec. 17th.

* Standard Ground Shipping only. AK and HI are excluded. Freight may still apply to overweight and oversize items. Gift Card purchases will not count towards the $89 minimum for Free Shipping.
** Visit www.freeshippingday.com on Dec 17th for coupon code or more details.
Jeffers, Inc. is not responsible for late delivery due to carrier or weather-related problems.

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Behind Bars for Good

Certified Pet Dog Trainer and Jeffers very own pet specialist, Renee Jones-Lewis, will be going to jail on August 27th but it’s for a good cause.

Imagine being locked up behind bars - a total loss of personal freedom. It’s a scary thought for most of us, perhaps hard to imagine. Now imagine being locked inside your own body, unable to control certain parts - a total loss of personal freedom. For the latter there is no bail, no time off for good behavior and, as yet, no cure.

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) will be sponsoring its annual Lock-Up program designed to raise money and awareness in local communities by “locking up” community leaders, businessmen, and local “celebrities”.

While Renee would hardly describe herself as a celebrity, she is widely known and respected in the pet/dog community. She not only works tirelessly to make sure that JeffersPet.com has the best products available but she owns a kennel, has several obedience/training classes each month and travels around the country speaking to hundreds of people each year at trade shows and conferences.

But come Thursday, August 27th, all that will come to a screeching halt as the doors slam behind her. “Bail” is set at $2600.00 but I believe that with Renee’s faithful following and Jeffers’ awesome customers, she should be able to easily surpass that goal. Please help Renee reach her goal and help MDA reach its goal. It only takes a minute and every dollar counts. To learn more or to donate to Renee’s “bail” CLICK HERE.

MDA is the nonprofit health agency dedicated to curing muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases by funding worldwide research. The Association also provides comprehensive health care and support services, advocacy and education.

MDA combats neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive medical and community services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. With national headquarters in Tucson, MDA has more than 200 offices across the country, sponsors 220 hospital-affiliated clinics and supports nearly 400 research projects around the world.

MDA supports more research on neuromuscular diseases than any other private-sector organization in the world. MDA scientists are in the forefront of gene therapy research and have uncovered the genetic defects responsible for several forms of muscular dystrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), childhood spinal muscular atrophy, and several other neuromuscular conditions.

The Association’s comprehensive service program includes medical examinations, flu shots, support groups, MDA summer camps for youngsters and assistance with purchase of wheelchairs and leg braces.

MDA was created in 1950 by a group of adults with muscular dystrophy, parents of children with muscular dystrophy, and a physician-scientist studying the disorder. Since its earliest days it has been energized by its number-one volunteer and national chairman, entertainer Jerry Lewis.

The Association’s programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors. – copied - http://mda.org/about.html

Disaster Strikes

Does your family have a plan in case of emergency? Does it include your four-legged family members? Many families have a plan of action in case of a disaster, but many people forget to plan for their pets. Some mistakenly think that their pet’s survival instincts will allow them to survive a storm or other disaster. However, if humans cannot survive the situation, it is unlikely that your pet will fare much better.

So, what should you do?
• Determine what you’re facing
• Planning is the key to insuring the safety of your pet.
• Determine what actions you need to take before, during, and after a disaster.

First, you should determine what types of emergencies are likely to occur in your area. Do hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flooding, blizzards or wild fires affect your area? If you are unsure what disasters are common in your area, contact your local emergency management agency for more information. Also, consider other emergency situations, such as house fires or gas leaks.

Find a safe place

According to the FEMA website, you should never leave your pets behind in an emergency (unless your own life is at risk). Remember that though these animals once survived in the wild, we have domesticated them and for generation upon generation we have trained them to overcome or ignore their natural instincts. If you must evacuate, take your pet with you. However, many shelters do not accept pets, so planning is again, essential! Start with a list of options in areas surrounding your home (up to 100 mi radius). Options include friends or families that are out of harm’s way, veterinary clinics or pet boarding facilities, pet-friendly hotels, and animal shelters. Whatever you decide, make sure you thoroughly understand any restrictions or rules. For example, many boarding facilities require a copy of veterinary records before accepting your pet. Additionally, you will need to have a portable kennel for each pet.

No matter where your pet ends up, he/she needs to have identification. It is always wise to have a tag on the collar with contact information in case you’re separated unavoidably. An extra tag with a separate contact person outside of your area is a great idea simply because during an emergency, it is common for phones to be out or for circuits to be too busy to get through for days or weeks including cell phone service. (See I.D. Tags at JeffersPet.com)

Another method of identifying pets is microchipping. The American Humane Association estimates that about 17% of all lost dogs and only 2% of all lost cats ever make it back to their owner. Nearly 10 million pets are euthanized each year because they cannot be reunited with their owner. The American Humane Association recommends using I.D. Tags and microchips and always keeping the information current. (See microchips at JeffersPet.com)

Microchipping is safe, effective, durable and dependable, but can’t absolutely guarantee that a lost pet will be found. The best way to keep your pet safe is to use more than one form of identification. Microchips are long-lasting and a wonderful means of identification, but there is a chance a shelter won’t have a reader, so a tattoo would be an effective backup form of identification. If kind strangers find your pet on the street, on the other hand, they won’t have a reader handy to check and won’t know where to call to match a tattoo to an owner. A tag with your name and address [and phone number] would allow them to bring your pet right back to your door. Another possibility would be a tag that informs readers that your pet has been microchipped or tattooed and give them the number to call to reach the ID number database. There’s always the possibility that one kind of identification could fail but if your pet has two or three kinds of ID, there’s a good chance that at least one will bring him/her home to you. -– healthypet.com

Prepare an Emergency Kit

Just like an emergency preparedness kit for humans, a very important item to include is a basic first aid kit. This should include at minimum, some bandages and flexible wrap, a blood-stopper, an antibiotic ointment, an antiseptic spray, thermometer, sterile gloves, and scissors. (See First Aid Kits at JeffersPet.com)

It is very important to have a couple of day’s worth of food and clean water for your pet, just like it is for you and your family. Don’t forget to rotate stored food every month or two when your Emergency Kit is just sitting. If you are packing canned food, be sure it has a pop-top or you have a manual can opener with the kit.

Keep a couple of trash bags handy and disposable or collapsible feeding dishes or bowls made for travel.

An extra collar or harness and leash and some chew toys and snacks are a must as well as a blanket and/or bed and any medications required and keep recent photos just in case of separation.

Be aware of local laws that might require you to have some form of waste disposal such as bags and/or scoopers.

If you live in or your “safe destination” is in a cooler climate, keep a sweater or jacket and possibly boots for your pet. You might also want to think about a life jacket for your dog in areas where flooding and/or hurricanes are a threat.

Another consideration is the stress/anxiety of the emergency situation and travel on your pet. Consider a calming or anxiety relief treatment for your pet. (See Calming Aids at JeffersPet.com)

Be sure that your house has an emergency “Save Our Pets” sticker on every door and at least one window on each side of the house. Emergency workers don’t know and you might not be home or conscious to tell them.

Don’t wait until disaster strikes to think about what to do. You may literally only have a couple of minutes to worry about your own safety and that of your pet(s).

We don’t usually use this blog for product reviews or anything hard sell. Its purpose has always been to inform or enlighten and possibly entertain while hopefully helping with common problems people have with pets and animals. I think this post fits the bill. Please note that this is not a paid advertisement and Animal Naturals, LLC has neither endorsed nor approved the content.

I am a skeptic by nature. If it sounds too good to be true, I grab my wallet and hold on tight. Still, every now and then a product comes along that not only lives up to the hype but even exceeds expectations. One company has managed to do that with several products and I thought I would shine a light on that company here today.

Animal Naturals LLC, was founded in 2002 but the journey began almost 30 years ago. Actually, Bob Fritz has been researching and developing natural health products since a childhood classroom experiment turned on a light and ignited a fire. From a 4th grade experiment, through a stint at NASA, Fritz has been learning, researching, testing, and developing products for animals and humans that are all natural and healthy. - Read more about Bob Fritz

Since 2007, Jeffers has offered several of Animal Naturals products for pets. Much to the surprise and delight of our customers and staff, these products, particularly K9 ShowStopper™, have far surpassed any expected results. You can read more reviews of ShowStopper™ here.

Recently, I have had the chance to read a few testimonials from horse owners who are raving about another Animal Naturals product, Show&Go™, an all-in-one equine supplement. It is nice to hear about how well a product performs or how excited a customer is about a product but on the rare occasion when there are visible results and a customer shares pictures, we can’t help but get excited too.

Even rarer still is to have someone that you know, someone that you work with, someone with no agenda who tries a product with amazing results. Amazing doesn’t begin to capture the feeling but I have nothing better. Society has watered down some of the best words with overuse and abuse.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words I’m going to share some pictures of a few horses before and after in some extreme cases.

The owner’s words will tell the rest of the story…

Emma - Feb. 20, 2009 - Before Show&Go

Emma - May 18, 2009 - After Show&Go

To Whom it may concern-

I just wanted to share my personal experience with your Show & Go supplement. I have been using this on my horses for many years and have always loved it. But until recently, I didn’t realize how much better this product is than anything else on the market.

On Feb. 20, 2009 I rescued a severely underweight 30 year old pregnant TB mare. She was immediately started on 2 scoops of Show & Go and Alfalfa.

I have included pictures of her upon arrival on Feb 20 and her most recent picture on May 18, 2009. The pictures will speak for themselves.

Thank you very much for a wonderful product.

Sincerely

Colleen Henderson
A very faithful user

Sugar Cookie - mid-March 2009 - Before

Sugar Cookie, mid-March 2009, Before

Sugar Cookie,mid-May 2009, After

Sugar Cookie, mid-May 2009, After

Words from the new owner:

When I first saw Sugar Cookie, I was appalled. The “before” pictures you see isn’t even her worst condition. I couldn’t get her to stand up; she was literally at death’s door. I managed to get her and her sister Honey Bun to my property and that’s when their recovery really began. I put the “girls” on Show and Go in mid-March, 2009; the “after” pictures were taken after feeding for eight weeks. I was very worried that they would be stunted for life after such a horrible start, but today they are healthy, sound and beautiful!

Averil M.,
Dothan, Alabama

Honey Bunn - mid-March - before

Honey Bunn - mid-May - After

To see more pictures of Sugar Cookie and Honey Bunn - Go to Jeffers mySpace page at www.myspace.com/jefferspet

- - - - - - - - - - - -
posted by Ron

Ron works in the Internet Marketing Dept. of Jeffers, Inc. He has an AAS in Computer Programming.
He likes to read and write and he loves ferrets.

An MU veterinarian invents a device to diagnose horse lameness

Story by Dale Smith | Photos by Rob Hill

Reprinted with permission of MIZZOU magazine.

Veterinary medicine student Emily Bond jogs with Gunner, who wears two acclerometers [sic] and a gyroscope to diagnose lameness. As Gunner runs, the lightweight devices on his head, rump and right front foot transmit information to a computer with software that helps pinpoint the problem.
- Photo by Rob Hill

When one of us two-legged patients goes to the doctor with, say, a sore elbow, we give our clinicians some critical, if basic, information. We point to the joint. We say, “It’s this one, doc.”

But horses, with the possible exception of Mister Ed, are less forthcoming. That leaves veterinarians to figure out the problem using their own two eyes and whatever training and intuition they can muster. Diagnosing and treating subtle lameness is the most common task equine vets face day in, day out. “Even small injuries really affect how well horses can do their work,” says Kevin Keegan, BS Ag ’78, DVM ’83, who directs MU’s E. Paige Laurie Equine Lameness Program.

Horses in the 21st century likely work as one of the nation’s 3.9 million mounts for pleasure riding or 2.7 million animals that compete in shows. The economic impact of recreational riding and showing horses is $60.6 billion a year, according to the American Horse Council. If you throw in horses employed in racing and other pursuits such as workers on farms, ranches and police beats, the impact could be as high as $102 billion.

With stakes that high, horse owners have their own lobby in Washington, D.C., and equine vets spend lots of time watching lame horses trot back and forth to gather clues about which joint or muscle or tendon or ligament is the culprit.

There’s always a catch

But there’s a fatal flaw with this scenario, Keegan says: Focusing a trained eye on a horse with subtle lameness isn’t always a reliable way to start the diagnostic process. Keegan noticed the problem long ago and, with colleagues, has been conducting research on it since joining the College of Veterinary Medicine faculty in 1990. Keegan recently went to market with diagnostic hardware and accompanying software that could be a boon to equine practitioners. More on the new technology shortly.

In the meantime, it’s worth sketching the path Keegan has broken over the past 19 years in turning his observation into research questions and then turning his research results into a useful and marketable product. More and more faculty members at MU are breaking their own trails in markets ranging from nanotechnology to antacids. When startup companies do well, the researchers, their investors and the university make money. Plus, society benefits from new products and services — many of which improve quality of life. In fiscal 2008 alone, MU brought in $6.2 million in licensing fees from projects like Keegan’s.

It all started with an observation: It’s tough to pick up subtle lameness. “I have always noticed that, in horses with mild to even moderate lameness, there is a significant amount of disagreement between veterinarians about whether a horse is lame and in which leg, and I always thought it would be better to have a more objective system.” The next step was to confirm this observation and get some idea of how unreliable the human eye is for this task.

Horses abandoned in increasing numbers

Kevin Keegan works hard to ensure that veterinarians are better equipped to diagnose and care for horses. But as the number of abandoned horses in Missouri and the U.S. are on the rise, MU faculty members Robin Hurst-March and husband Zac March help ensure that unwanted animals receive the care they need to survive.

In September 2007, the United States Court of Appeals upheld the state of Illinois’ decision to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. At that time, Illinois was home to the last remaining slaughterhouse in the country. The court’s decision effectively ended the slaughter of horses for food in the United States.

“This [court ruling], plus the tough economic times, has lead to desperate actions on the part of some horse owners, such as simply abandoning their unwanted horses in national parks or along roadways,” says Hurst-March, professor of biological science. She and March, who is director of information technology for the College of Veterinary Medicine, founded and run Out 2 Pasture, an organization that rescues lame or injured racehorses. “We work for one of the most recognized rescue organizations, and this surge in horses whose owners can no longer afford to care for them has us (as well as most) busting at capacity.”

In addition, Hurst-March says, this “perfect storm” of circumstances is difficult for horse rescue operations around the country. In these tough economic times, donations to horse rescues have plummeted, which means that many horse rescues will no longer accept a horse without some kind of financial support from the owner to help offset costs.

Keegan started by conducting one of the field’s first big studies. He made videotapes of lame and healthy horses running on a treadmill, and he sent them to experienced vets and vets fresh out of school. None of the respondents knew ahead of time which horses were supposed to be injured and which were supposed to be sound, and none knew that Keegan repeated horses on the tape. It turned out that experts agreed with themselves very well, better than vets fresh out of school. But they did not agree with each other — “well below what is acceptable,” Keegan says. “That didn’t sit well in the veterinary community.”

Vets pointed out that, in practice, they don’t diagnose videotaped horses running in a straight line on treadmills. Plus, there’s more to assessing an injury than watching horses run. Fair enough. In response, Keegan and colleagues designed a more robust study, this time not using videotape but live horses. This study also included more horses and a fuller assessment of lameness. For instance, horses trotted not only straight but also in a circle, and vets put them through other standard examinations. Even when performing full, live lameness evaluations, there was still significant disagreement among experts. When asked which leg was not lame, vets agreed about half of the time, Keegan says. But strictly by chance they would have agreed 20 percent of the time anyway. In the end, the message was the same as in the first study: The standard procedure doesn’t cut it.

Now Keegan and his colleagues were ready to start looking in earnest for a better way. “In 1993, we moved into a new facility [MU’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital], and the college purchased state-of-the-art motion analysis equipment.” Keegan put reflective spheres on various parts of horses and filmed them with high-speed cameras as they ran on the treadmill. The cameras picked up how the spheres moved and fed the data into software that created moving 3-D images of the horses’ strides. “The human eye samples about 15 times a second, but the cameras captured 120 frames a second. We just started filming many different horses, some we knew were sound and some we knew were lame.”

This exercise gave Keegan a wealth of data — everything from stride length to joint angles. “But I realized that I still didn’t know the best thing to measure,” he says. So he called on Marjorie Skubic, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. She helped him sift through the mountains of data and look for useful patterns. This data-mining unearthed what turned out to be a breakthrough finding.

Some veterinarians look for clues by observing the distance a certain leg swings to the side or how much a joint flexes. But Keegan’s data pointed elsewhere. “We found that the pattern of how the torso moves up and down was key,” he says. Not surprisingly, the general pattern of vertical movement is tied to how much other parts of the horse rise and fall as well.

This new factor — vertical movement — was important but still too general to be useful to practicing veterinarians. So, Keegan then enlisted the expertise of another engineer, Frank Pai, C.W. LaPierre Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Missouri. Pai took data analysis methods he had developed for finding cracks in airplanes and adapted them for the stride data. Pai’s analysis gave Keegan the ability to use motion analysis to objectively measure lameness in horses.

Even though Keegan and Pai had succeeded with this finer-grained analysis, the results only helped diagnose horses that could be brought to the college, trained to run on a treadmill, decked out with reflective spheres, filmed with high-speed cameras and then analyzed. That’s too costly, time consuming and cumbersome. Keegan needed a quick, easy and affordable way to get the data, but he wasn’t sure what to do next.

Then in the winter of 2000, Keegan went to a conference and presented the latest work he had done with Pai. “It was a bioengineering conference. I believe I was the only equine veterinarian there,” he says. “After the talk, a Japanese engineer, Yoshiharu Yonezawa, came up to me and said he had an idea for how to get the data without a treadmill. We had a little trouble communicating. There was a slight language barrier. So, we just sat down and tried to communicate, mostly by drawing on the hotel’s napkins. About six months later, he sent me a package of electronics — two sensors for feet, one for the head and another cell phone-like device that sat on the horse’s back.”

It worked! Keegan could quickly strap the sensors on a horse, set the creature trotting, and the sensors would radio data to his computer. Since then, he has refined the device. For instance, one of the foot sensors turned out to be unnecessary; all the sensors have gotten smaller and the software for picking up lameness has improved. The device was an excellent aid for live evaluation of lameness in horses.

Then in 2006, Keegan hit another roadblock: money. Until then, he had been funding his project with small grants from foundations, MU and the College of Veterinary Medicine. This sort of seed money is available for research, but once the device worked and he started refining it as a commercial product, all Keegan’s labors came under the heading of development. The seed money for research dried up, and he had to look elsewhere.

Help on the way

Enter Jake Halliday, director of the Missouri Innovation Center, an affiliate of MU that has provided business assistance to faculty entrepreneurs since 1986. The center helps faculty members move their ideas from lab (or barn) to market. Halliday’s MBA class in the Trulaske College of Business worked up a market analysis and business plan for Keegan’s company, Equinosis, and helped him present it to Centennial Investors, a Columbia-based group that ventures capital on startup companies. Centennial put up $330,000 to sustain the company through its startup phase. The money goes toward manufacturing the hardware, developing software, patent expenses, license payments to MU and general corporate purposes. Halliday also hooked Keegan up with The Incubation Factory in St. Louis, which provides management experience and other support to accelerate a product’s path to the marketplace.
Ownership of Equinosis is shared roughly equally by three groups — the inventors, Centennial Investors and The Incubation Factory. The Missouri Innovation Center also has a minor ownership stake.

A licensing agreement gives MU an up-front fee and reimbursement for its investment to patent the technology. MU receives product sales royalties, one-third of which go to the inventors.

“The process of technology transfer and product commercialization can be win-win-win for all involved,” Halliday says. “The inventors are rewarded for their innovation; the university and the public obtain a return on their investment in research infrastructure; investors are rewarded for supporting high-risk startup companies; and the community gains a new company that over time will create high paying jobs and contribute to the tax base and quality of life in the area.”

Bottom lines

The Lameness Locator system is priced in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, roughly the cost of an ultrasound machine, which is standard in veterinary practices.

And the prospects? The company’s business plan projects worldwide sales of around $30 million. If that pans out, the company could be valued at about $90 million after five years.

Of course, it’s the big if that keeps inventors and investors up at night. “A lot of private practitioners, especially the old timers, are skeptical of what comes out of universities,” Keegan says. “But word is getting out. And students will grow up with this in veterinary school; they’ll want to have it in their practices.”

Here is the equivalent to your secret decoder ring for pet food labels:

Pet food labels are regulated on two levels. There are federal regulations and some states have their own regulations as well, usually matching those of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).

Federal regulations (enforced by the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine), establish standards for all animal feeds, including proper identification (logo, brand, name), net quantity listing, manufacturer’s address and proper ingredient listing. State regulations are more specific in covering the product’s name, the guaranteed analysis and nutrition information as well as feeding directions.

Did you know that the name of a pet food is far more important than just a brand identifier or cute marketing technique? The way a product is named, including the order of ingredient words is strictly regulated. For example, “Chicken and Rice Dog Food” is very different from “Rice and Chicken Dog Food”.

It’s In There…

In order to say “Chicken Dog Food”, the product has to contain 95% chicken (not including added water - 70% if you count the added water). If the product name is “Chicken Dinner for Dogs” or “Chicken Formula for Dogs”, it must contain at least 25% chicken (but less than 95%). If the name uses “with”, such as “Cat Food with Tuna”, it has to be at least 3% tuna (but less than 25%).

If the word “flavor” is used (such as Beef Flavor Dog Food), there is no required percentage as long as the ingredient is detectable. Beef flavor may be from beef or beef by-products or beef meal. Stocks and broths may be used, as well. Whey is often used to give a milk flavor.

If more than one ingredient is included in the name (Chicken & Rice or Bacon & Cheese, etc), all of the same rules apply to the combined ingredients. In other words, the two ingredients must together equal the minimums set for each naming convention discussed. In a “Dinner” each named ingredient must be at least 3% and must total 25% together. It is also important which comes first in the name. If there is more rice than chicken it must be named Rice & Chicken, not Chicken & Rice. In addition to the product name, the ingredient listing also has to be by order of content, that is, the ingredient that comprises the largest percentage must be listed first and the smallest percentage last.

Here’s my question: If the government is spending time, money and energy regulating the naming of dog foods, then why don’t they make it more widely known what exactly those naming conventions mean? Why not let the average pet owner know how to determine what or how much of an ingredient is in their pets’ food?

Natural Balance Dog Foods and Cat Foods are made from the finest ingredients with no corn, wheat, soy, eggs, dairy or sunflower oil. These items are suspected to cause allergic reactions such as hair loss, scratching, hives, tail biting, chewing feet, and ear infections. Take a look at the label and ingredient list of any Natural Balance product. Compare to other major brands. You’ll see why JeffersPet proudly sells Natural Balance products.

Coming Soon - Evanger’s brand dog foods. Look for it in our new catalog due out in mid-July.

Jeffers is having a virtual TENT SALE
June 1st thru 7th!

We need to make room for new items and clean out the old.
We are selling over a thousand items at or near cost.
NO TRICKS! NO DOUBLE TALK! NO FINE PRINT!

June 1st through June 7th, over a thousand items will be marked down.
We must get rid of it to make room for our New Fall Merchandise!

We aren’t crazy but if you don’t check it out, you just might be.

May 29th through 31st you can see the items that will be on sale at their current prices. Don’t miss out. The best deals won’t last.

Visit us at JeffersPet.com, JeffersEquine.com and JeffersLivestock.com.

Refrigeration is required for most animal health products (antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, biologicals, vaccines, etc.) and they have very rigid storage temperature requirements. The temperature range for many animal health products is between 35 to 45 degrees. So what happens to those animal health products when the temperatures goes above or below that? They become much less effective.

The refrigerator that stores all those animal health products is usually a very overlooked piece of equipment that is just as important as any other tool on a farm, maybe more so.

Of 191 refrigerators tested, more than 76% were unacceptable for storing animal health products! Wow, that will make you check your refrigerator!

The refrigerator needs to be considered a necessary piece of equipment and as such a properly operating one is likely to save producers money in the long run.

There are several things that can be done to test and/or to make sure that the refrigerator is operating properly and efficiently. If you’re not 100% sure about yours, these tips are a must read. Otherwise, you might as well replace that old refrigerator with a garbage can.

Learn more about what you can do. Read the entire article by Ms. Flatt here.

* Used with permission.