mRNA?

Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 20 April 2023…

Hey Y’all!

Good morning and happy Thursday from Air2Ground Farms! The morning quickly turned cloudy and storms are in the forecast this afternoon. Cooler weather is behind this front, down to the mid-30s Saturday night. We’re holding off moving plant starts to the garden until at least next week. The animals are great today! The flerd is still working amazingly well. The move yesterday afternoon went very well. I think we are most impressed with the puppies. Up until the flerd formation, we have been rotating one puppy in with Tank and the sheep. The other 2 puppies were hanging out in a smaller pen inside the bigger sheep paddock. We only ever had 1 puppy in with Tank at a time so he could keep an eye on it and correct it if necessary. Boy, will he ever correct foolishness from the puppies! If he even thinks the puppy is chasing the sheep, he immediately rolls the pup and lets it know, without question, that behavior is unacceptable. A few months ago, we tried two puppies at the same time and they ganged up together to chase the sheep. Tank told one no but the other one kept chasing. Tank looked at us like “Can’t you see I’m busy here…are you just going to let him do that?!?!?” (Yes, I really think that is what he was thinking. These dogs are freakishly smart!) So, we took the additional one out so Tank could discipline as required. We took a risk with the formation of the flerd to put all 3 puppies in with Tank, sheep, and cows. We nervously watched for an hour or so and initially it looked like they might chase the sheep. We kept watching. Slowly it became apparent they were trying to be near the sheep, which caused a bit of concern from the sheep and they would move away. The pups would lie down as close as the sheep would let them. By the time we moved the cows in, there was no issue. By yesterday afternoon, the puppies were sitting by the waterer and one ewe walked up straight into TJ’s face and stopped about an inch from his mouth. He gently reached out and licked her face. In the top photo, I just missed what would have been an amazing shot, but at least I could show you the two of them immediately afterword. The other pics are of the flerd, fully formed. After moving the flerd, we changed out the float valve in their waterer because the old valve was sticking closed. Of course, the fitting the valve screws into split as we installed the new valve. In our stash of PVC fittings, we had the fitting that we needed for the fix! By the time we were finished, we didn’t start any new projects. We candled the Guinea eggs and 7 of 11 are fertilized and growing. Smoky the barn cat had 3 total kittens, in the Guinea shaw. Now we have to find where the Guineas are laying their eggs. We also made some cheese. Today we are going to make more cheese, put some pumpkin seeds in the new garden area, and get started on the shelves in the barn.

There is a bit of a fuss in the agricultural world these days over mRNA vaccines so I thought I would chat a bit about it. mRNA is short for messenger Ribonucleic acid. Most of us are familiar with DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) as a double helix (paired double strand of nucleotides). Unlike DNA, RNA is a single strand folded onto itself. Cellular organisms use messenger RNA (mRNA) to convey genetic information. Cells within larger organisms use mRNA to direct the synthesis of proteins, a universal function which forms protein. Dr. Shurjo Sen, Program Director of Genome Sciences at the National Human Genome Research Institute discusses mRNA. He describes the function of mRNA to “carry protein information from the DNA in a cell’s nucleus to the cell’s watery interior, where the protein-making machinery reads the mRNA sequence and translates…into its corresponding amino acid in a growing protein chain.” He continues explaining mRNA is “a fundamental link between …the code of life and the actual cell being able to construct a living organism.” Translating into my words, mRNA carries the recipe to make the cake, where DNA is the recipe and the proteins are the cake. Now, why the fuss about mRNA in agriculture? That’s a two-part question. First, why the fuss about mRNA? If you are like me, mRNA sounds familiar but not in the world of agriculture. That’s because it has been discussed so much in relation to COVID. One of the three approved vaccination types (the one produced by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) is an mRNA vaccine. In this vaccine, mRNA is produced in a laboratory and is designed to carry instructions (or the recipe) to teach cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response, which produces antibodies. Why agriculture? The news stories are running rampant around social media regarding the requirement, or lack thereof, for farmers to use mRNA vaccines in their livestock. Like other things we have discussed here, there are conflicting stories…which can’t all be true. In this case, I can’t decide what is and isn’t true. The best discussion I have heard so far is by Joel Salatin and Dr. Sina McCullough in their “Beyond Labels” podcast #85 titled “mRNA Shots Being Used in Our Food Supply?”. In this podcast, Dr. McCullough discusses the 40+ hours she has spent researching this issue and then she and Joel discuss the situation. It was so much information that they were unable to complete the discussion and promised to take it up in their next episode. What I do know for sure…this farmer, on this farm, is NOT using mRNA vaccines. We do vaccinate our cows and sheep—as you know we just did their annual boosters. Both get traditional vaccines to prevent death from clostridium and tetanus. The cows also get vaccinated to prevent death from black-leg. If you are truly concerned about mRNA vaccines in your meat, I recommend two things. First, study the situation and form your own opinions. Don’t just believe the first sensational news report you see. Second, buy from your local farmer and ask if they are using the mRNA vaccine. (We have already been asked multiple times!) Go to their farm and see if you like the way the animals live and then decide to buy their product, or not.

YouTube Short showing the flerd yesterday evening:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xCadkLT0Pv4

Local Farm Report for

29 Chicken eggs

15 Duck eggs

1 Goose egg

0 Guinea eggs

6 3/4 Gallons of milk

Farm additions:

3 kittens

Cheers! Psycho & Shelley