Monday's agriculture website of interest: #AGCHAT FOUNDATION

*For those new to the Cow Art and More blog, every Monday, veterinarian, jewelry artist, and gallery owner Kathy Swift shares an agricultural themed website with readers.*

I am excited to share today's agriculture related website with everyone, the Agchat Foundation. This foundation was formed to help farmers and ranchers use social media to tell their stories to the 98.5 percent of the population not engaged in the production of food, feed, fuel and fiber. I am proud to say that I have been a part of the weekly #agchat discussion group on twitter that discusses issues facing agriculture on a wide range of topics since its inception one year ago. I have made many friends as a result and feel empowered to help agriculture at more than just my local level.

I am also proud to say that I was asked and accepted a position to be on the Agchat Foundation board of directors. I am looking forward to helping farmers get their story in front of consumers. I invite everyone to view the Agchat Foundation website and join us in the conversation on twitter, Tuesday evenings, from 8 to 10 PM ET. (Follow @agchat to learn the details of the topics and how to join in.)

Monday's agriculture website of interest: AMERICAN VETERINARY MEDICAL FOUNDATION

Well, it's not exactly an agriculture group, but I think it might interest the agriculture community. With all the "hub-bub" of where the Humane Society of the United States spends their money, people have grown increasingly concerned about making sure their donation goes to help animals in need. Today's website of interest, is one that I have experience with, the American Veterinary Medical Foundation.

The American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF) was established by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) in 1963. The AVMF is based in its national headquarters in northwest suburban Chicago. The AVMA, founded in 1863, is one of the oldest and largest veterinary medical organizations in the world, with over 75,000 current members. As a nonprofit organization, the AVMF relies on the generosity of the animal lover and veterinary communities. Some of the projects the AVMF help to fund are disaster preparedness and relief training for members of the veterinary community, animal health studies on current crises within the animal community, and scholarships to deserving veterinary students. The part I particularly enjoy is knowing that donating to disaster preparedness allows groups to train "search and rescue" dogs which can be used to locate people and/or animals trapped in buildings and other structures.

So what does a cattle veterinarian do?

I consider myself a very lucky person. I get to combine several of my passions into a rather *unique* career. I can be a "doctor for cows" and a jewelry artist (all in the same day sometimes)! I do think about getting pictures of myself working while on the farms, but it just isn't a priority. My patients and clients deserve my full attention and quite frankly, it's just too busy sometimes to get some pictures.

Today I'm posting a link to a video by my twitter friend, Barbara Martin (@dairygoddess), who managed to get a great video of their dairy farm veterinarian doing an abdominal surgery on one of their cows. The surgery he is doing is to correct a displaced (in the wrong spot) abomasum (last compartment of the cow's stomach). This is a "common" surgery and I personally have done probably over 500 in my career. While it's not me in the video, it certainly represents what I do. (Just imagine someone shorter, longer hair, and no accent doing the surgery -- wink)

This video is from her blog post "Veterinarians Take Great Care of Our Cows on Our Dairy Farm."