Growing up on a small family-operated farm in Wisconsin, we would periodically have visitors in our barn, but for the most part the farm crew consisted of our core family of four. Either way, we had “barn clothes” that we would wear, or supply to guests, while in the barn, including old shoes, pants, shirt, and a jacket.
Being the kid I was, I didn’t realize that this was a biosecurity measure that my family had in place. Sometimes changing clothes then heading down to the barn sounded like too much work. It was far easier to head straight to the barn from the school bus, which meant that I could get chores done five minutes sooner and catch the beginning of the show I wanted to watch on TV. Now that I am better educated on how disease can spread, I realize that our farm was very fortunate not to have a devastating outbreak. Whether it would have been something that infected our laying hens, broilers, ducks, cows, or our sheep, any breakout could have sent our farm into chaos from a biosecurity breech.