Believe it or not, after all of my time in agricultural research and outreach work, from USDA conferences in D.C., to animal well-being research at two universities, research into teaching methods for undergraduate writing courses and dairy cattle methane mitigating diets, this is the first true manuscript with me as an author. FINALLY! I feel like I have been waiting years for this event, even though years ago I didn't realize that I would be research pig growth in alternative production systems for my Master's degree. I know that over the years I have interacted with a lot of different viewpoints on the issue of animal care, animal production systems and the myth of organic production, so I am anticipating commentary on the article and am willing to answer most questions that don't violate the confidentiality of the remaining data we might yet publish in a second paper.
So for those of you waiting, follow the link to PubMed. For the rest of you, I kept the post short so it didn't waste your time.
