Daniel started developing his animal husbandry skills very early in life, growing up on a small farm in Springhill, LA., near the Arkansas line. At a very early age he had chores such as taking care of the family’s horses and milking 2 milk cows by hand every morning and every evening. At age 12 the local veterinarian recognized his animal husbandry skills and asked him to come to work for them. Their practice consisted of about 50% small animal and 50% large animals. There were days when they would travel several hundred miles over a large geographical area pulling calves, doctoring cows and horses at numerous beef cattle and dairy operations. Most Saturday’s and Sunday’s were spent at the Homer Livestock auction brucellosis testing 400-600 head of cattle for the Monday auction.