Duroc gilt in the woods with her litter of eleven piglets. Fourteen gilts farrowed this summer. It’s amazing how well they do in the warm months compared to the struggles I had last March.
Most farrowed in a shelter, or I put a shelter over them after farrowing, as I let each choose her own spot to farrow. Two gilts were in a spot in the woods inaccessible to a shelter so I left them alone. They raised ten and eleven piglets each.
I wouldn’t have had the courage to farm this way without reading other bloggers, specifically the granddaddy of farm bloggers, Walter Jeffries. Recently, he posted a photo showing a 300 lb, eight-month-old boar, raised on nothing but pasture and dairy products. Walter is a paradigm shifter for me.
I’ve been without a computer for the past couple of months, hence my lack of posts, but I’ve kept up on the farm blogs I read and enjoy and wanted to share some more with you.
Bruce King wrangles with government agents and speaks at government meetings. I love hearing about his civic adventures. He also purchased a confinement dairy farm recently and is transforming it to his vision.
Andrew at Green Machine Farm writes about his new life as a farmer. He educated us on bat houses recently. Would you believe he made a bat house out of plywood, painted it black, and placed it on the south side of a shed? How anything could survive a midwestern summer in that box and not cook to death is beyond me, but Andrew informs us he already has bats living in it.
Gordon Milligan is a train conductor in Chicago. He has a dream to farm and raise his own food when he retires. He and his wife recently purchased a farm in Iowa and are anxiously awaiting the day they will call it home.
Lastly, I read a blog from a farmer in France. I like to see what Brent is doing with his farm because the soils and underlying limestone are extremely similar to my farm. He grass-finishes Salers cattle, grazing alfalfa/orchard grass hay fields. Check out his blog and see if the photos of his land seem similar to mine, like in the photo below of my steers grazing a fresh hay field.
Curiousfarmer 
Glad to see you posting again Matthew and thanks for mentioning my blog. I do hope to be doing what you, Brent, Andrew and Walter are doing in less then two years from now when I retire. I have sure learned a lot from following you guys and can’t wait to get started.