Curious weather | Curiousfarmer

Winter Soil Compaction

May 12, 2024

Happy spring everyone. I have one black calf this year. Calving is going well. We’ve lost two, but with two sets of twins saved we’re still at 100%.

I wanted to ask the farmers where they keep their cows in the winter time. The last two winters have been the warmest ever for Wisconsin.

We dealt with a lot of mud and compacted the soil where we had the cows. In the background of the top photo, you can see where I replanted part of the pasture and the field above it.

We are used to dealing with frozen ground, which kept the cows from doing much damage, but it appears I can’t count on that anymore. So if you have some thoughts about winter and mud and cows I’d appreciate if you left a comment. Thank you.

The photo below shows where I frost seeded red clover in a pasture damaged last winter, so perhaps there’s a way to turn a negative situation into a positive.

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October 2023 Update

October 18, 2023

We’ve probably had over 10 inches of rain in September and October. It’s a little late after a dry summer, but it’s nice to remember how productive our pastures can be with the best fertilizer, which is rain.

We plan to wean our spring calves next week and then we’ll be able to graze everything one more time before winter. The cows, free from the burden of nursing a calf, will put on weight before winter.

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February Litters Due

February 20, 2023

We are excited for a couple of litters ready to pop any day now. Hoping they avoid farrowing during the predicted winter storm Wed/Thurs, but probably will, as a dropping barometer tends to induce labor.

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2019: The Shortest Green Season

October 31, 2019

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Six months of green! Our late snowstorm of April 27th joined forces with an early October 29th snowstorm to make this the shortest green season. These photos were taken after a second, October 31st snowstorm.

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We have one litter outside. They are doing fine with lots of bedding.

The sows are still finding some grass to eat. You can see the one in the bottom photo munching on a clump of Orchardgrass.

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The Snowstorm of April 27th, 2019

April 29, 2019

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Six or so inches of the latest snow in southwest Wisconsin I can recall. April 14th sticks in my mind as some big snows, so this one beat it by a couple of weeks. It had been warm and dry previously. Some of our friends’ children were confused and got excited about Christmas coming!

All the trees, bushes, and plants that were already flowering took a beating, but my main concern was our animals. My parents practice spring calving, as we don’t have barns for our cattle and April and May is usually quite nice for calving.

Sunday morning we were out at 6 am on our ATVs seeing if any calves were too cold. We looked for any new ones, as any calf that is actively nursing often, is very tough and can take a great deal of cold. We had 3 new ones, but their mommas were experienced and managed to find some decent shelter in the woods out of the wind and snow and the calves were fine.

We weren’t as lucky a couple of weeks earlier in another rain and snowstorm. A heifer was lying near the creek. She didn’t seem too agitated, but she must have had a difficult delivery as she showed little concern for her calf which was lying in the cold water of the creek, just managing to keep its head out of the water.

I grabbed and put it on the back of the ATV and drove it to the barn. We stuck a feeding tube down its throat, (when calves are this cold they lose the ability to suck), and gave it a warm colostrum replacement. I rubbed its body with straw, but I realized it wouldn’t be warm enough to survive the night, so we took it to the basement and put it in warm water for a half hour or so until it started to revive. Then we towel dried and used a hair dryer to dry even more thoroughly and then left it in the basement overnight.

The next morning the calf was standing. We walked its mother into the corral and helped it nurse for the first time. After all that, momma and baby were fine and we turned them back out to pasture a couple of days later.

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Winter 2018

February 4, 2018

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Winter 2018, mild, mostly frozen, animals and people doing well. Above is one of the hogs exploring, and below are some of the cattle resting on their bedding pack, with hogs exploring at the left of the frame.

I wrote that last week. Winter has decided to come back hard in February, with below zero wind chills and several inches of snow last night, February 3rd.

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Thank you to everyone who has purchased meat, or boxes, or halves, this winter. Your business is appreciated.

I added several new products, (Brats-links and patties, Breakfast sausage patties, Cottage Bacon, Canadian Bacon, Ham Hocks).

I also tweaked the Classic Pork boxes. Check them out and let me know if something interests you.

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I am farrowing several litters in one of the hoop barns with farrowing huts. The sows get to choose which hut to farrow in, and also make their own nest inside the huts.

When it is this cold, I never have any trouble with a sow choosing to farrow outside of a hut, which can be a problem in the warmer months of the year.

I haven’t lost many piglets, even though its been colder than I would prefer, (below 20 F).

Except for one very big Landrace sow who chose to carry way too much bedding into her hut and farrowed on a very cold night. All her piglets died. My theory is whereas the other sows made a nest with at least a little room for the piglets to nurse, see photo below, this sow was so big with so much bedding, the piglets were simply unable to start nursing due to lack of room.

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Resilient Swine

December 18, 2016

December 18th, 2016, 4 pm. 3 degrees below zero Farenheit, 17 degrees below zero windchill. 8 week old piglets with their mothers.

Pigs are resilient. I continue to be amazed at just how resilient. My background and education in the commodity swine industry tells me these piglets should just die in this environment, but I’ve always tried to be one who observes what is actually happening, rather than closing my eyes and “knowing” what should be happening.

I have a hoop building cleaned and bedded with feed in the feeder. I’ve been trying to let the piglets self-wean for a few days, and even though they are going in the hoop building to eat feed, they prefer to spend their resting time with their mothers. I guess I’ll corral them one of these days to finish the weaning process.

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Farrowing in Huts in Hoop Barn: Update

March 31, 2015

I started farrowing my spring group in early March. I’m using the same farrowing setup in the same hoop barn which I wrote about in my previous post. All I did was clean the manure out of the middle of the hoop barn, leaving the huts where they sat. As pigs generally don’t manure where they sleep, there was only bedding inside the huts and that is working fine.

It doesn’t look like this group will average quite as well though, and I’ll tell you why. It’s gotten too warm. Today was in the 60s F. Instead of cold air keeping each litter in its own hut for a week to 10 days, the mama sows are calling their piglets out of the huts at just a few days old. The older litters are then robbing some of the milk from the younger litters and I fear it may starve some of the younger piglets.

I had debated about whether I wanted to farrow in a hoop again, or place the huts out in the field. Well I’m glad I’ve kept them in the hut because we have still been having snowstorms and been dealing with mud. This group is almost finished. The May group will farrow out on pasture for sure.

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Outdoor Wood Burner/Wood Pig

March 3, 2014

It’s been a long winter. As I write this on March 3rd, it’s 11 degrees below zero F. I’m tired.

I’m back to hand-to-mouth wood cutting. Everyone who burns wood says they’ve burnt way more than normal. I need a bigger pile next year though, because the crusted snow in the woods makes it nearly impossible to drag in logs.

In a bit of serendipity, I met an old schoolmate who burns wood also. I told him I had an outdoor wood burner.

“Oh, you’ve got one of those wood pigs, too!”

“What’s that?” I said.

“It really goes through the wood, doesn’t it?”

He’s right. I’ve finally realized that an outdoor wood burner is not a very efficient way to heat a house. However, it is a safe way to heat a house and I’m stuck with it for now.

He told me about a lumber yard that sells scrap lumber for twenty bucks a bundle. They’re good-sized, eight to ten feet long, dry wood. He burns it in his burner.

Not being a fast thinker, I had to let the idea germinate for a few days. I think I gave myself permission to buy wood when I nearly got the tractor stuck for the umpteenth time.

I called him up and asked him to bring me a load and he delivered eight bundles. If I’m not reading the calendar wrong, that should be enough wood to get me to the point where it’s hot enough I’m forgetting how cold it’s been!

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Dickies Insulated Bib Overall, Review

February 1, 2014

Restrictive, but warm! I normally wear something like the ensemble pictured below. But when the temps drop below zero F, I throw on these insulated bibs and am able to get my chores done without discomfort.

My Dad is a big fan of insulated coveralls. He usually puts them on in October and doesn’t take them off until May. But I’ve found them too restrictive. I like to move when I’m outside.

That being said, I was too cold when the weather turned brutal. So when Country Outfitters offered me clothes for free, I jumped at the chance to try these insulated bibs.

And I learned something. I used to think when my toes and fingers got cold I had a cold toes and fingers problem. So I would put on a second pair of socks and gloves to combat the problem with limited success.

Now I see when I put on these insulated bibs, it ties everything together and warms up my core. This warmth radiates to my toes and fingers and I don’t need more socks or gloves. Amazing!

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