And they opened as the morning progressed!
Saturday Morning, May 4th, Madison WI
May 5, 2019
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The Snowstorm of April 27th, 2019
April 29, 2019
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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Broiler Chickens to Pasture-April 2019
April 23, 2019
Right on schedule, we moved the broiler chicks out of the brooder house into their pasture pens on Good Friday, last week. The first night was cold, so we put down some wood shavings for bedding, but its warmed up nicely. They’ve been enjoying their daily moves to fresh pasture. We should have freshly frozen chicken at market, Memorial Day weekend.
A new addition to market is our brown and blue eggs from our layer chickens. Many have remarked about the quality, flavor, and orange yolks. If you have any doubts about the benefits of pastured meat, eggs, or milk, the dramatic change in our eggs when the snow melts and the hens begin to forage for pasture and other critters would make you a believer!
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Spring Seeding and Disc Golf!
March 29, 2019
Spring has sprung! Two months of cold, snow, ice, rain, and flooding, and Mother Nature has wrought her miracles again with warm sun and drying winds. The ground is dry enough to drive on, so I frost seeded a bag of red clover today.
Earlier in the week we entertained a special guest. Derek Tonn is trying to be the first person to play 2,000 different disc golf courses. If you don’t think that’s possible, there are over 6,000 courses in the United States alone.
As a reference, I’ve played 78 different courses, which is great, but my course is the 1,498th course Derek has played. Its reassuring to meet someone crazier than myself.
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Update, First Litter 2019
March 8, 2019
12 piglets, two weeks old now! Susie Q is a great mother. It got really cold, 0 F, but she kept her piglets warm enough with her body heat and plenty of straw and hay.
She had started with 16, and lost 4 within the first 48 hours, which is the most dangerous time, but since then they have really thrived. In these photos, taken today, its 25 F and the piglets have spent the past hour outside in the sun.
In the photo you can see I closed off the window and I shut the barn doors at night to prevent a cold draft on the piglets, but I open it during the day. The piglets are old enough, and its finally starting to warm up enough, I plan on leaving the barn doors open at night now.
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First Litter, 2019
February 22, 2019
2019 farrowing started well as Susie Q gave birth to 16 piglets yesterday, and after a cold night that dipped into the teens F, she still had 15 alive and nursing this morning.
I could see she was going to farrow yesterday morning so I put 2 straw bales and 1 hay bale loose where she could get to them and she spent a few hours building the giant nest you can see in the photo below. It works better if you let the sow build her own nest for some reason. All the women reading this are probably like, duh!
I wish all my sows were as good of mothers as she. And humbly, I tell you she wasn’t even chosen as a breeder. She was a runt that got accidentally bred, and after a first litter of only 4 piglets born, she’s had big litters since. I think this is her 4th litter.
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2019 Herd Boars
February 12, 2019
The best two herd boars I think I’ve ever had are Father and Son. Zone, pictured above is out of an AI mating, Waldo Duroc, Red Zone. I had been having trouble with my boars not having much mating desire, but Zone is excellent. The only problem is he is also people aggressive, but I think I can continue to work with him if I’m careful.
He is being mated to Chester White sows out of an AI mating, Longevity. They will farrow this spring and I’ll evaluate them again. The Chester White gilts definitely had less piglets born and saved than my Landrace gilts in the past.
End Zone is pictured above. He is a son of Zone. He is being mated to Rising Sun Duroc gilts for early summer litters. The Rising Sun gilts have very friendly personalities, but we’ll see how they do as mothers.
Another photo of Zone. He has a lot of length. He is also getting tall as you can see he has to duck to get out of his shelter, pictured below.
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