Curiousfarmer

New Farrowing Record / Tough Times

July 21, 2012

Sow 62-3 farrowed 19 live piglets and one small dead one for a total of 20. This is the new record for our farm.

It’s too many. She only has 14 teats, and the piglets are smaller than I like. I won’t keep any of her offspring for breeding, as I would much rather have 10 to 12 larger piglets born per litter. But it’s still nice to note a record.

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I went to an informational meeting on how crops are being affected by the drought, and how we can use the stressed crops. The University of Wisconsin Agriculture agents lead the meeting. It was well attended with many interested farmers. The meeting was a little depressing, but my troubles were put into perspective as I drove home.

When I drove to the meeting I noticed a line of people on the sidewalk near the Catholic Church. I wasn’t sure why they were lining up. When I drove home, the line was huge and leading to a semi trailer which read something like “Catholic Mission” on the side. The people were lined up to get food.

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Able Died

July 19, 2012

My white herd boar, Able, was dead this morning. He’s the one pictured breeding, above.

I don’t know for sure why he died, but it was probably heat related. It reached 100 degrees here yesterday. I had a sprinkler going for him and the sows, but there was a sow in heat. I think he probably tried to breed and just got himself to worked up and was unable to cool down. Once hogs get over-stressed in this kind of heat, it’s trouble.

The only good news is I kept a son of his this spring. He’s looking pretty good. He’s the white spotted one in the photo below. I’m thinking of naming him Domino.

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The 2012 Drought Continues

July 15, 2012

The great drought of 2012 continues. It was the only thing people talked about during the 156th Lafayette County Fair this week.

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Crinkly-Ear Sow Farrowed/Restaurant Visit

June 28, 2012

The sow I wrote about earlier, (let’s call her Crinkly-Ear), farrowed. She picked out a shady spot under an oak tree, far away from the rest of the herd. She had twelve beautiful piglets.

When a piglet is born, it is covered in a thin membrane. It takes a few minutes to dry and rub off. A healthy piglet shakes off the stress of birth rapidly, and is up and struggling with its siblings for a teat.

The chef and crew at Dayton Street Grille came for a visit. I love when a restaurant comes for a visit. It shows they aren’t just using the “local” angle for marketing, but really care about the food they’re serving.

I took them for a hayrack ride and showed them the cattle grazing and Crinkly-Ear’s litter. They’re holding some day-old piglets in the photo. I drove the tractor and Shepherd provided the color commentary.

Then they got the bonus tour because a sow was farrowing up near the barnyard. They got to see me reach in and pull out a piglet that was coming backwards. One guy even touched the slimy newborn. Thank you Dayton Street Grille.

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Summertime Drought

June 25, 2012

We’re in the midst of a summertime drought. The second cutting of hay is considerably smaller than the first cutting. The first field in my cutting schedule is seven acres. Its yield decreased from 25 round bales of hay for first cutting to 3 and one third bales for second cutting. Second cutting is always smaller than first, but this is abnormally so.

The permanent pasture my steers and hogs use is drying up fast. My backup plan is to graze hay fields. So I put a temporary electric fence in and started grazing a hay field, pictured below.

Summertime droughts are not uncommon here. Rarely do we have crop failures, though. So irrigation for crops is not used. An exception is my partners, Carrie and Eric. They rely so heavily on their pastures for chickens, sheep, and dairy cows, they’ve decided to put in a pasture irrigation system called K-line. I’m interested to see how it works for them.

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Planting Buckwheat

June 21, 2012

The barley/rape pig pasture, disced and planted with Buckwheat. I planted on June 19th. I planted it at a rate of about sixty pounds per acre. A fifty pound bag cost me 55 dollars.

While researching alternative crops due to a crop failure this spring, (I ended up replanting corn), I came across Buckwheat. I learned enough about it to make me want to try some. I called my local seed supplier and they could get me a fifty lb. bag. I wasn’t sure when or where I would use it, but I wanted to have it on hand in case I had an opportunity. When I saw how well the cattle and hogs ate the barley/rape field, leaving very little crop residue, I decided this was my opportunity, and with perfect timing. It’s recommended to plant Buckwheat after June 15th in Wisconsin.

I’m not sure exactly how I’ll use Buckwheat. I’ll probably end up grazing it with the cattle and hogs. Some of the things which intrigued me were its nutritional profile. It’s very high in Lysine, which is the most limiting amino acid in a corn/soy diet for swine.

It also produces a very dark, strong flavored honey when bees use it as their primary nectar source. One acre of Buckwheat can be used by bees to produce 150 lbs. of honey according to the source I found. I would like to try some Buckwheat honey. Maybe I can get my beekeeper friends to place a hive close.

According to Wikipedia, Buckwheat is not a grain, and can be eaten by people with gluten intolerance. I wonder what Buckwheat pancakes taste like?

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Grazed Barley/Rape Field

June 20, 2012

In the previous post, BC asked for more photos, and specifically what the field looks like when they’ve finished grazing. This is the field, four days after turning in 31 steers and 30 hogs. The field is about 3/4 of an acre. The hogs received some grain besides.

In my next post, I’ll show what I did with the field now that they have finished grazing.

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Cattle/Hogs Grazing Barley/Rape

June 18, 2012

This is the Barley/Rape field on June 15th as I turned the steers and sows in for grazing. I planted it April 27th and posted pictures on May 11th. Growth is slow the first couple of weeks, but really takes off after that.

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Sows on Pasture

June 1, 2012

“Bewilder” the Duroc boar, with a Duroc sow. The sows are enjoying the pasture this spring. I used to house them at my parents’ farm in concrete and dirt lots.

I’m still figuring things out. One of the problems is “rooting,” or the digging behavior pigs exhibit. Since this is permanent pasture, I hate to see the sod turned up, because I’m not sure how I’ll go about fixing it. A sow can do the damage you see in the picture below in fifteen minutes.

I’ve tried “ringing,” putting a piece of metal in their snout to deter rooting. It doesn’t seem to make much difference, and since it doesn’t seem very humane, I’m not doing that any more.

The biggest success I’ve had to reduce the rooting, is by reducing their daily grain feeding. I’m feeding half the grain I used to. The sows seem very satisfied to make up the difference grazing the pasture. They spend hours every day grazing. I think they were rooting more out of boredom. Now they are required to work much harder for their daily calories, walking around in the process, and when they are full, they sleep.

I had to include one more picture of the Duroc sow below. Isn’t she a beauty? She is bred for her second litter.

Look at how well-muscled she is, yet still sound walking with femininity. She is also an excellent grazer. Thanks for indulging my bragging.

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Cutting Down a Tree in the Yard

May 16, 2012

My friend helped me cut down a tree in our yard. Half of it split and damaged the house three years ago, and I was dragging my feet cutting the other half down because its a nice tree with late afternoon shade for the house. Now that its gone though, I’m glad. Most of the trunk was dead, only about a two-inch section on one side was alive.

We put a rope up high in the tree around the bigger branches to help guide the tree and tied it to my tractor. We weren’t entirely successful at guiding the tree, as the tree took out the power line when it fell, but I’m thankful we missed the house and shed and no one was injured.

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