Transparency, Activism, and Problem Solving

(On the farm- an 1830's barn, a hog house, and a new barn across the road)

Next week, I am going to speak at the Tri-State Sow Housing Conference.  I am to be on a panel of producers speaking on the transition to group housing, you can read about our farm moving pigs inside from outside pastures in many of my previous posts.  I am pretty sure my experiences will be unique on the panel, since the other producers are transitioning from stalled systems.  It's exciting to meet with other farmers and hear about their challenges and innovations in our new systems.

Today I was informed that some animal activist groups have registered members for the conference.  In an effort for transparency, the conference has decided to welcome them, and address any questions they have, while trying to keep things civil between the parties.  I know that the panel I am speaking on may be a point of interest for for the activists, so I am fully aware that that I may be faced with some tough ethical questions.  I have been in those situations before, and while it is hard, I feel like I can present myself and my industry as caring and responsible.

That being said, I am afraid.  I am scared of what one person's bad experience with agriculture can do to my family, my community. Someday, something I write may cause somebody to find my farm and try to ruin what we have worked so hard to build. One video, one accusation, (even if it is unfounded) is enough to bring the farm to a screeching halt. Once somebody puts something bad out about the farm, it spreads like a disease. If I am doing something wrong, I absolutely want to be made aware, and I want to fix it.  I don't even care about people knowing that I messed up.  However, I don't want to be accused of not caring for the animals.  I know there are things that can be improved on the farm, but I am doing the best I can with the information I have.  I hold my coworkers to the standards set in place by our vets, packers, Pork Board, audits, and consumers.  I fill out the necessary documentation.  I can't promise that nothing bad has ever happened on the farm, but I can say with full confidence that everyday we become better at raising pigs.  Part of getting better is learning from past mistakes.  I am in no way saying we tolerate abuse, but what we know to be abuse now was not considered as such 25 years ago.  We listened, learned, and changed our practices; we will continue to change.

People in the United States are entitled to their own beliefs, and can make choices on the goods and services they purchase based on any parameters they choose.  I am not offended by people who follow their convictions even if I don't agree with them.  I write about my experiences- not trying to be right or wrong, but to explain my perspective.  I want to listen to what others have to say about production agriculture and learn from our conversations.  The people who push you to grow aren't those that put you down, but those that challenge you to aim higher.  I want to be part of the solution, and throwing around blame does not solve anything.  To really make agriculture better, we have to identify our problems and channel our energy towards fixing them.

 

3 Things Shared with Rep Justin Amash

(From L to R: Me, Rep Justin Amash, Jordan Bush, Dad (Bruce), Brian, & Kallie)

Since I last wrote, we have been moving forward battling the PRRS, but in happier and more exciting news we had a special visitor- Congressman Justin Amash and his staff-person,  Jordan Bush.  Justin is in the US House of Representatives representing the district where I live.  He came out to the farm while touring around the state before heading back to Washington.  We were able to sit down and talk about his voting record, our concerns in the agriculture sector, and look at the farm while answering any questions he had about agriculture.  It was an informative visit for both sides, and we enjoyed hosting them.

During the visit we were able to talk about Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), Antibiotic use and regulation, nutrition, community impact, Animal Care, Federal Road Funding, the continuation of agriculture as an industry in the USA, and Depreciation on new buildings.  All of these things are being handled in Federal legislation right now, and we were able to learn about how each of these issues are addressed by committees. Justin and Jordan were so excited about the farm that we showed them all around, even going in the hog barns (most tours do go in the barn, but when a Representative's next stop is a college campus, he usually doesn't want to be smelling of farm).   This isn't something that happens everyday, so we took the opportunity and tried to use it well by really sharing with each other.

The top 3 things we shared with Justin Amash:

1.  COOL has a lot of unintended consequences.  Specifically, when Canadians raise hogs or other livestock, they become less valuable, since slaughter plants in the US have to have separate kills for each country.  Many US farms have Canadian branches, and now have a hard time getting their hogs sold in the US, and at less value.  Just today Canada and Mexico are supporting a tariff on US goods in retaliation.  
2. Federal Funding has to be "real."  Representative Amash hasn't always voted the way that Farm Bureau, or some farmers would like, but he doesn't like to vote for things that don't have realistic funding.  For example, the Federal Road work was slated to be funded by "better tax collection" in the bill, so he voted no.   The money simply wouldn't be there, so the bill would be unsupported.
3. Nutrition is huge.  Both Justin and Jordan were surprised at how much nutrition played into the farm.  With 70% of production costs being feed, we put a lot of time and effort into making sure we are feeding pigs the right things at the right time to minimize costs and promote healthy growth.  We have a full time nutritionist who just worries about how we can make our feed better for the pigs, which is a good thing for the farm's bottom line.

These visits are so important for us and for our representatives, and have over an hour of one-on-one time with somebody who makes our country's decisions is a rare treat.  Any opportunity we have at the farm to talk to government officials we try to make as valuable as possible.  It's important to be open to having a conversation, and not just lodging complaints; both sides will get more value.  

British Invasion

June has been a busy month for me, and I haven't kept to my writing as well as I had this spring.  In the last month, we had a British visitor stay at the farm, James.  He came to canoe race, and we had a fantastic time entertaining him for the week.

(James, left,  Racing with Weston in New York)

While James was here, we had the chance to learn some fun new British phrases.  Everything is either "brilliant" or "quite nice."  It seems to make everything more optimistic when you phrase it like that, so I can see why people who live in such a rainy part of the world would use this language.

I also learned a little bit of cockney, although I will probably get it wrong in the explaining.  Cockney is a dialect that has some interesting slang.  "I'll check up the apples" means that you will go up the stairs.  How does apples equal stairs?  Apparently Apples & Pears go together, and pears rhymes with stairs, so you replace stairs with apples, and it makes it sense.  It's kind of a fun code, although I would have to spend so long figuring it out what everything meant that it wouldn't be very efficient.

Our favorite phrase of the week was "loo roll," which is toilet paper.  We liked that one so much, that it has stuck, and become part of the Barton lexicon.  

While James was here, I took an afternoon to show him around the farm.  He isn't involved in livestock agriculture in the UK, but I was eager to hear what he thought of the farm, since the British consumer has different ideas on animal husbandry practices than an American consumer.  We looked at everything, from the feed mill, the shop, breeding, birthing, growing, marketing, and crops.  We talked about training, handling, growth phases, farm smell, and working conditions.  Usually, I can get a pretty good idea about someone's thoughts on a farm just by watching their body language and comfort, but really wanted to hear what James thought about our farm.

 He was surprised by how clean our facilities were, and how quietly the pigs behaved. Probably what stuck with me most was when James commented on how beyond everything, the farm needed to function as a successful business.  It surprised me, coming from someone my own age, who is from a country with very specific animal care standards would see farms as a business, and not be appalled by them.  This isn't an opinion I hear from my American peers who come from large cities.  Even my college roommates, all who have grown up in rural areas, lived with me, and toured the farm, are very skeptical of farms in the United States.  I am sure James' opinion is not reflective of all, but it was nice to take some one on a tour who genuinely wanted to learn.

Hearing what James had to say about the farm, I realized that I had made some judgments about his background that weren't true.  I thought he would see my farm a certain way, and he surprised me by being more open than I expected.  I am sure this isn't a mistake that I alone have made.  Even though I was nervous about what he would say, I gave him a tour of my farm, I was open and honest when answering questions.  We talked about things that we struggle with on the farm, and struggles of the industry in general.  In the end, I felt like we had an understanding and respect for each other.  


In other news, we have had huge rains for the past few weeks, and the corn (as well as the river) is very high!

(a little taller than knee high)

Good Production Practice: Using Antibiotics Responsibly

(New Barn Progress- pouring the floor)

In my last post on good production practices, I went into how our farm uses antibiotics to treat pigs when they are sick.  Antibiotics are part of how we take care of our animals.  However, that isn't the only way that we mange our hog health.  There are 5 areas we look at to responsibly manage our antibiotic use.  These steps will change in the coming years, as regulation changes.

First, we do what we can to use less antibiotics.  This means cleaning boots, clothes, and gloves.  We don't want to wear a pair of boots with one group of animals, and then drive over to another group and spread bacteria from the first group.  We also clean and disinfect barns and trucks between groups of pigs.  If I am going to see pigs in the same barn, I start with the youngest ones first, so I don't track bugs from the oldest pigs down to the youngest ones.

Next, when a pig gets sick we treat it.  After it is treated, we look to see if there is any interference that is causing the sickness.  Did the barn get to warm and muggy? Did some of the bird netting at the top of the barn come down, and allow the birds and pigs to have contact?  Did the pigs run out of feed or water for part of a day?  Is something in the barn broken? In a perfect world, none of these things happen, but in reality, little problems occur all of the time.  Once we identify the cause of the sickness, we can be a lot more proactive in preventing it.

When deciding whether or not to use an antibiotic, we have to see if it makes sense.  For example. a virus like PEDv wouldn't respond to an antibiotic treatment.  Trying to treat it with an antibiotic would be throwing money away.  When choosing to use an antibiotic, we have to make sure there is a measurable gain- this can be less pigs die from a disease, or improved performance, at such a rate that it justifies the cost of the drug.

As you probably know, most our pigs are raised from 60 lbs. to market weight in an Amish barn.  If a pig is starting to show signs of getting sick, the Amish barn manager has to make a decision on what to do.  All of the barn managers are trained at the company, state, and industry levels on how to handle antibiotics.  They are provided with information on storage, dosage, length of use, withdrawal times, and on how to keep accurate treatment records for best traceability.

What our barn managers aren't doing is diagnosing illnesses.  We leave that to the universities and veterinarians.  By working with our vets and diagnostic labs, we can make the most informed decisions on how to best care for our animals.  Sometimes a barn will be diagnosed with a disease in a few pigs that never really breaks into the whole barn. The manager will store the antibiotics until they need them for another outbreak, (returning them would violate our cleaning standards) or if we do not need them again and they expire, we will dispose of them per our vet's guidelines.

These five areas help us to manage our herd health responsibly.  In five years, I know that these guidelines will change due to changing consumer preferences on antibiotic use in production agriculture, and that doesn't really bother me.  I try to do the best I can with the tools I have, however, if I ignore alternatives to antibiotics, or consumer preferences, the farm will not make it very far.  Moving forward, we have to look at what opportunities are out there to make pork production better- for the people and the pigs.  


 

Good Production Practice: Managing Herd Health

Contrary to popular belief, the way to make money in hog farming is to get as many nice, plump, and healthy pigs to market with as little additional cost as possible.  Things that make hog farming expensive are: antibiotics, unsanitary facilities, poorly maintained facilities, and ignorance towards better practices.  How do we fight these additional costs?

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" (Benjamin Franklin) definitely holds true when it comes to pig health. Clean, dry, and well-ventilated barns have healthy pigs.  Keeping food and water fresh and available also keeps pigs healthy.  Checking daily for any signs of sickness, such as off-color, lethargy, and skinniness helps to identify at-risk pigs.  Anything we can do on the farm to keep pigs from getting sick is much more cost effective than treating them after an outbreak.  We work with our vets, like I mentioned in the last post, to decide when to use feed grade antibiotics or water medication, a vaccine, or a shot of antibiotics.

(Clean, healthy, pig, who is moving so much I can't take a clear picture) 

 People usually don't like the idea of giving an antibiotic in the feed, or water, but here is an example where we would use antibiotics.  When pigs weigh about 60 lbs., they move to a bigger barn.  This is like graduating out of elementary school, and into a middle/high school.  Everything is bigger and different, more suited to a full size animal.  When they arrive in the new facility, even though it is cleaned and sanitized, they are exposed to new germs, and often get sick.  In this situation we would feed an antibiotic to combat the sickness, which in our herd is a type of respiratory infection.  This is easier on the pigs than going through and giving each one a shot, since it is less stressful, it works quickly, and it is much safer for our employees, who don't have to handle needles and antibiotics.  It is also less expensive and saves time.  

Anytime we use an antibiotic on the farm, we have to follow the proper dosage for the size of the animal, treat the specific disease we tested for, and follow the proper withdrawal time before any pigs are sold out of the same barn.  On our farm, we even have an extra withdrawal time of 2 weeks before the pigs are sold that we do not use any type of antibiotic treatment.  This is to make sure that we do not send any animals that have been recently sick, or still on a medicine.  

Any time a pig gets sick, the opportunity for the farm to make money on that pig goes down.  They require extra care in the way of stockperson time, plus treatment, vet consultations, etc.  This means that we can't afford to have the pigs get sick if at all possible.  We try to manage the things we can control in order to keep our pigs healthy.  

Good Production Practices: Working with your Vet

The Pork Board is part of a checkoff program which works with packers, consumers, and hog farmers to figure out the best way to care for the pigs, and provide resources to the growers.  Animal agriculture is in an interesting place because we have to look out for the animals with veterinary supervision, meet the demands of our direct customers- the meat packing companies,- and give the end consumer the products they desire; preferably while generating enough revenue to pay our employees and give us room to grow.  In an ideal world, all of these would align perfectly, and achieving balance would be easy.  Since nothing is every perfect, it's a challenge to find a set of standards that will suit all the different customers.

For this reason, the Pork Board has worked to make a list of 10 "Good Production Practices."  These practices are part of industry wide training, and are part of our auditing processes.  They are written into our Standard Operating Procedures, and are practices fully backed by our vets.  They have input from our buyers, who are influenced by their buyers.  It's a bit clunky, and a bit slow to react, but it is the system we have in place now that draws the line on what's acceptable, and what's not.

The first practice is to have a good relationship with your vet.  This relationship isn't just a once in awhile office visit, but much more hands on.  Almost on a daily basis someone on the farm is contacting one of our vets.  On my farm, we have two.  One lives just minutes from the farm, and he is our local large animal vet.  He visits with us regularly, and makes suggestions on what he sees.  He works closely with our swine vet who travels to see us a few times a year, but makes most of our major protocol changes.  Both vets work together on every decision we make when it comes to animal care.

These vets also update us on information pertaining to medical withdrawals.  They make sure we know if information on the products we use to treat sick pigs changes, so we don't use the products against their recommendations.  They make sure that anything we give to treat or prevent sickness makes sense, and is actually working.  They also make recommendations on how to avoid sickness by implementing better cleaning practices, and proactively improving our herd's immunity.  Any treatment we use is very expensive, so anything we can do to avoid having to treat pigs is worth it.

(Grandpa and I- Founder and 3rd Generation)

Over the years, the way we farm has changed, and so has the way we evaluate things on the farm.  What hasn't changed is our commitment to growing a safe food supply.

5 Things I learned from the Michigan Young Farmer Leaders Conference

Visiting the Traverse City Coast Guard with Michigan Farm Bureau (Photo Credit: Michigan Farm Bureau)

Over the weekend I attended the Michigan Farm Bureau's Young Farmer Leaders Conference.  These types of conferences are pretty general when it comes to farming information; instead the focus is on leadership, business, marketing, and personal development for farmers age 18-35.   Roughly 300 farmers attend the event each year, for a weekend of learning and networking.  Coming away from the conference this year I have five "bits of wisdom" to share, along with one personal story.

5. Farming is a family affair.  I have been to a few professional conferences by now, and I have never been to any conference besides a farming one where husbands, wives, and children are all learning together.  Sitting at a random lunch table, Every person at the table asks about the spouse and children of the person next to them (if they aren't also at the table).  It's not just to be polite, it is genuine interest.  Each year attending the conference I make more connections, talk to more people, and I learn more about the different farm families.  Farms are family businesses, even if one or more people in the family don't work on the farm as their full time job.

4. We want acceptance.  A big topic of any farming conference now is how to talk to people about farming.  Farmers are trusted, but farming as an industry is not.  People are so far removed from what farming is, and they tend to be more than skeptical about many farming practices.  Speaker Michele Payn-Knoper pulled many people out of the audience and asked them if they think communicating directly with consumers is important; all of them answered yes.  When she then asked if they would go home and start talking to people, most of the farmers said they weren't sure.  This isn't something farmers want to do.  It is scary to start a conversation with someone you don't know about your business. It is awful to put yourself out there and have somebody tear you down because they don't like the decisions you have made on your farm, decisions that 100% were made with the best intentions regarding, health, safety, and yes, our personal farm profitability.  Keeping the farm going is what keeps our families going.  We want to share our stories with the world, but we want to find people accepting and willing to listen; the same things we need to be when people do come to us.

3. Size doesn't matter. Farms of all shapes and sizes are important to filling the food demands.  Large farms and small farms have benefits for consumers, and both are needed in order to give people the options they are looking for. Conventional, organic, and local all have a place at the table.  Almost every industry has businesses operating under all different types of models.  Those differences give consumers choices.  It isn't about who is "just in it for the money." I don't know a single farmer who is farming just for a paycheck.  I wouldn't wish it on anyone to have a career or a lifestyle where they can't fully exercise their passion.

2. People are the most important.  Food isn't really about just filling our bodies.  For many of us, the dinner table is a time for connection.  We get together and have large meals with our families.  We care about what we put in because we want to get the best out.  Even though the conversations about food can be uncomfortable, I need to listen and participate.  It isn't about raising corn, wheat, cows, chickens, vegetables, or fruits.  It's about providing for our families and bringing people together.  I feel that the pigs we raise on our farm are the best thing that I can give my own family, and I need consumers to feel the same way.  If it isn't good for both of us, then it's not going to be sustainable.

1. We need to define ourselves by what we can do and don't let what we can't do stop us.  This final point is where things start to get a bit personal, and maybe that is why it is resonating with me more than any other part of the conference.  The keynote speaker, Steve Gilliland, did his talk on how to move through life with purpose, passion, and pride.  He mentioned if we focus on what we can't do, there will be many things that stand in our way- including other people who will try to define who we are.  Steve instead directed us to put effort into developing what we can do, in order to find happiness and success.

Mathieu after finishing his first Au Sable River Canoe Marathon (Photo Credit: Caleb Casey)

Now for the personal part. I don't usually put much on here about what I do outside of farming, so for those of you that don't know, I spend quite a bit of my free time marathon canoe racing.  Like the farming community (although considerably smaller), the paddling community is small and tight knit.  On Friday, Mathieu- French Canadian paddler and a friend was involved in a terrible logging accident (he is a lumberjack).  By the time I was sitting in the conference on Sunday, he had learned that he would probably live the rest of his life unable to walk. This is devastating news for anyone, especially so for someone as young and active as Mathieu.  As I was sitting in the crowd listening to Steve speak, I could only think how Mathieu's life is going to change, and how he will need to focus on the positive things that he can do in order to find happiness.

The paddlers have really rallied around Mathieu and his family in the last few days, and have started a collection in order to help with his expenses on the road to recovery.  While maybe this won't matter to any of my readers, if you feel like helping him out on his journey, visit http://www.gofundme.com/mzf674 and make a donation.  Every little bit helps, and this is something that we all can do.