New Year, New Barn

Happy New Year!  Just before the new year, we had some big excitement on the farm... the new barn is up and running! After a year of planning, weather, and building, we have all of the pigs inside.   The move didn't come a moment too soon because when the hole for the barn was dug some of the outside heater lines for the waterers were severed, so with below freezing temperatures it would have been difficult to keep some of the pens from freezing up.

(Mandie moving the last of the pigs inside)

So far, the crew likes the new barn, although as with anything new we are still figuring out the quirks.  The pigs are much more comfortable around people, since they have more human interaction.  We are able to feed them better to their needs, since we look at the pigs everyday.  On our farm we don't often see skinny animals; more often its a problem of overfeeding, so having the pigs inside we can monitor their intake a little more, keeping them at a healthier weight.  The crew has also noticed that we find at-risk animals sooner, so we are better able to help them.  Hopefully, as we get used to the new set-up we can offer better care to all of the pigs on the farm, including the newborn piglets who should get more attention when we aren't moving groups of pigs a mile or two per day.  

For anyone who is curious:  the "paint" on the pigs is a livestock marker, which is water based.  We put it on the pigs when we need to identify a group specifically.  In this case, the green pigs are bred to Landrace boars, and the pink pigs are bred to Large White boars.  It is painless identification for the pig, and a good visual for the people.   

With the last four months being pretty tough around here, we are excited to get something positive going for us.  It's a good start to 2016.  

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.