Top 5 Posts of 2015

Hello all!  As we are reaching the end of 2015, I am looking over my year in blogging.  After reviewing the numbers, here are your favorite posts and events in the last year, maybe some that you may have missed the first time around.

5. Founding Farmer In April, we celebrated Grandpa's birthday on the farm, as well as looked back over how we got to where we are today.

4. Good Production Practices: Working with your Vet Part of a series, this post goes into how we interact with our vets on a daily basis when making animal treatment and care decisions.

3. 5 Things I learned from Michigan Young Farmer Leaders Conference  Mike and I attended a Farm Bureau Conference in Traverse City, and spent two days learning... plus a little bit of time skiing.

2. #MathieuStrong This is my only top 5 post that isn't directly about the farm, but more about our free time, training and as a family.  I also give an update about our paddling friend Mathieu after his logging accident.

1. Good Production Practices: Managing Herd Health The most popular post of 2015, this post goes into detail as to what we do on the farm to keep our pigs healthy, and how we treat them when they do get sick.


Since it's the end of the year, and my birthday, I am also posting a good memory from 2015.   This picture is from the hike Mike and I took on our anniversary in Kauai.  I am excited about the adventures we have planned for the year ahead.  

(Hiking the Napali Coast)

Christmas Cookies

 (Grandma Kathy filling the Kolachky)

For the last few years before Christmas, my grandmothers, mom, and sister have met up for an evening to make my mother's favorite treat: Kolachky.  This is a traditional Bohemian cookie with a fruit filling.  The recipe my mom remembers as a kid involved a yeast dough, and the process of making the cookies took a day or two, and neither of my grandmothers are confident in making them, so we use a shortcut version that still tastes similar to the original.  We also have used a canned filling, but next year we are going to try making our own.

(Samantha and Grandma June adding the butter)

Original Recipe Here

KOLACHKY

2 eggs

6 tablespoons sugar

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 lb butter, softened

4 1⁄2 cups flour

1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda

1⁄8 teaspoon salt

24 ounces apricot (or raspberry, poppy seed, cream cheese, cherry, prune, pineapple, etc.) filling

powdered sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS

Beat cream cheese and butter.

Add sugar and eggs; beat until light and smooth.

Mix in salt and baking soda.

Add flour a little at a time while mixing; blend well. Dough should be soft but not sticky.

Roll out as for pie crust.

Cut into 2 inch squares.

Fill with apricot filling (or your choice of filling).

Fold 2 opposite corners together and pinch closed.

Bake in 350° oven 15-20 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies (or 3 dozen if you make them jumbo, like we do)

Merry Christmas to all!

Farm Christmas

Merry Christmas from the farm!  We recently had our Christmas party, with all of the farm employees, contract growers, and other people in the area that work with the farm.  All in all, we served 140 people a home-cooked meal. Everything is put together by Mom, Marcia, Samantha (my sister), Leslie, and myself.  Instead of buying Poinsettias, we made Mason Jar Centerpieces for all of the tables this year.

(Mason Jar Centerpieces)

We try to have something special just for the kids.  This year we made these cute hot cocoa reindeer favors.  We also make sure to have some type of entertainment.  We had a face-painter/balloon artist that did some really cool work.  By the end of the night, we had quite a few superheroes, cats, and butterflies running around. 

(Hot Cocoa Reindeer-for instructions on how to make these cute favors, click here)

Each guest gets to take home a gift from the party.  This year we had water bottles, coffee mugs, lunch coolers, and LED Maglite flashlights, among other items. 

(Christmas Gifts for all of the attendees)

Christmas on the farm isn't anything fancy, it's just in our shop.  The guys who work in the shop become the decorating committee and put up all of the lights, tables, and chairs.  It is a good excuse to give the space a thorough cleaning before starting in on the winter maintenance program.  I think everybody enjoys a laid-back and casual evening.  

(Party started!)

My Favorite Things

Each year we make our Christmas lists, and think of gifts for others.  I am definitely a gifter, I love to give people things that they will use.  I am not big on just having stuff to look at, it should have a function.  All of my favorite things I use all of the time, and I love them.

5. My planner.  My sister always rolls her eyes at this one, but have to have a paper planner.  I am always jotting notes, making to-do lists, and editing my schedule.  I am active in so many different things that I need a place to keep it all straight.  The planner I use right now is the 24-Hour Home & Work Planner.  It gives me three different lists to organize my tasks, a 24 hour schedule ( I need a schedule that starts early enough to work on farm time), and enough space to log my workouts and write my meal plans.

4. The Original Buff.  If you have never used a buff, you don't know how versatile they can be.  I use mine as a hat, head band, or to cover my neck.  I like how lightweight and breathable they are, and how they still keep my warm even when wet.  You can put them under your hat, both around your neck and ears when it is really cold.  If it's an in-between day for running, I start out with it as a headband, and then take it off and wear it as a bracelet if I get too hot.

3. Wool Underwear.  If you have wool socks, then you know that wool is wonderfully warm and comfortable.  My wool long underwear are a must for winter paddling and skiing, they layer so well under my ski suit, and I don't get cold when they get wet.  Even beyond that, I have wool boy shorts that are great for running and paddling, too.  I layer then under regular shorts to stop chafing, as they are basically seem free. This Stoic Boy Boxer is my favorite kind.

2. KitchenAid Food Chopper.  This is hands down my favorite kitchen gadget.  I use it to chop nuts, make salsa, fruit toppings, pesto, and even blend cheeses for lasagna.  It's small, simple to use, easy to clean, and it can do so many things.  Plus it comes in all sorts of colors!

1. LL Bean Boots.  Without a doubt, my absolute favorite item is my LL Bean Boots.  To be honest, I have 3 pairs, and I could easily see myself buying 3 or 4 more.  I wear them as my go-to boots for paddling, walking, working and comfort all fall-winter-spring.  They are durable, comfortable, and not very big or bulky.  I can fit them in the canoe they are waterproof, and the gortex/thinsulate ones keep my feet toasty warm. An added bonus is that they are easy to clean. I have only worn out the soles in one pair, and that is after I wore them 200+ days a year for 5 years- and I can send them back and have  the soles replaced.  If I had to pick one favorite, it would have to be my original Maine Hunting Boots.  They fit me so well and are the perfect height.

(Photo courtesy of LL Bean)

PRRS update: Through the Worst?

(Sunset over the harvest crew  in the end of November)

Since I last wrote about our fight with PRRS, quite a bit has happened.  We have lost a lot of pigs, either to stillbirth, late-terms abortions (read miscarriage),  or just non-viable piglets that only live a few hours, or maybe a day or two.  Once the pigs have made it to our nurseries, we are still seeing high death losses, which we can't really do anything about.  It has been hard on everybody, especially seeing the whole system suffer.  Two weeks about we only had 40% of our normal number of piglets sent into the nursery for the week.  We know that in 6 weeks, we will have to leave some of our finisher building unfilled for awhile, which we very rarely do, and that is emotionally and financially hard.  During the times when the barns go unfilled, we continue to pay rent on the space.   

Since my last post, we have also worked with our vets and have made some changes on how we are handling our breeding animals. We had a serum made from the blood of some sick pigs to infect all of our breeding animals that are between 50-250 lbs.  so they will have an immune response when they get to the farrowing farms.  We also changed our vaccine we give to our breeding animals that includes a booster for PRRS, along with other pig diseases.  We discontinued a water antibiotic and have told our people to only treat a pig once, and if there is no response to stop treatments, since PRRS can look like a lot of other things, and we don't want to treat something with an antibiotic when it won't be effective.  It is hard to stop treatment on animals, but sometimes it is the responsible thing to do.  

We are starting to have some hope that we have made it through the worst part of the disease.  The new litters of pigs born are looking bigger, better, and more healthy.  The sows aren't showing signs of being sick.  The farm that broke with PRRS first is starting to put out baby pigs that are negative for the disease, which is important in being able to beat it long term.  It will be encouraging to say we are over the hump, but there is still a long way to go.  Other farms that have had this strain of the virus have had a hard time shaking it, so we are expecting that it will be the same on our farm.  Only time will tell.  

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.  

The Long Road

(Fall in Michigan)

This has taken me awhile to figure out how to write, since it is always harder to talk about the bad things than the good things.  Like many other farms, we take pride in the fact that we raise pigs that are healthy and hardy.  We work hard to keep it that way, but sometimes things don't go as planned.  Over the past month, our farm has a been battling the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).  This disease affects pigs all over the country, and is slightly different on every farm, but it is not transferable to humans, nor does it cause a food safety problem.  It attacks pigs of all ages, and can be transported through the air, or through body fluids.  Over the next four months (one birthing cycle)  we will lose about half of our production.  After that, hopefully we will get some herd immunity and start to lose fewer pigs.

PRRS is one of the five major diseases that have hit the pork industry in the last 30 years.  Most producers in the country have dealt with it at one time or another, and up until recently, we haven't ever been challenged by it.  The disease isn't new, so our vet has a lot of experience on how to take care of it, and is working with us daily to make the best decisions for our herd.   How are we fighting this now?   First, we are working hard to keep everything as clean as possible.  We have done this everyday, year round, for as long as I can remember, but we are making sure to pay attention to the details and not miss anything by assuming we do it already.   Next, we are vaccinating all of the breeding animals with a modified live virus to bolster their immunity.  Each of our locations with breeding animals have tested positive for the disease, but have no clinical signs at 3 of the 4. We are hoping that by vaccinating our sows and boars we can stay ahead of the disease a little bit and save some of our baby piglets, who are most susceptible if mom doesn't have antibodies to pass on to fight it off. Vaccinating is hard work, and not very much fun for handlers or animals, but it gives us all the best shot at coming through the outbreak.  Antibiotics are not being used to treat PRRS, because it is viral and will not respond.  However, one stress on the pigs may cause something else to flair up, so as the pigs get older they may have to receive treatment for pneumonia, although we don't know that yet.

We are still early in the process of dealing with the disease, so there is a lot we don't know yet.  We aren't exactly sure who will be hit the hardest, or how many pigs we will lose.  So far, according to our vet, we have a pretty mild case, but it seems pretty severe to us.  Once we get our herd immunity established, we will start working to eradicate the disease on our farms.  It will take time to get back to where we once were, but it is something we will work towards.  Out farm isn't the first, nor will it be the last to deal with PRRS.

Summer Recap: Canoe Edition

This Summer had quite a full paddling schedule.  Mike and I raced the AuSable River Canoe Marathon, and won the mixed division. The field was incredibly deep, and we managed to finish 12th overall.  It wasn't our best race, but toughed it out and did what we needed to in order to beat the guys we were around.

Mid-August put me in Western Pennsylvania racing the USCA Canoe Nationals. I raced three days in a row on a 2 hour 15 minute course on the Susquehanna River. The first day was the C1 race, the second C2 women's, and the final day was C2 mixed. I was able to win all three days, and while all the races were good, my best race was probably with my mom in the women's race. We have never won a nationals together and we had very tough competition, but we ran  a smart race and pulled ahead the whole way.

The third leg of the Triple Crown of canoe racing, the Classique in Quebec is my favorite race of the canoe season. It's a 3 day stage race that ends in the St. Lawrence River.  The Classique really tests a paddler's skill. Dad and I raced together and we ended up 4th in the mixed and 21st overall, putting in a very solid effort.

My final effort of the season was the Catalina Crossing in mid-September.  This was an approximately 35 mile canoe race in a 6  person Outrigger canoe. We had 9 women on the team and exchanged 3 paddlers every 20 minutes. I had never raced an outrigger race before, so it was a very new experience. Our team had a good race and were 5th out of 68 teams.

After such a fun season, I celebrated the weddings of fellow paddling ladies Hailey and Emma. It was so much fun to see all of the paddlers dressed up and having fun outside of the boat.

After such a busy summer, Mike decided to race 6 man outrigger, so now we are in Hawaii. Aloha!!

Golf Outing

(Seth & Ethan)

Tuesday was our annual farm golf outing.  Everyone from the farm goes out to our local golf course and meets for a lunch meeting.  After lunch, anyone who wants to goes out to the course and play 9 holes on 4 person teams.  We don't have many golfers on the farm, so we try to have each team with one person who owns clubs, and one woman (for the closer tee).  Even though this year was threatening rain, we still had a good turn out, and lots of fun.  

 (Part of our golfing party)

This outing is probably the favorite event that we have during the year.  Nearly everyone stays to golf, even though our lunch meeting is the only "mandatory" event.  Each team has good golfers and bad golfers, so it is pretty even between teams.  This year's winning team was under par for the 9 holes for the first time ever! 

(The Costume Contest)

Also new this year, a few of the guys decided to have a costume contest, putting on their wackiest golf attire.  We will have to see if it sticks around for next year, but either way it gave all the other golfers a pretty good laugh.

Summer Recap: Farm Edition

Hello again! It has been such a busy summer around here that I haven't done any writing.  In the past few months, we have had many changes on the farm.

First, the new barn project is starting to take shape.  After waiting out the spring rain, we got a little bit behind, but now the roof is on and we are moving ahead fast.  Our project manager, Rick, is doing a good job at keeping the work crews motivated and busy, so we are still hoping to be inside by the time the snow falls.

Making Progress

We also hired an on-farm nutritionist- Dave.   Dave has been working on the farm on and off since his first years in college, and has decided to come on full time.  Nutrition work is one of the areas where we can control our costs and really have an impact on the way our pigs grow.  Approximately 70% of the cost of getting a pig from birth to market is in feed cost, so adding a nutritionist to the team has already proven to be a huge advantage.

Harvest is also underway.  Last week we started harvest both corn and soybeans, and due to dry conditions we have already made a big dent in our workload.  With Dave's work on our diets, good yields, and a surplus from last year, we won't have to buy as much corn from our neighbors this year as we have in the past.

Hog prices hoovered around break-even for part of the summer, but have dipped down heading into fall, so we are preparing for a low market winter.  It's hard to see the farm losing money, but it is the nature of the industry to have down periods.  Last summer we did really well, so we are seeing the slump afterwards.

More updates to follow soon!

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)

Farm Update: Yearly Training

(New landscaping around the finally finished office!)

It's been a busy month so far, with not much time for me to sit down.  Over the past two weeks, I have been putting together our chore schedule.  The chore schedule is a chart that lists every person working on the farm by the location they work at each month.  I make the schedule 6 months at a time, with each person rotating at least once to a different job than they normally do.  This keeps the work crews from getting grumpy by seeing too much of each other, and it means that every job has at least 2 people that can do it.   Most people like switching jobs, and everyone has some input as to where they work.  It's nice to have the schedule done for a few more months, since it involves so many people working together.

In the field, the crops are growing like mad.  The field crew is scouting the fields, and then deciding whether we need to apply any herbicides.  On our farm, we use hog manure as a good source of fertilizer, but some of our fields don't get any manure put on, so then we have to use another source of nitrogen, anhydrous ammonia, to get the crops the nitrogen they need.  The anhydrous is applied in June, so that is well underway.

(Corn is two feet tall)

The biggest project for me personally in June is the start of our annual animal care training.  I meet with every person that works with a pig from the farm, and train them on handling and care.  In all, I probably train 150-200 people, mostly in groups of 5 or less. This allows for a lot individual time, where I can answer questions and tailor each session to the specific group needs.  During this time, I will personally see every pig on the farm.

This training is a lot of work, but it makes sure that each person on the farm understands our standards.  It prepares each farm for audit, and makes sure that all of the records are being kept up to date. By doing these checks, I can make sure that nobody gets too far out of line, and that any questions get answered.  The training may only formally happen once a year, but on a weekly basis, we (being myself and the others on the farm) are looking at things we could do to improve our animal care.  We are having conversations about animal care everyday with somebody on the farm.  It may not be the easiest thing I do all year, but it is one of the most important.

Listening: It goes both ways

It's been a busy week on the farm and off of it.  Over Memorial Day weekend the whole family packed up and went to a canoe race in Cooperstown, New York.  I am finally catching up from the trip.  A lot has gone on at the farm in the past few weeks, too.  We finished up planting, and the new building project is coming along.

(Corn has really shot up after the rain!)

While out in Cooperstown, I stayed in a hotel on the Otsego Lake, a place I have stayed many times before.  I went to the desk and handed the receptionist my credit card, she saw that it had the farm name on it.  She immediately asked me what we had on our farm.  I replied that we had pigs, and the receptionists then asked if they were all pasture-raised and grass-fed.  When I said that some where inside and some were outside, she then asked how we could stuff them in those little crates, how we could take the babies from the mothers at weaning.  I knew this wasn't going to be a productive conversation, but I told her that we follow the recommendations of our vet, as well as learning from our own experiences in order to decide how and when we wean and crate our hogs, if at all; that we were willing to change things as necessary in order to improve pig care and consumer confidence.  She then asked how many animals we had, and then commented that we had far too many to be good farmers.   I left the office feeling attacked and shaken.

This woman had no interest in my farm.  She had no interest in having a conversation with me about farming.  She just saw that I didn't fit into her picture of what a farm should look like, and decided that it must not be any good.  I am glad she has the choice to buy her meat, if she buys any at all, from someone else; someone who raises animals to the specifications that she desires.  I wish that she could have respect for the way I raise animals, even if she doesn't prefer that for herself.  I wish that she was open to having a conversation about farms.  She didn't understand that we were the same in our jobs: different hotels provide different amenities for different people; different farms raise animals differently to fill different markets.  It's a system that gives us the ability to choose.

I am torn on booking my reservations for next year.  I really like the place I have stayed, and it has the amenities I desire.  I want to be the bigger person, and judge the establishment on the service it provides, not on the opinions of one receptionist.  At the same time, I know that my dollars are going to support someone who would gladly take my family out of business, just because we have been successful at providing meat to supermarkets instead of at road-side stands.    It just hurts to be so vulnerable to attack.  I try to be open and listen when I have a conversation about the farm, but I need the other party to be willing to try, too.

From the farmer side of the conversation, we need to realize that sometimes we can come off just as this lady did to me, like we know everything.  We aren't always open to concerns of consumers, because the answer seems so easy to find for us.  Those concerns are valid, even if it doesn't seem important.  We have to really listen and have a dialogue, not just shut people down because they don't see things our way.

A Long Weekend at Home

I haven't kept up on my race updates, so first things first, 8 days ago was the Roscommon Canoe Classic.  Roscommon is the first "points" race of the Michigan Canoe Racing Calendar, so it always has a lot of teams ready to show off their talent.  This race is on the south branch of the Au Sable River, which is really narrow so it has a different way of starting (see the video).

(Start of Roscommon- Andy and I are in boat #1- courtesy of Ryan Matthews)

I was lucky enough to race with my cousin, Andy, who has a reputation for being one of the best.  We knew we at least had a shot at winning the race, and went out hard.  We ended up coming in 2nd, but were hot on the heels of the first place team.  Mike had a good race, coming in 3rd, but he doesn't like it very much when I beat him.  Dad raced with friend Matt, and they finished 14th, not their best, but they managed to hold off a few pretty good teams.  The next race Andy and I will do together is in about a month, and we will have another chance at a win.  On Sunday, I raced C-1 and felt ok taking 1st place in the women's race, but was definitely tired from my effort on Saturday.  Mike was able to come away with a 2nd place finish, his best of the season.  Dad finished 12th, and Mom came out for a 2nd place women's finish.

This weekend Mike and I enjoyed the first weekend home in quite awhile.  We were looking forward to a really relaxing weekend.  At 2 pm on Friday we decided to do the Team Triathlon at the Jonesville Riverfest which was at 6 pm.  Mike went with Derek, a friend from work, and I went with Greg, another work friend.  The triathalon consisted of one person doing a 2 1/2 mile run, the second person doing a 5 mile bike, and then both people paddling an Aluminum Canoe 2 miles.  Mike and Derek pretty much lead the whole race and came off with an easy win.  Greg and I fought from 8th place on the run up to 2nd place in the paddle, before we took a wrong short cut and hit a log.  Samantha (my sister) and another team passed us on the jam up, so we came up short of the prizes in 4th place.

On Saturday the whole family went over to the Oaklawn 5k, where Mike, Samantha, and I felt that we wouldn't have the best runs, since we had ran our triathlon legs just 15 hours before.  Mike and I finished about a minute slower than we have been in our most recent races, and Dad and Samantha stayed about the same pace as usual in theirs.  Since we didn't feel winded enough, Dad, Mike, Weston, and I decided to paddle another hour and a half in last minute training for the big race next weekend.  I was so exhausted when we were done that I had to take a rare afternoon nap.

Sunday was our favorite local canoe race, the Crusing Class at the Jonesville Riverfest.  In one hour and 15 minutes we race through 4 portages, through 10 culverts and over/under 10-15 pipes. Other obstacles include sand bars, rocks, metal stakes, muck, and lily pads. The river is barely one canoe wide and turns sharply about every 20 feet.  Our family makes up nearly the entire field, but we have a blast.  Dad and I came in first, Mike and Derek were 2nd, friends Paddi and Andy (not cousin) were 3rd, and Samantha and Alex (her boyfriend) were 4th.   After the race Mike and I tackled the garden for the first time since moving in over a year ago.  It might not be pretty, but it is better than last year. After our "relaxing" weekend at home, I can't wait to get away to the General Clinton Canoe Regatta next weekend!

Farm Update: Meet Wilfred

Another busy week on the farm as the weather warms up!  This week, we were able to see how the new barn hole would function as a swimming pool.  On the bright side, we received 2 1/2 inches of much needed rain, and the first wall of the barn foundation is up.

(Flooding in the floor of the new barn)

We also have corn planting well underway.  Our field crew was able to get over 3/4 of the corn planted before the rain, so we are in good shape.  The soybeans are also being planted.  The rain definitely slows things down, but it gives us time to do some need maintenance on the planting equipment.  

In other news, the first of our breeding stock purchases for the summer arrived at our "isolation barn."  In everyday terms, we bought some boars, and put them in one of the oldest barns on the farm.  Don't let old fool you for poor, they are hand-fed twice daily, have heated water, indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as straw bedding for the chilly spring nights.  

We isolate the new boars in order to check their disease status, while adjusting them to the disease profile of our own pigs.  For example, if these new boars had something like the flu, we would want to know before we brought them into our flu-free barns, and if we had chicken pox, we would want to make sure they didn't get really sick when they first move into the main barn.   Every few days we will bring something from the main barn to the isolation barn to help prepare the immune systems of the new boars for the environment they are going into.  It also gives the boars a chance to shake any bugs they picked up during travel.  Boars stay in isolation for just over a month, and then are moved to the main barn and enter the breeding herd.  

This particular set of boars is Landrace in breed, you can tell by the long bodies, and large, floppy ears.  We have four new boars and each will be named before he goes into the main barn.  Sometimes we name have names picked out before they arrive, and other times the names just come to us as they are unloaded.  Aunt Sandy decided that one of the new boars is definitely a Wilfred, so only three more names to pick out.  

(New Landrace boars- Wilfred not pictured, he is camera shy)

Canton Canoe Weekend

(Weston and I going upstream)

Before I get on to this weekend's adventures, I will recap the events of last weekend.  Mike and I, along with 4 other Michigan paddlers loaded up a Ford Excursion with 9 canoes and drove out to Canton, New York.  Once in Canton we did a 14 mile race each day on the Grass River.  

Saturday was the C-1 race, with probably one of the most competitive fields of the year.  The women had a separate starting time from the men, which probably made it less exciting, although more fair.  I stayed in 2nd place basically the whole race- I was able to ride Holly for nearly 10 miles until we got into the "little river"  for the last few miles of the course.  I fell back about a minute in those last 4 miles, but still managed a 2nd place finish- which I am very happy with- especially this early in the season.

On Sunday, I was lucky enough to race with Weston.  We were untested as a mixed team, and had no idea where we would come out in a very competitive mixed field. We had a great start, and rode Tim and Mary nearly up to the top buoy, where they ground out.  At that point we made our move and never looked back.  We ended up winning by about a minute.  It was a fun race, and a great weekend, but I am looking forward to staying in Michigan for a whole week!

Giving Thanks

(courtesy of motovo.com)

I see these types of pictures on Facebook and Pinterest all of the time; someone in the agriculture community wanting to show the world how important farms and farmers are to daily life.  Someone trying to make people grateful for what we do, instead of bashing us.  I completely agree that farmers do a great job feeding people.  Citizens of the USA have nearly an endless variety and quantity of food available.  We have so many choices that other people do not have.  

However, this does not mean we should expect appreciation, especially not more than anybody else receives.  Every career is under appreciated; how many times do you think to thank your auditor after they review the last 10 years of tax records?   Auditors are completely necessary if we are expected to keep at least some corruption out of our tax system, but we don't go around touting their greatness. Farmers work long, hard hours?  So do school teachers, and truck drivers. If we as farmers are expecting people from outside our farms to give us the appreciation and self confidence to keep going, we are going to be waiting for a long time.  Each person should be passionate about their life's work, and not depend on other people to make his or her job worth it.  

Nobody can do everything, so we each have to make what we do count.  We should strive to do quality work.  We need to value what we do in somewhat of a selfish way, and take pride in it.  We should show appreciation for others, before expecting others to show their appreciation.  One of the most powerful ways to lead is by example, and we need to evaluate whether or not we are setting a good one.  

(Spring has arrived- and so have the dandelions)

Run of the Charles

I am in between two of the biggest travel weeks of my canoe racing season for the year, also two of the more competitive races.  Last weekend, Mike and I, along with some friends, loaded up the boats and drove out to Boston for the big race on the schedule- the Run of the Charles.  The field wasn't very large, but every team their is vying for a top spot.  In addition to 24 miles of paddling, this course contains six pretty long portages, adding an additional challenge.  My partner Nick and I had been doing some portage practice together, and I think it paid off, with a 1st place in the mixed division, and 8th place overall.  Mike had a solid race, finishing 5th, and was really glad to have some time in the boat with Sam since they are racing one of the Triple Crown races together this summer. 

(Nick and I running the 3rd portage - PC Adam/Kelly Gelinas)

This week I received a package from my canoe sponsor Stephen Lynn Handmade Knives, and I couldn't wait to open it.  For the last few years, Stephen has made me a knife of my choosing, in exchange for putting a sticker on my canoe.  He makes a lot of hunting/fishing and camping knives, and this year he made me a chef's knife.  It has a beautiful Buffalo Horn handle, and I can't wait to start using it.  If you are interested in a top quality knife, you can't go wrong in checking out his page.  

(Stephen Lynn Chef's Knife)

This weekend we are off to Canton, New York for one of the biggest C-1 races in the country.  Mike is excited to see how he stacks up against the top men this year, and I am eagerly anticipating a race with some of the toughest women in the sport. It will be a good test for the races in the coming months.  

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.  


 

Aunt Connie's Dump Cake

Last week on our camping trip, we need made a family campfire staple: dump cake.  Dump cake is a cake where you "dump" (actually layer one at a time) all the ingredients into a dutch oven and then cook it with hot coals. Almost no mixing is required.  I think some people make them in a home oven, but what is the fun in that?

Aunt Connie let Samantha and I in on the secret of dump cake a few years ago while camping, and we have went from burnt, charred, too sweet mess, to warm, gooey, and delicious fireside treat.  Plus, it's way more fun to cook and eat around the campfire, where everything always tastes better, even if it doesn't look that good.

When making dump cake, you only need a few ingredients/ supplies:

- A Campfire with lots of coals
- A fire glove
- 1 Dutch Oven
- Aluminum Foil
- 1 Stick Butter
- 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (Samantha swears by "The Betty" Crocker)
- 1 can Pineapple Tidbits (depending how much pineapple you like, buy the appropriate size can)
- 1 can Cherry Pie Filling  (I like the one with extra cherries)
- 4 oz. Cream Cheese (that's half a block)

And then follow a few simple steps:

1. Take the aluminum foil and line the dutch oven. Keep the aluminum as flat as possible.  This is more of a precautionary step, in case that you burn your dump cake.

2. Dump the cherry pie filling and the pineapple tidbits into the dutch oven, juice and all.  Use a spoon to spread the fillings and mix them together.  This might be cheating, but I like the cherries and pineapple mixed instead of layered.  You want to make sure to cover the whole bottom of the pan.

3. Dump half of the cake mix into the dutch oven, making sure to get a nice layer over the filling.

4. Slice the cream cheese into thin pieces and cover the cake mix with them.  It's ok if some spots don't have any cream cheese coverage.

5.  Dump the rest of the cake mix on top of the cream cheese in an even layer.

6. Cut the stick of butter into thin slices, like the cream cheese, and put it on top of the cake mix.

7. Put the lid on the dutch oven.  The cake assembly is complete.

Now for the fire:

Since we have a nice amount of coals, use a stick to pull some of the coals to the side of the fire pit, away from the main part of the fire.  Set the dutch oven on top of these coals.  Find a log in the fire that is mainly coals and put it on the lid of the dutch oven.  Usually I break it up a little bit on the lid to spread the heat out.

Rotate and check your dutch oven about every 5 minutes to see how the cake is progressing.  When it is all done, it should be golden and bubbly- similar to a crisp.  If an edge burns, don't worry about it.  Ours usually take about 20 minutes to "bake," but it really depends on your coals. If it is taking a long time, pull some more coals out of the fire to speed up the process.

After the dump cake has finished cooking, grab a spoon and fill your bowl.

Farm Update: Big Projects

I haven't written much about what is going on right now on the farm, and there is a lot of catching up to do.  First, we have started our new barn for the pregnant sows.  By starting the barn, I mean we have started to dig a huge hole and now have a big pile of dirt.  This project will take up most of our resources for the rest of the summer, and most likely into the fall.  We hope to have all the pigs moved in by November.

(The big hole and dirt pile)

We are also preparing to get into the field for planting.  It rained last night, but the soil temperature is up where it needs to be (50+ degrees) and the weather looks promising, so as soon as we dry out we will start planting our corn.


On Thursday, our marketing guru, Greg, received a call from our buyer that we will have a third party audit at one of our Amish locations.  This is probably a good thing, but we are transitioning between our old record keeping system and our new one right now, so it is going to be a bit of a rush to make sure we have everything we need in the proper format in time for the audit.

(3 years worth of pig care records)

On the top of the crisis list this Monday, our fat tank sprung a leak.  Why do we have a fat tank?  It is part of our feed mill.  The fat we put in the tank is yellow grease.  That is basically the leftover fat from restaurants that is taken out and cleaned up a bit, then used for animal feed. I like to think it gives the feed a salty french fry flavor.We have been working to replace our current tank, knowing that it is on it's last legs, but the company we bought our old tank from is out of business.  We have a bid from another company, so we are in the process of getting the new tank built and installed, but that is still a few weeks away.

Unfortunately, the fat is kept warm in the tank so we can pump it, making it not very easy to contain once it spills.  We called the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development (MDARD)  to report the spill and to figure out the best way to clean it up, but there won't be much to do until the fat hardens as it cools to air temperature.  To give perspective, this is the only time in 30 years that our fat tank has leaked.  Once the fat cools, it is pretty easy to clean up- similar to scraping ice off of your windshield, and we will dispose of it as MDARD recommends.  Fat isn't really a "hazardous" substance, like manure or pesticides, so it shouldn't be too bad of a clean up.

Things like this happen on the farm, even when we do our best to make sure everything is well maintained.  It is just like any other work place where problems occur from time to time.  We plan ahead for possible emergencies, so that we know what to do when something happens.  It's not fool proof, but it is the best that we can do.

Spring Break: Smoky Mountains

I try to have a post on Monday, and I didn't make it this week.  That's because I took a "spring break" trip with Mike, Samantha, and Alex.  We had an action-packed five days.   A picture recap below, and I will try to keep it short.

Day 1: Paddling on the Green River in Mammoth Cave National Park.  We also did some running, wood chopping, cooking, and horseback riding.

(Mike and I paddled right up under the ledge)

Day 2: Doing a crawling tour in Mammoth Cave, and driving to Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  Camp at the Cosby Campground if you are swinging through, it is beautiful!

 (The natural entrance of Mammoth Cave- I didn't get any crawling pictures)

Day 3: Touring the Biltmore Estate and Winery.  We also went on a whitewater rafting trip.

(Beautiful Biltmore)

Day 4: Hiking up Mt. LeConte via the Rainbow Falls Trail.  We stayed on top of the mountain at the LeConte Lodge.  Nothing fancy, but warm and dry.

(The view from the top of Mt. LeConte)

 (Mike's first mountain summit)

Day 5: Hiking down from Mt. LeConte via the Alum Cave Trail, and returning home

(Alum Cave Trail Bluff)

(Alex and Samantha)

 (Mike and I on the rainy hike down)