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)

Founding Farmer

Yesterday was my Grandpa's 84th birthday.  Anytime we have a birthday in the family, we all get together and have a party.  Sometimes it is just cake and ice cream, other times it is a full meal, but always involves grandparents, parents, and kids.  We always talk about different things we have done together, and what we are going to do next.

(Grandma and Grandpa at the birthday party)

Whenever it comes up to Grandpa's birthday his story always involves the farm, and surprising to some, canoeing.  Grandpa and Grandma met at Michigan State University where Grandma was studying to be a teacher, and Grandpa was studying to be a farmer.  They went to England for a year while Grandpa was part of the ROTC program, and then came home to my Grandma's family farm in Iowa.  After a few years in Iowa, realizing that the farm couldn't support the three families, they picked up and moved to Michigan for cheap farm land.  The first years were hard, and Grandpa sold the mineral rights to the land in order to keep the farm afloat.  He constantly looked for areas to make improvement.  Even from the start, our farm has made it's own feed, all because Grandpa thought it was a good thing to do.  He is willing to try things just to see what will happen, and is able to innovate because of it.  

Grandpa and Grandma starting canoeing in order to get away from the farm on the weekends.  They had employees who always would call in on Saturday mornings, then on Sunday mornings.  Grandpa had done some canoe races as a kid on the Maumee River, and decided that canoeing would be a good hobby to keep him from working all the weekends.  It was something to get away, and he could race with Grandma.  The farm and paddling have defined the family ever since.  We work and play together.  

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.  

A Birthday and a Race Report

Saturday was Mike's birthday.  A benefit of having spring birthday is that there is an outside chance that there will be a canoe race on your birthday, and Mike was lucky enough to have his birthday fall on our first race of the season: the Klondike.

Klondike is just a short, 40 minute torture of a race on a small creek.  The race goes upstream for about 2/3 of the race, and downstream for the last 1/3.  Since the race starts facing upstream, and then has many twists and turns, both of which make it difficult to pass.  A good start is critical for finishing well.  I raced with my dad, and Mike raced with our good friend, Zach.

(Dad and I racing hard)

Last year, Dad and I had a horrible start, and while we recovered pretty well we were never able to pass the final mixed (one man, one woman) team, finishing 2nd mixed for the first time in many years.  This year we thought of trying a different starting spot in hopes of having a better jump off of the line.  Each part of the river has a different current and depth, so some spots are better than others for starting, especially in an upstream race.  Just before the gun went off we chickened out and went back to our traditional starting spot.  The gun went off and by the first corner we were in 5th place!  It was the best start we have ever had.  Since we started so well, we knew it was going to be tough to hold position.  We held off three other very fast teams for nearly all of the upstream, but right before the turn to head back downstream the three teams passed us by crossing the river, or sprinting up to get the inside of the corner.  Finishing 8th place was still fantastic, and we knew that had left it all out there.  We had never even been close to those teams in previous races, so I am looking forward to the season ahead.

(Mike and Zach in the lead)

At the finish we saw Mike and Zach cooling down.  I could tell from the look on their faces that the race didn't go as well for them as they had hoped.  Mike and Zach lead the race until the last 7 minutes, where another team passed them on the inside of a corner.  Neither had beaten that team before, but they had hoped to hold them off and win on Mike's birthday.  Even though Mike and Zach didn't win, it was a good practice in blocking and learning how to race when you are in the lead. They were close, and now they are hungry for a win.

(Mike with his parents, Mike, Michelle, and Jay)

On Monday, we had a get together on the farm for Mike.  Dad grilled out, Mom made cheesy potatoes, and we had root beer floats instead of a birthday cake, just to Mike's liking.  My whole family made it to the party, as well as Mike's parents.  It was a good way to celebrate.