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.