Farm Update: Transition

(Green Valley Farm)

Since I last wrote specifically about the farm, a lot has changed.  We re-broke with PRRS in the spring of 2017, and battled it for most of last summer and early fall.  It seems like now we are starting to get back on our feet again, but it is with weary skepticism.  After being knocked down so much it's hard to trust that getting back up is possible.

The pigs are what everyone likes to hear about most, and right now at the farrowing farms (where little pigs are born), things are looking pretty good.  Our most recent testing has shown our piglets are negative again for PRRS, and we have enough sows coming in to give birth that our barns are starting to be comfortably full. We aren't sure if the spring weather is causing everything to do better, if our strategy for dealing with the disease is working, or if the pigs are just getting healthier because time has passed.  We probably won't know for at least a year, and even then a bad break can happen again.  Right now, it's just keeping our fingers crossed, doing our best, and hoping it is enough.

We are becoming more creative in our management in order to recover from PRRS.  One of our farms, River Ridge, was hit harder than the others. Many of their sows got sick and either had lasting reproductive/respiratory problems, or just died altogether.  In order to get the herd back up to it's normal size, we are breeding some gilts in the finisher at a different farm.  We have never done this before, but are very interested to see how things go.  If this works well we may consider breeding all gilts in finishers with a dedicated breeding team.  It will take us six months to a year of observation to make that determination, but so far things seem to be going well. 

As far as we can tell, PRRS is pretty mild in our herd right now.  The biggest health challenge we have been facing recently is a flare-up of pig-pneumonia, which can be treated easily as long as we keep an eye on it.  The keeping an eye on it part is a little tricky, because a pig can go to exposure to death in 24-48 hours, so it really is something that has to be caught right away.  The other health issue we are up against is one of the vaccines we are using doesn't have the coverage it guarentees.  This means that pigs need a booster shot at some point, at least until the vaccine is updated.  We still haven't figured out exactly how we will handle this, but this is why keeping a close eye on our animal health is so important.

In other news, we are seeing the younger generation of farm employees stepping into management roles for the first time.  Two of our long time managers, one in genetics, the other in herd health, retired a few weeks ago.  This is a huge adjustment for the farm.  I am assuming quite a few more duties in the health area, and that both exciting and challenging.  Weston, a paddler and farm worker will be taking on more responsibilty in the genetics side of the business.  Both of us will be learning a lot in the next few months, and we have to in order to keep things running well.

On top of this, our nutritionist, Dave, has decided to try his hand as a feed company representative, and will be leaving us in the early summer.  We are excited for him and his opportunities, and are happy with the knowledge he has given us over the past three years.  His will be big shoes to fill, but we are confident that the future on the farm will be bright.