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!

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)