Pasture Song

A couple of weeks ago at the urging of my friend Terra Brockman from The Land Connection, I wrote an op-ed piece for the NY Times. It was in response to an article written by Blake Hurst of the Missouri Farm Board. In a nutshell, he saw no real issues with confinement hog farmer and I disagreed. His article was published, mine was not.

Maybe he's just a better writer?

But the whole issue continues to weigh heavy on my mind as we've had several outdoor farrowings the past 6 weeks. I would be dishonest if I implied that pastured hogs are filled only with joy and light. Sometimes farrowing outside the barn goes sour, but we had a beautiful case of success last week.

Meet Dot.

As you can see by the size of her head she's no lightweight. A crossbred we have had for several years we bred her to our new boar Wickham Farm Wally . When she was about a week from her due date we moved into a large pasture of her own with a large hutch of our own. There was no way she would fit into the smaller hogcienda's Keith built, as they work best for smaller first time mommies.

Her babes (12) were born on a cool (25 degrees) calm night. We did not assist her, we only monitored her from a distance. In fact Keith did not feed her for 24 hrs. Why? Because we have learned the hard way that the more your disturb a recently farrowed sow the more likely they are to gobble up their own babies. It is not vicious. It is their way of protecting them.

After being left completely alone for 24 hours she was fed and watered. 48 hrs later we counted only 11 babies. No investigation was done. We chalked it up to "natural causes"

From the edge of her pasture we could see and hear lots of activity and on day 4 babies were peeking noses out of their safe home and mom was relaxing. On day 7 we loaded Dot up for a ride in the livestock trailer.

You know what is coming don't you? Don't worry. No tutorial this time.

Moving her to the other side of the farm where she would be less likely to hear her little ones, we entered the pig cave and started counting sacks. We had five pairs. We took them outside of the hutch so any extra blood is not spilled in the nest area. About 15 minutes later, yes about three minutes per pig, enough for betadine before, two small cuts with new blades each time, betadine after the procedure and some ear scratching , castration was complete and we had them all back in their nest.

Mama was released.

She knew something was up and headed straight home.

Tip of the day. Never get between a mama and her babies.

She checks them all and within minutes they are cuddling up to her for comfort. Nursing helps release chemicals in the piglets bodies which help vessels contract and bleeding to cease.

Notice how she has all her bedding piled up in the back? How it is so high behind her rump? By making their nests so deep and building them over rotting manure underneath they ensure natural warmth. Coupled with her own natural body temp of 103 the babes have a very cozy home. The front of the hutch faces east as we get so many of our winds, rains and snows from the west.

Soon the piglets they are all running about and already starting the healing process. We feel strongly and our pigs would agree that raising them and yes, farrowing them, outside on pasture is much healthier and totally more humane than than sadly what the other 95% of all hogs must endure in the USA.

Please note. The above is NOT a picture distributed by PETA. It came from the pork industry itself. If this is the photo they want to be shared can you imagine the photos they want kept secret?

Oh baby !

Last night was an eeire and weird sort of night. Rolling clouds, bright full moon, breezes too warm causing the midlife farmwife to swoon. Sorry.  The last time I "swooned"  was 1975 and I'm pretty sure it was not romance related.

So, the sky was very Fall like, but last I looked it was still February in Central Illinois. Something is up, I thought.

This morning when Keith did chores he found this wonderful sight

Our crossbred sow Dot with her FOURTEEN piglets ! She looks very comfy and satisfied doesn't she ? I always had my babies just ONE at a time and I know I never looked this good after delivery. She farrowed in one of the custom made hutches Keith custom made this past summer. Its a great design with plenty of room for mom and babes and an area in the back that babies can snuggle into but remain safe from mom accidentally lying on them.

See the boards (two 2x4's nailed together) behind Dot ? And the way the hutch roof angles towards to bottom of the hutch.? Both these measures help decrease losses due to crushing. Those and the fact that mom can come in and out of the hutch as she pleases with lots of room to roam outside. Ideally we would have them farrowing in the woods, if we had any woods, but we do not so we do the best we can with the pasture and the hutches we have. With each version of this farrowing hutch Keith tweaks a part of the design and our survival rates improve. Another decade or so and we'll have this hog raising thing licked...chewed ? Smoked ?

Ooops. I forgot to thank Mad Maxx our Red Wattle Boar and daddy to these piglets. What a great job he did of passing down his Red Wattle coloring. Tomorrow we'll count wattles.

Babes in the woods

Woke to a gorgeous, crisp, sunny morning and found this:

A brand new litter of 12 piglets ! Congratulations to mother Dot and father Mad Max. Dot is a crossbred we purchased last year from the Wettstein Organic farm in Congerville, Illinois  and Mad Max is full Red Wattle which we purchased from Dot and Brian Jordon of Kiss My Grass Farms in Indiana.  This is therefore Mad Max's first sired litter.  This is also our first litter born completely ouside. (Special thanks to Walter Jeffries of Sugar Mountain Farm for all his on line education in this area.)  Litters born last winter were in the big Hogcienda Keith had built. Dot could have chosen that area as well this time but instead went to the far north end of her pasture and picked this very private , cozy spot.

To get to her you have to walk through chest high grass and weeds. We had noticed Dot going in circles last evening, pulling up weeds and knew she was making a nest, yet at 0630 her nest was a little hard to find. Since we have been very hands on with our sows this summer, Dot greeted us with a few grunts but felt no need to jump up or charge us to protect her litter. Close up shots were easy to take. So everyone, lets raise a glass of raw milk and toast all animals on pasture, where they should be.