seasons

Do you hear what I hear?

Sshh......It's coming from around side of the barn....

Maisie knows what it is!

It's the sound of spring!

Today we are celebrating the arrival of the first chicks for 2009!

A sure sign that Spring is coming is the birth of babies on our farm. Last week we had 3 sows farrow (have baby pigs) in the barn .

There aren't many things cuter than a pile of pigs. We are especially partial to pigs that  are multicolored.

You may have heard stories about mean sows and how scary they are. But our girls are watchful and protective,  and never vicious.

Well, actually there was one big girl who was ...but there's no room around here for mean animals so she's gone now.

Is there anything cuter than a pile of pigs?

I think not....

Fall is perfect time to reflect on what worked last year

and what didn’t.

Lesson learned….cheap feed is not cheap for long. We were penny wise-and pound foolish. 

The price of soy beans had skyrocketed in the spring sending feed through the roof…this after we didn’t think it could possibly go any higher.

We shopped around for a better feed price than our normal supplier offered. We had always paid top dollar for that very best quality feed, but a very reputable feed supplier was trying to ease financial problems for farmers by selling an all natural feed with different ingredients. It didn’t contain any of the nasty stuff we won’t put into our animals.  It was still the same protein content we needed, and the feed man said that the animal nutritionists said that this was an acceptable feed recipe. So, we ordered a bunch of it. Sadly, what looks like a great idea on paper oftentimes is not.

At first we blamed our troubles on the cool wet spring. Then, perhaps, we thought it was some of our new genetics. But by the end of July we eliminated everything else and narrowed it down to the new feed.  The animals just didn’t like it, weren’t eating much of it and as a result weren’t growing anywhere near as quickly and vigorously.

 We switched back to our regular feed man and who had always said that no matter the cost he wouldn’t compromise his recipe. He told us over and over again that he had simultaneously raised pens of hogs on three different recipes of feed. Though his recipe was more expensive, it paid for itself in yield and health. 

 That’s actually one of the reasons we initially started using his feed: his no-compromise attitude.

In a few days after the new (old) feed went out, we saw much better appetites and brighter, shinier eyes in our animals.

Interestingly, having a good relationship with our chicken processor helped to confirm our suspicions. They told us the last time we brought them birds that they weren’t digesting the feed properly.

Another good thing was that I had an opportunity to talk with the man who sold me the less expensive feed. I was able to tell him why, though the experts said the animals would do well on this mix, it really didn’t work well. I was able to give him impressions of the appearance of the animals as well as measurable results as far as consumption and growth. He seemed to appreciate our honesty and probably learned something, too.

Like my dad always said, “Buy cheap, get cheap.”

 Funny…..The older I get, the smarter he seems.

Another important part of fall is moving animals around to their winter quarters.

Our watering systems, for the most part are just hoses strung across the ground all over the place.They already are freezing at night and not thawing until mid afternoon.  So we need to make sure that everything is either close enough to the barn to make watering easier, or somewhere we can haul water to with the tractor.

We also need to fence new spots or mend fence that’s in disrepair. Fencing seems to never end around here.

We also have to separate our beef cattle. The bred cows (which should give us calves in the spring) are separated from the animals that need to get a lot more feed. Those are animals that are growing or being fattened to be butchered. Their feed is all natural with no antibiotics, hormones, animal by-products, or synthetic proteins - just corn and soybeans and some vitamins and minerals. They are in a pasture with grass and they are also eating good hay.

We have finished our late summer farrowing -that’s when mama hogs (sows) have their babies (pigs).  We will keep some to feed out to butcher weight, sell a few to a neighbor who wants to raise his own pigs, and bring any extras to the sale barn.  We have to plan where all the pigs (sows, boar, and hogs) are going to spend the winter.  That means we need to move shelters, feeders, and fences around.

This all needs to get done before Deer Season starts.

I don’t know about your family, but my family has 3 hunters and between deer hunting and making firewood, weekends in November are spoken for.

It's Fall.

Night comes earlier every day, and the mornings are nippier and come more slowly.  It's time to button things up around here.

We are wrapping up chicken season.  I have made a date with the Nelson family so the birds will get processed right on schedule.  After a few days, I go back to Brainerd and collect the lovely frozen chickens. All of them were pre-ordered, so shortly I’ll call these folks and make arrangements for pick ups or delivery.

This will mark the end of chickens until April when we’ll start again with chicks. Those chickens will be ready for purchase the end of June or beginning of July. (Last year, I had a waiting list for the first batch. So interested customers probably should call or email us anytime to get on the list. I have already started it!)

Frankly, I am glad to see chicken season come to an end, but I know I’ll be really excited to see it start again next spring.

I am also putting together the cutting instructions and delivery schedule for our customers who ordered half and whole hogs for fall.  I always enjoy this chance to talk with our customers. Fraboni’s in Hibbing will be doing nearly everyone’s smoking this year. They always do such a nice job, and they have been a pleasure to work with.

So much of the time we are working away here on the farm alone, and sometimes the work or the weather is unpleasant. But when we deliver the meat to our customers, and visit with them for a few moments, it sort of recharges us.

 You know what I mean?

It especially is great for Shannon, because generally I am the one who talks to folks on the phone and at the Farmers’ Markets. I get to hear the enthusiastic feedback from customers. Delivery days are when Shannon gets to shake customers’ hands and hear, first hand, the nice things our customers say.

  Frankly, it’ll also be nice to ease up the work load for a little while and really nice to cut down the feed bill –as these animals get closer to butcher weights, they eat and drink….alot!!

There are lots of other fall tasks. I'll write about that in a couple days in Part 2.