Pigs on pasture

 Just after the fourth of July now we look forward to hosting a tour group of employees of one of our stores in the Twin Cities next week.  A main attraction will be the two groups of feeding pigs we have started in the pasture.  We are pleased with the results so far and look forward to showing them and talking to the group about pig production.

The first group is on last year's winter cattle feeding area and part of the reason for that is the hope that the hogs will tear apart the left over uneaten hay helping it to move from waste to manure to soil fertility.  They are doing well at that and the hope is that we will see widespread green grass throughout the area because of it as the next growing season swings into gear.

A wonderful and partly expected side benefit of this kind of housing/production is the excellent health of the hogs.  They are half grown to market weight now and losses have been minimal.  Growth seems to be fast as well.  They have coped well with the periodic heat this summer, thanks in part to the sprinkling and mud making we have caused.  Movement is key here to keep them from making the holes too big to cope with in subsequent seasons.  It has so far not been an issue.

The second group Andrew moved out is smaller and also has been started on a regular steamed rolled oats factor in the ration.  This is Andrew's nod to the old guy advice he is getting and it seems to be working.  So far no losses and the pigs steadily improve in appearance.

The old guy in question is none other than me.  I am pretty fixed in the opinion that hogs need a regular small inclusion of oats in the ration when they are little and that the sow herd should be maintained  on a ration at least twenty five percent oats by weight.  This is how we-meaning I-used to do it and it seems to me to maintain healthy pigs and sows.   Minnesota farms formerly produced oats as a major thing.  That of course was when we used horses and mules for tractive power.  But not feeding a team is no excuse for not growing oats on a hog farm.  Farmers talk constantly about a third crop for the rotation.  Perhaps growing the oats instead of buying it from Canada is a partial solution.

Getting the pigs out of the pasture and to market is the next hurdle and I will keep you posted on how that goes.  We are optimistic. 

pastures

 The good health of the group of feeding pigs we put to pasture in mid April is little short of astounding.  Much of pig disease is respiratory, which we knew of course since we have a history of producing pigs in pasture.  Therefore, pretty generally the pigs do better if they live in the sunshine and fresh air.  Any kind of confinement, even the loose hoop house production we use can have its issues.  The hoop houses are better than all alternatives but pasture, and necessary when pigs need to be supplied twelve months per year.

Now there are problems of course.  But they are all logistics issues.  Pigs need shelter, so we put a large hut out there, to which we can add several smaller ones as the pigs grow.  They need extra shade, which is provided by pulling a hay rack out there.  Self feeders must have lids that can be fastened down tight, because some of our rains come complete with high winds.  We installed several taps into the cattle watering system that runs through the entire pasture so that water can be automatic.

Currently we are transporting feed to the pastures using some of the four wheel drive equipment we have on hand anyway.  In future we will need to provide approach roads from various angles to assure that we can usually get the feed truck out there which will simplify matters considerably.

It is a pleasure to see our system work better since we decided to take half a loaf, so to speak, and use the pastures when weather permits.  There is a sense in which we have bent our operations to quit fighting nature, and doing that on the farm wherever and whenever possible always makes the operation go better.  Nature can be a stern taskmaster, but also a good and dependable friend.  We need to keep learning that! 

Pigs on pasture

 Andrew decided this year to try again to use the pastures in the hog production, even though we need production all year around and it is too cold for pigs in pasture in winter this far north.  The thinking is that several of the six groups of piglets farrowed each year could be fed in pasture, thus freeing up the usual feeding areas for a significant period to allow the level of disease microbes to decrease and thus making health easier to maintain year around. 

We moved them to pasture in the paddock where the cattle had been fed in winter about mid April.  In the three weeks since moving out, the pigs have dug into the feed supplied and really begun to shine with health.  As of now, they are confined to their shelter plus a generous area of the grass with electrified poultry wire.  This is more to keep predators out which we fear might be a problem when the pigs are small.  In a few more weeks, we will construct a single wire giving them several acres to run in.  Pigs grow fast.  We hope for the coyotes to stay away from somewhat larger pigs.  They always did with the sows.

We do our pig feeding in shelters with a large quantity of straw for them to play in.  It is a good system, the best we can devise for year around use.  But nothing beats pasture when it can be available.  I get a lift every day from watching them play.  We hope this summertime practice works out.

years ago

How things have changed in the sixty years since I left this farm for college! Our former American middle class is on its way out.  A few predator types at the top of the economy have decided to corner all of the world's wealth.  Every one else is on a slow slide to the bottom.  So much so that my farm organization, Farmers Union, decided to feature a former ranch kid who told and sang about his issues with bipolar disorder, especially the extreme depression part of it, at the National Convention.  He has had a real struggle with trying to stabilize himself to the point he could live a decent life.  It was a heartfelt and wonderful session.  It touched me.  Part of the reason though, was that I thought that his fight against depression individually applied as well to the generalized depression we Americans fight on a daily basis.

He ended with some of Roger Miller's long ago hit: "King of the Road".  I thought 40 years ago that this was just a fun and bouncy hit song.  This time it was different.  I heard the pain under the bouncy lyrics:"  . . .trailers for sale or rent. . .rooms to let, fifty cents. . .I smoke old stogies I have found, short and not too big around, I'm a man of means, by no means King of the Road. . .third box car midnight train. . ."

But this won't do.  People living like this need a hand up.  And that means someone to give them that hand.  That means us.  We must take back what has been taken from us, so that we can.  We must live now as if helping and looking out for others is the most important thing we do, because it is. 

Farming

 It is not easy to be happy about agriculture today.  For my neighbors, their soybean market has been given away by rancid domestic politics.  They await something of a gift from the government, something they really do not want, but can hardly turn down, given the circumstance.  Farm debt is up.  Fuel prices are skyrocketing due to Israel's and our war against Iran.  Fertilizer prices will soon head for the moon due to shipping difficulties in the Strait of Hormuz.  

Our state has been attacked by the authoritarians.  Minneapolis fought hard and valiantly against ICE, trying to protect terrified inhabitants using no weapons, but the damage caused there, as well as in the rural areas will cost the state millions over the coming years.

Last year like 2024 was very wet for the first part of the summer, and then dry.  In 2024 we lost our corn crop, most of the year"s pig feed, that had to be replaced out of the checkbook.  This year we lost the winter rye feed grain crop.  Much of the farm was flooded for much of the summer.  The fence chargers would not hold the cattle.

 And the worst result of all this is that it has become a battle to maintain a sense of caring for the community.  This we cannot do without.  This we must have.  We cannot let government be the cause of estrangement between us and our neighbors.

 Our truck will once again make its regular deliveries.  We will continue to work on our "farm to school" project.  We will continue sales from our farm shop and to rural outlets we have worked to put together.  We will continue.  Despair is not an option.

We know that many others are affected as are we.  We know it is going to be difficult for some to pay the slightly higher cost of some of our products.  We understand this and hold no grievance about it.

Farmers understand that there are times when it is critical to keep moving and to try to make things come out even against tall odds.  Farmers often face an uphill battle, with weather and bad markets.  But farms, especially livestock farms, teach that quitting is not an option.  The sun will rise tomorrow and the animals will need feed and our care and attention.

The best way, maybe the only way, through a disaster is to keep going, keep putting one foot ahead of the other.  

We appreciate all of you, our customers.  If you must back away for a time we understand that.  Know that you will always be welcomed back.

Take care

Our best to you:      Jim, LeeAnn, Josh and Cindy and all our families. 

ICE

 We are keenly aware that our customers are a wide variety of people representing a wide variety of thinking.  We expect no one to take a side in the current troubles in Minneapolis as a precondition of accessing our meats. But we do think that there is room for everyone to regret and try to ease the pain of those who are affected by government actions against the Twin Cities and indeed Minnesota as a whole.  Our rural area has been impacted as well.  As a farm and company we will continue to deliver as best we can, including by driving our truck into the Twin Cities as scheduled.  We neither expect nor seek trouble. We simply want to honor the commitments we have made.

It is our fervent hope that the current stress and suffering be over for all our friends and neighbors.  Take care, all of you.  As will we here at Pastures A Plenty. 

glacier

 This year we find out again about the wonders of livestock work on the glacier like ice mother nature has provided us.  We have had since the first snowfall the regular alternation of snow fall and freezing days and thawing days that rapidly turns snow cover into ice.

And how to do the chores?  Add on spikes, of course!  Staying in the house, as the weather man cautions, is not an option.  Avoiding a spell in the hospital in traction from a fall becomes very desirable.  The animals need attention and immediately, or very soon, that need becomes job one.

You see, when you take on livestock farming, if you have the older understanding of the farmer's role, you have assumed a calling.  It is not dissimilar to having a child.  When you do this, in either example, some things become non optional.  Like a child that needs the care it needs, no matter what, the livestock make that kind of demand.  You have made a deal with the world or with your understanding of it.  The use of the livestock for food to sustain our lives requires an absolute adherence to the care and feeding of that livestock. There should be nothing careless or offhanded about that.

This understanding is older.  And it is one of the things that modern farming with its illusions that animals are merely some kind of machine for our use and satisfaction has left in the past.

Like so many of the things we have left in the past, there is a cost.  Carelessness in this will cost us too much of our humanity.  Eating carefully assumes that we take responsibility for careful husbandry of the lives we mean to take for food.