What do you call a pig with no legs?
A Ground Hog!
Farrowing ups and downs
I seem to be always writing about crops, and other things outside the barn, and very little about the pigs themselves. But last week was a little interesting in the farrowing (maternity) barn.
Last week saw some pretty wide ranging farrowing numbers. The first sow had 16 piglets, which is a fair number, but not that extreme. The next two sows had 2 piglets and 6 piglets each, which is awfully low, but I was able to average them out to 8 per litter, so that wasn’t bad.
Then the last sow had 19 piglets! 2 were stillborn and she laid on one, but that still left 16 good piglets, and of course, she farrowed a few days late, so it was to late to foster any to the earlier farrowing sows. Hopefully she can look after them till next weeks sows farrow, and hopefully I can find a home for a few of them on one of those sows.
Wheat’s Done, Barley’s Done (kindof)
Last Thursday and Friday were gloriously sunny days, and we were able to get our wheat finished. It was still a little damp from all that rain when we started, but it was nice by the time we finished Friday Afternoon. After a brief stop to adjust the combine settings, we got the one field of Barley done Friday too. Saturday saw me going off to good ol camp Quin-Mo-Lac to pick up Jenna and cousin Katie, and say hi to Kevin while he stays for another week. Not to be left sitting idle or anything, Dad finished the second field of Barley that afternoon, so that just leaves 100 acres or so of cousin Bob’s Barley to do. And straw to bale, and hay that we cut Thursday/Friday to bale…
Wheat Harvest and More Rain
Although it is raining again, we did have Wed. to Sat. without any! We managed to get Cousin Bob’s wheat harvested Thurs. and Fri. What started out at 21% moisture Wed. was down to 15% by Friday! All the moisture did make for great growing conditions for the Fusarium mold so the wheat ended up being downgraded to feed quality.
Sat. we got started on our own wheat, and just nicely got what we’d done unloaded before it started to rain too hard! Sounds like a few more days of wet weather will give way to more sun, so we should be able to get going again soon.
Painted Truck
The grain truck that we got last fall is a red colour, while the old box we put on it from the old truck is a nice dark green. So we figured it was easier to paint the box than the truck itself. With a little encouragement, we got two kids and two moms (one of them is a Grand mom) to “get ‘r done” It probably needs a second coat, and they didn’t have enough paint to do the inside too, but it looks pretty good. (and a lot less Green and Red Christmasy) Then Jenna added the name on the side, and the website on the back!
New Pork Cuts
Normally we start harvesting wheat about the last week of July, and sometimes we are done wheat and onto barley by the first of August. But this year I think the wheat is a couple of weeks away yet. We might still be going in September at this rate! (Although that has never happened before..) Maybe September will be a nice “Indian Summer” and make up for our lack of summer.
We do have time to get a few little projects done, but mostly we are fretting over whether we should still be in the pig business. You can only lose money for so long and it gets very frustrating.
We are dealing with a new smoke house, so we can now do peameal bacon, and really good sausage, as well as cottage rolls and picnic roasts. So that sounds good! (Haven’t got any back yet to taste test, but if you want to be in on the tasting, let me know!!)
Looking pretty (almost)
The sides of the coverall that open to allow air flow through the barn got kinda knocked around when the cover blew off back in April. The ones that we could open were just proped up ’till we could get them fixed.
So this week we finally got around to redoing them. The plywood was getting rotten as well, so we got some used sign plywood (great stuff) and replaced them. Now we just have to get the cable system all untangled so they can open and close!
Should have a new “farm picture” for the header up here soon!
Freezer up’s and down’s
We haven’t really had a freezer dedicated to pork, so when brother-in-law John was able to get one for free from his school, we jumped at it. As far as they knew, the only thing wrong with it was that the spring loaded lid wasn’t spring loaded anymore, and it was hitting kids on the head. We didn’t think this was a problem (we have hard heads perhaps?!) So after sitting in John’s old trailer for a few weeks until it made the trip to our place, we got it manuvered into Grandma’s newly-housecleaned-just-for-the-occasion “woodshed”. We plugged it in, and put in a few boxes of meat.
A few days later..
Grandma went to get something out of the freezer, and it didn’t feel cold. After a through checking over, it seemed like the freezer would run and then cut out, and certainly wasn’t actually freezing anything! So after farming out the meat to several freezers (thanks Bob and Andrea), and ordering a new one from good old Sears, the new one has been delivered and is now full. (and frozen!)
The bottom line is that we now have a fair bit of pork in the freezer on a regular basis. So if you are looking for something to eat for supper, stop in a grab something!!
Technical Difference!!
What is the difference between Bird Flu and Swine
Flu?
For bird flu you need tweetment
and for swine flu you need
oinkment
Knee high by the 4th of July?
Or here in Canada, knee high by the 1st of July. That is the old saying about whether the corn crop will be a good one. Well.. a lot of the corn is that high, it has really grown in the last 10 days, but there are certainly lots of spots where it is shorter than that, all within the same field! Every little “wet spot” seems to have been cool/damp enough that the corn is a little(or a lot) shorter there. Pretty uneven. If we get a decent summer, it should turn out ok. Time will tell.
The wheat and barley are progressing nicely, although they are fairly short, and the later planted stuff is very short. Not as much straw as usual.
The soybeans are looking ok. Again, they are a little off colour in the wetter areas, and they are not as tall as usual for this time of year, but they are coming along fine.
Hard to believe getting the combine ready to go for wheat is getting pretty high on the list of things to do. Another few weeks and it will be ready. We just finished planting! (or so it seems)