Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Piggies Moving Up in the World

Christmas was wonderful with lots of great food, (many thanks to daughter-in-law, Chef Tab, who made us a scrumptious breakfast) special time with family, and gifts that were extremely thoughtful and generous. 

But as happens every year, December 26th comes along and farm work beckons. Pigs needed bigger housing. 

Our current crop of feeder pigs are now four months old and growing unlike weeds. Weeds tend to grow UP while these little porkers are growing WIDE, as intended.

They are a group of five Red Wattle crosses we purchased outside of Springfield, Illinois back in September. The cost was fabulous at just $20 each since full Red Wattle feeders can easily run $100 per head. This group was a bit underweight and we were prepared to lose the smallest one, but still we were willing to take the chance since the price was good. 


We got them home, put them on organic ground grain and raw milk from our lovely cow Liz. Within two weeks these babies were thriving. Even the smallest one rapidly gained ground. He is in fact now, our second largest, the gray hog in the picture above. We attribute this positive growth and robust health to a few things: lots of room outside in the fresh air to run and dig, organic feed (free of GMO grains, antibiotics or hormones), deep bedding for warmth and comfort, and raw milk for protein. 




Today we moved our larger Hog Condo into the pigs lot, as they are outgrowing their original petite hutch seen above to the left. Keith used our Kubota tractor and heavy chains for the task. This larger home has been used as a farrowing hut for our full grown sows back in the days when we had our "farrow to finish" operation on our old farm. One sow and her litter would get this larger condo, thus the "Maternity Ward" labeling. Now we just buy feeder pigs at 6-8 weeks, in both the spring and the fall, and raise them for our own meat and meat for a few family members. 





You can see that this larger hutch has had some serious use over the years. Just after I took this picture Keith boarded up the holes on the side and added a large piece of plywood along the bottom to keep winter drafts out. The hogs never seem to mind that the wood is a mixed variety and recycled. 

 In a few days, after this group gets used to the upgraded digs, we'll fence off the area around their old place, clean up that area, pull out posts and store everything until the next group comes in this spring. We like to move each group of pigs to different areas of the farm so as not to spread any possible parasites from one group  to another. They also do an excellent job of tilling and fertilizing the earth of any new site, and getting it ready for whatever crop we might put in that area after they move on.  

Soon we'll contact the locker and make a processing date for these five, probably end of March. This is a good thing, because we are almost out of pork chops and bacon. 

22 comments:

  1. Such a wonderful creature; the Pig. It also produces some of the world's best tasting food. Well done to you two, that's exactly how they should be kept. I bet your bacon sandwiches are amongst the best in the world!

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    1. Oh they are! Especially when we have our own tomatoes and lettuce with the bacon on a slab of my homemade bread, and my homemade mayo as well. We are spoilt for food choice here.

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  2. Gosh, they look good, Donna. They look happy too. That's always a good sign.

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    1. I do believe they have many good things to write home about, yes.

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  3. My BIL was a butcher from the age of 15 to 65, he's just retired. He could look at the animal and meat and tell whether the animal had been stressed in shipping what they ate everything. I think it's great to eat meat with no antibiotics which I think is a time bomb and not GMO fed. Plus they have a happy life and then make good eating.

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    1. Well done your BIL! A good butcher is a treasure. In addition to the organic feed and lack of antibiotics, we also do not clip teeth or dock tails. My father docked my tail once, man did that hurt.

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  4. Hi Donna :) Merry belated Christmas to you and Keith!! :) It's always nice to see life on your farm. The pigs are so big already, but what do I know? I'm sure they'll double in size?

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    1. They do grow super fast which makes them a great homestead animal to raise. They weigh about 30 pounds when we buy them and at butchering time they will often top 250 pounds or about 8 times their purchase weight.

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  5. Nice. There's nothing like having meat in the freezer that you raised yourself! Glad you had a happy holiday, too. -Jenn

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    1. Our freezers Jenn, are located in the new barn so I often walk 100 feet or so to "shop" for our meals. Not a bad gig.

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  6. What will you plant on the old patch? I love moving animals on to fresh ground but within days it's muddy again!

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    1. We're talking about rye or wheat this year. We grow all our own meat and lots of our veggies but still buy stale flour at the grocery store. I'm ready to grow our own grains. Wish I could figure out a way to grow coffee here!

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  7. So nice to raise your own meat and know actually what you are eating :) Nice that you have the heavy equipment to move your animal house around like that, too.
    Here's to a wonderful new year filled with good health and a full freezer :)
    God bless you,
    Connie :)

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    1. Thank you Connie. We do love our Kubota tractor, have had it over 10 years. It is such a true workhorse and so easy to maneuver.

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  8. Do you know what model your tractor is? We are looking at purchasing a tractor.

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    1. It's a Kubota L 4330, bought in 2006 for about $28,000, back in the day when we had big income...and big expenses. :) I highly recommend it. They have great resale value and require little maintenance.

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  9. Belated Christmas greetings, Donna, and from your post, it certainly was a good one celebrated with family, food, and fun...as they should be spent. I do like a good Balat and yours sounds wonderful. And while the pigs will eventually go to the locker, they did have a good life on your farm. Happy New Year to you and Keith.

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    1. And to you as well! I'm looking forward to 2019. We have tons of work here to do and so far, fingers crossed and salt tossed back over my left shoulder, the health to do it.

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  10. We haven't raised pigs for years, I miss them. Hubby not so much. I'm looking forward to 2019 also.

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    1. We loved our numerous sows and two or three boars and the frequent litters they had but we did not love the room they required, the worry over lost piglets during farrowing, the occasional surly boar. Now, we enjoy the decreased stress of raising just a few piglets twice a year. Everything, and every farmer, has its' season.

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  11. Happy New Year!
    Curious how you price your pork for family and friends? My husband just told them our COST (assuring me that his brother would pay a fair amount above), but they just paid cost. I was a little annoyed because I think 6 months of my work is worth something, so that's the last time I leave it to someone else to 'be fair'. How, I wonder, is this type of situation handled by other small producers feeding family & friends?

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    1. Because we feed expensive certified organic feed and keep our pigs outdoors, and feed them milk from our cow who is also fed certified organic hay, we charge family and friends the same price, $4.00 per pound hanging weight. This is much higher than supermarket pork or confinement hog pork but our quality is much higher as well. Our family fully understands the work involved and they are willing to pay us to do it. We do however, gift our adult children with meat for special events, birthdays, or days that they provide us with labor here. A pound of bacon goes along way!

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