Twisted Acres

8/6/09

Handling hogs and pigs on a daily basis can a real challenge however it is not without its rewards.

Today however was quite the learning experience. Lets just say that you have to outsmart them, not over power them. While separating Big Uns and TT (my 800+ lb Landraces) I dropped some food inside Big Uns pen just short of being able to close his gate. I needed him to move over about a foot so I could close it. So instead of moving the feed or waiting I tryed pushing him over with my weight agaist his front shoulder. The result was a suprisingly quick shove back with a shockingly quick upper cut with his snout and 4 inch tusk , which resulted in a 3 inch gash in the calf of my left leg. Lesson #443-7 learned well. It could have easily been worse if I could not have quickly backed out of the pen thanks to the open gate. He did move, and I did close the gate, but the result was he finished eating, farted, got a drink of water, and I got to limp back to the house and repair my leg.

7/25/03

Wow! the 25th already. Where did the Month go? Sales have been understandably slow and the weather relentlessly hot and humid. We redug our little pond and put a new liner in it. The dogs and two pigs we have loose are loving it. It actually looked rather inviting this morning during feeding time.

It has been the month for piglets. We have 10 Yorkshires left and 20 or so Pot Belly's.  I have found that the absoulte best wormer is the Ivermectin 1% injected with a 22X3/4 needle. No pain, no squirming , and good results.  This is in lieu of pour on solutions that seem to be a waste of money considering the imediate and long term results. 

The project this week will be making Barrs out of Boars. This will be a daunting experience but is a necessarry evil. Once we get the hang of it we will be making sure that all of our stock is castrated and tusked. Making it better for our 4 H cutomers. Cattle will be next, as the fall will be here before we know it!

7/6/09

Is it hot enough? Good Gawd! We took a cruise down the St. Johns to Sanford to watch fireworks on the 4th. It was so hot that on the way back I nearly had to stick my head out of the boat to see. The windshield wipers were not moving the moisture from the windshield fast enough as the steam from the water was horrible.

Hence another commentary on keeping cool on the farm. We are up to going out to check on the pigs (Most vulnerable) 5 times a day. Twice at feeding morning and night and three times in between. They look forward to this as it always means special attention and water. They love the hose and a cold rinsing before retiring to a cool mud bath. It sure keeps their spirits up. They almost are as happy about cool down time as food time.  We are even giving our EMUs the same courtesy once a day. They make it look very refreshing and take full advantage of the fresh cool water. Similar to pigs actually.  The horses and cattle are content with shade as they have slower metabloisms. Not to say they don't enjoy a wash down but it is not a life or death thing for them at all.  However those not on automatic water get their water topped off once a day.

The rain has been plentiful and welcome this year so the mixed blessing of sauna like weather is accepted....like we have a choice. We hope everyone is staying cool , hydrated and happy as the Summer is on and will be for the next couple of months as we all know Summer here is a 4 month ordeal.  June throu September.

6/23/09

With the heat from Summer coming on we have been busy keeping everyone cool and healthy.

Sadly sometimes mistakes are made. Bulls eye our little Pot Belly mother and her last baby were killed by Louise and Thelma yesterday. Yes, a very upset Shirley, as her decision to put them together was a bad one. This comes after loosing several Silkes to a Coon the same week. Lessons are constant and even though the joys of a farm are many, so are disapointments. My screw up for the week or should I say month was taking 5 calves to the Cattle Auction ....lets just say it would have served us better to raise them until fall. However anyone farming knows these woes like these all to well.

The good news is that we have 10 awesome looking Yorkshires and more on the way! Also 18 Pot Belly's and more on the way as well! Tomatos are abundant and the laying hens are keeping up with our demands. We have cut back on the calves for the summer to make a little room for time on the river. Trying to add a little fish to our Pork & Beef rich diet.

6/17/09

Well the cattle craze seems to be easing off in leu of pigs.  Pigs are hitting the ground like crazy, Pot Belly's, Yorkshires, and maybe soon Landrace.  Calves have been interesting, but tiring. The summer weather is here and I am glad to be slowing down a little in reguards to keeping up with the bottle babies.

On the up side we did manage to get Bart into the freezer! Hurray! $2. per lb. packaged and ready for the grill. Now we have to decide which Yorkshire to keep for our other freezer as the fair pig we bought is gone and hot pockets just don't bring a smile to my face like a healthy Pork Chop or ham!

Just a word on the quality of young beef. My Dr. has reason to be concerned about my fat intake. In my defense for my love of beef. The young beef does not possess much fat at all. More like Venison. Maybe heart healthy by compairison. Well, that is going to be my spin on it when he asks about my diet....stay tuned....

5/27/09

Bovine Virus Diarrhea (BVD)   is a cattlemans nightmare. It is prevalant in calves. One calf can infect many others. Others can carry the disease and you would not know it. Further increasing the potential for loss of stock. Do they?, could they? Short of a post mortum autopsy we don't know.  Our efforts have been to purchase calves that do not show any symptoms and appear to be healthy. We vaccinate against BVD with a live virus once they are on the farm. However we have not found the silver bullet yet. Calves get scours. The weather may change the feed may be wamer or cooler, the wind may blow from the west too hard and there they go. Scours is not a disease but a symptom. A symptom of many possiblities. In an effort to eliminate the possiblity of BVD We will be testing.  This will require a quarantine period of a two weeks. While lab work is completed.  

We hope to have this in place by fall. Meanwhile, it is vaccinate, and be vigilant.

5/21/09

Well, Barts story has finally came to an end. Suprisingly it was an easy decesion and we are now eagerly awaiting his return from the butcher. He looked pretty damned good for a dairy bull of 13 mths. We shall see how the actual numbers look once we have him in the freezer. One thing I can say, after seeing how difficult range cattle can be to handle. Hand raising makes a huge difference in handling. Easy load, easy off. No problems what so ever. Whole whole program was to process him in a years time. We went back and forth with this as he was our first to raise to slaughter. I originally bought him for the freezer, but after bottle feeding him and going through the cute months we thought that we could not be so cruel, and a pet he would remain for the rest of his years...then came the adolesent attitude, which gave way to plan boneheadedness to down right dangerous to be around. He was not mean but unaware of his size and power. Once he would get started with his horns he would not stop. Not only with us but other animals as well. Typical Bull. We still wrestled with the idea for several weeks and finally woke up one morning, this morning, and saw it for what it was. A job well done. We had succeeded in our original intent and with only two hams left in the freezer the time was right. I hope to be ranting and raving about the great quality of meat and how much we are looking forward to doing this again. The next grower is Moo. He is a Holestein Cross and is rather large for his 5mths. He too is on the same Nutrena diet plan. I will know soon if any adjustments are necessarry. 

5/12/09

Harmony on the farm during the Summer Months can be a challenge.

With pigs, Emu, horses, cattle, goats, chickens, and dogs one could say we have a menagerie of animals. . Our property is like the Sahara with a few scrubs providing less shade than one would desire. The long periods of draught we have been experienceing have increased demand for water..  Water is key, fresh cold water, and plenty of it . We have found electrolytes to be helpful during the summer months and can be farm grade or as simple as a jug of gatoraid.

We have several large water troughs that are changed out every day around 2:00pm. The method is simple as the cooler water drops to the bottom and the warmer water goes over the sides. Swine we have found must have their mud to stay cool and even though it is an expense we are opting for leaving soakers hoses on in the pens to maintain a cooler environment. Last summer we had a couple of pigs stroke due to the tremendous heat. Emus love water as well. They like to sit and roll in the over flow from the water troughs.  Cattle do not show much concern, however, with calves it does not take much to induce sickness, so the hot water prone to baterial growth would be a absoulute disaster. Especially since they lack the common sense to hydrate themselves, hence electrolytes. Goats, dogs and horses are all more controled with their water intake. So long as fresh water is avialable they will insure that they stay cool and hydrated.

I have heard the scuttlebutt about metering water and imposing taxes on water usage. This like most government brainstorms, I am against. Charging money to use water will not increase the volume of our resources.

It is not right to impose a tax based on a theory.  If there was an actual issue with this resource I would hope that consideration of water bottling companys would not be on the table.

5/6/09

Cause and effect.

We have been selling bottle baby calves for a year now. More than we can count and have done well by this idea. Not a new idea but still one that we made our own. Recently we had a visitor (aspiring Politcian) come to our farm and purchase a couple of bottle babies. The next thing we knew, there where rival advertisements to ours,  with claims of the best Nurishment, and care given to their animals for sale for less money.

At first we thought this was horrible. We had worked so hard to carve a nitch. These people are plagerizing our idea right down to how their ads were placed! These are typical politicians at work! With not one original idea or concept! Riding on the backs of others for profit.

Well, my wife and I concluded that this is what America is all about. The freedom to compete. A friend of mine Steve , developed a special bottom for a speed boat back in the early 80's. A rival Reggie, stole his idea and concept and implemented it in his line of boats. Reggie out sold Steve and prospered. However no matter how ethically wrong Reggie was, Steve was blessed, and Reggies success was a complement to this fact.

So the cause was to help save dairy bull calves, and maybe make a little profit  The effect was that people took notice, and more baby calves are being saved!

4/22/09

Good Farm hands are hard to come by. It takes an extreme amount of awareness and ever present vigilance. 

Today I give thanks to our dogs.

Yep, that's right. Those pesky barking, howling, never late for dinner, hole digging. flea scratching mutts that we love so much.

They make companies like Brinks Home Security and First Alert seem pointless. They have a knack at keeping the vermin away from the feed house, and out of the yard.  Not to mention the herding abilities and strong opposition to the bear traffic. They hate Buzzards, UPS, and Government officials, and will put on their best game faces for a hand out. When no one else wants to go with me to the feed store, the dogs will fight over the chance to join me. If I am feeling blue, one will always come and share my pain.

Cooking out always puts them on their best behavior and the game faces come out as they are putting  on their most lovable expressions so not to be forgotten. They hate to see us leave and they love it when we return. These animals are tops in my book.

4/14/09

Well, it has been about 2 1/2 yrs that we have had our farm. Many ups and downs. We started this with nothing more than an idea and enough backbone to keep it going. We have met many really great people and had the privelage of seeing many great farms. From the Double wide and acre of land to the Manson and thousands of acres.  However rich or poor everyone we meet has a love of animals and enjoys the freedom of being able raise animals for personal or financial gain.

A freezer full of pork or a thousand acres of cattle for the market. The mind set is the same.

Is it easy? Hell No! Your days start early and end late. The weather nearly always presents challanges and feed prices go up and down like the stock market.

However it is very rewarding. 

We have enjoyed many births and also the excitement of getting new stock. We have seen so many funny incidents such as Emus and Cattle eating together. Or a pig that insists that it is a family member, we even have a 800lb pig that likes to run with our 4 wheeler and will play ball or frisbee.  Most of the time there is simply a subtle air of peacefulness that I have never experienced.

Right now I have to quit writting however because there is yet another tornado on the ground and headed in our general direction. I can hear the storm line moving closer. 9:20am 4/14/09

3:56am 4/15/09

 Alrighty then, we made it once again. No damage and no more tornados. One is enough for a lifetime.

This last year we  managed to get into the calf sales. It has been fast moving and profitable. However with it comes much more work than most animals. Cattle are easy once they reach a certain age. However as calves they are a constantly needy.  Aside from bottle feeding a great expense. There are drugs to make them breath, drugs to make them digest their food, drugs to make them bright eyed, drugs to keep them hydrated etc, etc...again at great expense.