Just another Day on the Farm

Well first a update on Beaker-that little guy is just rock’n it back with his momma, he is growing, nursing, eating and is all full of himself.. sometimes you get really luck and if you can catch something early, it works out so much better then waiting to just see if it will work out on its own..

Well, you have heard me talking about the rising costs of grain and the fact that my piglets were born to a point in the wrong season (not knocking it, it was a wonderful joy to see them) but from a fresh food stand point, not so great..

So we are going to take something I have done on a small scale for the birds and for milking critters and take it to a much larger scale, I am going to be ramping up on sprouting fodder for the winter use.

I am planning on mainly using Barley but with a light mix of black Sunflower seeds, and wheat, along with a smaller amount of dried hay.. now you are most likely thinking, is it really worth the work..

To which I  say, ask me in a month LOL..

I just think the idea of taking one pd of seed and turning it into between six to 11 pds of fodder (the amount of grow back really seems to depend on who you read) but on average for my own trials before, it was around 8 pds of fodder to 1 pd of barley, any way you cut it that is a huge difference.. this has been tried before with success for large blacks pigs

And the health punch is not to be overlooked, this will allow me to finish off my piglets without corn, and allow them to be raised on what would be very much like having fresh summer time feeding on pasture and greens, perhaps not as close as I would like but I have dried nettles, burdock leaves, horseradish and I have a good amount of seeds from different things I have collected in the garden, radish, as well as dried Plantian seeds stems etc.

So what do you think, if you could not have pasture raised pork, how would you as a small farm/local meat buyer feel about buying winter pork that was raised on mainly fresh sprouted fodder..

I’m going to do it either way as that is what I want for my own pork, but I am interesting in here feed back on how buyers would feel about this, given that a number of my regular readers are in fact those typical buyers in their own local areas, I figure you are the perfect folks to ask..

Well, between the farm helpers and Dh and myself, many hours was spent emptying out the old brown shed, ripping out the shelves, the floor and the subfloor, cleaning the area around it..

It down to the bare bones and will be rebuilt from the ground up into a locking tack/harness, gear storage shed, I am still playing around with layout idea’s for it but the basic’s at the moment are a three shelf system at the back, two saddle tree’s on the right with hanging gear above them and harness across on the left with crates or work box’s under it..

I am quite excited about it to tell the truth and it will open up a nice space in other area to be used at some point, I didn’t think to get a proper before picture but I do have a finished emptied/gutted photo and will go from there..

Well, this morning I have great news, first is that Beaker is feeling so much better today, and will be heading back out to the barn, he got warmer up, well feed and finally today, he passed a normal stool!  He is alert and active and if I could move his great by myself I would take him down myself but I will wait till Dh gets home and get him, that way Miss Piggy won’t lose her milk and he will get back to being a growing healthy baby..

I was right, it was a small clumb of woodchips that had caused a blockage.. and with that passed he is straight backed, even sided and ready to join the pack again..

However, lets get the rest of the story, I feed him at five this morning, and again at 9 and then I headed out to go help with the ferrier at farm T’s and didn’t get back to my own farm till well after 11 and I popped into the house and Ah!!! someone had wiggled his side crate door open and I was greeted at the door by a happy to see me pack of hounds and a piglet. Opps..

Thankfully my farm hounds are awesome, not a mark on the little guy or on them, everyone seemed to have made friends while I was out and then were bonding.. but I had to catch him, and boy did the pups get worried when he cried.. my wonderful Black Goddress even whined in worry and then checked him over with her nose to make sure I had not hurt him..

Thankfully everything ended well, but what a start it was to see him come running with the rest of the hounds to the door to greet me LOL

I had promised myself that I would go riding for my 40th birthday, I had booked a afternoon ride for this coming weekend this spring at a place in Quebec, it never crossed my mind that I would be able to just walk out, call my horse, tack her up and go for a ride in my own pasture ON my birthday..

Thank you to everyone that helped make this dream come true but a extra hug goes to DH for his love and support in this!

A super cute short video of him singing me Happy Birthday in the pasture..

http://youtu.be/f1vLdTZqLqE

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/22/163257176/despite-protest-college-plans-to-slaughter-serve-farms-beloved-oxen

Dh and I had a interesting talk about this very subject and I wanted to share where we came down on it.. This is clearly a very personal subject to us, given that Girl is both family milk cow to be and draft animal.

So DH’s points are

• Didn’t see the logic in putting down the healthy male, he could be used/retrained as a single ox.
• the collage has been presented with a cost nuetral solution with the other one going to the sanctuary.
• The Sanctuary is better Public Relations,  he see’s it as Morels vs Public Relations

Now I see if different, I don’t think that healthy ox should be put down either, i believe that he could be retrained as a singe ox with little to no issues, but as for the other guy, I don’t think that a injury that can be managed is a good life, and I getthe collages point about not passing the buck in terms of his health care etc..

However that is where we also got non-PC, I say if you are going to put him down and the choice is between eating him or rendering him, I say, eat him..

So we took this to our own farm, if Girl needed to be put down at the age of ten to twelve, we both agreed that we might not be able to eat her ourselves at that point but we would certianly have her butchered after having her humanely put down, even if it was to feed the hounds/purrpots, we both really didn’t like the idea of wasting her well-raised humanely treated meat by putting her into the rendering system.

It was interesting to ask about Brandy, know I have and will eat horse meat, but idea of eating Brandy if something happened to her that meant she had to be put down gave me the same feeling as I got at the idea of Girl, I think it a waste to go to the render, and i could use it for the hounds/purrpots but I don’t think I could eat it myself in my current living conditions, by which I mean if I had a choice, I would not..

I hate to say it but Miss Piggy falls into the same way, I am attached to that big gal, just as much as I am to Girl or Brandy.

So where are you coming down on this “Hot Topic”

Thank goodness for big old dog crates, they have so many uses, right now they are holding a three week old piglet, who now has the name of Beaker, you see while he is better in the sense of not being so hunched over, he is still struggling to go #2, he is just a touch down overall this morning, and while he did eat a little, he is not as fast as normal, got stepped on by Miss Piggy and he once again dug himself into the bedding within min of being up, while the rest of the litter had breakfast and played but then he started shivering in his bedding and that was the end of that..

I caught him and he is now set up in the house with infloor heating, lots of fresh hay bedding, and he will have a number of soft warm meals prepared for him, and I will be able to track his poo’s, I hope to have him back out an with the litter in 24 to 48 hours, faster is better as I don’t want Miss Piggy to lose the milk on his teat, because then he will need to be in for at least a full week till properly weaned and back to the litter he goes.

He is a very unhappy tike at the moment but I know that its the best thing we could have done for him was to bring him in and be able to give him full time care/watch, he is sure a grunty guy and as you can imagine the Black Goddess (who adores baby anything) is trying hard to make friends and guarding his crate from the rest of the hounds.

Now I have to admit that Miss Piggy is a sweetheart of a pig, and I really don’t worry about her near as much as I do angelo when working in her pen as she has much better training and manners then he does, but I am still aware that with littles ones that even more care is required.

I decided that I wanted two things from the off-piglet, first being a temp, which required making him a pig in the blanket and taking that temp.. O MY GOD< can he scream and he got Miss Piggy so worked up in the pen next to us, that she was biting the 2 by 4th, she made this high grunting and all the other piglets went from their creep pen back to her and then she just paced and I swear piggy swore at me..

Needless to say, no temp, and he didn’t seem to mind the olive oil that he got put down in the back of his mouth, but when I checked his tummy, we were back to screaming.. its got movement and softeness, and I was able to check all his joints etc.. everything looks fine and boy is he a stong one when you are holding him.

I put down the warm, wet mushed cooked potato’s, cooked mixed garden greens, cooked chopped hard boiled duck eggs, some heaping spoons of yogurt and olive oil and everyone loved it, he had a couple nips so I guess he forgave me, I had to bribe Miss Pigggy and she was still giving me piggy dirty looks when I left.. I had better bring her a apple tonight to win back her sweet look..

I know that I have talked about this before in regards to other livestock but today its about my little piggy in the litter.. now, this is a big strong little boar piglet and yesterday, everyone was up and doing really well but this morning, when I put in their big armful of fresh green hay, which both Miss Piggy loves but so do the piglets, they started nibbling on it by a week old and so they get just as excited about it as their momma does..

Seven were up and rooting, quick little movements, straight backs and little wee grunts.. number eight was still sleeping.. hmmm  lifted head, and got up slowly.. this was not typical, clean eyes, clean nose, clean mouth, coat shiny and looks good.. walked slower and stiffer then normal, slightly hunched back with a bit of a swollen belly.. hmmm, slowly moved over and went #1, ok, then strained for a bit to go #2, but this was little, walked another few feet, then strained again.. hmmm, think I might know what at least part of the issues is..

Took a little nibble here or there and then was the first to dig in and snuggle down into the bedding to go back to napping.. everyone else is still up, eating and playing..

Close eye will need to be kept on this tike and plans are in the works to give a helping hand, I am going to cook up some cut up but with skin on potato’s, leaving them in the soupy/startchy water, till just warm, then I will dump in a goodly amount of yogurt and make sure he gets a good feed of some extra fiber, some warm in the tummy and some extra goodies in the natural bactera, the cow’s milk that the yogurt is made of will help make him a touch loose, which is just what we need at this point..

And then we watch and wait, and see how he does, keep you posted..

Wow, that’s all I can say, wow.. according to the province my house, farm and outbuildings have increased in value to the tune of 92,000 over the past four years.. now what this will really mean is that I will soon be seeing a increase in tax’s to go with..

I guess “if” you wanted to be silly and use your the value of your property as a way to get lines of credit etc, then its a good thing in that regards..

Speaking of silly, is the idea that just because they decide that is what its worth, that you could in fact sell for that amount..  Do I feel that we could sell right now and get the same amount we paid for it, yes, I do and perhaps even a bit more IF someone wanted to live and farm the way we do, but for alot of folks, my hugelbeds would just be a messy looking mound, my many small pastures are meant for folks that do things by hand, not for folks with tractors etc etc. If you don’t want the fruit tree’s, you are for sure not going to understand all the wild food forest plantings.. but if you could find the right buyer, I do honestly believe that you could get a little extra for all the many things we have done to improve the farm in this way.

I truly find it amazing that because my farm is farm rated and because we are in the middle size, not really a acreage, but not truly a typically 40 to 80 acre hobby farm, we get a higher rating on it per acre in value..hmmm

I think I will just enjoy my land and my home, and prepare myself for a increase in the property tax’s..