Wordless Wednesday: Crazy Bout Cows

My dad at the halter and me with the ribbon :)

Ever since I was a little girl I've been crazy about cows, horses and boys - and that order has shifted over time (obviously I'm not boy-crazy anymore .... well except maybe Paul Walker!)

Paul Walker (of Varsity Blues fame) - grr baby grr

I grew up going to all the cow shows with my parents - the first one of the season was always the Spring Dairy Expo (SDE) in Columbus, Ohio. Well guess what - it's this weekend! And it's very rare that I've missed a year. In fact, last year, I attended the show at 23 weeks preggo. Luckily, my pops was there to help me out - washing, feeding, bedding, clipping, etc. It was freezing cold (and even snowed), but we had a great time!

Of course, this will be Baby RayRay's first SDE and hopefully we can make a trip out to see my milking cows, which are housed on a family dairy farm east of Columbus. Stay tuned for a future post!

Spring Dairy Expo last year - below freezing temps and snow. I had to wear my bib overalls the entire week, but because of my lil belly I couldn't zip them up. At the time it was pretty funny looking and not many ppl knew what was going on with my wardrobe!

There's actually two heifers here but the little one - Petra - is being hidden by the older heifer - Carolina

A Real Farmwife's Take on the Cycle of Life

Since I have lived on a farm just about my entire life, I am well aware of the cycle of life. The birth of baby calves or pigs is absolutely fascinating to watch and death is often sad and tear-felt as I can recall many teary-eyed moments losing some of my favorite cows to sickness, old age or injury. But as a farm wife, I have to remind myself it is the cycle of life.

So I thought I'd run through quickly how the cycle of life works on our hog farm here in central Indiana.

Breeding

1. We use artificial insemination to breed our female pigs (gilts) - they have a cycle just like we do and my father-in-law is the one on the farm who follows their cycles very closely and breeds them at the appropriate timing.

Gestation and Farrowing

2. Once we confirm that our pigs are bred via an ultrasound by our local veterinarian, the gilt has approximately 114 days of gestation (pregnancy) or 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days to gestate.

Then we move the gilt into a farrowing (birthing) crate a few days before she is scheduled to have her pigs. The farrowing crates are excellent for individual care of both the sow (after she has pigs, we refer to her as a sow - sorta like mother for pig) and her piglets. We can feed and treat her individually and she doesn't have to fear any aggression from a boss hog. The crate also protects the baby pigs from getting laid on and helps direct them to their momma so that they can nurse. Generally, we average 10 pigs per litter. But unfortunately, there is about a 1 percent death loss due in part to the mechanics of labor. But we do our best to assist the sow in any way that we can.

Processing and Weaning

3. We "process" the baby pigs giving them shots of iron, tagging their ears and clipping their tails when they are 1-3 days old and "wean" them from their mother - the sow - at 17-24 days old. Agains, pigs are very aggressive and sometimes even mean animals - we clip their tails because if we don't - the other pigs will bite them off. I know ... meanies! Check out this story of one of my very first encounters with a pig.

We rebreed the female sow back in about 5 days and then she begins the cycle of life once again. The baby pigs from her litter are then loaded on a truck to get started on a grain diet in the nursery finisher at another site on our farm.

Finishing

4. The weaners as we like to call them advance through various stages of feed until they are considered market hogs when they are about 254-280 pounds. There is also a 1 percent death loss in the finishing (as they grow to market weight) cycle- normally this can be attributed to aggression from other hogs or illness.

Then this piggie goes to market

5. When the pigs reach market weight (265-280 pounds), they are sent to the processing facility and this is when it gets difficult for me, sometimes, I'll admit it. But it's the cycle of life. The main reason that we raise hogs is to provide American's with a safe and affordable supply of pork products including bacon, ham, pork loin and sausage. So death is just part of the deal. It's not always a pretty picture, but that's reality folks. These are food production animals and we take great care of them until they are ready to complete the cycle.

Please check out my friends and other Real Farmwives of America for their take on "The Cycle of Life."

Wordless Wednesday: An Early Interest in Farming?

Baby RayRay is definitely a little farm girl in the making as this weekend she enjoyed flipping (I mean tearing and chewing!) through the pages of Big D's Progressive Farmer magazine. LOL! When Big D got home later that evening, he blamed the dog for what his sweet little angel did to his magazine. Poor Gracie!

Fabulous Spring Splurge Time!

I am so excited for spring that I splurged and bought the cutest of cute spring jackets from Overstock.com!

Since most of the time my purchases include grain and hay for the horse and cows and diapers and baby food for Baby RayRay, I thought hey ... it's time for what I like to call a me-gift! Excited for my new Michael Kors jacket to arrive via my UPS man and to watch the temperatures go from brrr 30s and 40s to warm and sunny 60s and 70s!!! Bring on Spring, baby!!!

P.S. I ordered the red one, because as much as I love white,

living on a farm - it's just a receipe for disaster, in my experience!

One Hoosier momma's voyage to Capitol Hill

Last week was the first time I was away from my now 7 1/2 month-old Baby RayRay for more than 24 hours. I was both excited and nervous as heck!

As you may have guessed, it was a pretty special occasion that would wind up taking me away from home for three whole days. It was one of those trips that I could absolutely not turn down ... the opportunity to visit Washington D.C. again and meet with members of U.S. Congress to discuss critical issues in agriculture that affect us right here on the farm (including estate taxes, ethanol blender pumps, the Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Water Act and the 2012 Farm Bill).

U.S. Capitol

U.S. Sen. Dan Coates (R-Ind.)

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) speaking to our group in the Foreign Relations Committee room in the Capitol.

Inside the Capitol. One member of our group was given an behind the scenes tour and ran into Sen. John McCain!

Our Congressional meeting with U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.)

Despite my enthusiasm for the opportunity, I was, admittingly, nervous to leave Baby RayRay with Daddy Big D. I knew he would do a great job, I knew she would be fine. But would she remember me when I returned ... would she continue to nurse ... would Big D remember to put her PJs on and feed her cereal and veggies in the evening. One of my biggest concerns was traveling to D.C. with my trusty Medela pump, pumping every 3-4 hours was no doubt going to be a challenge and in fact .... it was.

Ugh ... honestly I felt that a milk cow that had to lug around her own milking machine all day in addition to my purse, because I couldn't fit ANYTHING else in that darn Medela bag, which by the way is anything but stylish. And then the only place to go to pump was the dang ladies room, because Capitol Hill is not real conducive to nursing moms or really just ... moms. Because I had to carry my Medela around with me everywhere, I decided I deserved the extra room of the handicapped stall. Women had to be wondering what in the heck is that sound. Before I became a nursing momma, I am quite sure I wouldn't recognize the sound of a Medela pump. It was embarrasing, but she (as in Baby RayRay) is worth it and doggonit, we are going to make it to 12 months (100 percent nursing) and that is that!

A funny story ...
As we were passing through security to enter the U.S. Capitol, turns out no food or beverage is allowed in the building. I hadn't even paid attention to the fact that I had a Dt. Mt. Dew stuff in the side of my Mary Kay messenger bag. I was quickly reprimanded to toss the bottle in the trash immediately.

"Okay, okay, but ... um ...," I said.

"No, ma'am ... outside throw your bottle away outside," explained the officer.

"Okay, but umm ... that bag right there," I started to explain, as I watched my Medela bag pass through security on the mini conveyer belt.

Then the officer on the other side of the security platform said to me, "Ma'am, you don't have to say anything at all, it's ok ma'am, don't say anything at all."

He kept saying it over and over again. He was nervous and clearly a little uncomfortable. It was as if, he literally just saw some unmentionables pass through the security checkpoint. It was sorta funny. No, it WAS hilarious!

Back home to Indiana
When I returned from my trip to Capitol Hill, I couldn't give that little sweetie (no, not the security guard ... ) enough kisses and in return, she couldn't stop smiling. Everything worked out spendidly. Baby RayRay did great, Big D did great and she had no trouble getting back into our old routine when I returned. And on top of that, I had an absolutely wonderful time in Washington, D.C. meeting with our legislators. One of our legislators even called me a "tough cookie" when I started to question him on his animal welfare initiatives. You betcha Mr. Congressmen. Because what you do in D.C., the decisions you make for our country affect everything that we do on our farm in Indiana.

The Face-off with Miss Pig

I grew up with sweet little Jersey cows on our family farm in Ohio. Cows that each had names and most, that were so gentle and friendly, that you could lead them around anywhere and never feel threatened or endangered. (There were of course a few meanies in the group though!) Overall, they were sweet cows to grow up around. They still are. I heart big-brown eyed Jerseys!

When I met my husband and went home to visit HIS family farm (now OUR family farm), this was really my first introduction to pigs. We had some feeder pigs growing up that we fed to market weight, but only 25 to 50 at one time. Big D went home often during college and worked numerous weekends on his family's farm. So I decided I wanted to help him during my first visit and learn more about raising hogs. Boy was I in for an adventure in hog farming. I figured since I'd been around livestock ALL my life, pigs wouldn't be much different. So. Wrong. 

At the time, I was sorta taken away watching Big D work - knowing he was the man I wanted to marry - slowly beginning to realize pigs would be part of my life. Right before we were married and took over the family farm, Big D's father was still raising some hogs outside. Since it was quite sunny that day, we needed to pull the shade over the Cargill floor (outdoor facility with lean-to shed available for shade) to keep the piggies from getting sunburnt. Big D climbed atop the lean-to and I waited for instruction in the pen below with about 12 or so female pigs (gilts) roaming around me.

The pigs we used to raise outside were ALWAYS dirty and could easily get sunburnt.

Today, most of our hogs are raised in climate controlled buildings.
They are so clean, they almost look like show pigs!

At first, I think most of the (250 pound) pigs were pretty frightened by me, except this one for the sake of reference, I have named Miss Pig. She took one look at me and I swear she knew I had NO experience with pigs and she was going to take me down! Miss Pig had her eyes square on mine and I had no idea what she was about to do. My first thought was maybe I should just run or climb on the fence, but at the time I really didn't want to look like a sissy girl that couldn't handle working on the farm. She took one step toward me. I asked Big D - "should I be worried about that pig, that one right there." He said - "nah you're fine - just keep an eye on her." Ok ... but ...
Then it happened - Miss Pig ran at me with her short little midget legs. I didn't have time to make a move except to move my legs enough apart hoping she would take that route and not bite me on the way through my make-shift tunnel! Well she made her move running at me snorting and grunting at what seemed like a record-breaking speed for a midget animal. Unfortunately, it didn't all add up - she was a little too fat for my best attempt at a tunnel, so as she ran through, I closed my eyes and before I knew it I was flat on my butt - Miss Pig had taken me down. I'm thinking I better get up and drag myself outta this pen before she comes back for round 2. I feel as if I'm a clown in a rodeo arena at this point.

Meanwhile, Big D is laughing so hard tears are streaming down his face and I'm thinking my life may be on line if Miss Pig gets her chance at me again. I scurried outta that pen, my heat rate is far above normal levels and I start to think - this is my future. I do not like pigs right now so much. My Jerseys would never do this to me. Well that's not exactly true - Jersey bulls are some of the meaniest cattle (of any breed) in the world of livestock. I would never set foot in a pen with a Jersey bull without a shot of liquid courage first.

Well I survived the Miss Pig incident without injury except to my once quite confident farm girl ego. How could a measly midget-legged pig take me down? Never again, Miss Pig, never again.

Seven years later, I still have no idea what these pigs are thinking and that they possibly may still want to try to take me out. Big D is so good to them, they might just want me out of the picture. LOL! For now, I'm basically 100 percent comfortable working with the baby pigs - since they're just working out the kinks in walking, I'm pretty confident they're aren't going to come at me anytime soon.


I can handle these guys! Still at the cute size here.



The baby pigs are always a BIG hit during farm tours.