Pork Tragedy

A few days ago I was made aware of a practice that has bothered me ever since.  A while ago I wrote on here that many times hog farmers have available pigs that have a belly rupture.  While this sounds worse than it is, truthfully it is only a hernia.  Most times the farmers will sell these at a lower cost because they usually cannot send them out with the rest of the herd to the processor.  We have had one of these hogs and there was nothing at all wrong with it in the end.  It tasted amazing!  The processor does have to be careful, though, when butchering so they don't cut into the intestines that have come through the abdominal wall.  If this happens it contaminates the meat.

A few days ago, I learned there are some confinements just killing these hogs before they are full grown since they can't send them out with the rest.  I'm not talking about 1 or 2, but tens to hundreds of them.  Basically, they aren't worth the trouble to them.  I'm not sure if everyone else knew this was happening or not.  I had no idea this was happening and to me with all of the people in America who are struggling to make ends meat that this practice is such a waste!

If there was a place that would take these hogs and finish raising them it could make a difference helping to feed those that are struggling.  Most of the time, though, they would rather kill them than give them away!!! 

I do understand that these companies are in the business to make money, but it doesn't cut into profits to give something away or even to charge a small fee for it if you were going to dispose it of anyway.  

I would love to hear thoughts on this and any ideas for encouraging these places to do something different with these pigs. 

New Additions To Our Family

We have 2 new additions to our family!!  No, it's not goats as we are still waiting as patiently as possible for them.  We do, however, have 2 new bottle calves.  We weren't really looking too hard yet for the kids' bottle calves for the 4H county fair, but we got a call that a local farmer had one and a week later another call.  We went to look at them and we can't ever say no unless there is something clearly wrong with them!

The first calf is a twin of a heifer that the mother didn't want at first.  When momma finally decided to take her, she wouldn't drink -only from a bottle.  Big farmers don't have much time to bottle feed a bunch of calves!  Lucky for us!  She is all black and a cross between angus and simmental.  She is huge for a twin and doing very well!  She was born on 3/4 and already eating a little Kent calf starter feed.  She will be my daughter's to show at the fair and she has named her Stella.  This is my daughter's first year at the fair, so she got first dibs.

A week later, we got the second call.  Twin angus calves born to a momma that had only enough milk for one.  She is also black and smaller than Stella.  Her sibling is a bull so she will most likely be sold eventually.  She is about normal size for a twin.  She is also doing very well in the barn.  Hopefully these girls will be buddies!  This calf is my son's to show.  He had kind of a time showing his 2nd year bottle calf last year at the fair and wanted to go back to bottle calves at least for this year!  Last year it was very hot and dry and his cow had been cooped up at the fair for a couple of days before the show.  When she got to go out of the barn for the show all she wanted to do was eat grass!  She kept heading for the lawn but he did very well keeping her in line.  It was just a little more work than he intended, I think. 

The kids are enjoying feeding them and "playing" with them and as soon as weather permits they will start the halters on them in the yard.  For now, I may have jumped the gun on spring a little as today is very cold and oh so windy :(  It is the first day of spring, though, and hopefully mother nature realizes that soon!!!!

I had planned to post some pics of the new girls today but chicken out of staying outside long enough to photo them.  I did chores as fast as I could!  I will post them soon, though.  They are cuties!

As always, hope everyone has a great day!!

Signs of Spring

Today, as the temperature was a seemingly balmy 45 degrees, I decided to venture out.  I cannot remember the last time I ventured out just to enjoy the day.  If I did, it was with uncomfortable full winter garb on.  I am feeling so tired of being cooped up in the house with the windows shut and freezing my buns when I have to go out to do chores!  While outside I decided it was nice enough to let the chickens and ducks venture outside also.  They loved it.  The ducks played in a puddle and the chickens were looking at the outside like "we haven't been out here for a while".  The goats and cows were just laying around soaking up the sunshine. 

While out there I noticed some sure signs of impending Spring!!  Yay!  There are buds on the trees!  It is muddy as ever around here, which I don't enjoy.  The kids usually bring in plenty.  The best thing I saw, though, was some little white flowers up and in bloom and my daffodils are starting to poke out of the ground!

With next week being the first day of spring and my self diagnosed seasonal affective disorder (spring fever) at its peak, I am DEFINATELY ready!  I already have a list a mile long of things that need done outside like fences and better goat pen to house the mommas and babies away from Billy. We will also be starting round 2 of pasture reseeding. Tomorrow is looking to be a wonderful day, too, then it looks like back to cold temps.  Double ugh!  I love Iowa and everything that entails EXCEPT winter!!

I am still waiting on baby goat kids and keeping a good eye on her every day.  When that finally happens I will be sure to post some new kid pics!  I am hoping that I may even get to see the birth.  If so, I am going to try and video.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Preparing for Goat Kids

Last Friday I noticed that our very pregnant doe, one of the first purchased last year, had a swollen hind end.  Hubby and I looked at her when he got home from work and he didn't think it was enough to warrant separating her.  I don't think he is as "in tune" with noticing these things like me!!

  By Sunday she was swollen enough for him to notice so he moved her into the stall we had prepared in the barn that now houses the 8 bottle goats and a new 4H calf, Stella, that we purchased last week.  Dazzle is friendly, but not super excited about being touched since she was very young.  Yesterday Dazzle was very receptive to me being in the stall with her and for a little grain she let me feel the babies and pet her.

Today, on the other hand, she seemed more nervous and did not want me touching her at all.  She is starting to have a small amount of clear discharge from the hind end as well as more swelling.  There is no bagging up yet, so I am hoping that won't be a problem. From what I have read, the birth could still be days away.  I get very excited about babies!  Enough to even warrant extra trips outside in the cold!

Hers will be our first kids born here.  Her counterpart, Razzle, is looking pregnant but not near as big as her.  I was hoping they would be kidding around the same time, but as of now I am doubting that.  These girls are full boer and bred to our all red full boer billy.  I will be posting some pics of the new little ones as soon as they arrive!!

As always, HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Escape Artist Cows

Thought I would share this funny little story about what happened to us the other night.  It would be funnier, but since we have a definate hay shortage it is less humorous!

We were moving a round bale in with the cows off the trailer in the middle of our most recent snow storm when my husband and I were talking about how fat our 2 hopefully pregnant cows looked.  I was thinking "boy they are huge for this early in pregnancy".  Our biggest one was as big as a barrel.  I had just looked closely at them a couple days before and they hadn't looked that big.  I offered a handful of hay to her and she just sniffed it, which is totally unlike her.

My daughter and I went into the barn to get a look at the other one when I looked up and the big girl was heading up the aisle to the inside of the barn where the hay is stored!  She looked over at me as if she was saying "oh s--- she saw me".  I told my daughter to go get dad, quick!  I jumped the fence and got in front of her not paying any attention to the hay bales we do have left.  My husband came in and opened the door so they could back out.  We got them out and looked at the stack of hay . . . partially demolished! 

We don't think they ate as much as it looked like at first but it's hard to tell.  No wonder they were fat and didn't want the round bale!  Someone had either left the small door leading in there not latched all the way or we have cows that can unlatch a door.  We now have a pile of hay to use out of for the miniature horses and goats instead of small bales.

I made my husband go out later just to make sure they hadn't gotten in there again! 

Winter Animal Update

As winter seems to go on and on I have a few updates of things that are happening or will be happening around the farm. 

First of all, the goat kids are now weaned!!!  All went very well with this and they are all eating their hay and grain.  Also, it seems that their water consumption is lots more now.  I am also ready for spring to get here so we can put them in the outside goat pen! They will love to run and jump around.  We do, however, need to buy some cattle panels to redo the goat pen first.   

Secondly, for the first time ever we are running low on hay!  Bad to need hay in the winter as everyone thinks their hay is worth a fortune this time of year!  A little to my disgust is looking for hay for sale only to see prices double what they are in the summer.  Seems a little like taking advantage of the ones in need!  I would feel guilty for doing this to people and hungry animals.  We did try and estimate the number of bales we would need for the winter, but it is not an exact science due to no one knowing exactly what winter will hold for us until it's here.  This year happened to be cold and snowy and with the drought last summer not much to keep eating in the pasture.  We have resorted to buying some big round bales, which we have no way to move around except for good old muscle strength.  They are a little overpriced in my opinion, but the cheapest we could find.  That definately ups our feeding cost this year!

On the bright side, I definately think we have pregnant goats.  One obviously more than the other.  By my calculations the earliest we could kid would be March 4th.  With March right around the corner I am getting very excited!  I love all the spring babies and these will be our first baby goats born here!!The only problem is the enormous white goose that chases me and only me is with the goats.  Today the goose went on craigslist!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Beginning the Goat Kid Weaning Process

The youngest of our 8 goat kids are now just over 6 weeks old.  They are ready to begin the weaning process.  They have been eating good amounts of hay for a couple weeks, eating a little grain and drinking fresh water.  They are still under shelter in the barn due to our continued wintery weather here. 

Since they are eating well, today they were cut down to 1 bottle of formula per day.  This is about 2.75 cups per day.  This feeding schedule will continue for 2 weeks then they will be taken off formula altogether.  Hopefully by then the weather is nicer and we can turn them out with the other goats in the pasture!  They will truely enjoy being able to run around more than they can inside the pen.

Since we had never had little goat kids before, I have been amazed at how fast they grow and the different body types we have.  Since our first 2 purchased are 100% Boer, they sure have a shorter, more dense body shape than the Boer/Dairy crosses.  They seem very heavy for their size!  "Big Boy" as I call him is a cross and is much larger than the others.  Then there is Cleo.  She has a black head with brown stripes and a white body.  She is very petite and will be a beautiful goat for my daughter to show in the dairy class at the county fair. 

Yes, we do have to plan now for the county fair!  It seems very early, but if we don't plan now we will be scurrying when it comes time to ID animals!

As always . . .HAVE A GREAT DAY!

only 34 days til SPRING!!!