Piglets & Preparing for Spring

Piglets

Although I look outside to a fresh layer of snow on the ground, I know that under that layer is a thin membrane in which the life below is ready to emerge once again in a matter of weeks. Are we ready? Not really, but just enough considering we don’t actually have a choice in the matter.

The same happens when its baby season on the farm. Although Mira’s farrowing date has been on our calendars from the moment she was exposed to our boar, Gus, it never ceases to be a surprise the day that the piglets arrive and there’s no stopping them once they do.

Farming, unlike many other careers and businesses of our time, involves a high level of surrender of the farmer’s part. We can’t control when babies come, we can’t control the seasons and rainfall. The only thing we can control is the resilience of our farm so that we are nimble and ready for the unpredictable.

But the hardest things for me to let go of is my inability to control life and death. I think most people struggle with their lack of control in that department. We felt that hard this past week as there were two significant runts in our litter of piglets. We did our best to keep them warm and get colostrum and milk into them, but there was simply nothing more we could do. We started with nine and ended with seven after day four of piglets. It was sad, and it should be sad. It is, after all, more common than not to lose a piglet or two with each farrowing. The sadness of losing animals at birth and the feeling of injustice that comes with it is a good thing, I think. It makes us realize how precious those little lives that we hold the responsibility of caring for are and how easily we can lose them regardless of our vigilance.

Preparing for Spring

As March 1st rolled around I couldn’t help but feel the mixed emotions of excitement and the overwhelming thoughts for all that we need to get done by May 1st. Eight weeks and five days to finish all of our cattle fencing. Eight weeks and five days to get our grain silo up and running in time for our new fleet of pigs to arrive. But hey, in eight weeks and five days, that Bennett will have everything far more prepared than today’s Bennett (and spring Bennett will have a much shorter to-do list, I’m sure…).

But alas, he won’t. His to-do list will only keep growing. Which is a blessing after all. What a gift it is to have a farm full of good and hard work to do. So all I do is my best— always prioritizing the tasks that directly impact our livestock first.

On the same note of preparing for our season of full production was excitement of visiting more of our future herd at Grassroot’s Farm.

 

Some of our Red Devons who will be coming to the farm in May. It has certainly been a winter of battling mud for farmers in our region.

A heifer from Grassroots Farm, displaying many traits of a desirable brood cow: Hips taller than her shoulders; a large low-hanging gut to retain a high volume of forage; and a clean, unmatted winter coat.

More Piglets

We have also gotten news from our friends of Misty Brook Farm in Maine, that our future Tamworth piglets have been born. Although we did just have our first farrowing here on the farm, we are buying in many more for this year, and hope that by next year we will have enough breeding stock of our own to produce all of our piglets.