Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 30 August 2024…
Hey Y’all!
Good evening and happy Fast-Jet Friday from Air2Ground Farms! The fast jet today is the Mighty-Mighty F-15E Strike Eagle. I’m sure you guessed…they are flying low in Wales this week. Someone asked why I always post pictures of the jet from Wales and the answer is 2-fold. First, the photographers are fanatics over aviation and are willing to climb the mountains and sit through the terrible weather to capture these amazing shots. Second, I flew through those mountains multiple times during the 5 years I spent flying in England, and our daughter, Hannah “HAIL” Slayton, is flying there now in the same squadron. Today I shared a look at the photographers with the Strike Eagle in the background and a couple close-ups of “the office” where the work is done. The weather is in the process of changing, a bit of rain today with some cooler temps following. The top photo is of our bull calf and our herd bull. The next is a portion of the beef herd that is still here on this farm (last week I described taking 10 steers and 2 heifers to a different property to enjoy some amazing forage). Our breeders and this year’s calves are still here, with the bulls. The next pics are of the piglets we have on the farm. The first is a batch of 15 that are growing quickly and will start going to the processor 3-4 at a time in October. The next is a group of 6 that will be about a month behind the last of the 15. Then we get to the piglets born here on our farm with a group of 5 with their mom. Finally, the last pic is a group of 10 that were born this week. This morning when I fed the hogs, one of the sows was laboring and I expect to find more piglets when I feed this evening. We still have 4 batches of beef chickens remaining. We will process batch 8 next week and move batch 11 out of the brooder as soon as batch 8 vacates the chicken tractor. The 4 turkeys are about 17 weeks old and we plan to process them at around 20 weeks. They are doing very well and are quite social. The ewe flock, ram lamb flock, and the 2 rams are all doing very well. The layers have picked up a bit and we are getting around 3 dozen eggs each day. We weaned Happy’s calf, Mary, and we are now milking twice a day and are getting 4 gallons. As the weather cools off a bit we should get more milk. She spends quite a bit of time standing in the shade instead of eating when it is so hot. So, what’s up with all of these piglets?
As you know, a few months ago, we changed our mind about farrowing piglets on the farm. We purchased a boar and 2 sows which are all registered pure American Berkshire hogs. We also kept 3 guilts that were scheduled to be processed and all 3 are also registered pure American Berkshires. We are now in the hog breeding business which is a new venture for us…as was this entire farming business just 3 short years ago. Another bit of pertinent information is that with the new business, Air2Ground Meats, and the storefront in Ava, business is increasing rapidly. We need more meat to stock the store. By farrowing piglets on farm with the breeder stock we currently have, we will be able to supply the store, farmers markets, and online ordering with 6-9 hogs each month. Farrowing on farm saves us the cost of purchasing the piglets as feeders, even when you consider the cost of purchasing and feeding the breeders. That’s the why…now about the how. There are a couple of different camps (I’m sure more than a couple but I’ll discuss a couple) when it comes to farrowing. The hands-on camp and the hands-off camp. Since we have never done this, we decided to try both and see which works best. For the first batch of piglets born, I made a farrowing hut with areas for the piglets to get so that they can move away from mom which is supposed to keep them from getting squished. I put mom in a small pen with food, water, and the hut. She had 10 live piglets and by day 3, she had squished 5 of them. This is NOT uncommon and is data point #1. For the second litter, we tried the hands-off approach. Mom was still roaming in the paddock in the forest. When she had them, she was under a cedar tree. She had 11 live piglets, 1 disappeared, and there are 10 still alive a week later. With those 2 data points, we stuck with the hands-off approach for the sow that is currently laboring. We’ll see if “Hands-off that Hog” works again!
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
Excellent, as usual...😎