Take Care of Those Sows!

In our culture, there is a strong tension between those with book knowledge and those with practical knowledge. I believe that tension is overblown. Of course, books on practical subjects cannot tell you everything you need to know about the subject of the book, as no author can anticipate any given person’s real life practical experiences. However, between the two, if forced to choose, I believe practical knowledge, which is knowledge based on practice, on average, is less valuable than book knowledge, especially when those books have been written by people who have been practicing directly, or researching the activity of those practicing directly for a long time.

Everytime I here of someone weaning piglets onto straight corn meal because it was the cheapest thing they could find, or everytime I see someone fling mash feed over a fenceline onto the muddy ground inside the sow gestation pen to “feed the sows,” that belief is reinforced. In the first case, those piglets are literally being poisoned from lack of nutrition (the practical farmer scratches his head wondering why his eight week old piglets only weigh 15 pounds), and in the second case those gestating sows aren’t getting nearly as much feed as they need to bring a group of healthy pigs to term (the practical farmer scratches his head, wondering why his sow only had seven pigs and two were still born and three are runts). In each case, the practical farmer knows something is wrong, but, the person of book knowledge need only spend five minutes with that practical farmer to set him “straight.” Of course, the “bookish” “practical” farmer is in the best position to make a profit, and this has always been the case. Understanding this, agricultural extension agents used to make the rounds of the farms to bring the book knowledge to those practical farmers who might not have access to it, or the educational resources to make use of it.

I include that little preface because I have never raised a gilt beyond market weight; I have never bred a sow; I have never fed a sow through gestation; I have never farrowed a sow; I have never fed a lactating sow; and finally, I have never fed or cared for pre-weaning piglets, but, nevertheless, I am writing this morning to admonish you, many amongst you whom have done all of those things numerous or even countless times, to take care of your sows. My direct practical experience in this is trying to raise feeder pigs at a profit out of sows that were poorly taken care of, so for those of you who demand a certain amount of practical knowledge, I do have that — I have hundreds of wasted dollars, and a few dead pigs, to show for it.

There are a whole host of variables, from genetics (both sow and boar selection), to sow care, to pre-weaning care, to post weaning feeding, to post-weaning and growing environment, etc. that determine how well a market pig will fare, especially in terms of profitability. However, based on the large volume of what I have read and the limited practical experience, it seems to me that perhaps the most important indicator of feeder pig performance is sow care. The pre-weaning and immediate weaning diet of the pigs is perhaps the second most important indicator. (The success of the feeder pig producer, who wants sows that give birth to large numbers of healthy pigs depends just as much on sow care).

To produce healthy, vigorous pigs that grow into feeder pigs that finish profitably for the feeder pig buyer (of the farrow-to-finish farmer), sows need to be fed adequate amounts of appropriately balanaced feeds, period. If they are not, the sows’ pigs will be and will most likely remain light and unthrifty, no matter the herculean efforts of the pig finisher. A sow that is poorly and/or inadequately fed will produce poor feeder pigs. Will they get to market weight? Most likely, eventually they will. Will their carcasses be acceptable? Most likely. Will the feeder pig finisher have made a profit? No, not a penny. The endevour will have been a loss, and you can be darn sure that that feeder pig finisher will not be calling that feeder pig producer again for pigs.

What does it mean to take care of a sow? It means simply that she should be fed the proper amounts of the appropriate quality feed given her reproductive status. A dry sow requires very little milled feed, of relatively low protein, especially when on top notch pasture like alfalfa. A sow in gestation that has been re-bred needs to be fed an adequate amount of high quality feed in early gestation to get her body back into condition so that by mid-to-late gestation when her pigs really start to grow and her milk starts to come in, she has the resources to support those processes. By the time the sow is in full lactation she needs copious amounts (15 lbs. per day, or even more if she has a lot of pigs nursing!) of a high quality protein feed (18-20%, high lysine). It should go without saying that she should also have access to as much clean fresh water as she wants. [Note: Sort of by definition we are all internet people because we are writing or reading a blog, so I have not dug out my notes to include specific feeding recommendations, as they are readily available on-line. However, if you want the specifics and you really aren't all that internet savvy, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I'll be happy to help]

When sows are not cared for in a such a manner, it is often a disaster, for the feeder pig producer and the feeder pig buyer, both. There will be few pigs; they will not be vigorous; they will not grow well; and, finally, they will be more susceptible to disease than pigs from a sow that has been well cared for.

 

(Farm) Worker Rights

A central thread of much of my thinking on the topic of agriculture is that social justice in farm and food systems is a must. I believe this is especially true in the case of local-regional farm and food systems, which we are in the process (hopefully) of creating. A paramount issue on the question of social justice is the treatment of farm workers. Farm workers are overworked and underpaid, and that needs to change.

Paying farm workers higher wages, and giving them a day or two of rest, paid time off, and things like health benefits, however, is not as simple as passing a farm worker bill, like the New York State Senate is currently working on. Policy makers, almost universally, are totally myopic, and beyond that suffer from debilitating tunnel vision. They see only what is directly in front of their face and nothing beyond or aside it. Policy makers are incapable, for example, of appreciating the interconnections between farm labor and the broader economy, especially the plight of the working class in our credit-based consumer capitalist society. People who work are drowning in debt, usurious debt, at that (usury is a word that seems to have been totally erased from the collective consciousness). When a third of all New Yorkers are incapable of meeting even a basic family budget, passing a farm worker bill that raises wages, either directly by including overtime pay or indirectly by including some paid time off, does nothing but strap even further the already strapped — small farmers and the rest of the working class alike.

What is needed are radical, comprehensive changes to our socio-economic system. Such a thing, of course, cannot be legislated. We have cultural work to do. We have to overcome our culture of worker apathy. We have to overcome our culture of rampant debt-based consumerism. We have to overcome our culture of capitulation to capitalist interests (acceptance of low wages and long hours). We have to overcome our disastrous culture of rugged individualism. We have to overcome our cultural aversion to class-based struggle.

We need to recognize that this is a universal struggle for social and economic justice. The plight of the farm worker is threaded together with the plight of the fast food worker and the custodial worker and the cashier and the waitress at the diner. Together they and others make up the fabric of a besieged working class that is in deep and desperate trouble.

Addressing the concerns of one group of workers does nothing but pit those workers against the rest of the working class. The wages of all workers need to rise, and not only wages, but wealth. Without wealth, workers can do nothing but live pay check to pay check. There needs to be enough at the end of the day to buy property, to make investments, to save for retirement (we should also return to a real pension system).

Certainly, the most egregious exploitation needs to be addressed. However, in doing so, we cannot let ourselves think that in passing legislation that protects one group of workers we have accomplished anything at all. We would have merely stemmed the worst of the tide of the stinking evil of consumer capitalist excess (the last quarter of the 20th and the early 21st century will almost certainly be remembered in the same way as the years of the robber barons).

We must make of this a total struggle for the health and well being of all workers.

 

Tractor Woes

Yesterday while I was walking up the road toward the house, I saw drops of oil on the road. I looked behind me back towards the barn, and sure enough the trail of drops indicated that they were coming from my tractor. I turned around and walked behind the barn to where the tractor was parked, and then laid down on my back and checked the hydraulic line at the distribution box between the pump and the loader, and sure enough, the o-ring in the box had blown, for the third time in a year. The first time was last summer, and I fixed it. The second time was this winter, and I had the tractor mechanic fix it. This time I will have to have the tractor mechanic fix it again because I don’t have time to take care of it and I want to ask him to take a serious look at the relief valve this time. The blown o-rings are definitely related to the fact that I am overtaxing the loader by carrying around tanks of water — and in the winter, heavy baleage — that are at the loader capacity. However, trying to lift something at or beyond the capacity of the loader shouldn’t blow o-rings. There is a relief valve that activates when the pressure in the lines gets too great, but it must not be working, or if it isn’t the relief valve, something else must be wrong.

Since about the middle of the winter, I have been actively looking for a larger loader tractor and have been talking to Jen to convince her that it is time to move up from a compact tractor to a full-size utility/ag tractor. Between toting around tanks full of water and large heavy bales of baleage and getting into plowing and fitting fields, it is definitely time. The o-rings on the compact tractor are not the only issue. Compact tractors are well-built and sturdy, but they are not designed to do serious work. Even if I were to stop blowing o-rings, if I continue to cart around bulky tanks of water and big bales of hay that extend way out in front of the tractor, I will end up needing to re-build the front end of the tractor. The front axle simply can’t take that kind of stress over and over again.

Safety is another issue. In order to carry that kind of weight on the loader, I need to add substantial ballast to the back of the tractor. I use either the back blade, which weighs 700 pounds, or the bush hog, which only weighs about 550 pounds but sticks way out in back. (The lighter bush hog actually provides more ballast because it is so long.) During the winter I use the back blade. During the summer I use the bush hog because I am constantly bush hogging anyway. Every now and then when I am doing something quick and there is no ballast on the tractor, I don’t add it, and I usually regret it. I have nearly flipped the tractor three times. With a utility/ag tractor, I can carry around the weight that I need to without adding ballast.

Because of supply and demand issues, it is possible for me to get a relatively little used used ag tractor in the 60-80 hp range for just about the same amount of money that we spent on the compact tractor. Compact tractors are marketed primarily to suburban folks with five to ten acres and to true hobby farmers that only need to really push them a couple of times per month. Because there are so many of the former, compact tractors per horsepower are much more expensive than utility and ag tractors.

I recently priced a new utility tractor, but the initial quote was just under $40,000, and while it did have 0% for 60 months financing so that we could probably work out a trade-in deal in such a way that we would be paying about the same monthly payments that we are for the compact that cost half as much, neither Jen nor I want to extend our payments out for another three or four years. When we bought a new tractor the idea was that we would make payments on it for four years and then own a tractor payment free for another eight to ten years. Free money for five years is nice, but right now the farm can’t justify — or pay for — a $40,000 tractor. To be perfectly honest, it can’t even pay for a $20,000 tractor with free money for four years.

Because tractor prices (due to substantially higher steel prices, amongst other things) have gone up so much since we bought the compact, we should be able to sell the compact privately for not a whole lot less than we paid for it, which means that the amount we’ll have to finance on the bigger tractor won’t be all that much more than we currently still owe on the compact. However, whatever it is, it won’t be at 0% interest.

One problem is that there are very few used tractors around that meet my criteria. It might take some time to find one. There is one out by Rochester that I would like to ask a friend who lives out that way to go take a look at for me, but I don’t want to ask him unless I am really sure that if the tractor is in good shape that we are going to buy it. My friend is a farmer and makes a lot of hay, so this time of year isn’t really the time of year for him to be running around looking at tractors as a favor. That means that I’ll need to make sure that Jen is on board with getting a bigger tractor before talking to my friend.