As the month
of July progresses in earnest, so does the heat. This week alone is turning out
to be one of the hottest this year with heat indexes residing in the
triple-digit range. Add in the unrestrained humidity and you’re left with the
outdoors resembling the inside of an oven. With the lack of rain, the dust
rolls over the fields and never seems to settle; furrowing the brow of every
farmer who understands the dire need for precipitation to land on their crops. It
is something that is typical for this time of year in southeast Iowa.
For the crew
here at VG Farms, the heat and acute rainfall raise even larger concerns than
crop health. While the fields are important, care for our swine herd takes an
even higher precedence during these hot weeks. Here is a fun fact for you: pigs
don’t sweat. That means their bodies don’t possess the ability to cool
themselves off. Which means it’s all hands on deck to make sure every pig is
cool and comfortable.
A row of fans
situated at the end of each of our buildings are responsible for air flow.
These vital fans pull air through and over the pigs – lowering the temperature
by about 5 degrees when compared to how hot it is outside. That might not seem
like a lot, but it makes a world of difference for the animals. Without these,
containing our swine herd in a survivable environment would not be possible;
the body heat of the pigs alone would raise a building temperature upwards of
120 degrees. In addition to the fans, misters spray light amounts of water over
the pigs, reducing their body temperature. Our sows are closely monitored by a
few hands that spray down any pig that appears to be hot. All of these
culminate into keeping pigs happy and healthy.
It’s a lot of
work to manage when there is a heat advisory in effect, but it must be done.
Our pigs can’t sweat, so we do it for them. You start earlier in the day to
avoid moving pigs during the hotter hours and drink a lot of water yourself to
stay hydrated through the long days. Other than that, you can hope a cool
evening, slight breeze, or rainfall breaks the spell. Yesterday morning we were
blessed with a shower that brought 6/10ths of rain, the most we’ve had in close to a month. It takes the edge off, and reinvigorates the crew for the remaining sweltering
days of summer and all that they bring.
- VG Farms
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