Skip to main content

Sweltering Suns

         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


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Employee Feature: Jon Phelps

          “This will take only 10 minutes, I promise”, I reassure the head of farrowing as he takes a rare break from his work. A familiar, bashful smile appears while we make our way to the office space of the building. “You’re the first employee we’re doing a feature on, so you should definitely feel special about this one.” He laughs and we begin.           This is Jon Phelps, the recently promoted head of farrowing here at VG Farms. For the past six years he has spent his time helping nearly a quarter of a million piglets into the world. It all started when he decided he wanted to return to hog farming since leaving an operation in Alexandria, South Dakota. “I saw the opening online and had previous experience in farrowing that I really enjoyed”, he explains, “I filled out the application and here I am.” Jon has come along quite a ways since first beginning with the VG Farms family; from doing chores at on...
Post a Comment
Read more

Priorities

Much like fall, spring is a very busy time on a livestock/crop farm. Sometimes the most difficult thing to do is to decide what to do first. When the weather warms and the fields dry it is time to put the crop in the ground. Time is of the essence when it comes to planting. There are weeks were you may only get a few hours in the fields due to weather. An dry, early spring is no indication of a dry later spring. Despite the pressures of planting, the crops are not the first priority of the day.                                                                                                                    The pigs always get top billing. Chores, weaning, breeding, load for market, all get don...
Post a Comment
Read more

Harvest Time

Harvest Time           Well harvest finally began this past week. It is always a much anticipated time of the year. This first picture is a combine that was purchased in about 1964.        It was a huge leap in technology. No longer did you pick the corn in the ear and then shell it later. This machine combined the two operations into one which is the reason it is called a combine.           Todays machines are leaps ahead of the originals.          Today we have air conditioned cabs with air ride seats. The ability to change settings on the go and yield monitors with GPS that tell you moisture and yield from a specific spot in the field.           The way we move the grain from the field to the farm has also change over time. The wooden wagon in the first picture held 100 bushels of corn. In 1974 my da...
Post a Comment
Read more