Both Sides of the Fork

          I was talking to a friend at our high school football game Friday night and he asked me if we had done any harvesting yet. I said, "Yes, we have about 60 acres done." He replied with a slight sense of bewilderment, “Only 60? I have almost 300 acres out!” I responded, "You need some pigs to take care of."           When you have to take care of 30,000 head of hogs, getting the crop in usually falls in second on the priority list. We are usually not in the combine by 6:00 in the morning. There are always things to get done - chores to do, hogs to load for market, pigs to wean, sows to breed, power washing, feed to haul - you get the idea.               I often say we raise pigs for a living the crops are our hobby. While I am usually joking when I say that, there is an element of truth to the statement.  We have no problem filling our work week only taking care of th...

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...

        Warm days and cool nights. This is one of the things I like about September. Our weather the past week and for the week to come has been sunshine and 80’s during the day and 50’s at night with very low humidity.          This not only is great weather to work in but also is speeding the crop to maturity. We continue to get equipment ready for harvest and manure application which are our two biggest jobs in the fall.           Taking care of the pigs is a full time job so in the fall everyone puts in a few more hours to get the job done. It is still warm enough during the day that we need to take advantage of the cool mornings to move pigs. These little guys are getting moved from the nursery to a finisher down the road.           Another sure sign of fall is field days. Most seed companies invite farmers to come and have a free meal and look at see...

              Can you power wash? It may seem odd, but this is often one of the first questions I ask someone interviewing for a job with us. There are generally two reasons for asking this question. The first is practical in nature. Pigs can kind of be like your kids sometimes, leaving a mess where ever they go.            This makes power washing a frequent event especially in the farrowing house. Grant does a good job of making sure the next mom has a clean place to have her babies.             The second reason is it may give you an idea of the persons work ethic. If they hesitate or try to appear that they are “over qualified” to power wash that may be a red flag. All jobs here are important, whether you are in charge of the books or cleaning farrowing pens, what you are doing is vital to the success of the farm.             ...