The Dog Ate My Blog

The dog ate my blog. Okay that isn’t exactly what happened, last week we were busy with bean harvest and the blog kind of slipped my mind. Oreo doesn’t look like a blog eater but does look guilty of something.

A few days ago Lisa and I took the opportunity to go and hear our son Cory’s fall concert at Dordt College.

He is a senior business major and was the original writer of this blog. I hope to be able to convince him to do a blog or two when he gets a chance, his writing is substantially better than mine.

I enjoy listening to college choirs and bands. These young men and women are participating because they want to and because they are good at it, not because their parents are making them.

We began soybean harvest last Tuesday and we're able to get a lot done with the dry weather we had most of the week. After a one inch rain Saturday night we were able to finish our beans last night.

We have about 50 acres of custom work to do and should finish that today. Once the beans begin to be combined the manure hauling begins in earnest.

We could have a month of good weather or just a couple of weeks before the weather turns cold and field conditions deteriorate.

Lisa had the tip of one of the easel’s she rents out for weddings break off. She had given me a deadline of when it needed to be fixed, but like the blog it slipped my mind. Trent took a look at it and said I can fix it. About 30 seconds with the welder and the tip was securely fastened to the top again.

. Stay warm this weekend, it is starting to feel like late fall.

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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...

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...

Backing Away from Basics

How many times have you said to yourself or to others that there is a need to get back to basics? A return to the basics can help us realign with the fundamental principles of the task at hand. It’s generally very helpful. When I was struggling in a sport, I often backtracked to the fundamentals to discovered my point of error. Other’s use it in work, family life, and in cooking. Unfortunately, I believe that we have remained a bit too basic in our approach to pork. Go to a retail store and you will see the same cuts that have been available for the past 30 years. You will see chops, shoulder and loin roasts, tenderloins, ham steaks, etc. Now there is nothing wrong with those cuts as they present a myriad of cooking opportunities. But the wonderful pig produces so much more! Take for example some of the dishes we served this week at a pork education event. We made street tacos out of pork steaks (it’s the Spinalis muscle if you want to get technical). We made Chulet...

Both Sides of the Fork

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