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Update: It's Cold...

Happy New Year everybody! To celebrate, may I interest you in some incredibly cold weather? For those of you that haven’t been around the Midwest the past week, temperatures have hung around in the negatives for a majority of the time. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining – it did get to 18 degrees yesterday.


So with an expected wind chill of -18 tonight, you’re probably wondering how we keep everything running smoothly on the farm with such cold temperatures. Well, similar to the steamy highs of the summer, it isn’t easy. Fortunately for us, all of our pigs live inside. This means they are not exposed to the cold for any prolonged period of time. In the buildings they are able to generate enough body heat to keep the entire herd warm through the winter months. One of our farrowing buildings has a sensor system that automatically adjusts vents to control air flow and temperature (it’s pretty cool).


The difficultly of keeping things warm doesn’t lie in the buildings, however. Instead it exists in the transportation of the animals. This time of year it is common to see extension cords draped across the yard and plugged into our various vehicles with diesel engines. Once we have ensured the semi will start in the morning, we place covers over the holes on the trailer. These holes are great for keeping the pigs cool in the summer, but not so much in the winter. With these holes covered, the pigs are able to maintain a warm temperature within the trailer during their ride. Also, pigs don’t like to move in the cold, so we have to administer a higher level of patience during these months.


The cold and snow may inconvenience some functions of the farm, but it does provide us with an opportunity to take out our ATVs and snowmobiles to tear around the countryside. We even found a few days to go ice fishing! We hope that you are finding ways to enjoy the winter season as well. Take care and please drive safely on the roads. 

- VG Farms 

                

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