Last night CBS Nightly News had a feature on antibiotic use in farm animals raised in large confinement facilities that is a must read if you didn't see it. Having worked on the commercial side of the industry, I saw first hand the overuse (and almost daily use) of antibiotics, whether it was administered in the feed, the drinking water, or through injections.
Coupled with the fact that the animals are raised in crowded, unsanitary conditions, the constant need to combat disease is what led me down the path I now follow. Whether you view the story as sensationalism or responible journalism, the fact that so much medication is needed to keep the animals healthy in those types of environments tells you something is rotten in Denmark, because animals CAN be raised 100% antibiotic free - we do it everyday. Thanks for reading!
I finally got the opportunity to move our two young Large Black x Spot cross boar pigs into their new digs, the Root-O-Tiller, built by our R & D dept at Pork & Greens. (also known in french as moi)
I made a short video of our leading edge, technologically innovative contraption today after our pork delivery downtown:
We figured we might as well put some pigs to work, (they live the life of rielly, you know) and work at what they do best, digging and rooting. The advantages to using pigs for tilling are 1) they don't require gas, although they are known to produce a little. 2) Mechanical tilling chops weed and grass material into fine particles, but given some time and water they grow right back, whereas pigs consume the material and then re-deposit it as fertilizer, and 3) you can eat our tillers when they're finished, something Troy-Bilt just can't compete with!
When this particular spot is completely tilled I'll make a follow up video so you can see how thorough they really are. One thing you can take to the bank about pigs; they aren't slackers when it comes to turning the soil.
Dastardly. Seeds of sorrow. Roots of all evil. The bane of farmers and gardeners everywhere. Johnson grass. Pervasive and invasive, like the hordes of Ghengis Khan, nothing can cloud your horizon like the sight of this weed sprouting in your garden.
Perennial weed superstar, Johnson grass scoffs at how slow other weed grasses like bermuda invade and take over new ground. Fast growth, no, make that overnite six inches taller growth, and spreading by rhizomes are the arrows in it's quiver. With each plant producing up to 5000 seeds, bare ground is soon covered and then overwhelmed, leaving you to fight a war that never ends. The problem with trying to grow a garden with Johnson grass around is that every time you till the soil you chop the Johnson grass roots into smaller and more numerous pieces, and each of these pieces sprouts more grass, so you're actually producing more weeds while you think you're getting rid of all the weeds.
Slick, man, Johnson grass is so evil slick. Large and red tinted, the roots do have their achilles though - pigs. Pigs love roots and seem to have a special affinity for Johnson grass roots. One of the added benefits we're seeing from rotating our pigs through our garden plots is a reduction in the amount of Johnson grass on the farm, and eventually we want to get all of it off our land. Conquer it, defeat it, take no quarter, but do it chemically free. The alternatives to fighting this garden killer are mowing before seed is produced, or digging the grass out and burning it, both ways are labor intensive, which is the reason so many people turn to products like round-up. We let the pigs do the work for us, which keeps the chemicals away, a win-win in our book. Here's some more info on Johnson grass if you're interested.
We made a short video of the pigs today, as it was absolutely beautiful for this time of year:
We'll be sending out an e-mail update in the next few days. Thanks for reading!
Burrrr street! Brass monkey cold. A different globe's being warmed, cold. The ground will break your plow point, cold. Make a farmer wish he was an office dweller, cold. Well, not quite that cold.
Yesterday, while doing the "shiver me timbers" shuffle down to the water shut-off valve, (which is right beside the road) a neighbor slowed down, cracked her window about a quarter of an inch, an hollered out, "how do you keep them little piggies feet from freezing off with all that snow around?" With synapse firing slowed to a near standstill by the cold, I hollered back "I make them change their socks twice a day!" Expecting the middle finger, the message must have been lost in transmission, or translation, both a result of the fierce wind and the itty-bitty crack of her window. She started laughing a great big ole laugh, I just didn't know if it was at me or with me.
Actually, it's the beau-coup amounts of straw that keep the pigs from freezing. The more the better. Straw is as important to outdoor pig production as refrigerator loads of antibiotics are to indoor pig production. In these parts there are two main types of straw available, wheat and oat straw. Wheat straw is to oat straw what lead is to gold, in other words, if you can find oat straw, buy up all you can. Oat straw is more absorbant, and it's a thicker and cleaner straw than wheat. The problem is, you're as likely to strike gold as you are to find a source of oat straw this time of year.
All that being said, any type of bedding is better than no bedding at all, so hay, shavings, sawdust, or even old newspapers can be used in a crunch. The main thing is getting something between the cold ground and the animals, especially if you have young ones.
We normally put a foot deep layer in the huts for cold weather, and a three or four inch layer for warmer weather. Between being ground up by the sow's hooves, or being eaten as roughage, we add a little straw every four days or so. Here's a little video action about straw in our huts:
With actual low temperatures expected to be below zero ( ruh rhroo, Shaggy) by Thursday, we'll put a big load of straw in the huts tomorrow. This Febuary, a farming neighbor is going in halves with me to grow five acres of oats on his land. I'll supply the seed and labor to get it all sown, and he'll harvest and bail it next summer. Not a bad deal on my end, as good oat straw is hard to find.
We'll be sending out an e-mail fairly soon with new order and pick-up info on our pork products. Thanks for reading!
Well, more piglets arrived yesterday, and I got a chance to make a short video of them, and also a glimpse at Maybell's piglets, who are growing quite nicely:
Planting time is right around the corner, and market season's not far behind. We'll send out an e-mail update before long with a new pick-up date for our pork products.
Maybell is our herd English Large Black female. A farmer's probably not supposed to have favorites where the livestock are concerned, but by golly, she's my favorite pig. Born outside of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I picked her up when she was around 9 weeks old and we've been pals ever since. Well, we did have a bit of a spat on the ride back. I would set the radio on a sports station and, when I wasn't looking, she'd turn it to country.
The difference between the rare breed pigs and modern pigs, like our Spots, is all in the temperment. Maybell is just a downright friendly pig. Back before she was bred, when I would show up for feeding time all the pigs would be hemmin and hollerin for food, and there's Maybell laying on her side waiting for me to come rub her belly. She prefered a good back scratching to anything I could feed her. She'd rather eat boatloads of clover than ground up milo any ole day.
When I got to the farm this morning she wasn't out to greet me like usual, so I new something was up. She went and had piglets last night. Seven of them, which, by pure breed standards, is about average. I made a short video of the new arrivals here:
Maybell, besides being my favorite pig, has a job to do at the farm. Earn her keep. She produces crossbred boars (males used for breeding) that we'll use to breed the crossbred females you saw in a previous video. We like to use crossbred pigs to produce our pork because of something called "hybrid vigor" which means that the offspring will carry the best attributes of both parents. So we can get the good growth and loin size from the Spot breed, while keeping the taste quality and unsurpassed temperment and mothering ability of the Large Blacks.
Hope you enjoy seeing Maybell and her piglets, and I know I'll enjoy seeing everyone this Saturday!
You try to shake the cold, but the cold shakes you. Ground freeze. The kind of freeze that will bend your pitchfork. One last detail before it's time to reacquaint hands, seed, and soil. Barn raising. Rafters, posts, purlins, tin, rise and run, square and plumb, and all the other workspeak of a carpenter. We've decided that a larger tractor is needed here at the farm, and tractors need shelter. Gimme shelter . Nothing like working in trench foot weather makes you appreciate all things Caribbean. Funny how the mind wanders when your eyes have the slow leak, nose the fast leak, both from winds that would make Thor dig in a little deeper. Margaritas anyone? The sun is just a shadow of it's mid summer self. Feeble. Warmth only comes from action, but if you sit too long that action will turn back on you and freeze you out. That's the bad thing about not living at the farm. No source for heat. Fire is needed. Too much cold tilts you. Fire will bring your balance back. Some wear the winter like a long lost favorite coat, while for others, like me, it's all you can do to keep the winter from wearing you.
Pigs embrace the chill. Takes them up the good side of the hill while it's rolling me down the other. Simple shelter and straw.
That's one of the beauties of pigs outdoors. Low maintenance. Cram them in concrete floored buildings with state of the art ventilation, heating, cooling, etc and watch the low leave maintenance like we leave the Cherry St parking lot at closing. Raccoons-on-the-corn-crop fast. What made us think you could jam animals in buildings like fans at an OU game, (having to wallow in their own excrement, and then flush all that into holding ponds, and the ponds right next to rivers or creeks) and we wouldn't have health and environmental problems? It's the A and the G, I tell ya. Ambition cuts the trail for us and then Greed leads us down it.
Oh well, enough of that, now on to the "meat" of the post. First, we want to give a few details about our new Pork & Greens greek sausage. Kalamata olives and feta cheese are the two ingredients that give this sausage it's distinct flavor. It's a sausage similar to our bangers, in that it's hard to describe to someone what they taste like. You just have to try it. Perfect for pastas, buns, or pitas, which is our favorite. We've added a recipe PorkITAs that has has our sausage with pita bread. Super easy to make, but the tzatziki sauce is a must.
The butcher called today and said it will probably be tommorrow before we know the yield on the pig. As soon as we have it we'll send you an e-mail.
Question of the Day:What was the first car you ever owned? I'll go first. 77 Chevy Nova, candy apple red, raised white letter tires, with a black, red, and white checked interior. Chick magnet, although the hens weren't that impressed. 8 track player was extra!
Cold. Bones rattling. North wind howling. Fingers crack and split like well seasoned oak. Fields are fading brown and brittle. Everything has a hard edge. Winter has arrived on the farm. Definitely my least favorite time of the year. Kids are waiting for Santa and I'm waiting for a southern thaw. Life at the farm is at low ebb this time of year. Better days are right around the corner. A week and change. That's when the days will start lengthening. Ten hours of daylight and spinach planting time arrives. Farming has a symbiotic quality. You work the land and the land works you. I can't wait!
Pigs like cold. I like heat. We've yet to sort this out. I took a short video of the pigs you can see here:
I'm taking a pig to the butcher tommorrow, and I'll send an e-mail out by next weekend with what will be available. Right now it looks like bacon, pepper bacon, brats, chorizo, bangers, and , I hope, a new greek sausage. Depends on the yield. Orders will be first come, first serve through e-mail or by phone. Drop off will be at 6th and Peoria for Cherry St customers and in front of the market on Main St for Broken Arrow customers. See you soon!
Hello all! Well, this is an attempt to post a second video, because the one I posted yesterday had YouTube issues so I took it down and put the one below in it's place. The piglets are really growing and enjoying the unusually nice (almost spring like) weather. Here's the video:
If anybody has difficulty watching the video, and by difficulty I mean constant buffering throughout the video, not difficulty believing that someone really gave me access to a camcorder and a computer , let me know by leaving a message on the blog or shooting me an e-mail.
Well, our 3rd sow farrowed yesterday and, you guessed it, she only had 9 piglets. They're supposed to have a minimum of 11, gosh dang it
I guess I need to buy Roscoe (our herd Large Black boar) a DVD copy of Gilty Pleasures to see if he can perform a little better. (If that went over your head like a Jumbo 747, a gilt is a young, female pig.)
I took the trusty camera out today and got a few pictures, like this one:
Man, that just makes it all worthwhile to see a bunch of healthy animals in their natural environment, the way the good Lord intended them to live, thriving with very little human interference. You can check out the other pix in our photo album section under the heading "fall pigs". We want to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. Stuff some peppers or eggplants, or just stuff yourselfs. That's what I'm doing! A reminder that we'll have more pork available around the middle of December, and we'll send out an e-mail with what's available.
Pork & Greens is 7 1/2 acres of fertile bottom land, located between Bixby and Okmulgee along the banks of Snake Creek. Raising rare breed pigs and heirloom fruits and vegetables, our goal is to supply folks with healthy, sustainably produced food that can't be found at the local supermarket.
After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in Animal Science, I worked in the commercial pig industry for 12 years. Along the way I figured there must be a better, more humane way to raise pigs. I put my first pigs on clover pasture five years ago, and have never looked back. I run the day to day operation of the farm and marketing of the pork and produce.
After receiving her accounting degree from the University of Oklahoma, Tina has worked her way into a management position in corporate accounting at Saint Francis hospital in Tulsa. She also handles all the book keeping chores for the farm.
We have two little farm hands, seven year old Savanna and two year old Sawyer.
ruh rhroo, Shaggy) by Thursday, we'll put a big load of straw in the huts tomorrow. This Febuary, a farming neighbor is going in halves with me to grow five acres of oats on his land. I'll supply the seed and labor to get it all sown, and he'll harvest and bail it next summer. Not a bad deal on my end, as good oat straw is hard to find.
, let me know by leaving a message on the blog or shooting me an e-mail.