We finished the course of dewormers on the pigs last weekend and have been rewarded with a week of peace. Everyone in the barn is still alive and perky. They haven’t added any body condition yet and that’s what we are waiting on at this point however it was bliss to be able to go in and see everyone bright eyed and curly tailed each morning all this week.
#33, the pig with the prolapse, has been returned to the main paddock. All her insides are back inside and she’s also bright eyed and curly tailed. Miguel and I have some paddocks to create in the woods next week to make room for more pigs and we need to sort out some pigs with the new trailer I built. Not all of our pigs are the same size in each paddock and the big pigs are pushing the little pigs away from the food too much. Hopefully next week we will have everyone outside, healthy, and in the proper paddock. Once we do that, it will be time to bring in another set of pigs for January. We bring 20 pigs on farm each month as part of our production, so we can finish 20 pigs per month 6-8 months later. Luckily one of our preferred breeders called and he has 11 pigs ready for me so I only need to find another 9 which means only one farmer with feeders. These pigs will be dewormed when they hit the farm so hopefully no repeats of the last batch.
I did talk to a customer of mine yesterday and he told me why I couldn’t find anyone with chips they wanted to dump. I should have known, the chip market has exploded in NC and power plants are buying chips to fuel their biomass generators. Luckily though, my customer is in the grinding business and he told me I could get grinding from him if I’d pay for the trucking. I have a truck that I can use to haul chips and hopefully soon will have time to actually drive it. Next week I hope to start hauling chips which will allow us to start making the paddocks like we want them. The pigs will certainly appreciate it as a thick layer of chips make for a very warm and snuggly bed. Until then, we’ll use the hay we have, which I also need to haul next week. I have 60 bales of hay waiting to be hauled which is four and 1/2 loads or a couple of days of hauling. Looks like instead of being a farmer next week, I’m going to be a truck driver!