7125 Old Stage Road Raleigh NC 919-322-0197
Here is some sunshine and cuteness from yesterday on this rainy Thursday.
Since we were bringing in gravel to dress up some soupy spots, she decided to let the piglet have a walk on the gravel pile.
The piglet was pretty happy to play on the gravel pile. I only had a minute to snap these pics before heading out for another load. The piglet had the afternoon to enjoy being a pig.
The cute little runt piglet is doing well. Round belly and plenty of attention. We should all be so lucky.
Nothing goes better with some good beef, pork, or chicken than a bottle of local NC wine. Thanks to our long time friends at Adam’s Vineyards in Willow Springs, NC we now are able to stock their wine in our farm store (Thank you Mrs. Adams and Quincy!).
Both traditional NC sweet wines and their signature dry wines are available. We also have Merlot in stock as well if you prefer a more conventional grape. Have you not tried Adam’s wines before? The judges at this year’s State Fair did, and gave them best of show in their category!
And for the kiddos, we have grape juice and grape cider (we call it “kid wine”). If you want some juice or cider for your kids, you better hurry before my kids find it. They drink it by the gallon.
This is just part of what we have on hand. We also have beef, pork, and chicken in stock with more coming soon. And of course we still have lots of cuteness in the piggy department.
So give me a call to set up a time to swing by.
The eggs she had for breakfast was actually taken after this video where Grandma started her on baby food. She’d read that iron deficiency was an issue for baby piglets. She was correct (Go Grandma!) so she also read that rice cereal was high in iron and started her on this mixture. When Grandma told me all this, I told her I had iron shots I could give her.
Give her piglet a shot? With a needle? And hurt her precious?
I think she wondered how we ever raised three children with any of my involvement. Of course, SWMBO wonders the same thing sometimes.
On the way to the barn I stopped to marvel at how beautiful everything was. I was walking with Spork to go get into our daily chores so it was already a good day. Then I noticed the layer of fog hanging over the pasture. It looked like we were in the mountains right at the cloud layer. The sky was just turning blue above as the sun was coming over the horizon (I feel sorry for people who don’t get up early. They miss the best part of the day.)
The picture above doesn’t really do it justice. Luckily I stopped again and took a panoramic shot so you can see the sunrise as well.
Here you get a better idea of what we were looking at. You need to click on the picture to blow it up to full size so you can see what we saw.
The sun is just coming up on the left. The sky is just turning blue. Pink clouds rising with the sun, a fog layer hanging over the farm, and it’s already 55 degrees heading for 75. What a gorgeous December day!
Today we took LF 500 to Chaudhry’s to be processed. He weighed the week before about 1060 pounds and he dressed out hot weight 590 pounds. The processor remarked that we had gotten a much better yield out of this cow than our previous ones.
Here is the latest on the piglet, having a breakfast of warm scrambled eggs. I seriously doubt this is leftovers from Grandmas plate. More likely, it was made special for the little piglet and Grandma made herself coffee and nothing. I’m sure she went right back to sleep after this meal since that’s all she seems to do is sleep and eat.
How to sell milk at your farm store.
Step 1. Do you have customers who will buy raw milk? Check!
Step 2. Do you have a milk cow? Check!
On Monday I went to go purchase a milk cow from a nice family. I could understand why they needed a milk cow. They had 13 kids!! However there were moving and couldn’t take the cow with them. Turned out she was from the same guy, Mike, who I bought both Dottie and Maggie (our previous milk cows) from so I knew the type of cow I was getting. She was very sweet and gentle which was great because she still has her horns. It was a bit of an adventure getting the truck and trailer into the yard where the cows were but eventually I made it in and after some more adventure (they didn’t have a loading facility) we got them loaded.
I say cows because this was a pair of cows, both mother and daughter. The daughter was about 6 months old and was quite a character. Apparently she is prone to escape, plays with kids like a dog, and is halter broken. Sort of. Not exactly sure what I’ll do with her but for now she’s keeping mom nursed and growing. Both tasks I need performed so she can stay. The seller asked if I thought she could be a milk cow in the future. I really didn’t see how with the 1/2 Angus blood but it’s not like I’m a milk cow expert.
We are going to dedicate the front pasture to our milk cows. This will make it easy for them to be milked daily as it’s right in front of the barn. It also keeps them away from the bulls so we can breed when we want to. I say cows because I believe I’m going to look for a second milk cow to join this one. I have to talk to our milker, Erin, and see if she’s ok milking two cow but we’ll get it worked out.
Step 3. Clean the milking parlor. Check! Erin went to work on the milking parlor already. I haven’t been in there to look at it but I know how clean she keeps things. I’m sure it’s in great shape.
Step 4. Test the milker. Dope! The vacuum pump was twitchy before we shut it down for a year. It was locked up solid when I went to check on it. I spent a few hours on it already (which is why I was so dirty). I got it cleaned up. I machined the vanes of the pump to correct the damage from previous issues which sounds like a big deal but we have a machine shop here so that makes it simple. Sadly, the clearance issues were not simple and took two days to get resolved.
But after involving the hydraulic press, the lathe, emery cloth, various hammers, Miguel, and some choice language, we resolved the issues and it’s running like it was new.
Now I only need to dig out the drain to the parlor, test the milker itself, try some test milking with Erin, and then we will be in milk here on the farm. Not sure when we’ll have enough to put some in the store just yet. For now, I have to find jugs and labels for the milk as well so there are a few more steps. But we are making progress!
Look for milking updates coming soon.
Wait! What?
How did I end up here?
One of our sows had a litter of 11 piglets. As is usual with a large litter, one little piglet was the runt. She seemed to be getting some milk but as time passed, she was staying the same size and her brothers and sisters were getting bigger. This meant that she was getting less and less milk as she got pushed away by her siblings. I’d already noticed her and thought maybe I’d put her with the sow with only four babies, but that sow was being nursed by the neighboring piglets in the next stall so she was like a busy gas station with piglets coming and going at all times.
Enter Grandma. She was quite offended that the little runt wasn’t getting milk like she needed and what was I going to do about it?
Shrug. “She’ll probably die. That happens to runts, ya know.”
Now I have to explain, Grandma has ALWAYS wanted to bottle feed and raise a piglet. Since she was a little girl. She’s never been able to in her life and since we’ve had pigs we’ve either had piglets that were too bad off to to well off for her to take one. However this piglet was perfect. In trouble but only needing TLC. She’d had colostrum but just wasn’t getting enough milk now. This is just what Grandma needed.
“What will you do with the pig if I bring it back.”
“Eat it.”
I wasn’t going to be accused of coaxing her into this when the pig was trashing her house. After being bottle raised, I’m sure she’ll end up being a pet and be retained here as a breeder. I was glad she was a female because otherwise I’d have been telling the truth about eating the pig.
“I’m only going to keep her until she’s old enough to fend for herself. And I’m NOT naming her.”
Shrug. “Ok, do what you want. I’ll get you a box.”
That piglet was going home with Grandma before she even saw it. That was a foregone conclusion.
Fast forward a couple of days.
Last night, I got home from working at the barn. I was pretty dirty but hey, I’m a farmer, it’s expected. I arrived to find a house full of kids, Grandma, and this.
There is a whirling dervish ongoing in the house. Kids screaming, jumping around, bashing. Normal kid noise of about 130db. The piglet is sound asleep, in a knitted white scarf, being carried around by the different kids.
Grandma has been feeding the baby piglet yogurt, baby food, milk, and I don’t know what else. Probably caviar. She has had a bath, and probably perfume but I wasn’t allowed to get close enough to find out. Basically the piglet was living the life of royalty.
Grandma has been wearing the piglet all day just like you see Spork carrying her now. How she hasn’t been peed on yet is beyond me but apparently the piglet gets up, eats like a pig, then goes back to sleep like you see above and sleeps through anything. She is already sleeping through the night which Grandma is quite happy with and I think is taking credit for. She seems to be the perfect baby so far.
Apparently the kids were pretending the piglet was baby Jesus before I got there and acting out the wise men in the manger. The pig slept through it all.
I however was not allowed to touch the pig. I was too dirty.
To. Touch. A. Pig.
Today one of our customers asked if she could bring her daughter out to see our new little piglets. Of course! Miss Olivia came out and plopped right down in the barn to hold this baby piglet. Both were well behaved and I’m sure Olivia smells like a pig now but everyone seemed pretty happy.
Thanks to mom for sharing the pictures.
If you want to see the baby piglets, just let me know. I’m around most of the day tomorrow and next week.
We have sows dropping piglets left and right. The hospital barn is awash in the cute little things.
When I got home from our trip I found that two of our sows had already delivered their piglets. This one had 11 piglets all healthy and happy.
Also our first time mom, a Berkshire, had her litter.
We don’t have studio lights so you’ll have to trust me on these piglets. They are CUTE. Or you can swing by and take a look. This was this mom’s first litter and she only had four. Small but not unusual for a first time mom. We’ll see if she bounces back for her second litter. If not, she won’t be one of our breeders going forward.
When I checked on our last sow, she seemed to be in labor. After a few minutes, I found out I was correct.
Turned out this mom was just starting to give birth and I saw her first, second, and third piglet being born. Of course I couldn’t help myself and grabbed each piglet and helped them latch on for the first time.
As soon as I was sure everything was progressing nicely, I went over to the house and got the kids so they could see. They loved being able to see all the new babies.
I thought this photo was hilarious. Even Cotton wanted to see what was going on.
We’ll spend the next few weeks making sure the piglets get a good start and the moms are on a rich diet. Then everyone will go back outside to their normal paddocks to live a normal outdoor piggy life. In the meantime, if you’ve been meaning to get over here to buy some meat and take the kids out of the house, now is the time. They can see and maybe even hold a piglet, but only until these guys go back outside. Drop me a line if you want to come by.