Manure managed

Hmmm....  The pictures kind of tell the whole story.  

The title is supposed to make you think of Harry Potter and the "Mischief Managed" spell....  

We didn't quite get all the manure moved, but what a difference.  And what a fragrance!  

Had to do it soon, so it all has a chance to "settle" in it's new piles before the family reunion a month from now.  (You're welcome, family!)

And we shared a trailer load with our neighbors, and have lots more to share if anyone wants to come with a trailer.  Really.  We'll be very generous!

All day, until after dark.  With a rented Bobcat.  Lots of pitchfork and shovel action.  We took a break for pizza and realized that whenever anyone moved, the stench of manure wafted around us all....  Except for Carrie, who supervised from the safety of the hay loft.  :)

We learned a few things....  

Bobcat tires don't get great traction if they are on soft black damp earth.

The black soil is much, much deeper than we ever imagined.  The tractor tires made very deep ruts, and the soil was still black all the way down to the bottom.

The upgrade to a larger Bobcat rather than the smaller skid loader was very nice, but the Bobcat didn't fit into the barn door.

Something with caterpillar-type treads might work better next year.

The clearance between fence posts to get into the pasture was just....about....right.  With careful maneurvering the corner of the barn is still intact.  Sometimes it was a near miss...

And....we need to do this every year.  Not leave it for 4 years until things get to the impossible point!

Before, during, and after photos.  

Manure....managed.  At least for now.

(Oops, no, scratch that.  Bessie was lifting her tail in her nearly clean quarter as soon as we let her back in there.  There's gratitude for you!)

 

Laura

Cameo and the Vowels

Some silly humor.  I must have been tired or something.

With the Guinea Hog Association, there is an option to register litters at first, and then register individuals from that litter later as needed.  

I started filling out the form on-line, and then was stumped for the "names, if known" section.

Later, after school, Jeremy helped me to photograph and document white markings, # of teats (yeah, people want to know that, and if they are evenly spaced!), male vs female...

It's actually a nice litter.  People like 12 teats or more, but these all have 10 or 11.  Mama is unevenly spaced and some of her babies are too.  

2 females, 3 males.  

One female with too much white on her front leg and nose, which I think is adorable but may not be registerable.

One little male with just the tips of his toes showing white, like his daddy Batman.

In summary, there are 5 little squealers.  And almost one more.

Walking back to the house, it occurred to me to refer to them as the "Vowel Litter".  Other people name their litters for Presidents, or garden tools, or types of cars, or farm-type personalities, or Disney characters.  This litter would be vowels.

Ally, Edgar, Icharus (thanks to Jeremy for that one), Ollie, and Uno (Jeremy, again).

A. E. I. O. U. 

And almost Y.

 

Laura

An eventful birth process

This is why, when one of our animals is due to deliver babies,  I trek to the barn at 3 in the morning, why I dash into the barn to check when I've been gone a few hours, why I peer into the stall or watch for the slightest change in the appearance of their....back....ends....  Yeah, tired of looking at animal rumps.

Cameo was due with her first litter of piglets on Friday.  Nothing.

Saturday.  Nothing.  She munched some hay into smaller bits.  She laid around and looked like a fat toad.  She moaned and groaned but was not in labor.

Sunday....munching straw into tinier bits.  Moving bedding around aimlessly.  Eating and drinking and perking up her ears when she heard me come into the barn.

We left for Bible study and youth group.  

Coming back around 9:00, things were different.  (Yes, I dashed straight from the car into the barn to check!)

Cameo was snuggled in a nice nest, with sides built up to cradle her bulky frame.  She did not perk up, but just swiveled her ear as if to say "Yeah, I know you're there.....I'm in LABOR here!"

About an hour later, she started straining.  It wasn't pleasant to watch.

I was determined to only intervene if I needed to, but soon it was apparent that I needed to be in the stall.  This was about 10:00 pm.

One little cloven hoof presented itself upside down (back foot), by itself.  Tremendous effort on Cameo's part.   Nothing.  No progress.

More effort.  Another little hoof presented itself and then slipped back in.  I thought "Maybe....two piglets being born at once?!!!"  

After a few more enormous attempts, it showed far enough out that a pulsing umbilical cord was wrapped around the second leg, holding a large piglet in place and thwarting any efforts for Cameo to deliver it.  

That was easy enough to fix.  On the next contraction, I hooked my finger carefully under that cord and eased it around the little hoof, so that the baby was no longer caught.  

Some damage was done already.  And Cameo was tearing (think episiotomy)....  She seemed unable to deliver that baby.

I dialed the vet and started leaving a message.  It was 10:30.  As I finished with "What should I be doing to help her?", she forced that large piglet out.  I hastily mumbled "I'll call if there's more trouble" and hung up.  He lay there lifeless.  I swiped his nose, swabbed inside his mouth, roughed him up between my hands and with the towel.  

Nothing was going to save this one.  He was a beautiful, perfectly formed male with just one white foot in front.  

I laid him to the side, with his umbilical cord still securely fastened inside of his mother.  I could cause trouble for Cameo if I pulled it too soon.  Taffy watched intently, as the little black body just lay there, not moving.

No time to grieve on my part.  Five more squirmy babies were delivered in rather quick succession.  I swiped their noses with a dry towel and made sure they all got to the milk bar.  

There are some white feet and a white nose in this litter.  Cameo's dad had more white on him than usual, and these take after him.  

It was now about 11:30.  I stayed and watched until after midnight.  Taffy was invited to come and see what was wrong with the little dead one.  She reverently sniffed at him, nudged him, and looked back at me with big soulful brown eyes....

By midnight, all five survivors were nursing contentedly.  Cameo had not yet delivered the afterbirth, but the dead baby's umbilical cord had finally eased out, so I felt that I could wrap him up and leave Cameo and the remaining babies alone for the night.  Taffy watched with concern as I took the lifeless piglet away from the others and wrapped him in one of the old towels.  :(

I don't know if the whole litter would have been lost.  I do know that Cameo was in distress.   I don't imagine that I'm any sort of hero, or that I need to be at every birth out there, but....this is why I check on my pregnant mamas as often as I do!  The looped umbilical cord was preventing her from being able to expel that little body, that one umbilical cord was firmly attached behind the rest of the piglets in line for delivery, and that one piglet was very effectively blocking the way for any others.  It could have been a disastrous birth, instead of five survivors.  

This morning, Cameo was still lying in the nest with certain nastiness pooled behind her.  She had not roused herself in 8 hours.  Food worked to get her to snap out of her stupor, and some milk from Bessie.  She got a good serving of her favorite, sprouted barley fodder.

Mama and piglets are working out a rhythm, nursing, squealing, motherly snorts as if she was a big black bear instead of a small black pig.  It looks like two girls and 3 boys.  One girl may not be registered because the white extends up past her front knee.  I'll need to check the breed guidelines.  

I have people waiting for these piglets, and for the next two litters.  Deposits to reserve piglets will start coming in, now that the babies are here.

Five for a first litter, with only one loss due to complications is not bad.  I'm exceedingly grateful that I was there during the delivery!!!

Laura

Babies

On the night the pig was due to deliver....

No piglets.  But she is still huge.  

Three kittens were born, then later in the day a 4th was there with the first ones.  Two orange tabbies, one orange and white, and one beautiful calico.  

And first-time mother Daisy, one of our American Chinchilla rabbits, had 11 perfect babies in the back of her nest box.  

Still waiting on those piglets 36 hours later...

 

Laura

New residents, old residents

A busy day here on the farm.  I picked up the 3 sheep in the photo.  This involved a huge dog crate in the back of my Trailblazer, and a smaller dog crate in front of that, on top of an old raggedy tarp.  They were about 40 minutes away.  

"Bunny" the ewe is a Romanov (Or Romeldale?) x Texel x Babydoll sheep, bred to make meat lambs.  She was bought by my neighbor Katie.  The reason(s) she is here?  Those two cute black lambs.  I bought the lambs, and the mother is here until the babies are weaned.   am already in love with Bunny, so....it will be hard to see her leave in 8 weeks!

Next up:  A phone call and text message from someone who wants to buy April's twin ewe lambs (or the black ewe lamb and the younger white lamb from Sunny).  The mother and daughter arrived around 4:30, liked the look of the lambs in the pasture, and plunked down a deposit.  Lambs will be picked up after weaning, probably around Memorial Day.  They will probably will bring them back in October so that they can be bred by our new ram, Boy Blue.

Finally, at about 7:30, Batman's new owner arrived to take him to Wisconsin.  All paperwork was in order, Batman loaded from one large dog crate into another without a fuss, and 4 of us hoisted him up into the truck's bed.  For reference....that's the same dog crate from the sheep trip earlier.  Old crates do a lot of necessary containment jobs around here!

A few dollars poorer, with the purchase of 2 cross-bred lambs.  More dollars richer, with the deposit for the two purebred lambs.  Even nicer was the payment for Batman, the handsome boar with the great pedigree and confident disposition (and the ability to produce large litters, judging by the look of poor Cameo who is due to have her babies any day now!)

This is what we've been working towards for 5 years.  Next week I start selling turkey poults from our own breeding trio.  Soon after that, chicks from our Barnevelder flock will be for sale.  Ducklings from the Cayuga flock.  Rabbit babies from the American Chinchilla rabbit group.  Piglets from the planned breedings of the three sows...  Kittens will be given away but there is already a list of interested farm people needing barn kitties.

I don't want to start viewing livestock as currency, but....when the carefully-planned sale of some can provide for the expenses of the ones which remain or which are joining us, it's a good day.

 

Laura

Cameo

First photo, Cameo a few weeks ago.  Last 2 photos:  Cameo yesterday

Miss Cameo is set up in the barn, ready for piglets later this week.  Not sure if she'll make it to her due date of April 8.  

Today I shoveled and hauled away 6 wheelbarrows full of the soggy composty stuff from beneath that nice dry bedding.  Once piglets are born and start rooting around, the bedding gets nasty very quickly if there is a layer of wetness below the dry.  

Cameo came here 6 months ago as a fairly wild hog, not really liking to be touched and really not liking the company of the other females. 

Now, set up in the maternity ward, she delicately takes an egg from my hand, she shimmies back and forth with delight as I scratch up and down her spine, and she has just started rolling to expose her belly, although I attribute that to pregnancy hormones...  Mother pigs need to expose their double row milk bar for their babies, so they all do that towards the end!  :)

She has become quite the nice little American Guinea Hog.

Her proportions are nice, even as large and round as she is.  She has a cute face, and beautiful thick black bristles, and a dainty sort of look about her, compared to my other sows.  

We'll see how she does with her first litter.  With Cameo, Bea, and Rose, I am looking at all three with an eye towards selling one of them after the spring litters are weaned.  Cameo may be edging Rose out of the picture, now that Cameo has stopped squealing in indignation at the slightest attempt to pet her, and is no longer glaring in disgust as she trots away...  Silly pigs.  We'll see!

 

Laura

Goodbye, fair Prince...

We loaded Prince Johan aka Jonny Boy into a trailer yesterday.  It went fairly well.  We had two long leads on his halter, and his favorite hay, and a bucket of grain.  Even so, the leads needed to be secured through the windows of the trailer, with men on either side, pulling, to convince him to step up and in.  The back door closing gently on his back legs was the final nudge.  

Bessie called for him all night.  She was not thrilled that I was the one trying to milk her.  This morning I will attempt to get back into the routine of milking every morning.  And tonight, again.  Her milk supply will dwindle, partly because I can't hand-milk to compare with the suction of a one-year old steer, but partly because that steer was born a full year ago and Bessie's production lasts about that long.

She is confirmed pregnant as of a week ago, so I've put a few ads out there to sell her.  No real bites yet.  

The manure pile inside the living area is quite....something.  It will probably take all summer for us to dig it out.  I'm seriously thinking of renting one of those little Bobcats or skid steers.  The manure areas from all the animals could use a good scraping, regrading, and re-freshing!  (The compost a year from now will be phenomenal!!!)

Jonny Boy is going to be grazing with a large beef herd, in greener pastures, at an organic farm.  He will have at least until this fall if not until his 2nd birthday, to enjoy life.  When he meets his intended fate, he will have been gone from here long enough for me to gratefully pick up those little freezer packages without imagining his deep brown eyes looking back at me from the other side of the fence.

It has been such a great adventure, having cattle.  I don't really like to think that Bessie will move on, but....I think it's time, if she can go to a good setting for the next few years of her life.  If she hadn't come here, I have no doubt she would have been in someone's freezer long before now.  She was a "cull".  She really shouldn't have even been sold to me.  But she's had good care here, up until her incident in August when (we think) she lost a pregnancy and injured her front leg.  I'll be upfront with a new buyer about all of that.  IF there is a buyer!

Such is the life of an old cow, but....I am hoping, like with Jonny Boy, that I can assure her of a few more months or years of life in a greener pasture than here, by finding a good placement.  And if now, she'll have her calf here in October, and hopefully we'll be in better control of the manure pack by then!

 

Laura