Day 7: We Are The Lucky Ones

I was lovingly told that my post yesterday was a dud, so hopefully today’s is better J

There has been a lot of outcry today over a video from The Pete Holmes Show that made fun of Farmers and blamed Farmers for Daylight Saving Time. Most of the comments I have seen have been decidedly angry, but mine won’t be, so don’t worry!

Maybe I shouldn’t be posting this video and commenting on it, maybe that gives this man too much power and attention like he wants. But you can’t fight untruths if you have not witnessed them firsthand and taken the time to truly think them through.

As I watched this video (which is posted at the bottom of the page…you can watch after you have read my commentary!), I wasn’t overwhelmed with rage and didn’t turn purple with speechlessness, I mostly felt sorrow. And pity. I laughed a little. And had an overwhelming desire to hug this guy.

I know what you are thinking…hug this guy? If everybody else’s reaction was mottled anger and raised blood pressure, why was your reaction to give the guy a hug?

Well first off, he got his information about Daylight Saving Time and the origins of the 8 Hour Workday all wrong. I went ahead and looked em both up, you can check out this information: Daylight Saving Time and the 8hour workday. Contrary to what he says, these weren’t adopted for farmers.

Daylight Saving was originally proposed by Benjamin Franklin and then was pushed into modern existence by many heads of industry (such as railroad tycoons, etc). They had good intentions aka using the Daylight we are graced with! And most of the industrialized world actually follows some sort of Daylight Saving Time so the US isn’t alone there.

How bout the 8 hour work day? Apparently during the Industrial Revolution the factory owners wanted the factories going 24/7 and shifts tended to be 10-16 hours. Eventually they realized this was unsustainable and unhealthy and it was recommended that an 8-hour workday be implemented instead. There is some call to adjust that currently but we will see what happens.

As far as harping on wheat and telling farmers to go to bed earlier-well, he is entitled to his opinion. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would gladly have him come work a day with them, which usually start before sunrise and end well after sunset.

The biggest reason I just wanted to hug this guy? Frankly, he sounded a little jealous. And I felt bad for him. A lot of what he said may have been said in a sarcastic, callous way but he was right about farmers having a relatively idyllic life. Yes, it is hard and brutal BUT how many farmers and ranchers watch the sunset over their crops or pastures? How many live in and are an integral part of small communities where everybody knows everybody?

Maybe he didn’t get to grow up in a place where the workers at the Post Office know you by name. Maybe he didn’t grow up in a place where the local deli starts making your “usual” the minute you walk in before you even say what you want. He probably wasn’t blessed with watching the sun rise over the mountains as he helped deliver a calf. Or his mom didn’t bake pies and local kids weren’t always dropped on the door step for some good old-fashioned playing in the dirt.

So after listening to this video a few times, I mostly feel sorry for him. We, those in Ag, are truly the LUCKY ONES.

We are so in tune with Nature. We are so in tune with what is going on in the communities we live in and are always trying to make our lives and the lives of our children better. We get to do something we absolutely could not imagine life without EVERY SINGLE DAY. And we don’t have to make fun of other people to earn a living- especially not the hard-working individuals who feed, clothe, and keep rural communities together.

“Sweet, sweet, heavenly b******…..You breeze enjoying, pitchfork holding, pie cooling, neighbor trusting, salt of the earth, Norman Rockwell *bleep-bleep*”

The famous Norman Rockwell painting doesn’t even remotely illustrate modern farms and ranches. And no, oat bag dresses are not the fashion du jour. But seriously, let’s send this guy some grilled cheeses and ice cream, and quite possibly some hugs, because at the end of the day, WE ARE THE LUCKY ONES.

Watch the video and let me know what you think! Maybe after reading my comments you might agree that hatred is not the answer. A little education, feeding, and maybe some God-filled love would better serve I think. 

Day 6: Stories Make Everything Better

Some of my greatest joys in Wyoming were the times I was working with the local 4-H and FFA students. It was so much easier to share the joy of pigs when there were pigs to share ;)

In lieu of having pigs to share now though I am spreading the word through the Pork Board’s Operation Main Street. I know I have written posts about this before and I will probably write more posts in the future, but I seriously am so glad to be part of this movement.

Do I think I am the world’s greatest presenter? Absolutely not. It can be hard to talk about Ag with high school students that have no interest, but I try anyway. It would be easier for me if I could drag a sow into schools with me...but I don’t really think the administration would be all that thrilled…haha. Something about being able to actually see and touch an animal opens up question gateways like nothing else. 

I have a lot of respect for high school teachers, they are definitely made of tough stock.

That dangerous soul-sucking stare ;)

 It’s always interesting to see the difference between the freshman and the seniors. The freshman are usually so afraid of you that they don’t want you to notice them or ask them questions, and they definitely don’t want to ask you questions. The seniors on the other hand actually look at you like you are a human being and not a monster whose sole goal in life is to suck out their souls ;) The seniors are far more engaged, they ask questions, they make jokes, they want to hear some silly stories such as the following:

-The time the pigs chewed on Dave’s cell phone for a day then so kindly dropped it back in their feed trough so he could find it the next day.

               

-UW has 2 outdoor pens that are overflow pens because the barn isn’t as big as it needs to be. Well the trick to feeding in those pens is getting in the pen and dumping feed in the troughs before the sows swarm you and make it very difficult to get anywhere. Well one time, in the middle of winter, after the ground had frozen and melted and frozen and melted and left massive ruts and hard knobs in the dirt I was feeding sows. Well I didn’t manage to get to the troughs before being swarmed, an 600 pound sow stepped on my foot and then I tripped over a rut. Feed went flying, I went flying and I developed some nasty dirt burns from that adventure. Just one of those glamorous times when you are really happy nobody is around to witness your misfortune J

-They were amazed by the fact that the outdoor sows would pick up rocks and carry them around then oh so kindly dump them in their waterer. You could almost always guarantee if there was a waterer problem it was due to an overflow of rocks stopping the system up.

None of these stories are exactly life-changing but they illustrate the entertaining personality quirks that pigs have.

While it may be nerve-wracking to be an ambassador for Ag, everybody’s stories need to be told regardless of how scary it may be. At the end of this long day I am definitely tired but honored that I had the chance to share the Pork story with high school students. It won’t be long until they are out in the real world after all…and who knows, maybe they will decide to give the Pork industry a try. 

Day 5: Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye is always the hardest part.

It doesn’t matter if it’s to a pet, a friend or family member, or livestock. Of course, I often feel as though the livestock are as much friends and family as any human.

Bertha-this was one of the few times she was actually awake!

Today the 7 sows I was in charge of went to the sale barn. I had only taken care of them for a month, but I still had to fight the urge to cry last night as I gave them some final scratches and took some final photos.

I stood guard with these girls while they were having piglets. I fed them Nilla wafers and spent plenty of time just hanging out with them. Several of them had acquired names.

It really frustrates me when people on the outside look in and say that obviously livestock producers do not care about their animals because we raise them and then send them off to be butchered.

How do you not care about something that you work with and care for everyday? Just because we appreciate the cycle of life, it makes us unfeeling, heartless monsters?

Goodbye Penelope love. 

I’ve been asked before if I get attached to the pigs. My response is that I don’t usually get attached to the piglets, mostly because they just grow so fast and it seems like one day they are born and the next day they are gone. But the sows and boars are another story. They spend years with you.

I’ve lost a few sows to unexplained and definitely surprising deaths. I cried uncontrollably each time.

I had a Hamp boar, the only truly fantastic son we ever got out of my old Hamp boar. His name was Tuff because he was the only survivor in his litter (it was a truly bizarre sequence of events). He came when called and was truly a Mama’s boy. As he got older he developed a habit of pen jumping. You couldn’t blame him, he was only jumping into pens that had pretty ladies in them and when he had satisfied his urges he would jump back to his pen. I came back from a conference to find out that while I was gone he had jumped a panel, gotten caught, and had broken his leg. Needless to say he had to be put down. 

The worst part about the losses of the 3 I adored the most? I don’t have any pictures of them. I foolishly thought I would have more time.

Saying goodbye is never easy. And just because we only show our pain behind closed doors doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

If you want to read a real tear-jerker, read this post from Just A Ranch Wife. It may better help show the depth of pain felt when livestock producers lose animals. 

To see the rest of my 30 Days of Randomness, check it out here. 

Check out the other bloggers and their 30 Day posts here! 

Day 4: Is It A Swirf?

Did somebody say research was fun?

If anybody can find that person, please send them my way!

I was at school this morning by 6 o’clock (that’s AM remember…wheeew) in order to get a couple of hours of hard work in before class. I won’t bore you with how busy today was but let’s just say that I had 60 piglets weighed before 7am and the day went downhill from there.

You see, I have 2 research trials going as of today. I have 36 nursery pigs on a preference test-the trial is basically to see how pigs react when given a choice between good corn and bad corn…and bad corn and bad corn. It’s common knowledge that given a choice they will choose the good feed, but it can be a toss-up between the not-so-good-corn diets. I also have 24 nursery pigs on a metabolism study…basically we want to see what happens biologically when pigs are fed certain levels of bad corn. This isn’t the first study looking at these issues, but research is basically about repeating experiments until there is enough data to see any sort of trend in.

Why do we care about the value of bad corn? Because sometimes it can be a choice between feeding bad corn and even worse corn, especially when you look at a season like last year’s harvest which was very drought-stricken and desperate. And nobody wants to feed anything dangerous to their animals because it could result in death.

So for the next 22 days or so I will be spending each and every day collecting urine and feces. And feeding, and switching feeder positions, and weighing pigs. And weighing pigs some more.

Do you think I can put Master Pee and Poop Collector on my resume? Would you hire somebody with that as a primary skill??

This was a formerly WHITE pig...haha

The best part about the next month? Feeding blue feed every 7 days. Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous, it’s simply feed that has been mixed with a marker (indigo) so we can study rate of passage (rate of going from the in-hole to the out-hole) and serve as an indicator of when to collect feces (start when it turns blue, stop when it turns blue again). Grossed out yet? 

The marked feed makes for some pretty entertaining pig pictures. I think I could say I have developed a new breed of pig…maybe I should call them Repto-Pigs? Or how bout Swineosaurus? Swirfs? Easter Eggs? Hmmm….

Worst part about the marked feed? It ends up everywhere. And without fail it ends up all over my fingers and arms. Wearing gloves doesn’t help. And heaven forbid you get wet where you accidentally dropped some marked feed!

I can always tell people are looking at me funny when they notice the blue stains on my fingers. Sometimes I want to say Yep, I’ve developed a new way to snort cocaine. Except it’s blue now. That would make me a really bad drug user though wouldn’t it? I’d be giving away the fact that I have an illegal habit. Maybe we should start slipping dyes into kilos of cocaine as they cross the border. It’d be like TA DA I FOUND THE SOURCE AND USERS!

OK, tangent done J

I had something else I wanted to add to this post, but I think I will save it for another day. I do have another 26 days of blogging to go!

So if you find yourself desperate for things to do, I am always accepting helpers to collect pee and poop. Pee and poop sounds so much better than urine and feces doesn’t it? I mean you can dress the words up all you want to but it doesn’t make the job any more fabulous!

If you smell a very aromatic odor coming from a blue-stained chica…just feed her chocolate. It solves everything! Here’s to hoping your Monday was uneventful! 

Day 3: A Different Perspective

It’s funny how much you can learn simply by trying something new. Like how not to cut your finger open while playing amateur plumber (oops) ;)

As most of you know I grew up in Northern Virginia. I was always surrounded by plenty of grass, plenty of hay, and plenty of pasture space for horses and cattle. Foolishly I just figured that was the way it was everywhere.

I always expected pastures to be shoulder-high and the cattle to be fat and happy. 

Moving to Wyoming definitely cut that foolishness right out of me. I was introduced to irrigation (unheard of in my lushly green, often rainy and humid home…except when the grass turns brown cuz of those scorching summers of course), the concerns of how to feed cattle through the winter when enough hay wasn’t put up due to drought, how many animals one area could possibly support due to limited grass and water, and so many other concerns.

Drought? I’m not sure in my first 18 years I had ever heard that nasty word uttered except in passing. It was never discussed daily or in a voice made weary by constant tough choices in a brutal land.

Not enough hay? Psssh, surely there is always enough hay right? I mean it’s common to see miles of pasture that hasn’t been grazed down at all throughout the spring, summer and fall. Everybody else must be the same right?

WRONG.

When I would go home I would find myself upset by the seemingly lackadaisical manner that farmers treated their pasture and hay with.

Dave visited me in Virginia one summer and while driving the back roads I thought he was going to cry at one point. The sight of huge pastures that were shoulder-high in grass and weeds and not a steer or cow in sight seemed like such a huge waste of good land and a terrible shame to boot.

Sorry for the terrible picture but you get the idea!

Have you ever seen fields with hay bales in them? They look so wonderful don’t they? But when the bales are not gathered promptly and stored correctly, the sight becomes depressing. Hay is always in high demand in the West, especially in places like Texas where a significant amount of rain hasn’t fallen in years and the drought there looks like it may never end. Once you have witnessed the scramble to find hay in a 500 mile + radius because otherwise you won’t make it through the extra-long winter, the sight of rotting hay bales in the field will break your heart.

One of my best friends from Wyoming came to visit me in July of this year and similar to Dave I thought she would self-implode when confronted with bales left to rot in fields. I pass this field 2x a day every day and these bales have not moved since July…what a shame.

Unless you have experienced the hardship of not having enough grass or hay to feed your animals then the tragedy of the choice to leave bales rotting in a field may not sink in. I hope someday to see hay sent West (that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg) instead of being left to rot in fields.

But I wouldn’t have thought about that if I hadn’t witnessed it firsthand…so the moral of this story is that a different perspective can never hurt.

What are some misconceptions you have had and later realized were completely wrong?

Day 2: Time To Soak In The World

It was a dark and gloomy sunrise this morning here in central Kentucky. The sun was just coming up as I was leaving Lexington after feeding pigs.

As the weather turns colder and the time changes (don’t forget that’s tonight!) I find myself reminiscing more often than not.

As I was walked to my pickup, the motion of a squirrel caught my eye and I watched him for a few minutes. I realized that I haven’t been taking enough time to survey the world around me and spend some quality time just letting my thoughts roam.

I think we are all guilty of that aren’t we?

I used to spend a lot of time just staring at the world around me. It has always brought me great peace.

 

This picture looks familiar right?! Sorry to overload you, I just love it. 

Sitting on our front porch in my great-grandmothers rocking chair and watching the world go by will always be a favorite past-time when I go home.

This is the view I saw every morning for 4 years. One I spent many a snowy night sitting on the porch just staring at. And reveling in the expanse of that crystal clear starry Western sky.

 I spent every weekend soaking in the glory of the mountains. Watching the sun go down, wrapped in a blanket.

The view off my current front porch just doesn’t measure up does it? Plus I have very nosy and meddling neighbors…which is quite a change after the past 23 years of emptiness. Don’t get me wrong, having neighbors isn’t a bad thing. It’s just not my ideal. Especially since I can’t walk outside in my underwear anymore. Depressing! ;)

I have come to understand how those who work in offices all day may not necessarily want to go home and work outside. Especially since I have found myself going to school then coming home and plopping down in the house! That has got to change!

So I will be thankful for the many blessings I have been given and will take some time each day to soak in the world around me.  

The world might be a better place if we all soaked in a few minutes of the peace of nature every day don’t ya think?

Day 1: My Purpose

Everyone has a different purpose in life. Some people spend their whole lives searching for the things that fulfill them and make them whole. I've always known that I wanted to work with animals but it took me years to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with animals. Then again, I still don't know where life will take me.

When I was in high school I convinced my mom that we needed to foster dogs for a local rescue. Rescue and adoption is still near and dear to my heart but I wanted to see what else there was in the wide world that would help me fill the void I feel without animals. When I went to college I entered as a Wildlife Management major. Sounded like a good idea at the time but eventually it thumped me upside the head that the chance of getting up close and personal with the wildlife I would be "managing" was going to be slim to none. And that just wouldn't do. The next choice? Animal Science. Turned out to be the best choice in college I would ever make.

The sound of grunting pigs greets me every morning (I tried to upload a recording but it failed). It was that sound that greeted me every morning in the years I was in Wyoming (along with the bellows of cattle and blats of sheep). This sound is like a lullaby to me. I would find myself in the barn whenever life seemed grim or out of control. It's still the sound that gets me through the happy and the sad.

I've said it before: I like cattle, goats, horses, etc...but I cannot imagine my life without pigs.

Whenever I give presentations to kids that have little experience with livestock I always tell them that pigs are a lot like humans. They are vocal (barking, grunting, squealing, screaming, etc), stubborn, independent, aggressive, friendly, and so many more things rolled into one. Too bad I can't drag sows into schools with me :)

Yes, they have a certain smell about them. And yes, they can be tough to work with (ask me about the Duroc boar that hated me or the times I've been knocked over by groups of 600-800 pound sows). But when I am with them, I know my purpose.

My time in Kentucky has been an emotional roller coaster and one of the reasons is I have had no purpose, no reason to get up in the mornings. I dread coming into town and spending the day sitting in the office. The times when I have had pigs to care for (while taking classes, doing research, other projects, etc) have by far been the best and most successful times here.

I can only speak for myself but I didn't get involved with animal agriculture for the money. It's actually probably safer to say that agriculture chose me. Working with animals fulfills me. It quiets all those voices in my head that question why I am doing this or that, what I will be doing tomorrow or later or in the next 10 years.

I am currently getting made fun of for always smelling like pigs (I have 7 sows and 100 piglets in the basement of our Animal Science building right now). People ask why I want to be tired and smelly each and every day. My answer is that there would be a giant hole in my heart and life if I didn't get up each morning to greet the animals.

Some of the images that have stayed with me through the years are the images of farmers and ranchers after their animals and land have been taken away from them, whether it's due to weather, foreclosure, or old age. The utter devastation haunts me. There's a reason that farmers rarely retire-to do so would be to watch their entire life drift away with the evening tide, gone forever.

I don't do it for the money. I do it because the pigs give me a purpose. And nothing can be more important than that.

I may not know exactly what I want to do with my life. But as long as there are animals involved-pigs especially-whatever I do will be just fine with me.


*Here is the starting page for 30 Days Of Randomness With A Pig Nutrition Grad Student, check back there for links to all 30 days.*

**If you want to read some more stories from the amazing Ag bloggers out there, check out the very talented (and fearless leader of this 30 Day Blogging Challenge) Holly Spangler's My Generation page! I know I will be keeping up with the stories :) **