While Daisy’s calf hides, growing fatter by the minute, (not too fat we hope).. though at the moment I have quite given up hope on a calf at all, is it a fantasy calf? but there sure is milk! (larger breeds will calve up to 10 days later than the average table so being an Ayrshire, Daisy is obviously shooting for the later dates). 
Yesterday I received a call from the swine herd, who bred the late Charlotte and our deeply present Sheila.
“I have a gilt. Eight weeks. Bit of a runt. Can’t sell her for much. Do you want her? Are you milking yet? She needs the milk. I am going away tomorrow so best you collect her now.” (above is the kind of medium I used to work in.. sorry.. got all artsy on you). Of course I wanted her. Sheila needs company. I need another breeding gilt. I loaded up the car and off we went. She definitely is small but determined. She chugged about her box like a little fire engine all the way home.
By the time we got her home .. there was no light for photos for you. She cried and grunted about. Trying to get through the division to Sheila, who brought her offerings of alfalfa..whether to build a dam so the piglet could not get through or to try and improve her diet, I don’t know. Eventually they both went to bed on their own sides. 
You are a good feeder, the old swine herd had said, raising his ancient eyebrow. (Meaning I feed my pigs too much and they are fat) . Too much milk, eggs and alfalfa, I laughed. I asked him; how old do these pigs grow to? He said, I don’t know. After they have bred three times I sell them. They are getting very high returns. I told him about Sheila and he sighed with happiness. It was as though with one good pig who can live as long as she likes (I told him that you are helping out with the feed for Sheila by buying calendars and T shirts so he ordered one of each on the spot) this allowed him to love the pigs again. A pig who can live until she dies naturally is so rare here.. will she soon be the oldest pig in the midwest?
He told me terrible stories about factory raised pigs. Disease is rampant in the last twelve months. Pigs dying everywhere. Reports of six, seven, eight hundred piglets dead per farm per month!. Could this be true? Leading to high prices for pork and a shortage they say. No-one really talking about it. No-one wanting to admit that the pork factories might be imploding. Though prices aside this is a very unsettling development. Is this gossip? I need to find out.
Is there an epidemic running through factory raised pigs here in America. He told me that it is killing off millions of piglets. People like us who raise small numbers of free range pigs who have air and light and a vegetarian diet (there is plenty of protein in eggs and milk) can command a premium now, he said. You will remember that here in America it is NOT against the law to feed pigs pork products. They are feeding reconstituted pigs to pigs. In fact all the hog finisher feeds have animal protein on them. Make no mistake – it is pork fat. The fat makes them grow faster. So is it possible that the disease is being spread (among other things) through the feed. I need to do some more research, but it does not look good. Be very careful now.. know your farmer. If you are close by to me and want pork, buy a piglet and bring it out here to raise. This is serious stuff. We need to be vigilant about our food.
I shudder. And make sure not to wear my farm boots anywhere but on my clean farm and thank god that I mix my own feeds. 
Anyway our new wee Hereford gilt is very small and has no name, (other than The Runt) but let us watch and see if she pulls through first. She will find her name. And hopefully become vigorous as soon as Daisy starts the milking. Nanny Boo is of course immediately engaged. And spent the evening staring down any other animal or bird who came by to check out the newcomer.
I shall take some shots of Little Runt for you today.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
love your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
56 responses to “The Runt”
I hope she makes it!
You need to start a betting pool – a March Madness of your very own – on when the calves will make their appearance and what their genders will be!
Scary stuff goes on doesn’t it – thank god for farmers like you celi. Wonderful news about your little runt, hope she settles in with the farmy family 🙂
Very true about the PDEV! I have a good friend’s husband that is a vet trying to work on a cure/vaccine/something! I, too, am hoping our isolated, small, lots-of-fresh-air farm helps our sow Bernice and her pigs (due April 15th). I hope your runt makes it and you are back on your way to your own farm-raised pork.
I live in central North Caronlina – hog farming country. CS Lewis wrote, “nonsense draws evil after it.” and that has happened with factory farming animals. It *is* atrocious and evil. I hope they do implode.
Super scary! They, including the Arkansas state environmental protection agency, have slipped in the building of a hog farm, owned by Cargill, the same owners of the NC hog farms, up a tributary that leads to the Buffalo River, the first undammed national river in America!!! The people here can’t believe it’s happened and are fighting and will continue to fight, even though the farm is operating now. And somehow in the politics and legislation it is getting taxpayers money to fund it!!!!!! It’s baffling how these things can occur and continue to occur!
Good luck with the new little piggy!!! I know your animals are so loved and cared for—the scary stuff is out there in the bigger world.
Celi, I have no idea if this would be applicable or helpful to you, but it’s a common practice among horse breeders to test a tiny bit of milk to help determine when a mare is ready to foal. The calcium level increases dramatically just prior to foaling as the milk “thickens” and the colostrum is formed. This link mentions that it apparently can be used in cattle, although I have no experience or knowledge about it. But it definitely helped give me some guidance as to how close my mares were to foaling. http://preclaboratories.com/?post_type=products&p=1901 Congratulations on the new piglet! Jan in E.Central Illinois
PS: Those water hardness test strips are the same thing you buy at your pool supply store to test….very inexpensive.
We shall have to be careful that Miss Sheila’s snout is not put out of joint by a smaller, livelier piggy. Speaking of whom, that’s an amazing photo of her in her bed; she appears to be slowly slumping outwards and all her impressive person is forming a large puddle of Sheila! Poor Daisy, though, still carting around what must surely be an adolescent calf by now!
I’m glad to know that 10 days late isn’t an unusual thing for Daisy’s breed. That calf is waiting for the warmest day possible, I think. And how exciting about the little gilt. Clearly Nanny Boo needed another charge and the chickens weren’t cooperating! Your info on the nation’s pork makes me want to quit eating meat entirely. We try to be careful about what we buy, but it seems like a bit of time goes on and I find out something terrible about the product, even if it says things like “free range” “locally grown” and “pastured or grass fed”. Very hard to know who to trust, unfortunately. So glad there are people like you raising good food.
Good health and good luck to the Runt. Nanny Boo will sort her out. That news about the pigs being fed to pigs is appalling – the whole idea is abhorrent, and smacks of the Mad Cow Disease scandal. I’m so glad that there are people like you who raise animals the way they should be raised.
Love,
ViV
Cant wait to hear what you’ll name your little gilt. I love love love the name Marcel. And Minty and Matilda, etc.
YAY! A baby pig! Can’t wait to see her pic. Boo is such a treasure. Horrid and scary about the big pig farms. Very thought provoking. Thank you for sharing that information.
That kind of stuff just makes me fighting MAD!!! MAD!!! I want to go get every pig and cow out there (and cat and dog and chickens and poultry…you understand) and bring to my farm. MAKE ME JUST SICK! Mad Cow Disease was started exactly the same way…people grinding up their lovely dead cows and feeding them back to a herbivore…which NEVER eats animal protein of any sort!!! I’m so mad I can hardly type. I guess I had better stop…………..
✿♥ღ Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://handcraftedbyus.wordpress.com
Meanwhile, developers are pushing through projects in California with so many houses crammed onto an acre, there’s barely room for a tomato plant in a patio container. And they’re doing this on some of the best farm land in the nation, and despite the will of the people. Greed and stupidity are rampant. As rough as your winter was, you’re still in a good place.
Looking forward to pics of the sweety Runt……..I think Boo is just the kindest, sweetest, most caring, loving dog on this earth ❤