Meet Tia and her cousin BobbyT3. Tia is the daughter of a major star in the Holstein Show Circuit. And her father is an acclaimed Angus bull. She is very calm, and friendly. Docile. Her cousin the steer is also a gentle fellow. They are both a good size too. Almost three months old. Nice looking animals.
When they are settled and doing ok they will join the black and white beef herd. Though I will definitely breed Tia to Carlos next year – her temperament is perfect.
The hog prices have taken a dangerous dive in the last few months. Only two months ago these pigs were worth $40 dollars at auction, now they are getting between 10 and 15 dollars.
This is the reason for them not selling so well this year. None of my reading tells me this is a long term trend so I am going to hold tight. But there is serious panic running through the smaller hog farmers now. The big producers are smashing the little guys to bits.
It means that these two litters will be sold at a loss and I have decided to take the ones I am raising for meat into the abbatoir earlier: at 100 pounds instead of my usual 200+. This will cut costs considerably and is actually more attractive to the average family. I am calling it the Mini Roast program and I have quite a few people interested. I have also decided to bite the bullet and continue breeding. I know of a number of small producers who are getting shaky – feed is still expensive – the losses are huge. You cannot breed let alone feed an animal for this return. There is no money in it this fall. The massive mega producers, with newly developed, high tech, mammoth farrow to market companies, big even by American standards, have come on line and are producing huge amounts of cheap pork. More than ever in the history of this country. Production has spiked. But demand is the same – exports have not increased but supply has leaped ahead. Late summer is also the months when hogs go to market so with these two things combined prices have crashed causing a slide into ruin for many.
As long as my girls don’t have too many huge litters and I can still pass off a few pigs for my friends to raise for themselves and raise a little meat for myself and some for Jake we will continue. But I still want to stay small. Small is best for me.
But I am making no money at all – in fact the pig budget is most unhealthy and I will be borrowing from my vacation fund for pig feed this winter to get us through to the spring when they will start to sell again. I am not ready to quit.
The cows are doing OK though. The cows have paid for themselves this year. Not a huge profit but enough to invest in these two.
And feed them all until next summer.
I have some sad news. Yesterday morning Lurch died. (For those who are new to the Fellowship: Lurch she was one of a litter of piglets rejected by their mother – many of them died young but wee Lurch was a fighter and even though her legs would not work properly she refused to give up). Lurch’s adopted mother Lori had a wheelchair made for her and Lurch would run about the house on this with her useless back legs laid above the wheels.) Lori told me this morning that Lurch – who she had renamed Maggie – was fine yesterday morning, ate, went outside in her chariot for her exercise then Lori laid her on her bean bag for a rest and when she looked at her only minutes later Maggie had stopped breathing. Her heart just stopped.
Lurch whose name was Maggie has died.
Some lives are not long but this does not diminish their importance. Just like relationships. Sometimes a little is long enough. Wee Lurch will always be embedded in this summers memory.
Much love
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
57 responses to “Meet Tia and Sad News”
That Lurch-Maggie had a life, and a good one is worth celebrating. It shows us the value of compassion, which we can take with us when we make our consumer choices and use to differentiate between produce vs commodity.
We are so fortunate here in NZ that we have access to so much good, fresh food. Yes we do pay higher prices than other countries, but to my mind it is worth it. I was shocked when I watched a TV program once on wholesale food production in USA. A lot of those methods, and chemicals used, are illegal in NZ. It means even if you don’t know the supplier of your meat, as long as it is NZ beef or mutton or chicken, you can be fairly sure that the animals have been treated OK and that they haven’t been fed anything funny. Not 100% sure unfortunately – there has been some controversy in the last few months about the treatment of bobby calves. It is always best, in my mind, if you can actually source direct from the farmer, but it’s not always possible, and I think NZ has the balance a lot better than most countries I hear about.
I’m so glad Lurch/Maggie had a good life though short. I must admit I did wonder what would happen if she grew up to be a really large pig. I think it would’ve been hard to keep her in heavy duty chariots! It’s heartening to know there are still good people in this world who’ll take care of and love the Lurches/Maggies. I am fortunate to have a local farmer who pastures beef, pork and chicken. Yes, it is a bit more expensive but if you can buy the pork by halves and the beef by quarters it’s not too bad and the quality is ever so much better. We also have a wonderful summer farmer’s market, that, along with our own small garden feeds us well. I have been cooking pretty much entirely from scratch and it’s not a big deal – and I really don’t like to cook! I also find most of my grocery shopping is done at the perimeter of the store now. From the farm newspapers we get I’m seeing more and more articles about the local food movement and people wanting to know where their food comes from and how it’s raised. Interestingly enough the attitude of these papers in general has come around from scoffing to hesitant approval. There has also been increasing interest in urban and rooftop gardens to supply what are now the food desserts in the cities. Here in Wisconsin we have the pioneer of urban farming and aquaponics, Will Allen (growingpower.org) to look to. So hang in there, I really believe you’re on the right track!
I hope Lurch feels the love… I believe she does.
Lurch Maggie was a very fortunate little piglet, she certainly made an impression on a lot of people. That she had a life was a gift, most farmers would have just euthanized her and been done with it. You did everything you could to give her a chance at life, so did Lori. That counts for a great deal.
I certainly would love to be able to get pork like you’re raising. There are some shops in Chicago that deal direct with the farmer and that might be a possiblilty for the Tweens. Perhaps you could take subscriptions for raising piglets for people who would pay monthly toward the meat they would receive. Presently I couldn’t take a whole hog, 100 pounds live weight would be too much for just two people, however we certainly would be interested in less poundage. There must be more people like us who would love to know our meat was raised clean and ethically and would be wiling to pay you for it. Being near a city like Chicago should be a big plus. It might just need a marketing plan to pull it off.
😦
Oh Celi .. I’m so sorry. Dear wee Lurch. But she had a wonderful life with much love from you and her new owner .. If only here for a short time. Thanks for all you do
We are still debating if we should breed (pigs!) or continue to buy in weaners. With such a fluctuation in prices it must be very disheartening.
We seem to have a different market here in that the low seems to be about 4 zloty a Kg ($1 \ Kg or 50c a Lb) the norm is 5 Zloty and the premium, which we manage to get selling as organic\outdoor is 7 Zloty (heading towards $2 a kilo) That has surely got to be the way forward, selling as a premium product, which surely yours are.
I’m sure that market will turn back soon enough.
Love the look of your new stock, as soon as we run a surplus of hay and feed then I’m going to convince my better half that we should invest.