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Category: Pigs

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Published on 1 Comment on Newsworthy Wednesday
Forest Hill Farm Piglets

Heritage Hogs At Risk

A new Michigan law is targeting heritage breed hogs. In an effort to control the feral hog population the State's Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) is removing heritage breed hogs from privately owned farms.  Forest Hill Farm raises Gloucestershire Old Spot and Berkshire hogs. If Iowa passed a similar law our hogs could be destroyed. Our hogs graze and live outdoors. They are social, productive, and domesticated. Their outdoor areas are rotated to keep them clean, healthy, offer a variety of forages, and prevent overgrazing. A confinement hog, who escapes into the countryside, has the same opportunity to become feral as a heritage breed. Actually, because our hogs are always outdoors, and very friendly, if they did get out of their fence line they could easily be coaxed back with the bribe of raw milk and a back scratch. One of the problems with the Michigan law, and there are many issues with it, is that the Invasive Species Order (ISO) outlaws the possession of wild swine, hogs, boars, and pigs, aside from domestic hog production. They haven't defined an exception so farmers won't know if their livestock is prohibited until the ISO goes into effect and the DNRE begins their inspections. Is anyone surprised that the Michigan Pork Producer Association supports the measure?  Aren't both heritage breed farmers and confinement owners pork producers? Four lawsuits have been filed against the ISO, heritage hog farmers are asking if the DNRE has jurisdiction.

Just more food for thought!

 

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Published on 3 Comments on Best Farming Practices

Best Farming Practices
One of the questions we're  asked frequently is, “Why aren’t more farmers raising animals in better environments?”  The answer’s simple; money.

With high corn prices, record high land prices, and the ability to increase crop yields with chemicals, confinement livestock allows farmers to double crop.  When animals are confined to housing instead of grazing the land is freed up for row crops. Grazing land can now be put into more “productive” use.

Added into the issue is government subsidies that pay for corn and soybean crops, not pasture grazing. Acreage is too valuable to “waste” on animal production. The monetary return is too small for animal producers, especially when labor is factored into the equation.

Our farm is an extension of our lifestyle, values, and a love of  the environment and animals.  Our customers health and the health of our livestock is the priority.

Our son and I took a class offered by one of the universities on raising sheep.  The material presented was all about profit.  Keeping costs down, production up. According to the class instructor the bottom line dictates every aspect of animal production .  The class presented graphs and charts indicating how cheaper food sources could be advantageous when feeding sheep. In this instructor's opinion hay was too expensive. Hay wasn't profitable to feed. Corn stalk bales were the better choice.  Cheap grain mixed with cheap dry matter are more advantageous.

When the class was over I explained to our son that none of these ideas  would work on our farm. Our goal is to use the Best Farming Practices. In my opinion, conventional farmers are shooting themselves in the foot.  If a livestock producer sells meat by direct marketing, the customer's satisfaction is the model, not the bottom line. Quality products equal repeat customers. The university model works well, if you are paid for carcass weight, not quality. But producing crap isn’t a viable business plan. If raising garbage meat, with animals living in pathetic conditions, is all a producer is capable of then perhaps a new career is called for.  I’ll step down from my soap box now.

The book Righteous Porkchop by Nicolette Hahn Niman has been selected for the Linn Area Reads program. There are several events planned to promote good food choices. Factory farm meat is readily available. It takes greater effort to find pasture raised pork and grass fed meat.  Check out Linn Area Reads for book discussion locations and an events calendar.  On May 11 at 7 pm Nicolette Hahn Niman will give a presentation at the Hotel Kirkwood.  If you have any questions about pasture raised pork, or raising livestock in general, I’d be happy to answer them for you email us .

Best farming Practices

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Arsenic in Animal Feed

The FDA announced that a drug fed to chickens will no longer be sold in the U.S.  Pfizer subsidiary Alpharma will discontinue sales of 3-Nitro.  Chickens are fed this drug to increase their appetites.  The FDA found that chickens fed arsenic had traces of the drug in their meat, primarily their liver. Pfizer will stop selling the drug in 30 days, after animal producers have had time to find new medications.  3-Nitro, a.k.a. roxarsone is the most common arsenic based animal drug, but similar drugs have been approved for poultry and pig feed.

The poultry and pigs at Forest Hill Farm eat non-GMO grains and grasses.

Published on Leave a comment on WHO Scandal Exposed
Pigs in pasture
Forest Hill Farm pigs in rape field

WHO Scandal Exposed

We’re talking World Health Organization (WHO), not the band. A stunning new report reveals that top scientists convinced the WHO to declare H1N1 a global pandemic. It has been uncovered that they held close financial ties to the company that created the vaccine. The scientists assigned to combat the H1N1 virus had their hands in the cookie jar. The report in the British Medical Journal exposed the hidden ties that drove WHO to declare the pandemic. The report’s author’s, Deborah Cohen and Phillip Carter concluded that “...H1N1 may yet claim its biggest victim - the credibility of the WHO and the trust in the global public health system.” Source: Natural News Article

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Feed pigs right!

 

In Japan they’ve been genetically altering hogs. They’re introducing vegetable genes into pigs.
We were watching the movie Night Shift, I love that movie.  Michael Keaton’s character, Billy Blaze records all of his “big ideas” into his Sony Walkman.  One of his ideas was to feed tuna mayonnaise, “This is Bill, call Starkist.”  Well this is Glenda, “Call Japan, feed pigs spinach.”  Better yet, let them graze a field of spinach.
Our pigs are healthy.  Our pigs are happy.  Our pigs have a varied diet of seasonal grasses and legumes.  In the spring they graze a field of forage peas, oats, and rape seed.  In the summer they graze on grasses, alfalfa, and clover.  In the fall they eat apples, pumpkins, and harvest their own corn.  In Japan scientists have “successfully” implanted the spinach gene into hogs.
Click Here for the story about vegetable genes implanted in hogs

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on The Eagle’s Spirit
Bald Eagle watching over the farm

The Eagle’s Spirit

This past week we’ve enjoyed watching the live internet stream of the eagles nest at the Decorah Trout Hatchery.  The eaglets hatched and the parents had a rabbit along with a collection of small birds to feed them.  Here in north east Iowa  bald eagles are prevalent.  All winter there are a pair of eagles at our farm.  In the spring they relocate to their nest along the Turkey River.  They hunt in our area throughout the year.  As a result, we’ve had to alter our plans during the hatching and farrowing season.

Our sows use to farrow in the pasture.  Between the owls hunting at night, the eagles by day, we were loosing piglets.   Farrowing later in the spring is safer for the piglets.  The bald eagles don’t travel far when their eaglets are very young, instead they hunt closer to their nesting areas.  After ten days the shoats (piglets are called shoats) are too large for predatory birds to carry off.  We have great respect for the bald eagles.  It’s both fascinating and thrilling to see them up close.

A couple of years ago Keith and Cookie were fortunate observers of a ceremony to release a bald eagle back into the wild.  The eagle had been caught in a net, injured, and rehabilitated.  This event was in Blue Mound, Wisconsin, along the banks of the Wisconsin River.  There was a crowd of spectators (mostly boy scouts), a DNR agent. Two Native Americans (father and son) were performing a ceremony to release the eagle back into the wild.  The son explained that his father would be speaking to the Great Spirit and the spirit of the eagle.  His song would unite the soul of the bird with the Great Spirit.  As the Native American elder began singing the crowd became silent.  The eagle, which had been agitated and restless, stopped his movements and focused intensely on the singer.  As the song progressed the bird never diverted his gaze. The DNR agent removed the leather straps that tethered the eagle to her arm.  Now, completely free, the bird remained still and focused.  After several minutes the song ended. Remaining still for a moment longer, the eagle shifted his gaze, then lifted into the sky.  He flew across the river, and alighted into a tree branch on the river’s edge.

For a brief moment in time Keith and Cookie were privileged witnesses to a melding of two spirits.  Our family has a story to pass along; the story of a regal Native American who joined the spirit of heaven and earth and through his song became the conduit for both.

      “I am tired of fighting.  Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead.  The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say “Yes” or “No”. He who led the young men (Olikut) is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death.  I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever”.  –Chief Joseph (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt) speech at Bears Paw Battle Oct. 5, 1877

The way that Native Americans were treated is a shameful chapter in American history.     During the plains wars the soldiers justified their actions claiming the Indians were “heathens”.  This couldn’t have been further from the truth. For years the polluting of our fields and waterways were abusive to wildlife. Thankfully the use of some of those pollutants has been eradicated.  Sadly, we may discover too late the harmful effects and the full spectrum of disorder that today’s defoliants/herbicides has caused.  The proponents of factory farming insist that organic practices aren’t practical for feeding the world.  If one's actions require justification perhaps one isn’t acting “justifiably”.

To view theBald Eagle on her nest here’s the live stream

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Barn Fire

2008 barn fireOriginally my article for this week had been about how our family could have moved anywhere in the country and we chose St Olaf, Iowa.  We chose this area because we found the greatest asset here; the people.  I don’t know of any greater community

I have previously written about how we are all surrounded by the most gracious, caring and compassionate neighbors.  That fact was so evident on Saturday night when we experienced a barn fire at our farm.  We lost a building, some equipment, our sows and their babies.  But we gained an overwhelming respect for the compassion offered by our community.  That compassion has left our family awestruck at how truly fortunate we are.

My wise and wonderful grandmother, Marion Fisher used to say; if something can be replaced with money it isn’t that important.  We have always tried to view our glass as half full, we’re optimists, but after the concern that you’ve all shown to us we know that our cups aren’t half full, they’re overflowing! We so humbly thank all of you for your kind words and encouragement; they’ve meant the world to us.

Four fire departments responded to our call for help and I can’t begin to express how grateful we are for the action and organization of these community heroes.  They contained the fire to two buildings and prevented it from spreading to the next.  We interrupted the Elkader Fire Departments Christmas party (which was delayed due to battling a fire on the previously scheduled date), and others from enjoying the movie in town. These volunteers put the needs of their community and neighbors above their own.  There are countless places that they could have been but they put our needs first, how commendable.

          You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons.  And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.  – Walter Schirra, Sr.

I try not to waste my prayers on earthly desires; material wants or a fatter bank account.  I’ll reserve my prayers for humanity and heavenly intervention for those in need.   I’ve prayed for three things in my life 1) someone to love 2) someone to love me back 3) the health of our family, friends and neighbors. Those three prayers have been answered and so I have nothing to complain about in life.  I try not to let unkind words or gossip escape from my mouth.  If I remove them from my heart they usually don’t get caught in my throat.  The more often I clean my heart the easier I find the joy in loving my neighbors.

All of you must subscribe to this same philosophy because we have experienced countless examples of love here in northeast Iowa.

Our sows were just starting to farrow on Saturday.  The first piglet born we named Glenda because she and I shared the same birthday and she was whining about the cold, just like me.  We truly love all of our animals; they are such a huge part of our lives. I hope that there is a hog heaven, and if there is, I hope that Dolly, Molly, Lizzy and all of their babies are cared for by someone who will love them as much as we did.  I hope their care givers know how much they love having their backs scratched with the rake and that when they get tucked in at night an Oreo cookie helps them have sweeter dreams.  So, sweet dreams girls.  I hope hog heaven is lush and full of sunshine and Oreos.

Our family thanks you for all of your kindness.

          It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.  – John Andrew Holmes

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC