Transition

The PED virus, a swine specific disease, showed up in the United States in late spring of 2013.  It has been spreading throughout the Midwest since then, affecting numerous farrowing operations.  It is not zoonotic, therefore it poses no risk to other animals or humans, and it poses no risk to food safety.  It is a production disease that spreads rapidly through the herd and is acute to almost 100% of nursing piglets for a 3-5 week period until the sow herd develops immunity.  This is why we are seeing record hog prices for this time of year, and futures prices for summer that are at all time highs.
Pork prices in the stores will be going up!  If our weaned pig suppliers can avoid the disease, we should have a very profitable year producing pork.

We had a beautiful March snow that covered the muddy, dreary landscape for a day and a half.  Now it is back to muck and puddles.  I got stuck twice today with the feed truck on the mushy, icy ground.  I wish the transition from frost to firm was a lot quicker.

We went to the house of mourning again this week.  We laid to rest a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and Christian.  Sally was my wife's first cousin, and she was the first of the cousins on the Schlipf side of the family to pass away.  It's a little unsettling to see a new generation transitioning to eternity . . . because this is our generation.

Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Psalm 69:14