Last Hog Day

 I moved to this farm with my parents in 1960.  I know that there have been hogs raised on this farm continuously since then.  We started with a pasture farrowing system, then when I was in grade school we converted our dairy barn to a farrowing house.  After school, my brother and I would feed the sows in crates, clean out the manure from behind her, and bed down the sides of the crates with straw for the baby pigs.  There was a manure spreader parked in the middle alley that we filled with the manure and wet straw we removed from the crates.  Whenever the spreader got full, Dad would spread it and park it back in the alley.  On the other end of the barn alley was a feed wagon filled with ground feed.  That's where we got the feed to feed the sows.   We dipped the feed out with 5 gallon buckets.  We also caught and held the baby pigs while Dad clipped teeth and tails, vaccinated, gave iron shots, and castrated. 

While I was in High School, we built our first confinement building.  It was fully slatted with a six foot pit under it.  It became our farrowing house and nursery. Economy Builders from Princeville (the Streitmatters) built it for us.  Sows and finishing pigs were all still outside in open front sheds. When I came home from college I designed a new farrow/nursery building that Vernon, Ted, and Myron Blunier helped us build. The old farrow/nursery was converted to finishing.  As the years went by, we added a couple more confinement buildings (built by H & W Systems, Fairbury) plus two hoop buildings.  Gestation sows were all that were still in open front sheds.

In 2012 we switched from a farrow to finish operation to a wean to finish operation.  We bought 3 week old pigs and finished them out.  Our farrowing rooms were converted to nurseries.  Three or four years ago, my brother decided he wanted out of the hog operation.  Neither of us have sons that are interested in continuing the hog operation.  I enjoyed raising pigs and didn't mind the work.  It got hectic during planting and harvest to handle it all alone, but I managed.  Now, it is getting hard to find help when I want to travel or vacation, and I don't want to always impose on family.  And I do want to travel more.  The buildings are showing their age and need some repair and  investment to keep them serviceable.  I just don't want to stick more money into them, and at my advanced age, I want to slow down a bit.

So, I made the decision to exit the pork production business!  After working with pigs 45 years full time and 10 or 12 helping dad while in school, I exit.  I received my last baby pigs late spring, and shipped my last load of market hogs two weeks ago. 

Nathan Wiegand brought last pigs coming to the farm.

Clay Kelsey backing up to the door for the last time.

Last pigs moving down the alley.

Last load headed down the road.

We had family birthdays one night a week or so ago, and the family decided to celebrate the end of an era.  They surprised me with a "hogs head" cake and sang "Happy last hog day to you" to the tune of  Happy Birthday! 

 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.    Matthew 8:32