Brad’s Take

Last summer I didn’t get around to hacking down the Johnson Grass growing along the barn, in the pasture, and in the yard behind the barn. So every once in a while, when the tops towered over the pony, I got out the scythe and laid some down. Then a day or two later, I turned it, then came back with the wheel barrow, fork, and a ball of garden (sisal) twine. Gather a bundle on top of the wheel barrow, stretch a span of twine around and snug it tight, and call it a “bale” (though it looks more like a ragged bundle with a string around the middle). I stacked it in the barn “for now”, on some boards I have been saving, and I think there are some extension cords and air hoses under there, too.

I figured, hey, I can flip a bundle, er, bale, over the fence to the pony every day or two, and we can eak out the winter that way.

The last month when the first frost was due, I looked behind the barn and there was all this half-grown Johnson grass just waiting to lose most of it’s nutrients when the frost hit. So the day before the frost I scythed a bunch. I am not getting younger, I don’t do physical stuff all that often, and I get tired, so a “bunch” isn’t like taking down a 20 acre hay meadow. More like about 20 or 25 minutes of huffing and puffing.

I had read about hay stacks, and you you need to do them correctly to keep the hay from spoiling before you can use it. And I looked. A neighbor claimed he played in haystacks a lot as a boy, but never learned to build one. I found an online story where a guy build a frame using four “uprights” leaning to the center where they were bolted together, a frame build about the ground and bolted to the uprights, and used a plastic tarp over the hay instead of doing the traditional haystack building. This story intended to add to the stack over the season, which you don’t do with a traditional hay stack.

I have a hay ring. This is a round steel ring a couple of feet high with eight loops that make eight openings for horses to get to the hay. You roll the thing on edge up to a round hay bale (5×6 foot, nominal), cut the strings/net from the bale, and drop the ring around the bale. The point is to keep the horses from pulling the bale apart and trampling much of the bale instead of eating it.

I have a hay ring, and some used boards. I set two 2×6 boards, on edge, between feeding spots, so the boards are parallel and maybe 5 feet apart. I laid four 2×4 boards crosswise on the 2×6′s to nearly touch the edges of the ring. And I forked that downed, dried Johnson grass onto my new “hay stack”. It turns out that “a bunch” of Johnson grass, when I am scything, doesn’t make that much of a stack on an 8′ diameter. Maybe 6′ high in the middle of the mound (remember, the bottom is already 2′ up off the ground). I tied a plastic tarp over it, using cotton sash cord to tie to the hoops of the hay ring.

The tarp fell.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the cords, which had been at the top of the hoops, were now near the bottom (nearly level with the bottom boards). The mound looked a little flatter, and was definitely shorter. And the pony? Showed a bit less rib than before The Great Haystack Improvisation.

Last weekend I untied part of the tarp, and plumped down three of the bundles, er, bales, from the barn in the middle of the stack. Well, middle, right. Johnson grass gets to be six to eight foot tall, and in casually stacked, ragged bundles I gathered, they stick out both ends. So the bundles were plumper in the middle of the stack/hay ring, but were right there at the edges. Anyway, I cut the baling twine, er, garden twine, retied the tarp, and the pony has been munching right along. It was empty today, and I put out two more bales. Er, bundles.

I put up hay a bunch at a time, and the grass is usually growing by late February/into March, so I don’t need *all* that much more hay. But the five-ten bundles I gathered each haying exercise makes big stacks in the barn. And the bales I have fed so far make a noticeable dent.

Small square grass hay bales are going for $8.50 each, now, if you can find any. There isn’t much here, and most of the time the price is much higher. The round grass hay bales that sold for $25-40 last year have sold for $135-150, and can be tough to find.

So I am glad the pony is doing OK with the Johnson grass, I am pleased that the tarp hasn’t blown to pieces in the wind, and seems to adjust it’s tie-downs as the pile gets smaller, and I am surprised that the Hackney pony doesn’t mind munching hay from under the flappy blue tarp.

I would have fretted myself a treat if I had planned this to come together this well.

I don’t use a lot of hay. My pony gets a round bale October/November, and that usually lasts until grass starts growing. So I want a bit to tide over rough spots.

A few years back I welded up a hay storage bin. About 5 feet square, and a bit over six feet high, whatever would fit out the shop door. I used 3/4 inch square tubing for the frame, and 2×4 welded wire for three sides, with the front open above a ‘keeper’ bar about 1 foot up. This worked pretty well with loose hay.

Where I live is old-growth pasture. The local story goes that it was virgin prairie, and has never been plowed. After 70 years of grazing pasture use, I doubt that there is much original prairie grass left, and Johnson Grass has moved in around the buildings and in the pony’s pasture. Johnson grass was introduced to Oklahoma for hay and pasture, and does well at both. The problem with Johnson Grass is that it is very persistent if you want something else to grow there, and it tends to spread. Widely.

So what I have around the buildings to harvest is a mix of short grasses including cheat, and Johnson Grass, mostly, and a few patches of bermuda grass, sometimes occupying the same space. Next to the driveway is a solid stand of Johnson Grass. When I cut it early, it comes in solid bermuda. Cut that, and it is Johnson Grass again. But it mostly stays green. . .

I have a book on ‘farm implements you can make’, from the 1800s, that shows a wood frame for baling hay. This spring I got to thinking, and got out the two-hand scythe a friend cobbled up out of stainless tubing and regular handles and a brush blade.

The first part of making hay, after the planning and hoping, and watching the grass grow, is cutting. I am still learning to use the scythe, but I did manage to put down some short and tall grasses.

Next is curing. Curing is when sufficient moisture leaves the hay leaves and stalks, so that the hay is dry enough to store well, keep it’s nutrition value and not decompose. Hay put up too damp can rot, and at times generates enough heat to catch fire.

The sun and open are do the curing. I leave the hay a day or so, depending on the condition of the hay and weather, then get out the hay fork (four tines, wider than a three tine or manure fork) and turn the hay so the stuff on the bottom is exposed to that curing sun and breeze.

For short stem hays, a day or so after turning the hay may be ready. Long and coarser stem hays may take another day or three, and another turn or two.

Almost anticlimactic is gathering the hay and tossing it in storage (for loose hay) or baling.

Dad baled hay, and my neighbors bale hay. This includes a tractor, and first a mower or conditioner, then a rake, and finally a baler. The result is, usually, a very consistent stream of round or square bales laid out in the field, to be gathered and stacked until needed.

I don’t have that kind of equipment. I have a ball of Sisal twine, a blue plastic muck bucket, a box knife, and a hay fork.

Baling implements

Using the same fork I used to turn the hay, I laid some hay on the bucket and pushed it down in, about centered. A couple-three modest forks full, and it is time to mash the center of the bundle of grass together, grab one end of the twine and reach down one side of the hay to the bottom, reach down from the other side of the grasses to the bottom of the bucket, grab that twine, and pull it on around. A quick (!) square knot while mashing the center of the bundle together and pulling the twine tight, and cut off the bale of hay. Lift the bale out (it looks a lot like a bundle of grass with a string around the center), and repeat.

Twine just about wrapped around bundle

When I tried it using the wheel barrow instead of the muck bucket, it was easier. The wheel barrow allowed for a bit bigger bale (fewer baling operations), and reaching around the bundle was easier than stuffing my arms into the muck bucket full of hay.

My bale of hay.

The hay fork is useful transporting the bales, too, as I can usually stick the tines through two stacked bales. I estimate the bales range between small muck bucket size, about two pounds of short grasses, and maybe ten pounds for a moderate sized wheel barrow bale. Toss them into the hay bin, and let them complete airing out.

My problem with Johnson Grass hay is the weather. We have been getting rain showers with little accumulation, just enough to wet everything, and that delays curing. This isn’t great, because the wet/dry cycles are letting the sun bake out the nutrients in the hay, and keeping the moisture up so I cannot gather the hay yet.

The pony stands about three feet, five inches. Johnson Grass runs from four feet to seven feet. The pony likes to nibble the tender ends of the grass. So fully grown Johnson Grass doesn’t feed the pony that well. Where I have cut the Johnson Grass, the new-growing returning stems are short, and the pony (“Little One”) gets a better nibble in. And I get (some) hay put by for later, if it is needed.

I reckon that gathering hay is something folks with livestock could be considering. Hay from along fence lines, along unkempt roadways, on unused lots. Chickens will eat some hay, and use it for bedding, hogs eat hay and use the bedding, cows, goats, and sheep, too. Learning to hay takes practice to learn the grasses you harvest, the tools you use, the process and exceptions of curing, and the techniques for transporting and storing hay.

I turn 59 this year, with back pains and lowering heat tolerance. Gathering in fields at a time is for the young folk. I don’t have a lot of storage, and find the hour or two a day very satisfying (that is, I don’t want more, at the time).

The sisal twine I got from Big Lots, in the garden section. It is light, strong, and traditional for haying. The fork I picked up at a farm sale, a treasure that too many people decided isn’t needed, since they went to crops-only, or automated livestock farming. A modern three tine fork can run from $30 to $40 dollars, hay forks and the larger field hay forks would be much more expensive.

Last year I sharpened the scythe blade with a flap sanding disk on my angle grinder. Last winter I ordered a ‘scythe stone’ from Amazon.com, and it works a wonder. The package the stone came in mentioned wrapping the stone in cloth. I whacked out a six inch wide strip from the leg of a pair of rag-bag bib overalls, about two and a half times the length of the stone (about 10 inches by 1 1/2 inches). I lay the stone in the center of the cloth, lengthwise, and fold the top and bottom over, then the sides. I can stick that wrapped bundle in my pocket for convenience; the stone unwrapped would catch and hang in my pocket something fierce.

Little One, in Johnson Grass just starting to grow

I was thinking about Sharon’s apocalyptic, if optimistic (she believes many of us can survive the approaching end of the American economy) Peak Oil prospects. And paint. We use paint for decoration, many of us, but some of us remember it is intended to preserve wood, too. And when we can’t afford to ship paint or cement from once side of the state to the other, let alone from China, then what alternatives do we have? Quick – everyone put in an acre of flax? And the re-learn how to press oils from flax seed for linseed oil. I need to look up why they call fabric made from the fibers of flax linen, and the oil pressed from flax seed is called linseed oil. Likely a bit of obscure history there.

What isn’t obscure is the long history of linseed oil and preserving and sealing wood – and creating a lasting and beautiful finish, too. Anyway, back to paints, if you want something brighter or more versatile than linseed oil.

From Mother Earth News, the original guide to living wisely, Make Safe, Natural Paint:

If you’d like to create a warm and inviting living space, consider using homemade, eco-friendly paints. Using natural materials is a great way to bring the outdoors in, and they’re easier on your home because they can allow painted surfaces to release moisture naturally. Plus, most commercially manufactured paints contain toxic materials or petroleum-based ingredients that are energy-intensive to produce.

The recipes an information make good reading, whether you are counting on Ace Hardware still being there after the end of things as we know it, or just want to reduce the number of toxic chemicals in the paint shed.

So I was reading Sharon’s concerns on Casaubon’s Book about Permaculture and Transition (Part 1 and Part 2). And followed to Rob’s response at Transition Culture.

The South Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project

Along in the comments to Rob’s piece, Risa B mentioned the Bean and Grain Project. So I Googled that. It turns out the South Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project is a modest start to reintroduce the practices of growing food on farmland. Currently 60% of the rich farmlands of Oregon’s Willamette Valley is planted in rye and fescue grass seed. I read about this on the Post Carbon Eugene site, Mud City Press Bean and Grain page, and the Friends of Family Farmers Bean and Grain page.

Small Farmers Journal

Now, the Friends of Family Farmers site name got me thinking of Sisters, OR, and the Small Farmers Journal – a long time and important publication to the Draft Horse, Oxen, and horse farming communities. So, I checked their site, www.SmallFarmersJournal.com. And, yep, there it is. Still publishing after 25 to 30 years.

The cover picture up today includes a farmer striding from the field, with a smile, and bundle of something under an arm, and a bushel basked of vegetables under the other.

And that got me thinking.

I told you that story, so I could tell you this one.

Containers used to tend to last a bit. When a bucket was an empty five gallon purchase of grease – the steel thing lasted until it well rusted through. While it was tight, you hauled water or whatever. After it started leaking, you just carried dry feeds and things. Rusted badly? Trash can. Or final container for used parts that might be useful to cobble up a fix for something else that breaks. “Reuse” isn’t all that new a concept.

Baskets.

I can remember having a few baskets around Dad’s farm, when I was a little nipper. I imagine they came with peaches in them, or maybe apricots. So I Googled that. Baskets, that is. And found the Texas Basket Company. They sell bushel baskets by the dozen, about 30 pounds for 12, the minimum order, at $2.53 or so each, that would be $30.36 a dozen, plus shipping and tax. Unless you want them colored – there are bunches of color options, single and two colors. And half-bushel baskets, etc.

Wow. The old-timey thin wooden baskets. Board bottom for seafood, or round bottom, etc. With care, I imagine they will gather and store apples and other fruits and veggies for years. Get together with a neighbor for a handful each, or stock up for a CSA gathering of tomatoes. And Texas Basket isn’t the only one.

Hubert.com (866-482-4357) lists many and varied styles, shapes, and sizes of baskets for active use, or fruit and vegetable presentation accessories.

Little Rock Crate and Basket lists baskets for Home Decor, for Fruit and Vegetables, and for Seafood use.

All three carry peck and bushel baskets. A peck is 1/4 bushel, in case you notice they have bushel, 1/2 bushel, peck, 1/2 peck, and 1/4 peck sizes.

The song.

I guess the song (Bushel and a Peck, from the musical show Guys and Dolls) just really harps on the bushel full and overflowing – 25% more than full.

I love you,
a bushel and a peck,
a bushel and a peck
and a hug around the neck!

Whatever. But baskets are still around, and at moderately reasonable prices for a durable work tool for gathering garden, field, and orchard produce, leaves and clippings, or other bulk management needs when you really don’t want to buy a plastic bucket from Wal-Mart, or another 5 gallons of paint from Sherwin Williams. Or a five gallon pail of grease.

Geekdads at Wired.com report on the book, “Little House On The Prairie”, Pa Ingalls – Pioneer GeekDad?.

Using few tools, the book follows Pa Ingalls as he builds a house – using nails when he gets to the roof. The door, without hardware?

“First he hewed a short, thick piece of oak. From one side of this, in the middle, he cut a wide, deep notch. He pegged this stick to the inside of the door….”

For other pioneer, geeky gadgets – a frame to make bales of hay in, by hand, and mangers to scalding tubs – check out Farm Appliances and How to Make Them, George A. Martin, copyright 1887, 1999. (Lyons Press, Amazon.com)

Coming out of a local restaurant tonite, I noticed the front plate on a truck. “Oklahoma Dressage Association”.

Dressage (I was told, something like “training” in French) is about riding a horse. Riding in a standard-sized arena. Riding standard test patterns.

The competition test might include various gaits – the walk, the trot, the canter. Maybe a variation on speed – a relaxed trot, a working trot, an extended trot. Maybe a change of direction – and accompanying change of “lead” – which leg moves forward first, on the horse, in the given gait. It matters, in circles, in corners, etc. The horse is much less likely to stumble over its feet or miss a stride if on the correct lead – which is the rider’s responsibility to train for and command.

But – Transition? This “rich people” exercise of buying expensive horses, buying expensive feed, hiring teachers and trainers, renting stable and practice space? Learning to work with livestock, understand “what goes in, must come out”, understanding that nutrition and practice are essential to get the expected results when you climb aboard?

To learn about finding feed, dealing with people that know hay from supplements from complete feeds, to meet people that understand large animals as livestock, as companions, and as competitors.

You might never use a horse as transportation. But being able to raise, train, and work horses takes a lifetime’s experience – and learning can start in a couple of months. Working horse farms depended on the adults knowing how to care for their horses and other livestock, and we are sadly poor in this tradition. By learning the discipline and precision of dressage, we prepare our children, and ourselves, for thinking “outside the car”. If and when the need comes.

At the least, dressage teaches the rider precision, respect, consistency, caring for the horse and learning they are dependent on the comfort and communication to and from the horse. By striving to achieve, riders learn to apply effort, overcome problems – and meet their test.

Suggestion 1: Micro forestation homesteading.
Goal: provide livelihoods, manage forests, provide food and lumber.
Problem: Threat to Western US forests.

Wired.com reports that many forests are suffering, in the Western US. The extended droughts have stressed trees, and the warm, dry temps (and decline of beetle predators) have encouraged proliveration of dark beetles and other pests and threats to trees.

Proposal: Create micro-forest homesteads. Stipulate that tree population must be maintained, average tree maturity must be maintained, homesteader must reside on the homestead for 10 years to take legal possession – and may *never* allow the tree population nor tree average maturity to decline, or the property reverts to public lands, and the homesteader is guilty of trespass and malicious mischief, and defrauding the US Government.

Sustainable forest as a means of making a living is achievable. One example in Oregon is now in the third generation of the same family, with no decline in the health of the forest. People needing a dependable livelihood can use a low-maintenance, minimum impact pair of oxen or horses for micro-logging efforts – retrieving specific hardwoods that threaten overcrowding, infested trees, and maintaining and replanting the property. Focus on minimum forest impact instead of “efficient” dozer roads and truck roads.

Suggestion 2: Urban gardening and cropping.
Goal: Improve agricultural utilization and food production with reduced transportation cost.
Problem: Increases in food prices, increasing threats to national production of food.

Urban gardens, similar to the WWII “Victory Gardens”, can utilize vacant lots, some of the building roofs that are starting to appear in various cities as ways to reduce heat concentrations, window boxes and patios are all potential garden spots. From raising a few herbs for garnish, to complete food sources for vegetarian diets and low cost protein and vegetable supplements, most people can be encouraged to learn about and practice gardening and small scale crops.

The USDA, rather than it’s historical support for chemical and machinery companies, can best serve America by focusing on increasing the amount of food available to consumers, rather than managing grain markets.

Suggestion 3: Local food sources
Goal: Reduce cost of transportation of foodstuffs
Problem: Relying on single regions of the nation for producing a Nation’s worth of food imposes an enormous burden on food prices, for transportation.

1) Create a shelf-label system for selling food products, to show the distance from producer to the shelf for each brand and type of canned and prepared and fresh food. Make consumers aware that their hamburger was produced 450 miles away, that this broccoli was sent from 1500 miles away, and that pumpkin was grown 4 miles from the store.

2) Establish a voluntary Farmers Market label, for “local” being within 15 miles, “regional” within 50 miles, and “national” greater than 50 miles from the market. Encourage consumers to look for these labels, and Farmers Market operators and vendors to use them for each batch of produce.

3) Encourage restaurants to label “local” and “Regional” preparations.

Suggestion 4) Drop NAIS
Goal: Save money, increase food production.
Problem: NAIS imposes costs, invades provacy, and appears likely to provoke black markets and scofflaws, abuse of office and scapegoat prosecutions. All without benefiting livestock industries or public health.

The National Animal Identification System appears to be a warm, fuzzy, “let’s keep everyone safe” kind of program. The reality is that permanently marking livestock is nearly impossible – just check the Racing industry to find how often a mature identification system can break down. Now imagine tracking wildlife that mingles from one group of livestock to another.

A greater threat to the nation’s health is unregulated people, entering and leaving the US without review of vaccination and health history.

The burden of NAIS regulations will force many small owners out of the business – or force them to conceal their activities. Black market food and reduced production both will raise food prices and diminish supplies.

Surely there are better uses for the people and money and effort NAIS would cost.

Thanks, Rodney, for asking.

Do not see as many posts as last year at this time.

Background

In one form or another, I have been running a “chat” board at DraftResource.com since August of 1998. Rodney is a gentleman from Texas, who owns and uses one of the heavy horse breeds common in America – the Suffolk or Suffolk Punch, as they are know in England. Heavy horse breeds were mainly developed to pull loads (draft), and are often known as draft breeds or draft horses, even though ponies and light horse breeds can be used for draft work, and many enjoy riding heavy horse breeds. The other for common draft breeds in the US are the great English Shire and the best-recognized Clydesdale, the Belgian Draft, the Percheron from France.

Feathers

Most draft horse breeds were developed to pull. Often for farm use, where field work needs to proceed even if the ground is a bit damp – or even wet. So most draft breeds have “feathers”, heavy growths of hair forming a protective brush about the feet and lower legs. Some other breeds of horse also have feathers, while the Suffolk Punch stands out as being clean legged – without the feathers that make such a sharp display of a Clydesdale or Shire hitch stepping out in a parade or around the corner of the barn.

About the chat board

I can think of several factors for the slow down.

I didn’t chase away the saddle folk. That offended a number of folk that know that heavy horse breeds are meant for harness work only. Possibly they believe that saddle work delays and distracts from harness training. And some very good people found other places to visit.

I haven’t been very active lately with draft horses. So I don’t have a lot of new experiences to contribute, I have fallen out of touch with the J R Johnston’s Tack and 4-State Draft Horse Sale (Missouri) and Kingman Sale (Kansas), etc. I try to keep my answers complete while encouraging visitors to double check everything. Ahem. Except the added fats diet, of course. That still makes a lot of sense to me.

Perhaps people are finding many of their questions already answered. There have been a bunch of questions asked, and answered.

I don’t follow the other draft horse sites – if you have some to recommend I would be glad of the information – so I haven’t kept up on trends around the community.

Of all the aspects of owning a draft horse, the one I feel most competent with – is getting started. Getting a reasonable horse, keeping it fit and well, getting started training. Depending on the vet for advice and help. And that is why the emphasis here at Draft Resource is to make it easy for the new owner to get information. You still don’t need to register to post a question.

The respected experienced hands often prefer an environment with more seasoned questions, ignorant questions – and more old friends. It doesn’t surprise me that the more experienced of my regular visitors often move on to another web site, or magazine, or organization – even though I don’t like losing friends.

Draft Horses vs. the economy

One area concerns me greatly – the rapidly rising cost of feed and supplies. In less than a year, vegetable oil and grains have nearly doubled. This is causing a lot of horse owners a lot of pain and anguish, and in some cases means the end of their horse ownership. People are losing jobs even here in north central Oklahoma – which means that money to keep horses often dries up. Where the horses are used for recreational riding I think there could be a lot of sad stories coming out this winter and coming spring.

I am afraid sponsor funds for national hitches, parades, and product promotions may dwindle a bit. The show circuits may feel a pinch as some competitors face mounting costs and dwindling resources. As competing activities dwindle

Opportunity for growth

At the same time, I think the horse loggers need to get really busy, making a case for logging for charcoal and for firewood, as well as for lumber. There is a role for sustainable grove management today, but the story isn’t getting told well.

Thanks, again, for asking!

At least, this is what I think is going on, on the DraftResource.com chat board!

Cross-posted from the chat board.

I watched my neighbor and his dad a couple days ago. They were busy breaking up and throwing all the ice off their water tank.

Here in North Central Oklahoma, we seldom get long, really cold stretches. As long as the temps stay about, say zero most of the time, with few consecutive days much below, I get along without a tank heater. Have for eight years now, since I moved here.

But I just chop a 6-8 inch roundish hole in one side of my (6′x2′x2′ round-ended) tank, and either push the ice back on top of the rest of the ice, or down under in the water. This way the ice acts as insulation, slowing turning the rest of the water into ice. I open the hole twice a day, when I feed.

Any time I run water, ice melts. Plus, we seldom get more than a couple weeks between freezing – and the ice starts melting back into tank water. The four-foots get by OK, keep weight on, spirits up. And the gold fish in the tank (help keep down algae) get through the winter OK, too. (I lose goldfish mostly when I run the tank over when filling – the new water flushes away too much of the existing water, too much change to quick for them.) I only have one fish four years now, and one from two years ago.

A hammer works fair for hole-chopping, a 24″ wrecking bar has been good for the last two winters – it hangs right on the fence by the tank.

That looked like a thankless job, watching them haul that ice out of that tank.

CNN is posting ballot initiative results from around the country.  One caught my attention:

California approved an initiative to outlaw the confinement of pregnant pigs, calves raised for veal and egg-laying hens “in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely.”

I remember when we moved to a farm near Everly, IA, about 1968.  This farm had a decent two-story frame house, and sizable, if older, outbuildings (barn, granary, machine shed, etc.) The ‘hog house’ had been adapted and built up inside, so it had an alley way through it, but had a bunch of small pens build of scrap wood, mostly to the ceiling.  Dad gutted the building to a set of good 4×4 upright supports down the (wide) alley way, lined the walls with plywood, hung 2″ styrofoam for a ceiling (Iowa winters get cold), and put in a propane heater.  Then put ‘farrowing crates’ along the walls on each side of the alley way, I think about 5 or 6 on each side.  Pride of the Farm brand crates, that narrowed at the top a bit so the top bars were too narrow for an excited sow to climb out.  Later we added another eight crates to take up about 2/3rds the length of the hog house.

The farrowing crates were fairly open, pipes and bars to contain the sow from the time she gave birth to a litter of baby pigs – the goal was an average litter size of 8 pigs grown to weaning, sometimes up to 14 pigs in a single litter -  until the pigs got to two (2) to five (5) weeks old, depending on whether we needed the space right away for a new litter.

From the wording that CNN reports, the California initiative would ban the practice of using farrowing crates.

Dad turned the sows out twice a day to feed, drink, move about – and let us clean the crate.  And doctor the pigs if need be.  About an hour, hour and a half each time.

See, the crate was big enough for a really big, older sow to stand up, move forward and back a food or two, depending on age/size (Dad kept sows for breeding for a couple of years, then replaced them, so they never got really big).  There was plenty of room for the sow to lay and nurse, to either side.  Between crates we used divider boards to keep the baby pigs separate from neighbor pigs.  A crate was about 5-6 feet wide, from divider on the left to divider on the right, with the sow portion about 1/3 to 2/5 of that width, located in the center.

We put a heat lamp over the pigs in winter or cool weather (spring, fall), pig waterers and creep feeders for the pigs to take stress off the sow, and to supplement feed to assure each grew well and quickly.

And we used the crates to make raising pigs profitable.  See, left in the pasture, or in a traditional square pen, the sow lays down next to a wall or partition – and often smothers one or more pigs.  Sometimes daily.  Keeping the baby pigs alive to survive the pre-weaning days and weeks made the year to raise the sow to breeding age, the cost of procuring a breeding boar, the cost of feeding all of them, the cost of providing facilities for breeding and farrowing in line.  If you only average 6 pigs per litter, at weaning, because either the boar you used threw small litters, or the sows laid on (killed) half their piglets, then you lose  money big time.  And a *lot* less bacon, ham, and pork chops get to market.

If the California tree-huggers truly want to ban farrowing crates, as my father used them, then they are truly intent on destroying the ability to produce pork in that state.  Anyone but a backyard garden farmer, raising a pig to butcher for home use, will be put out of business.

Perhaps it is time for the rest of the nation to consider a tree-hugger embargo.  Refuse to ship products to California that would be uneconomical if produced under California law.  Let them eat Cauliflower.

I understand that a farrowing crate could, with little difficulty, be turned into a confinement crate that the pig enters before farrowing, and leaves only when the pigs are weaned.  And I would cringe at that.