On the Farm, Making Room for Pigs

Townhall.com ^ | August 25, 2013 | Steve Chapman

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Which just proves the point that urban dwellers are ignoramuses on the subject of how their food is produced. ****

Urban dwellers should have no say in farm management.

Next they will demand we buy meat made in the store, not from an animal on a farm!

[RedMonqey]

Urban dwellers should have no say in farm management.

And work on one for for at least one year.

If I was dictator I would make that one of my first decrees. Of course I would then be shot the next day

Next they will demand we buy meat made in the store, not from an animal on a farm!



True story. Back a few years ago in a lively discussion on a bypass highway that would affect many farms(including ours), we overheard a suburban woman(who was old enough to know better) say:

Why do we need farms anyway!

I get my food at Kroger's

Everyone, including her husband kinda snickered at her ignorance.

I hope he corrected her on the way home...

I'm sure this attitude is more common than one supposes...

[Beagle8U]

You Wiki link use crates and stalls interchangeably.

It’s a BS article by animal-rights morons.

[DuncanWaring]

[RedMonqey]

She’s being a good farmer by overseeing and observing her livestock frequently.

I know these Ag professors. My cousin is one. He's in "Animal husbandry" at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and hasn't got a single callus on his hands.

He hasn't seen an working farm since he went off to college.

So kindly keep outta a subject you have little to no knowledge in...... especially my family's business....

[RedMonqey]

.That evening, when he stopped to get the check for the pig sale, they did not bring enough to even pay his feed bills for them.

The only way we made money with hogs the last few years was senting them to the local Mennonities who butcher them according to our needs(excellent work, btw)

We then smoke 'm ham and sauages and sold them locally.

Well, used to til Pop died, then only my brother does a couple hogs for our own families use.

Hogs, like chickens before is now the domain of Big Ag...

Cattle are next I'm afraid...

[RedMonqey]

Baseline standards against some forms of animal cruelty, such as sow stalls are only decent—not city-slicker ignorance

Gestation stalls, not to be confused with Veal calves stalls, are only for a short time to protect the newly born piglets from getting squished by their mothers.

Visit a traditional farm before you comment on what you speak...

[RedMonqey]

.Oh, I get it . . . the guy on the right looks a lot like the guy who attacked the hole in my jeans this morning.

My youger siblings were raising some 4H chickens "free range style' when one of the roosters ' spurred" my little sister and then when my little brother came running to help, chased both up an oak tree.

When "The Old Man" heard about this, we had a mighty fine fried chicken dinner that night.

My sister took extra relish on hearing it was that "old mean rooster" and made sure to have seconds of that bird....

[RedMonqey]

.Here’s a pretty clear explanation of sow stalls and gestation crates:

Your Wiki link references activities that happen on "factory farms' which is a long way from tradition farms.

They are the monstrous creations, shooting up the animals with steroids and antibiotics inspired/created/encouraged by people like your professor of whom you defend as an example to farmers to follow.

Traditional farms give the sows land to roam once they are out of the gestation stalls.

But your "humane" laws will affect both but with dire effects and to the detriment to both farmer and animal...

[RedMonqey]

HaHaha

If I hadn’t heard words to this effect with my own ears I’d thought it was some kinda prank by farmers.....

Truth is stranger than fiction....

[Balding_Eagle]

Gestation stalls, not to be confused with Veal calves stalls, are only for a short time to protect the newly born piglets from getting squished by their mothers.

Gestation stalls are used, as the name suggests, during the gestation period, which is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days (113 days). They are used so that each sow can receive the proper amount of feed (see post #7), and so that fewer developing baby pigs are lost due to fighting.

The stalls also allow for better husbandry because each animal can easily be evaluated, as compared to a group where the sick one can kind of 'get lost' in the group.

They differ from farrowing stalls in that they have no place for baby pigs to be, the feeding trough is much smaller, as farrowed sows are put on full high energy, high fat, feed soon after farrowing (the proper word for a sow giving birth). A lactating sow will eat 15 or 20 pounds of this high energy feed per day, which is a large volume, and needs a large trough.

[9YearLurker]

Hey, clown, I’ve got decades in farming—including hogs and cattle. Your posts make farmers sound stupid and cruel.

[9YearLurker]

Where does it say that she’s an ag professor? All is says is she’s got two ag degrees. Many, many farmers have animal science or similar degrees these days.

[RedMonqey]

.Gestation stalls are used, as the name suggests, during the gestation period,

Thank you for telling me something I learned forty years ago ....

[RedMonqey]

Where does it say that she’s an ag professor?

Professor or not, makes not a witt of difference.

An "ijot" educated beyond any use....

[Balding_Eagle]

OK, but when you said

"Gestation stalls,......... are only for a short time to protect the newly born piglets from getting squished by their mothers."

I thought maybe there had been some confusion between gestation stalls and farrowing crates.

[CynicalBear]

>>The sows are only put in the crates a couple days before giving birth and are in them for only a short time.<<

They are talking about gestation stalls not farrowing stalls. I believe they still go into the farrowing stalls when pigging time comes. We always used farrowing stalls as well for both pig and sow safety but didn’t use the gestation stalls to keep sows year roung other than breeding.

[RedMonqey]

Hey, clown, I’ve got decades in farming—including hogs and cattle.

Then start posting like one that has a lick of sense.

Farmers and ranchers generally don't like busybobies interferring with their livihood...

Somehow I doubt your statement.

.If your were one you'd know there's "crueler" things that happen on a working farm that these animal rights people would disapprove of...

[RedMonqey]

That’s ok. no offense taken....

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Hogs, like chickens before is now the domain of Big Ag...***

This area used to be in the economic stranglehold of the Chicken Men. You worked at their starvation wages or you did not work. Then Sam Walton started his Walmart store and people flocked there for better wages.

The Chicken Men could not get cheap help so they began to import Mexicans back in the LATE 1960S.

Then they began to start HOG FARMS here. The smell was so bad that they eventually closed most down and relocated to the high plains around Guymon, OK, where there was lots of empty land.