April 2005 A change of plan
Edna and Ramalambadingdong 1 day old
Well the end of April has also hopefully signalled the end of our run of bad luck. I know we all have our share but it doesn't make it any easier when things just keep going wrong. To be honest we have been lucky up to February in that most of our experiences have been very good and our plans and ventures have worked out generally well, so maybe we were due our share.
One of the important things that happened during this time was that it made us look at all aspects of our life as smallholders and re-evaluate what we were doing and what we wanted to achieve. Debbie's accident was a big shock to the system, and meant that for weeks I just went through the motions. No time to enjoy, no time to plan, just carry out the daily tasks of making sure the animals were fed and watered, and the kids, well apart from getting them to and from school were given exactly the same priorities.
One of our main aims in choosing this way of life was the time we could spend with the kids, although last year a great deal of ground work had to be done but this year spending much more time with the kids was a key priority, and yet here we were stuck in the same old ways of the kids needs coming way down in the list of priorities. It just wasn't meant to be like this.
We also lost Edna our ewe that had proven such a great teacher last year during lambing. Twin lamb syndrome was the diagnosis given, but I know in my heart that I should have seen something wrong earlier and done something then. Just have to take it as one of those lessons to learn from and get on with life.
With all that has happened recently I came to the decision to call time on our pig breeding. Step one was to take Baldrick our boar to the abattoir with the porkers we had already planned to take. Not a decision I took lightly as those of you who follow our story will know how I felt about him, but an indication as to whether I did right or wrong
was that I didn't feel any remorse whilst taking him, just a huge sense of relief. Its not a situation I feel where anyone is to blame just that we tried it for the right reasons, had mixed results but ultimately keeping
breeding pigs is high input, and financially draining unless you have a guaranteed market for the end product what ever that may be.
The plan now is that Baby is weaning her piglets at the moment once weaned I will get Baby back into condition then take her to the abattoir. I have to wait a few more weeks to make sure that Ginger is not pregnant, but again a trip to the abattoir. Later in the year the piglets 3 boars and a gilt will go as porkers to see us over the winter
time. So at least the aim to provide us with our own pork has shown some success. Then for next year at the moment I intend to buy in weaners and fatten them as our previous experience last year was extremely good and required low input apart from loads of scratching.
That only leaves the small matter of Bonnie our large Black gilt. To be honest we have not come to an agreement about her Debbie seems desperate to keep her and breed pedigree Large Blacks (the Tamworth females are not pedigree) as very few exist up here, but at the moment I just think that all the negative points would return whether we bred from a boar or artificial insemination. Things are really on the up at the moment and is it really fair as the work and money involved would still be the same. At the moment we have a few months to think
about it and make a decision with clear heads rather than from the heart, will just have to wait and see.
Our good luck finally started late in April when our first lambs were born to Milly who although a bottle-fed first timer has proven herself to be an excellent mother. It also gave me my first practical experience of delivering lambs, as both needed their front hooves adjusting to enable them to be born. It was such a different experience to last year when we had to tube feed Edna's triplets for a week. Milly's two were up and after the milk bar within a short space of time and our decision to tup late has paid off with lovely weather and the grass growing. We
have called the ewe Edna of course and the ram lamb seems to have picked up ramalambadingdong after a suggestion from one of Debbie's friends. Goodness knows what the other lambs to the other 6 ewes will be called.
Well that's April done and dusted and at last we have some good things happening now and long may that continue!
Well the end of April has also hopefully signalled the end of our run of bad luck. I know we all have our share but it doesn't make it any easier when things just keep going wrong. To be honest we have been lucky up to February in that most of our experiences have been very good and our plans and ventures have worked out generally well, so maybe we were due our share.
One of the important things that happened during this time was that it made us look at all aspects of our life as smallholders and re-evaluate what we were doing and what we wanted to achieve. Debbie's accident was a big shock to the system, and meant that for weeks I just went through the motions. No time to enjoy, no time to plan, just carry out the daily tasks of making sure the animals were fed and watered, and the kids, well apart from getting them to and from school were given exactly the same priorities.
One of our main aims in choosing this way of life was the time we could spend with the kids, although last year a great deal of ground work had to be done but this year spending much more time with the kids was a key priority, and yet here we were stuck in the same old ways of the kids needs coming way down in the list of priorities. It just wasn't meant to be like this.
We also lost Edna our ewe that had proven such a great teacher last year during lambing. Twin lamb syndrome was the diagnosis given, but I know in my heart that I should have seen something wrong earlier and done something then. Just have to take it as one of those lessons to learn from and get on with life.
With all that has happened recently I came to the decision to call time on our pig breeding. Step one was to take Baldrick our boar to the abattoir with the porkers we had already planned to take. Not a decision I took lightly as those of you who follow our story will know how I felt about him, but an indication as to whether I did right or wrong
was that I didn't feel any remorse whilst taking him, just a huge sense of relief. Its not a situation I feel where anyone is to blame just that we tried it for the right reasons, had mixed results but ultimately keeping
breeding pigs is high input, and financially draining unless you have a guaranteed market for the end product what ever that may be.
The plan now is that Baby is weaning her piglets at the moment once weaned I will get Baby back into condition then take her to the abattoir. I have to wait a few more weeks to make sure that Ginger is not pregnant, but again a trip to the abattoir. Later in the year the piglets 3 boars and a gilt will go as porkers to see us over the winter
time. So at least the aim to provide us with our own pork has shown some success. Then for next year at the moment I intend to buy in weaners and fatten them as our previous experience last year was extremely good and required low input apart from loads of scratching.
That only leaves the small matter of Bonnie our large Black gilt. To be honest we have not come to an agreement about her Debbie seems desperate to keep her and breed pedigree Large Blacks (the Tamworth females are not pedigree) as very few exist up here, but at the moment I just think that all the negative points would return whether we bred from a boar or artificial insemination. Things are really on the up at the moment and is it really fair as the work and money involved would still be the same. At the moment we have a few months to think
about it and make a decision with clear heads rather than from the heart, will just have to wait and see.
Our good luck finally started late in April when our first lambs were born to Milly who although a bottle-fed first timer has proven herself to be an excellent mother. It also gave me my first practical experience of delivering lambs, as both needed their front hooves adjusting to enable them to be born. It was such a different experience to last year when we had to tube feed Edna's triplets for a week. Milly's two were up and after the milk bar within a short space of time and our decision to tup late has paid off with lovely weather and the grass growing. We
have called the ewe Edna of course and the ram lamb seems to have picked up ramalambadingdong after a suggestion from one of Debbie's friends. Goodness knows what the other lambs to the other 6 ewes will be called.
Well that's April done and dusted and at last we have some good things happening now and long may that continue!
posted by Wayne @ 10:10 AM
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