Here are some picture of the woodlot pasture during clearing 3 years ago.
Well it seems that the USDA does not recognize woodlots as pig pasture. They don't want to fence in nor run water to these pastures. Had quite a talk with the nice young man who works there.
You don't have to the pigs will do it for me.
We'll still run water to your grassy pasture and build a indoor facility for the pigs.
That's right, now where do yo think those nuts come from...
Then I sent him a e-mail and thanked him for anything he could do for us and not to take my passion for farming personally but to understand that I would do all that is legally right, morally corrrect etc to change the us DAH's minds, we'll see how this works out. Funny thing is though is that they put fence in the woods in Rhode Island (Ct is not a liberal as RI, .. Oh I thought this was the UNITED STATES DA)
Nother funny things is that I got a Ct Dept of Ag viability grant last year, part of which was to FENCE IN WOOD LOT, build a road to give better access to those lots, but hog huts, build chicken brooders and tractor etc etc.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Joel Salatin was right.
I'll be nice to this youg Lad and will be greatful for what they CAN do for us, but I will do all I can to change their "one eye open" 1960 mentality that I can.
Farm Grant Journal
February 15th, finally heard from Ron Olsen (grant coordinator from Ct dept of AG) that we can get started, he is still waiting to get the contracts back from the Sec of State…taking entirely too long.
Feb 16th: Called The Barn Store in Salisbury NH to order 6 porta hut for the pigs, 10: 50 gallon water tanks, 3 fence sections to fit on a porta hut, was told they only had 3 huts and would order more in April.
Feb 26th called The Barn store to verify my order, all is set
March 1st, called The Barn store to verify again, all is set to pick up on Sunday the 4th of Mar. But check back to be sure the water tanks come in.
March 2nd: Barn store will only have 5 water tanks
March 4th: Kevin and I drove 3 ¼ hours to the Barn store, they only had five water tanks and two porta hut which were frozen in ice and snow (they got a storm Friday nite) they had to be dug out took about an hour. Jim (the owner) said they “might” order more huts in april. I explained my dissatisfaction over them not having the 3 huts they said they would and that two guys plus Kevin and I had to dig out the huts, they should have all been ready. I told Jim this wasn’t a good way to do business and that his office gal was the one responsible for the error.
Jim’s son is the store manager and he took my name and number and will call me when the huts come in. After my experience with them I will call them and not wait for them to call me. This is the second time I went up there for huts, nice store, they have a nice diner in the store and despite this experience I will still continue to do business with them.
March 5th, called Murray McMurray to find out why we didn’t get out first order of 50 broilers and 50 Delaware chickens, they flat screwed up and didn’t send them, they will send this order plus next weeks order all at once. The brooders are ready but we need to get the new ones built this weekend.
Journal March 25th
As you can see from the before and after picture above we have started to make some changes. We got 2 new Port-a-huts
http://www.port-a-hut.com/original.htm from The Barn Store in Salisbury NH and have set them in the ox pasture, we also moved two that we had that are visible in the distance. Another hut is off camera to the left and I will get a shot of that as it has all the bells and whistles, piglet roller, farrowing bar, and sow fence. This picture also shows where the road will go through.
Our first 150 chicks arrived on March 13th, actually 100 were supposed to arrive the week before but there was some issue at the hatchery. We have lost 4 to date (Mar 25th)
50 Bourbon red turkeys came on the 21st all healthy and active.
Everybody has been real busy here on the farm Jeff has removed the stone wall where the road will go through (Part of the Ct AG Grant)
We have all been working to get the new brooders done and finally finished yesterday, here are some pictures.
All our lumber for the brooders is rough cut pine, the box is about 75” X 60”
The pine boards are 1 X 12 X 12
Used skylights work very well for this purpose.
Kevin got the new brooders all painted.
New chicks are expected in two days so we are certainly ready.
We have also purchased all of the fence stuff we need to fulfill the Ct Ag Grant, now I just have to have time to do it all. Today I plan (after a Granddaughter visit) to fix the fence (a lot is broken and laying down after a miss calculation with the hog trailer last week)
I fixed the fence, this corner was the worst but we had fence down all over the place.
I fixed my old feed box, this is what I go to Manchester with, we get our grain from Central Connecticut Cooperative. I had broken the hinges.
These are all the fencing supplies minus the 4 X 4 Posts. This will fence in another 2 acre pasture in the Ox Pasture which when divided in half by the road will give us two new paddocks.
The Cattle Panel waits to be used for five Chicken Tractors, I will start them this week.
Wood for Chicken tractors awaits….
One more thing that needs to get fixed today, I bought bolts to bolt this all together so maybe just maybe our sows won’t wreck it again.
We moved Perry the boar this past Friday, he is now in a paddock by himself waiting some female visitors, all of our sows are separated, two that have had piglets in one pasture, three that have not yet farrowed in another.
Now before I can watch the NASCAR race I have to fix two leaks in the basement, never a dull moment.
Until next time, cheers and thanks for visiting,
Craig
Ct Viability grant update April 12, 2007
Below is a picture taken before working on the area that will house our concrete pad and the three feed storage boxes.
The picture above shows the area now ready to be leveled, have the sod removed and the forms made for the pad.
Below is a picture showing the before of where the road will go through to make more pig pastures.
Below is a picture of the same area, note that the tree is gone, the fence is down, a new fence running into the pasture is visable on the right side of the pasture and the hog huts have been moved. Note also the black step in posts with the orange ribbon marking where the new road will go.
This photo shows that the hog huts have been moved
Expenses to date:
Brooders, includes wood, cords, lights, screws, nails etc: 847.61
Chicken Tractors: wood, wire, nails, screws etc: 978.44
Fencing: 712.17
Hog Houses: 1225.73
The high school fencing season is over now, who knows how much work I will get done. We started in October so it has been a while since I have had weekday afternoons off. I will certainly miss the team and the kids, greatest experience I have had. Becoming a Coach has been very rewarding. Our end of season banquet is about a week away.
