There are so many things that seem like a good idea, but you find out they were not. This little tale begins on a very cold morning here on the farm. Kent and I are doing the morning chores and because it’s so early in the morning we of course are doing them in the dark. By all accounts everything is going smoothly and we have been steadily getting all the morning tasks knocked out one by one. It was also a day that we needed to breed one of the sows that was in heat.
We use artificial insemination on our sows to get them bred. This allows us access to diverse genetics from all over the country. We can choose a boar(male) that will compliment which ever sow we are breeding to either enhance particular traits we like or add traits that the boar is noted for. We always look at “meat quality” when picking each boar. Now back to my story.
We had finished the feeding and watering and now it was time to breed the sow. We do this out in the pasture with her. With pigs artificial insemination is not difficult it just takes the right eye to spot when the best time is. Like I said it was still dark that morning. Kent was getting his equipment together that he needed to inseminate the sow when he said to me…. “Ooops , I just dropped my glove.” Me, being a loving wife precede to reach around on the ground trying to find his glove. Before you ask , yes we had a flashlight but it was in Kent’s hand pointing at the sow. I’m fumbling around on the ground with my hand and finally pick up what I thought was his glove. Eureka! I thought. But, to my surprise it was not his glove……..it was a nice sized pig poop.
Yes, I eventually found the real glove and we successfully got the sow bred. Times on the farm can be funny and gross all in the same instance. I love this life even when I have pig poop in my hands on a cold, dark morning.
Farmer Amy