Today was a very cool experience that I could not have witnessed anywhere else but in Iowa. Caroline, Beau and I visited the neighbor’s hog farm. While there, we artificially inseminated hogs, walked around the several houses involved in the farrow-to-finish operation, and learned how the farm worked. Our host was very nice, and he showed us what the animals eat and how important diet is for producing a healthy pig. When walking down one of the aisles in the gestation barn, the farmer looked at a pig, said he needed to check something, and the next thing I knew he stuck his hand into the pig and pulled out three baby pigs. I got to witness the magic of birth! Before this experience, my pig visual was from the kid’s movie Babe with the cute little pig. These pigs were not cute, and the mommas were not so little. In addition, the pigs were housed in the ever-controversial gestational crates. They were small – no turn around space. However, it did give the pigs their own safe space. It is very easy to see why so many people are against the crates. But, considering how many pigs there are, the crates are functional because it gives the pigs their own safe space. Of course pigs need to be happy, but when dealing with so many animals, functionality plays a very large part as well. Today was definitely a real-world experience in hog production, especially inseminating the hogs. I am glad and thankful that the farmer let us experience his farm; I could not be a hog producer!
Afterwards, I had my very first tractor ride! Denny let me ride in his tractor spraying pesticides for around an hour. Honestly, I have no idea how he knew where to spray – all the rows looked the same to me. With so much high-tech equipment available, it was cool to see Denny and his refined art of farming. I questioned him if new farmers will not know how to drive the tractors because of all of the new GPS automated driving. His response was that every farmer, no matter how sophisticated the equipment, should know how to work it. Alarmingly, the average age of the Iowa farmer is 56-59 years old. When this generation stops farming, will all of their farming knowledge just disappear? I hope the art of farming does not die out with the aging farmers.