No such thing as a sentimental farmer?

Whew, it's musty in here!

*dusts off blog*

Yep, it's been a bit since I blogged over here.  The farm has sort of taken a back seat to my other business: funny t-shirts over at Evil Genius Tees.  I make more money for the effort with my business than with my farm, which saddens me.

So, it's 1:30 a.m., I can't sleep, and this is sort of a venting post.

With the drought causing hay shortages, biofuel production driving the grain prices up, and then the economy sagging, well, let me tell you, being a small farmer has started to get really hard.

Feed is $7= per bag, hay is a staggering $5-$6+ per bale.  My truck is broken as well as my tractor and I can't afford to get either fixed. Without the tractor, I can't sow grass seed, and with out the truck I can only get hay in my small trailer - 12 bales at a time.

And so on and so forth. Whine, whine, whine.

Well, we cut all the fowl (including my beloved geese) plus the sheep flock / goat herd  down to minimum (though I think I might be able to cull a few more sheep) and my latest hard decision is to get rid of the pigs.

And I'm having a surprisingly hard time with it.

Number one, I just like the pigs. Aside from being hard to keep in, they are easy to care for, breed, and sell.  They're super efficient waste disposal units, making use of all the household food waste as well as any barnyard refuse (including the occasional dead chicken) and they're personable.

Is it because my baby daughter, who is autistic, who is fixated with pigs, considers them 'her' pigs? Is it because our boar, who is as gentle as a lamb, was picked out and named by her?

You can't be sentimental and be a farmer.  They call those folks "hobbyists".  They name all of their animals, then get all weepy and expect the calves and pigs and chickens they produce to not ever, ever be butchered.  Farm animals are not pets.  If they're pets, then you're not farming.

The pigs consume a huge amount of feed that we can't afford right now.  The return is just not worth it.  We'll just keep a feeder pig from now on to process the food waste and put him in the freezer each year.  THAT will be a more efficient use of feed. 

I must look at the money aspect of it.  If I'm throwing money away keeping pigs, and that money would benefit my children, then the pigs need to go.  Surely Bitty Girl will understand one day.

Hey, perhaps when the money situation eases, we can get our notoriously dicey pig fencing fixed, build a proper stye and get breeding stock back.

We'll see.