When you have livestock….

“ When you have livestock, you’ll have dead stock.” This is a quote I’ve found myself very familiar with as I started farming.

Were really lucky to have my background be in animal medicine. I can be pretty crafty and fix most issues myself. But sometimes we just physically can’t save them all.

This times different. I’m spending countless hours nurturing a runt from our first spring litter this year. “ Butters” is the little lady’s name.
Butters was born extremely small. And yes she was “surviving” but was she really thriving? Im blessed to be able to have some extra time due to Covid to make her scrambled eggs every few hours with our farm fresh eggs. Run an IV set for her through the tiniest vein I found in her front arm. This helped hydrate her.

I warmed the IV fluids in a nice warm hot water bath. And ran the IV to her for a few days. Eventually she wouldn’t sit still and I was able to get her the fluids subcutaneously (under her skin).
Butters is a little over a month, I’m her mom for now. Her litter mates are triple her size and she wasn’t getting the nutrition she needed. Hopefully in a few days we can get her back on another mom in our pasture if they will accept her. If not I guess I’ll be scrambling eggs for a while.

Its not all roses. Seriously, it’s a lot of mud, sweat & tears. But the smiles, the smiles are why we push onward.
Not just my smiles but every customer that we see smile when they purchase at a market or a chef when we deliver a whole hog. People who are here to learn and grow with us. We see your smiles and I appreciate that. Thank you for supporting us.
THE TRUE LIFE OF A FARMER.

Butters @ 3 days old

Butters today 1 month old

And her much bigger litter mates!