Life on a French Swine Farm

This past July I had the opportunity to intern on a swine farm near Auvers-le-Hamon, France. During the month, I lived alongside the Huet family who was the most welcoming and generous family. The family included Alexis, the father, Domonique, the mother, their daughter Anais as well as their sons Esteban, Arthur and Antoine. Needless to say, this experience was one of the biggest learning experiences I have ever had. I was able to learn about French agriculture and observe the similarities/differences to American agriculture.


The house that I lived in with Esteban and Arthur in France

While on the farm, I worked mainly with the sows and their litters. My duties included assisting with farrowing, weaning of piglets, insemination, giving shots and vaccinations as needed, and maintaining the animal stalls among other tasks. The Huet’s operation was truly a family effort with family members working directly on the farm and others working to regionally market their product. The Huet’s utilized the Label Rouge, or red label, program when marketing their product.

 Products with the above seal on them are certified under the Label Rouge. This program guarantees that its products have met a specific set of characteristics establishing that is of higher quality to similar products. Food products and non-food agricultural products such as flowers are eligible for certification under this program. In all that translates to about 500 products being certified under this program in France. For pork, some of the criteria deal with feeding, breeding conditions and age at the time of slaughter.

The most challenging and rewarding part of the internship was working alongside people who spoke almost entirely no English while I spoke very poor French. At the start communication was a big obstacle to overcome when trying to accomplish basic farm tasks. After a few days, we were able to establish a routine and communicate effectively through body language and the few words of French and English that both parties knew. Even though I was not able to have a conversation with the workers, I could tell that they truly cared about their profession and raising their hogs in a healthy environment was their top priority. This showed me that no matter where you may find yourself that producers in both the U.S. and abroad care about the quality of products that they provide to consumers and make agriculture a unique industry due to that characteristic.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns send them my way. I would love to hear them!

Signing off,
Wyatt Pracht

Earth Day is Every Day for Farmers and Ranchers

Earth Day - a day that reminds us all to recycle more, use less and think about future generations when making decisions that can affect our environment for years to come.

But guess what? We should be cognizant of our choices more often than just once per year - as consumers we should be striving to lessen our environmental footprint every day in order to preserve our world for future generations.

Good thing that farmers and ranchers have been working towards sustainability and resource conservation for as long as they have been producing food. Here are some hard facts about food production and resource conservation:

• Farmers who grow crops like corn, soybeans and wheat, will practice crop rotation which is the process of changing what is planted in a particular location on a farm from season to season. This helps with nutrient management of the soil and soil erosion.
• Hog farmers use manure from their farm as a valuable organic fertilizer that is readily used by crop farmers to help build beneficial carbon content in soil.
• Hog farmers have also streamlined their production practices which have led to a 35% decrease in carbon footprint from 1959-2009. That's quite an improvement!
• The beef industry reduced its water use and greenhouse gas emissions by 3% and 2%, respectively

The beef industry works towards sustainable production every year.
Courtesy www.factsaboutbeef.com

What are you doing in your life to lessen your environmental footprint? How could you improve?

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

The Inside Scoop: Where Does Your Bacon Come From?

Photo from Watch Us Grow

 

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a large modern hog farm looks like? 

 

Often times we only hear about the negativity of swine housing and production, but what if we were able to give it a look for ourselves? 

 

Moms are often shopping for food to feed their families, and are constantly seeking the best options. 

 

So what if we were able to get the opinion of a mom who visited a large hog farm?  Take a look at this article from Cortney Fries about her recent tour of an Illinois farm, “Leaving the Gould farm, I felt they were doing their best to raise healthy animals to feed our country and make a living.”

 

http://www.watchusgrow.org/illinois-farm-families-blog/the-cruelest-thing-i-saw-on-a-hog-farm

 

Thanks!

Kiah Gourley

Answering Tough Questions

You are a new graduate in a mixed large animal practice in rural America. In becoming integrated into the community, you take the opportunity to engage with young professionals from diverse backgrounds. Many of these young professionals question your involvement with modern agriculture and "factory farms," where the care of animals and food safety is secondary to production and profit (their view). How do you respond to these inquiries?

Cattle in a feedyard - notice they have plenty of room to
move around, lie down and are very calm.

In these modern times, very little is as it was, especially the way we raise our food.   The world population has grown to a point beyond what our forbearers would have thought possible. In the struggle to feed people, agriculture has had to adapt along with the rest of the world.  Meeting the protein needs of a growing world is where animal agriculture must rise to the challenge. 

Animal agriculture has gotten much larger, and much smaller, all at once.  Farms and ranches have gotten bigger, but the number of people in farming and ranching has declined drastically.  Those still in the fight must meet higher standards and produce more, much of the time with less land and other resources. 

One production method modern animal agriculturalists utilize to meet the needs of a protein hungry world is the raising of animals in confined areas.  Pigs, poultry, dairy cows, and finishing beef animals can successfully be raised in smaller geographical area, helping to assuage the ever shrinking amount of land available.  Every building that goes up and every square foot of concrete or asphalt that is laid down is one less square foot available to feed people with.  Properly done, these animals are comfortable and have their needs met daily in our care. 

Confinement animal agriculture is often mislabeled as “factory farm” or other demeaning terms.  They are thought of as institutions where animal welfare is secondary to profit.  This is not true.  Profit is important, but only in that it allows the business to keep functioning. Profit must follow animal welfare.  If animals aren’t well cared for, they won’t perform.  No performance, no profit. 

Doing what’s best for animals is doing what’s best for an animal agriculture business.  It’s also doing what’s best for a food animal veterinarian.  Most importantly, it’s doing what’s best for ever hungry population of the world.

Thanks for reading,

John Dwyer