hi I'm Mike this year the group of pigs that are here on the ranch while their
time is coming to an end and last year we struggled with getting them loaded
onto the trailer and getting them off at the meat processor doing things smarter
instead of harder is this year's model as we try a new approach and hang out
with the Hogs today on the project list on our Wyoming Life
welcome back TO OUR WYOMING life and please subscribe and continue with us as we
explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary I had somebody ask me a few
weeks ago if we are escaping or near ourselves or is it just something we
become a routine - and is the ordinary just our life now my answer was that
there's never an ordinary day around here things should always be changing
evolving and getting better we should always be looking for better ways to do
things and of course learning from our mistakes a few years ago we decided to
broaden our farmers market business by offering pork the first year we had pigs
we actually started with five then we went to seven and now we're up to ten
pork could probably even be a bigger part of our business but right now we're
pretty much maxed out number wise until we have you know some time to build
bigger and better pens and handling facilities that's on the list but right
now we're dealing with what we have and if you've ever dealt with pigs you know
how stubborn they can be piglets arrived here on the ranch back in August since
then they've been hanging out in their sheds along with protection from the
wind Sun and the nastiest winter weather they were ten pounds when they came here
and now quite honestly I don't know how much they weigh but we will find out
later when we get up on the scale before we get that far we still have to figure
out how we're gonna get them on the trailer last year we built a portable
wooden loadout chute for the pigs the chute part actually worked pretty good
the pig part of the equation didn't work at all Aaron and I spent hours loading
seven pigs onto the trailer they were stubborn and they didn't want
to go up the ramp at all all of our pigs each year are pretty tame we spend a lot
of time with them and I've never had one that acted aggressive towards me and I'd
like to think that they liked me I don't think that they don't want to go up the
ramp because they don't trust me I think they knew we wanted them to do it and
they refused to go along with our plan the
ramp was new the pigs don't trust new things so this year we're gonna take a
little bit of a different approach and give the pigs a chance to get used to
the trailer and the ramp a few days before it's time to go after taking the
pigs last year the ramp was removed and put away this year we're gonna use that
same ramp and first things first get it put into place the ramp has been stored
off in a corner for the last year and of course snow has drifted in around it
getting it out might be a bit of a challenge
with the ramp recovered vennett's off to the pig shed and we can put it in place
last year after loading the pigs we not only removed the ramp but we covered the
hole with some wood which we're gonna have to remove pigs have access to this
side of their pens so we need to limit their movement for a little bit so we
cover up a hole in between the two sides and secure a 4x8 sheet of particle board
in place this will keep them from escaping while we get the ramp up the
wood we covered the hole with is now frozen into the ice around the building
but that's quickly dealt with and then the ramp can be moved into position
with the pigs still on the other side we can now go and get a trailer for them to
get to used to this little box contains a tool that I like to bring out
occasionally and use on my trailers this is a light Ranger it contains a 12-volt
battery it can be used to simulate all the trailer lights and trailer brakes
and allow you to perform all the testing functions without the use of a truck
today we're going to use it to test the lights on the trailer that will be
hauling pigs with and backing up to the chute for the next few days the process
is very simple you plug in the wiring harness you turn it on and then you
select a function that you want to test if there's a problem you now know it's
completely isolated to the trailer and not the wiring on the truck end but
today all looks good and the truck could come in and bring this trailer to its
new parking spot vacuum the trailer up to the chute is a bit tricky the chute
is not attached and once it's attached to the trailer then we can adjust the
fit something else that is an attached namor is the piece of particleboard we
use to keep the pigs out of the chute side of their pen and now here they are
already investigating the chute but none brave enough to escape completely
thankfully because I don't want to be out chasing a pig around today with the
pigs pushed back we can lift the chute into place logging it over the lip on
the back of the trailer and then wiggle it around a bit to get it in place where
we want it before we move pigs into the trailer or
at least try to let's weigh one in order to weigh these guys we're gonna use a
portable scale that's good up to about 600 pounds using our old gate as a pace
we can bring in a cage that'll keep the pigs on the scale leaving them alone
with it for a little bit to let them get used to it
then we can bring in the scale base and move a peg up on to it now we're aiming
for about 250 pounds for the pigs to go to butcher app in this group some are
bigger some are a little smaller an average-sized volunteer does step
forward and into the box and the final results are in almost perfect with the
way incomplete it's on to the final round and that's opening up the trailer
for these guys to move into in order to make it a bit more homey
we're gonna move their water into the trailer and then we're gonna get some
bread and try to coax them in just a little bit
surprisingly this group isn't shy and it's not long before we have over half
the group up and in the trailer now some do hang back but it looks like we might
have found a smarter way to do this work smarter not harder with the pigs get
used to their trailer it won't be long until we're gonna be taking them over to
Sturgis for their final ride then there will thank them for everything that
they've done for the ranch and everything they're going to continue to
do over the next coming months for not only us but for hundreds of customers
we're gonna enjoy ham bacon and more we'll even try to work smarter when it
comes to getting them off the trailer as we've gotten a few suggestions for how
we can do that but for now they're gonna get to live it up the next project list
will be their send-off and I hope that you can subscribe and join us as the
circle of life continues here on the ranch new piglets will arrive soon along
with all the new personalities and of course new squeals that that brings
along with it I hope you can join us on Thursday for another ranch Talk
livestream this week with special guest zach johnson the minnesota millennial
farmer will be joining us right here you can get check him out on youtube he is
also on facebook and instagram he'll be joining us Thursday at 7 p.m. mountain
time ranch talk live right here on YouTube that's it for us today pigs are
pretty much ready to go and everything went pretty smoothly I'd like to remind
you to check out to head on over to our Wyoming live.com and check out our
website you can you can get high sign up for the herd report but you can also
check out the owl store where we have a brand new apparel available with the new
logo and it's some pretty cool stuff I'll see you on Thursday
but until then have a great week and thanks for joining us
Wyoming life