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Agriculture This Week: Farming always evolving

When you have grown up on a farm in the 1960s and ‘70s it is almost beyond belief the changes in farming we see today. 

It was a mixed farm for me, and that meant pigs and grain. 

In my youth I hauled a lot of ground grain to feed the pigs using cleaned five-gallon pails that originally were filled with some weed spray, or another. 

Looking back over some 40-years it seems like it was such a crazy thing, but repurposing the pails was pretty standard. I’m pretty sure potatoes came from the garden to the cellar bin in similar pails. 

Of course I clearly recall Dad taking plugged nozzles off the sprayer, his gloves getting soaked in the process, and then simply blowing out the nozzle with his breath. 

Knowing what we do now it’s a wonder what health problems were caused in a time we didn’t know better, or were reluctant to change. Dad lived to a considerable age, his heart giving out one day, but one wonders. 


Trending Video

1,100 Pigs Just Got Delivered

Video: 1,100 Pigs Just Got Delivered



1,100 pigs showed up today, and every empty pen in this barn is full by dark. The semi backs in, the chute drops, and it's all hands sorting pigs down the aisles until the whole barn is wall to wall. And that's only half the day. The other delivery is a brand new CAT 275 skid steer, and Tork gets to drive it off the flatbed first. New pigs, new iron, and a barn that goes from empty and washed to full and loud in one afternoon. This is what a big day on a pig farm looks like.