Pumpkin Time

Most people visit their local pumpkin patch a few days before Halloween to pick out a jack-o-lantern or two. We wait until the week after Halloween and collect truck loads of the pumpkins that are left lying in the fields. Why? Because the hogs love them! The pumpkins in the picture will likely last the pigs well into December. I feed them by throwing a few to the pigs each day. They hit the ground breaking them open exposing the mouthwatering flesh and delectable seeds. The pigs come running and eat the seeds out first. Then they eagerly devour the rest of the giant orange orb's flesh. This morning, however, they were a little more difficult to break open.Temps were in the mid-20's last night.  They were froze up solid. No worry. The pigs can chew them open if they really want them. And believe me, they want them. It's just more fun for me to break them!

Where to put them all. This year's growing pumpkin pile.

Like most people, pigs like variety in their diet. They like it when we mix things up. You'd get tired of eating the same thing day after day, and they do too. The basis of their diet is a blend of locally grown grains that we have made up for us at the local feed mill. This provides them with the right mix of vitamins and protein they need to grow big and strong. They could easily survive on just this feed, but what fun would that be? During the summer months they get a little piggy salad bar with their main course (grain mix) by grazing the pasture. But with winter nearly hear, the grasses, field peas, rape, clovers and forbs (a mix of other plants most people call weeds) that make up our pasture are no longer growing so we supplement with hay. Yes, pigs will eat hay! In our never ending effort to product the best tasting pork at an affordable price, we are always on the lookout for feed stuff that not only will the pigs enjoy eating but will also make for great tasting pork! I strongly believe that a varied diet not only makes for a healthier animal, but also makes better tasting pork. 

Last litter of 2012

Our sow Betty farrowed yesterday. 11 piglets were born in one of the port-a-huts out in the pasture. I was a little concerned about these new younguns out there in the cold last night. Temperatures got down into the upper 20's. But that didn't seem to bother these piglets at all. I guess some credit has to go to Betty. She's proving herself to be a real good mother.

With much colder weather and snow just around the corner, we have not planned any more litters until April/May of 2013.

Hogs Ready for the Butcher

Whole and half hogs for sale

This summer we have been selling red wattle pork by the cut at the local farmer's markets--Maquoketa, Clinton and DeWitt, Iowa. Well, the farmer's market season is winding down so we are now offering whole or half hogs for the freezer. This is the same great pork that our farmer's market customers have been raving about all summer. Get your hog cut and wrapped the way you want and buy it by the whole or half hog and save some money while eating great pork. Because of this summer's draught, feed prices have raised some 30%. Raising pork prices can't be far behind.

Here's how it works.

• Once a butcher date is set we require a $100 deposit for a whole hog or a $65 deposit for a half hog. The deposit is due before the set butcher date. Currently we have butcher dates set for the Edgewood locker for October 22 and November 13. (UPDATE: the next available butcher date will be in early February 2013) 
• We will deliver your hog to Edgewood locker. 
• Once you have reserved your hog you will need to call the locker with your cutting instructions.
• After processing you will be responsible for picking up your cuts of meat and paying the locker directly for the processing of your pig.
• After the pigs are processed we will get the hanging weight of your pig from Edgewood locker.  We will then send you a final bill based on the hanging weight of the pig less the deposit.

Processing costs can vary depending on the cuts of meat that you get. A good explaination of this can be found at http://www.edgewoodlocker.com/meat-processing/how-much-meat-are-we-getting/how-much-meat3-1/

Meat from a typical half hog (from a 250 – 270 lb. live animal) consist of approximately:
40 Pork Chops-(1/2” thick)
2 Shoulder Roast (4lb)
12 Shoulder Steaks (1/2” thick)
1 Ham (15-18lb; can be cut smaller)
1 Rack Spare Ribs (2lb) (can be trimmed)
2 Hocks (can be smoked/trimmed)
8-10lb Belly (can be bacon or side pork)
6-10 lb ground pork/or ground sausage.

For a whole hog, just double this. Things like the heart, liver and tounge are also available. The fat can be rendered into lard, or have it ground by the locker so that you can render it yourself.

If you would prefer, we may be able to deliver your hog to another locker of your choice if it is within a reasonable distance of Maquoketa, Iowa. You can also pick up your hog here at the farm if you want to butcher it yourself. Live butcher hogs are sold for $1.25/lb.

For more information, contact us at wickhamfarm@gmail.com

New Guinea Pigglets, Red Wattles and Muscovy ducklings

Newborn Guinea piglets



Spring is the time of the year when there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be done. Posting on the blog gets put on hold while I attend to all the other chores. It's not that the blog isn't important. It's just that there are farm chores that must be done... new pens need to be built, electric fencing has to be moved and planting has to be done. The list of things to do is much, much longer than this, but you get the idea.  Spring is also the time when new  babies are born here on the farm. Last week, we had our first litter of American Guinea Hogs. 3 boys and 2 girls. Today, another litter of 4 were born (2 boys, 2 girls). Our small herd of guineas is growing fast!

runaway piglets

The red wattle piglets are  now almost a month old. They will be weaned in a couple weeks. Man, they grow fast! Lately, their favorite activity is to squeeze under the fence of their pen and go exploring. My wife, Jane, calls them the runaways. They walk around in a pack exploring the cow pasture and the machine shed. But if something frieghtens them--a loud noise or a curious holstien steer, they bee-line it back to momma sow and safety.

Muscovy family

Even the ducks are getting into the act. Yep, spring is here!

Breed them or eat them?

In the last couple months, four litters of red wattles were born here at Wickham Farm. In many ways, young piglets are like most other youngsters. They have an insatiable appetite and want nothing more than to eat (nurse), sleep and play. Over time, this can cause the sow to become wore down and loose body condition. To keep mama from getting too wore down, the piglets are weaned (separated) from their mother at around six to eight weeks of age. At this point, they are eating solid foods well and are more than able to make it on their own. They quickly adjust to their new life and grow very quickly. At this stage they are referred to as weaners and can gain nearly a pound of weight a day.

There are a couple of nice looking gilts (young females), one very nice boar (sexually intact male), and several barrows (castrated males) in the group. Most of these piglets will be raised to become hams, bacon, roasts and other tasty cuts of pork. Red wattle pigs are very rare animals with less than 2,000 of them known to exist worldwide. They are listed as critically endangered by the American Livestock Breed Conservancy. Because of this, you would think that every piglet would be saved to increase the breed's numbers. Frankly speaking, this just isn't practical. Most farmers, us included, can't afford to raise livestock without a market for them. As much as we enjoy them, they aren't pets. That's why we sell red wattle sausage, bacon, ham and other cuts of pork. For the long-term benefit of the breed, we follow the "breed the best and eat the rest" maxim of livestock breeding. Fortunately, pasture raised red wattle is some of the best tasting pork in the world. Once you've tried it, you'll never want grocery store pork again!

There are a couple very nice looking breeding quality piglets in the bunch. If you are looking for a nice red wattle piglet for breeding or just one or two to raise your own pork, drop us an email. We probably have just what you are looking for. Or see us this summer at the Clinton, Iowa farmers market and buy your pork by the package. Either way, your purchase will not only help to support our small farm, you'll also be helping to preserve a rare livestock breed.

My other job

I don't talk much on this blog about my life off the farm. Believe it or not, I do get off the farm.When I'm not busy feeding hogs or pasturing poultry, I am employed as the Executive Director of the Clinton County Conservation Board. I've been with Clinton County for over 27 years, serving first as a Park Ranger and for the last 8 years as the department director. I manage 11 employees, 4 campgrounds and over 2,000 of public lands. Most days, I really love my job. Yesterday qualified as one of my best days at work.

Our latest under taking is the construction of a park visitor/nature center called the Mississippi River Eco Tourism Center. Yesterday, we had an 8,000 gallon aquarium delivered to the new facility. It is huge! 18 feet long, 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep. The aquarium arrived by semi from a custom manufacturer in California and was skillfully placed in the building by a local crane service. Here's a news story from a local TV channel.

Eco Tourism Center In Camanche

Yes, that's me in the video.

One egg omelet?

Every year around late February or early March, our chickens start to increase their egg production. Usually, this means the hens all start laying a lot more eggs. But for one hen, it meant one really, really huge egg.

Extra, extra, extra large egg.

Most of the eggs on this plate would grade out as large or extra large. The one in the center.....well, I would call it humongous! You have to wonder how she was able to even get this one out. Ouch!  Any guess as to how many yolks this egg will have? I think you could make a pretty decent sized omelet with this one egg alone.

Goats at Wickham Farm

Goats were the first "real" livestock that we had here on the farm.Being the greenhorn goat herders that we were, we made a lot of mistakes when it came to goat farming. Our very first mistake was purchasing a pair of goats from a sale barn. We didn't really know anything about goats at the time, but they looked pretty good to us and we heard that goats would be good for keeping down the weeds around the farm. Sounds simple enough. Boy, did we have a lot to learn! One of my coworkers who just happens to have grown up on a goat dairy stopped by after work one day to look at our newly purchased goats. To our surprise, she took one look at our goats and laughed out loud. "Why did you buy such old goats?" We were a bit surprised. They didn't look all that old to us. Like I said, we had a lot to learn about goats.

That was about 12 years ago. While our first goats didn't last long... after all, they were already senior citizens... we did learn to love goats. At times, we have had as many as 50 goats on our small farm.  I have hand milked as many as 10 goats twice a day everyday. Jane made cheese and soap from the milk and our children earned a lot of ribbons showing goats at the county fair. Today, we are down to only five nannies and my milking chores have been nearly non-existent. While we will probably always have a few goats around, I don't think we are likely to have a large herd again. At least not anytime in the foreseeable future. Notice that I didn't say that we would never have a large herd. I have learned not to say never when it comes to our farm animals. Just three years ago, we didn't have any pigs. Today we have over 50! But then that's another story.

Last week, one of our boar nannies, Heidi, had twins. A boy and a girl. Thank goodness she had them before the current cold snap hit. Mother and kids are doing fine and our goat herd now numbers 7!