by Lacey Schardt, NPPA Mentor 
Growing up on a diversified farm has created many opportunities for life lessons to be learned. Recently, as I was power-washing (cleaning the barns), I realized all the lessons that I have learned, but before sharing these, I will share a bit about my background. As I have already said, I have grown up on a diversified family farm where we currently raise hogs (Pork Production Terminology) and grow crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat. In the past, we have had our feedlot full of feeder calves, but as of now our feedlot is empty.
There is nothing that I enjoy more than being out working with my dad, my uncle, a cousin or two of mine, and our farmhand. Our farmhand has been on our farm for longer than I can remember so to me, I see him more as family than anything else. To me, this truly defines our operation. We are a family farm. My uncle and his family are the ones in charge of our wean-to-finish hog operation(Pork Production Housing Stages). At one time we will have 2250 head of hogs between our nursery and finisher buildings. Through the hog operation, there are jobs that no one wishes to do, and those that everyone wants to do. But none the less, all of these jobs are important and essential to providing a safe and healthy product to our consumers. I would say that the most enjoyable job is when we load hogs for them to be sent to market. It is also the time that the most help is needed, but too much help would cause a rough and stressful time for the hogs. As we work to get the hogs loaded this is a great place to learn lessons. A lesson that I have learned is to understand who is in charge and listen to his instructions. As we separate the hogs out of the individual pens, we must be aware of which are to be let out and which are to stay. This can be a difficult job because the main focus is to not stress the hogs while getting them to do as we wish, so patience is learned through this job. As the hogs are separated from their pens, they walk down the aisle to the door where they are loaded onto the truck. The pigs are smart animals so patience is also needed here because this is a change for them from their usual routine. Some hogs have no problem with this change and load well while others do not agree, and generally tend to be more stubborn.
Hog Blog 