In addition to being a farmer, Jenney also works as a midwife. She’s caught hundreds of babies in Rochester so as you might expect, all things birth-related are fascinating for her.
I was really excited about pigs giving birth, but you can imagine how she felt leading up to our first delivery on the farm years ago, right? She sat on pins and needles as our first pig, who we affectionately named Tammy, approached her due date.
One night during chores, Jenney headed out to the back field to check on the pigs. I was at the top of the farm closing up the ginger hoophouse for the night, when I got the call. Over the phone she said, “Greg, get down here fast. She’s bearing down. I think she’s gonna farrow (which means deliver in farm lingo) tonight!”
With a gentle rain starting, I hurried to meet her. We quickly separated Tammy from the rest of the herd, set her up with a nice pile of straw and fashioned a tarp between a couple of trees, so she had a dry quiet protected place to give birth.
The sun quickly set and the rain got stronger. All the while Jenney sat quietly, and kept a careful eye on our girl, Tammy, determined to see the first piglets born on our farm. As time passed, she eventually brought down a chair and a raincoat for herself. And there she sat in the dark with cold blowing rain awaiting the piglets arrival.
She had read the books, knew all the signs, and expected that all the experience with humans would come in handy. But it turns out, when you’ve never seen a pig deliver before, you can be easily fooled.
Eventually (meaning 2 hours later!), we realized that the only thing that Tammy was going to give birth to that night was a whole lot of gas. It turns out, Tammy didn’t give birth ’til a whole month later!
Jenney’s excitement around birth is still here on the farm. It’s never once waned. But our experience with pigs who are actually giving birth in the years since, has made us both all the wiser.
Your Farmers,
Greg & Jenney