Major setback - Tragedy Strikes

Last week was, well... in a word... tragic. Things had finally begun to settle down, and we are getting close to announcing the new path for the farm, and then something totally unexpected. It left us reeling for a few days to regain our footing.

We found our three largest, healthiest, best genetic, pregnant  breeding sows dead.

No warning, no sign of struggle, sickness, or problem of any type. They were found laying peacefully in their favorite mud puddle as if they all three dies in their sleep. Absolutely NO indication of why. The other dozen pigs are perfectly healthy with no signs of any trouble. It occurred within the space of a few hours, literally one nap!

This is devastating on two levels. Not only did we loose a large source of planned income and investment, but without any conclusive cause of death there is no way to prevent more! That is a scary thought. Until we can come up with a way to prevent further occurrence of whatever happened, the entire pig operation is at serious risk. If whatever it was, happened that quickly to the healthiest pigs, it could take out the entire herd.

For several days we searched for an answer. Even exploring the notion of foul play. Nothing made sense! There just was no evidence of anything unusual.  Now that is a scary thought for a farmer, animals dropping dead in batches with no cause of death. Yes, it was a stressful week scrambling for some sort of answer and path forward.

After long consideration, we have come up with one and only one plausible answer.  Mushrooms. The timeline goes something like this:

Rain had just started on a regular basis, mostly from the storms in the gulf. That rain was suddenly keeping the surface of the ground moist full time, especially in the trees.  The heat also calmed a bit, although not a lot. Perfect mushroom growing conditions. We had noticed a few days prior to this event that in fact lots of interesting mushrooms had sprouts all over the forest.

Next, it was time to move the pig pen. The easiest way to move the pigs is to let them loose to forage while we move the fence panels. We have done this dozens of times previously. The pigs would lounge in the forest consuming old nuts, plants, whatever they could find for a couple hours. It is a great way to supplement their diet with natural feeds.

It was two days later that we found the three dead.

At first the timing seemed impossible. How could a pig consume toxic mushrooms, then be perfectly healthy for 2 days and suddenly all drop dead during a single nap?  Seems implausible at face value, but research has brought to light a few mushrooms that do exactly that, and grow wild in central texas.  These mushrooms create an initial illness that only lasts for a short time, minutes to a few hours. We could easily have missed this being gone most of that particular day. Then a day or two passes as the toxins invisible destroy the liver  and other organs irreparably, and the animals literally drop dead. The timeline matches.  The symptoms match.

In addition, there was a few patches of new mushrooms sighted in the forest which are now totally gone. We took pictures of what types were left to check on toxicity, but that in itself is inconclusive since the ones eaten are obviously gone now. So, we must conclude that they pigs found and consumed a patch of toxic mushrooms while the pen was being rebuilt, and then died silently in their sleep a couple days later with no symptoms.

That accounts for a loss of about $30,000 of income since they were pregnant.  Not insignificant!

The plan forward? The rest of the herd seems ok. So, we moved them again (while keeping close guard on them) and beefed up security. Now the pen is hard panels with electric on the inside to keep them from digging or laying on the panels. That should provide that extra bit of security to prevent accidental escape. When the pen needs to move, it will require some measure of temporary containment. It is not a guarantee of safety, but an extra level of protection. Mushrooms do grow out in the pasture but much less prolifically. That means we will not be able to move the pigs into the shade during mushroom season.  That means more shelters need to be built.

Bottom line? Tragic and devastating. We have to dramatically alter the pig management procedures and while recovering from the loss of investment and income, we must invest in more infrastructure.

A tough week indeed.  But, with God's help, we will survive.