• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Event Calendar
    • Submit Event
  • About Us
    • Our Contributors
    • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Arts & Entertainment
    • Comedy
    • On Screen Dayton
    • On Screen Dayton Reviews
    • Road Trippin’
      • Cincinnati
      • Columbus
      • Indianapolis
    • Spectator Sports
    • Street-Level Art
    • Visual Arts
  • Dayton Dining
    • DMM’s Brunch Guide
    • Restaurants with Private Dining Rooms
    • Dayton Food Trucks
    • Quest
    • Ten Questions
  • Dayton Music
    • Music Calendar
  • On Stage Dayton
    • On Stage Dayton Reviews
  • Active Living
    • Canoeing/Kayaking
    • Cycling
    • Hiking/Backpacking
    • Runners
  • How to Support Dayton Businesses, Nonprofits During COVID-19

Dayton Most Metro

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Who’s having sex with the chicken?

January 10, 2010 By Holly Michael Leave a Comment

Hampshire piglets stay warm under a heat lamp.

Hampshire piglets stay warm under a heat lamp.

Answers to your most pressing agricultural questions from a real Dayton area farm wife

Hello, I’m Holly Michael –  farm wife, mother, blogger and communications professional who has worked at some of Dayton’s largest companies. I straddle the sometimes equally stinky worlds of agriculture and corporate life, so you don’t have to.

So how did you end up living on a farm near Dayton? Where did you meet a farmer?
I grew up in Jackson Township (contrary to popular belief, people living on the outskirts of Centerville did not invent townships), which is near Farmersville and Valley View Schools. I was a 4-H member but didn’t live on a real farm. I met my husband, a full-time farmer, where else, but the Montgomery County Fair. We live on a 100-acre crop and hog farm only 15 miles from the Dayton Marriott. We have three adorable children who have long ago gotten over giggling every time a pig poops.

How many pigs do you have on your farm? Do you sell them to Bob Evans?
The number of pigs on the farm varies by season. In the winter, many of the piglets are being born, so we swell to about 500 pigs. We raise purebred hogs that have papers through a registry, just like dogs or horses. Farms like ours are the “quality control” of the swine industry. We focus on raising lean, muscular, easy-moving hogs that we sell to other farmers and exhibit at the State Fair and other national shows. These pigs will go on to be the breeding stock (parents) that produce the pigs that end up in the grocery.

I love pigs. Will you let me have a baby pig to be my pet?
Pigs grow fast. They weigh about two pounds when they are born but in six months, with proper nutrition, they are fully mature and weigh 250-280 pounds.

Why are pigs always so muddy?
Pigs are actually quite neat and can be easily trained. If they have a basically clean pen, pigs will designate one area for sleeping, one for eating and one for pooping. Unlike sheep and cattle, pigs can be trained to open their own feeder to eat when they wish and push on a nozzle with their nose to get water. Pigs can’t sweat, so when they get hot they need to cool off and get their skin wet. When pigs were kept outdoors in open lots, the best thing they had was shade and a mud hole. Our pigs love to get sprayed with the hose when they are really hot and so do the farm kids.

What do you raise on your farm besides pigs?
We raise corn to use in making our own pig feed and we raise soybeans as a cash crop. We also grow hay. Note that hay is clover and other grasses, grown in a field and mowed and baled multiple times over the summer. Hay should not be confused with straw which is a by-product of wheat and by some unwritten law of agriculture must be harvested on the hottest day of the year.

Is it difficult to work in a corporate environment by day and be a farm wife on evenings and weekends?
I try to be an ambassador of agriculture as the “token farmer” that many people have ever met. Once I held a contest among my co-workers in three states to name our new boar (male pig). I have had many bosses who were puzzled when I said I needed time off to travel to the World Pork Expo. My kids love living on a farm and I can’t think of any better environment to raise them to be curious and independent.

That’s all the time we have folks. Tune in next time when we will  have the balls to discuss the difference between a boar, a ram and a steer. Got any pressing agricultural questions? Leave them in the comments and I will try to answer them as honestly and humorously as I can.

Wait! Before you go, who is having sex with the chicken?
The rooster has sex with all of them.

My thanks to Seinfeld’s Mr. Costanza for the inspiration for this column and confirmation that no agricultural fact is too minor to share.

Filed Under: Rural Living

About Holly Michael

Hello, I’m Holly Michael - farm wife, mother, blogger , DMM crazy headline writer and communications professional who has worked at some of Dayton’s largest companies. I straddle the sometimes equally stinky worlds of agriculture and corporate life, so you don’t have to.

Reader Interactions


Comments

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Featured Events

  • Tue
    26
  • Wed
    27
  • Thu
    28
  • Fri
    29
  • Sat
    30
  • Sun
    31
  • Mon
    01

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Conversation with Airstream

10:00 am | Virtual Event

Spaghetti Tuesday

5:00 pm | The Trolley Stop

Burger Night

5:00 pm | Watermark

Jazz with Gail and Larry

5:00 pm | Spirited Goat Coffee House

Skyline Chili Fundraiser

5:00 pm | Skyline Chili

Tuesday Trivia

7:00 pm | The Dublin Pub

JCRC Community Conversation: Food Insecurity in Dayton

7:00 pm | ZOOM

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Women 4 Technology: Meaningful Mentoring

11:30 am | Virtual Event

Grand Opening

2:00 pm | Wiley’s Wings Tenders Fries

Beginning Cake Decorating

6:00 pm | online event

Trivia w/ DagaTrivia

6:00 pm | Eudora Brewing Company

Write It Like You Mean It

6:30 pm | ZOOM

Masthead Brewing Beer Tasting

6:30 pm | The Caroline

Wednesday Trivia

6:30 pm | Troll Pub at the Wheelhouse

Open Mic with Blues Breakdown Band

7:00 pm | Hank’s Local

Gem City Market Walking Warriors

7:00 pm | Gem City Market

Wednesday Night Trivia w/ Dan Profitt

7:00 pm | Oinkadoodlemoo & Brew

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Johnnie Walker Seminar + Dinner

6:00 pm | Salar

Beginning Beekeeping Virtual Class

7:00 pm | ZOOM

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Virtual Book Club

7:00 pm | Virtual Event

Bingo

8:00 pm | Trolley Stop

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Latin Dance Party

5:30 pm | The Salvation Army Kroc Center

Route 88 Full Band

6:00 pm | Wings Sports Bar and Grille- Dixie

Heath Bowling Live

6:30 pm | Heroes Pizza House

Full Wolf Moon Hike

7:00 pm | Glen Helen

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

RiverScape Virtual Winter Yoga

9:30 am |

Introducing…Carole Staples and Fiber Arts

10:00 am | 621519

Open Call for Models

2:00 pm | The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-working Experience

St. Vincent DePaul – Emmanuel Fish or Sausage Dinner Carryout

5:00 pm | Bainbridge Hall

A Virtual tour of the Grand Canyon National Park

5:00 pm | Facebook Live

TRUK

6:00 pm | The Phone Booth Lounge

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Wiley’s Sunday Comics

7:15 pm | Wiley’s Comedy Club

25% off Pizza Monday

11:30 am | Oregon Express

More Events…

DMM E-Newsletter


Give us your email address and we'll send you our DMM E-Newsletters
Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust
Back to Top

Copyright © 2021 Dayton Most Metro · Terms & Conditions · Log in