Conversation rambled down several avenues, most centering on agriculture, work, and age. The youngster (his assessment when he discovered my age) revealed that he is 67. He asked about my retirement, and I asked about his. But he is not retired, still works full-time.
"I work at several hog confinement operations in Indiana and Ohio, driving an average of 1100 miles a week to make the rounds."
"That's a lot of driving. What is your mission?"
"I sort and tag animals for movement to feeder facilities and for shipment to market."
"Thanks. I like my pig meat. Not so crazy about bacon as some people are, but I really like that loin!"
"Too salty," he averred. "The bacon I mean."
"How many litters will a brood sow produce in a year?" I asked.
"The average is 2.3 per year, 13 pigs to the litter."
(That will give me some arithmetic to work with later.)
Then the man mentioned that there were a couple of facilities in the area that were being sold, not closing, just change of ownership.
"German investment bankers?" I asked.
"No, he replied, "Japanese."
I remarked that I was somewhat familiar with an operation in a certain location. He laughed and said that that was one of them to which he was referring. "6000 sows in that facility." (More fodder for the arithmetic problem.)
Nurse stuck her head through the door. "David?"
And you know the rest.
6000 x 2.3 x 13 = 179,400. Just so you know.
8 comments:
An hour and 20 minutes? I don't care how entertaining the other folks were, I would have been out of there sooner than later!
The wait...ugh. I'm with Grace, I think I would have politely told the receptionist that I was leaving.
I wonder how many family farms exist anymore? We have friends in your area that own their own, but I wonder, across the US...how many are big business?
That is a LOT of pigs and a LOT of miles on that guy's car.
I did a quick mental calculation that rounded off to nearly 180,000. Not too far off I hope.
Grace, you and my wife.
Lin, ownership of Family Farms was part of our discussion. There are darn few of them left.
Chuck, rounding is a highly useful skill. I spent a lot of time trying to teach it to my junior high students.
I'm way behind on blog reading again, due to the computer issues. Not a fan of those big feeding facilities, but interesting info.
The numbers are staggering, but the stench must be beyond calculation - completely off the meter.
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