Long day's journey into night

Written to Braveheart: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by James Horner

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

- Albert Einstein

This week was marked by the arrival of our second purchase of gilts, 15 from TOPIGS do Brasil, one of the three largest companies in the world specializing in swine genetics. The gilts were scheduled to arrive on Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Day, the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of fasting and prayer called Lent, at between 08:00 and 09:00. Clair, Dirlei, João and I cut wood all morning, not wanting to start a major project or be caught too far from the main house when the gilts arrived. Taking a lesson from the Samba schools, which recycle all usable materials for the following year's Carnaval immediately after the public blowout, we also began separating all of the wood that was fit for use as construction material. This wood will be brushed off, painted and set aside until needed. At somewhere around 11:30, the home phone rang and a driver from TOPIGS tried to explain his situation, but the line kept cutting out. After four or five aborted calls, Lone managed to gather that he was nearby and informed him that I would come and get him, which I happily agreed to do. When I ran into his truck less than two km down the road, he was headed in the wrong direction. He explained that he had been worried that his truck would not be able to navigate the final stretch and decided to turn around. After several minutes of conversation, I convinced him that the road ahead was dry, and that he would have no problem arriving at our fazenda. I also took the opportunity to inquire as to his lateness. He apologized profusely while showing me the instructions he had received from his dispatch: Distrito Bairro Alto, Natividade da Serra, 12180-000 was all that the company had sent their driver forth with. Somewhere along the way, the dispatch truncated our clear directions…

Indo para Ubatuba (Rodoviário - Osvaldo Cruz) no km 66 vira a direita para Vargem Grande. Segue placas para Vargem Grande...13 km. Ao chegar á Vargem Grande tem mais 7 km continuando na mesma estrada. Em frente da entrada da fazenda tem um mourão pintado laranja. Em total da 20 km de estrada da terra.

…to the six words and a single zip code above. As a result, he had driven through the night to Natividade da Serra, arriving there at approx. 06:30. FYI, it easily takes two and one-half hours to drive to Natividade da Serra from Alfheim.

Long story short, he informed me that he would have to turn his truck around further on down the road, where there was more room to maneuver. I subsequently reversed the car and waited. What seemed like an eternity later (probably 25 minutes if I had been counting), I decided to drive toward Vargem Grande to see what had become of the driver and his specially-designed truck carrying in excess of 100 gilts, only 15 of which were destined for our fazenda. And find him I did, stuck in the mud about two km down the road. Inexplicably, he had decided to turn his truck around by driving through a deep pool of mud without first checking its depth. To make a long story even shorter, it took us several attempts at digging out the truck, pulling it out with a Valtra 685 tractor, then two Valtra 685 tractors, before we finally managed to excavate his truck and its 10,000 kg of gilts from the morass, off-loading our 15 gilts in the process in two loads of seven and eight gilts, respectively, onto my Lego tractor.

What originally was scheduled to be a light, half-day of work turned into a triple overtime debacle in which one gilt died (TOPIGS, not ours), most likely from stress and heat exhaustion. The animals, packed seven-eight to a cage, were subjected to a grueling ordeal, despite the truck being outfitted with a sophisticated sprinkler system for watering the animals. In point of fact, the driver had neglected to top up the water tank before embarking on the dirt road and quickly ran out of water. Had it not been for the numerous 20-liter milk cans full of water that we pulled from the river and threw over the animals using a plastic water bottle we cut in half, more certainly would have succumbed under the brutal conditions; those that did survive were quite literally marked by the day.

Under the heading of all's well that end's well, our 15 new gilts are recovering well in their new digs, the elegantly and appropriately named Hogs Copse, a recently-opened, state-of-the-art housing development on the hillside to the right of the entrance road as one enters Alfheim.

That said, in spite of their remarkable physicality -they are a mere 150 days old- the new gilts are characterized by an odd combination of bulk and atrophy that comes from confinement. Fortunately, this will pass as they quite literally walk themselves into shape like contestants on The Biggest Loser.

Two hillsides away, our original herd of gilts-turned-sows are all doing well, lean and strong, prescient icons both of what is possible and inevitable for the latest additions to Alfheim's ever-growing menagerie. As evidence of their fitness, I offer photos of a game I like to call flip the sack. The sacks in question are filled with 50 kg of corn. The sows move the sack around like a pair of socks. Even Clair and João find these sacks heavy, but for the sows all it takes to get a sack airborne is a light flick of their tough snouts and strong neck muscles.

Once I have served up a tasty lunch of corn for the hogs, I turn my attention to the piglets, who for their parts have long since figured out that my presence signals a bellyful of more than just laughs.

1. Wait for him…he usually brings food
2. Only the biggest and boldest dare enter
3. And they tell two friends
4. And they tell two friends
5. And so on
   

The combination of corn soaked in fresh cow's milk for 24 hours proves irresistible -for the sows as well.

With daily temperatures consistently above 30 °C, the other irresistible treat is a mud bath. In fact, any reprieve from the sun will serve for a hog.

In other farm news, Chiquina and Pixie's after-comer, no name yet, is recovering extraordinarily well from a horrific case of miiase, which drilled three heavy-duty-nail-sized holes in her head. She is alert, strong and demanding her cow's milk five-six times a day. No question she will survive and flourish. If the size of Chiquina's behind is indicative, parasitic attacks at an early age are no impediment to the long-term health of a hog.

Finally, Lone took three National-Geographic-worthy photos this week:

• some very cute ducklings
• the eucalyptus trees in front of the entrance to our fazenda
• a spider's web that would make Shelob proud

A day in the life a half year on...

Written to Hello Love by Be Good Tanyas

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

- Will Rogers

Slowly but surely we are coming to grips with the additional labor resources we have had at our disposal since October (Dirlei) and January (João), respectively. Since January, we have had four full-time employees. As I noted in a recent blog post, this has ratcheted up significantly the speed at which we can complete work -by an order of magnitude, actually. It has also required us to rethink how we use our own time. The result of this rethink is that Lone divides her day as follows:

• 05:30 - 07:00: yoga, meditation and breakfast
• 07:00 - 09:30: farm work
• 09:30 - 10:00: break
• 10:00 - 12:30: office hours, e.g. paperwork, phone calls, e-mails
• 12:30 - 13:30: lunch
• 13:30 - 16:30: farm work

While my day shapes up as follows:

• 06:00 - 07:00: pilates and farm work
• 07:00 - 09:30: exercise the dogs (aka me pretending to be Cesar Millan), breakfast (while watching ESPN SportsCenter) and office hours
• 09:30 - 10:00: break
• 10:00 - 12:30: farm work
• 12:30 - 13:30: lunch
• 13:30 - 16:30: farm work

Typically, we meet with the workers every morning at 07:00 to discuss the day's activities, and again at 16:30 to wrap up.

Lone works with Rosana much of the time, and this contact is invaluable.

I generally work alone from 10:00 to 12:30, which includes feeding the hogs, and then with either Clair, Dirlei or João from 13:30 to 16:30. This gives me a chance to spend some quality time with each of the men. Beginning next week, Rosana and her potent powers of observation will be joining me for the midday hog feeding.

In addition, there are a number of activities, such as slaughtering and treating the hogs for miíase or berne, that require a team effort. On those occasions, we all pitch in.

Thus far, everyone seems to work well together, and each one of our employees brings something complementary to the table that enhances Alfheim. Clair brings a joy to his work which is contagious. He sings from morning to early evening: A estrada longa que é a vida. Rosana is the brains of the operation: she sees all, knows all and her intuition is True North. Dirlei is exceedingly calm and knows a great deal about both animals and the maintenance of everything from chain saws to tractors (he also has a great deal of experience driving a tractor, something that proved most useful a couple of weeks back when I managed to get my Lego tractor stuck in the mud). João is simply a machine. If Clair is a cross between Paul Bunyon and John Henry, then João is a cross between the Hulk and Iron Man. He simply does not tire. Even Rosana expressed concern that he works too hard, not a reaction one would normally expect from her.

In other farm news, the ducks have taken to our recently-cleared lake, and we purchased 36 bee hives, enough to produce approx. 720 kg of honey per year, and assorted equipment from Januara, until recently, when she moved to Taubaté with her husband, a neighbor from down the road.

The purchase of the bee hives is integral to our goal of testing all of the farm's business models prior to Esben's arrival in July. Thus far, we have successfully tested the production and sale of organic piglets. Milk, a guaranteed sale to the local Associação in Vargem Grande, is next (April), followed by pasture-raised broilers (May), which we hope to sell locally for R$9.00 (€3.51 or $4.86) live and finally honey (?). We have two Danish visitors, Sandra and Anella, who will spend May cleaning and preparing the bee hives, so hopefully we will bee operationally sometime in June.

Finally, we visited São Luiz do Paraitinga this morning to place an order at Depósito Cursino, our local DYI. Both Lone and I were struck by how much the town had recovered since our last visit with Dennis and Anne in late January. All of the debris and mud have been removed from the streets, many shops are operating at 100% and people everywhere are busy repairing and painting their houses and businesses. When evaluating their progress, it is critical to remember that the Paraitinga River rose eight to ten meters in the town center; everything was submerged. The owners of Depósito Cursino found a freezer full of ice cream on their roof (interesting side note: the owner still has not come forward)! When I compare these developments with those in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, which almost five years on is still mostly empty, devoid of schools, businesses, even people, the contrast is shocking. Without a doubt any number of caveats can be applied to such a comparison. Nonetheless, it is arresting to consider that Brazil might actually be better equipped to deal with a natural disaster of magnitude than the world's richest country.

The value of swine

Written to Noventa Anos Do Samba by Jamelão

Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not commit adultery. Don't eat pork.

I'm sorry, what was that last one? Don't eat pork. God has spoken.

Is that the word of God or is that pigs trying to outsmart everybody?

- Jon Stewart quotes (American Comedian and Actor, b.1962)

Since November we have been dabbling in the sale of organic piglets to a handful of upscale restaurants in São Paulo. This has given us an invaluable opportunity to test and fine tune our organic piglet business model. Fortunately, the initial analysis looks very promising. The key numbers:

REVENUE

price per kg: R$17.00

average weight per piglet (kg): 13

average revenue per piglet: R$221.00

FEED

# of sows: 30

# of piglets per litter: 6 (we are currently achieving closer to 8)

# of piglets per year per sow: 12

piglet mortality: 10%

total piglets per year: 324

kg. of feed per sow per day: 2

# of days: 243

kg. of feed per day (during lactation): 5

# of days per lactation: 122

total kg of feed per year: 1,095

cost of feed (per kilo): R$0.55

total cost of feed per year per piglet: R$55.87

LABOR

# of days per year: 365

# of hours per day: 1

# of hours per week (slaughter): 19

total labor hours per year: 1,337

total labor hours per piglet: 4

net labor costs (per hour): R$5.80

total gross labor costs per piglet: R$23.92

TRANSPORT

total km per week: 426

km per liter: 8

liter per week: 53

price per liter (gasoline): R$2.49

total cost per week: R$158.24

piglets transported per week: 6

cost per piglet: R$25.40

TOTAL COST PER PIGLET PER YEAR: R$120.18

NET MARGIN PER PIGLET (R$): R$100.82

NET MARGIN PER PIGLET (%): 46%

Clearly, we will be quite pleased if we can continue to maintain a net margin per piglet of 46%.

As important, however, is to make certain that our partners are successful. In other words, our profits will be short-lived if we overcharge our restaurant customers. Therefore, before setting prices, I produced a simple, back-of-the-envelope analysis to test whether we were creating a win-win scenario. Without all of the desired data points, I applied the following simple logic:

• At approx. 33%, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) has the highest food costs in the fast-food industry (only data point I could find).
• A high-end restaurant should have higher food costs as a percentage of revenues than a fast-food restaurant.
• Our restaurant customers charge approx. R$140.00 (€54.37 or $75.57) for a portion of piglet (defined as a quarter or sixth of a piglet). This works out to between R$10.77 (€4.18 or $5.81) and R$16.15 (€6.27 or $8.72) per person -proving beyond any doubt that eating exceptionally well does not have to be expensive.

Given these inputs, and assuming that our restaurant customers divide a 13 kg piglet into 6 pieces (a pretty reasonable assumption considering that each sixth of a piglet would produce 9 servings of 250 gr), their food costs as a percentage of revenues would be 26%, less than a fast-food restaurant. It is our humble hope that this particular win-win strikes a righteous balance between what Joel Salatin refers to as making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country and what Mohandas K. Gandhi would refer to as commerce with morality.