Dr. John Carr, a world livestock consultant, veterinarian, and lecturer living in Brisbane, Australia, “On February 24,2022 I woke up at 6:45 AM to the hotel shaking, missiles and a bit like a fireworks display.” It took him four days to get out and back to the home of his parents in England.  
Dr. Carr returned to Ukraine in the last week of January 2023, because as he put it, “I’m a Ukrainian veterinarian, a consultant for a large Ukrainian company selling PIC the Pig Improvement Company breeding stock.” 
He said there’s no point in being a consultant vet without personal contact, so he spent a week visiting the nucleus farms and talking to friends and customers. 
While not as unpleasant as getting out the last time, getting in meant getting into Poland by train to the border, taking a taxi, and then walking across the border from Poland into Ukraine. The farms are the farms, and he still saw the Christmas trees up and some Christmas decorations, although there was a lack of lights because they didn’t have the power to drive the Christmas lights. That was fun. 
One of the reasons why Dr. Carr went over is because the producers have an increased mortality problem in the finishers.
The reason is the need for more electrical power. So the farm, for instance, has power four hours a day and uses a liquid feed system.  
“I love liquid feed systems, but with only four hours of power, you’ve got to grind the food and pump the food around. As a result, the pigs panic a little or at least very enthusiastic about food.” 
With only four hours and some pigs still needing food and it comes back on for the first time and long troughs lots of pigs, the pigs will jump into the food desperately. So then they stand on each other more than they should and more digestive upsets happen. More prolapses, strictures, and tail biting because of stressing the pigs. 
“Just an example of how the animals are innocent bystanders to this disaster.” 
In many cases the men have gone to war, and their wives come in to help. Two veterinarians Dr. Carr worked with were leaving for the front line a week after he left.   
“I shook their hands; we had a hug. A number of the vets that I work with are paramedics and running ambulances.” 
Another slight problem especially with the cold in January without heat, is the piling of the pigs to stay warm, causing the prolapse problem.  
“We have more deaths than I would like in the finishing pigs, but they produce pork.” 
Being part of agriculture and in the conflict zone is the duty to feed people. And so guys working on a farm, when a nation’s in conflict, it’s not just the guys in the trench.  
“We need to produce as much food as possible.” 
The finishers go all over Ukraine, and everyone works together but produce their brands of sausages. As a result, Ukrainians make some fantastic summer sausages. PIC also donated several pigs every couple of weeks for the Ukrainian army.  
“We do feed some of the lads, but they also give it to some of the people in Kyiv who no longer have a house, then give some of the food back to the civilians in Kyiv. So, it was great to be back.” •
— By Harry Siemens