Author Topic: Starter, grower, finisher ages! (Read 15312 times)

Hellybee · « **Reply #61 on:** August 29, 2014, 03:34:08 pm »

I could never eat ours, and rarely have any other lamb, especially at lambing time x

Luce747 · « **Reply #62 on:** August 29, 2014, 04:00:42 pm »

I think it's harder if like me you're townie raised and conditioned to like supermarket produce

I believe plenty of people who were raised on farms still struggle to enjoy their own meat though.

Hey ho. If he does end up in the freezer I'm sure plenty of family and friends will be willing to have some.

Foobar · « **Reply #63 on:** August 29, 2014, 05:35:05 pm »

Rams don't give good wool quality, but wethers do. But he would need a proper diet in order to get the best wool quality from him, and the best way to achieve that is from good grass. If you can't do grass then he would have to have dry food, but as you can't feed goats and sheep the same feed then I think you are just making life hard for yourself and for him.

My vote would be to eat him, soon.

Oopsiboughtasheep · « **Reply #64 on:** August 29, 2014, 05:43:42 pm »

What a shame that your best of intentions has resulted in such a dilemma for you Luce. There has been a lot of input on this discussion for you so hopefully that will help you to make a more confident and informed decision either way in the end.
P.S. (I have tried to put one of those nice 'send you a hug' icons here but can't seem to do it...I'm so thick! So you will either not get one at all, or you will get loads!..which, either way I hope will make you smile!)

Luce747 · « **Reply #65 on:** August 29, 2014, 05:51:09 pm »

Quote from: Oopsiboughtasheep on August 29, 2014, 05:43:42 pm

What a shame that your best of intentions has resulted in such a dilemma for you Luce. There has been a lot of input on this discussion for you so hopefully that will help you to make a more confident and informed decision either way in the end.
P.S. (I have tried to put one of those nice 'send you a hug' icons here but can't seem to do it...I'm so thick! So you will either not get one at all, or you will get loads!..which, either way I hope will make you smile!)

Bless you. It certainly did make me smile

Luce747 · « **Reply #66 on:** August 29, 2014, 05:52:01 pm »

Quote from: foobar on August 29, 2014, 05:35:05 pm

Rams don't give good wool quality, but wethers do. But he would need a proper diet in order to get the best wool quality from him, and the best way to achieve that is from good grass. If you can't do grass then he would have to have dry food, but as you can't feed goats and sheep the same feed then I think you are just making life hard for yourself and for him.

My vote would be to eat him, soon.

Certainly the way it's looking. Trust me to get a southdown to.. Way too cute

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #67 on:** August 29, 2014, 06:55:45 pm »

Quote from: Luce747 on August 29, 2014, 04:00:42 pm

I believe plenty of people who were raised on farms still struggle to enjoy their own meat though.

It has taken me quite a bit of persistence to get BH to eat our own livestock. He thoroughly enjoys the meat, but you can see there is still something wrenching at him

Luce747 · « **Reply #68 on:** August 29, 2014, 09:01:34 pm »

I think it takes time. My husband is a big burly mans man and he has a harder time than I do killing a cock chicken and an even harder time eating it. Even though that's what we have raised them for.

So easy when it's a survival situation but hard to decide to end the life of a healthy animal when those shops are all rammed full of meat that costs less than producing your own.

But it's not a sign of weakness. Just a sign of a well adjusted compassionate human being!

None of us would keep animals at all if we weren't animal lovers.

Another difficulty is the knowledge of how long animals can live in captivity. But if the same prey animal lived in the wild they'd be lucky to live a year or two anyway and we can kill faster and more humanely than other predators!