The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Coeur de Chene on March 31, 2014, 12:49:11 pm
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We are newbie pig raisers, a few weeks in with a couple of Berkshire gilts. How did everyone cope with their first trip to the abbatoir with animals they had raised? I love looking after our pigs, they are fascinating and such fun. They run to greet us, chasing in circles and barking when the tractor passes, keeling over for tummy massage if I go near the fence. They are having the life I want them to have, but I WILL be taking them to the abatoir.
I don't want to be traumatised obviously but I do want their life to be the best possible.
Like a lot of you, I have agonised over the food I eat since I was a child, with years of vegetarianism, and am worse about what I feed my children. A cellophane wrapped supermarket joint was never anonymous to me and I worried about its upbringing!
I do want to eat meat though. And living this way seems so right, like my square pegness finally fitting in!
Is it just a pain I have to go through, accept, and get out the otherside, or does anyone have any advice to make it easier??
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anyone who doesn't feel guilt on the trip to the abattoir is doing something wrong...
every smallholder i know gets sad when their animals time is up...
but, you have given that animal the best life you can, it can best be described as happy meat...
I only keep chickens (eggs and table) but i visit a lot of smallholdings and buy over 90% of my meat from them and I only buy happy meat...
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The way I look at it, if I want to eat pork, a pig has to die.
Better that it's a pig I know has had a great life, lived outside and been well-cared for, than hope (in vain) that happens in an intensive, industrial pork production system.
Like you say, you worry the upbringing of supermarket pork, you can lay that worry to rest with your own.
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I felt terrible the first time I took my boys on their last journey - and I cry every time if I take them in. I handed over responsibility for the journey once, and it really helped divorce me from the proceedings.
It's funny, because every time the carcasses come back, it is just meat, and not the pigs themselves.
My neighbours had one of my pigs and their youngest boy named him Achoo. They wanted the kids to understand where their meat came from. When Achoo went away and came back in boxes, the parents were fearful of the little boys reaction. He looked at the rolled leg joint, stroked it said "poor Achoo". Then he said "still - he'll make lovely crackling!" :yum: A good learning curve I'd say!
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your description of the joy you get from having pigs about the place rings so many bells. we have now been taking our pigs and lambs to slaughter for nearly 4 years and whilst the day itself is my least favourite task I guess we have got better at it. Foremost amongst those things that make the job less unbearable is that we were able to find a small abattoir and butcher in range of home, who are just lovely not only to our precious animals but also to us. I guess we have the look of the soon to be bereaved, or just because our stock are always calm and clearly tame enough to handle with ease- but they always offer comforting words. if you are lucky enough to find such a place then it will make the job so much easier. there is a great abattoir guide on here.
beyond that we generally tend to maintain some sort of distance between those destined for slaughter and those not. Again gets easier over time. weaners are so unbelievably cute that it is almost unthinkable that we could have them killed. by the time our pigs are ready for slaughter although they have huge appeal still they aren't quite as cute of course. my OH has a thing with the pigs that she never ever makes eye contact with them and tries not to treat them as individuals but just as !the pigs!
about a month ago I took 2 of our ram lambs for slaughter. they were a bit later than the others as they had been bottle fed in the early stages and were slower to get going. as a result they were terribly tame and would follow me anywhere. taking them in was about the toughest run to date and it seemed to work best by me adopting some trance like state where I tried not to think, just do. it was done and we arranged for them to go straight on to wife's sister freezer as we didn't want there to be any chance that we ate them.
prior to our lovely life here , meat was a commodity, a slab of something without a personality or a history and for most people I guess that makes eating meat easier. I have got better at accepting that there is a price I pay for knowing that my meat was produced with kindness from an animal that was cared for and lived a natural and happy life. that price is that I feel sad when they go. personally Its a price i'm happy to pay for the joy my hobby brings me and the comfort of knowing where my food has come from.
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It is hard, letting your stock go to slaughter, but that is why we raise them and care for them as ethically and well as we can. I cried buckets when our only two went for slaughter (we hope to raise wearers again this year), but when we got the meat back it was so good it was all worth it. My pork burgers, or Becky burgers as the neighbours called them, were a real hit at our communal barbecues! It is part of small holding, anyone who cares about looking after their stock will feel a bit sad when they go, but should also feel a sense if pride at a job well done. Enjoy them now, and then enjoy the meat as well. Good luck!
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As everyone has said it is the most difficult aspect of livestock keeping, all our stock regardless of whether they are keepers or meat pigs have names, i know they shouldn't but can't help it as once i didn't name 3 fatteners and when they went to the butchers i cried for a week :-[ becoz God wouldn't know who they were when they got to heaven becoz i hadn't given them names, lol (i'm blaming hormones :innocent: ) It does get easier but you drop off pigs and you collect meat.
see attached hope it helps
http://www.gospbc.co.uk/so-you-want-to-keep-pigs-part-4/ (http://www.gospbc.co.uk/so-you-want-to-keep-pigs-part-4/)
Mandy :pig:
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I'm an old hand at this now ;D having taken weaners twice and one set of lambs .
The first time was the hardest but it is never easy.
Luckily my OH drives the trailer and when we get to the destination I get out of the car and busy myself with the paperwork (my abattoir doesn't do it online) while he sees the animals in. By the time I have finished the animals have disappeared.
As others have said once you get the meat back you don't recognise it as your little mates. We were not able to tuck into a roast joint initially though and found putting it on the freezer and forgetting about it for a couple of weeks helped.
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Yup - slaughter day is not one of the days in the calendar that you look forward to - but we eat meat and I am FAR happier knowing that my pigs have had a good life, with plenty of rootling, showering, mudbathing, snoozing, snoring, snuffling, grunting, treats and back scratches.
I do name our pigs - for my own ease in identification purposes, but we never lose sight of the fact that they are with us only for meat.
The first trip to the abattoir was very stressful - mainly because we didn't really know what to expect. However we are now in a routine, so we know what to do and therefore things are 'easier' - BUT the day you don't feel some sort of a loss is the day you should stop keeping livestock IMO.
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I do get upset once we have taken the pigs in and we are back in the car. I do my best that lambs and pigs get the best life I can give them. At the end of the day we do it for first class meat and not the rubbish the supermarket sells.
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wow, I'm blown away by the number of responses and all so quickly- I read them all then went straight back out to tickle the pigs!
All straight talking, just what I needed. They do have names, like Mandy's, though I was scared to admit that at first! It seems to be as I suspected, that we need to go through it, that its the price that we have to pay...No such thing as a free lunch! Looking after them is no chore, it is a joy.
From what you've said too, I need to research even more and practise the run to the abatoir (not with the pigs!) This seems to be key to a reduced stress exit for us as well as pigs.
Thank you all! :)
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Our piglets all have the same name - Porky!
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Do you know.. I cheat... I've got my breeding stock that will never get eaten, but babies aren't safe!! As lovely as they are, eventually mom has enough of them nd that's when the culling comes in. Seems to work all round!!
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I also have my mummies and daddy which will never be eaten, but the rest are just gorgeous food.
Living up a mountain in Spain I do my own slaughtering and butchering.The first pig was very hard (I'm 6ft 4 and 16stone but the tears still came) but once it was stunned and bled, it became meat. And what meat it was!!
Like others say, fed the right food and grown slowly, with no drugs or nasties, but lots of love and the meat is unbelievable.
Hey and I am a born and bred Londoner. A big difficult learning curve, but worth it.
Enjoy the animals in the field and on the plate.
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I had my animals killed at home when it was possible, simply as it meant less stress for them. Normally I kept out of the way, but one time I sensed the slaughterman wanted me to stay and watch and and I am pleased I did.
Chasing and catching an animal unless completely tame is a stressful thing for it, but it has to be done for welfare purposes, such as checking its thriving, looking for fly strike, hoof maintenance, shearing, lots of things, and each time its caught it is just as stressful. The final time it wont know its any different than those other times, and the stun gun is incredibly quick.
We know what is going to happen, and catching them all those other times we say, don't be silly I am only trying to help, so that last time will be no worse, and as long as your animals have as good a quality of life as you can give them, that is the best you can do unless you intend to become a vegan :eyelashes:
My first two pigs caused my much stress both before and after, probably as I had allowed them to become too much of pets, after that, though they had the same fuss tickling and attention, I tried to make sure they did not become individuals for me, and it made it a bit easier, though if they had to go the the abattoir I always booked them in for first kill and took them to the pens myself. And not one of them ever looked stressed.
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There is no abbatoir where we are moving to so we will have to home slaughter our livestock and to be honest this is something i would have considered doing anyway, we have no intention of selling any meat. I just feel that we can make the slaughter a continuation of the good life we intend to give them by making it as stress free as possible. Obviously scale is another big factor when thinking about home slaughter and i know it wouldn't be everyones cup of tea.
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When we first looked at having pigs, it was a home slaughter that we wanted. We researched it and ended up watching a hundred and one ways of how we wouldn't want our pigs killed on Youtube. There seemed to be so many possibilities for it to go wrong, making it an horrendous experience for all concerned.
I do still believe that it must be the least stressful option, when someone who knows exactly what they are doing is doing it. We didn't think that we would be able to and didn't have the right facilities to do justice to the meat afterwards, so then we decided on abatoir.
Since then, our neighbour has home killed their pig and when I helped with the prep of everything afterwards, they offered us the use of all their equipment and all their expertise when we do ours. They are French country people in their seventies and have always home slaughtered a pig a year. They want the tradition to continue and I know they would slaughter our pigs too, if I asked them. Maybe another discussion with the OH...
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That's beginning to sound a bit like a plan.
This has been one of my very favourite threads and has encapsulated not only the thing I like best about TAS, the chance to have contact with others who love, care and respect their animals but also live in the real world where it is realised that the reason the animals exist and give so much joy and pleasure is because there is an end result. I have just come in from watching my favourite show of the year, the twilight lamb parade. All our lambs have now got big enough to join in the nightly charge up and down the fence, leaping and twisting with total abandon. God it makes me smile and I cant wait for tomorrow night to see it all again. Later this year over half those gorgeous bounding little creatures will be freezer bound, but before then they will have every chance to run and be care free. My neighbours are lousy customers as they never manage to move on from the cute little mites haring round our field and cannot understand how we devote so much time on them and can then eat them. . instead they go to Tescos and buy lamb of unknown provenance or buy boxed lamb from a farm up the road. anything but eat the lambs they've seen through their kitchen window. thanks for starting this thread I've loved it :hugsheep:
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I have not eaten meat for nearly 30 years but last summer I had my first pigs and took them to slaughter myself. They slept in the trailer well bedded down the night before and when they arrived they were chilled and followed a bucket down the ramp to the lairage. If they were stressed they didn't look it. So many animals have a horrible life that making sure your animals are well looked after right to the end is a good feeling.
I do not treat them as pets, but they live in piggy luxury to the end.
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Couer de chene make the most use of your neighbours that you can, especially if they are old. If they are anything like mine then they will then ask you to help them and then you learn even more.
My pigs go whilst eating a biscuit fed by hand, pure luxury for them, I'm mean with my biccies ;)
No stress at all, only for me, but that's getting better each time.
Pig roast here at my place in June only 23 people coming so far.......
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Thanks for the thanks Devonlad! It's been fascinating reading everyones experiences. I've been spending so long talking to myself (and to my plants, pigs and pets) since we took this on that to say something and get such detailed and thought out answers has been wonderful!! A real insight into why everyone is doing this.
Cactus Jack, I wish we could join you for a pig roast, your place sounds so lovely and you sound like you've really integrated.
Honeyend, how did people who knew you as a vegetarian take the change? Or should this be a new thread? I've had a few comments...! :thinking:
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What a great thread. The only input I have is to echo what's already been said. Make the whole loading process as stress free as possible. Our first took hours too load - he got stressed I got stressed - not great :'(.
We learnt a lot that day, we now leave loads of time - sometimes load the night before if we have a morning slot.
If you do send them to the abattoir it might be worthwhile talking to someone who works there, finding out about the process, finding out what time to get them there so they don't have to wait around (the bit I don't like the thought of). Our last pigs were in a holding pen for two minutes max while the vet looked at them, then straight through - I was happy with that.
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It's all relative to the number of pigs you take to slaughter and how often you do it. The first few times we went we had mixed feelings but these days we're at the abattoir pretty much every week and it's just become a chore. We appreciate our pigs as much as anyone but the focus tends to be on the end product once they're loaded for the final trip.
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It's definitely worth doing some practise loads, so the pig(s) know the trailer's okay - and probably expect to find treats or their evening meal in there ;)
They won't like any lack of stability in the ramp or trailer, so make sure it's very firmly positioned and can't tip, and the ramp is fully supported so won't bounce or wobble. (First time I loaded a full-grown pig, I hadn't accounted for the weight of the pig in the back of the trailer, and as she climbed in, the nose wheel left the ground and pointed at the sky! So support it front and back if it's not connected to the car when you load.)
I put a heavy mat on the ramp to load my pigs - they didn't like the supposedly 'non-slip' metal surface, and strawing it didn't help much, but they are happy with a nice grippy carpet or mat. Of course make sure it won't slide about.
I always load the pig(s) the night before, give them a light last feed as they load, and a drink which I take away at bedtime. Lots of straw to snuffle about in and make a comfy bed in. Then just drive away in the morning - they usually don't even notice and sleep all the way to the abattoir. In fact I've had several so relaxed I struggled to get them to come out of the trailer! (Not through being stressed or scared, just through being comfortable and happy.)
At our abattoir they generally do go straight through, but they are unloaded into large strawed pens at first, so of course they get busy snuffling and rootling, far too busy and inquisitive to worry about where they are, why and what's going to happen next. ;)
If I have to take one pig somewhere, which sometimes happens, I still load it the night before but I have the trailer where it can hear and talk to other pigs. (Which may mean other pigs spending a night in the byre, but they don't seem to mind.) Pigs are always reassured if they can hear another pig ;)
If you load earlyish in the evening the night before, you've got all the time in the world and you don't get stressed and anxious if the pig doesn't load straight away. If you leave it till morning, you have time pressure on you, so, livestock being livestock, that's precisely when they will decide not to load. ::) And you can't bodily lift a pig, or 'shoo' it, the way you can sheep or cattle.
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I always load the pig(s) the night before, give them a light last feed as they load, and a drink which I take away at bedtime. Lots of straw to snuffle about in and make a comfy bed in. Then just drive away in the morning - they usually don't even notice and sleep all the way to the abattoir. In fact I've had several so relaxed I struggled to get them to come out of the trailer! (Not through being stressed or scared, just through being comfortable and happy.)
If you load earlyish in the evening the night before, you've got all the time in the world and you don't get stressed and anxious if the pig doesn't load straight away. If you leave it till morning, you have time pressure on you, so, livestock being livestock, that's precisely when they will decide not to load. ::) And you can't bodily lift a pig, or 'shoo' it, the way you can sheep or cattle.
Yep, I agree with all of this. Early evening loading the night before is less stressful for all of us. We leave the car attachet to the trailer so it can't tip up and we just drive off with sleeping piggies the next morning :thumbsup:
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I always feel so guilty taking our herds to slaughter, as we call it, end of the road, but all of our pigs have names, and always been told never to name what you eat, but it feels better knowing that you've named the animal and have given it the best lease in life you possibly could, some of the pigs we've sent to slaughter have been so upsetting, but it has t be done to eat REAL meat, not some horrible crap that you buy from supermarkets! As much as I love pork, I love my pigs too! They are in the best place :) Not in some comercial farm breeding 24/7 and having no break from anything!
We love our OSB's, they're our world!