Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Boys all gone today :(  (Read 4705 times)

smee2012

  • Joined Sep 2012
Boys all gone today :(
« on: December 10, 2012, 02:06:48 pm »
That's our boys gone this morning. Is is normal to cry??!  ::)  I know I shouldn't really have named them or got them so friendly... I knew all along that the boys were going to be killed - that's why we bought them but I'm such a softy when it comes to animals!

Please tell me that other people have been a bit emotional on their first slaughter day?  :'(

TheCaptain

  • Joined May 2010
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2012, 02:12:37 pm »
yep, shed a tear when anything goes, although I'm no longer racked with guilt like the first time we sent piglets to slaughter. Even sobbed a little bit when we sold the cow at market and she was just going off to a new herd.

Pedwardine

  • Joined Feb 2012
  • South Lincolnshire
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2012, 04:09:27 pm »
Perfectly normal.  :hug:  Warning! The next time may not be any easier but don't stop loving them.

lachlanandmarcus

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2012, 04:15:50 pm »
It would be wrong not to feel sombre and a little upset, if you didnt you wouldnt be treating them and their life with the right importance :-) It will get easier but it should never be a nothing thing, I think.
It does get a LOT better when you get the amazing meat back and you can thank them by enjoying every single scrap and making delicious things with it.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2012, 05:02:18 pm »
As everyone else says.  Yes, I've shed tears; it does get easier but it's never easy.  I do still feel sombre (good phrase, captures it perfectly) when one of 'my' animals goes. 
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

hexhammeasure

  • Joined Jun 2008
    • golocal food
    • Facebook
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2012, 05:40:56 pm »
worst bit for me is when I drive past their friends as I carry them away... shouting at each other....
Ian

smee2012

  • Joined Sep 2012
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2012, 08:06:21 pm »
Even sobbed a little bit when we sold the cow at market <snip>

...where, one would hope, you got more than five magic beans for her?  :thinking: ;D

We only have eight sheep and all the boys were kept together, so they all went in one go. It did seem like a really nice set up (according to hubby) so I'm happy they were in sympathetic hands. I am looking forward to the return of all those meaty packages though... :yum:

Mammyshaz

  • Joined Feb 2012
  • Durham
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2012, 08:16:54 pm »
 :hug: i have not been in this situation yet so can only imagine how you feel.  It will be worth it   :thumbsup:

fairhaven

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Norfolk
    • The Hazy Rainbow
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2012, 08:40:12 pm »
In the last 2 weeks we have taken our very 1st lot of sheep and 2 pigs... I howled all the way there & back with both  :'(  :'( and I still can't talk about it without tearing up again  ::)

It took 5 days before I could bring myself to eat the lamb sausages, and only then because we had nothing else in the freezer!    ;)   but they were really delicious!   We have yet to pick up our bacon, gammon & ham!   
Sheep: North Ronaldsay & 4 Horned Hebridean - We also breed & exhibit 3 breeds of rabbit - Chinchilla, Deilenaar (rare breed) & Colour Pointed English Angora.

Remy

  • Joined Dec 2011
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2012, 02:55:08 pm »
I feel bad every time I take the lambs to market, even though that's why I breed them - especially when they don't want to come off the trailer  :( :(
1 horse, 2 ponies, 4 dogs, 2 Kune Kunes, a variety of sheep

feldar

  • Joined Apr 2011
  • lymington hampshire
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2012, 04:47:31 pm »
I am quite hard when it comes to sending them to  slaughter mainly cause i feel they've had a good life with us and this is what we got them for in the first place, but i absolutely hate going to market with a passion.
I loath seeing animals in pens scared and stressed and i loath the dealer boys when they get in the pen and push and feel the poor criters around, especially the old screw or cull ewes who look so pathetic and hopeless.
My biggest hate is the orphan lamb pens when you hear the bleating of hungry frightened lambs. I would buy them all up if i could.
My Hubby loves market and has been going since he was a child. As you guessed he goes on his own a lot!!

Bramblecot

  • Joined Jul 2008
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2012, 06:26:43 pm »
I am quite hard when it comes to sending them to  slaughter mainly cause i feel they've had a good life with us and this is what we got them for in the first place, but i absolutely hate going to market with a passion.
I loath seeing animals in pens scared and stressed and i loath the dealer boys when they get in the pen and push and feel the poor criters around, especially the old screw or cull ewes who look so pathetic and hopeless.

Me too, I hate markets.  And that is why I send all mine to the abbatoir with a clear conscience.  They are quietly loaded into the trailer they know, a short 30 min drive, and then it is all over.  And everyone who has our meat knows each animal has had the best life that we can give it, whether it is lamb or old mutton.

Victorian Farmer

  • Guest
Re: Boys all gone today :(
« Reply #12 on: December 15, 2012, 10:58:14 am »
All the geese went sunday some i liked it  was a bit sad as it was Christmas lunch .

 

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