Hi,
I took my first (and only - so far) two last year. It's a horrible feeling but you just have to tell yourself that they've had much better lives with you than they would've had elsewhere, and happy pork is tasty pork. Mine were a trial run as neither hubby or my dad (a retired beef farmer) thought I'd be capable of actually going through with it (I'm a HUGE softy)- but do you know, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
My girls quite happily made their way towards the pile of apples in the trailer, oblivious of what was going on, and followed a bucket with more apples all the way from the trailer to the pen (admittedly it was only about 30 yards and there were men with pig boards standing by just in case !) I was so proud of them but I felt soooooo incredibly guilty that they had done everything right, and been so good and here I was leaving my poor wee pampered girls to a terrible fate !
Anyways, I actually managed the whole episode without tears,even my dad who had driven me (as my trailer reversing skills are not what they should be!) looked a wee bit watery in the eye department as we left.
The next ones I get are hopefully going to be breeding stock so I'll not have to go through it too often !
Karen