Just need some words of encouragement please

Do you have a neighbor you can trust and respect who also raises beef the way you'd like it raised? Then trade him yours for his.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

Genebo - we are the only ones that do it in our friend/family group - nobody before us did it, so since we have the farm we decided to. I also get sick with the thought of whats in the meat in the store, but love beef - but the main thing for me is I also want to eat happy and healthy animals - if i didn't love meat so much i'd go veggie ( but i'd starve cause i don't care for veggies lol ) - i just couldn't stand the thought of giving our money to support the way they are raised for the super market anymore. I wish i knew somebody that we could trust and trade. I do know, that the others won't be so hard - i just have to get past these two. And, they have had a great life.

Madsaw - It is hard with these guys, if i was rich and could do what i wanted they would just be pets. I too would be one with very old cows :+) DH hunts ( i bird hunt with him ), and loves his vension, i grew up with a single mother that also hunted, and vension was our beef 95% of the time, but now i'm just burnt out on it and can't stand it - so DH only hunts deer for himself and an extra for the food bank. I love good beef though - so i really hope my feelings go away.

We're raising a calf right now with the idea of putting her in the freezer next summer. ("She" is a freemartin). I am struggling with the same thoughts as you. I already made up my mind that I will pay the extra to have someone come over and either kill her here and haul her to the processor, or take her away alive. I don't want to be here when she goes.

Can you get someone to pick them up and take them away for you? Would that make it easier?

Hey whats up with this anti male bias. My bull thinks he is a hot stud.


He was kept seperated from his herd for six weeks when this picture was taken. My wife said his eyes look sad.

I am not sure if we are projecting human emotions onto our animals or recognising the same emotions?

That little pullet in front was raised by my sons from a day old school project chick. Her name is Bubba. She will probably die of old age.

She was not imprinted on chicken behavior so she got it rough from the rest of the flock.

The bull and the pullet became best friends, She slept between his front legs at night and rode on his back during the day. He would not let the other hens bug her.

Anyway we have to accept that we function best with meat in our diet and take comfort knowing that our animals have it by far better than most.

It helps to watch how prey is killed in the wild as to how they are humanly raised and killed on the farm.

http://www.africanwildlifeguide.com/...-kill/image/10

You said it all in this one sentence. The fact that they are running and playing means you have provided them a life that few cattle ever see. You have raised them humanely; you have done right by them and you should feel good about that.

__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

I know it's hard to let the ones you care about become food for ... well, you and others you care about!

I saw a quote in the comments on Sharon Astyk's blog ... someone's grade five child was being hassled by the other kids in class about "how can you eat the meat rabbits you raise? ewww!" His reply was something along the lines of "all meat has faces, we just know the faces of the meat we eat, and we know they had good lives".

All meat has faces. The stuff at the store had faces too ... and it probably didn't have the happy joy filled life that your critters have had.

Our sheep wander off to the butcher without any stress or worry, because they haven't been stressed being handled and such ... so they just go. They'll look around and go "hey, this is different.." and then they won't know anything after that. It's quick, it has to be, and it's about as painless as it can get. It'll be okay for them ... and you honour them by enjoying every bite when it makes it to your table.

It's hard, yes, but it's the only right thing to do. I actually send mine off to butcher with a bit of a blessing (maybe that's weird, but I do..) and thank them as they leave. And then I thank them again before every meal!

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Apple Jack Creek
near Edmonton Alberta
author of Just Keep Knitting: a journey of healing through forgiveness, faith, and fibre and The Rookie's Field Guide to Supported Spinning

my heart goes out to you and it is your suffering that honors them so greatly. To eat meat should mean to accept responsibility to accept responsibility for the taking of another life. You clearly are fully understanding of what that means and are not being casual or non-chalant. Your heartache honors those ayhrshires in life - and making peace with happens and getting around to eating them will honor those ayhshires in death.

It is meant to be a full circle. And I think we're meant to have compassion for both the animal and ourselves the whole way through - from birth to death to food. Compassion can translate to respect, decent quality of life, and full use/no waste.

hugs.

Well, I think it's a positive attribute that you can get attached to someone/some animal. None of us would be alive if moms and dads couldn't get attached and want to care for us.

Like Genebo said, trading would be nice. I've offered to shoot other people's old dogs, if they'll shoot mine when the time comes.

Perspective sometimes helps. As I type this, in the other room, my MIL is discussing her upcoming trip on cruise ship. My, aren't times tough! In a way, perhaps we have things too easy. There have been times in history when we couldn't worry about eating our pet cow, but had to worry about eating our neighbor just to survive.

I so understand...I bawled the whole day we took our steer to the ....well you know. I could not eat him, it was awful. I now have 2 more in the field, this fall, or next spring, off they will go, and I am already heartbroken. I understand the whole animals for meat, the need for my family and such. It just breaks my heart, I do not know why.
(((HUGS)))

Thanks everybody, they loaded up just fine, and unloaded just as good. They settled in real nice, and they were brought some hay and water. I do feel better, just not sure if i can eat them yet. But i do honor them, and their life, and am happy they have always been happy cows with no bad day ever :+) Thank you all for understanding.

I just saw this thread. I'm happy to know that the calves I sold you had such a good life. I think you will be fine. You've got the right attitude. I don't think you will be able to resist not eating them when you smell a big juicy steak frying up! Heather

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Faye Farms Website
Faye Farms Soap

I am so glad they settled well, that means when the time comes/came they will just be looking around thinking "Hmmmm, this is new and different" and then their life spark will be looking around thinking "Hmmmm, this is new and different" with nothing bad in between and you will have all the lovely meat you have worked so hard to achieve

I havnt done a cow yet but I do so know how you feel, I bought 4 young turkeys a couple of years ago and they were a delight, so happy and joyful and one of them was a special friend to me, always at my side any time I was out, it was even hard to work in the veg garden as she would put her head into any hole I was digging or sneaking a look at the fresh turned earth I almost put the digging fork into her any number of times lol If I could have kept her I most likely would have but her purpose was food so when the time came I had to kill her and yes, I did say a blessing and thank you to her before the deed was done and at the meal when we ate her. Its her spirit that I see when I look at the chill cabinet at the supermarket and what her life and death would have been like if I hadnt had her. It hurts my heart thinking about the waisted lives most animals have to suffer through before they are killed.

Be proud of yourself and your animals, enjoy them to the full as they live their lives with you and enjoy them to the full after they give up their lives to feed you and your family, even if it means keeping the meat in the freezer for a few months so your memories of them are of their lives and not their endings Dont, please dont, deny yourself the reward of the best job you could do

Oh, and Postroad, the the picture of the bull and hen is one of the best pictures I have seen in AGES! ! ! Laugh out loud funny

They made a funny couple. I laugh when I see the head of the other hen on the left fringe of the photo. It looks like she is trying to horn in on the picture, like those people in live news broadcasts.

All I can say is what my daughter and I keep reminding ourselves. We raise no animals intentionally for meat, however it is not sustainable to keep the males, pretty soon we would be eaten out of house and home. Their lot was cast before they were ever born. Nature is even harsher on males than we are. We make a trade, they never have to hunt for food, feel the pain of starvation, fights to the death or injury for dominance, or the pain of being killed slowly and eaten alive by a predator. They are guaranteed a peaceful, abundant, joyfull life, and the greatest blessing which is a merciful death (the one thing an animal in nature almost never receives). Their only payment for that is the time limit. As males their destiny was clenched before they were even borne. I honor you for allowing them to truly live in the time they had.

If we have a bull calf, we are giving it away. I don't want to put my girls through that.