Kids in livestock

[Reed77]

A comment another member said on here got me wondering, how do your kids react to eating the animals you raise? I ask because growing up, I didn't think about where my meat came from or what it was.

[stifflej]

Mine love it. We have one rule, no naming the animals, they are not pets. And I think it helps that they have to do the watering and feeding of them, by the time they go to butcher, they are thrilled they are gone.

[gone-a-milkin]

It does help to start your kids very young at knowing where meat comes from.
My boys helped butcher poultry all their lives and never batted an eye at eating anything we process.

My step children? Nope. Even though my stepson was 9 the first time he viewed a turkey carcass sitting in the kitchen sink (all cleaned up but a few pesky feathers, head gone etc.)
He will not be a part of it.
I will not MAKE him do it either, because I know I would end up getting mad.

He will EAT the meat finally, but prefers we dont talk about where it came from.

I normally dont mention when something has venison in it either.

I have overcome a huge hurdle just to get that child to drink fresh milk, and I consider it a great victory.

[tkmdfarm417]

We have 4 children from 8-18 and everyone of them are fine with it..they have helped with butchering chickens, pigs, etc. They name them and everything. We have told them from day 1 when we moved to the farm (6yrs ago) that we were going to eat what we raised.

They can tell "farm" food from store food...their friends think it's funny that they prefer fresh food over processed junk food..lol..

I am blessed that all my children think it's cool on the farm and that raising and butchering or having our meat butchered is the best food.

[francismilker]

My kids I guess by some people's standards are morbid. I've heard them say in the past, "Dad, when's ol' T-bone gonna be ready for us to send to the meat locker?" They've never known anything different than eating what we raise. They also realize when one comes back from the locker we get to eat a lot of steaks and roasts and that supper will always feature beef.

WE DO NOT BUY STORE BOUGHT BEEF NO MATTER WHAT!!! So, in order for the kiddos to get some hamburger helper they have to part with their 4-H project.

[Reed77]

Originally Posted by francismilker

WE DO NOT BUY STORE BOUGHT BEEF NO MATTER WHAT!!!

I'm 19yrs and have never eaten anything other then store bought meat(other then deer), is there a huge difference in taste? I'm wanting to raise my own meat, I've already got a small boer goat herd started, but it'll be another year or so before I can eat my own home raised meat.

[Callieslamb]

We are new to raising our own beef. We made a mistake with the first steer and didn't tell DS where he was headed. We have just avoided the issue with the meat in the freezer. But...our 2nd steer - DS knows exactly where he's headed and why. I'm not sure if he will have a problem eating it or not. I imagine if it's something that he likes, he will not complain but if it's a dish he isn't fond of- he will pull the 'friendly animal' argument on me.

[tbishop]

Originally Posted by Reed77

I'm 19yrs and have never eaten anything other then store bought meat(other then deer), is there a huge difference in taste? I'm wanting to raise my own meat, I've already got a small boer goat herd started, but it'll be another year or so before I can eat my own home raised meat.

We buy ours from a herd of grass-fed Highland cattle. We'd never buy store beef again. I don't even know how to describe the difference but it's about 100X better...


Tim B.

[Nicole Irene]

I think their reaction to our first pig was, "mmmm...Peanut is really yummy!"

We do have our struggles, though. We are new to this and the kids are 8 and 10. So, they have not been raised this way. However, we told them that the first animals we got could be pets, but we would be eating their offspring. We culled one pig early (she was not a very nice pig) and they were fine with that. My son, however, does not want to get rid of his rooster (that was supposed to be a hen).

[MO_cows]

One reason home-grown meat tastes so much better is the care and attention given to processing one animal at a time on a small scale. The beef usually gets hung properly, not cryo-vac'd at the mega packing plant immediately. Another reason is that you are eating from the one animal for months at a time and it tastes exactly the same. Your taste buds get trained to it and it tastes just exactly right. When you buy meat at the store, you aren't getting the same animal, the same breed, the same age, the same feedstuff that went into it, etc. So your eating experience will vary because of all the variance in the product.

It is a sad day aound here when a steer gets loaded out for the processor. No two ways about it. You wouldn't be human if you didn't feel a little bad for them. But keep in mind they are fulfilling their niche/purpose in life, and they had a better life than most of their counterparts. By the time the white packages are ready to pick up, the mourning is over and we are ready for some STEAK. There are a couple of adults in our extended family who have more trouble with "known" meat donors than the kids. If they visited and "met" the animal, they are squeamish about eating their meat. So they don't get any "care packages" and if they come for a meal we don't talk about it.

[TwosCompany]

Originally Posted by Reed77

I'm 19yrs and have never eaten anything other then store bought meat(other then deer), is there a huge difference in taste? I'm wanting to raise my own meat, I've already got a small boer goat herd started, but it'll be another year or so before I can eat my own home raised meat.

Originally Posted by tbishop

We buy ours from a herd of grass-fed Highland cattle. We'd never buy store beef again. I don't even know how to describe the difference but it's about 100X better...


Tim B.

There is a HUGE difference in taste (and texture)! Once you eat the beef you raised, you'll not want to buy beef from a grocery store. The best way I've come to describe it to folks is this: It's as drastically different as eating fresh chicken or tuna vs. canned chicken or tuna. And for the original question, our kids are fine with it. We made sure to discuss what these animals are for and make the point that they are not pets. At the same time, we made sure they understood that even though they aren't pets, they'll be treated kindly. (Not that anyone here would ever be unkind to an animal, but I think most of you'll get what I mean, lol) We, too, have the children help out with the feeding and watering. They're 4 and 7 and they know how and when to fill troughs, scoop feed into buckets, spot problems (such as odd behavior or sickness, down fences, empty mineral buckets, etc). We don't name them since that seems to solidify permanence here on our farm, lol. Just ask the cornish cross hens Daisy and AP (my son's morbid sence of humor--her name is Almost Processed) about their close brush with freezer camp.... LOL

[spinandslide]

We name all critters to be eaten after food..Right now we have TBone, Bacon, Blueberry, and Lambchop..
(Bacon is not a pig, he is a steer..LOL)

Ground rules are laid out right after the animal is born..this is going into the freezer and my son actually enjoys caring for the animals.

He has developed a very good sense of life and death too..I see so many parents who shelter their children from death..I never have.

[heavyrebel]

our 2 1/2 yo daughter is intrigued by it. So far she has seen the chickens and rabbits be processed. She doesn't see the act of the dispatching them, but she seems them after they have been bled out. When you ask her what we are going to do with the "Wallace and Gromit" (the pigs) or "Mrs. B and Dolphee" (the cattle) she says "bake them and eat them up!". And she know exactly where bacon, steaks, hamburger, sausage, rabbit and chicken come from...and what we do with them: "Eat them up!"

Same for "Cash and Lavaca" our two goat babies boys...

I was raised in a similar fashion, and never thought much about it as I recall. We raised them to eat. Named them, but they weren't pets. Of course you feel for them, as you should whenever you dispatch an animal you have raised or even wild game (I always give a thank you)...

[sammyd]

we name the steers with names like T-Bone or Chuck so that no one forgets their destination. Chickens don't get names, goat wethers might get names, and the pigs didn't.
We started with 4 boys and have one left. The older ones knew what the deal was but one still wouldn't eat rabbit or drink goat milk.
The youngest one did have some questions but we spent part of a day just him and I discussing them and he's OK with how things work.
The biggest issue I've had is whether to allow him to stay home when the butcher came for our 2nd cow (they kill and quarter the animal then haul it away for processing). He was only 10 at the time. I did and it turned out OK. Kinda like an episode of The Rifleman...

[Karenrbw]

My kids are 13 and 14. They have been eating animals we have raised for at least 6 years. They know from the beginning that he will end up in the freezer. When I am cooking pork chops, etc, they will ask "Is this Fatty or is it Hambone?" The naming doesn't seem to bother them. They understand that these animals are typically raised much more naturally than the meat in the grocery store and we know exactly what we are eating when we butcher our own.
The hardest thing is selling the fair pigs because they spend so much time with them. They know that they pigs had a much better life than they would have had in a concrete floored barn with 9,999 other pigs.

[whodunit]

We have 1 dd who wont eat meat that we have raised or game we have hunted. The rest will with no problems.

[Karen in Alabam]

There must be something wrong with me and my husband.

We don't really taste any difference--maybe all those years on Monsanto burgers our tastebuds are broken.

I was never a big milk drinker, was lactose intolerant (Commercial milk intolerant), now I drink a lot, but taste like milk. I grew up with the milk man leaving milk in a little cooler on the steps (Mr. Hudak who owned the dairy up the street--Grandma always made me drink milk with dinner at her house)

Not overly crazy about eggs, but since I have about 100 chickens we eat eggs--we don't notice a taste difference (we can see the difference)

Our chickens taste like chicken--now one of our cats knew the difference--she went off the wall when I was cleaning a cooked chicken--not like she used to before we got the farm.

Beef is good and I know more healthy for me, but I just am missing something with a difference in taste.

There was another thread about butchers and I remember as a kid, when my grandparents who lived in KY came to visit and brought a side of beef to share with all their kids--that meat was horrible. tough as shoe leather--I think they got stuck with someone's gummer. They killed a bull every year when they came to visit and so i know they didn't have that many old ones.

We name pretty much everyone--except chickens, too many to keep track of so they have to be special to get a name.

When we first started with the chickens a few years back, my mother was sure I would never be able to have them butchered and eat them.

I was given some cornish crosses that I knew had to be eaten as I was convinced they wouldn't live too long (I know different now--there are exceptions). I raised those little buggers in my bathroom till they were big enough to go outside. They were a lot more friendly than the other chickens I had.

I didn't watch them die, didn't want to be around, didn't want to see them till they looked like they came from the store. I still haven't watched them die, but have seen them rocking in the cones from a distance.

I felt bad when I decided that our bull had to go--got tired to chasing him down the street. His name was Pachae and my husband has no qualms about telling everyone they are eating him. Doesn't bother us.

We picked up 4 piglets. Two are for eating. One was my sister's Kevin Bacon (he ended up dying), and Jiffer--I named him after a cousin I don't like, his name is Jeffery, but we called him Jiffer when we were mad at him. I thought it was fitting because we planned to eat him, don't want waste a good name on him.

I think with all the animals in my life now, I have become less attached, less emotional. I think that is a good thing, doesn't mean I don't have emotions, but I can get over their deaths easier.

[Karen in Alabam]

What kind of gets me is friends who get overly sensitive about raising animals to eat.

I usually inform them that they need to look up how commercial animals are raised then come back and tell me I am mean.

One is coming along. But this same one when I described castrating pigs, had nightmares and couldn't sleep and still gets upset when we kind of make fun of her. She does plan to help eat him though.

[Oakshire_Farm]

When my dd1 was is kindergarten as they went around the circle talking about what they were Thankful for, my daughter piped up and said she was "Thankful for mommy killing a turkey so we can eat it......." the teacher fell off her chair laughing and just had to call me to tell me what was said at circle time.

We make no bones about what happens with critters around here, the kids LOVE to play with the baby chicks, cows and bunnies, but at the end of the day they know that all of them end up on the table. Now that our oldest is able to understand things better now, she asks why some people cows do not get to live out in a pasture, she said that cows that live in "pens" do not look happy. I LOVE that she is able to notice things like this at just 6 years old.

[KIT.S]

My son was skinning a pig when his 3 year old son came up and asked "Is that our piggie?"
DS thought, oh, no, here comes "The Discussion."
DS: "Yes, this is one of our pigs."
GDS: "I like piggies!"
DS: "Yes, I do too."
GDS: "They're delicious!"
Ahh, a grandson after my own heart!

When my oldest grandson was 3, we did have to have "The Discussion" about ducks we had for Thanksgiving. We explained that the animals we named were ones we could keep, then we would eat their offspring, but he said (crying) "But they DO have names!"
Oh? What names?
"They're named Duck!!"
Two days later he ate his duck dinner with gusto.

Kit