So yesterday started out as a rainy day, great way to start the morning off. We had to get the pigs to the processor by 8:30 a.m. My buddy was suppose to pick up the trailer at a friends and be at my house by 7:00 a.m.
He called at 7:45 and said he was running behind, but he would be right here. About 10 minutes later he pulled up with the trailer
We backed it down to the barn and I went down and called the pigs, they knew something was up.
I turned off the electric fence and cut the tape and tied it off to the downspout on the barn to create a run to take them up to the trailer
pig pig and sue sue came up to check it out
We spent the next hour and a half trying to coax them out of their penned in area but they were having none of it. I tried getting them out with doughnuts, bread etc. Nothing worked. I got behind them with a 8 foot gate and tried herding them up but they just broke and ran round me. By this time I was getting frustrated, it wasn’t going quite as easy as last year.
I got on the phone and called the butcher to let him know we were having some issues and asked him what the latest we could drop them of at. He said any time would be fine and asked what was the issue? I told him what was going on, he said well you been training them to stay inside the fence their whole life, good luck getting them out.
My wife came down to try her hand t getting them out, she usually went down every morning and gave them a doughnut or some bread. They came up to her to get their backs scratched and that was as far as they were moving.
I realized I hadn’t given them any chicken in a while so I figured I would try that, I ran up to the restaurant and grabbed some diced up chicken we use and ran back down and handed it to my wife. She walked over and started feeding them some and they were slowly coming out of their area. I asked my wife if she wanted some more, yes she replied. So I ran back up and grabbed some more and when I got back down to the barn there was my wife smiling with 2 pigs at her feet behind the trailer.
*note to self, use chicken next year*
my wife hopped up into the trailer and started setting some on the ground
Sue Sue got right in there
My wife put some more down
and Pig Pig climbed up in
we quickly closed the trailer gate and headed off to the butchers
when we got there we unloaded them and got them in their holding pen. We used a different butcher this year, I wasn’t happy with the way the animals were treated when we unloaded them last year. This new butcher was very gentle with them and treated them with the respect they deserve.
As a funny side note we were standing there talking to the butcher and he asked who was getting what animal, I said I was getting the male and he was getting the female. He looked at me and asked name?
Pig Pig.
Huh?
Pig Pig.
Pig Pig what?
You asked for his name, his name is Pig Pig.
Uh no, I need your name for the cutting form, not the pigs.
Oh, I thought my friend was going to pee himself.
So I got home and went down to the pen and poured a 40 oz out for my homies, my wife kept asking me if I was alright, yeah I’m fine I replied.
Some people thinks it’s amusing I get depressed when I send a animal to slaughter. Personally I try not to get too emotionally attached, but anyone that can take a animal from 8 weeks old and raise them and not feel any emotion has lost a little bit of their humanity.
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How much meat did you get off them?
we won’t know till we pick them up in a couple weeks, last year the male was 275 lbs and the female 250 lbs and we got 145 lbs and 134 lbs back
That emotional tie is rough, but those animals look like you’ve given them a good life. You are doing things that many like myself strive to do.
I can’t seem to get out of my corporate world. With a wedding coming up, I’ll have to wait until that’s all done & then we can start to look at property again.
Keep living that dream KVR. You inspire many like me.
I would eat all of these pigs.
seems like it would be a very emotional time. I will have a hard time butchering my chickens when the time comes. makes you really appreciate your food.
Thanks for posting. I sympathize, it was a bit depressing the first time I took my chickens for slaughter. The second time, not a problem. But the third time, I did it myself, and doing the first one was REALLY hard! But after that, it was just another chore to be done. I don’t name our food animals, maybe that would help you next time? I mean, NO names, not cute names like bacon and eggs or pork chop, or pigpig… we are human and we have feelings, for sure, but I think part of it is our modern society… we have anthropomorphized animals SO much that we really have a hard time during slaughter… When I looked upon our last batch of chickens as FOOD that my family very much needed, it was much easier to get the job done. (Not wanting to sound superior, as I totally have gone through the same thing. I have to slaughter a bunch of roosters tomorrow and they’re really nice roosters, but we have way too many of them… 🙁 )