Livestock

[Mowque]

Own any? Raise any? Worked on a farm since before you could walk? Think it is cruel and terrible and all animals should be set free? Feel free to share your stories!

No Pets, please..livestock only..animals that are being raised for some economical goal.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I live in the countryside, but nearly all the farms around here are plant farms, either tobacco, corn, or soybeans. There's a guy down the road who keeps a few cows and turkeys around, but I think he just milks them (the cows, not the turkeys, I don't know what the turkeys are for, they just seem to hang around his farm a lot).

 

[Perfection]

When I was little, my mom raised chickens, and I loved them, and then she killed them, and I was sad, but then I ate the chickens and they were delicious and I was happy again.

 

[warpus]

Perf, you should write a book.

 

[Dachs]

I raised a bird-eating spider, and when he was a year old I ate him just for the irony. The eyes tasted like toejam.

 

[Grisu]

we had chickens (if that counts), though they weren't really raised for some economical goal other than providing eggs for ourselves.

Furthermore, at one point, we had a couple of sheep.

 

[Abaddon]

Own any?

Not currently

Raise any?

Have raised chickens in the past, but only on a small scale

Worked on a farm since before you could walk?

Sadly not, the experience would have been handy now

Think it is cruel and terrible and all animals should be set free?

Yawn, go away troll

Feel free to share your stories!

No Pets, please..livestock only..animals that are being raised for some economical goal.

I am currently studying at an agricultural college.

I have docked piglettes tails, castrated calves ,de-horned, de-teethed, given injections and helped in calving. On dairy farms, the males born are killed at about 5 days old since they are not worth raising. This is also the case in chicken farms... there are a LOT of male chickens being gased, beheaded, killed in general as a side effect in trying to supply the demand for chicken meat worldwide.

Not in the UK, but in sheep farming "mulesing" is common. This involves cutting the skin off the sheeps behind so that wool does not grow, and then cause problems such as flystrike.


All of this and I still beleive in farming. We are working in a global market, against some nations who have no welfare at all. If I do all i can (while keeping economically viable) to give the animal a "good life" then that is something to be proud of.

 

[Yeekim]

, I don't know what the turkeys are for.

You do not celebrate Thanksgiving?

 

[King of Town]

One of my bumpkin relatives owned a bunch of chickens. Once when i was about 6 he asked me to hold the chickens neck and then he spun the body around. He told me I had killed my first chicken. Afterwards I started chasing the other chickens around bloodthirstly and my mother said it was time to go. That was the only time I've ever been to that guys house.

 

[really]

I grew up on and will be inheriting a farm at some point in the future.

We have cattle now. We buy them in at about a year old and bulk them up for slaughter.

We used to have cows but looking after them was too much work for a part time farm.

Years ago we used to have sheep and if there were lambs that had been rejected by their mothers we as kids used to look after them and bottle feed them by hand.

I have a picture of the cattle somewhere.

 

[Abaddon]

Would it be possible for me to travel over and work on your farm at some point in the next few years?

 

[really]

Would it be possible for me to travel over and work on your farm at some point in the next few years?

The farm is all of 72 acres exactly half of which is bog.
It hasn't been full time since my grandfather handed it over to my dad in the 70s.

It takes about 1-2 hours a day to feed the cattle in the winter and however long the silage takes in the summer. I think you would be bored out of your brains if you are used to your uncles big farm up north.

Are you still planning on going to NZ?

 

[PeteAtoms]

We used to have ~20 chickens that we used for eggs. It was ridiculous how many eggs we were getting from them, we should have sold 'em. We also used to have a couple of bulls in our field, they weren't ours, we were just letting a friend rent the field for the bulls.

We had a couple of rooster too. Roosters are the most evil creatures I have ever come across. They attacked us on sight and would claw at us with their talons. We used to have to carry around sticks to beat them off of us. We ended up killing a rooster to eat, but the meat was as horrible as the rooster. We threw the cooked rooster meat at the hens, and they pecked at it It was kind of ironic...

 

[Verbose]

Yes.
Have hen-house, keeps chickens.

It was the wife's project originally. The eggs are nice, but they're mostly still around for part sentimental reasons, part ethological study interest (the rest of the manegerie is more of the household-pet category). They quite possibly form the most pampered brood of chickens in human history. The hand reared ones like to cuddle even; a bit smelly but what the hey...

Currently there's a bit of demographic crisis going on, as this summer's hatchlings provided only two hens, but three roosters. Four roosters is a bit of a chicken-management challenge. We'll see if we can sell two of them or if it's coq-au-vin-time again...

 

[Verbose]

We had a couple of rooster too. Roosters are the most evil creatures I have ever come across. They attacked us on sight and would claw at us with their talons. We used to have to carry around sticks to beat them off of us. We ended up killing a rooster to eat, but the meat was as horrible as the rooster. We threw the cooked rooster meat at the hens, and they pecked at it It was kind of ironic...

Probably a waste of a potentially great meal. "Coq-au-vin" is all I'll say.

 

[Abaddon]

The farm is all of 72 acres exactly half of which is bog.
It hasn't been full time since my grandfather handed it over to my dad in the 70s.

It takes about 1-2 hours a day to feed the cattle in the winter and however long the silage takes in the summer. I think you would be bored out of your brains if you are used to your uncles big farm up north.

Are you still planning on going to NZ?

Ah no worries

Had an "Agriventure" person come in an give us a talk today; £2500 for flights,insurance, support network visa etc

Not sure if to go with easy but expencive option of with them, or getting out there on my own.

 

[bhsup]

The only time I've ever had an issue with it was when we ate Herman for Thanksgiving one year. Don't ever name farm animals when you visit your uncle's ranch.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Nah I'm a town boy.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

We don't have any livestock (only a pet Dove), but our next door neighbors got several Chickens and at least 1 Rooster a few months back. For Christmas they gave us a couple dozen freshly laid eggs, and said that we could get more if we saved all our cartons and gave them to them. I'm not sure if they sell any or not.

By the way, their Rooster is a bit lazy. He never crows before 10:30 am, and often waits until early afternoon.

 

[TopDog]

My grandfather and uncle own a large dairy and sheep farm
~500 cows
~1200 sheep
several horses
handful of goats i think
6 or 7 dogs