Brought a group of beautiful pigs to market this morning. I don’t really even know why I am sharing this publicly, maybe it’s to clear my head, I don’t know……on my drives to the butcher with pigs it gives me a lot of time to reflect on the animals I am bringing there, often times there is a strong feeling (cannot place the right adjective to describe it) that runs through my whole body, toes to head. I think about taking the life of an animal and how taking the life feeds others and our family. I think about the time I had with them, the daily chores, their birth and now them going on to the next pasture. Last night in preparation I had a couple beers with them, talked to them and gave lots of scratches. The daily routine of raising livestock, feeding, moving on pasture, housing, farrowing, etc is the easy part, the end of their lives is the hard part. I often tell myself if I have no emotion about this part then it’s maybe not right for me to be raising livestock. There is a heavy weight that goes along with this part. I am not looking for any sympathy or “sorrys,” but rather just expressing my thoughts. I am honored to be the caretaker of these creatures. There is just a lot more to this operation than inputs and outputs, hell of a lot more.
John
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