Age to Harvest Lamb?

After my post of yesterday, I got a few emails asking exactly what "F" has asked, "At what age do you slaughter a lamb?" 

Sheep can be slaughtered for meat at any age. The younger the animal is, the more tender, mild, and paler the meat is. But of course that means there a whole lot less of it. The older the animal, the more meat. 

...Newborn lamb. 1-3 days old. Normally this is only done when the pelt is wanted, or you have a bummer you don't want to hand raise. But the meat is quite edible, being soft, pale, and "sweet". There's just not much if it. I find its best used for soup.

...Baby lamb (also called young lamb) is a traditional Easter meal. 6-8 weeks is the usual age. 

...Spring lamb is 3-5 months. 

...Lamb is up to 1 year of age. 

...1-2 years old is a hogget, though I've heard via the grapevine that the rules have changed to allow a hogget to be labeled lamb. Perhaps that's why store bought lamb tastes so strong nowadays. 

...Anything over 2 years old is strictly mutton. Personally, I think anything over 1 year is mutton. 

Mutton is darker colored, tougher, and stronger flavored. Both hoggart and mutton improve with hanging or aging for 7 days, but no sheep meat actually needs to be hung or aged to be decent. Since I don't have a facility to hang a sheep carcass, I simply age the meat in the bottom of my chest refrigerator where the temperature is about 35°. Personally, I prefer to grind up mutton rather than butcher it into cuts. 

By the way, I don't hang or age my lamb. And I prefer 3-4 month old spring lamb to anything else. 

Home Slaughter

"B" asked me the other day when he was picking up his live New Year's Day lamb to haul it to the slaughterhouse for processing...."Do you do your own slaughtering?" 

Many a time I've been asked if I do my own or send the animal to the slaughterhouse. Plain and simple, I do my own. I feel it is the most humane. It also happens to be the most self reliant method and cheapest, but I do it because it's the least disturbing to my animals. There is no excitement of being loaded onto a truck, no stress of being transported 2 hours and held in a strange place with strange smells and other strange animals at the end of the journey. No anxiety of being separated alone from the flock/herd.  No fear of being approached and handled by strangers. I'd rather have my animals at home, at ease, and be completely unaware that something is about to happen. They are instantly rendered unconscious using a gun, and then killed with no pain, no sensation. Killing is done by cutting the main arteries and bleeding out. 

I never like killing my animals. I find it stressful (I fear I might make a mistake), disturbing (I don't like watching an animal die). I'm ultra careful to make sure everything goes perfectly. 

Once the animal is dead, I have no trouble butchering it out. Butchering a chicken or rabbit is quick and easy. Butchering a lamb, goat, or pig takes more time and work, but it isn't difficult. I've never helped with something larger like a cow or horse. Having worked in veterinary medicine most of my life,   I have no aversion to butchering. It's the slaughtering that is difficult.

Whistle

"J" casually commented to me this morning about how cellphones have made working alone on a farm so much safer. It's easier to call for help. That could certainly be the case for many farmers, but I have a problem on my own homestead. I don't get phone coverage on much of the farm. So what to do? 

Introducing the old fashioned call for help....a loud, piercing whistle. I keep one on my wrist at all times. 

Hubby found this small metal whistle on Amazon. A pack of 5, all different colors. I opted for the black for no special reason. I just did. I wear it all the time. Hanging from a ring on my watchband, I never lose it and can easily find it. 

This whistle came in handy for training Noodles. It's his "come" command. He's strongly conditioned to come to me anytime he hears it. The sound travels quite a distance so I can call him just about anywhere on the farm and he comes a runnin' full speed. 

My neighbor and wwoofer know that if they hear repeated short blasts on the whistle that means I'm in trouble. In all the years I've never needed to use it for an emergency. But it's good insurance to carry it on my wrist. Yes, I always have my cellphone on my too, but it's reassuring to also carry the whistle. 

Is The Pig Pregnant?

For the past few weeks I haven't noticed Lava, the female pig, coming into heat. And Shelly, the boar is leaving her alone. Perhaps I just missed the signs, but I'm getting to think that she might be pregnant. It's really too early to tell for sure, but I'm noticing a few changes. 

#1- Her ribs have sprung. That is, she has gotten thicker across the area of her hindmost ribs. This is a change I'm familiar with in dogs. Does it apply to pigs too? We shall soon find out. 

#2- Her teats have become most pronounced. She no longer looks like a young little girl. 

#3- Her clitoral hood has changed position. When I last checked to see if she was in heat, the pointy thing in the photo below, circled in yellow, was pointing down more. It has definitely shifted upward. If it continues to point more and more upward, then Lava is indeed pregnant. 

The gestation period for pigs is 3 months, 3 weeks, plus 3 days. So if she is pregnant, it will still be awhile before she delivers. But knowing how slow I can be on some projects, I had better start getting ready now. Lava needs a proper shelter to deliver her babies in. I'd prefer her to deliver back in the new pig pasture, but since she is comfortable in the front pasture, maybe I'll leave her there and just move Shelly out back. 

Strange Oranges

When you grow enough of something, you're bound to discover some of Mother Nature's mistakes. Here's some funny oranges.......

 

This looks very much like a heart to me. 

And this one looks like a weird smiley face. 

Farm Kids, the Human Kind

There's a local farm family near me that is doing a grand job at home style farming. The children actually want to help and take an active role in farming. I look at them and see myself, but I wasn't fortunate enough to grow up on a farm. I was born in the city, dang.

Above, pressing their oranges for selling fresh juice at the farmers market. Every week I buy at least one glass of fresh juice from this young man. 

Above, another young fella opening coconuts for the tourists. He sells quite a few and is a popular subject for a video. He actually runs is own market tent separate from the family farm tent. 

Getting young people interested in farming should be a priority in my opinion. But society seems to not agree. In my own area, school kids are being either channeled toward college (thus a non-farming life) or towards nothing. Yes, kids graduate high school here with zero skills, zero training in how to support themselves, and zero job openings to apply to. I really wish there was vocational training here to train the kids a skill, or how to grow things. The kids pictured here may or may not grow up to be farmers, but they are learning valuable skills & knowledge they won't be getting in any modern school around here. They are going to do just fine as adults. 

May Peace Be With You

Sunrise...

A day on the coastline...

Sunset...

A day of peace.