big_onion

As a small farmer who sells eggs that come from tcage-free, free-ranged pastured poultry, I appreciate customers like you.

I always try and get people to do an on-farm pickup so I can show them how we raise the animals. The thought of raising them any other way just sort of blows my mind. When we have to keep them penned for a day (due to weather, day job, or other reason) I feel awful. The only time we close them up is at night to protect them from predators.

Painkillers for punching holes? You mean putting in ear tags? We don't do that for humans when we pierce ears.

Not saying I agree with abusive practices. My wife and I own a small farm and treat the animals as humanely as possible. We don't tag ears, but I think pain killers for ear tagging is pretty ridiculous.

That's not how you do it. You gotta present it as a statement then he responds in the form of a question.

I am working on this (find what you love, find a way to get paid) now. I am in my 30s and have spent literally half of my life working in offices. I hate it. I studied music because I loved it, but got this job (college administration) because it pays the bills. I bought a farm a couple of years ago and am doing that with my wife on the side (we raise and process meat, not the green stuff). Recently I am getting into turning (I really like working on the lathe! especially tap handles) and other woodworking ... you should check out the /r/woodworking subreddit if you haven't been there before. I saw a video of you giving a tour of your workshop. Amazing work.

I feel like I'm getting into all of this (farming, woodworking, etc) late, but I'm a stubborn bastard sometimes so we'll see what happens. This is great advice, though, and words that I'll remember and pass on to my own kids.

I have to say, I'm impressed with how much you inspire redditors to make things: this entire thread seems full of "I made this for you" or "I made this while thinking of you". At a time when a lot of our youth is growing up demanding to be given things they need or want, it's encouraging that there are role models showing them that they can find a way to create what they need or want. Thank you for that.

EDIT: stuff

Also a small-scale meat farmer here -- just poultry currently, but getting up our sheep herd for next year.

We looked into various castrating techniques (not just for the sheep but also in case we our goats give birth to any bucks) and thought that when the time comes burdizzo might be a better option than castration. Is it possible do such a thing on a pig? There's no cutting, so no open wounds or possibility of infection. I never did any research into burdizzo on hogs, but a quick google search shows that it may be possible.

Any thoughts on that as an alternative?