Before last week, we could say that we’d never been to a livestock auction.
We don’t judge farmers who rely on auctions to supply meat to their customers.
It’s just that even if we could ignore the potential animal welfare concerns, sourcing animals this way is a risk – one that we’ve never been willing to take.
You see, purchasing livestock from a lineup means you don’t really know their genetics, temperament or health status.
By bringing these animals home, we could unknowingly jeopardize the health and well-being of all the other animals on the farm (Don’t believe us? Read this).
Instead of relying on other farms or livestock auctions, we prioritized building up our own breeding program – thus all the piglet deliveries – and we’ve quietly celebrated that we never once set foot in an auction house, either to buy or sell!
But after months of trying our darndest to rehome one of our boars as we worked on scaling down the farm, we found ourselves without a better option. And thus, a few weeks back, we made the trip we’d always hoped to avoid.
It was as hard as we thought it would be, showing up at the auction (it’s a very strange process!) and parting ways with an animal who served us so well for so many years.
We’d taken care of him every day, and on an emotional and spiritual level, envisioning his health and welfare in an unknown stranger’s hands is tough.
But maybe even more than that, it was an experience that illuminated something bigger and insidious, which is the low value our food system places on the living, breathing animals that feed us all.
We can do better than that. We must do better than that. And it all starts here, on small farms, just like this one.
Your Farmers,
Jenney & Greg