13 December 2006
Lambs to the slaughter
Thursday 7 December
Once we'd fed the animals we went to the slaughterhouse. Andrew, Tommy and Jacques were already there in full swing killing lambs. The process is...
--ANOTHER TWO PARAGRAPHS TO SKIP IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH!--
...that a sheep is carried in and tied belly up on the cradle. Tommy then cuts the sheep’s throat (right through the neck to the spine), then cuts the spinal cord. The sheep then bleeds into a large tray (you get a lot of blood out of a sheep). As a two-year old daughter of one of Jacques’ friends said, “it wriggled a bit and then it was meat”. Once the legs have stopped kicking, Andrew and Tommy (and Jacques if she’s not still working on the previous sheep) start skinning. They cut down the legs starting in between the toes, with the cuts from the two front legs meeting above the neck and the back leg cuts meeting at the groin. Then they skin around the lower part of each leg and cut it at the wrist or heel joint, so the ends of the legs are hanging on by the skin. They put paper around the ends of the front legs and between the skin and the neck, to keep the wool off the meat. Lanolin leaves a nasty taste on the meat. Then they begin “punching” the body to remove the skin. It’s called “punching” because you push your fist between the skin and the carcass. It is quite hard work, and tricky to get it right – it’s easy to remove the top layer of muscle with the skin. While that’s being done, someone puts a knife right into the chest just below the breastbone and cuts down the front of the neck. This releases a lot more blood, and exposes the trachea and oesophagus, which are pulled out of the neck and separated. The oesophagus is tied with a bit of string to stop the stomach contents coming out. When the punching is nearly done the carcass is winched up. Jacques then guts it. There are a lot of guts in a sheep. They keep the heart and the liver. The carcass is then weighed and hung on a hook for a while before it is put into the cold room. Because there were a lot of people there were usually two sheep going on at different stages at once.
We watched one lamb being done, and Jacques found that it was pregnant so she threw us the uterus to have a look at and open up “if we liked”. Sophie took the plunge and found a tiny foetus, about 2 inches long, which even had minute cloven hooves. We weren’t let in gently! For the next lamb Rowan did the knife in the throat which went ok. We both did a couple of hind legs and front legs and throats, and had a go at punching. There was a bucket with cold water which we were constantly washing our hands in, so we got very cold. Obviously the slaughterhouse is cold anyway. We got through ten lambs. They bring down more animals than they are going to slaughter to avoid ever having an animal left on its own in the holding pen, as they get very nervous if they are alone. We helped Andrew load the offal and skins onto the tractor. They dump it all in a spot in the woods they call the “Monty Python Nature Walk” and the eagles and ravens clear it up. They put the blood on the vegetable garden, as it’s a very good fertilizer, but they make sure it doesn’t go on vegetables they will want to dig up in the near future...
It wasn't too bad. Not something we'd want to do for fun, but as Jim says, "If you had to do it to be able to stay on Saturna, you would".
--IT'S SAFE TO LOOK NOW--
After lunch we went out to move some of the cows. Carrie and Jock (the older dogs) were herding them, and Tommy shook some feed in a bucket to lead them (animals tend to follow food!).
Then Jacques drove us up to yet another cottage on Campbell farm which is on the top of Brown Ridge, and drew us a little map of how to get down to Taylor Point, where we'd walked before. The view was absolutely breathtaking and yet again we were amazed that there could be so many incredibly beautiful places on one farm. Directly below, down a steep grassy and rocky slope, were the fields of Campbell's Farm, and beyond was the sea with the US gulf islands. Rising up from the mist in the distance were the huge Olympian Mountains. We walked along the ridge admiring the view and the sunset, and caught a glimpse of a group of goats. The goats on the mountain are feral goats, descended from goats released by early settlers. When the path we were on started to go in the wrong direction, we realised we’d missed the path down. We backtracked and found a path going in the right direction, but by this time it was getting a bit dark. We found the rope and the stream crossing marked on Jacques’ map, but there were lots of branches covering the ground which made it hard to see which of the many goat tracks we should take. We followed one for a while, but it seemed to be going in the wrong direction so we went back again and eventually found the right path. It was a relief to get back to the beach at Taylor Point as in the dark we could easily have got completely lost. We walked the two miles back (it's a big farm!) with only a small and fading torch, so our boots were soaked by the time we got back from stepping in puddles.
Once we'd fed the animals we went to the slaughterhouse. Andrew, Tommy and Jacques were already there in full swing killing lambs. The process is...
--ANOTHER TWO PARAGRAPHS TO SKIP IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH!--
...that a sheep is carried in and tied belly up on the cradle. Tommy then cuts the sheep’s throat (right through the neck to the spine), then cuts the spinal cord. The sheep then bleeds into a large tray (you get a lot of blood out of a sheep). As a two-year old daughter of one of Jacques’ friends said, “it wriggled a bit and then it was meat”. Once the legs have stopped kicking, Andrew and Tommy (and Jacques if she’s not still working on the previous sheep) start skinning. They cut down the legs starting in between the toes, with the cuts from the two front legs meeting above the neck and the back leg cuts meeting at the groin. Then they skin around the lower part of each leg and cut it at the wrist or heel joint, so the ends of the legs are hanging on by the skin. They put paper around the ends of the front legs and between the skin and the neck, to keep the wool off the meat. Lanolin leaves a nasty taste on the meat. Then they begin “punching” the body to remove the skin. It’s called “punching” because you push your fist between the skin and the carcass. It is quite hard work, and tricky to get it right – it’s easy to remove the top layer of muscle with the skin. While that’s being done, someone puts a knife right into the chest just below the breastbone and cuts down the front of the neck. This releases a lot more blood, and exposes the trachea and oesophagus, which are pulled out of the neck and separated. The oesophagus is tied with a bit of string to stop the stomach contents coming out. When the punching is nearly done the carcass is winched up. Jacques then guts it. There are a lot of guts in a sheep. They keep the heart and the liver. The carcass is then weighed and hung on a hook for a while before it is put into the cold room. Because there were a lot of people there were usually two sheep going on at different stages at once.
We watched one lamb being done, and Jacques found that it was pregnant so she threw us the uterus to have a look at and open up “if we liked”. Sophie took the plunge and found a tiny foetus, about 2 inches long, which even had minute cloven hooves. We weren’t let in gently! For the next lamb Rowan did the knife in the throat which went ok. We both did a couple of hind legs and front legs and throats, and had a go at punching. There was a bucket with cold water which we were constantly washing our hands in, so we got very cold. Obviously the slaughterhouse is cold anyway. We got through ten lambs. They bring down more animals than they are going to slaughter to avoid ever having an animal left on its own in the holding pen, as they get very nervous if they are alone. We helped Andrew load the offal and skins onto the tractor. They dump it all in a spot in the woods they call the “Monty Python Nature Walk” and the eagles and ravens clear it up. They put the blood on the vegetable garden, as it’s a very good fertilizer, but they make sure it doesn’t go on vegetables they will want to dig up in the near future...
It wasn't too bad. Not something we'd want to do for fun, but as Jim says, "If you had to do it to be able to stay on Saturna, you would".
--IT'S SAFE TO LOOK NOW--
After lunch we went out to move some of the cows. Carrie and Jock (the older dogs) were herding them, and Tommy shook some feed in a bucket to lead them (animals tend to follow food!). Then Jacques drove us up to yet another cottage on Campbell farm which is on the top of Brown Ridge, and drew us a little map of how to get down to Taylor Point, where we'd walked before. The view was absolutely breathtaking and yet again we were amazed that there could be so many incredibly beautiful places on one farm. Directly below, down a steep grassy and rocky slope, were the fields of Campbell's Farm, and beyond was the sea with the US gulf islands. Rising up from the mist in the distance were the huge Olympian Mountains. We walked along the ridge admiring the view and the sunset, and caught a glimpse of a group of goats. The goats on the mountain are feral goats, descended from goats released by early settlers. When the path we were on started to go in the wrong direction, we realised we’d missed the path down. We backtracked and found a path going in the right direction, but by this time it was getting a bit dark. We found the rope and the stream crossing marked on Jacques’ map, but there were lots of branches covering the ground which made it hard to see which of the many goat tracks we should take. We followed one for a while, but it seemed to be going in the wrong direction so we went back again and eventually found the right path. It was a relief to get back to the beach at Taylor Point as in the dark we could easily have got completely lost. We walked the two miles back (it's a big farm!) with only a small and fading torch, so our boots were soaked by the time we got back from stepping in puddles.
