It’s a hard job …

It’s one of the hardest parts of this job.

Sending animals to slaughter.

Not having to get up early or some mundane chore.

But having to let them go.

Because we raise small numbers and deal with the individual animals daily, we become very familiar with the quirks and habits of each one.

The nature of our business is the steers are food. (And females that don't make it as mamas.)

That’s what they’re raised for.

They’re Food Animals.

We believe God gave us dominion over the animals to care for them and in turn for them to feed us - in different ways - meat, milk, and work.

Some animals are our companions and work with us - our dogs and horses and cats.

Others are our food - currently our cattle and rabbits.

Even though our Food Animals make food for you and us, we believe our control over them includes us treating them well and raising them as they were intended to grow - eating grass only and living in the pasture their entire life, up to their very last day.

Knowing this still doesn’t really make it any easier to go out to the herd and pick the next to go on processing day...

This week it was a steer we simply referred to as “60”.

Some of them have actual names, but not many, because that just makes the whole process that much harder.

We picked 60 because he was “finished”, meaning he was well muscled and putting fat in and over his muscles and had a very nicely developed brisket.

This is what he was born for - to bless two families with the gift of his meat for their nourishment.

He was born on a farm like ours - grass only - and we bought him as a yearling.

He was three years old now, and for two years we have watched him grow and have gotten to know him.

He was always a little more wary than the others, but never led the "boys" when they decided to go "exploring" out of their field … hahaha.

Most of our photos of him were of him running away from the camera, like this one…

I told my husband, “Oh, not 60, he’s never given us any trouble …” And my husband reminded me, “This is what he was born for. Meant for. And it’s his time now, and he's the biggest one we have.”

I’ll missing seeing him in the pasture now when we go to move the steers, just like I’ve missed (most, not all) of the others that went before him.

But I do take comfort in the fact that he lived well and we raised him in a manner that was pleasing to our Creator and he will now fulfill his purpose blessing two families with his meat.

We work hard for this life and make a lot of sacrifices some may consider ridiculous and unnecessary.

But we know there are people who appreciate our work and the animals we raise, and for this and God we are grateful.

Thank you for your life, 60. You lived and served well.