Vegetarian Homesteader?

Vegetarian and Homesteader. . . interesting juxtaposition there, isn't it?

I decided long, long ago (feels like eons) to give up eating meat and

animal products that are derived from animal slaughter. 14 years ago,

to be precise. No meat, fish, chicken, broth, gelatin or whatever else.

I even gave Veganism a go, and I found it was not for me!

Now, be that as it may, I have respect for those who raise their

sources of meat naturally and slaughter humanely. People are

so far removed from where their food comes from that is really

is quite frightening. I appreciate the recognition some families have

and the movement for local, humanely raised and slaughtered food.

At any rate, consigning the raising of animals that are often

used a sources for food with vegetarianism is a rough road

to hoe, if you will.

Take the cow: the cow, if she is going to produce

milk, must be bred, but what if she has a bull calf? I am not

so idealistic as to imagine we can keep dairy bulls safely here

with children or steer after steer, year after year, as pets.

Imagine my joy when I learned of sexed bull semen that gives

90% heifer calves? Well, it does have a significant higher cost and less

success rate with conception, but one must do what one must to prevent bull calves. Never mind the 10% failure rate that results in bull calves. We will

cross that bridge if it comes. Ekk!

On to dairy goats. . . in the world of dairy animals, male animals usually

have little worth. Often the little bucklings (male goat kids) are drowned

at birth.
If they are not, they are often wethered (castrated) and raised to

fattening and then butchered. Now, this is something I just cannot do or support

with my own animals. Goats make amazing pets, they really do!
As the Lord  would have it, we live in an area where few people raise goats, so we have, so far, found a market for our bucklings as breeders and pets.

I admit, I pray the Lord helps us continue to sell them to breeding and pet homes for good because we can only keep so many of the intact, blubbering things (bucks in rut.)

Let us move on to chickens.

Oh my.
The guilt over buying selective pullets from a hatchery still creeps over me from time to time.
The hatcheries have little demand for cockerels (male chicks) of the laying breeds, and so I shudder to think what happens to the little fellows when they are hatched. However, I did not want roosters here producing endless chicks and such, so I bought 11pullets. Well, low and behold, if there were not two mis-sexed (it appears) chicks in the batch! That serves me right for avoiding any little Roos at all!

Thankfully, in the horse business, the colts and the fillies are basically of

equal value!
I am glad to endeavor into an animal area where I am able to

breath a sign of relief concerning the sex of the animal and what may

happen to it if I am unable to keep it.

Now, my husband is a full fledged meat-eater.

He would prefer traditional homesteading where there are beef cattle raised for meat, chickens for broilers and so forth,
but then here I am: The Vegetarian Homesteader!

Here, I insist we can raise Cows and Goats for milk, butter, cheese and yogurt!

We can have hens who lays without roosters for eggs! We have then have a

garden of vegetables and fruit fertilized from composted manure!
Surely, we can do it in a more cruelty free way, and still, I respect those who do not have my convictions that recognize the unhealthy, commercially raised offerings at

public grocery stores is neither just to the animals or good for their families

and are raising their own food!