Justin, one of our WWOOFers, said that when he tried to explain to a lady who was about to start her goat farm what she should be ready for. This #5 really should be #1 - not sure why it slipped my mind. On a farm the death is everywhere - cute and cuddly sheep will kill plants or chickens (if the chickens are not fast enough). Chickens will kill anything smaller and slower than a chicken, including other chickens. Plants will kill other plants. Dogs will kill all of the above and then some, just for fun. Crows will kill newborn lambs while the mom is busy giving birth. Yes, during. How bad is to be killed while you are born? Most relevant though - a farmer has to kill all kinds of things (from trees to insects to dogs to ... whatever) on a regular basis because for something to live, something else has to die. Sounds real easy in theory, right? Better be ready to practice it before you make that first payment for your farm though.
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LOL, such a good point, I reflect on this a lot as well. It seems like it's not what you bargained for, and books don't mention it much, the psychological shift that has to take place to adjust to the reality of the mortality rate. I have come to realize that maybe it's 5% or something, so if you have a couple of pets, you only see it once every many years. But if you have a couple hundred animals, you see it every month or two. And that's not to mention the animals for butcher, animals that need culling etc. The ying and yang definitely become evident, that for all the new life, there is also death in equal balance.
Yep. Where there are livestock, there are deadstock, as the old timers say :)
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