Well so much for that I guess it was fun while it lasted

[MajGenl.Meade]

and was a very happy pig

shorely, 'for almost its entire life but very traumatised toward the end'?

Travelling in and out of Bloemfontein, we drive past a huge slaughterhouse - slaghuis - and the smell is something awful on a hot sunny day - and there's a lot of those. We see animals being delivered in big lorries and small bakkies and they don't look, sad to say, very happy at all although almost all were raised on open farms.

Which reminds me - article in the paper today - PETA is seeking to purchase the Bunny from Mandela's ear, to publicise and dramatise the plight of animals raised for the fur industry. Haasholes

[Lord Jim]

PETA is seeking to purchase the Bunny from Mandela's ear, to publicise and dramatise the plight of animals raised for the fur industry

I have to admit, when I saw that I thought you had made it up...that seemed over the top even for the PETA nutters...

But I looked it up, and nay nay, it's absolutely true:

Peta looks to adopt Mandela rabbit

Pretoria - Animal rights group Peta wants to adopt the bronze rabbit once it is removed from a statue of former president Nelson Mandela, Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile said on Thursday.

“The group intends to use the miniature statue to highlight the plight of billions of rabbits and other animals who are slaughtered for their skins, used in forced labour or kept in chains and who are innocent but imprisoned and denied the chance to be free,” he said in a statement.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) wrote to Mashatile asking that the rabbit be donated to the group.

Peta associate director Mimi Bekhechi wrote in the letter: “As we all know, Mandela was a great man who risked his life in order to advocate for the freedom of others.

“Mandela cared about cruelty to animals. He was a patron of the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.... We would be honoured to use the bronze rabbit, the same animal who proudly leaps across Peta's logo, to honour Mandela's vision of a more peaceful, kinder world.”

Earlier this week, the sculptors of the newly erected statue of Mandela at the Union Buildings in Pretoria apologised for secretly adding a rabbit to their work. The item was placed in an ear of the statue's head.

The department of arts and culture said it accepted their apology and that their intentions were honourable.

Department spokesman Josias Pila said a more appropriate artist signature would have been preferred, and that the department was considering how to retain the sculpture's integrity with damaging it.

Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, who sculpted the nine metre bronze-plated statue, have said the rabbit was a “small trademark” of their work, as the department had not allowed them to engrave their signatures on the statue's trousers.

Dali Tambo, CEO of Koketso Growth, the company contracted to create the figure, said on Wednesday that the addition of the rabbit was regrettable.

Tambo said that after an agreement between the company and the government's “statue steering committee”, the artists were instructed that no marks, including signatures, would be engraved on the surface of the bronze statue.

The names of the artists would be printed on plaques, which were yet to be installed in the area surrounding the figure.

The statue was unveiled by President Jacob Zuma on December 16, the day after Mandela's funeral, as part of the annual celebrations of Reconciliation Day and the commemoration of the centenary of the Union buildings.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/special-featu ... -1.1636067

Yet another example of reality that is so off the charts it defies parody...

[Jarlaxle]

Is she selling the meat? What's she charging for half and/or whole lamb?

I understand that many Americans don't like lamb.

Over here we have lamb, hogget, and mutton fairly regularly, I do wonder why it isn't popular in the USA?

It's bloody pricey! (And the cuts that aren't are lousy and/or mostly-bone.)

[Daisy]

We made Lamb Shanks (front leg, bone in) slow cooked in a massaman curry yesterday.

Takes about 7 hours in the crock pot but the fat melts off and the neat is left so tender and beautiful and falls away from the bone

It's about how you treat the cheaper cuts, but they're often the tastiest.

[Lord Jim]

Takes about 7 hours in the crock pot

Mutton stew coked[I assume you meant "cooked" not "coked"...I'm guessing the recipe did not call for the consumption of fat lines of cocaine... ] for about 9 hours in the crock pot is delicious.

Any piece of meat that requires 7-9 hours of cooking just to make it edible, ought to make you think again... (unless of course it's North Carolina barbecue... )

[Daisy]

It takes about 10 minutes to prep and then you just ignore it... No effort at all really.

[oldr_n_wsr]

SueU. Talked to my sister over the weekend. She's keeping the sheep (they are old enough to be sheep now) alive for now for the wool. If she decides to get more for food, she said she would let me know.

[Sue U]

Thanks, oldr. Meanwhile, I did some more poking around on the web and found a place not very far from me that produces organic grass-fed lamb at very reasonable prices. (Of course, they're right by the nuke plant, but hey, this is New Jersey.) They are sold out of lamb for this season, but I'm getting on their list for the fall.

[MajGenl.Meade]

What's the typical price Sue? We buy a lamb from our friend Willie each spring or autumn for around R850 (US$77 at present). He brings it all cut up and we just divide it into storage bags for the freezer.

[oldr_n_wsr]

They are sold out of lamb for this season,

There's a lamb season? Who knew?
Wonder what the cost of a hunting license for lamb is?

[Sue U]

What's the typical price Sue? We buy a lamb from our friend Willie each spring or autumn for around R850 (US$77 at present). He brings it all cut up and we just divide it into storage bags for the freezer.

From what I can tell looking around the web, "typical" prices are in the range of US$275-$300 for half a lamb, $500-$575 for a whole lamb, but the place by me is selling half a lamb for $150 and a whole lamb for $300, cut and wrapped (about 25 lbs a half). So helluva deal.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Thanks - well that would be quite a jump for us! Back to just the beans then.....

[Gob]

From what I can tell looking around the web, "typical" prices are in the range of US$275-$300 for half a lamb,

UK Half Lamb £75 = $124.00 US
AU Half Lamb - $115 = $100.00 US

These are for the better quality, 'straight off the farm" products.

[Gob]

This is what I feared.

Though it may be good for the Aussie economy, it would make trips home a fair bit more expensive.

The Australian dollar is too high and needs to come down by as much as 10 per cent, the International Monetary Fund says in its latest review of Australia.

Prepared at a time when the Australian dollar was US89¢, the report released on Thursday says the exchange rate is 20 per cent above its post-float average and 5 to 10 per cent higher than it should be.

The estimate is subject to "considerable uncertainty".

The dollar closed in Australia at US90.63¢ on Wednesday, up from US90.03¢ on Tuesday.
Advertisement

The IMF model suggests the dollar should be between US80¢ and US85¢, which is also the range identified by Reserve Bank board member Heather Ridout in January as the "magic spot" that would allow exporters to compete

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/ ... z2t8w793jA

[rubato]

A whole lamb in California costs about $300.00 at commercial rates. Butchered &c. Something like $6 - 6.50 per pound. A more direct contact with the producer will probably yield a better rate.

We eat a lot of lamb but unfortunately so do the coyotes and mountain lions, grrrr!


yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

I doubt coyotes and mountain lions make much of a dent in the consumer supply of lamb.

[rubato]

North America
A shorn ewe that was killed by a coyote

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, 224,200 sheep were killed in the U.S. by predators in 2004, comprising approximately 37% of all ovine deaths for that year.[7] The sheep lost in that year represented a sum total of 18.3 million dollars for sheep producers.[7] Coyotes were responsible for 60.5% of all deaths, with the next largest being domestic dogs at 13.3%.[7] Other North American predators of sheep included cougars (5.7%), bobcats (4.9%), eagles (2.8%), bears (3.8%), and foxes (1.9%).[7] Wolves, ravens, vultures, and other animals together made up the remaining 7.1% of deaths.[7] As all NASS statistics on sheep only take into account sheep after docking, the American Sheep Industry Association estimates that an additional 50-60,000 lambs were killed (before docking) that were not a part of the count.[8] The number of sheep lost to predators may also be higher when considering that reports are generally only made when there is a reasonable expectation that a producer will be financially reimbursed for the loss.[9]

Sounds like a lot to me.

yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

I stand corrected I think.
Found this (for 2010)
http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/ ... 7-2010.pdf

Sheep and lamb losses from animal predators and non-predator causes in the United States totaled
634,500. Losses of sheep totaled 234,500 head or 37.0 percent of total losses. Lambs losses were
400,000 head or 63.0 percent of the total.

Animal predator losses totaled 247,200 head. This represents 39.0 percent of the total losses from
all causes and resulted in a loss of $20.5 million to farmers and ranchers.

Non-predator losses of sheep and lamb totaled 387,300 or 61.0 percent of the total losses and
resulted in a loss of $36.3 million to farmers and ranchers. Harsh conditions during the 2009 winter
resulted in weather related problems being the leading cause of non-predator deaths accounting for
21.5 percent. Digestive problems (Enterotoxemia, Internal Parasites, and Other digestive problems)
followed for a combined 17.3 percent of non-predator deaths.

From here
http://www.usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/shep0213.pdf

All sheep and lamb inventory in the United States on January 1, 2013, totaled 5.34 million head

Different year but I don't think the sheep total changed all that much from 2010 to 2013.

So 247200 is about 4.5% of the total heard that is lost yearly.

I that a lot?
Sounds like a lot when you look at numbers but not so much in view of the total numbers.
Then some 71% of that 4.5% total heard loss is from coyotes and mountain lions (mountain lion = bobcats and cougars).
Sounds like a lot one way, but not so much when looked at another.