Animal Husbandry

Animal Husbandry is defined as "controlled cultivation, management, and production of domestic animals, including improvement of the qualities considered desirable by humans by means of breeding." (From the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia)

One wonders why they call it "husbandry." Does that refer to the practice of managing "husbands" for the animals, in the sense of breeding them? More calves, more chicks, more kids, more lambs... perhaps it does, according to the definition. But in a very real sense, I think it also refers to acting the role of "husband" to your animals.

Of course I'm not talking about what might be put humorously as the droit du seigneur. I'm referring to the near spousal sort of care one must take of them if one means to keep them healthy. For industrial farms, perhaps it is quite a different thing altogether. They are mere commodities; the goals are different. Often the goal there is only to keep the animals alive long enough to slaughter, and this by filling them full of antibiotics that thin their intestinal walls enough to allow for optimal growth in as short a time as possible. Just lovely. Of course, there are marriages like that, too.

For the small farmer it is a different matter. For example, I just spent 45 minutes in the stall this morning with my new goat, hand feeding her oats. She feels poorly and is not inclined to eat. After her trip here on Saturday, she hasn't eaten as much as she should. She's pregnant, and should be freshening on the 15th. We hope for two kids... but with a first freshener, sometimes you get only one.

Here she is, Carolina:





She's a darling. Because I appreciate her position, I find myself running to the fields for fresh handfuls of multiflora, burdock or dandelion... cutting up carrots and apples to please her dainty palate, and--yes--spending 45 minutes with her in her stall tempting her to eat racing oats since the regular goat feed, a change from the feed to which she's accustomed, affronts her goatly nature. Here, she shows me what she thinks of it:





I am a husband sent to the store for Rocky Road ice cream; I am the spouse who cooks her partner's dinner. I care for a sick family member. I hold your hair out of your face when you throw up. Didn't you think that was Animal Husbandry, too?

I know what it means.

It also meant, sadly, staying by until the end when my buck, Mathazar, was dying of listeriosis... feeding him through a syringe, cooling him with ice, brushing him, singing to him. It means not going to a party you'd love to go to because one of your animals needs you.

It means staying by the house for 21 days when you're incubating and you don't have an automatic egg turner.

How could I go somewhere, when, perhaps, Eowyn would be relying on me?





Who could resist this face?





Or this one?





Or even these butts?