[Sca-cooks] A few more words on lambs

[marilyn traber 011221]

> Castration seems the important point indicating whether an animal is 
> young or more mature. He doesn't mention it for lamb specifically, 
> but things get interesting in his chapter on veal. Young veals or 
> bulls are to be castrated at 1 1/2 year of age (les veaux ou 
> taureaux seront parvenus au point d'être châtrés... - p.290) - he 
> subsequently calls these castrated animals "boeufs".
> 
> So even though there appears to be a certain laxism on terms in 
> period, it seems that castration is what would differentiate younger 
> farm animals from the more mature ones.

Well that actually makes sense, if you're familiar with farm animals, 
particularly herd animals (which most farm animals are). Much like human 
males, critters' emotional maturity lags somewhat behind their physical 
sexual maturity. In short, they have it, but they're not entirely sure what 
they're supposed to do with it. Any sparring and sexual display among younger 
animals, even though it imitates in some respects older animals, is much less 
serious than in a mature animal. Amongst males, it's simply rough play, and 
it's usually shortly after this point that an adult male of the herd or the 
flock will run the youngsters off, where most herd animals will form groups, 
all pretty much of an age, where their sparring, etc continues to aid them in 
developing towards full physical maturity.

People who live and work with animals are going to notice this, and use this 
as a determining factor in how and when they castrate. In the case of oxen, 
for example, you want the ox to gain the advantage of the stronger bones and 
connective tissue given by the testosterone, but you don't want your ox 
acting like a bull, although, in the case of Marcus Didius Falco's ox, the 
results can be quite amusing ;-) Cut proud, is what it's called when a 
castrated male of any species doesn't realize he's missing anything ;-)

With the females of the various species, sexual maturity is usually 
recognized after they have their first babies, although for some reason, here 
in the US, a female cow is considered a heifer until she has her _second_ 
calf.

And, speaking of babies, one of my banty hens has just produced her first 
chick. There may be more by tomorrow. No telling who the actual mother or 
fathers are, the way they play musical nest boxes, but the first baby appears 
to be a white cochin.

Phlip

Don't like getting old? Beats the Hel out of the alternative.

The purpose of life is not to arrive at the grave, a beautiful corpse, pretty 
and well-preserved, but to slide in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally 
worn out, proclaiming, "Wow! What a ride!"


> Just to add to the amount of date we were gathering on the topic...
> 
> Olivier de Serre, in "Theatre d'Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs" 
> (1600) mentions about lamb that they leave their mother around the 
> month of April
> (around 4-5 months old - page 319) and are castrated on the month of 
> March of their second year (around 15-16 months old - page 323).
> 
> 
> The more so, I'd add, that older animals used for food are generally 
> those that have given a few good years of hard work, or of wool -
>  they are fattened in their last summer to be butchered in the fall.
> 
> Petru
> 
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