Home slaughter can be more humane for lambs and more profitable for farmers than sending livestock to slaughterhouses, says Þröstur Heiðar Erlingsson, one of Iceland’s first farmers to implement the practice since it was legalised last spring. According to Þröstur, there is growing interest among both consumers and shops for buying directly from farmers. Þröstur and his wife Ragnheiður Erla Brynjólfsdóttir will provide free instruction on home slaughter to other sheep farmers across the country.
Home slaughter of lambs and goats was legalised in Iceland last spring, as part of a 12-point action plan to support farmers in meeting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, sheep and goat farmers in Iceland were required to send livestock to licenced slaughterhouses. A pilot project and virtual inspections in 2020 and 2021 were part of ensuring that home slaughter would conform to health and safety standards.
Farmers who slaughter at home receive all the offal, the head of the lamb, and the sheepskin, by-products that are most often discarded when livestock are sent to a slaughterhouse, Þröstur says. Farmers can then package and sell products directly to consumers or shops. Þröstur points out that when lambs are slaughtered at the farm, they also do not have to be transported long distances and put in unfamiliar surroundings, which makes the process more humane.
Þröstur and Ragnheiður received a grant to share their experience with other farmers, and will soon provide free instruction on home slaughter in the form of virtual meetings. “We got into this to help farmers, so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Now we’ve gained experience, slaughtered at home, and gone through it. We just want to share that knowledge and information with other farmers,” Þröstur stated.
