Does anyone process their own animals?

[thestartupman]

Who on here slaughters, and butchers their own animals? Or do you do some of the processing, but not all of it? How do you age you meat? What kind of equipment do you use? Do you process meat for others?

[laughingllama75]

we do our own, beef and pork start to finish. Hubby and I took some butchering classes, practiced a lot and invested in some good equipment. Now, 15 years later our beef cuts look like they should and there are no more "mystery meat" packages. LOL. Pork we hang just overnight and beef we hang 10 days in 45 degrees. We do not like the tast of aged, so the 10 days is good for us. We use 3 stainless steel tables for cutting, wrapping and grinding. The meat grinder is an old Hobart and so is the meat band saw. We got both from stores/shops that were closing so we got them at a good deal (200 for grinder and 400 for band saw). WAY cheaper than new.
We do not process FOR others, but if friends want to cut it up here we can "show them how". You need to be USDA to cute up for others.
Hard work, but well worth it. We used to send the hogs and beef out, but were afraid we were not getting our meat back, so why bother raising our own?!?!

How about you?

[Skip]

We get a friend who hunts to do most of the work. We help with the cutting and wrapping. I can't help with any of the questions. I think the hanging depends on the weather, temps and everyone's availability. Here in Ontario you can't even give away homegrown meat unless processed by a licensed abbaitor.

[LibertyWool]

In Maine there are three levels of slaughter houses: Custom, State Inspected, and USDA inspected. Each licensing level has different requirements. Custom processors have to mark meat as "NOT FOR SALE", State inspected meat can only be sold in Maine, and USDA inspected can sold out of state and on the Internet. At the bottom of this link, it describes in a little more detail:

http://www.maine.gov/agriculture/qar/meatplants.html

So you might research your state to see if you can be licensed as a custom processor. I use a Custom Processor and have been very happy with him, but I understand the desire to do it yourself.

[mozarkian]

Currently, we use a custom processor in Summersville MO. Very clean, honest and they shrinkwrap, so the meat keeps well.
Growing up, my Dad had a "meat room" attached to the garage. We did our own beef, pork and deer and a few for friends too. We didn't have a cooler so we waited until late November or December each year. We hung them in the meatroom with cheesecloth wrapped around loosely around them and cracked windows to keep temps in the 35-45 range. Dad also sugar cured some of the pork and sometimes a deer ham or two and then hung them in a tiny shed and used hickory to smoke them. It was the best smoked meat I have ever eaten, then or now.
Dad cut, my oldest brother trimmed the cuts, and inner wrapped, I outer wrapped and my sister ran the grinder. It was a pretty slick operation that I wish I had here.

[cedarcreekranch]

We've done 3 old cows ourselves - ground all into hamburger. One had gone down so something had to be done and after selling 2 other older girls for little more than the salebarn share, we decided to butcher them ourselves, too. Had one 600# sow we did ourselves - that was a job and half! We use the tractor bucket to hang them up, skin & gut them, use a 'saws all' to do the main cutting up (we have a set of blades just for that), then good knives to finish. Been looking for a used 'commercial' saw and grinder but for now, we use a small home grinder. Takes a long time to get it all ground but we have a huge island in the kitchen so not a real problem. Rus uses a .22 short to put them down - one shot and they're done. No stress on them, usually we give them a bite of some goodies in a pan and down they go. We're not set up to hang a beef so next 'good' steer will go to a local butcher to be done. Hogs don't need to be hung & since our hamburger turned out really good (even if super lean) I guess for that purpose neither does beef. We've also sold a few smaller pigs to an ethnic family - they buy the pig, we shoot it, they gut it and go. Mostly they use them for pit bbq, from what they tell us.

[oregon woodsmok]

I've done just about everything but cattle. Hanging and butchering are so critical to the quality of beef, and there is a local butcher who is an artist, so I just grit my teeth and pay. I don't have any climate controlled way to hang a beef.

If I am feeling affluent, I pay to have hogs butchered, too, but I've done them at home. It takes a few hours, but it is not a difficult job.

One thing I seriously recommend is a good quality butchers' saw. It's a hand tool that looks like a giant hacksaw.

I use those vacuum seal bags for poultry, but good old butcher paper and freezer tape for meat.

[laughingllama75]

Originally Posted by oregon woodsmok

One thing I seriously recommend is a good quality butchers' saw. It's a hand tool that looks like a giant hacksaw.

I use those vacuum seal bags for poultry, but good old butcher paper and freezer tape for meat.

YES! I butchers saw. We couldnt do it without one. Also, we are not fans of plastic wrap, so we double freezer paper the meat. Hope that helps....

[francismilker]

I do goats, chickens, hogs, and deer here. I don't feel I have the facilities to get a beef done in a timely manner. We usually don't slaughter them until they're at least 1000lbs live weight so I think I'd be a little overwhelmed with the size of carcass to get cut and wrapped.

[KIT.S]

I have a meat saw from Northern Tool which is sufficient for us. It has a grinder attached, but I prefer the one on my Kitchenaide mixer. We've butchered pigs of various sizes (up to +350 lbs hanging weight and down to 40 lbs for whole-pig-roasts), sheep, deer, and I have a Whiz-bang chicken plucker which is very successful for everything from chickens, ducks and turkeys. We have two calves in the pasture, but we haven't butchered beef here yet. I've butchered moose, caribou, deer and bear in Alaska, so I figure a cow isn't going to stop me.

We make our own smoked bacon and fresh and smoked sausage and we can some of our meat for instant dinners.

I'm just too cheap to pay someone else to do nearly anything I can do myself. We have to plan ahead to have the weather help us cool the large animals, and in order to hang the meat for any length of time. We have plans and hopes of having a walk-in cooler eventually. Right now we've got 2 sheep and 5 pigs waiting for butcher, because it's been too warm.

Kit

[thestartupman]

I don't think I will try butchering a cow, until I have built some kind of cooler to age the meat. I have seen deer go bad with people trying to time cool weather. You just never know when a warming trend might creep in. I do appreciate all the info here. Still hope to get more info from others too. How long and what temperatures do you age your beef?

[mamaof3peas]

Butchering a cow like a deer but bigger? We

[mamaof3peas]

Butchering a cow like a deer but bigger? We are very interested in learning, has anyone done it? Advice?

[HDRider]

Originally Posted by LibertyWool

In Maine there are three levels of slaughter houses: Custom, State Inspected, and USDA inspected. Each licensing level has different requirements. Custom processors have to mark meat as "NOT FOR SALE", State inspected meat can only be sold in Maine, and USDA inspected can sold out of state and on the Internet. At the bottom of this link, it describes in a little more detail:

http://www.maine.gov/agriculture/qar/meatplants.html

So you might research your state to see if you can be licensed as a custom processor. I use a Custom Processor and have been very happy with him, but I understand the desire to do it yourself.

South Carolina is like Maine. Arkansas only has USDA (very very few) and custom (fewer every day).

Meat processing is a problem for the small producer IMHO.