[Kathum I]

I am wanting to start a sheep farm in south east Mich. I wish to sell live lambs to customers and want to know how I can allow them to religiously slaughter them on my farm and take the carcass home to process. The lambs would be small. Anyone know how this is legally done?

 

[muleskinner2]

I did it for years with goat kids. Muslim, and Hindi both. I imagine it will depend on you State Laws. Most of my customers lived in apartments.

 

[Pony]

Someone posted about this a few years back. Allowed the buyer to butcher in a discreet corner of the yard, and went so far as to provide running water, paper towels, and such.

As @muleskinner2 said, a lot depends on your state or local laws, but I suppose there are ways around that, as well.

I have read of people asking for lessons in how to dispatch and process animals. For instance, if you were selling turkeys, you could include a lesson in plucking/butchering those animals.

If you wanted to learn how to slit a lamb's throat, you could ask your buyer to demonstrate... You may be a slow learner, and have to ask many different customers...

<shrug> Just sayin'.

 

[Alice In TX/MO]

I had one customer string up a goat and process it in the back yard. If they had shot it in the head first, I would have been ok with it. What happened was NOT ok.

Find out about the process that your customers intend to use.

Have tubs, water hoses, tables, etc. available for them to use. Have a plan for what to do with the by products.

 

[Hiro]

Once and done here badly. Never again.

 

[haypoint]

Most of the sheep and goats in Michigan are sold through the Manchester Livestock Auction. Those that want to butcher their own are already doing that. But you might snoop around Manchester and see if you can generate any interest.

Once you sell livestock in Michigan, how you butcher it is of no interest to the government. Just can't market the meat from any backyard slaughter. Disposal of guts is an issue, but Darling, a rendering facility, can leave you some barrels and then pick it up.

 

[Pony]

Most of the sheep and goats in Michigan are sold through the Manchester Livestock Auction. Those that want to butcher their own are already doing that. But you might snoop around Manchester and see if you can generate any interest.

Once you sell livestock in Michigan, how you butcher it is of no interest to the government. Just can't market the meat from any backyard slaughter. Disposal of guts is an issue, but Darling, a rendering facility, can leave you some barrels and then pick it up.

At first, I thought that you were calling the OP a sweet name, then I remembered the truck that used to pull up to my grandpa's butcher shop. Emblazoned across the side of the big green truck were the words DARLING & CO.

Man, did that truck stink, especially in the Summer!

 

[muleskinner2]

Man, did that truck stink, especially in the Summer!

It smelled like money.

 

[haypoint]

At first, I thought that you were calling the OP a sweet name, then I remembered the truck that used to pull up to my grandpa's butcher shop. Emblazoned across the side of the big green truck were the words DARLING & CO.

Man, did that truck stink, especially in the Summer!

I couldn't think of the second half of the name. But it is Darling Ingredients, based in Melvindale. As a part of my job with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, I inspected a lot of things related to Animal Industry. Rendering is an amazing industry that finds uses for animal byproducts that would otherwise go in the landfill. Few realize that after all the animals guts, head, feet get ground up, cooled and separated, they use a lot in cosmetics. It is the beef tallow that makes lipstick so smooth.
One religious group would do an annual goat slaughter, about a hundred, in an afternoon. They owned a couple acres with a pole barn, where they kept the goats for a week or two, then held the slaughter there. However, their property was half wetlands and was overseen by 6 or 8 homes. The community wasn't happy with the view and I wasn't happy about the mass "graves" of offal. I made arrangements for Darling to supply steel barrels and haul the mess away.
In addition to the processing of animal byproducts, and the hauling away of the on-farm deas cattle, they pick up all the grease and used cooking oils from nearly every fast food and restaurant. Some goes into bio-fuel diesel. I know, TMI.

 

[Danaus29]

I am wanting to start a sheep farm in south east Mich. I wish to sell live lambs to customers and want to know how I can allow them to religiously slaughter them on my farm and take the carcass home to process. The lambs would be small. Anyone know how this is legally done?

Do some research into how Muslims and Orthodox Jews kill animals to be butchered. It can be hard to watch, even if you are used to butchering animals. You have to decide if you will allow this way of killing an animal to be done on your property.

In Ohio, as long as the person who buys the animal is actively butchering the animal (even if you are helping) it's okay to do it without the facility being USDA or FDA inspected. I don't know Michigan law regarding butchering.