Slaughter houses are making a killing.

[Grizzlyhackle]

I got tired of paying 80$ for a deer and having to argue everytime I didn't want his lousy sausage. I started doing it myself, bullet or bumper. It's a lot of work though. I couldn't believe the govt didn't step in to do something when I heard about those animals getting wasted. Contract Chicken growers mostly around here. I heard of several farms back late spring, early summer where the company came in shut the doors and windows turned up the heat and smothered the whole flock in each house. I would have bought some. Birds are messy but it's not that hard to do. It's a #$$ shame.

 

[messybun]

I got tired of paying 80$ for a deer and having to argue everytime I didn't want his lousy sausage. I started doing it myself, bullet or bumper. It's a lot of work though. I couldn't believe the govt didn't step in to do something when I heard about those animals getting wasted. Contract Chicken growers mostly around here. I heard of several farms back late spring, early summer where the company came in shut the doors and windows turned up the heat and smothered the whole flock in each house. I would have bought some. Birds are messy but it's not that hard to do. It's a #$$ shame.

I know. While small time chicken owners were selling out the moment they put a bird for sale thousands were just killed. Not to mention how inhumane it is. It almost seems that the government purposely interrupted the food supply; but this site isn’t for politics. For me, locally, everybody was joining livestock and chicken sites asking a thousand questions and panicking over trying to get Laying birds to feed their families. I sincerely felt sorry for some of the people, but most were just panic buying and grabbing whatever with absolutely no knowledge of what they were doing. I saw people trying to buy dairy cows for a family of three or four people, trying to fit a cow into their suburban back yard. Makes me grateful to already have some.

 

[promiseacres]

We just got half a beef.... it was at the meat processor for over 4 weeks. Then they didn't follow our cutting instructions... a bit frustrating but the freezer is full.
During college worked in a meat department and cut meat. He hopes to have a butchering barn and do everything from our rabbits to beef. Rabbits are super simple and I am expanding our meat rabbits this year. But am a bit intimatedated about a beef. We'll see. I think the processor industry is only get worse.

 

[Beekissed]

What are folks doing? We are not going to DIY.

I'm curious as to why someone would not adapt and learn to do their own butchering, especially in times like these. The alternative is what, exactly? Wait for a butcher date a few years down the road?

Hard times are when people need to get together and pool resources, help one another overcome obstacles and learn old skills. What is wrong with processing meat in a DIY setting?

 

[Grizzlyhackle]

I'm curious as to why someone would not adapt and learn to do their own butchering, especially in times like these. The alternative is what, exactly? Wait for a butcher date a few years down the road?

Hard times are when people need to get together and pool resources, help one another overcome obstacles and learn old skills. What is wrong with processing meat in a DIY setting?

Amen from the choir box.
It's funny all the hog killing pots you see used as flower planters and the pickling crocks as living room decor. I know what they're for, never seen them used.

 

[farmerjan]

Unfortunately for the "killing your own" thoughts, there are many reasons some don't, can't, and won't..... do it. Here, you have to have a place, and there are many that do their own. There are several regulations now about disposing of the parts of the carcass.... and some of the areas there are too many people who will call some "authority" about people that do it. It is alot easier to do small animals...rabbits, chickens, even goats and lambs. Hogs and cattle are much bigger and therefore not as easy to do "quietly in your own back yard" type of thing.
Age and abilities of the people that want to do the killing. With my knees, I cannot do more than a couple chickens without being in agony, standing. It doesn't pay to heat water and all that for just a couple of chickens.... you get all the set up, and it makes sense to do a bunch. We can do our own here in Va without much problem. You have to deal with the blood and guts for the bigger animal. Many do not have the facilities to hang a large animal to age for the required amount of time. Yes, you can cut up and freeze fresh beef, but it will have better texture and even cut easier if it has been aged, and then cut up cold.
I am in an area of many that are capable to do their own. But there is a closed "community" and many will not get together with others they are not close to or family members. There is alot of the anti meat people around now with so many moving from the city areas.... we have seen so much of it with the fair animals and having them spray painted and such to "hurt" the ones that have raised them and show them.
The problem with that is that you never know who they are anymore. You don't know who to trust to not turn you in if you sell a dozen of your chickens and have not met the specifications..... If you kill a large animal, and do not properly dispose of the hide, hooves, head and guts....

But some are just not capable of killing their own animal. Not that they are anti-gun, but they just cannot kill it after raising it. I get it, and I can sympathize.

Sheer physical capabilities and limitations of the people wanting to do the killing/processing.

Some of it is also just the sheer size of a finished beef..... killing and cutting up a 70-100 #, live weight lamb, is just a whole lot easier than a 1200 # live beef. Or even a 200 # live hog. In the case of the hog, scalding is the only way to go if you are going to cure much of the meat..... that takes time and muscle to handle a whole hog....a big container to heat water to scald; hanging a whole beef after killing to bleed out takes a tractor/hoist/something that is capable to hold big animal up in the air to skin and gut. Then the facilities to hang to chill and age.
Years ago deer season used to seem to have colder weather here....you hung the deer for several days after gutting, with the hide on, then skinned and cut up the meat. We don't seem to have the colder weather during hunting season as much. I would not want to trust the weather to hang a beef for a couple weeks.

I agree that it would be better for many to be able to get together and do a community kill day. Many here still do that, but most have places that they can do so and dispose of the offal on farm without a problem.... manure pits or piles to compost the remains, places to bury some of it. I could never kill here at the house I bought.... too open for everyone and their brother in law to see what is going on......

 

[Grant]

I

Amen from the choir box.
It's funny all the hog killing pots you see used as flower planters and the pickling crocks as living room decor. I know what they're for, never seen them used.

I’ve made sauerkraut in one of. The big crocks. Only thing I ever actually used it for.

 

[Alaskan]

He hopes to have a butchering barn

AKA dirt floored garage.

We have a big cross beam in our garage from which he hang the meat.

 

[Alaskan]

too open for everyone and their brother in law to see what is going on......

That there... makes it truly more problematic...

My baby sister got fussed at by multiple people because she had "unsightly" brush piles in her pastures after redoing some exterior fence.

X2 on lots of the rest of your post too.

So glad I live more remote.

 

[Alasgun]

Not seeing the right answer here, @Beekissed and others touched on learning to do your own and @Alaskan mentioned how they did some swapping way back when.
Guy’s, someone in your immediate area knows how to kill something!!!
yea, bigger animals require some equipment but up to hog size animals can be handled with a couple knives, a saw if your into saving all them bones and a swing set. A rope over top of the swing hooked to the bumper will lift most of what you need lifted, within reason and if your a scalder add an open top 55 gallon drum. The simplest thing is to just skin hogs and dump the hide and guts into the 55 then bone the rest. You’ll be happier with the packages down the road without all the punctures.
Get creative, invite some friends and if one of them knows something so much the better. If not no big deal, you’ll all know something when you get done. From rabbits to Moose they look pretty much alike when you get the hide off. Dont be put off by all them names you see on some butcher chart, around here we have Steak, Burger and Fajita which is the smaller stuff im Too lazy to grind. It all eats just fine.

These problems we’re discussing may be with us for quite some time, i aint gonna quit meat simply because someone wont do it for me!