Slaughter houses are making a killing.

[misfitmorgan]

Makes you wonder why there are not more people butchering? Around here there are no private butchering operations of which I'm aware. People are pretty much bound to take it to a USDA abbatoir or to the Amish. I've seen a few guys on FB advertising to butcher for people on the farm, but they are very rare.

Here's a chart for our state as to what is allowed to be sold to the public and/or across state lines:

View attachment 80538

For some reason that chart will not go bigger.

Also per USDA having your own animal butchered to be consumed by you or guests who do not pay makes you not "the public" Maybe your area just has people covered with USDA locations? I can't imagine that being the case though. We are not allowed to sell anything across state lines as far as I know.

You appear to have non-USDA processors.
https://www.tandrdeerprocessing.com/ I clicked this one just because deer processors are 90 out of 100 times or there abouts not USDA.

Seems you only have 13 USDA locations, I did not look to see who offered processing to the public. I can not imagine the entire state would only go thru 13 locations and the amish. Mr googlepants has like 20 pages of results for meat processing in virginia, so I'm thinking there has to be whatever your MDARD equivalent is or private butchers.

I'm just saying if you didnt need USDA And wanted cheaper processing or more options probly something to look into. Honestly I didnt even know taking my own livestock or game to a USDA meat processor was an option until about 4yrs ago when i had to research it all for a hog roast we were doing.

 

[Beekissed]

Mr googlepants has like 20 pages of results for meat processing in virginia, so I'm thinking there has to be whatever your MDARD equivalent is or private butchers.

Uh...you know West Virginia is a whole other state than Virginia, right? As far as opportunities and population, Virginia is pretty much a whole other country compared to WV.

You could be right...they could be everywhere, but I haven't seen ads nor signs for such where I live and other places in the state in which I've lived. Could be they are covert? If so, why? If it's so very legal to butcher privately and sell the meat, other than wild game which is illegal for sale, why isn't that more visible?

 

[Alaskan]

Craigslist I saw a place in Hagerstown MD that will sell you the animal and then has the set up and help you butcher. Too far from home for me. 3 hour ride one way. They listed everything as available to buy cows down to birds and rabbits.

Nice!

 

[Kusanar]

Uh...you know West Virginia is a whole other state than Virginia, right? As far as opportunities and population, Virginia is pretty much a whole other country compared to WV.

You could be right...they could be everywhere, but I haven't seen ads nor signs for such where I live and other places in the state in which I've lived. Could be they are covert? If so, why? If it's so very legal to butcher privately and sell the meat, other than wild game which is illegal for sale, why isn't that more visible?

I can't really read your chart either, but my understanding is that to sell it to someone else it needs to be USDA processed, so if I were to raise 50 CX and sell them, I would need to take them to a USDA butcher (very few around me). If I wanted them for my own consumption, I could take to USDA approved, take to non USDA approved (same prices and can't sell afterwards), or butcher myself.

Around here, most people butcher their own if they aren't selling and take to USDA if they are selling. For large animals like cows and hogs they take them to a USDA facility, but they typically sell half or more rather than having the entire animal for themselves.

 

[Beekissed]

I can't really read your chart either, but my understanding is that to sell it to someone else it needs to be USDA processed, so if I were to raise 50 CX and sell them, I would need to take them to a USDA butcher (very few around me). If I wanted them for my own consumption, I could take to USDA approved, take to non USDA approved (same prices and can't sell afterwards), or butcher myself.

Around here, most people butcher their own if they aren't selling and take to USDA if they are selling. For large animals like cows and hogs they take them to a USDA facility, but they typically sell half or more rather than having the entire animal for themselves.

Apparently that applies to all but the CX, which you can home butcher up to 20K per year and sell, without the USDA or WVDA inspection stamp.

 

[Kusanar]

Apparently that applies to all but the CX, which you can home butcher up to 20K per year and sell, without the USDA or WVDA inspection stamp.

Then it is probably an issue of people not having somewhere to hang them. I want to get a retired heated or refrigerated (read well insulated) semi trailer and put a rail system in it, preferably a circular one so you can hang the carcass with the tractor (we have one) and push it in on the rails and let it chill for a few days before working on it. The neighbor has beef cows but having one processed costs too much so he sells them all and buys beef at the store, if I had a place we could hang a whole beef and process it, my parents, the guy next door and I could split the meat of one steer a year and be fine. He raises them anyway, my dad would have no problem putting a bullet in it's head, and I don't have a problem with setting up the trailer and running the power to it. Dad and I could part the steer out once it's cold, I've been helping him with deer since I was little. We just don't have good consistently cold weather here anymore to be able to hang one without a giant refrigerator / freezer.

 

[Simpleterrier]

The bearded butchers. They are about 5 miles from me. They had a kill floor and a custom shop but know they only kill and sell in their own store steak starts around $25 a pound. People around herego crazy for home grown grass fed or whatever beef. I probably have 40 butcher shops with in an HR ofme and most have u take your animal to the same kill floor.

 

[Sheepshape]

Even chickens? I can't imagine living somewhere that such laws exist! Makes one extremely dependent upon the government for their food, doesn't it?

We can slaughter our own chickens. Larger animals must be slaughtered at licensed premises. Actually, there's really no delay and, though abattoirs may be 'ruled', inspected and licensed by the Government , they are under independent ownership. If I have 'fat lambs' for sale they can be taken from a 'transfer station' this morning and slaughtered this afternoon. Small abattoirs will also slaughter individual animals for personal consumption and butcher them nicely for you too,...for a very reasonable fee.
To be honest I am more than happy to have 'humane slaughter' for all animals. Though I know that many of you guys will know how to slaughter an animal humanely, there are way too many folk who don't know how to, and some don't seem to care, either. I care a lot, as do many of you 'softies' out there!

 

[Kris5902]

I’m in Canada, and although we haven’t been hit quite as hard with the backlog here, many of the issues come from not being able to hire qualified staff, and people not wanting to do the “dirty” work of processing. Granted 8-10 hours of eviscerating or scalding and plucking chickens is not anyone’s idea of a good time, to qualified individuals who have complicated their humans stunning course it is a reasonably well paid job. Bear in mind the facility has to pay its overhead and all of those workers, so they are most likely not actually making that much profit once all the costs of operating are covered. This applies especially to small producers. A qualified and proficient stunner can expect to be earning $20-28 CAD per hour here. Which is similar to a ticketed butcher.

My Husband (47, with 30 years experience in meat processing and a ticketed butcher) works at two fully licensed class A local abattoirs, one (unpaid) as a stunner for beef and sheep and as a butcher, and at the other solely as a butcher. The unpaid work is the business owned by his family’s farm 3 days a week, and the paying job at the other abattoir is 2 days a week, he was also working 5 days a week at the local pub... leaving me to run the cattle, chickens, and farm chores on 600 acres... and we are barely making ends meet. The paying job is a four hour commute by two ferries, and he spends two nights sleeping in our truck to work there.

The Abattoir my friend has his hogs done at cancelled 1/3 of their 2020 bookings and is going out of business. A small family owned plant that has been operating since the 50’s. All Because they can’t hire qualified staff to stay open. DH would have taken a job there, if he could find the time. And that has put a huge strain on the other local plants in taking up the slack. Because yes, the animals need to be brought to slaughter, and it is completely illegal here to sell home butchered meats. It’s not all milk and honey on the other side of the coin either, is all I’m trying to say. It would be nice if there were more government incentives to get and keep smaller plants in business, as overall they have better records for cleanliness and traceability than the huge plants. Speaking from our own experiences, and in a different country, but I still see a lot of similarities in what you’re saying here.

 

[Beekissed]

We can slaughter our own chickens. Larger animals must be slaughtered at licensed premises. Actually, there's really no delay and, though abattoirs may be 'ruled', inspected and licensed by the Government , they are under independent ownership. If I have 'fat lambs' for sale they can be taken from a 'transfer station' this morning and slaughtered this afternoon. Small abattoirs will also slaughter individual animals for personal consumption and butcher them nicely for you too,...for a very reasonable fee.
To be honest I am more than happy to have 'humane slaughter' for all animals. Though I know that many of you guys will know how to slaughter an animal humanely, there are way too many folk who don't know how to, and some don't seem to care, either. I care a lot, as do many of you 'softies' out there!

Now that's cool....no waiting for a year to get livestock butchered! And also for a good price, can't beat that. That's all good to hear.