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Have you slaughtered and butchered your own cattle?

M

Mountain Cowgirl

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Mar 19, 2021
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Our family did all our own beef from killing the animal to skinning, gutting, hanging, cutting, and wrapping for freezing or processing for canning. I was in my mid-thirties before I ever bought beef in the store and that was occasionally as I usually bought a half beef from friends.

I was writing about this, a while back, on another general forum and I got this response. "It is good to see you have stopped the animal cruelty and now buy your meat in the store where no animals are harmed."
 
Mountain Cowgirl said:
Our family did all our own beef from killing the animal to skinning, gutting, hanging, cutting, and wrapping for freezing or processing for canning. I was in my mid-thirties before I ever bought beef in the store and that was occasionally as I usually bought a half beef from friends.

I was writing about this, a while back, on another general forum and I got this response. "It is good to see you have stopped the animal cruelty and now buy your meat in the store where no animals are harmed."
Click to expand...
I was writing about this, a while back, on another general forum and I got this response. "It is good to see you have stopped the animal cruelty and now buy your meat in the store where no animals are harmed."

Yeah, right! We haven't taught our young people very well, have we? And the further they get from farming and ranching the worse it has become.

We did do some butchering in the past, but the last time it wore us out. I'd much rather pay someone else to do it, but processing has become very costly in the past few years. I remember when the plant took the hide in exchange for the killing fee. Not any more. I think it is .75 to have a beef processed locally, and that doesn't include kill fee.
 
I have killed, butchered and processed a bunch of hamburger cows over the years. We usually process our deer and elk as well. But i always take my steers to a meat processor.

Funny side story-
I had two pigs for sale about 10 years ago, so i put them in a classified ad. A fellow called and wanted them both, provided they could butcher them at my place and then take them home to process. I agreed and they showed up. It was very obvious neither man had any experience, but they finally dispatched both pigs and began the process of cleaning them. 5 hours later, after i got them a tractor to hang the hog off of and a barrel for waste, they had 1 hog done!!!!:oops: The second hog only took 3 hours. It was just about dark when two, bloody, exhausted guys were getting ready to leave and head into the city. Before they left, i asked why they had decided to tackle such a big undertaking? And they still have a bunch of work at home to do. The guy who had called me explained that processing a pig at a butcher was way to expensive, because he had "heard" it was $500.You should of seen their faces when i said my processing fees were $83.00 on the pig i picked up the week before. That included curing the hams and bacon. The second guy threw a fit at his buddy and called him every name in the book. Then he said to me, "Can we haul these two dead pigs to your butcher and have them process them"? He almost cried when i told him that was against the law and they would have to process them themselves. I bet that was a long, quiet ride home that night!!!:LOL:
 
leanin' H said:
I have killed, butchered and processed a bunch of hamburger cows over the years. We usually process our deer and elk as well. But i always take my steers to a meat processor.

Funny side story-
I had two pigs for sale about 10 years ago, so i put them in a classified ad. A fellow called and wanted them both, provided they could butcher them at my place and then take them home to process. I agreed and they showed up. It was very obvious neither man had any experience, but they finally dispatched both pigs and began the process of cleaning them. 5 hours later, after i got them a tractor to hang the hog off of and a barrel for waste, they had 1 hog done!!!!:oops: The second hog only took 3 hours. It was just about dark when two, bloody, exhausted guys were getting ready to leave and head into the city. Before they left, i asked why they had decided to tackle such a big undertaking? And they still have a bunch of work at home to do. The guy who had called me explained that processing a pig at a butcher was way to expensive, because he had "heard" it was $500.You should of seen their faces when i said my processing fees were $83.00 on the pig i picked up the week before. That included curing the hams and bacon. The second guy threw a fit at his buddy and called him every name in the book. Then he said to me, "Can we haul these two dead pigs to your butcher and have them process them"? He almost cried when i told him that was against the law and they would have to process them themselves. I bet that was a long, quiet ride home that night!!!:LOL:
Click to expand...
I wonder if they are still friends?
 
I have slaughtered some steer but always took them to be cut and wrapped at a shop. We do our own on the deer and elk. And I have done the whole deal on a few pigs in the past. The last two I had killed here I told the guys to toss any waste into the tractor bucket and I would haul it out to the bone yard. I was surprised when they tossed the hide in. They said they have to pay to have the hides hauled off.
 
I have the same kill date reserved every year at a local processor.I kill a grass fed steer every year.If you get to thinking about it you really only save a little bit of money from what you pay at a grocery store.Or at least the way I do it does,but I know what I'm eating.Some people don't like the way grass fed beef tastes and some say it's the best they ever ate.
 

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