How many of you still do your own?

[nenmrancher]

Just spent the day with my family processing a beef. We use a local packing house to do what they call a kill and chill. We let the beef hang in their cooler for a couple weeks and then haul it to the home place about 45 miles away and do our own cutting. Does anyone else still do their own butchering and cutting? Most around here just have the local plant do everything. We have alway done our own and have gotten spoiled over the years.

 

[Jason]

I have all the equipment to cut and grind a beef. I don't have a cooler set-up, but have an in ground garage that is good for hanging beef in decent weather. It barely freezes in -20 C and is cool in warmer weather.

The rules for selling beef have forced me to have it custom done, but with recent increases in processing, I have a couple that I want to do into sasuage and burger that I will do myself.

 

[Buyer]

We get together with the neighbors to butcher and have never had bad meat. The last one we took to the locker we couldn't eat.

 

[greg]

We also have set-up to do all our meat,for our beef we take into local kill and cut meat shop!Our deer and moose are all done at home!

 

[Hanta Yo]

We aren't set up to kill and/or process and/or cut up a beef, however we do our own wild game.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

Same here as Hanta Yo said, we've never done our own, always send it to the processors...but we do our own deer and hogs.
I do however remember grandma n grandpa doin their own, I was real little, bout 3 or 4 and I remember them coverin the kitchen table with butcher paper, and throwin half a beef up there and cuttin it up, I remember thinkin "that's an awful lotta meat for them to eat......"

 

[Faster horses]

We did it once at the neighbors in W. Montana. Never worked as hard as we did that day. From then on, we always sent ours to town. And we were gone when they cut up their own.

We hated every minute of it!!!!

 

[Soapweed]

We trade dry cows to the local butcher shop for fat young tender grain fed beef. The barter system works well, and the beef we get from them is always a pleasant dining experience.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

What I like about our processor, if we are in between, (run out but not time to do the next one) he has beef for sale at his place for VERY reasonable prices, mostly stuff he raises himself.

 

[theHiredMansWife]

We don't even do our own chickens. There're just some chores I'm willing to farm out to make my life easier...

 

[RoperAB]

Haha We cant afford to eat beef but the wife and I butcher our own elk.
We have no facilities except for the kitchen table, a hand saw and hunting knives but we can do up an elk in about 8 hours including clean up.
You dont have to age meat to make it good. Like we have no facilities to age it or let it hang. We just cut it up and debone the meat and freeze it.
Now if we want to age it we will take some steaks out of the freezer. marinate them and let them sit in the fridge for a week before we cook them.
Haha We have people over for supper all the time. We tell them its beef and they dont know the difference.

 

[Nicky]

We do our wild game but not the beef. The neighbors send do theirs themselves. We'd like to have the facilities to do it someday....

 

[HAY MAKER]

I like to do my own,but can not get any help,sure makes it easier when you have someone helping you,so I keep the butchering to a minimun around here.............good luck

 

[Liberty Belle]

Some guys play golf or fish for entertainment – my husband and sons butcher. So far this year they have butchered and cut up three beeves, two lambs and three hogs. Right now they have a huge steer hanging in the meat room to age and will butcher another lamb this week to cut up at the same time they cut the beef.

We feed out any beef or lamb that won't bring as much money at shipping time as the rest of the load. We get the hogs from an older neighbor who gives them to the boys for helping him with any project he needs them for during the year.

We have all the equipment needed to keep our three deep freezes full and all six of our kids' freezers full. The only thing we don't have is a refrigerated cooler, but since we only have time to butcher in the winter anyway, that has never been a problem.

 

[Karl]

We have always butchered our own beef. Had an uncle that ran the ibp in Lexington and he showed me where to cut all the cuts out off the carcass. We have 2 grinders and we even bought a cooler from a church camp. Pretty much keep all our butchering "in house" because if anyone comes to help they usually run up a pretty good tab. :drink: :drink: :drink: