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Post by rezzfullacres on Dec 15, 2012 19:41:39 GMT -5
Kill Fee: 5 cents (one .223 bullet) Process Fee: Free Tools: 1 Gun, 1 Knife (I suppose I could make do without the gun in a pinch) That's one of the things that makes small Dexters such a very great choice for homesteaders. Their smaller size makes simple home "processing" easy. I would like to know where you can get a .223 round for 5 cents......that would be $1 for a standard box of 20, best we can find is about $6.......even doing our own reloads we are much more than 5 cents..... Figure in the depreciated cost of the firearm, the cost of the knives and other equipment it is a bit more than you lead others to believe...Can you do it on the cheap, yes you can BUT if you want it done right there is a certain amount of "stuff" you will need to get the job done.... Never have paid a "bone disposal" fee......There is more to it than just killing and cutting, the knowledge of doing it right IS worth something...It takes a period of time, many mistakes, many trys to get it "right", especially if you are selling to the public, they are accustomed to standard commercial cuts and that is what they are going to expect....
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Post by theburrowfarm on Dec 15, 2012 19:47:25 GMT -5
He must have meant .22lr they are about 5 cents if you buy in bulk.
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Post by rezzfullacres on Dec 15, 2012 19:50:13 GMT -5
He must have meant .22lr they are about 5 cents if you buy in bulk. THAT is true......That is what I use to put down animals around here, never needed anything more.......
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Post by theburrowfarm on Dec 15, 2012 19:54:52 GMT -5
Yep. I know a few people that still deer hunt with a .22 during bow season.
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Post by Cascade Meadows Farm - Kirk on Dec 15, 2012 21:02:41 GMT -5
1. Sometimes I use a .22, sometimes a .223 (on an older bull with thick skull). Whether the price is 5 cents or 35 cents really doesn't matter.
2. The Gun(s) are multi-purpose. Really need to have a gun anyway to put down an animal in a crisis, or to fend off cougars or zombies.
3. The knife is multi-purpose... really need to have a knife anyway.
4. I try to impress on do-it-yourself homesteader types is that there is no wrong way to cut off a chunk of meat (but of course some methods may be a little better than others).
Step 1. Cut off a chunk the size you want. Step 2. Cook it how you want.
Optional step: Let the meat rest in cool temperatures as long as you want/dare for more tender meat (4 - 5 days is good enough, but you can go longer if you dare and have cool enough temperatures).
Cooking enough, corrects any germ problems.
That's sorta the homesteading approach to everything.
Now this simple do-it-yourself approach isn't the approach you would use if you're selling fine cuts of beef to yuppies living in townhouses, in fact, it would be illegal to do so in most places. But for folks raising their own homestead beef... home processing can be simple.
Now it is useful to know where the chunk of meat came from on the animal because you might cook it differently based on where it came from.
PS. I do the same thing with hogs and lamb. It all tastes great.
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Post by rezzfullacres on Dec 15, 2012 22:21:51 GMT -5
1. Sometimes I use a .22, sometimes a .223 (on an older bull with thick skull). Whether the price is 5 cents or 35 cents really doesn't matter. 2. The Gun(s) are multi-purpose. Really need to have a gun anyway to put down an animal in a crisis, or to fend off cougars or zombies. 3. The knife is multi-purpose... really need to have a knife anyway. 4. I try to impress on do-it-yourself homesteader types is that there is no wrong way to cut off a chunk of meat (but of course some methods may be a little better than others). Step 1. Cut off a chunk the size you want. Step 2. Cook it how you want. Optional step: Let the meat rest in cool temperatures as long as you want/dare for more tender meat (4 - 5 days is good enough, but you can go longer if you dare and have cool enough temperatures). Cooking enough, corrects any germ problems. That's sorta the homesteading approach to everything. Now this simple do-it-yourself approach isn't the approach you would use if you're selling fine cuts of beef to yuppies living in townhouses, in fact, it would be illegal to do so in most places. But for folks raising their own homestead beef... home processing can be simple. Now it is useful to know where the chunk of meat came from on the animal because you might cook it differently based on where it came from. PS. I do the same thing with hogs and lamb. It all tastes great. That is a very very poor practice IMO.....The various cuts of meat are so different that some are great for chop meat but very poor for a roast, some cuts would be a complete waste if chopped up......As far as germs regardless of how you cut an animal up it should be done humanely and cleanly....As far as knives are concerned if you are routinely butchering animals you better have several and they better be sharp and you better know how to keep them that way...We ALWAYS advise newbies to the slaughter and processing business that they should obtain help the first several times so they have a basic knowledge of what they are doing. BTW we slaughter cows, pigs, lambs, turkeys and chickens.....Plus assorted game animals...Now that being said We do not say our way is the only way BUT the major basic cuts are always the same and if you do not know them you WILL ruin some great cuts of meat...Take some time, do some studying and the result will be so much better than just slicing off a hunk and cooking it......
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Post by Julie on Dec 16, 2012 9:22:41 GMT -5
We just got our steer back from being processed at Mays Meats in Taylorsville, NC. We are very pleased with the way the cuts were packaged to our specifications in vacuum sealed plastic. My friend has been using Mays Meats to process the beef and lamb she sells, so I had seen consistent results. I appreciated the time they took to go over the cut list with me, since this was the first steer I had personally taken to slaughter. We payed $45 to kill, and $0.65 per pound hanging weight. They hung the beef for just over two weeks. Our steer's hanging weight was 419 lbs, and we weighed the boxes of meat as we put them in the freezer: 273 lbs. This is 65% of the hanging weight, which I think is better than average. Also, we got 3 boxes of bones for the dogs in addition to the 273 lb of beef. I wish I knew the final live weight of our steer, which was a dexter/jersey cross, so that I could crunch all of the numbers, but overall I think that the beef in the freezer has exceeded my expectations for the quantity/quality I expected based on published percentages of live weight/hanging weight/packaged meat weight. Hope this helps some other people - this first slaughter experience was an adventure for me! Julie
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Post by Cascade Meadows Farm - Kirk on Dec 16, 2012 13:03:09 GMT -5
That is a very very poor practice IMO.....The various cuts of meat are so different that some are great for chop meat but very poor for a roast, some cuts would be a complete waste if chopped up......As far as germs regardless of how you cut an animal up it should be done humanely and cleanly....As far as knives are concerned if you are routinely butchering animals you better have several and they better be sharp and you better know how to keep them that way...We ALWAYS advise newbies to the slaughter and processing business that they should obtain help the first several times so they have a basic knowledge of what they are doing. BTW we slaughter cows, pigs, lambs, turkeys and chickens.....Plus assorted game animals...Now that being said We do not say our way is the only way BUT the major basic cuts are always the same and if you do not know them you WILL ruin some great cuts of meat...Take some time, do some studying and the result will be so much better than just slicing off a hunk and cooking it...... Yes, our farm animals are family members to us on our farm, so of course their deaths MUST be humane. I hope my own death is as nice and easy as the animals on our farm. We thank each animal personally before we kill them, we'll even often write their name on packages of meat so we can thank them again as we eat them). Yes, things need to be REASONABLY clean, but this isn't surgery, it's cutting up a dead animal carcass for cooking. The Plains Indians butchered buffalo out on the open plain (not in surgically clean rooms with stainless steel equipment). If meat accidentally gets dirty, it can be washed. A very clean looking piece of meat from the cleanest of butchers is still COVERED in bacteria. Cooking is what REALLY kills the germs. Yes, it's nice to know where the meat comes from on the animal....(back, shoulder, rump). The back is usually the most tender. But you can't really ruin any of it. It's all healthy protein. Native Hawaiians kill a pig and roast it whole without cutting it up at all. I suppose some folks would say that the meat is "RUINED" because they didn't cut it up the right way into "major basic cuts", and they cook it all whole. But whole roast pig is terrific regardless of how you cut it up. My point is that many folks who would like to attempt to butcher an animal themselves, are afraid to try because they've been told "You'll ruin it if you don't do it exactly right". We'll I've found it's nearly impossible to "ruin" meat. The ONLY thing you MUST avoid is aging the meat at too warm of temperatures for too long (or the meat will spoil). Keep the aging meat cold and do a smell test twice a day to make certain the meat still smells fresh and unspoiled. If you can roast and enjoy whole cows, whole lambs, and whole pigs, then you certainly can cut them up in far less than perfect ways and still enjoy the meat too. That said, knowledge is power, so if you can learn some basic cuts before you butcher your first animal, that's terrific, but not necessary. You can improve your knowledge and techniques over time so don't let the fear of "ruining it" stop you trying (if you want to do-it-yourself). I would recommend starting on smaller animals like a small pig or small goat or lamb, before tackling a cow. Here are some interesting videos of whole-animal roasts Here is an interesting traditional butchering of a cow which is probably the most COMMON traditional method of a community slaughter, dividing the meat up between clan members. This is the way cows have been commonly butchered for thousands of years.
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Post by wvdexters on Dec 17, 2012 10:44:57 GMT -5
I am very lucky. Our son is a meat cutter at the local meat market. Trained the old-school way. Hanging beef in the cooler cut for the meat case, and for customer special order. They cut beef, pork, poultry and lamb. We plan to butcher in the winter (cold). We'll kill and hang, then it's all his. This is one of the reasons we went with dexters. Their small size makes them easy to handle.
We all grew up around here hunting and "doing up" deer. I was probably only about 8 or 9 yrs the first time I helped my father and uncles. You don't "ruin" the meat unless it gets too warm (if your work area is kept clean). Keeping everything cold is the key. The bacteria count can soar under the wrong conditions. But you do "miss out" on some of the choice cuts, if you are inexperienced. The meat will be tougher (less tender) if not cut correctly "against the grain".
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Post by ssrdex on Dec 17, 2012 23:32:23 GMT -5
$125 kill fee, price per lb. to cut & wrap goes from .76 to .86 depending on who does it. They will generally hang as long as you like, as long as there's enough cover. The "killer" comes to our place & when he drives off, all that's left is stomach contents.
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Post by Dahdo on Dec 18, 2012 13:29:45 GMT -5
We found a good on-farm slaughter guy ($90) and he delivered to a local butcher who hung it for 17 days (as far as he wanted to go with the fat cover). When it was time to cut, I wanted to watch and he invited me in at 7, poured us some coffee, and then gave me a complete lesson on bovine anatomy while he cut. What more could you ask for 50 cents a pound?
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Post by theburrowfarm on Dec 18, 2012 14:12:46 GMT -5
Here it's $25 kill fee,and .25 per pound live weight. Hung 7 to 21 days then vacuum sealed.
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Post by theburrowfarm on Dec 19, 2012 21:15:07 GMT -5
Luckily for me the slaughter house is about 4 miles away.It's a small family run operation and very friendly .
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Post by jwneeley on Jan 7, 2013 0:09:11 GMT -5
I just got a steer back last Friday. He weighed 725# and his hanging weight was 420#. It cost me $285.36 to have him processed. $50 kill fee, $.48 per # for processing, $12 tenderizing fee, $10 boning, and 28#s of pattys made at $.42 per pound. All meat was vacuum packed and it hung for 14 days. The meat is AWESOME! We have used this packer for the last 3 steers and love the way they do it.
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