lystn

We raise all of the meat we consume—except for beef, which a friend raises and we exchange pork and chicken for. But what surprises some people is that we also butcher all our own meat here at the farm. Is this the next skill you're ready to add to your self reliance and self sufficiency bag of tricks? Let's talk about the reasons you too might want to butcher your own meat. (Don’t want to read all the words? This blog post is also a podcast—just press the triangle play button on the little black bar at the top of this post!) Butcher your own meat? Growing up, it was my normal. While I didn't grow up on a farm, I did grow up in a family of hunters. We usually had several deer to process every year, and people would come over and we’d have a big gathering to get the job done. I remember my sister and I standing on chairs pushed up to the table so we could reach to help with the process. It was our normal. If you wanted meat in the freezer, this is just what you did. So after growing up, getting married, and eventually moving to a farm, it was never a question of who would do the butchering of the animals we raised. My husband (also a hunter) and I both knew how to do it, so we decided to take on the job ourselves. For what reasons do people not want to butcher their own meat? There are a few common reasons that people give for not wanting to butcher their own meat. It’s a lot of work/time. And this is absolutely true. It is time consuming and a lot of work—especially if you're butchering a larger animal. They don’t know how or are afraid they’re going do something wrong. When you don't yet have the skill set, it can certainly seem overwhelming! But a great piece of advice my husband gave me was that even if you cut in the wrong spot or separate a cut of meat "incorrectly", the meat is going to taste the same. Too emotional/ I can't kill an animal I raised Some people want to raise their own meat for a multitude of reasons, but aren't able to complete the end of the process because they can't wrap their head around killing something they have raised. I also know some people who say I could butcher my chickens if I didn’t have to be the one to kill them. Once they are dead, then I could continue the process. Once the animal is dead, it's easier to separate themselves from the process. Too bloody, don’t want to deal with the mess. If you butcher your own animals on site, there were certainly be a "mess" to deal with—and some people don't deal well with that part of raising animals for meat. 7 reasons to butcher your own meat 1 - You don’t need to haul animals anywhere. Once our animals get to the farm—or are born on the farm—they never leave the farm. We do not have a livestock trailer here and it’s been a long time since we’ve needed to borrow one. We get our feeder pigs small enough that they actually can go in extra large dog kennels in the back of a truck. It's a very closed system, and we don't have the extra stressor of having to load/trailer the animals to an off site butcher. 2 - You’re going to get all the parts you want in the way that you want them. There are some butchers out there who can cater to the specific things you want—and that's awesome!—but it's generally not the norm. If you're looking to keep parts of the animal that aren't what people usually request (organ meat, fat, bones, carcass, etc) it's not always easy to get it back. Additionally, some folks want specific cuts or things done that aren't what the butcher usually does, and it messes up their efficient system when they step out to fill your specific request. By butchering your own meat, you guarantee you will get what you want in the way that you want it without any specific instructions. 3 - Less expensive to butcher yourself After the initial investment of tools, choosing to butcher your own meat at home is absolutely going to be less expensive. Time is money, and in this case if you've got the time to butcher,