Butchering meat is sometimes a tricky topic for people to swallow, especially if they're raising their own animals. This is most often because they have formed an attachment with that animal. Let's discuss the logistics of raising and butchering your own meat and some tips from our years of experience.
We've discussed before about raising a year's worth of meat on the homestead, the best homestead animals, as well as what to know before butchering day (especially when sending the meat off to a butcher). But in this post, we're discussing how to get started raising and butchering meat yourself and how to know if you're ready.
Whether we're talking about how to beat inflation at the grocery store, where the economy is headed, how to become more self-sufficient, learning urban homesteading skills, or just eating really healthy, high-quality food without breaking the bank, butchering your own meat can be a really important step in achieving all of those things.
Proper Perspective
It's very important to keep a proper perspective when it comes to raising animals for meat. We can enjoy and love our animals, treat them well and take good care of them, all while realizing they serve a purpose. If we go past that realization emotionally, that's when it gets hard.
It's hard to divide those feelings of love and care for an animal, but also that the animal's purpose is to provide for your family.
Death is a Part of Life
It takes death to keep life. This is true in the plant world, in the animal world and even in the human/spiritual world. Once you grasp this reality, it can become easier to grasp the task of butchering.
We all know that our animals will die at some point, whether from old age, disease, or a predator. We like to think of the quick death of our animals at the time of butchering as the most loving and humane way for them to die.
Our animals live great lives here on Riverbend. They are petted and cared for by multiple loving children daily for their whole lives. Then they are lovingly butchered by those same hands that raised them for this purpose.
That can sound harsh, but it's a reality for us to take the lives of our animals to keep our family fed and living. And our animals die a much healthier death because they're generally very calm and relaxed right up to the end.
A proper perspective that death is a part of life is key to making peace with this.
The Alternative
I've had multiple conversations with people that say they could never raise and butcher their own animals. However, these same people have no problem going to the grocery store and buying meat to feed their families.
Here's the disconnect. Most of that meat from the grocery store is of animals that were raised in horrible conditions and did not live a good life. They're generally raised in confinement-type situations, living in unhealthy environments.
When you connect this through to the humane way of raising your own meat and lovingly butchering the animals, the contrast is drastic and the value of that life that dies to feed your family is far greater.
Bambi Syndrome
Many of us have been raised with Disney movies and these human-like storylines being placed into an animal world. This has made us equate human characteristics to the animals we're raising, setting ourselves up for failure right from the start.
This is what we refer to as the "Bambi Syndrome."
This can be understandable when you research how inhumanely animals are treated in big feedlots and commercial growing situations. But to swing too far to the "Bambi" side is also an unhealthy balance, and we believe there's a healthy spot right in the middle.
God tells us to care for our animals, but obviously, they're working for us and feeding us. So though we don't want to be mistreating them, we do need the proper perspective of their role on the homestead.
Learning How to Butcher
If you've never butchered an animal and are looking to learn (or curious if this is an endeavor you can take on), here are some practical steps we recommend:
Offer to Help
Put the word out there to friends and family who are raising animals that you're willing to show up on butcher day to help, just for the experience of learning.
That's a great way to figure out if you want to raise animals and process them yourself.
Adjust Your Expectations
An important step when learning to butcher your own meat is to change your expectations that your cuts will look like they came from a butcher shop.
Because your home tools for butchering are likely much different than a butcher would use, you're going to have to approach the butchering process a bit differently.
When you're faced with an entire animal, your ability to replicate those cuts is very challenging and can create unnecessary stress.
The best thing to do is to let go of those expectations and cut the meat in a way that it's usable in the kitchen, even if that means it's all ground. The end goal is to get meat into the freezer, not to have beautifully cut steaks.
Do Your Research
Before you dive into the butchering process on your own, join a friend (as we mentioned above), or check out some YouTube videos by Brandon Sheard (who has a course on curing meat inside School of Traditional Skills) or other YouTube creators.
Watching someone butcher before you try it on your own can go a long way in improving your understanding and giving you somewhat of a roadmap to follow.
Learn to Wrap
Learning how to properly wrap and store your meat is very important. Most people want to use vacuum sealers, but we've had nothing but trouble with those.
Good old double layered butcher paper works great. You could also first wrap your meat in cellophane or plastic wrap, then finish with a layer of butcher paper.
The important thing is to double wrap your meat.
Store Properly
After properly wrapping your meat, you want to be sure you're storing it in a good quality, reliable sub-zero freezer. This will ensure your meat will be stored properly and last for at least a year (which is the goal for most of us), and won't become freezer burned.
Your regular refrigerator freezer is not designed to keep meat fresh for that long.
Learn to Hunt
Another way to determine if you're ready to raise and butcher your own meat is to learn to hunt. Go out and see how you do shooting and butchering an animal in the wild. This will eliminate the connection of harvesting an animal you raised, but it will also tell you how well you do with the whole process of taking an animal's life to feed your family.
Buy an Animal
If you think the emotional connection of raising and butchering an animal will be too hard for you, another option besides hunting is to buy an animal raised by a local farmer to butcher. Then you won't have the emotional attachment.
This is a great way to go if you want to learn how to butcher an animal and not have to deal with the emotional side of things.
This is also a great option if you don't have enough land or the ability to raise your own animals.
Best Animals to Start Raising
Rabbits or Meat Chickens
If you think you're ready to start raising and butchering your own meat, we recommend you raise meat chickens or raise rabbits.
Meat chickens only take 6-8 weeks to raise. They're small, easy to handle and easier to kill and clean than some of the larger animals. Read more on raising meat chickens.
Meat rabbits are the same way. Though they take about 12 weeks to raise, each rabbit will yield about three pounds of meat. By keeping a couple of breeders (called does) and a buck, you'll have a supply of rabbit meat all year long.
Pigs
If you're thinking about a larger ruminant animal, pigs are a great option. We have enjoyed raising Kune Kune pigs and other breeds.
Pigs don't require too much land, and it's pretty easy to keep their pen clean. We do recommend you get two and raise them as a pair. They will be much happier and healthier.
The one thing to consider about the butchering process with pigs is that they don't skin the same way as other animals, such as cows, sheep or goats.
You'll have to decide ahead of time whether you'll use the scalding method, which is what we prefer or to just skin them out and learn the proper way beforehand.
Sheep
If you've got a little more space and some pasture, then you could raise a couple of sheep. They're easy to raise and easy to contain, as well as easy to handle for their size.
We started out in the early years by getting feeder animals. This means we would buy young sheep, get them in the spring, feed them through to the fall or winter, then process them.
Common Concerns of Butchering
One of the common concerns when butchering animals is not having the proper equipment.
This is something worth discussing because it's like so many other things on the homestead. The process doesn't have to be perfect.
You can usually butcher an animal with a pot of boiling water and a good knife. (It will be useful to know how to sharpen your own knives during the process.) You may also need a saw for the larger animals.
Then, as you become more efficient and advanced, add in those extra tools that make the job easier or faster. But don't let a lack of equipment be a limiting factor.
Continue layering in ways to be more self-sufficient and less reliant on others. Put into proper perspective that all life requires death, and that raising and butchering your own animals can be the more humane route.
We really encourage you to all revive these old-fashioned skills and take back control of your family's food.
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- Building Resilience with Justin Rhodes
- How to Grow a Year’s Worth of Food
