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Slaughter Day

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Alee	Posted - May 27 2009 : 10:10:56 AM Here at the ranch one of the cows is being slaughtered. She was an old cow and was quietly munching a big bite of green grass when she was shot. It was quick and painless. The butchers already have her hanging and skinned. I am very impressed with how efficient they are! Alee Farmgirl Sister #8 www.awarmheart.com www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com
25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
kristin sherrill	Posted - May 29 2009 : 08:37:36 AM You're one up on me, Cherry. I hate guns. They scare me too much. So good for you. I can't remember exactly what the man said that day, but he has gotten mad and said Woman and not in a good way. That just makes me madder! Now that reminds me of the time we butchered an old domenecker hen. That's what they were called back then, domeneckers. We didn't know a thing about doing all this and someone had given us a bunch of hens when we first got married. We butchered that hen by ourselves. We were quite proud of ourselves, too. So proud we invited some friends over to eat it with us. So I cut it up and floured it and popped it in the good ole cast iron skillet and fried her up. I also had mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans that we had grown. We sat down to eat and took a bite and it was like biting into a piece of wood, that's how tough it was. I was so embarrassed. I have never fried another old hen again. Jami, that's really not a bad price for them to come to your place. The only mobiles are up north like in N.H. and Conn. I'll keep looking because I figure there should be one near Atlanta now. That is a good idea using the peppermint oil. Thanks. I will try that. Kris
Jami	Posted - May 29 2009 : 07:51:25 AM Cherry, you are tickling my funny bone. Jami in WA Farmgirl Sister #266 http://cookecreeksheep.blogspot.com http://cookecreekwool.etsy.com
CherryMeDarlin	Posted - May 29 2009 : 07:40:03 AM Geez, ya'll are crackin' me up!!! I would get tangled up in the pulley somehow! And Brian would bust a gut laughing at me as I dangled there upside down with all the blood running to my head!! Lawd, I can just picture it! But I must say that I am a good shot! I can skeet shoot with the best of them! Well, the best that we go skeet shooting with. And I love my little .22 single shot. It shoots so straight and is perfect for getting rid of those thieving cowbirds! And I'd have been like you, Kris, if Brian had done something like that to me! Did he happen to call you "woman" when he dropped those lil' buggars on the table? Brian tried that once with catfish. I told him that he could cook and eat them all by himself if I gutted and skinned them because I wouldn't be able to stomach either if I had to do that job. And to be prepared to do it around midnight 'cause I'd take my own sweet time doing it. Well, he can't fry catfish or chicken to save his life and we had invited the friends fishing with us to eat with us, so that put him right back between a rock and a hard place! That macho male pride! ~~Cherry~~ http://cherrymedarlin.blogspot.com "A thing is as simple or as complicated as you make it." --TT Murphy
Jami	Posted - May 29 2009 : 07:23:45 AM Teresa Sue and Kris - send the pelts off to Bucks Co. Fur Products in Pennsylvania. They do an awesome job and we always choose the washable process, meaning our sheepskins are machine washable! That's pretty amazing. It's some chemical process of course...nothing organic either. It depends on who we have come to the farm but the costs for butchering a lamb runs anywhere from $30 to $40...that's just the slaughter. The cut and wrap is the same amount again although I've used more expensive places too. Took me a while to find a good one and honestly, hunting again as I'm not totally thrilled with this last batch we did. He hung them too long I think. You know, I helped DH butcher a yearling ram one year for ourselves...he was just not growing out to be breeding material. It really wasn't so bad but I wouldn't want to do it for a living. I visited a commercial slaughter plant at a sheep industry leadership school in Texas a few years back. Very assembly-line type of slaughter of course...I can't imagine standing there cutting off one body part all day long on the "line". Jami in WA Farmgirl Sister #266 http://cookecreeksheep.blogspot.com http://cookecreekwool.etsy.com
SheilaC	Posted - May 29 2009 : 07:02:00 AM Kristin--when we did the chickens last weekend I put a few drops of peppermint oil on a dust mask and wore it when we plucked and skinned and I couldn't smell anything but that peppermint oil! Everyone laughed at me, but really, the smell is what grosses me out, so with smelling that strong peppermint, I was just fine!
kristin sherrill	Posted - May 29 2009 : 06:03:13 AM I have heard to put Vicks under your nose so you don't smell the nasty chicken smell. I amm going to do that next time I have to butcher chicken. That is a smell ya never forget. I wonder if anyone here has tried that yet and if it does work. Alee, yep, those squirrels are so tiny and so much work. I had no idea he was going to do that. I just assumed he would. I still have never skinned and cleaned one. Kris Happiness is simple.
Tammyb	Posted - May 29 2009 : 05:09:02 AM Ok girls these posts are great. Maybe I will be ready to get the meat birds into my freezer in a couple of weeks. :) Tammyb#541
Alee	Posted - May 28 2009 : 9:20:39 PM Well gee! They could have warned you or asked you instead of demanding! Skinning a squirrel sounds like an awful lot of work! Alee Farmgirl Sister #8 www.awarmheart.com www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com
kristin sherrill	Posted - May 28 2009 : 8:52:28 PM Ya'll are a mess! Only farmgirls could turn slaughtering day into something so funny. Yes, Cherry, stay away from all knives. And guns too for that matter. And probably the pulley that lifts the animal in the air to bleed it. You might end up being hoisted up their instead! Now wouldn't that be a funny sight, CherryMeDarlin dangling upside down on a rope. It's quite possible ya know. The squirrel reminds me of me and hubbys worst fight ever. He and a friend had gone out back to hunt the little buggars one morning. They came back with a bunch of them. He threw them on the kitchen table and told me to clean them up and cook them for him. I said no I will not. Well that's all it took. And his friend right there, too. I was young and never had seen a dead squerrel except on the road and didn't want one in my kitchen. He ended up doing all the dirty work. I think it just made him mad because his friend was there and saw all that. He was embarrased more than anything. I'll never forget that. Kris Happiness is simple.
yasmine	Posted - May 28 2009 : 6:50:43 PM LOL Cherry, and Alee!
Contrary Wife	Posted - May 28 2009 : 5:55:44 PM ROFL. That was the rule for us too. You kill it, you eat it. Teresa Sue Farmgirl Sister #316 Planting Zone 4 "Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly." The Dalai Lama
CherryMeDarlin	Posted - May 28 2009 : 5:45:57 PM ROFL!!! Alee, you absolutely keep me on both feet! I was thinking of Brian! He's the who knows how to gut and skin a critter. Not me, no, sireee! I quit shooting animals after my very first squirrel that my daddy made me skin and gut and quarter, cause that was the rule of hunting, so Grandmother could make squirrel-n-dumplins. I couldn't eat it cause I felt like I had a hairball stuck in my throat. Now whether that was a figment of my imagination or an indication of my skinning job, I couldn't tell ya! I just don't do it anymore! ~~Cherry~~ http://cherrymedarlin.blogspot.com "A thing is as simple or as complicated as you make it." --TT Murphy
Laila	Posted - May 28 2009 : 4:48:06 PM We have always done our own butchering. I have helped with all aspects except the killing. If I had to do that, I would definitely be vegetarian.(LOL) I feel bad for the animals, but it is done humanely and is a fact of life. This year we are getting chicks and turkeys so we will have our own again instead of having to buy at the grocery store. Laila
Alee	Posted - May 28 2009 : 4:36:26 PM Cherry- Really? They are super common up around these parts! But please- you can't be a butcher. Really. I would be seriously afraid of you around those sharp knives! Alee Farmgirl Sister #8 www.awarmheart.com www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com
CherryMeDarlin	Posted - May 28 2009 : 11:32:17 AM Oh, Yasmine! I bet you thought you were getting a whole day named after you! Kris, my business wheels are a turnin'! I've never heard of a traveling butcher! ~~Cherry~~ http://cherrymedarlin.blogspot.com "A thing is as simple or as complicated as you make it." --TT Murphy
yasmine	Posted - May 28 2009 : 10:00:24 AM I know this doesn't have anything to do with the subject but my last name is "Slaughter"! Hahaha
kristin sherrill	Posted - May 28 2009 : 07:50:19 AM Jami, how much do they charge out there for the mobile unit to come? Do they charge per animal? I wish we had one closer. But I wondered about the cost as opposed to the butcher. But if it means less stress I'm sure it's worth it in the taste of the meat. Kris Happiness is simple.
Contrary Wife	Posted - May 28 2009 : 07:42:15 AM Where do you send your pelts to have them tanned Jami? Teresa Sue Farmgirl Sister #316 Planting Zone 4 "Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly." The Dalai Lama
Jami	Posted - May 28 2009 : 07:40:55 AM We have had up to 20 lambs done at a time and use a mobile slaughter truck. They butcher here, less stress, then haul the hanging cleaned carcasses to age and cut and wrap at the butcher shop. These are state-inspected facilities that cut up game for people during hunting season and do farm slaughters but they are not USDA inspected. We do a slaughter every year with the truck and DH has done single animals for our use as well. I always make a big batch of cookies for the crew that comes and tell them to wait to shoot until I get back in the house. It's not a fun day of course but sure do enjoy having a freezer full of lamb and so do our locker lamb customers. Keep the best pelts to salt and dry in the garage and send them off for tanning too. Jami in WA Farmgirl Sister #266 http://cookecreeksheep.blogspot.com http://cookecreekwool.etsy.com
Contrary Wife	Posted - May 28 2009 : 06:31:12 AM We have tried to get someone to come to us, but they don't want to come that far out. We have to load them up and take them. Yes, it can be stressful, the hubbs and I have done it so many times now, that we have a system and it all goes really smooth. I am a bit aprehensive about the chicken butchering that I'm going to have to do later in the summer, tho. Teresa Sue Farmgirl Sister #316 Planting Zone 4 "Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly." The Dalai Lama
Sheep Mom 2	Posted - May 27 2009 : 9:22:06 PM We have always done mobile slaughter here - cows and pigs. We have had as many as three steers done at a time and sometimes as many as 5 or 6 pigs. Our county has a real problem with people hauling their stock to the butcher place to be killed. We've had the same local family doing it for quite awhile now. They do beef, pork, and Lamb - no game. There is another place that does the chickens if you haul them there. The last time I did meat chickens the Amish community was doing processing and they did our chickens. I've done chickens myself but never more than 30 at a time. When we do 100 then we haul them in and have them done. Sheri
Alee	Posted - May 27 2009 : 5:47:50 PM Never dull! I love it! And it has great rewards at the end of the day! Alee Farmgirl Sister #8 www.awarmheart.com www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com
kristin sherrill	Posted - May 27 2009 : 12:32:33 PM Ok, now I am wondering if any slaughter houses around here will come and do that here and take him in dead. Last year I had a steer that died in the early morning in Feb. It was a freezing cold morning. We tried to see if we could haul him in to the slaughter house but no one would take him being dead that long and not being bled out, too. So we lost that whole steer. So now I am going to see what I can come up with. Thanks, Alee, for all the info. What a day you've had so far. Life on a farm is never dull, huh? Kris Happiness is simple.
Alee	Posted - May 27 2009 : 12:14:55 PM Well the guys are a local packer house, so they have a really cool truck that has a mini crane on it. So the guys came out we ushered Old Mama cow into the next pasture. She stood in the corner munching hay and the one guy lined up the shot and got her right away. She crumbled to the ground and rolled over. No the feet weren't straight in the air but kindof drawn up. She shuddered for a few minutes as the last electrical impuses faded, but the second guy went up and slit her throat right away so that she was double-dead. A well placed bullet and a slit throat- plus the blood could drain. It was very efficient and kind. She had no idea what was going on. So then the did their thing- I had to go take some horses in and close up the barn because they get a bit freaked from the smell of blood. My filly was really hot (spiritied/freaked) because of the truck backing into the pasture right past her barn/run. So I didn't watch them skinning, but they skinned her an hoisted her up. They will take her back to their shop to break her down into steaks and hamburgers and wrap the meat in freezer paper. They were here for probably less than half an hour. I think it is much better to kill on the farm because they don't get as stressed. I can't imagine the stress for both human and animal to try and get an animal into a trailer who never is in a trailer and then to a slaughter house. I like the fact that she lived and died on green grass. Alee Farmgirl Sister #8 www.awarmheart.com www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com
kristin sherrill	Posted - May 27 2009 : 12:03:09 PM Alee, who dod it? Do they have a butcher there on the farm or use a traveling one? How interesting. You will have to tell ALL about it now. I have lots of questions just waiting to be asked. I have heard of traveling slaughter houses, but mainly they are up north. I haven't found one around here yet. I would so rather not have to haul my steer off and leave him in a strange place with mean people he's never seen before. I can just imagine the stress he'll be feeling. Kris Happiness is simple.

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