PEAX Equipment

Brockel sausage party

Ya a pig is about as easy as it comes for self butchering.
But there sooooo much good stuff on a pig. If you’re just getting the butcher cuts you’re missing out on the best stuff. Home made cracklings, your own sausage, jowl bacon, head cheese… just get a whole hog and butcher it yourself. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to do it, and loads of sausage how to books.

If you want a good start get Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn.
I guess I never really thought about butchering a pig. Truth be told a lot of it is ignorance. I’d probably know enough to make bacon, tenderloin and pork roast, then sausage the rest. I’m not a fan of pork chops, that’s all we had growing up as a kid and I just can’t stand to eat anymore of it. Ribs would be very good too.

Sorry @brockel im hijacking your thread. I’m woke in pig butchering though and you’ve given me something to think about.
 
I guess I never really thought about butchering a pig. Truth be told a lot of it is ignorance. I’d probably know enough to make bacon, tenderloin and pork roast, then sausage the rest. I’m not a fan of pork chops, that’s all we had growing up as a kid and I just can’t stand to eat anymore of it. Ribs would be very good too.

Sorry @brockel im hijacking your thread. I’m woke in pig butchering though and you’ve given me something to think about.

It’s a great way to get the young ones involved too. No silver skin to trim off. Give them a chunk of meat and tell them to cut it into small enough cubes to make it into the grinder. Then mixing time kids love to dive right in.
 
These type threads inspire me. I’m really wanting to put a walk in cooler and small butcher shop into my shop if we ever get our house built on our land. I do pretty good now with three freezers and home processing equipment but…..

“Our land” gifted to us by my in-laws butts up to their place and they currently raise longhorn; father in law wants me to take over and switch to angus. My thinking is having some pigs and goats on my section and beef on theirs; for a fee I could butcher a few animals per year and recoup some costs. I would have to look into the licensing requirements.

Either way I want my own walk in and butcher shop just for family.
 
That's a great price, I get $3-3.50/lb hanging around here for pasture raised.

$0.75-$1/lb has pretty much been what they have been since I can remember butchering for price around here. . Ive been doing it for almost 30 years.

Daughter will have 4h pigs next year so I’ll keep track of costs to see if it’s worth me raising a second one for butchering vs leaving that to someone else
 
There’s pretty good money in the meat goat market. We’ve got 26 of them running around with 16 of them kidding end of January 🤢. Kill me now. Hoping for a very warm January
I worked, guided and hunted on the place I hunt now. It was purely beef until my buddy tried goats; he made more money per head off the goats and they were way easier to work with. I bottle fed my fair share of kids during those cold months but those goats always grew into friendly and workable animals.

They liked to climb all over my black truck though.
 
$0.75-$1/lb has pretty much been what they have been since I can remember butchering for price around here. . Ive been doing it for almost 30 years.

Daughter will have 4h pigs next year so I’ll keep track of costs to see if it’s worth me raising a second one for butchering vs leaving that to someone else
We buy my god daughters back-up pig for 4H. She plays the “I’m cute and you love me” card really well and I end up waaaaay overpaying.
 
I grew up butchering them with my family. We raised 1200 a year for a more than a few years so it was easy to grab a few every winter for the freezer. Made lots of sausage too. @brockel is right. It’s a great animal for a kid to start learning how to use a knife. Especially for savage! Here’s a hunk of meat, cut it off the bone and in grinder-sized pieces.

I like the process and the product. Hate the animals. My wife has tried convincing me we need to raise a few hogs. I’ll have no part in it unless they are on concrete….so I’m guessing I’ll be pouring concrete one day for a pig pen. 🤦‍♂️
 
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Reading this thread is giving me flashbacks from being a kid and having my dad yell at me when I missed the spot on the forehead and the pig went nuts and tore down the paneling in the make shift chute, sprayed blood all over, and damn near ran over my dad and I. He was so pissed running around the yard trying to get that pig killed. Needless to say my trigger man duties got revoked for that year.

Not to mention going to school with my hands so stiff from skinning pigs all weekend I could barely write. It’s like trying to work your phone when your hands are frozen.

Ahhh good times…
 
Reading this thread is giving me flashbacks from being a kid and having my dad yell at me when I missed the spot on the forehead and the pig went nuts and tore down the paneling in the make shift chute, sprayed blood all over, and damn near ran over my dad and I. He was so pissed running around the yard trying to get that pig killed. Needless to say my trigger man duties got revoked for that year.

Not to mention going to school with my hands so stiff from skinning pigs all weekend I could barely write. It’s like trying to work your phone when your hands are frozen.

Ahhh good times…
And don’t ever try to kill them with .22 shorts!🤣😬 When my grandad was alive we scalded and scrapped them.
 
Caribou Gear

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