Earlier post on freezer beef

Anyone waiting for a date at their locker to get beef, hogs or lambs processed? We picked up a half beef yesterday (Saturday) and our name had been on the list since February, 2020. It took us from last February to July to get a hog butchered. I checked with 3 shops and they are all snowed under with work. I added our name yesterday for next March for another beef. We live in west central Iowa. Anyone else have this much of a waiting list?

They were busy in PA And NJ ,I did two hogs in my house for my brother,,he got them slaughtered and split in half,,but no cutting up

Took six months to get ours in for processing.

Same here in pa.. sent 3 jan 27 and booked a date for nov 15 for 3 more

If you have a local butcher shop.
Last summer an activist by the name of Reagan jumped out in front of and was run over by a trailer load of hogs in Brampton .
A few days later ARAs stormed Brussels Transport Headquarters , whose truck the activist ran in front of .
Just by coincidence the closest abbattoir burned down the same day the protestors made the trip up from the city .
The ARA types were posting on their sites and FB ha ha while the firefighters were still arriving on the scene .
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/local/london/2020/6/25/1_4999898.html

I can get hogs in usually in 1 to 2 weeks.

Cows..... they only do 4 a week. Good luck.

I have always had a March beef appointment. When I picked mine up in March of 2020 I said 2ed Tuesday of March again? Nope there booked up till Sept 21. I found out several guys booked all the appointments up so you have to buy a pig or cow from them. They did leave a couple of weeks open for fair pigs. Well lucky for me a young gal bought a closed up shop and remodeled it so I got a cow in last month. I was impressed with her place and her work.

Good Afternoon
My Nephew that lives in Missouri just recently opened up a meat processing place on his Farm . Got it all inspected by the MO. Dept. of Health . Good to go .
He s been very busy since He opened . Been ,opened for about 6 weeks .
Seems like a lot of the older ones are closing the doors .

azpeapicker

Butcher your own,what doesn't go on one side of the knife will go on the other side.

My packer called me last July to make my appointments for this year, I haven't even gotten the feeders yet for this year. I made 3 a month starting in April through July. I use to just call a month ahead or so. Things have changed.

12 months here in NE WI. Crazy.

Ok.... Just for us that don't know, say you bring 1 calf and 1 hog to the packer alive. On average, what does he charge you (his profit) after he kills, butchers, and wraps and then he calls you to pick up? Profit for each shown seperatly. Thanks. Wingnut

Amen, Mr. T Farmer. I have never butchered beef, but I have been doing my own venison for a life time. A band saw is needed but I would give meat cutting a try. Heck, the mistakes are called hamburger. A small pig would be a good place to start. Larry sure looked like he figured it out nicely. Does anyone want to bring one over for us to practice on? It's a shame my Dad is gone, I know they did their own years ago. I remember the smokehouse being at my place.

The one i use charges 55 to kill. 65 a pound to cut and vac seal.. the bolongna hot dogs keilbasa and beef sticks are extra not sure what he gets for pigs .... but does a good job........ sent 3 steers end of jan. Sold 2 and half... I charged 2 50 hanging and everyone satisfied

A few years ago on a Saturday a 2 year old heifer fell and broke her back,so she was never going to get up,went over on Sunday morning,shot her and brought her to the house with the front end loader she probably weighted about 900 lbs.We do deer all the time so wife and I skinned her and cut her up figured she'd be pretty tough since she had never had any grain, turned out she was really tender so wife cut out the better cuts and we ground the rest up for hamburger.Wasn't really that bad of a job of course my wife worked as a meat cutter for awhile so that helps.

So Larry, the truth comes out!

I didn't think you had it in you to kill the poor little piggys!

I know I couldn't, and wouldn't know where to start once the deed was done!

That's fine as long as you're one of those people who smells don't bother. Back when I was young I helped butcher a beef & when we opened it up the smell was plum sickening. I had to walk away until the guts got gone. I never could understand why a cow would stink that bad and a hog doesn't? I'll admit smells bother me more than most people but dang beef guts smell worse than when
you have to move an outhouse in the summer & fill it back in.
It'll gag a maggot!

I consider it a basic survival skill to be able to kill and process animals for food.I'm not going to go hungry when there is food walking around wild or domestic.Think Americans need to toughen up some.

You got to be joking.You couldn't kill a hog to butcher?

Scheduled butchering... Good LUCK!

Processors here usually accommodating for 4-H critters from fair, and usually OK with drag-in venison during hunting season. (Our fair last year was cancelled, kids pork and beef were individually purchased, and delivered to fairgrounds for transport to processors.) This year, who knows?

Otherwise, they've been swamped.

You couldn't kill a hog to butcher?

I can raise a pig/cow; take it to the butcher shop live; and eat it no problem.
I can take the family dog out back; shoot and bury it and never think twice about it.

But while I have never tried I do not know if I could butcher and eat even a deer never alone a pig or cow I raised.

Fall of 2018 they was 4-6 months out. Now they are two years out, everywhere I found.

I booked all 30 dates I need for 2021 in October 2020 when I dropped off my last 5 for the year, first date I could get was May 9, 21 for USDA inspected. When I picked them up 2 weeks later they were booked out through all of 2021.

Depends entirely on who you are and where you want to take them. There's a USDA inspected plant here where I prefer to take everything. I know they won't make me look bad. I took one there two weeks ago today that had only been scheduled since the Friday before. They'd had a cancellation and a guy who delivers to them and buys one from me every year was able to get the spot.

I took one to a place up around the corner from RayP yesterday to be killed this morning. That appointment was made in January. Royse had an appointment to get one of mine in to a Mennonite shop in March. He made that appointment in November I believe it was, but I got him in to the USDA plant in January on a cancellation. I stopped at the Mennonite place on the way home from dropping his off to change his to another guy who wanted one. That guy wasn't sure of having the money by March, so we bumped that one out to April 13. From about late March on out, he had a lot of spots available.

The trouble with being so far out, with somebody just raising one in the back yard, getting the weight right must be a challenge. When we took that one two weeks ago, there was a couple there ahead of us with one in a horse trailer. It must have been their first time there because they were just standing there behind the trailer. My wife was going inside to get some pork and she told them you have to unload your own and fill out the barn sheet. They said they'd gone inside and somebody was coming out to help them. When that little black steer jumped out of there, there was no way he was ready. He didn't come up beyond the guys navel. I doubt he weighed over 900 pounds.

While the wife was inside, somebody called for an appointment and they told them June 2022. Like I said though, if you want to just go someplace and roll the dice with quality, you can get one in somewhere in probably 3 months or so.

Booking a year ahead for chickens and turkeys near Gorrie Ontario

The half beef we bought with the locker charge was $2.95 per pound and there was 408 pounds. Okay, it was $1200 and some coffee money. 250 pounds of roasts and steaks and 158 pounds of ground beef.