# Anyone Butcher Their Own Beef Cattle?



## journeyman (Dec 7, 2006)

Hope this doesn't raise the ire of anyone ... but it is the likely end for most cattle. I'm thinking of getting some Dexters and/or Lineback Cows.

I'm thinking of living as frugally as possible. Why pay someone to butcher the cows for me when I could do it myself. If only the dogs and my small family are eating the beef, the cuts don't have to be perfect.

Am I dreaming or does anyone have any comments about how difficult it is to kill and butcher a small cow?


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## floramum (Jul 20, 2005)

In My State It Is Illegal To Do So. You Have To Take The Live Animal To A Slaughter House....in This Area, You Have To Make An Appointment. I Gave Up.. The First One I Wanted To Have Butchered I Had Locked In A One Acre Paddock With Some Others With.....well Those That Happened To Be There When I Shut The Gates....well, One Of The Other Prisoners Was A Big Old Wild Cow. So She Found A Place To Jump Back Into The Main Pasture Near A Small Gate..the Others Followed.....not Able To Butcher One Ourselves, But Others On Ht Talk About Freezer Camp All The Time...someone Should Answer.


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## HazyDay (Feb 20, 2007)

I know some frineds of ours raise WILD cows. They are only fed hay when it gets really bad! Go out every fall and shoot the animals they want and clean then in the pasture with a tactor. Never seen it done, but they sell the meat every year. It tastes so different then animals raised on pasture then on hay and then grained and then killed! (Wow! am I stupid or what!)


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

floramum said:


> In My State It Is Illegal To Do So. You Have To Take The Live Animal To A Slaughter House....in This Area, You Have To Make An Appointment. I Gave Up.. The First One I Wanted To Have Butchered I Had Locked In A One Acre Paddock With Some Others With.....well Those That Happened To Be There When I Shut The Gates....well, One Of The Other Prisoners Was A Big Old Wild Cow. So She Found A Place To Jump Back Into The Main Pasture Near A Small Gate..the Others Followed.....not Able To Butcher One Ourselves, But Others On Ht Talk About Freezer Camp All The Time...someone Should Answer.


Really? Wow, its illegal to kill your own cow for your own use?
Thats nuts.

What state is it may I ask?

I hope its not mine! I think a cow can be killed here for your own use.
I know goats and sheep can.
You just cant do it if you sell the meat.


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## floramum (Jul 20, 2005)

Florida. But There Has To Be Folks Have Their Own Facilities And Do It Themselves. Way Back Where Aint No Yankees Lookin Over Their Shoulder. Hunters Do Deer And Hogs In The Back Yard All The Time....but Cows Are Too Big For The Average Guy.....would Take A Big Freezer/walkin Cooler Stuff For Self Butcher A Cow. Imho From My Armchair.


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## ArmyDoc (May 13, 2007)

There was a thread I saw somewhere that had step by step pictures of slaughter, skinning and cleaning, but I can't find it. Best I can come up with is this site:

http://www.askthemeatman.com/meat_cutting_videos.htm

They sell a video for the slaughter/cleaning phase and also for the actual butchering phase for just about every type of animal.


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

We have done our own. We raised a holstein bull calf till 20 months old. He was shot in the head while eating. Throat slit and hung, gutted and cut up like a deer. Would have been better if the band saw was working proper. As a result we had many small roasts as opposed to steaks. This year we hav a 4 month old who will be slaughtered end of winter. Will be buying a new saw before then.


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## Steve L. (Feb 23, 2004)

I've done a couple. It's a lot of work, if you're preparing it for the table. My personal best time though, was when I killed and cut up an old cow my Dad had to get rid of (for dog meat). I shot her, skinned her on the ground, and broke the meat into pieces that would fit into five gallon pails. I had two or three helpers (all they did was pull on the hide, hold limbs in place for me, and carry meat), and we got her done in about three hours.


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## minnikin1 (Feb 3, 2003)

A sawz-all will help you cut it down to workable sized pieces. 
Not traditional, but fast and easy.


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## JRF (May 2, 2007)

My hubby and I butchered our own beef. It was actually pretty easy. I do have to agree that using a sawz-all is a much better way to go than the ban saw. We cut all our t-bone with the sawz-all and they turned out great. 

There is a huge plus to butchering yourself. Around here you don't know if your actually getting the beef you brought in or getting all of your beef. I have had to many bad experiences bring in livestock to have butchered and not getting all of my meat. We have now decided we will butcher our own, beef, pork, what ever.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

I have not processed a cow in a long time but I did process a baby beef 2 years ago. I have processed 4 deer in the last 7 days, all shot, skinned, aged,cutup, cubed/ground by me and packaged by the wife. Over the years I have managed to pick up for cheap most of the equipment. I have for the sum of $35 a huge commercial freeze converted into a cooler. A large stainless steel sink and two SS tables for the amount of around $50 for the lot. I have a meat grinder that is way too big but it was for cheap as no one could handle it. Knives, poly cutting surfaces and totes were bought at auction. I debone all my meat therefore I do not need a band saw. The one thing that I paid dearly for is the commercial cubing machine. I feel this is an essential tool if you are going to process meat. I am comfortable is knowing that my family is consuming healthy animals that were processed in sanitary conditions. Since setting up for processing my own meat I have done 73 deer of my own. At the going rate of $45 per deer this would amount to $3285 and I have about $1000 in everything. The savings is substantial but secondary to peace of mind. Go for it, you will have no regrets.


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

My brother has a sawzall....I've got a 7 month oldJersey bull calf....hmmm, what kind of blade would work? If, and I hope I'm not jinxing myself right now by saying it aloud, my Dexter is pregnant (rescheduled palpation for TONIGHT!), we are going to send the calf to freezer camp soon, probably over Christmas break. I'd like to do it myself and use the supersucker to vacuum package the meat. So, what kind of blade will allow me to cut the steaks myself?


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

You will be cutting the meat portion with a knife and the blade will only be sawing the bone. I use a flooring blade to cut off legs. If I were going to cut where the bone was left intact with the meat such as a t bone I would want a fine tooth blades as to not have fragments of bone remaining. I would check and see what is the finest tooth blade that is stocked in the long length blade versions. You will need to use a knife to scrape the fines from the cut of meat once the cut is made. You can see my saw in the background and the legs and feet and in the hide on the ground.


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

We processed an elk yesterday and will cut it up in a few days (it's hanging in the shop right now). The hard part is having the space to hang beef in the correct temperature for a week - 10 days. Just time it for cold weather. You'll want the right equipment, cabela's is a good source. Can't say I've ever used a sawzall, but I might consider it next time!


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

We do all of our own butchering. My husband has a band saw that makes cutting up the beef and pork easier. We also have an old cooler that our son reconditioned for us. DH usually puts feed down in front of the animal and shoots it while it is eating. They usually never know what hit them. I think this is much less stressful on the animal than loading it in a trailer and hauling to a strange place for the coup de grÃ¢ce.


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

Morton Salt sells a little book that tells step by step how to butcher a beef, lamb and pig. You follow the steps and end up with market cuts. Very easy. Then they tell how to make cured meats from some of the cuts, too.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

Journeyman, I butchered my first cow last month because of an accident where a two year old heifer died. If I'd been right there when it happened I'd have bled her out and put her on the pick up for a quick trip to the butcher, but since she didn't bleed out, I thought I might be throwing good money after bad by taking her to the butcher and being told she was worthless. So I did it myself and I'm glad I did. It was a lot of work, but well worth it as I saved just about all of her. I totally boned her out and used the cordless reciprocating saw to take off the lower legs and a couple of leg bone stewing pieces that had minimal meat on them (upper arm/lower thigh areas), as well as splitting the brisket bone and taking the ribs off. If anyone is interested, I only used a scalple for cutting the meat and only used about 6 or 8 blades to do the job from skinning to cutting up the roasts. If you don't hit a bone they go a good long time, and I didn't have to worry about keeping a knife sharp (something I'm not good at). Took her to the house in 5 gallon buckets like Steve L. mentioned and put her in the freezer bags from there.

It was a real positive learning experience for me and while I wish I hadn't lost the heifer, I can't say as I regret it too much right now. I even made corned beef for the first time, something I'd never have tried to do if I hadn't had a quarter of a cow laying there to do something with. 

Got a lot of help from folks on this site, too. Made it a lot easier when I was working on the heifer to know that if I had a question all I had to do was log on and ask and someone could give me an answer right away.

I left a lot of the bones (pelvis and the spine down to where the front quarters came off ) hanging for the chickens and turkeys to finish up. They've got most of the tallow and bits of meat picked off now, so nothing went to waste on here except the bones and the hide.

And may I add that you can't believe the hero worship in my dogs' eyes right now! LOL! LOOK AT THAT!!! She brought down a WHOLE COW! 

Jennifer


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## ArmyDoc (May 13, 2007)

Found that thread on butchering a cow... it was at the keeping a family cow site. Very informative, here's the link

http://familycow.proboards32.com/index.cgi?board=Knowledge&action=display&thread=1162001493


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