# Butchering costs?



## Laurie J

Hello!

We've raised lambs for several years, and our kids show market lambs at the fair. The rest we sell at auction. With the increasing cost of grain, we've decided we aren't making enough. People have wanted to buy lamb from us for a while, and this year we decided to try that route with a few lambs. We're selling pasture/grain fed 140 lb. Suffolk market lambs to them for $175 on the hoof. They wanted us to arrange the butchering, etc., and we were surprised to find out that the "kill cost" is $55 a head. Does this seem excessive, or is that the going rate? They will pay for cut/wrap, and half the kill cost. Next year we'll pass the whole fee on to them.

What is everybody else doing with their lambs? Thanks!

~Laurie


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## thatcompchick

We pay $70 for USDA kill, cut and vac wrap. We don't grain feed so the additional cost is pretty negligible.

Andrea


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## RiverPines

We dont grain feed either!
We have our lambs go from teat to pan and graze with the ewes.

Our lambs grow fast.
Our 4 month old ewe lamb right now is as tall as the ewe and almost as bulky. 
Mine are Leicesters.

Cant help with cost. We butcher ourselves and eat it all.


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## cathleenc

We can get lambs/sheep/goats (size does not matter) killed and custom butchered/wrapped/frozen for $70 total. Any sausage making or smoking is extra.

The $55 kill fee seems steep. The kill fee for beef, up to 2000 lbs, is $50 at our closest butcher (which is also the most expensive around).


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## Ross

Rideau meats (licensed and inspected) in Smiths falls Ontario; kill fee for lamb is $25 butchering is a little more variable but roughly the same and vac packed.


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## ajaxlucy

Kill, butcher, wrap, freeze around here seems to run anywhere from about $40-$120, depending on where you go. I pass the entire cost onto people who buy lambs from us.


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## hintonlady

My local butchers charge between $30 to $40 for the kill and .45 to .50 per lb. hanging weight for the cutting/wrapping. 

I took in two feeder lambs who made a approx total of 70 lb. meat, cost me near $100, but consider it did have two kill costs too.

At $175 for 140 lb. lambs I would gift wrap the meat, at least in my area you are making a KILLING in profit. Average market here fluctutates at about a buck per lb. live weight.


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## shepmom

It's been a few years since we took one to be butchered. The kill fee was $25 and 35 cent per pound for cuts. I would charge full fee if people ask for for butchering services.
Plus you are having to deliver the animal...do you pick up the meat too?? Consider gas costs and your time.

Check around for local live feeder sheep prices, don't go by what it costs in different states. Demand makes the difference and supply.


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## frazzlehead

Kill cut & wrap is $63 per sheep here. A few places do the kill fee separately ($25 plus $5 for disposal), then .40/lb or something like that for the butchering. Cattle are normally done with slaughter as flat rate then butchering per pound, but all the processors I talked to for sheep were right at that $63 rate.


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## suzyhomemaker09

Kill cut & wrap in my neck of the woods is a flat $45. 
Waiting on my MiL to get back in town to go pick one up.


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## Meg Z

shepmom said:


> It's been a few years since we took one to be butchered. The kill fee was $25 and 35 cent per pound for cuts. I would charge full fee if people ask for for butchering services.
> Plus you are having to deliver the animal...do you pick up the meat too?? Consider gas costs and your time.
> 
> Check around for local live feeder sheep prices, don't go by what it costs in different states. Demand makes the difference and supply.


I use the same folks shepmom does. Last year it was $30 kill fee. Two lambs from on-the-hoof to little white packages cost me a total of $106 for both.

Meg


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## therealshari

We just sent one lamb to custom butcher. The costs were $80 for the lamb, $30 to deliver (a 90 mile round trip), $30 for slaughter, and .43 hanging weight for cut and wrap. The lamb weighed about 110 lbs.

At the same time, we took the remaining three lambs (all of them were intact ram lambs, 5 mos old) to auction and got the highest price in the past 2 months at .92 lb. You should have heard the "old men" and others muttering... "4H lambs", didn't know anyone raised black sheep on purpose, etc. 

We had a number of people tell us we should expect to be "docked" at least .25 lb for color and gonads... Yeah right!


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## kesoaps

$70 cut and wrap, $65 if I bring it to them.

A friend of mine sells her grass fed lamb for $2.50 lb hanging weight. That's never made a lot of sense to me, as the buyer can't pay you until after the lamb's been butchered, and there's that opportunity to back out. I prefer a flat fee for the lamb, then they pay the butcher. Supposedly our USDA butcher will be approved before long so that we can sell lamb from our own freezer, but they've been saying that for a year now so I'm not holding my breath!


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## RV & IDF

Have been paying $20 for kill and $30 for paper cut and wrap for any lamb regardless of size. I prefer vacuum packed and like the 2 front shoulders as rolled, deboned roasts, so has been costing $20 + $0.85/lb which has run around $65 per lamb for the past year.
However, I took some premium lambs in on Friday and they didn't tell me they had increased their prices when I asked at booking time and asked again at drop off, but instead sprung it on me yesterday when they were about to cut them. They were now demanding $100 each! ROBBERS!


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## Awnry Abe

I like these old posts that seem to never go out of style. The concept of DIY lamb processing for me was cemented when I took a 75lb wether in and paid $75 for cut and shrink wrap. The place is a custom processor that does mostly beef and some pork. They looked at the little lamb a little curious. I wasn't disappointed with their effort, but not thrilled, either. The whole experience convinced me that I can do just as well even if I make a mess of things. 

HT's own Highlands (Walter Jeffries) has a link on his website to a book on butchering. Aside from being a very fun read (and seeing Walter featured), it actually makes you think you can DIY. It has a section on lamb. Additionally, it has a CD rom which contains a PDF that has 100#s of photos that walk through the process. I wanted to go out and slaughter something the moment I read it. Alas, all my crop is too small at the moment....


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## hercsmama

Our processor charges a flat 134.00 for the whole package.
Regardless of weight, so you feel like you got a deal on the bigger ones, and a little taken on the smaller ones, lol.


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## bergere

Cost me $50.00 for a USDA SH, cut and wrapped, in WA state.

Come over here and pay to have a steer done.... OMGoosh.... $1,200 processing fee... 
Beyond crazy!


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## hercsmama

1,200.00 for a steer! Holy moly!:runforhills:
Our's charges .50 a pound for cut and wrap, and a 36.00 kill fee.


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## Laurie J

Surprised to see my post from several years ago show up again! Our slaughter fee is now up to $60, which is for just the kill. The lambs are then taken to the butcher, where our customers give their cutting instructions. They pay .60/lb. cut and wrap. We are selling our lambs for $4.50/lb. hanging weight. These are people we know, and they send us a check for the lamb plus the slaughter fee, which we pay when the slaughter man comes. They go pick up the lamb at the butcher and pay for cut and wrap. Beats sending the lambs to our closest livestock sale, where the lambs are at the mercy of whatever the auction prices are that week, and then a big gouge for a commission.


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## sky61

With some of these prices, I can see why some folks look to process the animals on-site. In central Virginia there is a USDA inspected processer that charges a 45 dollar kill fee for cattle with a 70 cent per pound processing fee. This does not include labeling. That can add up quickly. Same processor charges 125 kill fee for sheep (less for larger quantities) not including label fee. I am surprised there are not more mobile abattoirs, but I guess startup cost and regulation probably makes it difficult.


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## Laurie J

Seriously....it seems like this is a career to go into (if you could handle it - not me!) We only have one man who does slaughters in a large area, and it takes 4-6 weeks to even get him out to our place!


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## trainv

There are not many butchers left, most are meat cutters. Bring the carcass (quarters) to us and we will cut and wrap for you.


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## crittermomma

@ CathleenC - where is this processor in Illinois? I live in Central Illinois and we are looking for a good butcher. Thanks!


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## PNP Katahdins

crittermomma said:


> @ CathleenC - where is this processor in Illinois? I live in Central Illinois and we are looking for a good butcher. Thanks!


This is an old thread. Plus CathleenC lived in South Central Wisconsin at the time of her post, not IL. Paul and I had the pleasure of meeting her before they moved to IL.

Peg


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## KIT.S

Yup. Lamb here in Oregon sells for $4/lb and the only processor in the area who will do lamb has a flat $90 charge for kill, cut and wrap. That's nearly $2 per packaged pound!! This is why I raise and butcher my own. A Northern Tool Chinese made band saw pays it's way after 2 lambs. Well, maybe not new: I bought mine off CL...

Kill, quarter and cool for a beef only costs $55 (then I take it home and finish it myself). You'd think the butchers didn't like sheep.
Kit


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## ErikaMay

KIT.S said:


> Yup. Lamb here in Oregon sells for $4/lb and the only processor in the area who will do lamb has a flat $90 charge for kill, cut and wrap. That's nearly $2 per packaged pound!! This is why I raise and butcher my own. A Northern Tool Chinese made band saw pays it's way after 2 lambs. Well, maybe not new: I bought mine off CL...
> 
> Kill, quarter and cool for a beef only costs $55 (then I take it home and finish it myself). You'd think the butchers didn't like sheep.
> Kit


Yo, they are a little disorganized sometimes but The Meating Place in Hillsboro does lambs for $50 kill then 60 cents a lb. Not usda approved (drat!). 

is $4 a lb for usda cuts...I can't figure out what to price my lambs at. I've got a couple to butcher.


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## bergere

KIT.S said:


> Yup. Lamb here in Oregon sells for $4/lb and the only processor in the area who will do lamb has a flat $90 charge for kill, cut and wrap. That's nearly $2 per packaged pound!! This is why I raise and butcher my own. A Northern Tool Chinese made band saw pays it's way after 2 lambs. Well, maybe not new: I bought mine off CL...
> 
> Kill, quarter and cool for a beef only costs $55 (then I take it home and finish it myself). You'd think the butchers didn't like sheep.
> Kit


Was in shock moving from Oregon to VA.
I though Oregon was high priced.... ah ... no.

You can't get any kind of meat,, for under $6.50 per pound.. When you can find it, last lamb I bought was $12.00 per pound and that was on sale.

Is super spendy over here... beyond crazy.

(in Oregon, I bought half a grass fed steer, every year, for only $2.00 a pound. Was really good beef)


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## Dixie Bee Acres

crittermomma said:


> @ CathleenC - where is this processor in Illinois? I live in Central Illinois and we are looking for a good butcher. Thanks!


If you are east central, I can give you the names of a few places in west central Indiana.
As far as paying to butcher sheep, Nah, too much like a deer, going to do that myself.


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## BobDFL

Around me goats and lambs cost a flat $100 for kill, cut, and wrap. So for personal use I've been doing my own processing, but any I sell I advise the buyer of the extra cost on top of the cost per pound and arraign drop off. They pay the processing when they pick the meat up at the butcher.


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