Greetings from San Antonio!

[NH homesteader]

Well there are tons of small butchers here, I don't know about down there. We butcher everything (pigs included) ourselves.

We have our pigs fenced in with an old neglected apple tree. They've decided to eat it. I don't know why, lol but they're chewing bark off it. It is month 4 of snow covered ground, so they could be bored.

 

[LMK17]

Well there are tons of small butchers here, I don't know about down there. We butcher everything (pigs included) ourselves.

We have our pigs fenced in with an old neglected apple tree. They've decided to eat it. I don't know why, lol but they're chewing bark off it. It is month 4 of snow covered ground, so they could be bored.

I'd be interested in hearing more about your home butchering! I've thought about that, but at this point, the only thing I know I'd butcher at home would be chickens. Even if we eventually worked our way up to butchering larger animals, that might be something we'd want to hire out at first. How do you dispose of any leftover bits of the carcasses? What method do you use for slaughtering the various animals?

Most of what I've read recommends running pigs in orchards for limited amounts of time, so that's the approach I've been planning to use. (Though naturally this is several years away, anyway.) Have you penned the pigs in with the tree for a very long period of time? Is that where you normally pen your pigs? Have they ignored the tree in the past?

 

[NH homesteader]

The ground has been frozen solid since November, so we haven't been able to move them like we do in good weather! We don't usually fence them in with the apple trees so it could very well be that they would leave them alone normally.

We are due to butcher a pig soon, so I'll try to get more information up when we do. We bury the remains, not sure about the legality of disposing of carcasses elsewhere but it's allowable here.

 

[LMK17]

I feel for you with the long winters! I'm from PA, and I don't miss winter in the least!

I'll be keeping a look out for your butchering info! Thanks in advance.

 

[NH homesteader]

We're trying to move south! We are both from here but trying to be self sufficient here is not working for us!

 

[LMK17]

Sorry to hear that, though I can certainly understand why that's the case! The long growing season here is a dream! Good luck with whatever you all decide to do. Our move to TX was supposed to be temporary, but we've decided to settle down here for good, to the extent that it's up to us.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Most around these parts have tractors with front-end loaders (FEL) to deal with that. A minivan is built on a car chasis and there is a reason ya never see one with a livestock trailer hitched to it with large animals in them....weight and movement. I've seen plenty of light weight vehicles with trailers in accidents even with campers when they lose traction and spin around and around til they hit something. I use to drive a big truck for a living. Truly I am not against your dreams and desires, but there are some things that must be considered for your safety and that of your family. Since ya are just starting out, it is best to start a bit small and then move to large. Especially, when the large animal will cost more, more to feed, and a much bigger loss if something were to happen to it. I certainly want you to succeed and have a great experience in getting there.

 

[Mike CHS]

I have enjoyed reading about your journey and it seems you have put a lot of thought into it. Not sure about your area but every place (rural anyway) that I have been has had small business meat processors. The one we use here will take one cow or one anything as long as it isn't deer season (then nothing but deer). We have sheep processed there and they will take one or ten as long as you have an appointment. There are some super YouTube videos on processing meat if you are interested.

 

[Pastor Dave]

[QUOTE="LMK17, post: 485166,

I'll be keeping a look out for your butchering info! Thanks in advance. [/QUOTE]

Welcome from Indiana!
I butcher our meat rabbits and do all the processing.
I learned this as a kid and it is the most basic, but all larger animals have every part in the same location, just scaled larger. It came in handy when I started deer hunting.

There is a processing video on the Rabbit Forum on here that you can learn some of the process from.

I always figured I could easily handle a goat, and have to adjust my techniques if I did a steer or feeder calf.

As a kid, we would throw rabbit hides and intrals, etc away from the buildings over at edge of the woods. Now I let all that fall into a garbage bag draped over a big rubber tub, and put it in the dumpster.

Well, hope this helps some.

 

[Latestarter]

Hello again! Sounds like you're already well on your way One recommendation that could save you thousands of $$... Check with the county appraisal office where you're buying and find out for SURE how many acres are required to claim the Ag exemption. They will normally require that you have a minimum of 1 acre with the house and whatever their minimum is after that... some counties are as low as 5 acres, some are much higher. Also, make SURE you know the time requirement and try to buy land that already has the Ag exemption. Where I am, if I had bought land that wasn't already Ag exempt, I'd have had to work it Ag for 5 years before I could get the exemption. The county should also be able to give you a list of what you have to do per acre to have the Ag exemption. Here I can have bee hives, plant pecan trees, have an orchard, run cattle, have goats or sheep, chickens and other poultry don't count. It will say how many per acre are expected. I'm on 19 acres, 1 for the house, 1/2 of the remainder in forestry the other 1/2 in livestock.

Look forward to follwing along with you on your journey. Hope you'll stay with us and share it!