other than poultry

[evergreen001]

It seems a lot of women on here can slaughter and process their own poultry. Has any of you ladies slaughtered and processed larger animals like lambs or goats?

 

[bargain]

I have assisted, but am physically not able to do solo!

 

[SunnySkies]

I have, but I was much younger by....ahem...20 years. I do not think I could do it now as a middle aged woman.

It is much easier to handle a lamb, goat or pig with some help. Hanging it was really tough without help, but I had access to a winch and hooked it and wished them up to hang them. You definitely need the right tools to make it work on your own. A calf...that is a team effort or power tools.

 

[donrae]

My husband likes to be the one wielding the knife, so I only assist. I am pretty confident I could butcher a lamb or goat myself if I needed to. They're light enough, you just need someplace to hang it from and it's all pretty much the same. Actually getting the cuts of meat is logistically harder for us, we don't have large tables to lay out larger animals and wind up more hacking meat down to smaller pieces then trying to make it into nicer cuts inside. We do deer every year, so that's not so much a big thing around here. We've done pigs, but they're just too large and mostly unwieldy without something like a winch. That's what the nice men in the big truck are for

 

[shmccarthy]

I've butchered anything from a squirrel to a deer. I've known how to, through observation with my dad and now I skin and field dress just about any game animal or fish. I'm learning chickens now, which isn't too different. I am getting cattle, goats, lamb and a large variety of meat birds in the distant future and plan on butchering all of them. A whole part of my goal to be as self sustained as possible.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I've done rabbits (not bigger) and a small (30lb) pig once that was a chore... Some day I will learn to do the really big stuff! But most of those things aren't something even men like to do solo... I openly admit to having less upper body strength than most men so why would I do something solo that men do in groups? To prove a point? I know my limits!

 

[Fenika]

I've done a goat, and only needed help to hang and later to split the spine. I've field dressed a deer alone, and once pushed a seasoned hunter aside and said No, no, the root of the mesentary is up here, and shoved my arm past the guts, much to his surprise, lol.