We butchered 62 meaties this weekend. It was our first time, and everything went great. We killed the first one at 9am and we were done killing by 12:30pm. It was great to see we could do this ourselves. We ended up with 317 pounds of butchered weight. Four of them where 6 3/4 pounds and we had 8 of them at 6 pounds. The smallest two where 3 1/2 pounds. The average weight was 5.11 pounds. I went thru 1250 pounds of feed, which put the FCR at 4. I know most people calulate FCR from live weight, but I don't like that. I base mine on dressed weight. It ended up costing around $0.83 per pound, which I thought was very good.
Butchering ourselves was a great expirience. Everyone had a good time and said they wanted to do it again. I guess from here on out, we will do them ourselves. I wish we would have taken some pictures, but we forgot to get the camera out. I can't stress enough the value of watching Joel and Daniel Salatin's youtube videos prior to butchering. It made the whole process much easier. I was surprised how easy it actually was. I can't gut them in 20 seconds like Joel, but my goal is to be that fast eventually.
Butchering ourselves was a great expirience. Everyone had a good time and said they wanted to do it again. I guess from here on out, we will do them ourselves. I wish we would have taken some pictures, but we forgot to get the camera out. I can't stress enough the value of watching Joel and Daniel Salatin's youtube videos prior to butchering. It made the whole process much easier. I was surprised how easy it actually was. I can't gut them in 20 seconds like Joel, but my goal is to be that fast eventually.
