Hog slaughter day

[jeswinehart]

Each year about this time my son-in-law and his brother, myself and a few of our friends that don't mind the work all get together for a "hog" day.
This year we shot 12 hogs and Steve brought over one of his lambs to process. Market price as of this morning was .55 cents a pound. I got 2 pigs at 265lbs and one 225 pound-er for a co-work who could not be with us today but will be in attendance next Saturday when we all get together again to cut up meat.
Kinda figuring my 2 pigs will dress out @ 155-160 lbs of meat to be cut up in the various cuts of meats (only going to save to hams for smoking and those 2 will be cut into halves giving my wife and I 4 manageable hams)
Next Saturday all sausage cuts and trimmings will go into separate containers to be ground into bulk and cased (bratwurst + breakfast links)
Various pictures of the days activities. Son-in-law Brent cutting on a pig. Glimpses of the cooler getting filled up and various shots of the very nice set up Brent + his brother Byran have. Plus some of the seasonings that will be used to make our sausages and brats.
This year I am getting more of the maple flavored brats and also a large quantity of Polish sweet blend. Both flavors will have 2 cheese combo of provolone and cheddar (probably do a little swapping around with Brent for some of his cheddar-swiss).
For those that have camped near me at TrikeFest meets know how good these turn out :)
My parents owned + operated a butcher shop for 25 years so my brothers and I grew up around this environment so doing this with family, lot of fun + very cost saving at the same time ~ just good work IMO.
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[sledcrazyinCT]

Brings back memories of farm life when my father was alive, talk about good eating thanks for posting

[86T3]

Nice. My neighbors and i raise 4-5 every summer and butcher them ourselvs. We do everything in one day, start at about 530 and have everything packaged or waiting to go to the smoker by 10. Ours are much smaller than the hogs you got though, they re probably under 200 alive. Nothing better than raising your own food

[Thorpe]

Jealous as heck... Makes me hungry!

[Scootertrash]

Shot as in hunted hogs or raised hogs?

[ctk]

Is that where the pork you"ve cooked on rides came from? Always a great feast when jon/liway cook! I would like to see this process in person someday.

[CRAZY70MAN]

I know that movie all too well John. My father has been a buthcher for 55 years. He is still at it. Spent quite a bit of time in the slaughter house. Nothing like it...great times and a lot of work. Butchering is a real art for those who think it means hacking at meat, we'll it ain't. lol My pops is like a surgeon with knives and still amazes me when I watch. He always teaches me a little more year after year but unless you have did it for a living, you can never come close to a real butcher and his skills. Great pics and some good looking hogs!! We have lambs in the freezer every year as well. That my friend is some of my favorite!! Thanks for sharing. Good to see the friends together and traditions still kept year after year. Gotta go make me some sausage!! lol.. p.s.....Nice setup on that equipment and all the food grade stainless!! Biro saws, Hobart grinders.....he has some very nice equipment there! Lots of money wrapped up in that place. Worth it in the end though.

[atc007]

EWWWWWWWWWWW That's gross,,you should be banned... Jk ! I love butchering,,haven't done it in quite awhile. Deer being my last. We did our own cows w a bucket tractor. 1600 lb bossie made for a long day. I'll never forget when I was maybe 4, seeing the my 1st cow gut pile,,,being used to only deer. I thought that stomach looked like a bean bag chair!! Beautiful work John,,thanx for sharing!

[sledcrazyinCT]

Don't cows have 4 stomachs so they can digest their food? That is why it was so huge LOL

[jeswinehart]

Yep, this is where all those brauts come from CTK. The "pig wings" I purchase wholesale from gas customer of ours who holds the patent rights to the "Pig Wings" name.
I will have some pictures of next Saturdays processing. It is amazing how many pork chops comes off the back bone.

john

[jeswinehart]

Not much time for taking any pictures after cutting up 13 hogs today.
I thought we had 12. Not quite sure where the 13th pig factored in.
This freezer was empty last night. I even missed bring home a tote full of meat that is still in the cooler.
Meeting back up at 8 am to grind the sausage +do up brauts and bulk packages, tomorrow.
So, got the missing tote full of meat, sausage + brauts (lots of brauts) plus the 4 hams, and sides of bacon that will be sent off Tuesday to be smoked.
Preliminary cost per pound @ about 1.20 across the board makes it taste all the better :)

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[Thorpe]

Yum!!! Very nice!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I know that movie all too well John. My father has been a buthcher for 55 years. He is still at it. Spent quite a bit of time in the slaughter house. Nothing like it...great times and a lot of work. Butchering is a real art for those who think it means hacking at meat, we'll it ain't. lol My pops is like a surgeon with knives and still amazes me when I watch. He always teaches me a little more year after year but unless you have did it for a living, you can never come close to a real butcher and his skills. Great pics and some good looking hogs!! We have lambs in the freezer every year as well. That my friend is some of my favorite!! Thanks for sharing. Good to see the friends together and traditions still kept year after year. Gotta go make me some sausage!! lol.. p.s.....Nice setup on that equipment and all the food grade stainless!! Biro saws, Hobart grinders.....he has some very nice equipment there! Lots of money wrapped up in that place. Worth it in the end though.

You are absolutely right! I am not a butcher, but I do cut my own deer up that I kill. And I am painfully slow at it and have all I can do to do it descent and not make a mess out of it! I have alot of respect for someone who is a master of the art of meat processing. It certainly takes alot of accumulated knowledge and patience. Kudos!

[jeswinehart]

But well worth every minute of the time spent.
All said and done cost is 1.25 a pound across the board for every thing.
Each year I realize how hard my parents worked at running a meat market.
It did not seen that hard hanging out with Dad after school, he told me what to do and I done it and that was it. Perhaps it was the way my father treated work, like fun I suppose and it is, if you treat it as such. I worked my tail off the last couple of week ends at this with friends + family, we all worked our tails off, but we had fun doing it and the Mrs. and I have a freezer full of excellent quilty inexspensive pork ~ yay.

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[RIDE-RED 250r]

That freezer full of venison is one of the biggest reasons I like to hunt deer. It's just kind of satisfying to make a good meal out of something that I went out and killed, field-dressed, skinned and butchered myself. Real good food, and my wife and both of my kids love the stuff (and so do I of course).

My 8 year old son was with me when I got my second deer on the last day of the season this year. He handled it really well and didn't stop talking about it for a week. He knows where his food comes from. Which I tend to think is a rare thing these days.....

[kb0nly]

That freezer full of venison is one of the biggest reasons I like to hunt deer. It's just kind of satisfying to make a good meal out of something that I went out and killed, field-dressed, skinned and butchered myself. Real good food, and my wife and both of my kids love the stuff (and so do I of course).

My 8 year old son was with me when I got my second deer on the last day of the season this year. He handled it really well and didn't stop talking about it for a week. He knows where his food comes from. Which I tend to think is a rare thing these days.....

Very rare.... Most kids these days only know what mom and dad pick up at the grocery store as their source of food.

When i lived on the farm i acquired a new appreciation for the cost of processed meat in the stores, its a lot of work to butcher an animal. Our local store here gets in a prepped animal from the local butcher shop and then cuts it up for sale, i have to excellent sources of meat here, the butcher house and the grocery store. Living in town now i appreciate the ability to get meat cut like it was on the farm. I tend to not buy meat from the big store chains and spend a bit more for quality and support my local producers. I do miss getting it as cheap as i did on the farm!

[MRSOUND]

So here's some pics of our first of 4 wkds of butchering, or I should say meat "processing" as we no longer kill or clean them but do all our own cutting as well as make sausage, bologna, meat sticks, puddin, scrapple, and cracklings (who else remembers cracklings?)
Last quarter (how we pic them up) of beef out of a whole steer done this wkd
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3 0f 4 hogs done this wkd
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Kettle meat being cooked off the old fashion way!
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70 pans of scrapple made fresh yesterday:drool:
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I still love doing this but it is a lot of work. But when you get that chunk of meat out of the freezer and know it went straight from the animal to your freezer with no lag, no filler, no preservatives, and no added coloring, it's well worth the time and effort!

[69HemiGTX]

Lookin' good, John! I would love to have those Boston butts and ribs. My Weber is waiting... :lol: