Farms-womanship Skills: Butchering

I grew up on a gentleman's farm on 7 acres about 45 minutes from Portland, Or. We had goats for clearing brush, a few rabbits, and a good variety of turkey, geese, chicken, ducks, and pheasant for eggs, eating, and firstly because they were beautiful animals. We thought of them as pets, they had special names and places, but it was always understood that they were there for a more practical purpose, and it was always a hard choice for me when it came to slaughtering any.

I was in charge of all the animals for the most part, from beginning to end. Those were good lessons in self reliance and sustainability. Good lessons about knowing where food comes from and about the satisfaction of a hard days work, doing for oneself and triumphing under adverse circumstances.

I have wanted to have some of that back in my adult life (the satisfaction, not the adversity). So I bought an acre with a distinctly "farm" feel. Anyways, I feed raw for my allergy dog and have been raising quail and chickens keeping in line with my beliefs about humane rearing and clean eating. A good friend who also feeds raw proposed going halvsies on an organic reared 80 lb bull calf from a dairy which was offered on her raw feeding list for $25. What a deal!

The catch: it was whole, as in entirely unprocessed, and very cute. Soooo, the task of butchering fell on us, but thankfully it had already passed away at the dairy farm. I took quite few photos of the dogs enjoying the scraps next to the cow, but looking back at them, I think there are enough certifiable loonies "in Shibas" who would use it to claim I am "sporting" at the expense of an animals life, rather than working to better their lives. I'd like to know what they think the kibble they feed is made out of and how they think the animals that go into it were treated (and if they took all their meds)?


The carcass halved, ready for quartering.

 It took about 2 days from beginning to end. I know that's a laughable time, but this was the biggest animal I have processed so there was definitely a learning curve. The weather has been chilly so we hung it on the patio in the outside utility room by the heel tendons. I let it hang overnight untouched on the first day so it could stretch and the rigor let up. It took a few hours to skin, starting with circumferential incisions around each limb, the neck, and at the anus, then a full cut up the middle.

I sawed the front legs off and those go to the dogs. I then removed the head, which also went to the dogs, and slowly worked the hide letting gravity help, trying to keep it intact. Hopefully we can find some way to turn it into raw hide for the dogs to chew since taking it the taxidermist will be too spendy. Here I learned the value of a good sharp skinning knife. I'm glad for the inheritance of several from hunting relatives.

Gutting took the least time, but it was the most psychologically daunting, after the initial cut (cute brown baby cow). Again gravity helped. I made a clean cut around the anus thru the muscle, thru to the pelvis and all the way to the neck. Naturally the guts rolled out and it was just a matter of severing the anchoring ligaments, being careful not to nick anything.

I saved what I wanted, everything will be used aside from the bladder and intestines. It all looked healthy and it smelled like a healthy beef. I used a bone saw to split the carcass down the middle from pelvis to neck down the spine. Once in two separate halves it was then quartered just under the ribs. From there I divided up portions and got lots of great chew bones. Next time I do this, I want a meat grinder to make a grind for the dogs.

I did not wear gloves for any of this, and my mantra thru the whole thing: it's for the dogs. It's safe to say I have a far better understanding of the lives and deaths of animals bred for food, and more people need to experience things like this.