Pig Slaughter Activity
December 2020
Provided insights into becoming meat self-sufficient.
by Jerry Lease
Livestock processing doesn’t have to be something YOU can’t do. If you accept that your food is your responsibility, and then set out to fulfill your responsibility, meat can be a real game changer in your food preps. Processing facilities are over-whelmed with demand, while animals are NOT in short supply. I stopped at a processing facility in Spokane last week, he told me he is 18 months out from processing animals. That means folks have already reserved a spot for animals that aren’t even born yet. He stated he had been doing this for 50 years and he just can’t find good help to step up the pace.
Large processing facilities don’t do individual animals, they do hundreds of animals every single day. Recently they have been shut down due to staffing shortages mostly due to COVID. Because of this the availability of live stock is really good, but processing is really difficult. If you want a really good deal on meat, perhaps learning the basics of meat processing are what is in order.
I had the opportunity to go and help process an already slaughtered pig for a fortunate family. Pastor Sam had slaugh-tered the animal the night before so that it would be cool in the morning. A cool animal
is much easier to process. A warm carcass squirms around on you and your cuts look awful. It doesn’t affect the meat quality, just the appearance.
When I got there, the animal was already up on a gambrel hook and hanging from his
tractor. The hide needed to be removed. That was a process! The pig I did this spring we skinned before we cooled it and I think it may have been an easier process. Anyway, this pig was cool and the fat layer was sometimes indistinguishable from the skin layer, so I had lots of hack marks on it. Removing the skin with a couple inexperienced folks took us about an hour. When you are skinning the animal, one must be careful not to take too much fat with the skin, but not take skin with the animal. I guess it is a fine balance.
Side note: When I was in high school we took a tour of a pig slaughter plant in Wenatchee. The pigs were killed and put in a large vat of hot water (scalded) to remove the hair. At home this may be impractical.
One could use a 55 gallon tank and spend a significant amount of time heating the water. Or one could use a propane torch and just burn off the hair, like we did this spring at the class I took. I guess I am indifferent, but I would probably skin it warm then cool the animal overnight.
Next was cutting the animal in half in order to manage the carcass on a table. A simple process really if you have a good saw. Separate the loins with a knife and then cut with a bone saw the entire way down the back bone favoring one side of the center. Once separated they can be taken off the gambrel hook and placed on the table for butchering.
After the hog is on the table it is really just cutting up the carcass into pieces and then cuts depending on what the customer wants.
Pastor Sam has a great way to make bigger slabs of pork belly for bacon, twice the size I saw this spring. He showed us how he processed the belly in a brine. It sets in place for a period of time and then he smokes it and then slices it. I would say I would call it country bacon, much bigger, and meatier. About the time we were done with that, his bride brought out some of his bacon they had already processed this year. Yeah it is much better than store bought!
I had to leave to get back to town after lunch, so I didn’t get the chance to help with processing the rest of the hog. Next year I hope to be butchering my own animal. This experience has helped me have the courage to be able to start down the road of meat independence.
As we have found this year, livestock processing is an essential task that must be done. Some animals are time sensitive such as pigs, chickens or rabbits. Other animals can wait some time like beef, but return on feed lowers significantly. The reason they are time sensitive varies by animal but they are all best at a given time, or size. For example pigs reach prime market size at 225lbs, and are considered over market at 250, most plants will not process a pig over 300. Their meat becomes filled with fat. In addition processing facilities are built for a certain size animal, and a full grown hog is TOO BIG for their facility. Chickens lose their tenderness after 12 weeks of age, rabbits do the same thing. Beef are fine for a couple years longer but don't really grow much past market size of about 1100 lbs. Some will but the cost for feed makes it not worth it.
Here a a couple links for more information on pig slaughtering, butchering and processing:
At-Home Hog Slaughter :
https://extension.sdstate.edu/home-hog-slaughter
Pork Carcass Fabrication: Primal and Retail Cuts:
https://extension.sdstate.edu/pork-carcass-fabrication-primal-and-retail-cuts
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