Replying to Avatar rev.hodl

Saving on processing fees by diy butchering lambs at the homestead this winter.

With smaller than average lambs this season and switching to a new butcher with a flat rate processing fee. The decision was made to butcher the lambs at the homestead instead of paying the processing fees. So the last scheduled butcher date to process 8 lambs was cancelled. These are the first two lambs and the carcases were aged outside for nearly a week wrapped in a sheet before butchering.

Even with limited tools and experience with butchering techniques, it doesn't take many tries before getting a handle on basic butchering. Every year, at least some lambs are butchered at the homestead to make sure we have the skills. At first it would take several hours total to take a single lamb from the pasture to vacuum sealed bags in the freezer. With each lamb speed increases, and technique improves. These two lambs took less than 4 hours total start to finish, saving $200 and building experiencial capital. (Not to mention some free dog food)

#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #carnivore #butchering #meat #lamb #diy
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rev.hodl 10mo ago

Harvesting lambs to reduce hay consumption, so the hay delivery is the last before spring.

After these two lambs, there are still four left to process. Even with savings on processing fees by butchering the lambs here at the homestead. The lambs still have feed costs until they are harvested. The sooner we harvest the less hay we will need until spring. This hay delivery should be the last before the pasture greens back up as long as waste can be reduced.

Trying to reduce hay waste without having to feed a daily hay ration is challenging. We found that wrapping a cattle panel around the large bales of hay drastically reduced waste. However, the cattle panel technique is still wasting too much, so to take things a step further, the bales are placed inside a large hay net in addition to the cattle panel.

#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #producenowaste #lamb #meat #hay

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CKMe 10mo ago

We’ve got one we’re gonna process soon. Looking at your pics for inspiration

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Ragamuffin 10mo ago

How much meat are you pulling off each of those?

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rev.hodl 10mo ago

These ones are smaller, usually only around 30lb hanging weight.

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AC 10mo ago

Looks like some good lambs!

A few thoughts for you to consider:

Hay is never wasted. You're feeding your soil for better grass growth with what is trampled or left behind. It's probably cheaper and better than organic fertilizer options. We probably lose up to 25% of round bales to pasture fertilization by bale grazing our cows. I happily pay that for future soil production, which equals more grazing days later.

Holding lambs until June harvest will always pay off to your advantage. The extra hay cost gets returned about 3-4x the last time I did my math on it. You'll also have extra head to help consume the extra spring growth. The heavier carcass weights at 12-14 months is also desired among many customers we found. And meat quality is always highest when animals are on good quality grass, gaining weight.

Net wrapped bales if you can find them, stored on pallets or logs. I can imagine managing those tarps is no fun.

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Keith 10mo ago

Hey Rev, I always thought that our ancestors butchered during the winter because they didn’t have refrigeration. Now I know that another reason was feed management.