Yield From Butcher

[kiddogy]

seems a wee bit light but not to bad .


maybe the deer had CWD. enjoy!

 

[16Bore]

I always get a kick out of the home butchering experts. A good butcher breaking hangers will cut more meat in week then a hunter will in his life. Yet according to these threads all the butchers suck and hunters know best. Funny stuff.

I cant say I’ve ever seen anyone’s return from a “game processor” look like it belonged in a grocery store case.

But when it comes to MY shit, I do know best.

 

[kiddogy]

the thing I don't like about commercial butchers is , they will grind up and leave the nasty on the meat that I wouldn't .

could be the OP found a butcher that actually trims out all the nasty.

personally I would rather have 40 lbs of edible then 80 pounds of crud.

 

[JG358]

the thing I don't like about commercial butchers is , they will grind up and leave the nasty on the meat that I wouldn't .

could be the OP found a butcher that actually trims out all the nasty.

personally I would rather have 40 lbs of edible then 80 pounds of crud.

That right there is the reason I started doing my own. Went in to a local shop and saw them grinding nasty stuff that I woudnt even feed to my dog. Didnt look to bad all ground up though.... maybe thats why so many people dont think they like game meat??

 

[16Bore]

I just don’t get dropping thousands of dollars on gear, days of vacation, working out, tweaking this and that....to leave the final result of my efforts in the hands of someone who really doesn’t give a shit. Then throw all that into jerky, burger, and some backstraps covered in gravy.

Each to his or her own though.

 

[Drenalin]

I'm used to seeing 30-40 off a whitetail, that's with bone-in ribs and roasts. I'm generally seeing smaller dressed weights that what you described though. It seems a little light to me, but nothing too crazy, and as stated by another poster it depends on a lot of factors.

I feel like I've got a great butcher, but I am looking forward to dedicating some space in our new house to start processing my own. Especially as my kids get a little older and join in with me, I want them to be involved in all aspects.

 

[gburk]

I think it's worth mentioning - it's not in the processor's interest to short you on the meat... based on standard per lb rates they want to sell you as much of your kill as possible, and if they were going to be "dishonest" they would cut in *more* cheap pork than specified, right? especially if they are actually segregating jobs and want to run batches of decent size. probably make the sausage taste better too .. whoops just crossed a line there

So there might be a legitimate question of competence but not honesty IMO

 

[Poser]

I always get a kick out of the home butchering experts. A good butcher breaking hangers will cut more meat in week then a hunter will in his life. Yet according to these threads all the butchers suck and hunters know best. Funny stuff.

The vast majority of game processors are amateur hacks. There are some meat processors that also handle wild game, but these generally aren’t butchers who are processing your animals, rather meat cutters and often seasonal employees at that. Calling a game processor a butcher is like calling the kid who works at a 10 minute oil change shop a “mechanic”

 

[EastMT]

The vast majority of game processors are amateur hacks. There are some meat processors that also handle wild game, but these generally aren’t butchers who are processing your animals, rather meat cutters and often seasonal employees at that. Calling a game processor a butcher is like calling the kid who works at a 10 minute oil change shop a “mechanic”

Where i come from the vast majority of game processors are full service butcher shops USDA/State inspected and do wild game for a short while. Wild game is the highest % profit of any of their products and some years keeps them afloat. Yes their are some hacks, but the shops I’ve been in (I’ve been in thousands as it’s my job) are doing a good job, giving you your meat back, trimming it clean.

The exception to getting your own meat back is usually sausages. Most order the mixes and they come in 100lb pre mixed packages. To get consistent flavor, proper amount of cure to make a safe product, it has to be put in a 100 lb lot. So if you drop 25lbs off for sausage, you can’t get your own batch.




I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

 

[EastMT]

The vast majority of game processors are amateur hacks. There are some meat processors that also handle wild game, but these generally aren’t butchers who are processing your animals, rather meat cutters and often seasonal employees at that. Calling a game processor a butcher is like calling the kid who works at a 10 minute oil change shop a “mechanic”

Where i come from the vast majority of game processors are full service butcher shops USDA/State inspected and do wild game for a short while. Wild game is the highest % profit of any of their products and some years keeps them afloat. Yes their are some hacks, but the shops I’ve been in (I’ve been in thousands as it’s my job) are doing a good job, giving you your meat back, trimming it clean.

The exception to getting your own meat back is usually sausages. Most order the mixes and they come in 100lb pre mixed packages. To get consistent flavor, proper amount of cure to make a safe product, it has to be put in a 100 lb lot. So if you drop 25lbs off for sausage, you can’t get your own batch.




I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

 

[Montana Slim]

I think breaking down the animals is maybe my favorite part of hunting.

Butchering/meat care
Stalking
Pack in/out
Scouting
Shooting practice
Killing

Probably in that order...
Learning to improve the quality of your meat and like someone else said - thinking of recipes while you're cutting adds a whole level of enjoyment to hunting.
If you are processing something you didnt make a good shot on, you can only cuss yourself, and it'll stick with you the next time you're thinking about a marginal shot.

 

[Fatcamp]

Finally found the damn pic...

View attachment 130264

I found one of those turkey hunting last spring. Middle of nothing forest and spied the handle sticking out of the leaves. More worn than yours, but wicked sharp.

I'll add it to the kit. I started cutting up deer long before I ever hunted them. Co-workers would shoot them and not want to pay for processing so my cousin and I would take them. Whole skin on frozen whitetails are a pain in the butt.
My wife and I do ours now. Big baking sheets, portable scaffolding, vaccum sealer. End up with a really nice product. We don't grind anything yet. Our stuff is handled well from the moment it drops.

 

[Poser]

Where i come from the vast majority of game processors are full service butcher shops USDA/State inspected and do wild game for a short while. Wild game is the highest % profit of any of their products and some years keeps them afloat. Yes their are some hacks, but the shops I’ve been in (I’ve been in thousands as it’s my job) are doing a good job, giving you your meat back, trimming it clean.

The exception to getting your own meat back is usually sausages. Most order the mixes and they come in 100lb pre mixed packages. To get consistent flavor, proper amount of cure to make a safe product, it has to be put in a 100 lb lot. So if you drop 25lbs off for sausage, you can’t get your own batch.




I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

I’m sure it’s different in AK, but in the lower 48, there are no shortage of “deer processing” facilities that are only open during hunting season, particular in the east where there are an abundance of Whitetails. Many butcher shops and commercial meat processors have no interest in and/or do not accept wild game. In Durango, for example, we have a fairly large scale meat processor who does not accept wild game. There’s a gas station near by that does season processing and it’s pathetic work.

I used to work in a craft butcher shop back in Tennessee where the head butcher came out of an apprenticeship with Dario Cechinni, probably the most famous butcher in the world. We did whole animals butchery, in house dry aging, charcuterie for high end restaurants etc. While we routinely butchered our own game animals at the shop and we sold fatback to diy hunters, we didn’t accept game animals from the public because it was too unpredictable for our work flow and it really wouldn’t have been very profitable at all unless we hired season meat cutters just to do that work. And coming from that perspective and seeing the work that many game processors actually do, I’d say the average hunter with an average set of knife skills is going to do a better job DIY. It may take them 4x as long, it may indeed be an act of labor, but the quality of work will be better than a seasonal meat cutter making $10 an hour. I personally wouldn’t break a deer down commercially for someone for less than $200. I’d probably want $800 for an elk. Nobody is going to pay that. In Tennessee, there were deer processors charging $60 for a deer. In order to make a $30 profit, you couldn’t possibly have a labor cost of anymore than $20 per animal. There’s really nothing about that math that translates into consistent and quality work.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think it's worth mentioning - it's not in the processor's interest to short you on the meat... based on standard per lb rates they want to sell you as much of your kill as possible, and if they were going to be "dishonest" they would cut in *more* cheap pork than specified, right? especially if they are actually segregating jobs and want to run batches of decent size. probably make the sausage taste better too .. whoops just crossed a line there

So there might be a legitimate question of competence but not honesty IMO

Where I hunt whitetail sin PA and NY most processors are flat fee, not per lb. $85 to 120 for standard. More if you add options like fancy sausage, etc.

I think the posts about loss factor are spot on. Also think the earlier post about the processors focusing on speed or volume is right on. I go through the carcass in a thorough and time consuming fashion when I do it and don’t leave much usable meat on the bones. I even boil some of those for stock. Can take a couple hours to skin, butcher and package a deer. I bet my area processors are ripping through them 2-3 per hour. I don’t think somebody could make money charging those prices if they weren’t.

 

[EastMT]

I’m sure it’s different in AK, but in the lower 48, there are no shortage of “deer processing” facilities that are only open during hunting season, particular in the east where there are an abundance of Whitetails. Many butcher shops and commercial meat processors have no interest in and/or do not accept wild game. In Durango, for example, we have a fairly large scale meat processor who does not accept wild game. There’s a gas station near by that does season processing and it’s pathetic work.

I used to work in a craft butcher shop back in Tennessee where the head butcher came out of an apprenticeship with Dario Cechinni, probably the most famous butcher in the world. We did whole animals butchery, in house dry aging, charcuterie for high end restaurants etc. While we routinely butchered our own game animals at the shop and we sold fatback to diy hunters, we didn’t accept game animals from the public because it was too unpredictable for our work flow and it really wouldn’t have been very profitable at all unless we hired season meat cutters just to do that work. And coming from that perspective and seeing the work that many game processors actually do, I’d say the average hunter with an average set of knife skills is going to do a better job DIY. It may take them 4x as long, it may indeed be an act of labor, but the quality of work will be better than a seasonal meat cutter making $10 an hour. I personally wouldn’t break a deer down commercially for someone for less than $200. I’d probably want $800 for an elk. Nobody is going to pay that. In Tennessee, there were deer processors charging $60 for a deer. In order to make a $30 profit, you couldn’t possibly have a labor cost of anymore than $20 per animal. There’s really nothing about that math that translates into consistent and quality work.

Before moving north I spent all of my time traveling to meat shops all over the west. Most do not charge much for processing as the profits are in sausage and jerky. Usually about $1 per pound. The less they clean off your carcass for sausage the less they make. We did 200,000 lbs of sausage in an average season before I went to work for the govt. that’s about $200,000 profit in 12 weeks. The rest of the year you were lucky to break even, make a little at fair time, keep the doors open and the wild game kept you in business and paid for repairs, upgrades throughout the year.

Now I’m not saying this is an average plant, and the one I worked at was stellar compared to a lot. But 4 of us cutting wild game, one skinning, one wrapping and grinding(everyone got their own burger) could do 4 deer per hour. And that includes all rib meat removed, bones bare, neck meat, meat off the calves, everything. The owner would be all over you if you wasted any meat.

Here’s the breakdown:
4 deer per hour at $75 for 12 hours $3600
6 employees at $15, 1.5 after 8 hours $210 each per day, $1260 total.

That’s $2340 profit per day before supplies, not much in utilities just in processing, that doesn’t include the sausages/jerky/etc coming from those animals. It’s a good gig and cutting meat is still my favorite job, but if you run a wild game shop, there’s no 4 weeks of hunting per year.....so that’s out


I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

 

[WCB]

The only thing I bring in is what I want turned into sausage, jerky, sticks, etc. I cut all my roasts, any steaks and of course the loins myself, and bring the processor my scrap meat. Also, I try to bring in he first batch a couple months after season and then the remainder a month or so before the next season. I usually bring in between 2-3 big game animals worth of scrap at one time 2xs a year. Our processor will do 15# "batch" minimums. I've brought stuff in mid summer and had it done next week. I know exactly the condition of the meat I brought in and know the weights.

If I have had to bring in a deer whole....I bring it in skin off, legs off ready to cut and most of the time while I'm filling my order they start cutting it while I'm there and I have my loins at minimum by the time I walk out.

 

[MuleDeerMike]

We do our own. Mature blacktail yielded 74 pounds cut and wrapped last year. For reference, a yearling blacktail spike will get you about 45 pounds cut and wrapped and a spike elk is about 115 lbs cut and wrapped.

 

[cnelk]

I'll play.

I do both - use a processor and do my own.
I hunt so much in the fall I sometimes dont have the time to spend cutting up my elk & deer.

If I bring it to the processor, most times I will debone and trim the quarters. That saves me $$ on the weight charged to be processed.

If I decide to do it myself, I do the same as above, and freeze the quarters until Dec/Jan when I have more time.

My processor does beef, hogs, chickens and everything else throughout the year.
They switch over to wild game in September and that will run thru November.
They do a good job and I'm not over charged.
Been taking my stuff there for over 15 years.

Its nice to know they will save me spot each and every year too.

But if only had to do a WT or two each year, man, thats a no brainer - get to sharpening those knives and get yourself a grinder - and quit bitching online about the cost and weight you get back from the processor.

 

[Azone]

If your doe dressed out at 155 and if the meat cutter, processor or hack or whoever was working on it cleaned it up real good 40 to 50 pounds would seem normal to me.

If people would actually weigh a few carcasses out then process them, then weigh finished product out and waste out its eye opening. Just because somebody says you should get a third of dressed weight back doesn't necessarily mean you will.

Pros are paid by output first and foremost quality oftentimes takes a backseat. More pounds back to the customer more profit, it would be silly to steal from people as far as profit goes. Unless there swapping pork or beef in for sausage or burgers, that's just flat out B.S. This is a forum filled with threads of people trying to justify thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gear to kill animals.
Why the cold feet on the start up cost for a few meat lugs, boning knives, vac sealer, cutting board and a quality grinder?

 

[ORfish]

I get way more butchering my own, but I get every last ounce off the bones (neck/ribs/etc)