Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Slaughtering your pigs yourself at home is not for the tenderhearted, but if you wish to control
every aspect of raising your pigs and producing your pork, it may be something that you want
to do. However, before deciding that you want to slaughter your pigs or engage in home but-
chering, you should thoroughly consider the task. Killing large animals is no easy task, no
matter what method you use. You will need to have the physical strength to hoist and move
the heavy, dead weight of your pigs. Once you begin the job, you will need to finish it because
the meat will quickly start to spoil if you delay. You will also need to work with a number of
sharp knives and other special implements during butchering. If any of this gives you pause,
you may wish to send your pigs to a good butcher instead of trying to do this job at home.
Most people who raise pigs do use the services of butchers.
If you are still interested in the idea of slaughtering your own pigs, then it is recommended
that you visit someone else's farm when they are slaughtering pigs so you can see firsthand
what is involved in slaughtering and butchering pigs at home. You may be able to assist and
get some experience before you attempt to do this job with your own pigs.
Planning ahead
If you will be slaughtering at home, you will be much more dependent on the weather than if
you were using a butcher. You probably will not have access to the temperature-controlled en-
vironment that a butcher has. That means that you most likely will need to slaughter your pigs
in the cooler months, or at least during the coolest part of the day, such as the early morning
hours. Alternatively, you may be able to do the slaughtering yourself and arrange with a local
butcher to chill and cut the carcass for you. If you do use a local butcher to chill and cut the
carcass, you will need to make the arrangements far in advance for the same reasons that
someone taking their pigs to the butcher needs to make arrangements a month ahead of time.
Butchers can be in high demand at some times of the year, so topic ahead of time if you would
like them to chill and cut your meat, even if you intend to do the actual dispatching yourself.
If the temperature is less than 30 degrees F, you can slaughter pigs at any time because bacter-
ia that could spoil the meat will not grow fast at these temperatures. However, if the weather
is extremely cold (below the mid-20s), you should not allow the carcass to freeze right after
slaughter as this will make the meat less tender than if it is chilled first before freezing. You
also will need to select carefully where you are going to slaughter your pigs. Your space re-
quirements will depend, to some extent, on the methods you intend to use. After killing your
pig, for example, you will need to remove the animal's skin and hair. There are two ways to
