Processing

A forum to discuss all your Game Processing and Butcher Block Skills!
From the Skinning Rack to the Dinner Table.

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Iluv2hunt
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Processing

Post by Iluv2hunt » Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:12 pm

Just curious what the going rate for processors is nowadays. I am thinking of doing it on the side here and there for a little bit of extra spending money. I've got all the equipment and can pretty much do anything a processor can do. I want to be fair and competitive. Only issue is packaging supplies, sausage casings, seasonings, etc are not free.....I've got an idea what to charge. Just want to see if I am in line with it.
I don't hunt turkeys because I want to, I hunt them because I have to. ~Colonel Tom Kelly

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Triple Creek Reaper
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Re: Processing

Post by Triple Creek Reaper » Wed Sep 10, 2014 8:17 pm

I have a local couple that charges $50 per cooler...deer or hog. you drop it off already quartered. They do all the standard cuts and provide up to 2 flavors of sausage.
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Kortsman
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Re: Processing

Post by Kortsman » Wed Sep 10, 2014 8:44 pm

There's a meat market in Tampa around Orient and MLK (I think). They charge around $40-50 for standard cuts and making patty sausage.
The Hungry Gator in Plant City charges around $3-3.50 lb for different types of sausage. Jalepeno and Cheese Smoked, Summer, Breakfast, Italian etc...

If you have the time, you could probably make some $$ at it. Just limit who you do in case someone gets sick and then they try to blame you...

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Bossman
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Re: Processing

Post by Bossman » Thu Jan 08, 2015 6:55 am

Never heard the final verdict on this game plan...???

:saluting
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Iluv2hunt
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Re: Processing

Post by Iluv2hunt » Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:23 am

Been doing a few, actually. Did a hog last week for a friend of mine and hand delivered the meat to his hunt camp(he was on the way to mine). Been doing a few euro mounts as well. Got one I am finishing today (hopefully), 2 more in the tank, and 2 Mississippi bucks being delivered tonight to work on
I don't hunt turkeys because I want to, I hunt them because I have to. ~Colonel Tom Kelly

born2hunt
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Re: Processing

Post by born2hunt » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:19 pm

I have really enjoyed doing my own meat for the past several years and honestly feel I do a WAY better job than the shops I used before . I've got the basic equipment and do a few here and there for my buddies I hunt with in which we split the meat . But I don't think I would do much as far as charging people. Its just me doing it and I don't have a designated area so by the time I set up (in the wife's kitchen ) , process and then clean everything up I have a little to much time in it . What I really need is a bigger grinder, that takes the bulk of my time right there with the one I have. But it sure is satisfying doing my own though and not wondering if my fresh and well handled game is mixed with somebody's spoiled meat or rank ole boar hog.

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treefarmer
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Re: Processing

Post by treefarmer » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:58 pm

Sounds familiar! We've been processing deer in the kitchen probably goin' on 35 years. I love it, wife, she's still on the fence, but maybe she'll get over it in another 20 years.
We have a 3X3 piece of 5/8" lexan that we place over the counter next to the sink. The grinder and stuffer are on an oak cart that stays in the utility room till needed and the finished product is as you said "totally ours", if anything is wrong it's my fault.
I have helped a lot of folks over the years learn to muscle bone a deer and not have to endure the standard cuts from a processor. Silver skin, fat, glands, hair and dirt are not on the menu at our camp! It's a lot of work but it's well worth doing your own processing.
Last Friday evening a family brought 2 back straps to me to show them how to cut them. They had sent the rest of the deer to a processor for sausage. I told them they had sent some mighty good fry meat to become sausage when they let the hams go. They just didn't know. (Cool thing about this was the deer was killed by their teenage daughter, her 2nd!)
Always good to hear that folks are doing their own meat processing.
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born2hunt
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Re: Processing

Post by born2hunt » Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:24 pm

When I first started it, breaking down the hams just confused me . They seemed like a big flabby hunk of meat. But with the help of youtube I learned how to separate the muscles and get the different cuts.There ain't much from my hams getting ground.

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Iluv2hunt
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Re: Processing

Post by Iluv2hunt » Sat Jan 10, 2015 7:35 am

One thing I have learned about processing..people don't understand how much meat they should get back. I am very frugal with how I trim an animal, and probably get more meat off of a carcass than 99% of other people, especially most processors. One guy brought me an 80# hog and wanted 20# of Italian, 20# of country sausage, the backstraps & t-loins cut and wrapped, and the hams deboned for roasts..Before I put a knife on it, I made it clear there wouldn't be that much volume of meat
I don't hunt turkeys because I want to, I hunt them because I have to. ~Colonel Tom Kelly

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Bossman
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Post by Bossman » Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:35 pm

Tell me about it... I shot 2 hogs yesterday totaling 270 lbs. And once I got them cleaned I only had 116lbs. With the bone.
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Re: Processing

Post by renegade » Sat Jan 10, 2015 6:22 pm

He wanted 40 # of sausage out of the shoulders of an 80 # hog?
That would be hard to do.

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