Monday, March 17, 2014

Lamb Slaughter - The Numbers Are In





It turned into an ok day today. The sun was out and the highs got into the 50's most of the little bit of snow we got yesterday melted away and didn't make the ground much more wet than it was. In fact to date we are running behind on moisture once again for the year so I am starting to get a bit concerned although the ground is still damp.

I went and cut another load of wood today but before that it was time to pick up the meat we were having processed. The wife called and told the processors how she wanted it cut up and packaged so I have no idea how much of all the different cuts we got but it came up to 97 pounds worth from the two lambs.

Ya know the guy at the processing plant mentioned that my dear wife had asked him not to slaughter one of the lambs but that he had told her it was already too late. I wonder if she was planning on sneaking up there and putting that lamb in her car and making a break for it or something?

Anyway the total out of pocket expenditure comes out to $170.00 processing and I am estimating about another $50.00 for feed, fuel, water etc. in keeping them the entire year. This comes out to about $2.26 a pound for raising your own and not getting my hands bloody. Which are the numbers I am most worried about.

These lambs actually belonged to my Step-Father so we had to pay him the market value for them which added to the bill but I am not really interested in that as I am really only worried what our bottom line will be once our ewes start having their own lambs. Even with what we paid though the total comes out to only $3.56 per pound so it was still a huge savings over buying lamb at the store. Of course we wouldn't be buying expensive lamb if we didn't have our own slaughtered so that starts to get into the realm of a government accounting type of affair. Still $3.56 per pound beats the hell out of most all meat prices I can think of except maybe bottom line hamburger.

Again the costs are low due to producing our own hay. I believe the average grain weight is about 1 cup per day per lamb and I really just guesstimated how many cups of feed are in a 50 pound bag. There was worming meds, ear tag, tail docking and castration which we did ourselves. Whatever small amount of fuel costs that were associated with these two animals hay consumption and water usage.  I guess I could tack on land taxes and maybe a time value but you all get the idea.

Had I butchered them myself the price would have come way down but paying $85.00 per head for someone else to do that deed is money well spent in my book thank you very much. I'll be honest I am hoping even in a  grid down barter economy I can trade out of most of the butchering duties. It has never been something I enjoyed doing and I am now old enough my parents can't make me so NAH. I still go down and help with the deer butchering every Fall that's enough for me.

SO all in all I am happy with the outcome and pretty jazzed that even with paying the processing fee it came out so economical. Next year we will be slaughtering our own lambs maybe...

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!





14 comments:

  1. Is that 97lbs of lamb for the next year?? What other meat do you have??

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    1. Rob - OH no we will eat a lot more meat than that before this years lambs are ready and it will be some time before we have built up enough to supply us totally off the live stock we keep. Just seeing how the numbers come out on the first few we get slaughtered to see if it will be worth while is all.

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  2. I see you can do yer cipherin real purty like:)
    Hope the experiment continues well for you.

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  3. PP,

    Poor lamb chops!!!!!!
    Silence of the Lambs :-P

    All the evidence was found in your freezer!!!!!

    Clarice has a modus operandi set for taking those froze lamb chops from your freezer.

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    1. Sandy - Clarice would ahve to content with the wife. She absolutely loves lamb to the point that no matter how much she hates to see em killed she will still eat em after the fact.

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  4. PP - again - can. you. please. just. send. me. some. lamb. please!!!!

    haven't had any since we came to this island - they just don't sell it here. and no one raises lamb here.

    i know what you're thinking. why don't we just raise our own? well, we are even bigger softies than you. i know that you don't like slaughtering your animals but we can't even raise them and have someone else do the dirty. neither of us have any problem taking down a wild animal...but we just can't raise animals to eat. call us sissy preppers. it's just the way it is.

    plus, we are in the process, finally, of trying to live off of only wild meat that we hunt/process ourselves. so that means we'll have tons of fresh seafood, fish, deer, moose, rabbit and pheasant. that's plenty good in our minds.

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. kymber - Heh. Can I even mail lamb? Will it cost like a billion dollars? I will look into it.

      It's not a sentimental thing towards the animals I just have never liked cleaning/butchering anything larger than fish. One reason I don't really hunt anymore. I make myself do it thinking I would find it less distasteful as time and experience went by but it didn't work.

      I would be worried about just relying on wildlife. There maybe a whole lot of others with that idea as well and the wildlife may not be plentiful in a short time.

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  5. I've seen lamb prices here at $25.00 per pound. You did very well indeed.

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    1. Stephen - Ya I have seen it quite pricey but I really can't count those prices as savings since the truth is we wouldn't be buying it at that price.

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  6. Lamb is very high here unless it is nearing it's expiration date and marked down. I'll echo Stephen's comments.

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    1. MB - Yep just like I told Stephen we wouldn;t be buying it at those prices. I could be like the government though and count those prices in the savings section :)

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  7. WHY is lamb so expensive? Is it the "fancy foo-foo" thing? I wonder how much goat goes for...but have no idea who sells it. It seems as if everybody and their neighbor has a goat or six, but I NEVER see it for sale as meat. One day we'll have to try lamb and do a side-by-side cost / taste analysis. In the mean time, I'll just have to imagine what your lamb chops taste like.

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    1. Carolyn - I have no clue why lamb is so expensive to be honest. You can find goat for sale just not in areas you normally look for it I would imagine. Goats get better market prices at the sales and have a higher demand than lamb it's just you usually hafta be bowing to Mecca at some point to be in a place where it's sold.

      You're right though I see goats being kept all over the place you would think it would be cooled more. Some recipes and spices in goat meat are quite tasty to say the least.

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