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Outrageous processing fee!!

My dad taught me years ago when I was a teenager. I usually skin quarter and put it in a cooler and then put ice on it. I hang from the rear legs and skin. Remove backstraps, tenderloins. Then remove the rear hams off one at a time off the bone in one big hunk of meat. Then I remove the front shoulders with the bone. I use a saws all to cut the front legs off above the knee and to remove the neck. I like to leave it in a cold fridge for at least a week to ten days before I grind it and vacuum seal it. I seal the backstraps whole and mostly grind the rest. The tenderloin never makes it into the freezer!
I've considered taking one to Flowers just to try their snack sticks and breakfast sausage.
 
notgreg said:
Any summer sausage tips? I'm planning on taking a crack at making some with a late season doe this year.
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Check out Bearded Butcher on YouTube. Their summer sausage video is almost exactly how I make mine.

The differences are that I use 20lb venison with 5lb pork rib. I use carrot fiber for moisture retention. And I use A.C. Legg summer sausage seasoning.

Otherwise their video is pretty much exactly how I make mine. IMO the powdered smoke and encapsulated citric acid is what makes it pop. You'll love it.
 
I've never paid a butcher either and won't think of it until I can no longer do it. I enjoy the entire process from kill to freezer.
It's fair to say though, I had to learn to do it because I did not have the money when I got my first deer.
All I needed:
Ice / cooler
2 knives from sams club -$10
Sams club cutting board - $10
Walmart butcher paper - $10
Grinder from wal.art on clearance - $15

Over the years, I've not changed much. Except I bought an electric grinder about 10 years ago.

I tried the vac seal, but imo, they are overrated. They are nice, but the bags tend to lose seal when you move meat around and bump it togther. Wrap your meat in saran wrap, then wrap in butcher paper. Will keep longer than any vac seal. I just pulled out backstrap from 2 years ago and not a drop of freezer burn and absolutely delicious.
I would recommend watching lots of YouTube videos and try different techniques. I've modified my process over time and learn something new every time I watch more vids. I've run about 65 deer through the process over the last 17 years and always look forward to making the next one better.
 
Wolverine72 said:
I've never paid a butcher either and won't think of it until I can no longer do it. I enjoy the entire process from kill to freezer.
It's fair to say though, I had to learn to do it because I did not have the money when I got my first deer.
All I needed:
Ice / cooler
2 knives from sams club -$10
Sams club cutting board - $10
Walmart butcher paper - $10
Grinder from wal.art on clearance - $15

Over the years, I've not changed much. Except I bought an electric grinder about 10 years ago.

I tried the vac seal, but imo, they are overrated. They are nice, but the bags tend to lose seal when you move meat around and bump it togther. Wrap your meat in saran wrap, then wrap in butcher paper. Will keep longer than any vac seal. I just pulled out backstrap from 2 years ago and not a drop of freezer burn and absolutely delicious.
I would recommend watching lots of YouTube videos and try different techniques. I've modified my process over time and learn something new every time I watch more vids. I've run about 65 deer through the process over the last 17 years and always look forward to making the next one better.
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Great post Wolverine. I think we butchered our own because we didn't know there were people that would do it for you! No joke. We learned the hard way: trial and error. The one major butchering cost we've gladly paid is for a restaurant-grade electric grinder. Fairly pricey, but it will grind through meat faster than you can physically feed it in.
 
agelessssone said:
My neighbor took a buck to Shackle Island processor, here in Hendersonville, that weighed 120.
They charged him $150 for processing!
That is outrageous.
Flowers Farms charges $95 per deer, regardless of size.
Took in 150# buck and 70# doe, same price
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Take $95 divide into 4 hr of work? U gunna do it for $25 n hour? Thought so
 
Urban_Hunter said:
Well I took mine to shackle island today too after making two trips to flowers. At 10:30 I was the 22nd truck in line but they didn't open til noon apparently. Left and ate, came back at noon and there was over 50 trucks. They're so slow unloading 1 at a time I figured it's over 5 minutes per truck at 55 trucks we were looking at close to 5 hours of wait time.

I quit going to shackle island because flowers vacuum seals. I'm hoping in the last few years shackle island has started, but I didn't even ask as I had no other option.

I used to process my own… but dang it takes FOREVER to package everything and clean up. I'll gladly pay $100 and get my weekend back
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You get it

Now, be glad to pay $150 or more; they need to make a profit too
 
I've not killed a ton of deer, maybe 10-12 in my life and this year is the first time I've taken one to a processor. I've always enjoyed doing it myself and usually just debone and freeze in larger cuts. take it out of the freezer when I'm ready to cook some or do something like jerky, summer sausage or snack sticks, etc. Also like to hang it as the weather allows.

This year though it was all about the time. I've been traveling so much I barely got time to even hunt. So I field dressed it and went ahead and grabbed the tenderloins while I was in there.
Did order some specialty items: I ordered was 6 lbs of snack sticks (for duck season) & two, six packs of smoked brats. Backstrap left whole, roasts whole and ground the rest with fat. Total ended up being $178.

Was ready exactly 1 week after I dropped it off. Vacuum sealed expect the ground was stuffed in sacks. Everything looks great. The packs of ground are probably 2 lb packs which I would have preferred 1 on but no big deal. So, on one hands that's high $, but I am also paying for convenience this year.
 
We save them up from muzzleloader opener til mid December. Then process all in one day. The most I've processed has been 12. We started at 7am setting up equipment on our kitchen island. We made breakfast sausage, summer sausage, cubed steak, backstrap steaks, and roasts. Most all were vac packed. Then cleanup started. It was 6pm when all equipment was washed, stored and the kitchen cleaned up.

1 It was done my way
2 I got all my own meat
 
jlanecr500 said:
We save them up from muzzleloader opener til mid December. Then process all in one day. The most I've processed has been 12. We started at 7am setting up equipment on our kitchen island. We made breakfast sausage, summer sausage, cubed steak, backstrap steaks, and roasts. Most all were vac packed. Then cleanup started. It was 6pm when all equipment was washed, stored and the kitchen cleaned up.

1 It was done my way
2 I got all my own meat
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What do you do with them for the month they're waiting to be processed?
 
Urban_Hunter said:
What do you do with them for the month they're waiting to be processed?
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They are quartered and frozen the same day as harvested. About a week before processing I put them in 120qt coolers and sit them on my deck to thaw. They are usually still partially frozen on processing day.
 
Spurhunter said:
When I retire I will process my own. I am OCD about hair, silver skin, etc. It takes me a while to do one right. I'm not going to lose a day of hunting to process a deer. It's a simple time vs. cost analysis. At this point in life I have more money than time.
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Thats my problem i dont have much of either😂😂
 
Spurhunter said:
When I retire I will process my own. I am OCD about hair, silver skin, etc. It takes me a while to do one right. I'm not going to lose a day of hunting to process a deer. It's a simple time vs. cost analysis. At this point in life I have more money than time.
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You can't be ocd about hair and silver skin and take one to a processor. I promise you they aren't ocd about it.
 
Jcalder said:
You can't be ocd about hair and silver skin and take one to a processor. I promise you they aren't ocd about it.
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Another reason we do our own.

But then I'm lucky with family. When it's "butchering day," everyone shows up and we handle it is an assembly line. I do the skinning and removal of major sections (hams, shoulders, backstraps, etc.) and other family members specialized in disassembling these large pieces, removing fat and silver-skin, while other do the grinding, final cuts for steaks/roasts, and then another does packaging/labelling for the freezer.

We average an hour per deer. Three deer, three hours work start to finish and clean kitchen.
 

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