I had 3 hogs in a trap and before putting them down, I wanted to know what it was going to cost me to process them. All I wanted was packages of ground pork. The hogs weighed in around 125 Lb each.

I called a processor in Huntsville Alabama near Redstone Arsenal where I was working. They told me they charge $100 for small ones and $150 for big ones. That seemed like too much to me.

I then called a place a couple of hours drive from my Texas farm, located in Point Blank Texas (Near Lake Livingston). Their price was $35 per pig.

No brainer as to where I took those pigs for processing.
The 3 pigs yielded about 65 Lbs of ground pork.

That is the way it works out using the various processors.

That is why we process all the game we kill ourselves.

That's interesting Bob. I am just a bit surprised there was only 65 pounds of ground pork between those three. Is there a rule of thumb as to what to expect in terms of typical ratio of live weight to boned meat?

Bob I use a place in the Florence, AL area that charges $75 for a hog. I had the whole hog done in sausage so there was a spice charge of about $7 for that and they added some fat for a total of $91.00.This hog was about 240# 0n the hoof.

When I had some done professionally, it was $130 each, but I got hams, chops, roast and then some grind. So the original estimate is not too far off IF you want all of the other stuff.

As Randall said, I just do my own now.

I called a local processor (Texas) to inquire about pork/deer sausage and was told they don't do hogs - that if they did, they would have to pay for a full time meat inspector. They do deer - but won't cut up a feral hog. Maybe they just didn't want to do it and invented an excuse. Maybe other processors don't differentiate between feral and domestic. I don't know - just know they wouldn't touch em.

Personally, I think paying $35 x3 for 65 pounds of ground pork is not real smart, unless you really don't like handling meat. For that price, you could buy a good grinder, and cut and grind the meat yourself and you'll know what was done to it, what was put into it, etc the whole way from raw meat to ground pork.

A friend grinds bacon up with his ground pork to make what he calls pigburgers. Quite tasty, but I like my burgers kind of rare, so I don't do wild hog in burgers very often.

My dad was a butcher and I learned that when you drop an animal at a processing place, you need to remember that it is very likely the processor will keep some meat for themselves.
Most processors I used have separately offered to sell pre=packaged deer sausage, jerkey, and other items made from wild game. I doubt that they had hunted to get the meat they were using for those items.

quote:

That's interesting Bob. I am just a bit surprised there was only 65 pounds of ground pork between those three. Is there a rule of thumb as to what to expect in terms of typical ratio of live weight to boned meat?

Just from my own personal experiences during my hunting career, too many hunters do not really understand how much actual salvageable meat there is on an animal.

The live weight or gutted weight on animal is a lot different than the final processed weight.

Until or unless you have tackled it own you own, it is difficult to understand or visualize how much waste there is from an animals carcass.

Other peoples mileage will vary.

I agree about how much non-usable there is on game.
Think about the weight of the whole skin, then the weight of the head and lower parts of legs, then there are the bones and guts and lastly and maybe to a smaller extent, the blood. It all adds up.

Add in blood shot/damaged tissue.

I know it isn't accurate, but I have viewed shot game for several years now as 30% hide/head/feet, 30% guts and bones and about 30% usable meat.

Yes, I know that does not come out to 100% of a carcass, but it is also why I don't have a real problem with shoulder shots on deer, because there really is not that much meat on the shoulders and it is hard to get what is there off.

I have butchered a couple of blacktail deer and a couple of mule deer in years past, and never thought to weigh the final yield.

Try next time, you will find it interesting.

Another thing about taking game to a processor, they are usually dealing with several animals at one time and they don't take the time to sa;lvage every little chunk of meat.

One cut that Lora and I enjoy are the shanks, but unless a person specifies they want them processors usually toss them, simply because there is so much connective tissue. They are damn tasty when braised, but to try and get any meaningful amount of meat off them, becomes a time waster.

Another concept many processors are accused of is not getting a persons actual meat back to them, just giving them a mix from their animal and possibly one or two others. I cannot prove it either way.

In regard to processors combining your meat with some from other folks:
A grinding machine needs a certain amount of meat before it will function properly. That is because there is a spiral inside that pushes the meat to the cutting blades. The machines are made to minimize this, but without sufficient meat in the hopper and spiral, there will be some meat left inside the unit. The larger the grinding machine, the more meat that is trapped in the spiral.
To diminish one person's portion that is left in the spiral, multiple persons meat is often ground together or one right after another. Nothing wrong with that if all the meat was properly cared for, but most folks don't like not knowing for sure.

quote:

but without sufficient meat in the hopper and spiral, there will be some meat left inside the unit. The larger the grinding machine, the more meat that is trapped in the spiral.To diminish one person's portion that is left in the spiral

... that's why you use crackers or dry bread to clean out the grinder after your meat is gone.... you'll never notice the extra.. and it gets mixed in , along with whatever seasonings you might use...

Jim,
That can be a solution when doing the processing at home, but I don't think a butcher in a commercial processing shop will ever do that. (Obviously I know spices must be added when sausage is being made and that is expecte).
If I found those foreign items in my ground meat I wouldn't know what it was and would be skeptical as to whether the meat was safe to eat.
Purity is one expectation of having wild game.

quote:

... that's why you use crackers or dry bread to clean out the grinder after your meat is gone.... you'll never notice the extra.. and it gets mixed in , along with whatever seasonings you might use...

That works out real good when processing game at home, but when dropping a deer or a pig off at a busy processor with dozens or maybe hundreds of animals being worked on it don't turn out so well.

Best way today process hogs is spend few hundred bucks on knives, grinder and few other things and learn how to
You will learn new trade and you will be proud of the results
In other ways, get off your ass and help
Yourself

Right on! After thinking it over more, I have heard of: "10% butcher's share".

Was just looking for a bit of open cabinet space today to put some of these items away and off the cabinet top.
Grinder, french fry cutter, dryer, box of spices, bags and bagging, vac system, jerky gun.
Damn, it all add's up and takes up space.

Soon as I can swing $200 or so more I'll be getting a slicer too. I can do ok, just some are not equal to the rest at times.
Figure it would be more even cuts with one, might even save some steeling time on knives.

Have a bunch of burger, been thinking of thawing it out and making sausage, am out of that good stuff.

Bought some peperoni a couple weeks ago. Too hard to chew, ground up 5lbs of sticks.
Man that was good on RITZ crackers. Told the meat shop guy I wanted 10# of bulk before it's cased.
Hasn't called, hope he's saved it for me to save the grinding. **went over today to check on it. "we don't make peperoni, order it in". I bought another 5lbs and ground it up.

Mighty handy to have the equipment. As a kid I helped and learned on game and beef.
Have always done our own processing. Later years Dad would donate half or quarter beef to a butcher kid friend to do the processing.
He thought that worked out a lot easier than doing it all at home.

George

I saw this in the hog section but got a call just now my three deer are ready to be picked from the processor. All ground to burger with 10% beef tallow except 8-10 lbs of stew meat and one back strap sliced for brother in law. Will be freezer wrapped, labeled and coolers cleaned out. Packages run about 1 1/2 pounds. May be a bit pricey but I think they do a good job and saves me a lot of time. I feel like I get all of my meat back and have watched them work at the shop before. I let them keep it a day or so as it will be frozen and I just put it in my freezer. Had some of last years last night for supper and still fresh and in good shape.

Smaller hogs don't have much of a "cut out"
yield. Generally around 30% real meat to dressed
weight. There is considerable weight in a hog's
head that hurts the cut out %. Enjoy your pig
however you handle it.

Good hunting.

Tetonka
DRSS