Processing

We processed one of our culls (after a pretty long hiatus) and here are some of the things we discovered:

1. I need a better setup if we are going to be raising more food for the home and hearth. I'd love a stainless steel area dedicated to processing because it was challenging working around everything else we already had going on in the kitchen. Maybe at our next property? At this rate, we are going to need a LOT of spare money, too- lol.

2. I need to withhold food a bit before processing. I always offer something tasty at the time of the deed, but full stomach is only making the job afterward harder. It is also altering the live weight because all that offal/food is heavy.

3. Harlequins are holding their own so far against more common commercial breeds. They are a smaller than New Zealands, of course, but I didn't see any heavy bone or wimpy muscling. I am sure we can improve with selective breeding. Here are the numbers:

Live weight with a full guts* was 4lbs 10.7oz on one of the smaller fryers.
Dressed out weight was 2lbs 7.1oz. This is the dressed carcass (no head, no pelt) with liver, heart, and kidneys.
That makes the dressing percentage 52.34%, though I think it would have been closer to 55% if done correctly. Not a bad start!

Now we have a delicious homegrown dinner and our dogs are happy, too. While it will never be easy for me to dispatch any animal because I truly love them, I think we can offer a much better quality of life here than any commercial operation. People are always shocked and appalled when they find out a farmer raised an animal for meat, but will buy it at the grocery store in a clean white package without a second thought. There are many documentaries on it, but we now know that industrialized farming practices keep animals in deplorable conditions for the sake of profit. We want to be self-sufficient for a number of reasons, but this is one of the many.

*(Sorry, but it's true).