How to Slaughter Cattle

7/28/2019 How to Slaughter Cattle

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How to Slaughter Cattle

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT THAT MAY

DISTURB OR OFFEND SOME VIEWERS, AND IS NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER

AUDIENCES. VIEWER'S DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED.

It's pretty obvious that beef is meat from muscles of cattle, but how

does it get to our table? In order for beef to be served at dinner time in

the form of, for example, a Porterhouse Steak, sacrifices must be made

in order to get that steak. In other words, an animal's life must be taken

to put meat on the table. It does sound sad and gruesome, but it's

reality. Cattle, like all ungulates, are born to be killed and eaten.

However, the way we humans kill and eat animals is much different

from what a pack of wolves or a pride of lions have to do so they caneat. Humans are expected to treat animals with the same level of

kindness and respect from the time the animal came to be raised to the

point of slaughter. This is particularly true for those who care for and

raise animals for their own freezer. However, some anti-slaughter

people disagree with this statement, due to their agendas that all

animals should be protected and none should be killed in every way

shape and form.

It should be noted, though, that this article is not created for the purpose of arguing about the

morals ofwhether slaughtering animals for food is right or wrong, since that should be left for a

different time and place, or can be discussed on the Discuss tab of this article. Before we begin, a

definition: Slaughtering is the killing, cleaning, skinning and quartering animals for meat. It is aprocess that begins when the animal enters onto the kill floor or the area where they can be easily

accessed to be slaughtered and ends in the cooling room.

There are three ways that cattle are slaughtered: Commercial, Do-It-Yourself/Home Butchering, and

Religious slaughter. Religious slaughter is the most controversial subject next to commercial

slaughter, but it is beyond the scope of this article to cover such a diversified subject due to the fact

that there is more than one religious slaughter method that exists, and thus will not be covered

here. The steps below will show only two methods, describing how they are accomplished and the

details as to why such methods and steps need to be done.

The details in the sections below are only examples of what is typically done to slaughter cattle.Every slaughter plant or butcher shop, large or small, and every DIY practice is always going to bedifferent from another. Different slaughtering facilities will have different equipment that they see fitto use for humane slaughter, and different farms and counties have various methods andregulations, respectively, that must be followed when performing slaughter. The basic concepts ofthe two methods, though, are the same and involve similar practices.

Note: Details on how cattle are commercially slaughtered are found in the section following DIYHome Slaughter.

Do-It-Yourself Home Slaughter

Steps

Page 1 of 12How to Slaughter Cattle (with Pictures) - wikiHow

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Make sure theanimal you are goingto slaughter is of theright age to butcher.

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Make sure youare slaughtering atthe right time ofyear, or even day.

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Make careful preparations for doing the slaughtering process. This will help you remaincalm and make sure you make the euthanization process as quick and painless as possible.You will get a strong surge of adrenaline when the animal is killed, but make sure you learn todirect these feelings into doing the job right instead of letting them get the best of you andbotching the job .

Make sure the animal you are going to slaughter is of the right

age to butcher. This is especially true with a steer or heiferthat youhave raised for beef. If you are or have finished a young animal ongrain, aim to butcher when they are around 15 to even 18 months old.Some people prefer to butcher their cattle between 10 and 15 monthsof age. If they are finished on pasture, the best age to butcher isbetween 24 and 30 months of age.

Make sure you are slaughtering at the right time of year, or even day. Try to avoidslaughtering and butchering cattle, or any other animals, during flyseason, which is typically between May and October in mostcountries except Australia. For some areas, you can butcheranytime between October and May, especially the areas that don'tget much or any snow and temperatures remain 40 degreesFahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) during the day.

However, the window for slaughtering cattle is much more narrower for areas that do get

snow from November or December through to May. For these areas, slaughtering shouldbe done in the fall, between October to the first snowfall.

You should also note the time that your animals were born and when the best age andtime to slaughter should be. For example, if the steer you are raising on grass was born in

April and you are wanting to slaughter him when he's around 18 months of age, then youshould slaughter in October of the following year. However, if the steer was born inFebruary and you want to slaughter at the same age (18 months), then you may have toconsider waiting a couple of months more (into October or November instead of in Augustof the following) to slaughter it.

Consider withholding feed for 24 hours prior to slaughter. It's not totally necessary, but it'seasier to clean or gut an animal when there is no food in the gastro-intestinal (GI) tractthan if there was. But if you feel bad about leaving your cattle hungry before slaughter,

then that's fine too. But remember to be very careful when the skinning and cleaningprocess has to commence.

Consider which parts of the animal you want to keep before slaughtering. Some peoplelike to use all parts of the animal for various uses. If you choose not to use the different partsavailable to use, the value is only in learning and experimenting, as well as knowing thepossibilities of what you can save and use .

Locate the area where you are going to euthanize your beef animal. The best place wouldbe in an area where it is most comfortable in, and where you can easily get into with a tractorto haul it out.

Load the gun and make sure the knife you have with you is razorsharp. You can use whatever gun you have available, be it a .22 rifle

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Load the gun andmake sure the knifeyou have with you israzor sharp.

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The target

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or a .38 pistol, just so long as you know where to aim for the best killshot.

Aim, and fire. Aim carefully for the invisible X above the eyes, and then squeeze the trigger. Ifyour shot is right on the mark, then the animal will die instantly or be rendered insensible.

In order to know where to place the bullet from your gun torender the animal insensible, an invisible X should bevisualized: Start at the top of the base of the animal's horn orear, then trace it to the center of the opposite eye. Do the samewith the other ear or eye. (Or think of it this way: left ear/horn toright eye, right ear/horn to left eye.) The center were the linesmeet is where the bullet should be placed.

If the gun is placed in between the eyes, the shot will completely miss the brain and quitepossibly fail to kill. Thus it is very important to know where to place the gun in order to letthe animal meet a swift and painless end. Leg movement should be ignored as indicationthat the animal is still alive (see next step below).

Cut the throat right after the animal goes down. With a big, very sharp knife (a huntingknife is best), stick the point of the knife into the throat and cut outward away from you so thatthe blood can drain out onto the ground. Never cut into the skin through the hair, since theblade will slip and you could cut yourself or a part of the animal you don't want cut. Make sureall the main blood vessels are severed.

Often pumping the foreleg up and down a few times also helps get the blood out.

Note: Before and during the sticking process many people who have viewed videos ofanimal slaughter or have personally watched the slaughter process observed that theanimals' legs were still moving and kicking as their throats were being slit, and this haslead them to believe that the animal was still alive after being stunned or killed. This is

false. Leg movements are merely unconscious reflexes that are initiated by synapses thatcome from not the brain itself because the brain would already be non-functioning afterbeing killed, but the spinal cord. Even decapitated animals will kick.

In order to determine if an animal is unconscious and insensible, leg movementmustbe ignored. Eye reflexes, eye blinking, vocalization and rhythmic breathing ormovement of the animal's sides must be absent in order for an animal to beconsidered deceased.

It is crucial that the animal be fully insensible and bled out before it is dressed.

Remove the head and, if the animal is intact, the testicles, immediately. This is so thatthe meat doesn't get tainted. Be careful when removing the testes because the animal may

still be involuntarily kicking out. The head should be removed by cutting all the way aroundwith the hunting knife, careful to keep the blade between the skin and flesh, never into thehair, cutting outwards but never towards you.




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You will need a meat-saw to cut through the spinal column.

Remove the front feet/lower leg. Stick the point of the knife into the knee-joint and cutoutwards, keeping the point of the knife in the cartilage and cutting around, until you cancompletely remove the leg.

Get the tractor. Make sure it has the front-end loader attached first, otherwise you won't beable to do the rest of the slaughter process unless you can do it on the ground like with wildgame (deer, moose, bear, etc.). If you choose to use this process, note that you could do thisfor skinning the front of the animal, but not for removing viscera and splitting the carcass.

Make slits between the achilles tendon (or gam cord) and the hock bone (equivalent toour ankle/heel) and insert a hook called the gambrel or beef hook, which would beattached to a beef-spreader or single-tree. Shackle the single-tree to chains and attach thechains to the loader. Raise the loader up as high as you are comfortable of raising so that theanimal's head is not dragging on the ground, and so it's at a sufficient height where you canstart to work on the rear of the animal.

If you choose to start slaughtering the animal on the ground, all that's needed to be doneis to move the animal onto its back and place a short prop or square post on either side ofthe rib-cage (below the elbow) to hold it there.

Move the carcass to the designated slaughter area. This is where you will be able to do therest of the slaughtering procedure. Make sure the area is located in a[n]:

Dry, dust-free and well-drained area.

Area not visible to the public, like from roads, neighbor's houses, etc.

Well-lit area, such as in a sunny spot or where you can access electricity if you have to dothe slaughtering process in the evening or at night.

Sheltered area to protect yourself and the carcass from the elements like wind andprecipitation.

You may already have a designated slaughter facility where a tractor is not needed,but simply a cable and a winch. Come-along winches are the best for cattle, and canbe used to hoist the animal to the height that is most convenient for you to work on theanimal.

Remove the hind feet and shanks. Skin the hind legs just like with removing the front legsmentioned above (only up to the hock joints, not past it), then saw through the bone below thehock (above the hock joint when you have the carcass hanging) .

Start skinning the animal. You need to work from the back legs to the neck front to back. Todo this the following steps are followed:

1. Slip the short-pointed knife into the slit made at the gam cord and cut around the hock,cutting outwards.

2. With the knife between the flesh and the skin, slice a line down each leg to the midline,then all the way down to the neck or dewlap.

3. Using your skinning knife, begin at the junction where the leg cuts meet the midline cut.Grasp the hide with one hand and pull hard (out and down for hanging, up and out forcarcasses on the ground) to create tension as you use your knife to separate the hidefrom the flesh. Place your knife firmly against the hide with the cutting edge turnedtowards the hide at a slight angle . Keep pulling the hide away with your hand and keep

slicing down and to the side until the belly and rib cage is completely skinned.You may want to wash down this area at this point to remove any dirt or othercontaminants before proceeding to the rest of the skinning process.

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4. Start skinning the back legs by starting at the top of the "Y" and skinning the hide up andover the groin (scrotum or udder). The hide tends to be tautest here, so you need to beespecially careful if you're wanting to save the hide. Just like with skinning the belly, pullthe hide out and down to create tension as you work. Fat is good when skinning theanimal as it makes it relatively easy to skin, so you should leave as much fat on thecarcass as possible.

5. Continue skinning over the anus to the tailbone. Give the tail a sharp jerk downward to

sever it from the vertebrae. (If you can't do it, simply cutting it off with a knife works justas good.)

6. The weight of the hide itself will help skin the rest of the carcass for you. Work all aroundthe animal until you reach the forefront of the carcass

7. Skin the forelegs near the shoulders, starting on the outside of the leg and workingaround to the front. Repeat for the other leg.

8. Skin the neck and inner forelegs. By this time the hide should be completely shed.

Remove the offal/viscera of the animal. You will need to first separate the large intestine

from the body and tie it off, then remove the penis if it's a steer or bull you are butchering, thencontinue with the removal of the rest of the internal organs, as follows.

1. Lower the animal so that you can work comfortably on the rear end of it.

2. Cut around the anus with a short, pointed knife, being very careful not to make any holesin the intestine, as that could contaminate the meat. This anal area is known as thebung.

3. Pull the bung out slightly or enough that you can tie it off. Unless you know your knotsand can make a slip-knot prior to pulling it out, you may need a helper to hold the rectumas you tie it off.

4. If the animal is male, cut out the penis before slicing through the belly.

5. Cut down the belly, cutting from the inside out, working your way down from theudder/scrotal area to the sternum. Use your other hand to hold the viscera away fromthe point of the knife, cutting through the belly fat as you go.

6. Place a large container underneath to catch the viscera, as by now they would bebulging out of the body.

7. Cut through the fat surrounding the offal and sever any tissue that connects offal to theback of the abdominal cavity. Pull the bung through to the inside of the cavity then outthrough the slit made to access the internal organs. Take your time separating theintestines from the cavity since you don't want to spill the contents into the carcass. Alsobe careful to not rupture the bladder.

8. Pull the intestines and bladder out of the body, as well as the stomachs since it shouldalso be free by now too. Reach in and down to lift it all out into the container, severing

the remaining flesh and connective tissue connecting the stomachs (also called thepaunch) to the body cavity. This includes severing the esophagus from the stomach atthe point where it goes through the diaphragm.

If there are some innards that you want to keep, you'll want to get a separate"keeper" bowl to put them in. This would include the kidneys and liver. The kidneysshould be removed after the intestines are taken out, as well as the abdominal fatthat can be cut up and fed to the chickens (if you have any). Remove the liver andplace it in the bowl along with the kidneys.

9. Cut out the diaphragm and remove the heart and lungs. To do this you need to grasp theheart and lungs and pull forward and downward, cutting the large blood vessel attachedto the backbone. You should be able to remove the heart and lungs with the esophagus

and trachea attached. You will need to sever the connective tissue between them if youwant to keep the heart along with the liver and kidneys.

You may need to squeeze the heart a bit to get any blood out that may have notbeen completely pumped out.




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Cattle ready forslaughter

You should inspect the offal to see if there are any abnormalities that may affect the qualityof the meat. If you're not sure what to look for, it may be best to get a large-animalveterinarian out to do the postmortem inspection for you.

Split the carcass in half. Start by sawing through the sacral vertebrae from the inside and

the cartilage that joins the pelvic bone. As soon as the pelvic area is cut through you can sawfrom the back, but some prefer to keep sawing through the back since the vertebrae is mucheasier to see in the front than the back, especially if the animal has a lot of back fat. Continuesawing to the neck. Cut down through the center of the brisket to cut the ribcage in half.

You should consider splitting the carcass into quarters to handle the carcass a bit easier.Cut between the 12th and 13th rib, and leave the 13th rib intact to allow air to circulateover the kidney knob and prevent bacterial growth if additional hanging time is needed.

Clean the carcass with cold water to wash any excess blood and dirt off. You may haveto trim any soiled, bruised or bloodied pieces of flesh as well.

Hang the carcass to age it. How long to age depends on the air temperature, fat coveringand desired flavour. Most should hang the carcass to age for seven to five days (some saytwo weeks), longer if aging is done during the colder conditions and if there's more fat on thecarcass. If the carcass is entirely covered in fat then it is recommended to hang longer than 10days.

A good way to tell if you have the meat aging at the right temperature is if the temperatureof the round (the hind-quarter) and other thick parts are lowered to 40 to 45 degreesFahrenheit (7 to 4 degrees Celsius) within 24 hours after slaughter.

Hang the carcass in an area where off-odors will not be absorbed and do not exist. Odorslike manure, gas, paint or musty odors can be readily absorbed by the carcass.

The hanging area should, in addition to cool and dry, also be dust-free, odor-free and

relatively sterile.

Commercial Slaughter

Cattle are herded off the cattle liners and herded through arace or chute to be weighed then put into holding pens. Thesepens, usually holding around 20 to 50 cattle in each, are such thatthey separate the various grades and even coat color of cattle thathave to go through the slaughter facility. This is so that it makes iteasier for the personnel in the slaughter plant to grade variouscarcasses that go through.

The pens are also a way for them to undergo antemortem (before death) inspection bylicensed veterinarians. This is to detect any evidence of disease or any abnormal conditionthat would indicate a particular animal is diseased. If any such animal is found, a metal ear-tag is placed so as to give special postmortem scrutiny.

If there is definite and conclusive evidence that, in theantemortem examination, the animal is not fit for humanconsumption, it is condemned and no postmortem exam isnecessary.




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Restraint box forcommercial slaughterof cattle

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After cattle arerenderedsenseless, they

The group that is ready for slaughter are herded out of their holding pen down a racethat leads into the plant. It's important that cattle are herded and kept in a calm state to notaffect the quality of the meat. Cattle that are in a state of anxiety or panic will have darker-colored meat (called "dark-cutters"), than cattle that are calm and relatively relaxed.

Reaching the kill floor, cattle are herded into a into a moveable

cradle or box chute, like the one pictured on the right. Thiscradle is specially designed to block the animal's view from what'sgoing on outside of the cradle, restrain it, enable the person above tostun it, drop the side to release the stunned or killed animal toshackle one or both of the hind legs, and complete the rest of theslaughtering and dressing process.

The box is open above and the sides are high enough so that the animal cannot see over

even if they try to raise their head. The right side of the box chute is released and let downto free the stunned animal once the killing/stunning process is complete. This allowsaccess to the legs so that they can be shackled. More on this in later steps.

In addition, there is a solid-sided gate at the rear of the box stall so that the cattle behindthe one that is being killed do not see what is going on in front of them. This is so that theyremain calm and quiet.

Inducing instantaneous insensibility. The captive bolt gun (alsonamed cap-bolt, cap-bolt gun, cap-bolt stunner or captive bolt stunner)is the primary tool that is used to stun and kill cattle in a commercialslaughter plant. This device uses a steel rod that is driven instantly into

the forehead of the animal. The gun is placed in the middle of theforehead, never between the eyes, to effectively kill the animalinstantly.

The steel rod from the captive bolt gun is driven by compressed air or a blank cartridge,and is retracted and reset for the next animal.

The cap-bolt gun will remain effective if maintained properly. Cartridges should bestored in a dry place and the steel rod cleaned regularly. The gun itself must also becleaned to ensure it induces instantaneous death to the animal it is used on.

Veal calves are often killed with carbon dioxide.

After cattle are rendered senseless, they are released from the restrainer. The side panelof the cradle drops down to allow access to the animal's legs. Chainsare shackled to their hind legs and attached to a hook in theconveyor system that hoists the animal up. The stunned bovine thentravels to the proceeding areas to be bled out, skinned, gutted andhalved.




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are released fromthe restrainer.

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Sticking andbleeding out.

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Skinning.

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Sticking and bleeding out. A very sharp knife is used in this process:the point of the knife cuts into the animal's throat and cuts through thedewlap, trachea, esophagus and jugular vein immediately below the jaw-

line to allow the blood to flow out. The cut can be made perpendicular orparallel to the neck, depending on what the standards are of theslaughter plant. Animals are bled out before being dressed because itprevents blood from coagulating in the tissues and thus making the meatgo rancid.

Skinning. The hind shanks are skinned and removed at the hocks: beef hooks are insertedbetween the gam cord (which is the tendon that runs from the tip ofthe hock (tuber calcaneus) up to the tibia) and the tibia, freeing thechain on one of the hind legs that had been used to hoist up theanimal. The hide is opened along the median line of the belly and isremoved from the belly and sides. Down-pullers are used forremoving the rest of the hide, including skinning the head.

This method greatly increases the efficiency of skinning and the yields ofheadmeat/cheekmeat.

Removal of the head and limbs. The head is not severed from the carcass until the hide iscompletely removed. Until then the legs, head, breast and aitch (rump) bones are split fromthe carcass by sawing or by using a mechanical saw similar to a chainsaw, except it's built forcutting cleanly through bone, not wood.

Removing viscera or offal. All internal organs are removed except the kidneys. The anus iscut out, and the offal is dumped out into a cart or barrel to be hauled away.

Most slaughter plants do not find it cost effective to discard the offal, legs, head, blood orhide to the landfill. A large number of facilities sell the waste material to various butchershops or other factories that use the remains for various users from cosmetics to carseats, home insulation and material for paving roads.

Postmortem inspection. If the plant is under federal inspection (USDA-FDA in the UnitedStates or CFIA in Canada), the carcass and viscera are examined by a federally licensedveterinarian hired by the FDA or CFIA at this stage in the slaughtering process. Since thehead is cut from the neck, the brain and brain stem also needs to be examined for signs ofBSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy).

In the United States and Canada, the brain, spinal column, eyes, and other organs that aremost likely to hold prions that cause BSE are discarded as SRMs or Specified Risk

Material and neverput into the food chain for either livestock or humans.




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Splitting thecarcass and removing

the tail.

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Splitting the carcass and removing the tail. The carcass is splitthrough the centre of the backbone and the tail is removed. Thespinal cord also needs to be removed during this process anddiscarded, since, as mentioned above, is designated as SpecifiedRisk Material.

Washing the carcass. The split carcasses or halves are washed with cold water using apressure-washer, and let to dry.

Sending the halves to the coolers. The halves, after slaughtering is complete, are sent to acooler room where they are kept at a temperature of around 34 degrees Fahrenheit for aminimum of 24 hours. Often carcasses are left in the cooler for two to three weeks to allow themeat to cure before it is cut up or "ribbed" into various cuts of beef.

Slaughter cattle during the fall, preferably between October and the beginning of December.

Be prepared for the time to say good bye by laying out plans, when, where, how, who, why andwhat to do the job that needs to be done.

Hold back feeding cattle for 24 hours prior to slaughter.

Handle animals calmly and quietly like you would handle them any other day.

Try not to slaughter an animal in front of other cattle, as this may cause unnecessary panic andexcitement.

Make sure your kill shot is only one, well-aimed shot, not several.

You may want to wash down the animal before skinning it if it is really dirty with tag (manure onthe hide) to prevent contamination of the meat.

This isn't needed if the animal looks quite clean, or has no tag on it.

Always keep tension on the hide when skinning, especially at the initial stages.

Keep your knives sharp at all times. This is very important for proper skinning and removal

of the viscera, as well as for your safety. A dull knife is much more dangerous to use than asharp knife because slippage occurs much more often. Keep a knife sharpener or whet stonewith you while you work so you can sharpen your knives every so often.

Keep as much fat on the animal while skinning as possible. Fat helps in the skinningprocess since it helps make the hide come off easier.

Always bring the work towards you (not you going to your work) as much as possible. Thishelps you stay comfortable, as it's not always great to work in a position that you areuncomfortable in.

Some people prefer to split the ribcage and pelvic bone before slicing the belly. This is so that

it's easier to remove the offal. But it really makes no difference whether you cut the ribcage ornot.

Tips




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Some people prefer to remove the head as or after the hide is removed. This is also down topersonal preference of what you want to do.

Hanging right after sticking or posting is, just like with the head removal or cutting the ribcage,is also a matter of choice, depending on what you're comfortable working with or whatresources you have access to.

You can wrap the halves in wet, clean muslin to smooth the exterior fat during the chilling

process. Use skewers or ties to tighten the shroud.

Carcasses from cattle that have been grass-fed should be hung shorter than grain-fed cattle.Typically 3 to 5 days of hanging time for carcasses with a very thin fat cover is sufficient: five toseven days is good for those with more fat.

Slaughtering animals is NOT for everyone!If you cannot face the fact that you have ananimal that needs to be slaughtered and cannot do it yourself, then let a professional do it foryou.

Do not run or excite an animal prior to slaughter since this could cause the meat to go dark, oreven cause poor bleeding and give the carcass a bloody appearance, which may potentiallyruin the meat.

Do not slaughter an animal during the summer months or during the height of fly season. Youwill have a higher chance of getting meat contaminated and spoiled during this time of yearthan during the fall, winter or early spring.

Never shoot between the eyes, always above in the middle of the forehead.

Never, ever, EVER work with a dull knife!!You will wind up with more injuries to you andmore errors in your work than you ever will working with a knife kept sharp, sharp enough toeasily shave the hairs off your arm or, if you're a man, your face.

You will get dirty bleeding an animal out, so knowing where and how to cut the throat andwhere to stand is important.

Be very careful with handling knives. They are designed to do one thing and one thing only, soyou need to be careful in handling them so you don't cut yourself, or cut something in or on thecarcass you weren't supposed to cut.

Be EXTREMELY careful skinning the belly! This is the hardest area to skin because the hide isquite thin, and it is quite easy for the knife to slip and cut through the abdominal membranes.

Be EXTREMELY careful when cutting out the bung and when you are cutting away theintestines and paunch! You must make sure you are cutting in such a way that your knife won'tslip and cut the stomach or intestines accidentally, which could affect the meat. A knife that iskept razor sharp will also help prevent such accidents occurring whilst butchering.

Never cut through the hair. This will cause your blade to slip and potentially cut you. Always cutbetween the skin and the flesh.

Warnings

Things You'll Need




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Home Slaughter

.22 caliber rifle best for euthanization

Tractor with hydraulic lift or front-end loader

Or cable with come-along winch

Or black and tackle chain hoist

Beef spreader or single-tree with beef hooks on either end and ring in the center

Large hunting or butcher knife (around 8 inches long is sufficient)

Skinning knife

Short pointed knife (around 6 inches long)

Whet stone or any other knife sharpening tool

24- to 26-inch meat saw

Keeper bowl to keep edible meats (kidneys, liver and heart)

Cooler room or area where carcass can be cooled properly

Designated slaughter area (grassy, sheltered, well-lit, dust-free area)

Adequate supply of clean cold water

Commercial slaughter

Trained and qualified slaughter personnel

Slaughter facility

Handling facility with loading ramp, weigh scales, holding pens, crowding tub and working alleythat leads into the slaughter plant

Licensed large animal veterinarian

Conveyor system that hauls carcasses from one area of the facility to the other

Box stall or movable cradle

Block and tackle chain hoist

Stunning equipment such as the cap-bolt gunBeef hooks with beef spreaders or single-trees

Butcher, skinning and boning knives

Container or wheelbarrow for holding offal

Meat saw (power-type is best over manual like with Home Slaughter)

Cooler room

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Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations




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Slaughtering and Butchering - Backwoods Home Magazine


How to Slaughter Cattle

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