Eating your own sheep

[Widgeon]

As above, really....I'm not sure this should live in "pet-box" (!) but it seemed the least inappropriate place.

For those of you who do have a few sheep for personal consumption, how do you go about having them slaughtered and turned into mutton? A nameless relative just has a local man pop round to dispatch and butcher them, but I'm pretty sure that what you might get away with in the Outer Hebrides (they don't have a slaughterhouse on the island, and there's no way he'd truck them to the mainland only to bring the meat back, for welfare and fuel reasons!) would be frowned upon down here. So do you just trailer them in and pick up meat later? Or would you have to pick up carcasses and take them to a butcher or DIY?

 

[honetpot]

You need, https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/
Most of the people on here are small producers and using the Good Abattoir guide I found a good local butchers that slaughters and butchers.
https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=12074.0

 

[Clodagh]

We don't have our own but a man grazes some on one of our fields. He takes them to vthe slaughter house and a couple of days later (I don't know how long lambs hang for) he picks them up, butchered and boxed and brings them home, via our house where he drops a box off.
Very nice too, I am having a mental blank as to their breed but they are small with hairy faces. There, that helps!

 

[Alec Swan]

Lamb (or mutton) is the best of meat. I haven't bought lamb commercially for 20+ years. I rear, kill, dress and eat my own lamb. It may not be any better than the lamb which I could buy from a supermarket, but it's mine!

To answer your question, find your nearest abattoir, source a butcher who'll perform his wonders, deliver your lambs for killing, and that's about it.

Alec.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Whenever we were going to eat our own sheep my dad took our sheep to the abatoir and collected the carcasses. Then he would butcher the carcasses on our kitchen table (on a big butchers block) with my help. Ive never had problem eating the lamb we grew although my OH (in the early days of our relationship) would plaintively ask at dinner "Do I know its name?".

 

[Clodagh]

MLC - we always get the one that has been bottle reared - as neighbour says their children don't like eating the pet! I don't know if that is rally true, but it makes a good story.

 

[Widgeon]

Thank you everyone! That's encouraging, I was suspecting that this would be one of those simple things that's been massively over complicated by regulations - but apparently not.

You need, https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/
Most of the people on here are small producers and using the Good Abattoir guide I found a good local butchers that slaughters and butchers.
https://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=12074.0

I will take a look at this, thank you - looks like exactly what I need.

Lamb (or mutton) is the best of meat. Alec.

Completely agree with this – I love it. Mutton is surprisingly hard to find around here though, our local butcher says that when they go to livestock auctions all the sheep go to butchers in the Midlands area. Which is quite a way from us, but that’s what he said.

Currently in the process of finding an extra freezer for the garage for when the next half a Hebridean lamb arrives

 

[Wimbles]

We take ours up to the abbatoir and then our Butcher collects from there and we get it all back in individually packaged and priced joints. It's a fantastic service and allows us to easily sell bits and bobs to friends and family.

I took a few as hoggett in the spring and it was absolutely superb!