# Bought 3 live sheep for the girls (pics may be considered graphic...)



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

We recently had the opportunity to purchase 3 sheep that were no longer needed/wanted in their herd from a guy that trains herding dogs.

The 3 sheep yielded about 210 lbs of meat for $300. A good friend volunteered his day to assist us in butchering them since we'd never done it before.

Here's a few pics from the event...

Akasha was initially terrified of the sheep. Then she decided they weren't very threatening









Starting to remove the skin









They were very respectful of the entire process


















Bailey wasn't sure what to think of the carcass









Starting to break it down into usable pieces









Further deconstruction...


----------



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

This was an awesome experience and definitely something we'll be doing again. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do it myself next time.

We found out today that we can get even better deals going to a livestock auction. We could have scored 200lb llama for $30!!

I can see butchering whole animals replacing a lot of our bulk orders


----------



## Sunyoung (Feb 18, 2011)

My dogs and I are very jealous of you guys right now... That seems like it would be a neat and useful experience to have. 

How were the sheep butchered?


----------



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

We removed the meat in chunks small enough to fit into our storage containers. We tried to remove most of the meat from the legs & ribs so they could be fed more as RMBs. We'll cut the meat up into smaller pieces when we actually feed it. We find it easier to do the final cuts the moment we're feeding. We kept the organs separate so we could feed them as an organ meal.

The only thing left over when we were done were the hides & tripe which were left in a remote spot for the coyotes


----------



## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

How come you didn't feed the tripe? I would LOVE to get one of them, but it would take forever for my 15lb dog to finish a sheep LOL almost half a year.


----------



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

We don't normally feed tripe anyways. This stuff was too disgusting to save & deal with


----------



## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

That's pretty dang awesome!! I'd love to have that done. While I'm away from the house would be the best time for it to magically get done, though. :becky:

Strangely enough, the only picture that kinda bothered me is the one where Akasha is staring down the live sheep. I don't know... Something about the sheep looking at the thing that's going to eat them...:yuck:


----------



## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I'm so jealous you keep getting all these amazing deals! I'll have to see about livestock options in my area apparently although i don't know that I have any friends who could help me with the butchering. How did you kill the sheep before butchering?


----------



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

A simple .22 shot to the head put them down


----------



## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

That'll do it!


----------



## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

rannmiller said:


> I'm so jealous you keep getting all these amazing deals! I'll have to see about livestock options in my area apparently although i don't know that I have any friends who could help me with the butchering. How did you kill the sheep before butchering?


I'd help you with the butchering if I knew what I were doing, but finding someone to kill the things would be up to you........  hahaha.

We should SOOOOO find someone willing to help us kill the livestock and teach us how to butcher it. That would be amazing...to get a llama for $30?!!!!! I say we do it!


----------



## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

You know I was thinking about buying a calf and raising it on someone elses land for a year? How hard is that? Anyone ever do that?


----------



## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I would definitely get too attached if we raised our own livestock! We plan on raising chickens and rabbits when we get up to Idaho. Chickens for eggs and rabbits for the dogs...it's a good thing I don't like rabbits, they have always creeped me out


----------



## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

jdatwood said:


> This was an awesome experience and definitely something we'll be doing again. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do it myself next time.
> 
> We found out today that we can get even better deals going to a livestock auction. We could have scored 200lb llama for $30!!
> 
> I can see butchering whole animals replacing a lot of our bulk orders


could we come live with you? i'd help.


----------



## MissusMac (Jan 6, 2011)

Score! Butching whole prey is sooooo much cheaper. We butcher our own deer, turkey, hogs (not for dogs), dove, quail, duck, etc. We just bought a video at Cabela's and learned the finer points from that, since we already knew how to quarter. 

I'm definitely going to look into the livestock auction...deer season is a long way away.


----------



## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

That is so awesome. Way cool pictures. I really should contact my Uncle who raises Sheep/Cows in Wyoming and see if I can't work something out for my dogs lol.


----------



## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

cprcheetah said:


> That is so awesome. Way cool pictures. I really should contact my Uncle who raises Sheep/Cows in Wyoming and see if I can't work something out for my dogs lol.


Where in Wyoming is your uncle? I live south of Buffalo.


----------



## catahoulamom (Sep 23, 2010)

Whoa... I would love to have a freezer full of sheep meat, but there's no way I would be able to kill & butcher one myself! Although I do have some kind of sick fantasy of letting my dogs chase down and kill their own meal...:tape:


----------



## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

Herzo said:


> Where in Wyoming is your uncle? I live south of Buffalo.


He has a ranch in Evanston, with property several places, I know some by Kemmerer not sure where else.


----------



## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

So he's in the south west corner.I'm more central North just about at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains.


----------



## Northwoods10 (Nov 22, 2010)

Very cool. 

An experience I would like to try sometime, not sure I could watch them be killed though.


----------



## 3Musketeers (Nov 4, 2010)

I'll pay ye for the whole llama if you send me a nice chunk :biggrin:
Oooh and the tripe!


----------



## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

magicre said:


> could we come live with you? i'd help.


I agree. After all, isn't your new house really big?? :becky:


----------



## grissom_mom (Sep 27, 2010)

Awesome pics guys!!



xxshaelxx said:


> I'd help you with the butchering if I knew what I were doing, but finding someone to kill the things would be up to you........  hahaha.
> 
> We should SOOOOO find someone willing to help us kill the livestock and teach us how to butcher it. That would be amazing...to get a llama for $30?!!!!! I say we do it!


Silly Girls! I'll help both of you, I have a a rudimentary knowledge of butchering from hunting over the years, and since it's for the dogs, that would probably do, eh? I would also kill them if I had a .22, but all my firearms are home with my parents....


----------



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

luvMyBRT said:


> I agree. After all, isn't your new house really big?? :becky:


I wouldn't quite call 2800sqft "really big" LOL There's great deals on land and houses nearby though :wink:


----------



## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

jdatwood said:


> I wouldn't quite call 2800sqft "really big" LOL There's great deals on land and houses nearby though :wink:


Jon, TRUST ME... when you're doing the remodeling, it will seem really really big! lol. Mine is 3,005 which seemed adequate for our pack, but not too insanely big... but then considering that I'm remodeling every square inch, it seems huge. Neverendingly huge.



On a more related note, these pics are AWESOME. I need to find a livestock auction. My brother wouldn't mind doing the killing he already said, and then I'd be set.


----------



## eternalstudent (Jul 22, 2010)

Jealous oh so jealous. I would love to be able to get the livestock like that. But I know if I tried that in my back yard I would have the SSPCA round in a flash after complaints form the neighbours!!!!

Hope the pack loves it. I cant wait for my new pup so I can start getting bigger orders ;-)


----------



## ~Wind~ (Mar 19, 2011)

You can buy drop calves here for like $10, They weigh about 100-120lbs. I wonder if there is enough meat on them to make it worth getting one. I'm kind of interested after seeing your pictures, of course I dont know that I could do the killing. Big brown calf eyes staring at you (0.0)


----------



## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

Just make sure when your dealing with auctions that you know your animal hasn't been shot up first.


----------



## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

We have been thinking about going to one of the stockyards around here for goats or pigs, now we may look into it more and see what kind of deals we can get.


----------



## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

Very awesome! this is what i've been thinking about plunging into but with a deer... i never thought about livestock auctions around here they are probably very prominent great photos, did you get more detailing the organ removal or anything?


----------



## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

grissom_mom said:


> Silly Girls! I'll help both of you, I have a a rudimentary knowledge of butchering from hunting over the years, and since it's for the dogs, that would probably do, eh? I would also kill them if I had a .22, but all my firearms are home with my parents....


That does it! We're buying some llamas! Fork up $10 each, we'll find someone with a .22 to do the shooting (my dad, maybe), and Alexandra will teach us how to butcher them, and we'll go from there!!!


----------



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

We did it again yesterday! I went to the livestock auction with a couple of friends and ended up buying 2 sheep (there weren't any llama yesterday). They weighed 210 and 350lbs. I paid $280 for them so $0.50/lb live weight before butchering. 

We spent the afternoon butchering and came home with 350lbs of meat, bones & organs!!! I would have been happy with 200lbs so netting 350lbs was AWESOME!!!

I have a feeling we'll be doing this a lot more often. 

Unfortunately this go around we did a lot more actual processing and NO photo taking. Next time we do one maybe we'll do a video and possibly photo documentation in case any of you are interested following in our footsteps :wink:


----------



## hcdoxies (Sep 22, 2010)

This is SO COOL! You know, my grandparents (and thus my family) have a 100 acre ranch about 45 minutes from me... My grandpa, before he died, had cows on it. I wonder if I could free-range cows and then have them butchered. Ooooo cool! :-D

How do you get them from the livestock auction to your place? Do you borrow a trailer?


----------



## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

hcdoxies said:


> How do you get them from the livestock auction to your place? Do you borrow a trailer?


Our friend that's teaching us to butcher also purchased a couple for himself for meat over the summer. We used his trailer. I'll have to get one so we can continue doing this :wink:


----------

