Homekill rig

[User00033]

Some of you fellas might be interested in how we do our homekill beef steers. This one is a young animal, 20 months old, Friesian x Hereford. Younger than we normally do them by about 12 months, simply because we don’t have the grass on the home block this year, and I’ve got some wagyu calves than I want to grow out in preference to growing this one some more.

The homekill rig is a fine piece of equipment, the whole process from shot to driving away is about 35-40 minutes. Skinned, quartered and hung in the refrigerated body for delivery to the chiller for hanging.

The guts and non-edible organs go into the trolley (bottom left) which is winched up and tipped into the bin inside the truck, through the side door.

The animal is progressively skinned and hoisted so the skinned carcass doesn’t end up in the grass.

An electric chainsaw is used to split the spine. Each quarter is hoisted up to the hook line in the body and in it goes.

You can see a couple of animals already hanging in the back.

I keep a bucket load of liver, kidneys, sweetbreads and heart. Me, the wife and the dogs will do well on that lot. The kids, not so much (fussy teenagers).

The truck has capacity for a full day’s work, about 10-12 animals depending on size. At the end of the day the guts are tipped at the works, and used for all sorts of things that you probably don’t want to know about if you’re of a squeamish disposition.

All in all its a very efficient process. Our man Nick here in the photos is an expert, and hands down the best I've ever used.

 

[willowbank]

Nice writeup and good pics, ive started using a Makita Battery Ripsaw with a Stainless blade, a real game changer.
I imagine an electric chainsaw would have a few bone chips flying about?

Willowbank

 

[User00033]

Nice writeup and good pics, ive started using a Makita Battery Ripsaw with a Stainless blade, a real game changer.
I imagine an electric chainsaw would have a few bone chips flying about?

Willowbank

Well spotted. I “mispoke” when I typed chainsaw, as it is indeed a ripsaw.

Back in the day Nick used a chainsaw and it created a surprisingly long arc of flying bone chip and marrow.

 

[icedog]

At dressed weights generally somewhere between 400 and 700 or 800
pounds, moose here usually need to be quartered where they fall, which is often a considerable distance from a road or a truck.. Our normal practice has been to use knives, manual meat saws, and gas powered chainsaws to get the carcass ready to transport from the site of the kill. The hide usually stays on the quarters until we can get them hung somewhere ... at home or camp. The chainsaw does a great job of splitting the carcass in half along the spine. Any bone chips are easy to clean up ... no issue really. What .can be a pain though, if the hide is not previously cleared away from the location of the saw cut, is all the hair that sticks to the carcass, and has to be meticulously cleaned off before cutting the meat. The designated meat chainsaw of course operates without any chain oil.
Nowhere near as slick as the pictured home kill set up! ... but it works.

 

[VSS]

Nice numberplate!

 

[@theroedeerguy]

Oz the Kiwi Homekill Guy has heaps of footage on YouTube.

Loads of handy skinning and knife handling tips which can be used processing deer.

 

[doric_prince]

Love the number plate!

 

[shakey jake]

@dodgyknees why dont you save the tripe for the dogs?

 

[User00038]

Incidentally, what is the procedure for/method of despatch?

 

[User00033]

@dodgyknees why dont you save the tripe for the dogs?

Because they have wild pig, venison, goat and whatever they snag for themselves… rabbits, cats and possums mostly. Plus heaps of offcuts of beef, lamb, mutton and domestic pig to chew through… I reckon if I out a bowl of tripe in front of my male dog, he’d look at me with his “you cannot be farkin’ serious” face. And stalk off and catch his own dinner. Like this… uurrgghhh…

 

[User00033]

Incidentally, what is the procedure for/method of despatch?

Shoot them in the head, cut the throat and stand clear for 5 minutes so you don’t get a kick in the balls… or worse.

 

[User00033]

Tomorrow’s dinner:



Prepped, and marinading in balsamic vinegar for 24 hours… tomorrow night it will be seared in a very hot skillet and served with absolutely no vegetables whatsoever.

 

[Buchan]

TB free possums I trust!

 

[User00038]

Shoot them in the head, cut the throat and stand clear for 5 minutes so you don’t get a kick in the balls… or worse.

And do you starve them over night to get the rumen down and then do the deed at a feed bucket?

 

[Sonicdmb73]

At dressed weights generally somewhere between 400 and 700 or 800
pounds, moose here usually need to be quartered where they fall, which is often a considerable distance from a road or a truck.. Our normal practice has been to use knives, manual meat saws, and gas powered chainsaws to get the carcass ready to transport from the site of the kill. The hide usually stays on the quarters until we can get them hung somewhere ... at home or camp. The chainsaw does a great job of splitting the carcass in half along the spine. Any bone chips are easy to clean up ... no issue really. What .can be a pain though, if the hide is not previously cleared away from the location of the saw cut, is all the hair that sticks to the carcass, and has to be meticulously cleaned off before cutting the meat. The designated meat chainsaw of course operates without any chain oil.
Nowhere near as slick as the pictured home kill set up! ... but it works.

Is veg oil not a suitable lubricant? Or is chain wear not an issue with limited use?

 

[User00033]

And do you starve them over night to get the rumen down and then do the deed at a feed bucket?

No, they are quiet beasts and will follow me to the place of their demise. They feed up until the shot, the rumen contents is just raked into the grass.

 

[User00033]

Interesting what you find in the rumen. Baylage wrap is common. Electric fence tape, plastic bags, a piece of carpet once.

 

[User00033]

TB free possums I trust!

Neither of my dogs believe any of that TB nonsense, they think it’s a conspiracy!

You can add hedgehogs to the list of favourite snacks, for my bitch at least. She will systematically pluck a hedgehog of its spines, eviscerate it and eat it from the belly all the way to the outer hide on the back.

UUUURRRRGGGGGHHHHH

The dog won’t go anywhere near them, the big woosy. Barks at them from a safe distance.

 

[John Gryphon]

The designated meat chainsaw of course operates without any chain oil.

Vegetable oil is whats used here for chainsaw.s

I reckon if I out a bowl of tripe in front of my male dog, he’d look at me with his “you cannot be farkin’ serious” face.

You maybe surprised Dave..a dog will walk past a rump steak to have a feed of raw washed tripe,believe me! Its natures wonder food and makes them shine,also it is one of the first things that wolves/dingo`s,cape dogs go for.

These little battery saws (below) are very good units for splitting a spine.

 

[icedog]

Re the chain saw .... there was a time when we used vegetable oil, but discovered that the material we were cutting provided all the lubrication required ... plenty of fat and other assorted juicy stuff keeps the bar and chain well lubed. May go electric at some point, but so far have just stayed with what has worked for us for so many years.