They Still Butcher Their Own Hogs And Cattle

They Still Butcher Their Own Hogs And Cattle AG WORLD 29-4-22 Last March several Illinois neighbors got together and butchered six hogs in a continuation of an ancient tradition. Going back more than half a century, as electricity and big freezers came to farms, most farmers readily surrendered the butchering of hogs and cattle to locker plants in town. Not so with the Hand family of Fillmore. They never quit. The butchering shown here was done on the Bernard Hand farm. Bernard, Dennis and Brad Hand, along with Tom Vandenbergh, did the work. Unlike the farmers of yesteryear, the Hands skin their hogs instead of scalding and scraping them. Hogs to be skinned are first laid up on sawhorses to get to the legs and belly. Once that job is accomplished they lift the carcasses with a tractor loader to finish the skinning, then use a power saw to cut the carcasses in half. The Hands use the services of a nearby locker plant to cure the hams and shoulders. They grind their own sausage and stuff it in casings. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bernard Hand, 12284 E. 21st Rd., Fillmore, Ill. 62032 (ph 217 538-2051).

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