Plan B

One of the products that we produce here on the farm is meat. The animals that are not ‘register worthy’ for pedigree purposes are fed and conditioned to be meat producers.
Most times we use an independent, local farmer who is a one-man-operation butcher. He raises his own animals and those that he is bringing in to slaughter get a couple of days in with his own herd. This way no animals is stressed, and the meat remains tender and flavorful. Animals that are inhumanly treated, are subject to stressful wait times around other animals that are riled up can lead to a condition referred to as “dark cutter”, the meat actually changes in texture, quality and taste depending on how much stress has been put on the critter before it slaughtered.
In an article in Mother Earth News

A dark cutter is an animal which is stressed at the time of slaughter. The stress can be caused by a variety of reasons: transport of the animal to the slaughterhouse, putting the animal into a pen with too many other animals, or just a naturally high-strung animal.

The meat harvested could go from the most tender, juicy and flavorful dinner to unappetizing from the stress breaking down the acids leading to a high Ph in the muscles. We avoid stress for the animal, it makes for not only a smoother, easier process, but the result in the meat can be phenomenal. Dr. Temple Grandin has preached humane slaughter for years and the meat industry has changed for the better because of her insights.
On our most recent harvest of meat animals, our local butcher had suffered an injury and was unable to slaughter a couple of the beef at this time. The animals were conditioned and ready to go so we went with plan B and brought in a mobile butcher truck to harvest the animals here on the farm then taking them to the cooler in town to hang before cutting and packaging.
The Meating Place was our mobile butcher of choice and the harvest was quick, clean, calm and very professional.
It took less than 2 hours from the time the truck pulled into the driveway to the two animals hanging in quarters in the refrigerated truck, not bad for a back-up plan.
As of this post, our local butcher is recovering nicely and will be back in business within a couple of weeks.