- .22 caliber rifle with long or long rifle cartridges
- Sharp skinning knife and steel
- Boning knife
- Block and tackle or chain hoist—should be strong enough to hold weight of pig to be slaughtered
- Chocks—concrete blocks work well
- Meat saw
- Oil or water stone
- Ample cold water for washing hands, equipment, carcass and byproducts
- Tree with strong limb, beam or tripod 8 to 10 feet high, or tractor with hydraulic lift
- Spreader (gambrel or metal pipe)
- Buckets (2 or 3)
- Ice or cold water
- Straw for placing under animal during evisceration and splitting
- Clean cloths or plastic for protection of meat during transport
- Clean string
- Scalding barrel
- Pot or barrel for heating water
- Bell scrapers (1 or 2)—these are not necessary but helpful
- Plywood or other solid material for scalding platform
- Thermometer which registers up to 200° F
- Dry wood for fire
- Hog or hay hook
- Propane torch or blow torch
Be sure that all equipment that will come in contact with meat is thoroughly cleaned. Blood and other materials that get on the outer garments of workers during slaughter should not be transferred to the carcass after it is washed.
Additional equipment needed for cutting the carcass is listed in the section, “[Cutting].”
SLAUGHTER
Stunning
The animal should be killed as quickly and humanely as possible. In most slaughter plants, hogs are immobilized either by electrical stunning or carbon dioxide gas suffocation. On the farm a hog can be stunned by striking it one sharp blow with a mechanical stunner or by shooting it in the forehead midway between and slightly above the eyes. The first attempt should be successful ([fig. 2]). Improperly placed bullets could cause the animal much pain and injure helpers or other livestock. Animals that become excited during stunning will not bleed as well as those less excited. As always the case whenever using firearms, exercise all appropriate safety precautions.
PN-5302
Figure 2.—Stunning.