A word of warning. Not everyone is capable of dispatching an animal and butchering it, on a mental level. To paraphrase one of the old timers that taught (and is still teaching) me... "not everyone can walk up to an animal they've raised from day one, that gets happy to see them... and then shoot it in the face."

I've raised animals for meat since I was a kid, and I've known where my food came from since before I went to school. But my next batch of non-poultry animals is going to go to an actual slaughterhouse, for three reasons. I'm not getting younger, I'm getting sentimental as I get not-younger, and to sell meat now, you have to let the Uncle Sugar Department of Assclowns observe everything (or at least pretend to observe while you cut them a check).