A meat plan for the whole year

In short

• 35 kg per adult equivalent (AE) a year is meat from small animals (poultry, rabbits, kids and lambs). All meat, including pork and beef, is roughly 50–60 kg per adult, about 1 kg (2.2 lb) a week. A child of 7–14 counts as 0.7 AE, a child up to 6 as 0.4.
• Rough meat per animal per year: poultry 2.2 kg per bird, rabbit doe 20 kg, goat 15 kg, ewe 25 kg, finishing pig roughly 70 kg of meat, bacon and lard (6–8 kg of it lard).
• A backyard covers meat with poultry and rabbits; pigs and sheep need a smallholding or more.
• Spread slaughter over the year: poultry in summer, lambs in spring and autumn, pigs in winter.
• A freezer holds roughly 50–60 kg of meat per 100 L (3½ cu ft). Empty it by November.
• Meat from home slaughter is for the household only; sales go through an approved or inspected abattoir (small amounts of poultry and rabbits are an exception where the rules allow, H41-01).

What's inside

Chapters

1. How much meat a family needs
2. Where the meat comes from: species and what they give
3. Combinations by size of holding
4. The meat year month by month
5. How meat is kept through the year
6. The freezer: how big and when
7. Using meat through the year
8. Cost and value of your own meat
9. Rules and sharing meat
10. Plan for next year
11. Most common mistakes
12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Yearly meat calendar
• Need-and-supply calculator
• Date calculator
• Slaughter plan by month
• Monthly meat stock record
• Cost and value of meat