Interactive lesson

A meat plan for the year, step by step

Interactive lesson: how much meat your family needs, which animals to get it from, when each species goes for slaughter, and how meat is kept and used until the next season.

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The whole lesson as text

1. How much meat a family needs

A meat plan starts with a figure: how many kilos your household eats in a year.

Count adult equivalents — Adults and children from 15 count as 1.0 AE. A child of 7 to 14 counts as 0.7, and a child up to 6 as 0.4.
Two standards — Meat from small animals (poultry, rabbits, kids and lambs) is 35 kg per AE a year. All meat, including pork and beef, is roughly 50–60 kg per adult.
Weigh one week — That's roughly 1 kg (2.2 lb) of meat per AE a week. Write down how much meat the family eats in one ordinary week and multiply by 52.
Set your target — The target needn't be 100 %. For many families 50–70 % home-grown meat is a good target, with the rest bought.

Why: Without a figure it's easy to go wrong both ways. Either in December you fill a freezer that can't take even half a pig, or by September you're eating only shop meat.

Lard isn't in these standards: a house that cooks with lard needs another 10–20 kg a year.
Families who eat meat twice a week eat only 20–25 kg.

2. Where the meat comes from

Each species gives a different amount of meat and needs different space and work.

Meat poultry — Slow-growing poultry gives 2.2 kg of meat per bird, in a 12–14 week cycle. Allow 1 m² per bird and at least 10 birds.
A doe and her young — One breeding doe with her offspring gives roughly 20 kg of meat a year, on 4 m² of space.
Goats and sheep — A goat gives roughly 15 kg of meat a year through her kids, and a ewe 25 kg through lambs and culls. Each animal needs 1,200 m² of grazing.
Pigs in pairs — A finishing pig gives roughly 70 kg of meat, bacon and lard. A pig mustn't be kept alone, so you fatten two: both for the household, or one sold live.

Why: Once you know how much meat one animal gives, you know how many animals you need. The figures are rough; your own records give the real ones.

A steer gives 200–240 kg of boneless meat at once, so it's usually shared with neighbours or relatives.
Details on each species are in that species' own series.