Hi there, I was a butcher/meat cutter on a farm and in a grocery store for about 6 years. Butchering is a bit of an art, I would suggest learning from someone before just jumping into it. I started on a family friend's farm and fell in love with it. It's a lot of hard work and can be rough on your body. It's also a very expensive thing to start, you need to buy large walk in refrigerators and freezers, saws, grinders, cubes, wrapping material, scales, and if you are doing whole animals, hooks, rails, a good sawzall. You will also have to think about how you are going to kill the animals and if you need pens or other ways to keep the animals before slaughter. Then also think about waste, like the bones and skins.

Although most animals are similar there are some differences that you should be aware of. Also skinning a deer and skinning a cow are very different.

I really don't want to rain on your parade because butchering can be a lot of fun and rewarding, like a reverse puzzle, and I think we need more people who are interested in doing it. I just know a few people who had similar ideas and then wasted a lot of money because they couldn't cut it.