The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: old_chapel_home_produce on August 27, 2015, 08:42:47 pm
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hi all
we have taken one of our sheep to the abattoir in rhos (wrexham) earlier this year and when i was there i asked if they can salt the skin so that we can get it tanned and made into rugs , but they said they dont do it which is a bummer.
can anyone suggest an abattoir near us (Meifod , Powys) that i can use and an abattoir and also they will prep the skins or even send them to the tanner directly
thank you for all your help guys
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There are threads on this but it seems that you have to do the inital prep yourself.
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We sent ours off to have tanned last year but had to do the salting ourselves. I don't think any abattoir does this for you.
First you need a 'licence' from your local council to get your skins back. The abattoir won't let you have them without it. The licence doesn't cost anything, well at least it doesn't in Carmarthenshire but it's about a 4 page doc to complete.
i informed my abattoir in advance that I wanted the skins back. I had to pay for them but I think it was only £1.50 each. You need to collect the skins asap. The abattoir asked me to come back in 3 hours time, which I did. The skins were ready but they didn't really know what to do with them. They put them in a large plastic bag which I then put in a large plastic box.
You need to salt them as soon as you get home for about 3 weeks.
If you need the salting instructions let me know, I have them from the tanners somewhere.
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Ow thanks for this thread,
I was just about to ask where to get the licence from as I wanted my skins back last year and got the sam answer from my abattoir. I dont mind doing all the salting etc but didn't know how to get the licence. Which department is it Bionic? Could I have the salting instructions please?
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I can't seem to find my licence at the moment so I'm not sure which dept it came from but I suspect that Animal Health would be the one. If not I am sure they would point you in the right direction.
Salting instns -
It is vital that skins are salted as soon as possible after slaughter. Definitely within a few hours.
Use paper feed sacks to put each skin on. Lay them fleece side down on the paper, somewhere under cover. The skin should be white. If it isn't then its not worth the effort as its probably already gone off.
Cut off any excess bits e.g. ears and feet if they are there. If the legs are still in sleeves cut them open, do not cut off.
Cover each skin in lots of salt. Be careful to go right to the edges and watch if they are turned under. You should not be able to see any skin through the salt.
Do not put the skins on anything metal. We put ours on the paper on top of rubber matting in the stable.
Leave for 2 to 3 days, shake of the salt and repeat the process. Do not hang the skins as the salt will fall off.
Quite a lot of moisture comes out so if you have additional paper sacks that might help.
The skin must be kept with salt on all the time, even when transporting. Our skins were lying for about 3 weeks before we sent them off. If they are salted properly they can be left for quite some time but I don't think they can be sent off much before 3 weeks.
When its cured it should still be flexible. It then needs the wet salt taken off and more dry salt put on and folded, skin sides to the middle and rolled tightly from the head down.
To send off put in paper feed sacks and make sure its in several layers of plastic (it will be inclined to leak)
I hope this helps
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To add a couple of points to Sally's great instructions:
It's best from the point of view of the skins to take your lambs for slaughter slightly later in the year, say October, but no later than November, as the wool will come off. But in October we often have very dry, very cold air (here anyway) and that helps with keeping the skin from rotting, and speeds up the salting process. If the atmosphere is damp ie high humidity, then the salt will absorb the atmospheric moisture when it's supposed to be sucking it out of the skin. I find that if it is humid, then roughly covering the skins with polythene will help.
Wear rubber gloves and a waterproof apron when you are doing the salting - it's a horrible job :P
We wrap the salted skins in plastic feed sacks for transport. If you have salted them enough then there shouldn't be much of a problem with leaking, but it wouldn't be very nice for everyone else's parcels if there was :o
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I've had skins back from Rhos.
Get the form from Animal health at Caernafon and take a copy with you.
Wait for the skins. The longest I've had to wait was an hour.
I usually take salt and gloves with me and lay the skins out in the trailer before I leave and they can stay there till I next need the trailer.
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wow, so glad now that my local abattoir sorts all that stuff out for me, I just ask them to skin and prep (£5 for the skinning and £2 to 'buy' the skin back from the abattoir ???) then the tanners pick them and they arrive back in a lovely parcel
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To add a couple of points to Sally's great instructions:
It's best from the point of view of the skins to take your lambs for slaughter slightly later in the year, say October, but no later than November, as the wool will come off. But in October we often have very dry, very cold air (here anyway) and that helps with keeping the skin from rotting, and speeds up the salting process. If the
I thought the lady who does tanning gives instructions that skin must be before October (maybe different from colder parts of UK?).
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Linda, you are right, at least here. Mine had to be away by Oct.
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wow, so glad now that my local abattoir sorts all that stuff out for me, I just ask them to skin and prep (£5 for the skinning and £2 to 'buy' the skin back from the abattoir ???) then the tanners pick them and they arrive back in a lovely parcel
which abattoir is that?
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does the license have special requirements for your premises? ie sink, or away from animals or feed?
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Can anyone recommend a tanner in the Yorkshire region and give me an idea of prices? Has anyone tanned their own?
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does the license have special requirements for your premises? ie sink, or away from animals or feed?
I got an inspection from Animal Health who wanted to see where I could keep them where wild birds and rodents couldn't access them and away from all livestock, my rodent control policy (3 cats ;D ), records of checks on rodents and paperwork for skins in and out.
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Thanks :thinking:
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The lady who runs www.organicsheepskins.com (http://www.organicsheepskins.com) will given you all the info you need on how to prepare the skins to send to them for tanning and how yo get the licence to get the skins back from the abattoir
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The lady who runs www.organicsheepskins.com (http://www.organicsheepskins.com) will given you all the info you need on how to prepare the skins to send to them for tanning and how yo get the licence to get the skins back from the abattoir
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I've tanned a few of my own now and its fairly easy to get something functional although I tried some goat skin without much luck this year. Our abattoir will salt them for me and I pick them up with the lamb a few days after slaughter. I then deflesh them with a sharp knife and lay them out with more salt on for a few days. Then I use an oxalic acid solution for the tanning (easily available as crystal to dissolve in water from ebay) - paint the solution on to the skin a couple of times a day. Then wash them in washing soda, dry and stretch them and comb. It takes me ages to deflesh - I can manage one skin an evening but the rest of it is only a few minutes here and there which I fit in around all the other jobs. Its a very satisfying process and one I'm looking forward to improving with this year's lambs!
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My skins were very clean when they came back from the abattoir. Only a tiny bit around the neck to trim off, but other than that there was no defleshing to be done. So, perhaps I was lucky
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I've only ever had to take off small bits where the skin hasn't come off so easily. I feel a curved flint scraper would be ideal (don't have a clue how to knap one, and anyway there's no flint up here.)