Smoked meat costs

[NCnomad]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum, but have been reading on it for several years now. I am not much of a poster on any social media platforms. That being said here goes my first post!

I was curious to hear what people are paying to have their meat smoked into sausages, land Jager, jerky, etc...  I did all of the butchering/grinding myself to save some money, but I ended up bringing roughly 42 lbs (grinded) to a local guy to have some turned into breakfast sausage, Land Jager, and Summer sausages. I did not get a breakdown of what each costs, but I kind of figured B.S. would be the cheapest out of the three.  He turned about 20 lbs into B.S. and the remaining 22 lbs was turned into Summer Sausage and Land Jager. He did not vacuum seal the smoked meats as I told him I can do that myself.  All said and done he charged me $320.   I am not complaining at all of the costs at all, as I know he makes good products, and I know for sure that I am getting my meat back, those sort of things are invaluable to me.   Just would like to hear what other people are paying, and if its worth it to possibly start learning the craft for future years.

[huntnnw]

coming from someone who does a lot of this I would not want the meat brought to me ground. Some of the sausages require certain grind plates etc. I would not be discounting it either . lotta snack sticks, summer sausage and brats are in that $4.50 to $6.00 a lb range and varying with what you go with. Making and smoking sausage is pretty time consuming.

Your 42lbs shoulda been about 55lbs and charged accordingly to that weight after fat was added assuming the butcher was using a 70/30 mix ratio and at $5.50 a lb comes in $302 without tax. Sounds right to me

[hunter399]

All good butchers have a price list/ per lbs for whatever your having made. You probably didn't save any money for grinding yourself.
That is usually included in price per pound.They most likely regrinded it to add fat or whatever.

It probably shows prices on your receipt.

[addicted1]

Guess that’s how they make their money, last time I had any done was 2017 and think I spent $120 for about 40# of summer sausage and breakfast sausage. A big reason I do it all myself now. The smoked meats will be more expensive, so the price is probably right with inflation and types of curing you had done.

[Stein]

That's about what my brother pays for some really good stuff.  They have the cost of adding fat, spices, casings and of course their time and equipment.  I make all my own product and it's very labor intensive compared with just cutting and wrapping meat.

[GWP]

I have both paid for and processed my own stuff. It is a lot of work to do it and it is time consuming, as has been stated.
I will still basic process a critter, but anything requiring 'stuffing' is out for the most part. I will still make jerky though.
Whatever I take in to have someone else do it, be it car, critter, welding, whatever, I figure whatever they are charging I need to be good with it or I need to do it myself.