My neighbor out here in the boonies makes a living doing on the farm butchering. He and his wife mainly do cattle and pigs. They come out by appointment, and charge a very reasonable fee.
Their technique is fairly simple. They shoot at short range the animal just a little above a point between the eyes with a 22LR or 22Mag except in the case of a bison or very large bull, in which case they use a 30/30. The intent is not to kill, but to knock out the animal. They then slit the throat while the animal is layed out on the ground and let it die of blood loss.
After that, they use their pickup truck to drag the animal to a nearby tree and pull it up by the hind legs with a chain hoist and meat hooks. They then proceed to gut it, skin it, and cut it into quarters which they deliver for you to a local meat shop which ages it, and then cuts it for you, again at a very reasonable fee.
You can learn to do it by yourself just by watching. The first time they did it for us, many, many years ago, it was a little unsettling to watch, but one becomes conditioned quite quickly to the reality of life, and now it seems just like a normal part of life. I would much rather see a steer that was born on my farm and lived an unstressed life die quickly in such a manner than go through the bad experience than most supermarket beef passes through to reach the store shelf.
