Good points, someone asked me why don't I have a deer hunter do it for me. I've never processed on my own, but I've helped my cousin a few times.
I had to explain that a market hog is twice the meat of a deer, and the precision of butchery is completely different. When we do a deer, 90% goes to sausage and burger, so we can hack it away from the bone like savages lol
Not so for good pork cuts.
It's definitely still something people do at home and something I aspire to, and know I can handle with proper research.
I know also that people who process themselves tend to be convinced that many commercial outfits are ripping people off regularly. Not giving all the bacon and trim, switching in cuts from other animals, etc.
If I raise my own heritage pig, I want to finish the process through to the end.
Here is a post I did a long while back that shows phenomenally how to break down a deer once dressed and skinned. The same applies to a pig for the most part.
I promised I would do this post as a result of a conversation in another thread where the info was asked for. So here it is! If you've ever looked for a youtube video on butchering a Deer or a Wild Hog you will know how hard it is to find a decent video containing any quality information and...
www.smokingmeatforums.com
If you watch this guy you see there is no magic to it. Now there is no equivalent on a deer for cutting bacon but honestly its just removing the rib portion from the belly portion and viola what is not left on the ribs is now bacon. I know its easy for me to say since I've processed many animals but its honestly not to complex once u watch those processing videos in my post above.
The odd things to think of when processing a farm raised scraped and scalled pig is what to do with fat (fatback), organs, head, bones, and skin.... yep the skin can be turned into soft or hard pork rinds if u want! U can also take skin and render + cook/smoke it real hard so there is no grease left and give it to dogs as treats.... just make sure it doesn't give em digestive fits that you then have to clean up lol.
Save all the good fat for sausage making or for making lard if u want to render it down and use lard for any cooking or frying needs. I have ground up the fat so it was ready for mixing with lean ground wild game meat to speed things up when I make wild game sausage (deer or hog, feral hogs are often lean). I grind my wild game with no added fat so I can make ground jerky, lean burger grind, or mix with ground fat for sausage and sandwich meat smokes... 100% flexibility :)
If you are into making stock then u can save the bones and produce a ton of stock (i dont have time for this).
If you have the head, find an old Mexican woman that makes decent tamales (hard to find decently made tamales) and have her make you traditional tamales. Traditionally tamales are made from the head. Have her keep half of the tamales for herself and give half to you and everyone wins! Just give away the pig feet to her and any tripe (from organs) so she can make Menudo soup and if u like that soup ask her for a like a quart of it and u win again :)
Don't underestimate how well you can process an animal yourself. U just need to have a good functional setup (table, good knives, tubs, extra large coolers and ice, garage fridge space, empty freezer space, etc.) and you need for the animal to be a managable size. A 200 pound pig carcass won't be hard work with if u break it down or buy it broken into primals from the person who slaughters it. Handling a steer carcass whole or broken into primals is a whole other ball game haha.
Again, again, check out that thread i posted and know that it took me a long time to find good processing and butcher videos and this is what I learned 90% of my processing and butchering skill from :)
SmokinGumby
Ohio too Sandusky... 
