The butcher’s job is to not waste meat by butchering improperly.
Here’s your first three classes: Anatomy
(1) Cow
(2) Pig
(3) Lamb
All mammals are basically made up of the same components. It’s just a matter of finding and extracting them. It helps to have someone with experience to show you how to do it without ruining other cuts and what knives and equipment to use to do this properly. You also need a few animals to work with because you will make mistakes. I was taught how to do this as part of a cooking course in Sweden. Swedes are very thorough in everything they do.
As I’ve said many times before on this site, my favorite cut of beef is the Porterhouse, where you get both the filet and the sirloin strip.
Knowing how to butcher and being good with knives will save you enormous amounts of money in your lifetime by simply buying whole sections of the animal instead of individual cuts, then cutting the sections up at home and freezing them.
There is a market once again for small neighborhood butcheries; boutique butcheries that can get away with selling at much higher prices than those found at the average supermarket, that cater to the hip and moneyed, who prefer everything in their lives on special order.