The Peru Gazette

Canton, NY — Northern New York needs USDA-inspected meat processing facilities, according to a late March meeting organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension and attended via teleconference by livestock producers, processers and community leaders in Canton, Watertown, Westport, and Cayuga County.

“Consumer demand for local food has increased the demand for locally-raised meats that are processed at USDA-inspected facilities and can be sold direct by the cut at farmers’ markets, to restaurants, and at the farm, not to mention on the internet. The challenge for North Country livestock producers, particularly in the fall and early winter, is a lack of available processing time at USDA-inspected facilities,” says meeting organizer Betsy Hodge with Cornell Cooperative Extension St. Lawrence County.

“Most producers feel the local foods interest will continue and the local supply could expand if the processing bottleneck can be addressed. The livestock producers that already have year-round demand for their meat products are having trouble keeping stocked with retail cuts because they cannot get animals processed in the fall or winter,” Hodge says.

Northern New York’s six-county region currently has USDA-inspected processing facilities in Brasher: Tri-Town Packing, and in Heuvelton: Willard’s Meats. The Brier Hill area of St. Lawrence County has a former processing facility that is not expected to reopen as a USDA-inspected facility. The Eastern side of Northern New York lacks facilities altogether, Hodge says.

“Regional processors are booked solid from September 1 to about April 1. If you want processing time in the fall, you should call as much as a year ahead. The rest of the time the processors have room to fit in animals with less notice,” Hodge says.

The fall season is the prime processing time for producers taking advantage of Northern New York’s vast land base for producing grass-fed livestock. Feeding livestock through the winter takes more equipment, more storage space for feed and animals, and possibly more purchased feed, so fall processing capacity is needed to reduce producer costs.

Hodge says the seasonal aspect of the processing business makes it challenging to keep skilled employees year-round: “Finding skilled meat cutters can be difficult.  The meat processing course at SUNY Cobleskill is the only such training program in New York state.”

The March meeting identified opportunities to stabilize and grow the meat processing capacity of the Northern New York region. John Willard is looking to sell his processing operation that includes a house and rental property. Jordan Brandt, currently operating Brandt’s Mobile Slaughter, is writing a business plan and looking for financial incentives to open a USDA-inspected plant in Jefferson County.

“There is interest in the Westport area to pursue financing for a mobile processing unit that would have a USDA inspector in tow and for establishing permanent USDA-approved facilities,” Hodge says.

A producer survey, conducted by Cornell Cooperative Extension and Adirondack Harvest, a non-profit community-based local farms and foods program, indicates that most producers are interested in expanding their production of beef, sheep, goats and pigs, and in having more animals processed

“There is also interest in poultry processing,” Hodge adds. “Poultry producers can currently process up to 1,000 poultry on-farm and sell locally, but not everyone has the processing equipment and know-how. Several producers indicated that they would like to raise poultry if they had a place to process it, and that their current customers have been asking for chicken and turkey.”

Hodge says Brandt’s will travel to surrounding counties to process 200-300 birds so one solution is for smaller producers to plan a shared processing day in their area.

“Based on the meeting discussions, it is clear that the producers in Northern New York need to brainstorm how to utilize the existing processors more efficiently year-round, possibly by planning their production, developing different feeding strategies, and finding new markets,” Hodge says. “The processors need to brainstorm how to utilize their workforce in the ‘off’ season and how to cope with regulations that may make it difficult to expand.”

Hodge says as a result of the meeting, producers, processors, and economic developers from two counties now understand one another a little better and can work towards a solution.

A future meeting may provide insight from USDA inspectors and New York State Agriculture and Markets representatives and more discussion of problem-solving options.

Resources in the meantime include local Cornell Cooperative Extension offices, the www.nichemeatprocessing.org website and livestock production and marketing resources on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org. #