Meat processing - Articles - Page 2

The challenges and rewards of creating a USDA slaughterhouse

Creating a local or on-farm processing facility may seem out of reach, but some producers are finding success despite challenges such as capital investment, regulations and negative views from the public.

January 5, 2023

John O'Meara

With the price of cattle and beef often in flux, wise producers are always looking for ways to build financial resiliency. One way to capture the most value out of cattle is to process them and market the meat directly to customers.

USDA announces funds to expand processing capacity

November 3, 2022

Tyrell Marchant

On Nov. 2, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced over $223 million in grants and loans to support small to midsized meat processing facilities.

Mobile butchers in great demand

March 10, 2022

Heather Smith Thomas

Kortney Bahem and her husband, Daniel Lousignont, own and operate L&L Meats LLC – a mobile butchering business in Homedale, Idaho.

Pandemic brought challenge and opportunity to custom meatpackers

June 24, 2021

Jaclyn De Candio

The events of 2020 hit the custom processing sector like a sledgehammer. In addition to the struggles faced by all small businesses, custom meat processors found themselves in a unique bind as larger plants were forced to slow or even shut down, and producers flocked to smaller businesses to get their animals harvested.

Tracking COVID-19: Meat and poultry worker case rates five times lower in December than June

January 18, 2021

New analysis of independent data for 2020 show that reported new COVID-19 infection rates among meat and poultry workers were five times lower in December than in May, while rates in the general population rocketed up by nine times in the same period.