County farmers lead move toward safer, better beef

There is a growing trend in the area toward raising livestock and expanding existing herds. For some, it’s a way to preserve a farm and a way of life. More than one farmer has recently converted from the unprofitable dairy business to raising any combination of cows, sheep and pigs. For others, it is a response to an overly sophisticated world and increasing demand for food that can be traced to its origins.

If anyone needed evidence that livestocking is unequivocally a topic of interest, all they had to do is attend a March 8 forum on the subject at the Litchfield Inn. The ballroom there was jammed with more than 200 people who came to hear how a group of small farmers in Washington state have turned need and desire into profit.Saving beef cattle, saving farms

Elliot Wadsworth of White Flower Farm in Litchfield arranged the event to determine interest and the level of need for an affordable approach to processing meat on the hoof, and in effect, preserving Connecticut’s farms.

"It’s a joint problem," he said in opening the program. "Based on the number of people in this room, there is real pressure to get this solved."

One approach involves a "mobile slaughterhouse unit" (MSU), a self-contained butchering room and cooler in a trailer, an invention born of necessity that has been springing up across the country. Guest speaker Bruce Dunlop and other members of the Island Grown Farm Cooperative in Washington state outlined the concept.

Dunlop and his colleagues may live and farm a continent away, but the challenges he described easily apply here. Almost an entire roomful of young, old, in between, and even a pair of nuns raised their hands when Dunlop asked who were raising livestock herds. Others were there representing various organizations.

"We have a sprinkling of people with money, and a whole lot of people who could use it," was how Dunlop summed up the crowd.

Dunlop has a background as a chemical engineer and a former career with what Wadsworth called "big agriculture." He now raises goats at Lopez Island Farm and applies his business and problem-solving abilities to keeping the co-op growing. He is also traveling, to help spread the word that there is a way for small livestock farms not only to make a living, but also carve their own niche in a market dominated by big producers.Taking control of the process

He went on to offer a PowerPoint presentation of the co-op, with its MSU and independent meat-processing plant. It took six years to get the co-op off the ground with an original 25 members. Each made an initial investment of $600. It is now up to 52 members and production has basically doubled since operations began in 2002. An expansion to double the size of the plant is in the works.

"The biggest obstacle is not finding customers, but being able to sell meat products to them. The biggest bottleneck, but the only way to do that, is to be USDA regulated. If you’re not, you can only sell animals on the hoof. Butchered meat will come back packaged and marked ‘not for sale’."

According to Dunlop, four companies control 80 percent of the livestock market in the United States — companies too big to know where every pound of meat is produced.

"If there is a problem, they recall millions of pounds," Dunlop said. "Within the last 10 to 15 years, a market has opened up of customers who want to know who raised their meat. It’s come sort of full circle from how our ancestors did it. But now, the suppliers are not there."

While USDA approval may be an arduous process to launch and maintain, for better or worse, it is the only answer, Dunlop said.

So now there are lots of growing livestock farms and a co-op model to work from. It should be simple.

"All you need is a slaughterhouse. Try and build one on your property and see what your neighbors say, or your local zoning board," Dunlop said. "When we first started, we met lots of resistance until we got people to realize we weren’t trying to duplicate Chicago in 1904. We were talking about slaughtering five cows a day."

After unsuccessful attempts to secure permitting at two locations, co-op members realized they needed to think outside the box.Less stress, better beef

The idea of bringing the butcher to the farmer solved numerous issues. Beyond being simply cheaper to fund, the mobile unit eliminates big profit-cutting items such as transporting animals and carcasses, and waste management.

It is less stressful for the animals, too, resulting in a better product. And it saves time, which is money.

"When we started, the closest slaughterhouse was near Portland. The route was one big traffic jam all day. We get on and off the island by ferry, and the fee for our 49-foot-long trailer could be up to $200 per trip. Then it would be another day’s trip to go back and get the carcasses, and then the butchered meat."

A big saving comes in the form of waste products from the slaughter — offal — which is kept at farms. Instead of paying a rendering contractor, farmers gain a quick and easy form of nutrient management, or compost. Blood makes an excellent liquid fertilizer.

Operation of the mobile unit is relatively simple. A driver/butcher follows a farm visit schedule carefully planned to keep traveling to a minimum. It takes about 30 minutes to set up the operation. He needs only the help of the farmer, who corrals the animals to be slaughtered. The butcher stuns and bleeds them, then dresses them out in the sanitized, stainless steel trailer, where two winches keep them from touching the floor.

The MSU has its own rinse water supply. The back section is a cooler that can hold up to 10 cows, 20 hogs or 70 lambs, or a combination. It typically takes two days to fill it. Then it’s off to the slaughterhouse — an existing building transformed by the co-op — where a team of butchers works full time to keep up with demand.

Every area presents its own challenges when it comes to moving slaughtering facilities in what is typically a 100-mile radius. But co-ops from Hawaii to Alberta, Canada, are putting custom-designed MSU’s on the road. The Alberta MSU will run year-round and includes heated water tanks.Return on investment

Many questions about costs were raised, as farmers attempted to calculate at the forum how their bottom line would be affected if they switch to this type of program.

Dunlop offered his co-op’s total slaughter, cut and wrap costs that average $430 per cow, $120 per hog and $66 per lamb, resulting in a retail value of roughly four times the animal’s value.

His MSU is owned by the nonprofit Lopez Community Land Trust, which leases it to the co-op. The investment in the trailer, equipment and a used pickup truck came to $150,000. About $60,000 of a total startup cost of $200,000 was raised by private donations.

"These were food retailers, organizations and interested consumers with absolutely nothing to gain financially," Dunlop said.

For the Lopez Island farmers, the co-op’s success is about sustainability, preserving family farms and an agricultural landscape. It is also about the satisfaction of producing healthy food and seeing the process through to the end.

"Under the traditional system, animals are sold at auction. You never see the buyer. You don’t know how the way you are raising the animals affects how they taste. It’s great to be able to follow the process from animal to plate."A promise to help get it started

What will it take to start a co-op here?

Wadsworth asked everyone to complete a survey form. He promised to compile data that includes physical, financial and historical characteristics of farms, land-conservation status and current meat processing methods and quantities.

"I promise to get this started, but I can’t do it all. I have my own farm to run. It will take a lot of people to help form an as-yet undesignated organization. There are people here tonight who have come from beyond the 100-mile range, which means there are other areas that need to address this, too."

Wadsworth next introduced Andy Angera of Andy’s Provisions Co. His family has been in the pork business in the Northeast for 75 years.

"In the 1980’s, we shifted to all natural and organic products and relocated from New York to a plant on Route 8 in Winsted. We are building a new 7,000-square-foot plant that we expect the USDA to sign off on by early summer."

Angera suggested his existing slaughter facility and market for fresh products could provide a fixed base for a local cooperative.