The animal is "processed", "harvested", or "finished"...no matter what term we use to make us feel better about the situation, we all know what this really means.  And for those of us who take the time to learn about what the food we eat goes through before it gets to our dinner table, well unfortunately, we know the shocking realities of animal slaughter.  This issue has weighed heavily on Tim and me for a very long time.  We were confused to learn that most of the small scale processors have been forced out of business due to never ending paperwork and unreasonable regulations.  The result that we now have to live with is that 80% of the beef that is processed in America is done in just 4 processing plants.  These places are HUGE and can slaughter 400 cattle an hour!  There are so many shocking statistics like this and The Sustainable Table explains it well in an article about slaughterhouses and processing 

Anyway, we have searched the state over to find a processor that we are comfortable with and who can work with us to accomplish our goals of providing quality, healthy, humanely treated meat for our customers.  Among the problems we encountered were things like visiting processors that were dirty, finding quality processors that could not meet demand whereby  farmers were forced to wait weeks for an appointment, and hearing from farmers who travel across state lines driving 3 hours each way just to bring animals to someone they trust, then 3 hours each way again to pick up the meat! 

We became so frustrated that Tim even researched mobile meat processing trucks.  These trucks, which started experimentally in Washington, travel to your farm to process your animals.  Sounds great, but they don't have the ability to age or package meat.  Grass-fed beef is considered best when aged about 14 days to allow the enzymes to break down the connective tissues in the muscles, rendering the meat more tender.  Also, most customers want the convenience of buying retail cuts or individual servings rather than having to buy and store a whole side of beef.  This means we need someone who can cryovac individual cuts.

Well, after a long search and a great tip from a friendly farmer at Shady Brook Farm we have found our processing partner!  This local processor is only an hour from our farm and we have been to visit them a couple of times.  They are a small family owned business and have been in processing all of their lives.  In fact, the plant was handed down to him from his father.  We were immediately impressed by how clean the facility was, right down to the animal stalls which were spotless.  We also had a very good feeling after talking to the owner who, not only understood, but agreed with our concerns about humane treatment.  Besides showing us the blinders that they put on the holding pen to ease the animal's fear, he also assured us that they work at a pace which allows them to take time and care for each animal.  At most they will only slaughter 9 cows per day.  That's something compared to 400 per hour.  In fact, he even invited us to be on the kill floor if it made us feel more comfortable.  To which Tim replied, "If it is at all possible, I will be there to look each one of my animals in the eyes so that they can at least have a familiar face."  I think that this is also his way of paying his last respects to an animal who's life has such purpose. 

So we are in the process now of having our labels approved by the Department of Agriculture.  This is a maze of paperwork with ambiguous regulations about what is and is not allowed to be on your label, what size font you must use, and requirements for safe handling instructions.  This is a post unto itself, so I won't get into it now, but hopefully we can share what we've learned with you in the future.  We are very relieved that we have finally found what we are looking for in a processor.  Unfortunately though, they do not process poultry, so we will have to continue with the plan of processing on farm, and they are not able to do any value-added products.  For example, if they were to turn our pork into bacon or cure a ham this would require an amazing amount of paperwork topped with more regulations and inspections and equipment that is very expensive.  We understand and sympathize with their plight, so for now, we will take what we can get and do our best to continue our search in these areas.