From karan on Mon, March 24, 2008

I don’t think these “mobile slaughter facilities” are a new idea at all.  I grew up in a community of small family farms and there was a service we hired to come out to slaughter and butcher large farm animals.  It was pretty much a couple of men with knives and a hoist mounted on the back of a tow truck looking vehicle.  They killed the cow, hooked her up and hoisted her high and then the men butchere and packaged the meat.  The cost was a percentage of the meat and/or a fee. 
Not new.

From pubwvj on Fri, May 16, 2008

The big problem I have found with the mobile slaughter unit is that in the fall everybody wants the unit and it can only be in a limited number of places per day. I fear losing out in the demand - I’m not that into sharing. I need slaughter every week for our farm because our customers want fresh meat delivered every week. A mobile slaughter unit isn’t going to do that.
A secondary problem is that a lot of farms are like ours - out on back roads, up mountains and inaccessible parts of the year. A mobile slaughter unit is big - it is a tractor trailer truck. It won’t be able to come up our road during either mud season so that kills two months of the year. There will be periods during the winter when it won’t be able to make it either due to snow storms or ice. Add another several weeks lost to that.
So what’s the solution? More small slaughterhouses and butcher shops and preferably located on farms. Better, more farm friendly regulations that allow for and encourage on-farm slaughter. These are solutions that will put more elasticity in the system and make it more shock proof. Think Small.
Cheers
-Walter

Sugar Mountain Farm

Pastured Pigs and Sheep

in the mountains of Vermont

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/

http://NoNAIS.org

From Mary Webb on Tue, May 05, 2009

Hey, what ye all say is right but I’ve worked directly with the Skagit WA /Lopez island group on feasibility and they are USDA certified ,so can sell directly by the piece to customers. They have an USDA paid inspector on the truck. Members retain ownership of product and market separately.Some of the members are organic some conventional. They book their killing weeks in advance and have spread it over the year to avoid gluts and idle staff time. They have leased a cut and wrap facility where carcasses are blast frozen and ready for the producer to market directly.
The mobile driver is the butcher. They unit was funded by USDA.
Hope this helps,If you want further info contact me directly 1 360 259 1050
mary

From Lisa Marshall on Fri, October 09, 2009

So can I get a rough idea of what one of these might cost?

From Walter Jeffries on Tue, November 24, 2009

Here is an update on what we’re doing to add USDA/State inspected on-farm slaughter and butchering to our farm:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/butchershop

From al. on Wed, January 20, 2010

HI, we built the’‘’‘’ FIRST’‘’‘’ mobile slaughter plant in the U.S.A that takes the animals inside and kills them..  no more out side unsanitary conditions,or hazards. Its very professional. We are super satisfied with the design… of course ‘’‘we build it ourselves from scratch’’ We have been in the meat business for over 30 years so we know what we need and want. People are complaining about numbers and waiting lists to me. That sounds unecessary. WE KILL 20 LAMBS OR GOATS A ‘’‘'HOUR’‘’’  OR ABOUT 20 TO 30 BEEF A DAY NO FARMER KILLS THAT MANY OR SELLS THAT MANY THAT WE CANT KEEP UP…  ALSO WE KILLED OSTRICHES, 19 BEFORE NOON ...  We did it different,  we checked where most farmers are located and put our plant in the middle so they brought their animals to us. Worked super nice…. WE ALSO BUILD THE UNITS FOR SALE NOW SINCE WE GET A LOT OF ASK FOR IT . IF YOU NEED ONE CALL US 909-821-9680 HOPE I WAS HELPFUL..