Where would the proposed plant be located?
We haven't settled on a location yet. Potential locations we have scouted include Lewiston, right next to the livestock auction, Genesee, near the highway, and Pullman, on Airport Road. When we know more about costs and animal supply, we will be able to narrow it down to somewhere generally between Lewiston and Colfax. Eventually we might end up with small-to-medium-sized plants in several locations throughout the area.
How large of a plant would we build?
Our current thinking is to build the smallest plant that would be viable; around 3000 cow equivalents per year. We suspect that there would be enough demand to eventually expand from this, and we want to plan the initial facility accordingly.
What about the slaughter facilities at the University of Idaho and Washington State University?
These are a great resource for the local area, although inadequate to meet the demand for USDA inspected slaughter. They are both planning expansion, but this is oriented mostly towards their teaching mission and not towards meeting the needs of local producers. We feel the need for a facility directly targeted towards commercial slaughter.
Will you be marketing meat?
We hope to be able to provide cooperative marketing services for local producers. This depends largely upon the needs and participation of our eventual rancher members/customers.
Will you be competing with the established local butchers?
The butchers we have talked to feel that access to local USDA inspected carcasses will help their business, while not directly competing with them. All of them have been willing to cooperate with us, and we have gotten a lot of good advice from butchers from Colville to Orofino. Their established facilities are a resource for us, and we predict secondary processing (smoking, sausage making, etc.) to be a major contributor to business success for us all.
What about the issue of seasonal processing?
This is a very real hurdle for any small butcher plant; animals are mostly available during certain seasons, making it hard to keep a plant going year-round. Potential solutions include paying a premium for animals in the off-season which we can then market ourselves, giving a discount for services certain times of the year, and expanding into poultry processing (in a separate building) to provide more variety in our product flow.
How many jobs will this facility create?
Initially, it looks like the facility would directly provide two full time jobs, as well as steady work for one USDA inspector. Expansion down the line is a real possibility as our business matures, but the main focus is to enhance economic opportunities for farmers and ranchers in the surrounding area. How large of a labor force we end up with depends on the eventual demand for our services.
Who is the Greater Palouse Meat Producers?
We are a collection of small-to-medium producers and community development professionals who have been working to establish a USDA inspected slaughterhouse in the greater Palouse area since 2013, partnering extensively with U of I and WSU departments. Currently we have a six member steering committee coordinating the mass of knowledge collection that is needed to make this facility a reality.
We haven't settled on a location yet. Potential locations we have scouted include Lewiston, right next to the livestock auction, Genesee, near the highway, and Pullman, on Airport Road. When we know more about costs and animal supply, we will be able to narrow it down to somewhere generally between Lewiston and Colfax. Eventually we might end up with small-to-medium-sized plants in several locations throughout the area.
How large of a plant would we build?
Our current thinking is to build the smallest plant that would be viable; around 3000 cow equivalents per year. We suspect that there would be enough demand to eventually expand from this, and we want to plan the initial facility accordingly.
What about the slaughter facilities at the University of Idaho and Washington State University?
These are a great resource for the local area, although inadequate to meet the demand for USDA inspected slaughter. They are both planning expansion, but this is oriented mostly towards their teaching mission and not towards meeting the needs of local producers. We feel the need for a facility directly targeted towards commercial slaughter.
Will you be marketing meat?
We hope to be able to provide cooperative marketing services for local producers. This depends largely upon the needs and participation of our eventual rancher members/customers.
Will you be competing with the established local butchers?
The butchers we have talked to feel that access to local USDA inspected carcasses will help their business, while not directly competing with them. All of them have been willing to cooperate with us, and we have gotten a lot of good advice from butchers from Colville to Orofino. Their established facilities are a resource for us, and we predict secondary processing (smoking, sausage making, etc.) to be a major contributor to business success for us all.
What about the issue of seasonal processing?
This is a very real hurdle for any small butcher plant; animals are mostly available during certain seasons, making it hard to keep a plant going year-round. Potential solutions include paying a premium for animals in the off-season which we can then market ourselves, giving a discount for services certain times of the year, and expanding into poultry processing (in a separate building) to provide more variety in our product flow.
How many jobs will this facility create?
Initially, it looks like the facility would directly provide two full time jobs, as well as steady work for one USDA inspector. Expansion down the line is a real possibility as our business matures, but the main focus is to enhance economic opportunities for farmers and ranchers in the surrounding area. How large of a labor force we end up with depends on the eventual demand for our services.
Who is the Greater Palouse Meat Producers?
We are a collection of small-to-medium producers and community development professionals who have been working to establish a USDA inspected slaughterhouse in the greater Palouse area since 2013, partnering extensively with U of I and WSU departments. Currently we have a six member steering committee coordinating the mass of knowledge collection that is needed to make this facility a reality.