What Goes Into Starting a Meat Locker?

Question of the Week: What’s feasible?

This week’s podcast episode shares the story of a couple that is starting a small packing plant. This couple originally wanted a larger plant than they are currently building. What changed? Their research showed that anything larger than 25 head per day would not be economically feasible.

My question for you is this. Are you creating an operation that is economically feasible for the resources you have?

As you grow larger or even reduce numbers, are you keeping in mind your time, employees, natural resources and community resources?

My next question for you is this, why do you want to grow larger or reduce numbers? What’s your purpose for it in your business and lifestyle?

What Goes into Starting a Meat Locker

Troy and Stacy are both fifth-generation beef producers and are currently raising the sixth generation. Their operation is near Faulkton, S.D. and includes farming, running cow-calf pairs, backgrounding and selling beef directly to consumers and restaurants. The Hadricks noticed a need for a small packing plant in their area to help not only themselves but also their rural community.

“We have local people who would love to buy our beef and the corn to do it, so why are we shipping our cattle 600 miles away to finish and harvest them?” says Troy Hadrick. So, this dynamic couple took the leap and decided to dive into starting North Prairie Butchery.

Where Do You Start?

It all starts with finding the right people and experts to set you up for success.

“One thing we found early on is a company called Protein Processing Services. They act as an umbrella group with a bunch of different people who can help us on each stage of this journey,” says Stacy Hadrick.

The first set of people you need to find are those that will help you explore the numbers and learn what size of facility is best. Troy and Stacy did not originally envision a 25-head-per-day facility but after crunching the numbers and gaining insight from these experts, that’s what will be the most feasible for the area. 

Stacy notes that once they concluded their feasibility study and completed a business plan, other aspects just began to fall into place. Once they knew this business would be feasible, they began analyzing what services they would be including with the harvest facility such as smoking, aging, labeling and packaging. They also had to decide how they would handle cattle receiving, meat distribution and hiring employees. These are only a few of the many moving segments of starting a business in the meat locker space of agriculture.

Part of envisioning and building a harvesting facility is touring other facilities to see what will work for your own business. Troy was involved in meats judging in college which allowed him to see multiple facilities. But they also decided to tour others to get a better idea of how they want to lay out their own building.

“A processing facility of any kind is about flow. How do you get people and product to flow through efficiently. We’ve really spent a lot of time on our building design to accomplish this,” says Stacy Hadrick.

Impact on Rural Communities

Having a positive impact on the Faulkton, S.D. area is something this team is excited about. The community has wanted a small plant built in the area for a while and is very supportive of what is to come. About 25 people will be employed to work on the floor of the butchery. With it being a small facility, this is a great opportunity for people who want to work set hours and have their weekends off.

“Our hope is that this allows more families to bring a child home to their operation. There is always plenty of labor to go around in the cow-calf business but not always enough cash flow to support extra families. Providing an opportunity for people to pick up part-time work at our butchery or start selling beef directly to consumers may provide the extra cash flow needed for an extra generation to come back to a family operation,” says Stacy Hadrick.

The Hadricks knew that finding labor might be a challenge in a rural community, so they are leaning on technology to help alleviate this pain point.

“We are trying to put as much automation in the plant as possible to eliminate the need for as many employees and broaden the type of people who can and work for us,” says Troy Hadrick.

Using automation comes at an extra expense but it also reduces the amount of heavy lifting that will be necessary for employees and the number of employees needed. 

The type of service and products being offered will also benefit the rural community in new ways. While it hasn’t been determined if the meat will be sold to restaurants or grocery stores, there will be a retail store attached to the butchery for people to come purchase various meat products. The butchery will also have days for custom processing for not only beef but also pork and bison. 

What Do Fellow Beef Producers Need to Know?

Local beef producers can start dreaming of how this will help them achieve their own goals and other beef producers should think about how even a small plant could benefit their own rural economy.

“It’s a big industry, but the bottleneck is narrow at the end of the process. We need to spread the risk out in our system. A small 25-head-per-day plant in South Dakota isn’t going to solve all our problems, but it is a step we can take towards a bigger solution,” says Troy Hadrick.

Troy also notes to keep in mind that taking on a process like this is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of hoops to jump through and this is a reason why not many of them are being built. However, despite the hoops and challenges, this team is excited to keep building and grateful for all the support they have received thus far. 

Listen to the full conversation by clicking on the picture below.