Meat Processor Takes A Ferry To Its Customers

Meat Processor Takes A Ferry To Its Customers SPECIALTY/SERVICES Moving livestock to market is a routine event for most U S mainland farms or ranches But imagine that you raise cattle sheep hogs or goats on an island in the ocean accessible only by ferry That was the plight of livestock farmers on Lopez Island one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state The problem was solved with the formation of Island Grown Farmers Cooperative IGFC which included designing and building a refrigerated mobile-processing unit that travels to the islands weekly via ferry Now IGFC provides USDA-inspected animal-slaughter services to members and non-members on the islands as well as to producers in nearby mainland counties Agriculture on the four largest of the 100 plus islands that make up San Juan County is characterized primarily by small family farms usually 100 acres or less in size The four largest islands have a combined landmass of approximately 150 square miles On processing day two IGFC butchers coordinate moving a 32-ft goose-neck trailer that holds the processing unit onto the ferry A USDA inspector travels with them At the farm the processing unit is hooked to water and power for the day and processing proceeds If power and water aren’t available the unit uses its generator and onboard tank of water The trailer can hold up to 50 carcasses depending on animal size and the unit needs to be at capacity for the co-op to operate efficiently After butchering the carcasses are placed in the cooler and transported back to the IGFC processing plant in Bow Washington for aging and further processing packaging and labeling Each member sells their meat independently Some members sell their meat products on the islands or through local farmer’s markets The co-op also maintains a retail outlet in Bow that sells meat under the brand name “Northwest Homegrown” All meat cuts are frozen and sold in standard-size packages including common cuts of beef pork and lamb The co-op also processes and sells various sausages and ground meat products Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Island Grown Farmers Co-op 11719 Westar Ln Burlington Wash 98233 www nwlocalmeats com

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