Upcoming Webinar on Starting a Slaughterhouse

November 16, 2020/Erica Frenay

This has been a challenging year for livestock farmers and red meat packers in New York State. With many packers already booked solidly for 2021, livestock farmers are feeling panicked about how to get their animals harvested in a timely way. This has driven unprecedented interest in opening new slaughterhouse facilities in the state. But anyone who doesn’t already have a strong background and expertise in the industry faces a steep learning curve, with high risk and a large investment of money.

The Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Livestock Program Work Team is hosting a webinar that will lay out some of the primary considerations for opening a red meat slaughter and processing facility, from infrastructure to regulations and from labor to financing.

Thinking of Starting a Red Meat Packing Plant in NYS?

Wednesday, December 9, from 12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Presenter Marty Broccoli of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Oneida County has 40 years of experience in the meat packing industry, and provides technical assistance for new plants in NY. Keith Schrader is a long-time beef farmer who owns Schrader Farms Meat Market, a USDA slaughterhouse in Romulus, NY. Both will share key tips and lessons learned, with ample time for Q&A.

You can for this free webinar now. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

This event is part of a larger partnership between the Cornell Small Farms Program and CCE livestock educators to support livestock producers in the state by developing collaborative resources like the , on livestock management, and the .

Currently the team is interviewing every meat packing plant in the state to learn about their needs, advocate for resources to build their capacity, and ultimately re-create the slaughterhouse map that used to exist to help farmers connect with processors near them.

Also, the Cornell Small Farms Program contributed a paper on the livestock industry as part of a series of nine papers on the by experts from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University.

Erica Frenay

Erica has had several different roles with the Small Farms Program since she began working there in 2005. In 2006 she co-founded the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project, and launched the first online course in 2007. For 10 years she facilitated and organized the Beginning Farmer Learning Network, a professional development network for service providers in the Northeast who support beginning farmers. She has shepherded the development, publishing, and updating of several key SFP publications, like the Guide to Farming in NYS, the On-Farm Poultry Processing Guide, and the Guide to Direct Marketing Livestock and Poultry. As the SFP’s menu of online courses surpassed 20, she shifted her role primarily to managing these courses, providing ongoing training to instructors, and ensuring a high quality experience for students.
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