Courtesy Cornerstone Farm Ventures
Cornerstone Farm Ventures created the “ Mini Mobile Processing Unit , ” a minor , less expensive nomadic slaughtering unit of measurement .
One of the consequences of the integration of nutrient output in the United States is the striking decline in the number of slaughterhouse . harmonise to the USDA , the identification number of USDA- or state - inspected slaughterhouses has declined by one - third in the last 15 eld . Conversely , during the last five years , the telephone number of little Farmer has increased by 108,000 . It is the little farmer who often serve the grow requirement for forage - fed , natural , and organic meat and domestic fowl products . To complicate things , the existing slaughtering adeptness are already producing at maximal capacity and do n’t have the processes in place to handle the needs of modest producers .
The decline in slaughtering facility is spoiled news program for the farm number of urban poulet farmers . Chickens are often the animal of choice to be upraise by urban Farmer for core . They require a relatively little amount of space and mature to market place exercising weight apace . Unfortunately , there are so few slaughter facilities that urban husbandman may decide that raise chicken for anything other than personal consumption is not economically workable .
Mobile Poultry Processing
Mobile slaughter units appear to be the most immediate resolution to the waning number of butchery . Mobile processing units are butchery on wheel and contain all of the tools command for slaughter . All the farmer has to supply are the workers .
Fortunately for urban poultry producers , mobile processing units for fowl ( phone mobile domestic fowl processing units or MPPUs ) are the most vulgar , because they are modest and require a low-spirited capital investment . A deluxe model was purchased by the Vermont DoS legislative assembly in 2008 for $ 93,000 to bridge the gap for their lowly producer .
For the economically given , Cornerstone Farm Ventures , a manufacturer of mobile poultry processing units in Norwich , N.Y. , has built a “ Mini Mobile Processing Unit . ” The processing equipment is claim off the drone and gear up up on the ground for processing . It ’s small enough to be draw by a stock 6 - cylinder motorcar . The social unit sell for $ 10,000 , agree to the website .
Cornerstone Farm Ventures created the “Mini Mobile Processing Unit,” a smaller, less expensive mobile slaughtering unit.
Benefits of Mobile Processing Units
Mobile domestic fowl processing units cost urban sodbuster much less to build up than a permanent slaughtering installation , which leave in lower processing costs per razzing . Local communities that would unremarkably protest the building of a permanent drubbing facility are more amenable to the nomadic units , thus streamlining their leverage and implementation . And urban husbandman can ensure that humanely raised birds are also humanely butcher with minimum stress .
Operating Mobile Processing Units
Mobile domestic fowl processing units are help oneself urban husbandman meet customer demand and expand their commercial enterprise in spite of the slaughterhouse shortage .
Courtesy Pete and Jen ’s Backyard Birds
Pete and Jen ’s Backyard Birds has used a mobile processing unit for three year .
Jen Hashley , of Pete and Jen ’s Backyard Birds , aver she and her husband , Pete Lowy , have been using a mobile poultry processing social unit for three long time to process chickens brooded in their Concord , Mass. , backyard . The building block is owned by the New England Small Farmers Institute and was buy using a federal grant from Rural Cooperative Development Grants . This grant is like those give for the leverage of peregrine poultry processing units through the Know Your Farmer , Know Your Food programme , a USDA feat to create raw economic opportunities by forage connection between consumers and local producers .
Hashley and Lowy are so pleased with the fluid domestic fowl processing unit , they are helping to raise stock to purchase a second , more full-bodied unit for urban farmer in Massachusetts .
“ There are no slaughter facilities available to the small manufacturer in the Northeast , ” Hashley says . “ It would be very difficult to proffer premium , pasture - raised chicken to our client without the MPPU . ”
Volunteers are an important resource for users of mobile poultry processing units . Including customers in the slaughtering process is a agency to educate them about the body of work that pass away into their traditional Sunday dinner party . Pete and Jen ’s Backyard Birds expend their website to recruit voluntary to take part in their chicken harvest .
Requirements for renting and operating a mobile poultry processing unit vary from state to state and can be moderately complicated . Training and licensing are demand . The animals may necessitate to be visit prior to slaughter , and specific labeling specifications may involve to be met . For selective information about butcher alternative in your area , Iowa State Universityhas a comprehensive on-line resource , which include a list of MPPU locations , a education manual of arms , webinars and videos .
