Mobile Slaughter Information Session, June 24

As if raising livestock wasn’t hard enough, small farmers face even more challenges come harvest time.

Currently, if a small scale livestock producer wants to sell their meat, they have to load their animals onto a truck and drive them to one of the large, increasingly consolidated facilities for slaughter, this means huge costs for the farmer and high levels of stress for the animals. The closest facility to the Reserve is in Mount Airy, nearly an hour away.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responding to these challenges by encouraging the licence and use of mobile slaughter units (MSUs) for red meat and poultry. These units are self-contained, about the size of a tractor trailer and can be moved from farm to farm easily. One MSU can serve a whole community of small farmers,   reducing the cost to each farmer and greatly reducing the travel stress on livestock. MSUs might prove to be an important tool to help Reserve farmers keep up with the growing demand for  sustainably raised local meat.

The FSIS is hosting a red meat mobile slaughter information session on June 24th in Boonsboro, MD. Click here for the agenda.

For more information, contact  Denise Amman with FSIS: Denise.Amann@fsis.usda.gov