Will mobile abattoirs help small-scale livestock farmers?

Organic livestock producers face stiff challenges when it comes time to kill their animals according to certified organic standards. Over the last decade, a number of factors have led to the closure of many small plants, and consolidation toward larger processing facilities. Consumer demand, meanwhile, is increasing for specialty meat products such as natural, hormone-free, organic, grass-fed and humanely-raised meat. Those producers who are working to meet this growing niche market, as well as producers located far from the nearest abattoir, will be left out in the cold unless slaughter facilities to meet their needs are secured. One possible solution to this emerging crisis may be the use of mobile slaughterhouses that travel from farm to farm, providing a flexible, sanitary, humane, government-inspected, economical "kill and chill" service.

History and Rationale

Since the 1950s, northern regions of Europe have used mobile abattoirs for slaughtering farmed reindeer and muskoxen. Nowadays, a few multi-species units handle all types of livestock and game, from sheep to buffalo, and meet the strict requirements of the EU and global markets. One such unit has a trained staff of 8 people who can process 40 large cattle or buffalo in an 8-hr shift.

The Lopez Island mobile slaughterhouse, used for beef, hogs, goats and sheep, was designed and developed by livestock producers belonging to the Islands' Grown Farmers Cooperative and Washington State University, at an approximate cost of $150,000 USD. Their goal is to serve their community's demand for high-quality, locally produced meat. After nearly three years in operation, the coop has reached full capacity for their entire "farm-gate to plate" system, and it is paying for itself.

In Canada, Cliff Munroe, of Alberta Agriculture, says he's optimistic that one or two units will be built in the next couple of years, and they will use the Lopez Island model as a starting point for their made-in-Alberta design, which will likely be larger in capacity. He anticipates that since the US unit is USDA-approved, a similar one for use in Canada should be acceptable to the CFIA as well. In addition to niche markets, mobile abattoirs could also potentially serve northern areas where processing plants don't exist.

In the Abitibi region of Quebec, a group of producers is currently constructing a mobile abattoir to be ready for the spring of 2005. They plan to process small-carcass beef, pigs, sheep, farmed deer and caribou.

How it works

The Lopez Island unit is a modified Featherlite trailer, pulled by an F450 diesel flatbed, and contains three sections: processing, refrigeration, and HVAC/storage. It carries a 10 KW diesel generator and holds 1200 litres of potable water. Total length of truck and trailer is 49 ft., and the combined GVW is 14,500 kgs. The cooler can hold 10 steer carcasses, or equivalent amounts of other animal types (e.g. 40 lambs, or 20 hogs). Normally, only one person runs the entire operation, accompanied by a USDA-paid inspector.

Producers are responsible for all of the live animal handling, and are charged $75/steer. The worker first stuns the animal with a captive-bolt pistol, and then cuts their throat, in a secure stall, pen or chute that is located on the farm premises. Once the animal is bled out, the carcass is hoisted using a cable-winch into the nearby mobile unit where it is dressed out, and then stored in the cooler. The unit then returns to the cut and wrap facility that is also owned by the Lopez Community Land Trust members, where carcasses are hung for aging, cut into portions, wrapped and stored for market distribution. The offal (non-food portion of the carcass) remains on the farm, where it is composted. As coop member, Bruce Dunlop says, "There is no such thing as waste in this operation… everything is treated as a nutrient".

Photos courtesy of Bruce Dunlop, Lopez Island, Washington, USA

Benefits of a mobile slaughterhouse

More and more consumers today are looking for locally-produced, humanely-raised and slaughtered, grass-fed, organic or “natural” meats, because they attach personal ethics to their purchasing power and/or believe there are health benefits for themselves and their families. A mobile abattoir that serves the needs of the producer, also translates into increased consumer access to high quality meat products in the local area, and offers them the opportunity to put their ethical beliefs into practice.

An outstanding benefit of mobile abattoirs is that the animals are subjected to a minimum of stress as compared with conventional pre-slaughter handling that often includes stressful loading, transport, mixing and crowding, and rough handling by humans unfamiliar to them. In the case of a mobile abattoir being operated in Washington State, a virtually stress-free kill occurs as the animals are handled by familiar people and in familiar surroundings.

Mobile abattoirs, traveling from farm to farm, can be used to slaughter all types of farm animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, poultry, as well as game farm bison, elk, reindeer and deer. In addition, they may be an excellent option for slaughtering cull cows, who otherwise may not be accepted by mainstream abattoirs because of age restrictions resulting from the BSE-crisis.

A mobile abattoir is an effective way for farmers to reduce animal stress before slaughter while also reducing hauling costs while offering greater flexibility for specialty meat products. The slaughter system can be easily modified to meet unique certification requirements, while also providing opportunity for specialty handling or cuts. This will become an attractive option for a new generation of entrepreneurs in agriculture.

Challenges

The biggest single obstacle may be the cost of the mobile unit, and the question of whether an individual or group could make the operation financially viable. Cliff Munroe, of Alberta Agriculture, estimates an initial capital cost of $200,000 for a unit equipped to handle 8 head of cattle per day.

Next, there are regulatory obstacles that will have to be addressed. Currently, there is large variation by province in rules governing the operation of provincially-inspected abattoirs in Canada. Federal inspection is standardized across the country, however, and the regulations are the gold standard to meet both domestic and world markets.

A mobile abattoir is a “kill and chill” facility, and as such it usually cannot refrigerate carcasses for longer than a day. To ensure consistent high-quality management of the carcasses in their transformation into premium meat products, it is therefore essential that government-inspected facilities for hanging carcasses, curing, cutting and wrapping also be available within a reasonable distance.

Disposal of the left-over by-products, known as offal, of the slaughter process, is an additional challenge. Some view this material as waste, and are concerned that it could be a health or environmental hazard if left on the farm, while others consider these byproducts to be valuable nutrients, that can be composted efficiently on the farm.

Conclusion

The success or failure of a Canadian prototype of a mobile abattoir will be watched with interest by small-scale producers, ranchers in remote locations, game farm operators, and government agencies alike. Benefits must outweigh the cost of meeting stringent new food-safety standards. The success of such a venture will integrate producer/consumer demand, cooperation among stakeholders, entrepreneurship, innovation, political will and a supportive bureaucracy.

This is a great opportunity for government regulators and niche marketers of value-added meat products to develop a new model of cooperation and innovation. Training, licensing and monitoring of abattoir operators, internet-assisted inspection technologies and proactive practices such as BSE-testing every carcass could be incorporated into the model. A state-of-the-art, multi-species, multi-use mobile abattoir that is federally inspected offers the most flexible service to producers. At the same time, it ensures more uniformly applied sanitation standards to on-farm killing than exists today in Canada. In addition, it offers the most humane method of commercial slaughter.

The time might just be right for government-inspected mobile abattoirs to take their place among other types of abattoir services for livestock producers in Canada.

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