USDA slaughtering plant a possibility

New talks are generating excitement about the possibly of building a USDA-certified meat processing plant in Baker County, or nearby in Union County.

A month ago, the Baker County Livestock Association talked to Oregon Board of Agriculture members and ODA staff about problems associated with the lack of a USDA-certified cattle slaughtering plant in Oregon — and more specifically about the problems that gap causes ranchers in Northeastern Oregon.

Now, publicity about those conversations is stirring more talk between ODA staff and Dan Forsea, BLCA president, and other area cattlemen about building a USDA slaughtering plant in Northeastern Oregon, possibly in Baker County or Union County.

“We’re talking about getting a USDA- certified plant built in the area,” Forsea said.

Talks with ODA and USDA officials about the possibility of building a permanent plant in the area stepped up after the BCLA started looking into a portable plant, Forsea said.

Currently there are no stationary USDA-certified cattle processing plants in Oregon, but there is one portable slaughtering plant that’s USDA-certified operating out of Walla Walla, Wash., and the closest fixed USDA-certified slaughtering plant is Gem Meats in the Boise area, Forsea said.

Ranchers in Baker County and across Oregon have to haul their cattle out of state for slaughtering because environmental regulations and financial issues forced the shutdown over the last 30 years of dozens of USDA slaughtering plants that once operated in Oregon.

Forsea said the added cost of having to haul cattle to out-of-state slaughtering and processing plants puts ranchers in Baker County, and across Oregon, at a competitive disadvantage.

The fact that Baker County cattlemen are paying to transport cattle donated for the BCLA’s beef to schools program all the way to the Boise area for slaughtering, highlights the need for a local USDA-certified slaughtering plant, Forsea said.

“For the beef to schools program we’re taking the cattle all the way to Gem Meats in Boise, and back, because we don’t have our own slaughter plant,” Forsea said.

While financial and environmental hurdles are a major impediment to building and licensing a fixed USDA meat processing plant in Oregon, Forsea said rancher Joel Huesby, of Thundering Herds ranch in Walla Walla, has built and licensed one of the first USDA-approved mobile slaughtering plants in the United States.

 Huesby slaughters cattle for hire, but he told ranchers attending the September BCLA meeting his primary purpose for building and operating the plant was to process his own brand of grass-fed cattle, which he markets through the Internet and at selected grocery stores and meat markets.