SLAUGHTER on the move

摘要

In 2002, the first mobile slaughter mobile harvest unit was approved for use by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,the demand for mobile slaughter has skyrocketed, as there seems to be a higher interest in the service from smaller local farmers who were struggling to get their animals processed in the wake of many plants closing or operating at lower capacities.Chris Young, executive director of Elizabethtown, Pa.-based American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP), said he's seeing an upswing in mobile slaughtering in a response to the demand for more slaughter capacity and the fact that it provides an affordable alternative to companies considering constructing a brick-and-mortar building."COVID put a spotlight on an ongoing issue the industry has had in recent years - we have been losing small slaughter facilities because of a variety of reasons and this has caused a capacity issue," Young said. "This became a glaring issue when some of the larger plants shut down because of COVID and there was not enough capacity to fill in the gap."Bob Lodder, president of Friesla, Everson, Wash., has been part of the mobile slaughter industry for more than a decade.