Dearth of abattoirs threaten the growth of local, small scale meat options.

Jeff Green | Oct 07, 2020

In a panel discussion as part of the virtual Open Farms initiative, access to provincially certified abattoirs was discussed by a diverse group of farmers.

John Williamson raises beef cattle at his farm near Inverary and is past President of the Frontenac Federation of Agriculture. Dave Perry and his family run Perry Anjou Farm near Harrowsmith, where they have beef cattle, pigs, meat chickens, turkeys and ducks. Sarah and Rob Winney run the Rise Farm in Godrey, an ultra small diversified livestock farm where they raise goats, sheep, rabbits, ducks, pigs, and chickens.

Although their operations and experience levels vary, they all said that the diminishing options in abattoirs threatens their ability to bring the meat that they raise to the local market.

“We’ve probably lost 50% of the abattoirs in recent years, Dave Perry said.

“The abattoirs that are still operating are booking months in advance. It puts pressure on the farmer to determine when their animals will be at the peak when you have to book that far in advance. If the date is too early, they won’t be at their full weight, and if it is too late there is the cost of feed for a longer time to consider,” said John Williamson. “For pigs you have to book the abattoir now before they are even born.”

For Rob and Sarah Winney, access to specialty services means going a long distance.

“Quinn’s (in Yarker) is not that far away, but for our small animals we are looking at Stirling in one direction and Kemptville in the other. Fuel costs and travel time become a factor,” said Rob Winney.

A lot of local meat producers use Quinn’s, and the owners of Quinn’s are hoping to sell the abattoir and retire.

Quinn’s is booking for April now, and next fall for cattle, and the owners have made no secret of the fact they would like to sell the abattoir and retire.

The panelists all agreed that provincial regulations have made it more difficult for small-scale abattoirs to survive.

“They are biased towards the large-scale operations because they can park an inspector in one place where they can inspect hundreds of animals each day. I met with the minister of agriculture last year and he said they were going to convene a panel to look at the restrictive regulations for small operations and maybe make changes, but there is no sign of that yet,” said Dave Perry.

John Williamson said that one of the positive features of the local region is that there are still a number of independent butchers and grocery stores that do custom butchering for customers, including Glenburnie Groceries, Greenlees meats and Seed to Sausage. He also said that he has talked to “a young lad who is hoping to start up a mobile abattoir that can travel from farm to farm, but I don’t know what progress he has made.”

“It is kind of depressing that the demand for local meat is so strong now and it is becoming more and more of a chore to book an abattoir because they are booking so far ahead. We need to work on it, and I am working on it as others are, but it isn’t easy,” said Dave Perry.

The abattoir session was the 6th and final virtual panel as part of Open Farms 2020. All of the panel discussions, as well as much more content about local farms, and how to access their products, can be found at Openfarms.ca