Vermont meat processor expands with $1.1 million federal grant

Carl Cushing owns Vermont Livestock Slaughter and Processing in Ferrisburgh. Together with his spouse, Karen, and his son, Ryan, he has simply 9 workers. 

That quantity might virtually triple as Cushing pursues a significant enlargement mission, aided by a $1.1 million grant dedication from the U.S. Division of Agriculture.

“As we’re at present, we’re a median facility in Vermont,” he stated. “Once we get to full capability, we’d be one of many larger ones.”

The enterprise processes about 50 animals — cows, hogs and lambs — per week, although that workload can differ, Cushing stated. 

The enlargement plan contains setting up a brand new barn, which is almost accomplished, rebuilding one other room and including two new coolers and a brand new slaughter flooring. Then, the corporate will tear down the previous processing room and construct a bigger one, together with a brand new freezer, workplace, buyer entryway, storage room and break room, Cushing stated.    

“We’ll have an even bigger processing room, we’ll have an even bigger freezer and we’ll have new gear from one finish to the opposite,” Cushing stated, noting that the corporate additionally plans so as to add photo voltaic panels in December. 

Cushing stated this mission is the primary main change he’s overseen since turning into proprietor of the meat processing enterprise in 2007. “We made a few minor expansions after we obtained began, however we obtained to the purpose the place we wanted to utterly redo it,” he stated.

As for growing the quantity of animal processing, Cushing stated, “That’s the purpose. Inside the first 12 months after completion, we hope to double and my purpose could be to triple in a short time thereafter.” 

However to take action, Cushing says, he’ll need assistance. He goals so as to add 15 to twenty workers to his present roster of 9. 

As of now, Cushing doesn’t have an actual value estimate for the enlargement however stated the federal grant is a “very important a part of what we’re doing right here.”

The grant will come by the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Processing Enlargement Program, which offered $73 million to 21 initiatives within the first spherical of this system, in response to USDA. The purpose is to “encourage competitors and sustainable progress” and “enhance provide chain resiliency,” in response to this system. 

The particular grant for Vermont Livestock Slaughter and Processing is aimed toward growing native job alternatives, tripling the capability for animal processing, and growing power effectivity, stated Sarah Waring, state director of USDA Rural Growth in Vermont and New Hampshire, in a press launch. 

“This can be a important improve to that facility, which ought to actually improve the variety of animals that may undergo that facility,” stated Anson Tebbetts, Vermont’s secretary of agriculture, meals and markets. “It is a domino impact from that.”

Tebbetts stated the expanded operation ought to give extra farmers a dependable place to take their animals. On the patron aspect, extra Vermonters will know that their meals is sourced domestically.

“In the course of the pandemic, we noticed some disruption of the meals chain,” and primarily as a result of it was a nationwide and worldwide system, Tebbetts stated. “We’re attempting to bolster Vermont’s system and the regional system so we are able to produce extra native meals right here, so it would not break down as a lot because it did.”

Tebbetts stated Cushing’s mission can be benefiting from a $100,000 grant from the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, which has permitted grants for six different amenities within the state.

“There is a chance that we might be investing extra state {dollars} down the highway within the subsequent few weeks,” Tebbetts stated.

The federal grant was awarded to Cushing beneath the umbrella of the American Rescue Plan Act, an financial restoration plan developed by the Biden administration on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, in response to the press launch. Grants can vary as much as $25 million, or “20% of complete mission prices,” and there’s no minimal measurement for the grants, in response to this system particulars.

The grant cash can be utilized for quite a lot of enlargement prospects, equivalent to constructing or modernizing processing amenities and gear, assembly security or packaging requirements, growing meals security, and including jobs, in response to the Meat and Poultry Processing Enlargement Program.