Lexington County beef producers could soon have a better option for processing South Carolina beef

Lexington, SC 05/31/2022 – Lexington County beef producers may quickly have a more sensible choice in relation to processing South Carolina’s high-quality beef proper right here in state. The SC Division of Agriculture introduced Tuesday {that a} group of South Carolina cattle farmers has fashioned a cooperative affiliation with the objectives of accelerating beef processing capability in South Carolina and collectively making a South Carolina-branded beef product. The co-op is presently soliciting members from throughout South Carolina. Beef farmers who want to be part of this affiliation ought to contact them by e-mail at wagyu4you@gmail.com.

The SC Beef Advertising Cooperative was fashioned with the help of the South Carolina Heart for Cooperative and Enterprise Growth, a collaborative effort between the South Carolina Division of Agriculture, Clemson College Cooperative Extension, the South Carolina State Small Enterprise Growth Heart and Matson Consulting.

South Carolina’s meat processing services – all of that are small in scale – are unable to maintain up with South Carolina beef producers’ processing wants. The COVID-19 pandemic additional uncovered these weaknesses, with native services experiencing lengthy backlogs on the identical time shoppers have been searching for extra native meat.

Steven Richards, director of the SC Heart for Cooperative and Enterprise Growth, accomplished a examine final 12 months suggesting {that a} $3 million funding in six present services may increase in-state processing capability by 50 p.c and create 50 new jobs.

“Processing capability continues to be probably the most vital bottleneck to increasing the native meat provide. The second most essential problem is to increase market shops for native meat: extra retail shopping for factors and extra choices in grocery shops and eating places. This cooperative affiliation goals to work on each points concurrently,” stated Richards.

Making a co-op provides the group a leg up in making use of for grants, together with the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Worth-Added Producer Grant for which they’ve already utilized. If awarded the grant, they plan to fee a feasibility examine on increasing small beef processing services across the state to enhance capability.

One of many co-op’s eventual objectives is to create a high-quality all-South Carolina floor beef product modeled after Kentucky Cattlemen’s Floor Beef.

Increasing beef processing may additionally assist protect South Carolina’s household farms, stated Gwendolyn McPhail, treasurer of the co-op’s board and proprietor of Black Diamond Sheep and Cattle in Seneca, South Carolina.

“We see quite a lot of open land in South Carolina that used to have cattle on it – however as a result of there was not aggressive pricing, as a result of there was a processing backlog, quite a lot of smaller cattlemen have merely gone out of enterprise,” McPhail stated. “I imagine folks will see new hope now in elevating cattle and be part of us.”

Kyle Participant, government director of the Agribusiness Heart for Analysis and Entrepreneurship on the South Carolina Division of Agriculture, stated the co-op is a promising mannequin.

“This endeavor is a good instance of how we will work collectively to advertise entrepreneurship amongst South Carolina agribusinesses to assist enhance our state’s rural areas,” Participant stated.