More consumers are looking for locally produced, humanely raised and slaughtered, grass-fed, organic or natural meat, either for ethical or health reasons, or both.
A mobile abattoir that serves the needs of producers also translates into increased consumer access to high-quality meat and offers the opportunity to put ethical beliefs into practice.
A main benefit of mobile abattoirs is that animals are subjected to a minimum amount of stress compared with conventional pre-slaughter handling that often includes stressful loading, transportation, mixing, crowding and handling by unfamiliar humans.
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In the case of a mobile abattoir operated in Washington state, a virtually stress-free kill occurs because the animals are handled by familiar people in familiar surroundings.
Mobile abattoirs, travelling from farm to farm, can be used to slaughter all types of farm animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, poultry, bison, elk, reindeer and deer.
As well, they may be an excellent option for slaughtering cull cows that may not be accepted by mainstream abattoirs because of age restrictions resulting from the BSE crisis.
Special handling, cuts
A mobile abattoir is an effective way for farmers to reduce hauling costs while offering greater flexibility for specialty meat. The slaughter system can be easily modified to meet unique certification requirements and provides an opportunity for specialty handling or cuts. This will become an attractive option for a new generation of livestock entrepreneurs.
The biggest obstacle may be the cost of the mobile unit and the question of whether an individual or group can make the operation financially viable. Cliff Munroe of Alberta Agriculture estimates an initial capital cost of $200,000 for a unit equipped to handle eight head of cattle per day.
Regulatory obstacles also need to be addressed. Wide provincial variations exist in rules governing provincially inspected abattoirs. However, federal inspection is standardized across the country and those regulations are the gold standard to meet both domestic and world markets.
Government inspection
A mobile abattoir is a “kill and chill” facility and usually cannot refrigerate carcasses for longer than a day. As a result, to ensure con-sistent high-quality management of the carcasses in their transformation into premium meat, it is essential that government-inspected facilities for hanging carcasses, curing, cutting and wrapping also be available within a reasonable distance.
Offal disposal is another challenge. Some view this material as waste and are concerned it could be a health or environmental hazard if left on the farm. Others consider these byproducts to be valuable nutrients that can be composted efficiently on the farm.
The success or failure of a Canadian mobile abattoir will be watched with interest by small-scale producers, ranchers in remote locations, game farm operators and government agencies.
Benefits must outweigh the cost of meeting stringent new food safety standards. The success of such a venture will integrate producer and consumer demand, co-operation among stakeholders, entrepreneurship, innovation, political will and a supportive bureaucracy.
This is a great opportunity for government regulators and niche marketers of value-added meat to develop a new model of co-operation and innovation.
Training, licensing and monitoring of abattoir operators, internet-assisted inspection technologies and proactive practices such as BSE-testing every carcass could be incorporated into the model. A state-of-the-art, multi-species, multi-use mobile abattoir that is federally inspected offers the most flexible service to producers.
At the same time, it ensures more uniformly applied sanitation standards to on-farm killing. In addition, it offers the most humane method of commercial slaughter.
The time might just be right for government-inspected mobile abattoirs to take their place among other types of abattoir services for livestock producers in Canada.
Jane Morrigan, M.Sc., P.Ag, is the website co-ordinator at the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada. She can be reached by
e-mail at jmorrigan@nsac.ns.ca. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Western Producer.
