TUGASKE, Sask. – Doris Oram stamps the customer’s name and a four-digit tracking code on each package of meat she wraps.
The code links the product from West Bridgeford Meats Ltd. to the farm or ranch where it originated.
Doris and Shane Oram, who operate West Bridgeford Meats in this small community northwest of Moose Jaw, have taken to heart the consumers’ desire to know more about where their food comes from.
The same philosophy extends to their pet food line, Pawsitively Bridgeford.
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Doris said consumers have different views on how animals should be raised and what they should be fed. Some customers even prefer products that come from a specific breed.
Customers can go to the company website, punch in the code and learn about the more than 30 farms and ranches that use West Bridgeford Meats’ services.
“They can choose who they want their meat from,” Doris said.
More consumers will soon have that choice. The Orams are completing construction of an on-farm slaughter facility that will hold domestic inspection status. That will allow their meat products to be sold anywhere in Saskatchewan.
West Bridgeford Meats has evolved since the Orams bought a grocery store in Tugaske in 1995.
Four years later, they sold their cattle and bought the equipment from the locker plant at neighbouring Eyebrow, Sask.
They had just completed an addition to the store to accommodate the meat cutting and processing business when the building went up in flames April 4, 2000.
A new building was constructed by August that year, thanks largely to volunteers.
“There was a lot of community emotion at work,” said Shane.
To satisfy increasing demand, the Orams began construction of the slaughterplant on their farm just outside Tugaske several years ago. It will have capacity to kill and cool 20 head per day and is expected to open to all species this month.
The grocery store was closed two years ago and the space is being converted to a meat processing facility.
The couple also changed the name of their operation from Oram General Merchants to West Bridgeford Meats.
“It’s neutral for everybody,” Shane said.
He means the investors and producers who signed up to help them build their slaughterplant.
Doris said as they began construction, and talking to producers, people asked if they could help. Through provincial legislation that allows shares to be sold to family, friends and business associates, the Orams raised enough money to build the plant and convert a barn into a holding facility. That provision helped the project proceed more quickly.
The maximum number of investors allowed under the program is 50; the Orams have 47.
Investors include producers of beef, bison, elk, pork and lamb and some who just wanted to help.
“There is no government capital involved in this project,” said Doris.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has approved and overseen the construction.
“They’ve been very accommodating,” said Shane.
The company employs nine people right now and will add two to six more.
Shane said they process 500 head per year now and have a waiting list of 380 head. The expansion will boost the annual capacity to 5,000 head.
“I currently kill every day,” he said. “That’s the only way I can get them cool.”
In the expanded facility, he would have to kill just once per week to meet his current obligations.
Producer-investors get priority service but are not tied into delivery.
The facility was designed to be low-stress for the animals and environmentally friendly.
Shane developed a hydraulically operated chute and knock box, and an incinerator for offal disposal and energy generation.
West Bridgeford produces about 50 value-added products, including sausages and barbecue roasts.
Lower quality animals are used in the raw pet food line.
Doris said they got into the pet food industry by accident about eight years ago when one of her Jack Russell terriers had an allergic reaction to food.
Doris is a former veterinary technician and she began making dog food at the kitchen table.
“It kind of snowballed from there,” she said. “We now have five different flavours of pet food.”
All the foods and pet treats are made from human grade product, including the flavour that contains elk velvet antler.
