The return restores an essential service for island farmers.
Island Grown Farmers Cooperative (IGFC), a farmer-owned livestock processing facility in the Skagit Valley, recently announced that it will resume sending its mobile slaughter unit (MSU) to the San Juan Islands after a more than eight-month hiatus.
Plant manager Travis Stockwell said that he expects the MSU to begin regularly scheduled trips to the San Juan Islands in the first quarter of 2025 with a newly trained crew and a federal inspector.
Without MSU services, Lopez, Orcas and San Juan farmers had fallen back to the arduous, stressful, time-consuming and expensive business of hauling their livestock for processing to IGFC’s new facility in the Port of Skagit County industrial park adjacent to Skagit Regional Airport.
The return of the MSU will be a huge relief to livestock farmers in the islands. Lopez Islander Bruce Dunlop, a founding member of IGFC who designed and built the first mobile slaughter unit in his driveway 25 years ago, welcomes restoration of this essential service — the co-op’s original purpose — to the islands’ producers and members. “It’s been missed,” he said. “And the board is diligently working to bring it back.”
IGFC’s island board members — Terresa Sundstrom, board president; Eric Lum, vice-president, Orcas Island; and Lisa Guard, San Juan — worked with Mike Sundstrom, Rex Guard and Kathryn Thomas, among others, and IGFC plant manager Travis Stockwell, to start the training sessions for resuming the service.
IGFC experienced both a growth spurt as a result of a move to a new and expanded facility, and a labor shortage. As a consequence, its focus shifted to hiring and training for the brick-and-mortar facility, Stockwell said. Staffing was insufficient to also run the mobile unit, and the IGFC board made the difficult — and unpopular — decision to suspend mobile slaughter services to Orcas, Lopez, and San Juan Island.
A ‘specific set of skills’
Stockwell said the first imperative was to train new butchers and cutters for processing meat at the facility. Once proficient in the plant, new hires had to be trained for a “specific set of skills” particular to the mobile unit. “They need to get used to working around each other in a tight space.” With the USDA inspector also on board, there are three people maneuvering in the bed of the truck. Their pace must be more measured; they need to develop a slower, more rhythmic sequencing.
Nor does it hurt to have crew members who are affable, who like to meet and work alongside farmers and their livestock. “There’s a personal relationship that develops,” says Stockwell. “The crew is there all day and overnight. We’re fostering trust. You have to find the right people to do this.” The stay-overnight schedule adds another complication to recruiting a crew.
When the IGFC mobile unit pulls up to an island farm, it’s a communal affair, not just for hard work, but for conviviality and sharing good food.
On-the-farm training
A few weeks ago the unit made its first training run to the Sundstrom farm on San Juan Island; two more trips are in the offing, one to Orcas and the other to Lopez.
San Juan Island farmer Rex Guard, the only one available with a current commercial driver’s license, drove the big rig on its return to San Juan Island, where over the course of two days new crew members, Stockwell and several other farmers did a dry run.
Working alongside experienced farmers and handling a smaller number of animals, the new crew members learn to be more efficient and relaxed. Meat processing for these training sessions is under “custom-exempt” regulations, meaning processing without a USDA inspector. The resulting product is only to be used by the individual farmers or livestock owners.
USDA inspection is always available on-site at the IGFC plant during processing, and once the mobile services are restored to the islands next year, a USDA inspector will be on hand. This is a boon to regional livestock farmers who are thus able to offer pasture-raised meat for retail sales. They can legally sell their meat to grocers and restaurants, and to customers who prefer specific cuts individually wrapped and made available in farm stands, food hubs or farmer’s markets.
IGFC’s retail store at the plant is chock-full of all manner of locally grown meat, cut and wrapped and frozen under the label “Northwest Local Meats.” This is a boon not just for family farms with small herds and flocks, but also for local customers who want high quality meat, who want to know where their meat comes from, how it is raised, and that it is humanely processed.
Regular service — meaning two days in a row, every other week — is supposed to return to the islands early in 2025.
— By Nancy Larsen