There’s nothing else quite like it in the state. In fact, it’s the only one in all of Wisconsin and belongs to a family meat retailer and processor. Prem Meats of Spring Green in Sauk County is proud to say they have the only state-inspected mobile slaughtering unit in all of America’s Dairyland. “We basically ended up taking any of the parameters that are imposed on any slaughter floor and shrunk it down to a mobile truck size,” explains Marty Prem. The unit itself is a 26-foot truck with all the bells and whistles. “We have hot water on the truck, we have generators, winches, a whole rail system to hang carcasses,” Prem says.
The idea for the mobile slaughtering unit was born out of need that Prem saw in his local community. “We initially got the idea because we had so many people calling our meat shop,” he says, “looking for slaughter services.” The issue with that was Prem didn’t have the capacity for more animals, nor did he want to take the chance on investing in a completely new slaughter floor. From there, Prem partnered with a former state meat inspector with butchering experience and the unit began to take shape.
Now, the unit serves customers within a certain radius of the Spring Green shop and has been an enormous success. Much like physical processing locations around Wisconsin, it has a waiting list well into 2022, but has made things very easy on the customer. “What we’ll do is come out, get the animal out of the pasture, knocked, and pulled into the truck,” Prem explains. From there they will is skin, gut, and quarter the animal all under the watch of a state inspector that accompanies them on farm visits. Once that process is done the truck will make the trek back to the shop where the rest of the processing will take place.
Prem says that farmers have insisted the end-product they get from the mobile slaughtering unit is better as the animal was less stressed at the time of slaughter. “We really focus on having the animal in its own environment at the time of knocking.” This takes the stress off of the animal being hauled in for processing and being in an unfamiliar place.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Prem should be very proud. He says that he has received calls from processors in neighboring states such as Minnesota and Iowa asking about starting up their own unit in their area. But for right now, the unit is a rarity around the Midwest. Prem Meats can be contacted by calling 608-588-2164 or you can visit them online by visiting premmeats.com.
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