Tennessee Farms Expand Into Processing as Demand for Local Meat Soars
In partnership with: Tennessee Department of Agriculture
“Productive chaos.” In those two words, cattle producer Ali Lightfoot sums up 2020, the year her family had set to launch their private-label beef. When local meat demand spiked with the COVID-19 pandemic, those plans rapidly transformed into building a U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified meat-processing facility and farm store on their land in West Tennessee.
“The plan to sell on-farm meat had already been in motion before COVID, and we were set up to start selling at the most opportune time,” says Kimberly Lightfoot, Ali’s sister-in-law. Kimberly and Ali co-own Lightfoot Farm Market & Processing in Millington with their husbands, Neil and Wesley. “We were more prepared than some and had our slaughter dates secured. We had our animals ready and the COVID pandemic hit within weeks of us launching on-farm sales.”
Like the Lightfoots, farm families throughout Tennessee share similar stories of the already strong demand for their local meat soaring during the pandemic. They also echo the challenges of locating processors with the availability and capacity to harvest, cut and package enough meat products to satisfy customer demand. To solve the problem, some have expanded into processing themselves.
“As the pandemic went on and got worse, the processing dates started disappearing,” Kimberly says. “That’s when real talk of us opening our own processing plant became a reality.”
Lightfoot Farm Market & Processing plans to open their on-farm facility in early 2021, expanding the beef- and pork-processing capability in Shelby County.
Accelerating Expansion
Jennie Schutte will never forget the scene in March 2020. Customers lined up in the driving rain, panic-purchasing meat from her mobile meat trailer after the pandemic took hold.
“It was raining sideways and people were standing out there in the rain arguing about who was cutting in line and who was next to get ground beef,” says Schutte, who owns Pilaroc Farms in Lincoln County with her husband, Walt Patrick. “We sold almost everything out of the trailer, including roasts and steaks. They were buying whatever I had because they were panicked by the limited supply in grocery stores.”
See more: Tennessee Dairy Operations Sell Milk Directly to Consumers
COVID-19 accelerated the pace of progress for Pilaroc Farms. The family found itself working with up to eight meat processors as far as eight hours away that had openings to process their farm-raised beef, pork and lamb. The challenge prompted the couple to build their own USDA-certified processing facility, scheduled to open in spring 2021. Construction also includes a farm store and an agritourism center where visitors can learn about livestock on the farm.
“We are taking the bull by the horns,” Schutte says. “We had thought about starting our own processing facility for years, but the pandemic pushed it.”
Adding Processing Capacity
Bernard Farms felt the push, too. By summer 2021, the Bernards plan to open a USDA-certified processing facility and a new retail store on their farm near Orlinda, about 45 minutes north of Nashville.
“Our processors cannot keep up with our demand,” says Julie Bernard, who runs the farm with her husband, Steve, his parents and their two young kids. “A lot of that has to do with people going to farms, buying animals and having them processed after seeing empty store shelves. We had always talked about doing our own processing, but 2020 drove it home for us.”
For several years, the fourth-generation farm family has sold pork and beef at farmers markets and at their on-farm store. Before COVID, the business already had outgrown the store, a renovated space in an old dairy barn on the farm. When the pandemic started, the demand for the family’s meat skyrocketed.
“There are consumers who will now purchase from local farms who wouldn’t have thought about it without COVID,” Bernard says. “For us, it was an eye-opener to start our own processing and give us a boost.”
Cut of the Month
Pilaroc Farms highlights a different cut of meat each month, with a little lesson about where it comes from and how to prepare it. Learn about beef short ribs, hanger steak, oxtail and more at rocktotable.com/cut-list.