Senator’s stop at Sailer’s sparks speculation about success

Recently, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) visited Sailer’s Meats in Elmwood. Sen. Baldwin toured Sailer’s along with several other meat processors from the area — and yours truly!

During the tour, Jake Sailer pointed out equipment and explained the processes, as well as what it cost to modernize in his current location.

We then did a very short Q&A about the current location, which was designed and built out approximately 10 years ago in the heart of the small town. With the changing business environment, however, Sailer’s has outgrown the facility based on the product demand they’re seeing. At this point, we headed to “Sailer’s 3.0” — the new location near Interstate 94 — toured that location and had another Q&A with Sen. Baldwin. 

Understand, this wasn’t a “photo-op” visit; it was a chance for Sen. Baldwin to see first-hand what it takes to run a growing business in the meat industry and learn the real costs associated with modernizing a small to mid-size facility.

During the discussion, the topic of women in the workforce and in ownership/leadership roles came up. We also discussed automation and the unique position small and mid-sized meat- and poultry-processing facilities found themselves in when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

The challenge to grow a small meat and poultry shop into a mid-sized one really boils down to how much capital can be secured. Equipment costs are very high, and when you look at the cost of building the facility, let alone the necessary refrigeration, and the struggles to attract additional employees, acquire automation, etc., it rapidly becomes unattainable for the average small processor.

Sen. Baldwin has helped already by pushing for funding in the American Rescue Plan, which is geared to strengthening the food supply chain. She was keen to hear how the funds would be used by small plants to modernize and retain employees, and how the food supply chain is being strengthened by smaller, local facilities.

The meeting caused me to step back and really put a critical eye to our supply chain. Looking out the home-office window, I am surrounded by farmers who are the first link in that chain. I work with processors and distributors daily, and at the end of the day, I am a consumer. 

I believe we are seeing a fundamental change in how we supply food to the American public. Mega plants that maximized efficiency also have an Achilles’ heel; the pandemic shined a light on the fact that those very things that made them efficient also made them vulnerable. 

The facilities that weathered this storm the best were the small and mid-size facilities. Those that had invested in automation and employee protections early on had the least amount of disruption.

What’s the future hold? I see a need for all sizes and types of operations. Having said that, I do believe that most of the growth is going to be in the mid-size to small, multi-facility companies. Those businesses are small enough to serve the local community, but large enough to take advantage of new technology and leverage innovation. 

I applaud Sen. Baldwin for reaching out to industry, learning first-hand about the process, and investigating how she might help them grow to ultimately support the local communities, towns and cities that surround them.

This brings me to an innovator and entrepreneur we recently lost far too soon — Andy Shaw of Cypress Valley Meat Co. Andy not only believed in small, local, community meat and poultry establishments, but he proved that they could grow by providing burst capacity to larger communities, all while still supporting the local communities around them. He leaves us a great example of how small processors can win, and he will be missed!

— Andrew Lorenz, president, andrew@werfoodsafety.com

Uncovering nuggets of insight during the Missouri bus tour

This was my first year on the bus tour with the Missouri Association of Meat Processors (MAMP), and I have to say, it not only was educational but also was a blast. One of the things I love about our business is all the great “salt of the Earth” people I get to work with. It never fails to be a good time when I get around a bunch of processors. Yet, the trip wasn’t all good times and no business — it consisted of visiting five processors that ranged from custom to USDA inspected.

I’m not going to lie and tell you that it wasn’t a long trip. We covered a lot of ground and were all wiped out at the end, but it was worth it. Niki Cloud of MAMP put together a wonderful educational trip. Not only did valuable friendships emerge and old ones get reinforced, but a lot of information you can’t get anywhere but in person was exchanged. I would love to see all the state associations adopt this fun way to congregate and learn. 

I have to call out Kurzweils’ Country Meats (owned by the unstoppable Chris Kurzweil) as a real delight. His plant has been designed for growth, and considering how good his Burnt End Brats are, he is going to need all that room soon enough. Chris is one of those humans they forgot to put the quit in. Years ago, his plant burned down, and through his relationship with fellow processors, he was able to continue to fill orders until the plant was rebuilt. The fire gave Chris a chance to turn lemons into lemonade and design the plant he always wanted.

His new plant had several features that I liked and wanted to point out to you. First, all the walls throughout the entire facility feature 9 inches of insulation, which is a huge up-front cost but saves money on the back end. Chris also laid out the plant process flow in the shape of a circle from start to finish. Product never has to cross back over any area, it just continues into the packaging room. Chris does a lot of co-packing work, so having a dedicated packing room and yet another for labeling is a huge advantage. 

One of the coolest features I saw, however, is the sanitizer, which is located centrally in the building and has nozzles that go into every other room of the plant. This eliminates a lot of traffic and keeps things simple. He also came up with the idea to avoid potential boil order issues in the area by connecting his sanitizer (chlorine dioxide) to his water storage tanks. There may never be a boil order in the area, but if there is and he finds out after a day of making those fabulous brats, he won’t have to worry about the product. That is good, old-fashioned Missouri logic right there, and I like it! Hope for the best but prepare for the worst!

Chris doesn’t mind talking with other processors about his plant and sharing his knowledge. He even gave me permission to put his phone number in this blog, just in case anybody has questions (I’ll put it at the end for you, so it’s easy to find — more good, old-fashioned Missouri logic right there too!). In exchange, he asked me to add a comment about his dashing good looks and how extremely humble he is despite those good looks. Did I mention that he also has one heck of a great food-safety team here at We R Food Safety! backing him up? I happen to be his consultant. Along with having a propensity for excellent logic, we Missourians are very humble people — did you not know that?

On the bus tour, we also visited Hertzog Meat Co. in Butler. This is a very new and beautiful plant. Todd and his crew hit the ground running. I was there on the first day of slaughter a few months back (we posted about it on our Facebook page!). He is another one of those Missourians they forgot to put the quit in. They have been processing for only about 90 days now, but they already are doing a bang-up job. Congratulations to the Hertzog family for landing their product in Hyvee supermarkets so darn quickly! Like Kurzweils, Hertzog also has extremely good taste in food-safety software companies, just saying. Their QA person, Kassy, has taken the challenge on with great enthusiasm and doesn’t let a thing get by any of them.

Dinner during the bus tour was at Lockwood Packing Company in Lockwood, inside the 35,000-square-foot addition that is being built. Lockwood is gearing up to do 50,000 pounds of snack sticks a day once the addition is up and running. Like everybody else they’re concerned about finding enough labor to run the plant at full capacity. That will bring special challenges, but they hope to be one of the major employers in the area soon and hope that will help them attract workers who might typically commute to the bigger cities for work. I think they will be able to do that. 

We also visited R-H Processing in Rich Hill — which is a custom plant that has been in the family for two generations — and state-inspected Hetherington Meat Processing in Clinton. So much good information is passed back and forth at these meetings. On the bus we were lucky enough to have representatives from the Missouri Department of Agriculture and the University of Missouri Meat Lab.

With deer season just starting in Missouri for bow hunters, one heavily discussed topic on the bus was deer processing — with some of the passengers looking to increase the amount of deer they process and others looking to cut back and focus on other species.  Meanwhile, it was mentioned at Hetherington that they have stopped taking bone-in deer, as other avenues are so much more profitable. Those types of knowledge nuggets are, frankly, industry gold — and they can’t typically be discovered in a Zoom meeting or conference call!

I can’t wait for my next tour! Maybe someone reading this will let me be the tour guide!

— Martha Gore, food safety consultant, martha@werfoodsafety.com

Note: Chris Kurzweil’s phone number: (816) 590-0447. (Admit it, you thought I’d forget!)