I am new to the meat processing deal. I have processed my own wild game on many occasions, but don't know much about specific cut names and the language these folks use. I bought a steer and the rancher uses these people to process it. They may be fine if you know what to tell them, but if you want educating you had best get it elsewhere. If you want decent communication, you had best go elsewhere.
Pros:
1. They packaged the meat in sizes that were mostly friendly to my vacuum sealing material sizes.
2. As far as I know, they gave me all the meat from the animal.
3. Meat was completely frozen when I picked it up.
4. They were woefully inaccurate with the meat estimate, so I got a pleasant surprise when I showed up (220 estimated, got 280).
5. They are close to the my folks so I can visit them when I pick up the meat. But I hope to not use them again.
Cons:
1. They don't call you before hand to figure out if you want anything that is no longer available after the slaughter.
2. They appear to have little patience. I called and gave my cut list (requiring a fair bit of help since I have no idea why to pick one cut over another), then my wife did some research and wanted the list modified (significantly). But the cut descriptions were not exactly the same between the research she did and these guys, so as I was trying to tell them what she had on her list they hung up on me. I figured it was just a mistake and tried to call them back but could not get through, and they did not call me back. To me, the kind of person that hangs up on you is the kind of person you have to look out for in other areas.
3. I was unable to get the cuts I wanted - see "they hung up on me" in #2 above. Yes, I realize I was not the easiest customer, but they should have been able to point me to some location for educating myself, they should have been able to email me the form to fill out and return, etc. There were lots of options for dealing with me, they chose to hang up.
4. Their credit card machine was fried in a lightning storm and they didn't think to let me know before I showed up. Very few people carry $400 cash or a checkbook these days. It's an ugly situation when you have driven a hundred miles and now have no way of paying. I was fortunate enough to have brought my checkbook. They should have been very clear about payment limitations. The lightning storm occurred before we discussed the pick-up arrangements.
5. Inflexible. They try to make it sound like they will process the animal however you want. But when I wanted to influence the fat content of the ground they told me there is not enough fat on the animal to separate it out. The "regular" store has all different grades of meat from 70% to 90+% lean. These guys should be able to have some influence on the outcome. But no, she said there is not enough fat on these free range grass fed beef to separate some out. I have butchered elk, which are much leaner, and there is fat that can be separated out. Evidently they can't just say "we won't do that" they have to try and convince me of something that isn't true. read more
