Livestock Institute opens retail meat shop at Meatworks

WESTPORT — The Livestock Institute closed the loop between the farm and the table this month.

The slaughterhouse, which began operations in the fall, is offering fresh beef and pork in Meatworks, a small store at its facility, 287 State Road.

All of the meat offered was raised on nearby farms.

Meatworks is the retail arm of the Livestock Institute, the nonprofit cooperative of local farmers who organized to build a USDA-licensed slaughterhouse in the region.

The slaughterhouse began processing beef, pork and lamb in September. Its retail store was open as an experiment before Christmas and has kept regular hours for the past few weeks.

“We are trying to attract enough business so this will become self-sustaining,” said Amado Baeza, the chief operating officer at the facility.

“We want to make sure the public has access to local meat products.”

All of the beef in the coolers at the store came from cattle raised at Triple S Farm on Horseneck Road. Darrin Mendes, who is also the treasurer of the Livestock Institute, runs Triple S Farm.

“I’ve never been able to sell fresh meat,” Mendes said. “Now I have that ability through the store, so it is exciting.”

The facility has the ability to take in, slaughter and butcher animals and also to smoke meat for hams, sausage and bacon. All of those products are available in the store.

The 18 people working them have been processing what the USDA calls 10 beef equivalents a day. That would be 10 steers, 20 pigs or 30 sheep.

“We limit it to one species a day,” Baeza said.

Initially the business was limited to members of The Livestock Institute. Lately the facility has handled livestock from farther away, including from farms in western Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

“The last couple of weeks we have been getting busier and busier,” Baeza said. “Word is getting out.”

Farmers locally say they have been in a bind since 2007 when the last local slaughterhouse, in Dartmouth, closed its doors. Since then local farmers had to ship livestock to facilities in New York, New Hampshire and Maine to have meat processed in a USDA-licensed facility.

“Right now, we are working on getting more exposure and getting more bookings, “ Baeza said.

“Overall, we are in a good place for five months of operation. We’ve covered a lot of ground.”

Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.