In addition to new slaughterhouse, group wants to market locally raised beef.
Paul O'Mara is heading up the New York Beef Farmers Cooperative, a group that is making progress toward building a $2 million meat-processing plant in Madison County.Six years ago, Paul O’Mara ventured into the beef cattle business with five cows.
Today, the Canastota crop farmer manages about 100 cows on pastures that aren’t suitable for his crop portfolio, which includes corn, soybeans, barley and wheat.
While his herd has grown, his ability to get the cattle to market has been hampered by a lack of meat-processing facilities in New York state. O’Mara said he waited two months to send a pair of his animals to a small local processor.
“I scheduled them a while back, but they couldn’t fit them in,” he said.
Bigger operations send their cattle to Pennsylvania for processing, losing part of their profit to transportation costs.
But, O’Mara and a cooperative of local farmers have come up with a way to overcome the shortage of processors: They plan to build a 5,000-head custom processing plant in Madison County.
It’s a $2 million project that received a significant boost: a $750,000 loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If that plant is successful, the cooperative will expand to a $20 million commercial plant that could handle 50,000 animals.
The proposed plant would enable dairy and beef farmers to increase the value of their cull cows, prime beef or dairy steers. Cooperative members would own their meat products from processing through retail sales.
“Why not do it in New York and try to keep the money here?” O’Mara said.
O’Mara and five other farmers who formed the New York Beef Farmers’ Cooperative are considering potential sites for the plant and drawing up the legal paperwork necessary to solicit members.
But building the plant is only part of the plan. The cooperative wants to brand and sell its locally grown beef in area supermarkets.
“Stores will bring any product to the people if they ask for it,” O’Mara said. “We want to create a demand for local, quality beef.”
The local brand would offer more than hamburger, steak and roasts marinated meat, sausages, hot dogs and even meatballs are planned.
“I think that everybody wants to know where their food comes from,” O’Mara said. “If customers know that our brand is local, hopefully they’ll take the time to come visit our farms, see how we treat our animals.”
Contact Alaina Potrikus at 470-3252 or apotrikus@syracuse.com.