Local butcher shop expanding to become USDA facility
Josh Garrick purchased CR Custom Processing with his grandfather Carol Robertson in 2017. Currently the business is a custom exempt butcher shop meaning they can only custom process animals that are brought to the butcher shop by customers.
“You have to bring me the animal and then I send you home with the meat,” Garrett said.
Thanks to a grant, employees are working to expand their business.
During the COVID- 19 pandemic, “the national meat shortage really brought to light the need for USDA certified butcher shops in the state of Arkansas,” he said adding that at the start of pandemic there were only four certified butcher shops in the state.
More than 30 facilities including the Bismarck business, received funding through the CARES Act to move toward a USDA butcher shop. Once completed they will be able to market meat for retail sale, he said.
“Recipients of this funding will help address the lack of local, small- scale meat processing capacity in Arkansas that limited our producers’ ability to meet consumer demand for locally grown meat products during the COVID- 19 related disruptions. Expanded processing capacity will build resiliency within the industry and benefit producers, consumers, and our rural communities,” said Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward.
With the change, the employees at CR Custom Processing will be able to double or triple the amount of meat per week that they can produce.
Garrick said he would like to complete the expansion quickly, but the process has been slower than expected.
A limited amount of manufacturers create “butcher shop” equipment, he said, adding that it is a specialized market.
“The ones ( manufacturers) who are in it are completely inundated because butcher shops are going through an unprecedented boom,” Garrick said.
Once their expansion is complete, a federal inspector will be on staff and at full capacity, Garrick hopes to hire eight to 12 more employees.
Garrick said his jump into this field is a new one. For years, he has been a professional rodeo clown traveling around the country. Because his time as a rodeo clown is limited, he