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the flow and getting some of that knowledge.” He built the small processing facility in the space that had been his dad’s milking parlor – thus the name “Old Parlor Meat Company.” The state gave its stamp of approval to the processing facility in February 2021. Without going to technical college, how do you train to become a meat processor? “You read a lot of books and you watch a lot of YouTube videos. There are so many resources and videos out there. I made a lot of connections on Instagram – there's kind of an online butcher network all across the world. They shared with me and helped me decide on things like what knives and equipment to use; how to do my packaging; and the basics of breaking down a carcass. I was so green I just asked a million questions and the whole network was very open to helping.” He had a false start with a mobile slaughtering unit. Such units are popular in the western U.S., especially in California and Washington state. But it’s more difficult to do in Iowa’s colder weather and regulations. So he decided to walk away from that and instead added slaughtering capabilities onto his processing facility.

NO LOOKING BACK

“Family and friends helped us do the construction ourselves. My fatherin-law is a carpenter by trade and he drove in from Chicago and framed everything up in two days, which was impressive. Family and friends helped me start to finish. It was in a time when building materials were hard to come by and it was nice everything fell in place with the lumber yard,” Curt said. “Since a year ago August, we really haven't looked back. It’s been busy. I’m pretty much a one-man show.” His wife, Emily, is a full-time nurse in Rock Valley and is able to help a little on weekends. His mom helps a couple of hours here and there during the work week. “But essentially, start-to-finish, I’m doing it all. I schedule three beef a week and maybe sprinkle in a pig or there. It’s not as crazy as some other places are, but I am scheduling into next year.” Deciding how far out to book business is a balancing act. “Scheduling far out into the future provides stability to the business, but when you’ve got a young family and have no idea what life will look like, you also want to have some caution.”

He said the worst part of the job is telling producers “no.” According to Curt, “There's a real demand this time of year when there are feedlots full of fat cattle. I probably get 5 to 10 calls a week on emergency-type deals. And it's just really tough to take on a whole beef when my schedule is already full. I can take maybe 1 emergency out of the 50 calls I get. As livestock producers ourselves, I know they're in a really stressful situation and they've got a high value animal and they want to get at least some of their investment back.”

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Your Ag parts dealer is here for you. Benco Products Inc Daniel Severson 27093 Katie RD, Tea, SD 57064 1-888-649-4862 | dan@bencoparts.com