Meatworks is now open! Call us for bookings!The Livestock Institute of Southern New England (TLI) proudly announces the opening of our new USDA-inspected meat processing facility in Westport, MA.
We are proud to offer services in a new state-of-the art facility with the highest animal welfare and humane handling standards, food safety standards, and full traceability via our integrated scale system. Contact Suzanne to book your dates for 2018 and beyond: suzanne@thelivestockinstitute.org. Call: 774.319.5616 An animal-welfare focused slaughter & processing facility for Southern New England.The facility will be designed to the highest animal welfare standards and will include the most recent technical advances such as meat/animal tracking systems, efficient cryovacing equipment, and will be designed and operated incorporating the most up-to-date food safety equipment and practices. The facility will also include a smokehouse, and dry aging capability. The facility will primarily service southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut and will handle all large animals: cattle, hogs, sheep and goats. TLI believes the successful completion of this project will have a significant, positive impact on the local food system in our region and will change the landscape of livestock farming in Southern New England.
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Project BasicsThe lack of slaughtering and high quality processing options in Southern New England is a major bottleneck for livestock producers in our region. TLI is proposing to build and operate a small, flexible facility that will not only benefit farmers through better processing infrastructure but will invest in education and the local community.
The proposed USDA-inspected slaughterhouse and processing facility will be built on a 10-acre parcel of land in Westport, MA owned by TLI. The project will include a new 10,000 square foot concrete and steel building, parking to support the facility, settling pens in a small barn and all of the necessary equipment to operate a state-of-the-art USDA facility. We expect to handle approximately 2,000 large animals in the first year. However, the facility will have the capability to expand to 15,000 square feet and handle 7,500-10,000 large animals per year. 
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Educational Opportunities
The Livestock Institute is invested in education and training for students and the local community and the slaughterhouse and processing facility plays a prominent role in our goals. The facility will provide a safe space for training individuals for working in a multi-species facility, and for visiting school groups and apprentices to learn more about humane and safe animal handling and slaughter, meat cutting, and value-added processing (e.g., smoking, curing and sausage making). In addition, access to a local slaughterhouse will allow the Corporation to be better positioned to facilitate the relationship between farmers and processors and thereby address some of the barriers to increased production and sale of local meat, including addressing the imbalance of power or leverage in the farmer-processor relationship, facilitating solutions to the problem of a limited selection of value-added products, and helping local processors with a lack of highly skilled employees by offering training programs and apprenticeships.
