Safer Management Practices for Small Poultry Processors in Missouri

In the State of Missouri, if poultry raisers want to sell at farmers markets or health food stores, their chickens need to be inspected and labeled. It is also an option for poultry raisers to process no more than 1,000 chickens on the farm and sell to customers at their farm, without government inspection. 

The Backes family has been raising and processing chickens and turkeys since 1932. Backes Poultry raises and processes their own chickens as well as providing custom butchering services to other raisers. Their plant, located in Loose Creek, MO, has been with the USDA and MO State Meat Inspection Program for more than 40 years, and has been used to train inspectors and share advice to individuals interested starting their own processing businesses. Over the past few years, the custom part of their business has increased substantially as individuals want to raise their own chickens and sell at farmers markets or directly to consumers who want to buy fresh poultry on the farm. 

In an effort to promote better safety practices in poultry processing in Missouri, Backes Poultry gives hands-on workshops, trains processors and their employees, and provides tours of the Backes' Poultry processing operation. This booklet, developed by Kevin Backes as part of an NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher Grant project, contains descriptions and (somewhat graphic) photos of Backes' poultry processing practices on the Backes' Poultry farm in Missouri. For more information, contact Kevin Backes at  kcbackes1@embarqmail.com.

Want more information? See the related SARE grant(s) FNC12-845, Teaching Pastured Poultry Producers On-Farm Processing Best Management Practices for a Safer Product.