Project Type: Farmer/Rancher
Funds awarded in 2020: $10,700.00
Projected End Date: 03/31/2022
Grant Recipient:
Red Boot Goat Farm
Region: Southern
State: Florida
Principal Investigator:
Sheila Austin
Red Boot Goat Farm
Description:
The lack of access to USDA inspected slaughter facilities in North and North-Central Florida is a significant barrier for small farmers seeking to increase or diversify livestock production to meet consumer demand. According to the University of Florida's IFAS Extension publication #AN203, there are 24 USDA-inspected livestock slaughter facilities in Florida. Only half of these offer multispecies slaughter, with the capacity to handle beef, pork, goat, and lamb. Access to slaughter for lamb and goat producers is significantly less than for beef producers. Realizing this dilemma, Ms. Sheila Austin (lead investigator), the owner of the Red Boot Goat Farm, LLC (lead investigator), partnered with Florida A&M University (FAMU), the University of Florida (UF), and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at University of North Florida (UNF) to submit a Producer Grant to Southern SARE. The overall objective of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of launching a USDA-inspected mobile processing unit (MPU) for goats and other animals in Florida.
Type:
Fact Sheet
File:
Download file (PDF)
Target audience:
Farmers/Ranchers
This product is associated with the project "Evaluating Mobile Slaughter Access for Producers and Local Partners"
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.