Larocque Plans
Slaughterhouse

Fred Budzyn, left, and Royal Larocque shake hands on a deal to transfer Budzyn's Meat Market to Larocque, who will use it once again as a slaughter house and meat store. (Herald photo / Robert Eddy)

"Life is full of possibilities," as local electrician Royal Larocque likes to say.

In recent months, Larocque has been working overtime on a possibility he’s been entertaining for about 20 years: opening and operating a slaughterhouse. The idea came to him after he started raising beef cattle in the early 1980s.

When Budzyn’s Country Store in West Braintree went on the market earlier this year, Larocque quickly shifted into action. Over the past few months, he has developed a business plan, signed a sales and purchase agreement on the store, obtained bank funding for his endeavor, and received zoning approval for the project.

Larocque said this week he will continue to run the store and redemption center while he renovates the butchering facilities at the Route 12A store. The store, formerly called Budzyn’s Beef, has operated as a small general store since owners Fred and Beth Budzyn gave up the meat processing part of their business about eight years ago.

Larocque, who hopes to take over the store in May or June, plans to start up the slaughtering part of the business gradually with a small number of custom orders.

That way, Larocque figures, he’ll be ready for the fall, when demand for the service peaks.

Larocque plans, eventually, to sell meat from his own grass-fed, hormone-free cattle at the store’s butcher counter, as well as fresh lamb and pork. "That’s my goal," he said.

One-Stop Service

If Larocque pulls off this dream, he will restore a one-stop slaughtering/butchering service that has been missing from the neighborhood since Fred Budzyn left the trade.

Without a full-service slaughterhouse, folks who raise beef, or who buy an animal from a local producer, must slaughter the animal on the farm or elsewhere, and then transport the carcass to a butcher for hanging, cooling, cutting and processing.

Larocque plans to do the entire process—from live animal to ready-for-the-freezer packages— as Fred Budzyn did for about 20 of the 29 years he and his wife Beth have owned the store.

"I can’t stress enough how much that service is needed," Budzyn said this week. "We still get so many phone calls for this type of work."

When his meat processing business was at a peak, Budzyn was slaughtering about 25 animals —beef, lamb, and pigs—a week.

He still believes that a good local butcher can enjoy a good and profitable trade—especially now when so many buyers, including restaurants, are searching for locally-produced food.

A shortage of meat processors in state is sending a lot of locally raised livestock out-of-state for processing: "It’s expensive to move everything around," Budzyn added.

"When Budzyn’s went out, that was a big deal for me," acknowledged Orange County Sen. Mark MacDonald, who raises black Angus cattle on his Williamstown farm.

Since then, he added, "More of my beef has gone out-of-state on a truck than I would like."

Fewer families are interested in buying one of his animals for their freezer, he noted, because of the difficulty in arranging the slaughtering and butchering.

MacDonald noted that the number of slaughterhouses in state has declined as federal regulation of them grew. Relatively small, family--run businesses are subject to the same rules that govern slaughterhouses that process thousands of animals a day, he said.

As a result, Vermont now has 28 slaughterhouses and meat producers, down from 44 just seven years ago.

Training Available

And, Vermont’s existing meat processors "overall, haven’t been receptive to new ideas," according to Steve Justis, the state’s agriculture marketing specialist. Sheep farmers, for example, have found it difficult to find butchers willing or able to make fancier cuts, such as a French-cut loin, that can double the value of their product.

To address these problems, Justis said, the state is using $170,000 in federal funds for workforce training, business planning, and plant modernization. An improved industry will help the state’s meat producers to market their products in-state, "instead of shipping the animals to Pennsylvania," he noted.

It was through this program that Royal Larocque got help developing his business plan.

Starting up any business is a challenge, and opening a slaughterhouse is a particularly complex affair. Larocque conceded this week that he still faces some hurdles, including learning the various regulatory requirements.

Turning one of life’s possibilities into reality requires old-fashioned hard work. Larocque, who has been putting in the work, is also benefiting from plenty of support and good wishes.

The state is behind him; Mark MacDonald is "personally tickled at the idea" of West Braintree’s slaughterhouse reopening; and Fred Budzyn is hearing from a whole cheering squad of local shoppers.

"What’s really nice," Budzyn said this week, "is that so many have come in the store and said (of Larocque), ‘You couldn’t get a better guy (to restart the business).’"

Composting Wasters

There is another reason that not too many people share Royal Larocque’s dream opening a slaughterhouse, according to Carl Cushing, director of food safety and consumer assurance at the state Dept. of Agriculture.

"It’s very hard work; it’s never glamorous, and you’re dealing with wastes that people don’t want anymore." Once there was a market for "guts, and bones, and stuff," but, nowadays, meat processors more likely have to pay someone to cart the wastes away, he added.

Cushing, who has no prescription for making butchering "glamorous," noted there is a promising development afoot in terms of waste products. Animal wastes, high in nitrogen, readily decompose, if they are covered with carbon-based materials, such as wood chips or hay, Cushing noted.

"Within three months, most of the product is completely deteriorated, with the exception of some hard bones, and can be utilized as compost."

By Sandy Cooch