Trackside Butcher Shoppe serves local farmers
AFTER FARMERS SAID THEY needed a local meat processing facility to serve Henry and Trimble counties, they funded a feasibility study in 2013 that showed one could be successful. But a big question remained: Who had the skills, interest and willingness to step up and commit to building a business to meet that need?
In Campbellsburg, the idea fell to lifelong friends John Edwards and brothers Chris and Jason Wright. The 1998 Trimble County High School graduates shared a bond, and a love for agriculture and the life lessons it taught them.
“We have known each other since we were in elementary school and Chris and Jason’s father coached us in Little League baseball,” Edwards says. “We are all the same age and graduated together. We started at the phone company as linemen in 2000.
“We always had an entrepreneurial spirit being raised on family farms, but absolutely never envisioned ending up in this industry.”
Now, eight years after Trackside Butcher Shoppe opened its doors, the USDA-inspected meat processing and harvest facility has grown to more than 30 employees, each week handling about 70 beef cattle, 25 hogs and five lambs or goats from local farms.
“We harvest them, process them, package them, freeze them and send them back home with them,” Edwards says. “It may not sound like a lot, but as far as this business goes across the state, of the processors, we’re one of the bigger ones as far as volume.”
Most cattle farmers in Kentucky sell to large finishing facilities that handle thousands of animals a day. As a custom processor, Trackside specializes in small lots.
“A lot of our customers bring in just a beef or a hog every year for their own deep freeze,” Edwards says. “Many customers are farmers who are trying to add value to their operation by marketing their own beef, whether it’s freezer beef by the half or whole. They have on-farm little stores and market them that way or sell at farmers markets every weekend.”
A consumer-member of Shelby Energy Cooperative, Trackside primarily serves farmers within about a 50-mile radius, but also draws business from Indiana and Ohio.
“We are looking for new customers all the time,” Edwards says. “We have fortunately been able to continue to grow each and every year since we opened in 2015. We’re always looking to meet the demand of the customer and what the farmer needs.”
