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REGINA — A new abattoir and retail meat store northwest of Regina is seeing strong demand just weeks after opening.

Babco Meats is located along Highway 11 between Lumsden and Bethune. Owner Darryl Babey said many producers who slaughter just a few animals a year have already stopped in to see the facility and book processing.

“We’re set up to be able to hang about 70 beef in our coolers,” he said. “Our goal is to try to kill between 20 and 25 beef per week and hopefully two-thirds of that is custom kill and wrap for other people.”

Babey’s plant opened April 29, the same day his 200-head cow herd started calving.

His head butcher is Trevor Labbee, who most recently operated Jerky Boys Meats in Lumsden and successfully marketed his jerky in dozens of stores. Jerky Boys has now closed and Labbee and his staff are at Babco.

Babey said the arrangement was several years in the making after he passed up an investment opportunity with Labbee in favour of an interest in Last Mountain Distillery, also in Lumsden.

He had run and sold a successful business associated with Evraz Steel about 12 years ago and was looking for opportunities.

“I was in a position to retire. I lasted about three months,” he said.

He’s been in the cattle business off and on for the last 25 years after a neighbour convinced him to give it a try.

“He talked me into buying 10 bred heifers at Agribition and I ended up turning that into an 850-head cow-calf operation, had a 1,000-head feedlot, put in seven irrigation pivots, and we sold that to the Belle Plaine Colony I think around 2009,” Babey explained.

“When I built the second farm, I wanted a place for my kids … to learn more about the agricultural part of our province. People just don’t realize how important farming is to our whole province.”

The arrangement with Labbee has resulted in an operation that will focus on local aged beef, pork, chickens, lamb and other complementary products.

The idea is to provide customers with top-quality cuts that they can’t necessarily find in grocery stores because those operations no longer have in-store butchers.

“I’ve also got Wagyu in my herd and the plan is to have one of our coolers (filled with) locally raised aged Wagyu steak,” Babey said.

But he also wants customers to have a top-quality experience when they visit.

“My number one goal is to make this place so when people walk in they say, ‘holy cow is this place clean.’”

The $1.5-million plant is built so the entire 6,200-sq.-foot facility can be washed down daily. That task will fall to some of the 14 local employees.

Babey said labour is the main reason why there aren’t more plants like his but he had the benefit of Labbee, Labbee’s father, who has also spent his life in the meat business, and the other employees.

Another couple with butchering experience recently moved to Lumsden and are working at the plant. A third butcher will work half-time.

The business opened with five employees and the remainder include a number of part-time high school students who unload smokers, package and clean.

“I think that’s where if you go any bigger, and you need 30 to 40 people or something, I think your only option is to bring in immigrants. It’s a rural demand and there’s not a rural supply of labour,” said Babey.

His main challenges were getting licences from the provincial government and access to good water.

His cow herd is near the plant and he had been on a waiting list to access a water line for about 10 years.

“We finally got it through and it probably was because of the meat shop,” he said. “Hopefully we’re hooked up within three to four weeks and that’ll make a big difference because right now we’re actually hauling water.”

The latest hurdle was signage. Regulations state that only single-sided digital signs with no more than three words and no video can be used, so a stationary sign will alert drivers to the shop. There is also a pin on the company’s website.

Babey added that hiring Labbee was the key to the whole operation. Jerky Boys was selling into 70 stores and although the packages will be rebranded to Babco Meats, the recipes will be the same.

Future plans include adding equipment such as a vacuum tumbler that speeds up the marinating process for hams, and delivery options to Regina. A recent pre-order deal with Rosemont Hardware saw 50 cases of steak move through the store that features many local producers and processors.