Valley farmstead was founded in 2016 in acme, washington to meet an unsatiated need for high-quality rabbit and small livestock meat products in the seattle area

Valley Rabbits LLC received a $196,625 Project Grant from the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service under the Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grants – Supplemental Funding program (CFDA 10.180). The grant funds will support Valley Rabbits in establishing and expanding its meat slaughtering and processing capabilities to meet growing demand from customers and allow it to serve as a resource for other small and medium livestock farmers in the region. Specifically, the company aims to relieve pressure on existing meat processing capacity and develop a USDA-compliant workflow that additional small farms can adopt to set up their own facilities. Completing the project by September 2024 will enable Valley Rabbits to better fulfill orders from current customers and expand its market reach through increased production capacity.

The high demand for our meat products coupled with valley farmstead's capital-efficient operation strategy has brought success, growth opportunities, and new challenges. Our beef, rabbit and chicken livestock is positioned to grow and further meet the increasing product demand, but we face the same problems that hinder the growth and success of other livestock farmers in our region: 1. There is currently no USDA slaughter facility in whatcom county and there is a great demand in our area for small farm livestock USDA slaughter. 2. We ourselves find IT difficult to often get our beef wsda slaughtered, and USDA is an even greater challenge resulting in loss of potential sales and profits. By applying for the mpirg grant, valley farmstead aims to address the identified problems by establishing, improving, and expanding our meatslaughtering and processing capacity and capabilities. The successful execution of this project will allow US to meet the demands of current customers and expand our market reach. IT will also allow US to serve our rural farming community in two ways: 1) relieve pressure on meat processing capacity for small and medium-sized farmers in the region. 2) develop a USDA compliant workflow that can be adopted and used by additional small farmers wanting to set up their own facility.