Three of Olen Yoder’s sons pour chunks of beef chuck eye rolls and Boston butts into a meat grinder, stuff sausage casings with the ground meat and hang the stuffed casings on a rolling wooden frame to transport the soon-to-be summer sausages to an outdoor smoker.
They are working with their father at the family’s meat processing plant for the summer.
Olen Yoder, 37, of Macon has worked in the meat business for three decades, so creating a meat business with his own children seemed natural.
Yoder and his children process and supply beef summer sausage and meat snack products out of the 7,000 square-foot processing plant near their home. The family business, “Yoder Meat Snacks,” opened this spring.
“About April of this year, I started realizing my three boys would need some work for the summer, being out of school,” Yoder said. “I opted to take my expertise in the meat business and create and develop some meat snacks.”
They offer four unique flavors of summer sausages and two flavors of meat snack sticks, all with custom-made seasoning blends. Yoder said the family business only uses high quality meats and cuts, grinding the meat twice before smoking it.
Yoder works mainly with his four oldest children, Derrick, 12; Ryan, 11; Carmen, 9; and Lane, 8. The three boys complete most of the processing work, while his daughter, Carmen, often helps sell meat snacks on the road. She joins her father on Wednesdays at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle in Columbus to sell products to the nurses and supply the hospital’s market.
4 generations of meat processing
The meat business is a Yoder way of life, and Yoder takes pride in the fact meat processing businesses have existed in his family four generations.
Yoder’s grandfather opened a butcher shop in Virginia in 1963. He moved to Tennessee in 1970, and 17 years later, his son, Yoder’s father, started a meat processing plant in Paris, Tennessee. Yoder grew up in his dad’s plant, working in the processing business by age six. Now he has passed the meat business to his own sons.
The Yoders usually spend one or two days a week processing meat snacks and the other three weekdays selling meats or building storage units for their other family business.
“One thing I enjoy is working with them,” Yoder said, pointing to three of his boys hard at work sending beef through the grinding machine.
Meat processing includes cutting, grinding, stuffing, cooking, cooling and packaging the meat.
Each kid enjoys a certain aspect of meat processing. Derrick said he likes cooking the meats because it requires precision in timing and temperature. Ryan enjoys cutting and hanging the meat, and Lane likes labeling the finished product.
Yoder expects his children to carry on the family business. He hints at Derrick one day taking the reins and Ryan becoming CFO.
“I might take over in the future,” Derrick said.
If meat processing doesn’t catch on with the four oldest, Yoder has two younger daughters and another child on the way who may take up the mantle when they are old enough.
Customer demand rises
The Yoders took their meat products on the road in May and have seen a steady increase in customer demand with the help of sales manager Bobby Helton of Hamilton, Alabama.
Yoder said they sold more than 1,200 units in May and more than 1,600 units in June. He expects to top 2,000 sales this month.
“We’re wanting to create customer demand, and as we see that growing, we want to keep building the business,” he said. “We’ve already had a request for private labeling, and people are wanting to buy this for gift baskets and gifts for the holiday season.”
Yoder and his boys travel to Columbus, Starkville, Amory, Houston, Louisville, Meridian and Tupelo selling products and creating demand. Yoder hopes to be U.S. Department of Agriculture certified by spring 2017, which would enable the family to sell in stores.
Yoder Meat Snacks allows customers to order online at YoderBrand.com and have products shipped anywhere in the contiguous U.S. or order and pick up products at their home processing plant, 47121 Hwy 14 in Macon.
“Our main vision was to create the best quality, premium meat snacks you can find anywhere,” Yoder said.
Yoder said his father’s meat processing business in Tennessee has expanded to 35 or 40 employees. He said at the rate his business is growing, it should surpass that size in the next few years.
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