Alleghany Meats serving multi-county area

Monterey, Va. – Seven months after the opening of the first meat processing plant in the Highlands, Alleghany Meats General Manager Chris Fuller is pleased with the number of livestock producers from across the area using the facility.

“We’ve gotten good response from all four counties,” said Mr. Fuller. “I’ve gotten animals from Pocaohontas County, quite a few from Pendleton and Highland, of course. And also Bath County, there are some producers coming up from there. That’s definitely the majority of our business is from those four counties, but we’re also getting business from Greenbriar, Monroe Counties. We’re getting business from Rockingham and Augusta Counties and actually we had a customer come from way past Charlottesville. So we’ve been getting good reach of the customer base. I think it speaks to our reputation, that’s been quickly built, of high quality,” he said.

Chris is already expanding the capabilities of Alleghany Meats.

“We just received a smokehouse,” said Mr. Fuller. “In the next few weeks, I expect once we run some test runs of product, making sure we are doing everything we need to do to get a good product out and then once we feel confident that we’ve got it dialed in, we’ll be able to produce things like ham, bacon, smoked sausages, jerky, and summer sausage. So different products that I think are going to be really neat to get at a small meat plant like this,” he said.

With hunting season under way, Chris is letting everyone know that Alleghany Meats can process wild game as well as livestock.

“That, in turn, will allow us to make many of those products with venison as well,” said Mr. Fuller. “So we’re planning on processing different game meats into these different products, so if someone were to bring us some deer hams, that they have already trimmed up and ready to go, we’ll accept that meat and once we put a batch together for a certain product, we’ll run that product through the smoke house. So I am pretty excited about that,” said Mr. Fuller.

Before Allegheny Meats opened in April Chris thought there was a possibility that bison would be an important part of his business in the future.

“The bison have turned into actually a big business for us,” said Mr. Fuller. “Everybody kind of chuckled when we first opened and I put bison into our food safety plans, because you’ve got to name every species in your food safety plans. Everyone said awww, bison, you know, there might be a couple kicking around somewhere.’ There’s been one producer in particular from down in Paint Bank, yeah, the Hollow Hill (Bison) Farm. So they’ve been coming up very regularly, once a month they’ve been coming up with bison. So we’ve actually worked with them to beef up our handling facilities in the back, so that we can handle these bison which are quite a bit more aggressive and rowdy than cattle,” he said.

Allegheny Meats currently has openings for processing both livestock and wild game. Information on pricing and hours of operation can be found on their website at alleghanymeats.com or by calling 540-474-2422