The harvest is in the truck and the rifle back in its case. It’s decision time on what to do with the animal you have worked on scoring for years.
Self-butcher or drive to the nearest meat processor?
In northwest Colorado, the town of Craig offers two long-established processors, just in case you don’t own a set of sharp knives and a culinary degree.
A variety of services and selections can turn your big elk or deer into a neat stack of frozen steaks, roasts, and burger that will survive the drive home.
Mountain Meat Packing on Lincoln Street has been on the east side of Craig since 1977, when Loren Baysinger began serving customers. Now the fourth generation of the family works at the facility.
With 15 year-round employees, the business swells by an additional 20 “at least” with the fall hunting seasons.
“We do on-site European mounts,” said Timberly Baysinger. “We can ship it right to them.”
Brothers Custom Processing on First Street, Craig’s southern bypass road, opened in 2004 when owners Dave and Sharla Satterwhite began processing custom meats and wild game for customers.
“We can help everyone that comes in the door,” said Angie Satterwhite Reish. “And it’s a bunch of people. Hundreds.”
The business employs 10 workers year-round and adds an additional 20 helpers for wild-game processing.
The shop also features hide removal and European mounts “ready for the wall,” Reish said. “Your meat will be frozen, vacuum sealed, and we even have Styrofoam boxes.”
Local meat processors also offer a selection of specialty items for your order, including summer sausage, breakfast sausage and burger. Even a gamey, sagebrush deer will make a refrigerator full of tasty breakfast sausage.
Processors will cut your antlers, remove and save your cape and boil the skull for mounting while your processed meat is freezing solid. All that’s left for you to do is tell the story of the hunt around the campfire.
Mountain Meat Packing 2019 price list for complete processing (2020 prices are being evaluated with consideration to the COVID-19 outbreak):
- Deer $175
- Antelope $150
- Elk $325
Brothers Custom Processing price list:
- Deer $150
- Antelope $100
- Elk $275
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