Tar River Poultry Initiative (TRiP) is a group of four women farmers and homesteaders in Franklin County, North Carolina, that joined together as the Tar River Poultry Initiative, LLC in an effort to bring a mobile poultry processing unit (MPPU) to Franklin and surrounding counties.
The mobile poultry processing unit targets local small farm poultry producers. It consists of a bumper-pull trailer set up with key equipment needed to process up to 200 chickens per day.
In the fall of 2016, a local Women in Agriculture group noticed we were facing similar challenges in regards to poultry processing:
1. We didn’t process enough poultry per year to justify the overhead cost of purchasing our own equipment.
2. We were using homemade or second-hand makeshift equipment to slaughter and butcher poultry which was negatively affecting our efficiency and food safety efforts.
Since we are passionate about sustainability and providing humanely processed, safe, and wholesome fresh poultry for our friends and family, we began working together on a grant application to make our farms more productive and profitable. Needless to say, we were very excited when we were selected as an Agricultural Reinvestment Fund grant recipient for 2017! This grant was awarded by RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International – USA) with funds provided by the NC Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. RAFI assists entrepreneurial and innovative farmers and collaborative groups in developing new sources of agriculture income. Additionally, TRiP was selected as the 2017 Leonard-Mobley Small Farm Grant recipient. This Fund supports small farms to aid their development and long-term sustainability.