Chamber Manufacturing Tour, Western Heritage Meat

During manufacturing month, the Sheridan Chamber of Commerce and community members have toured several manufacturing entities in Sheridan. One of those businesses toured was Western Heritage Meat Company on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

Owners Taylor Kerns, and his wife, Cathryn, along with Brian McGuire, General Manager, own and operate Western Heritage Meat Company, which is a USDA approved meat cutting facility, which the started in 2021.

Kerns talked about how they got their start.

He said with his background in ranching, going into the meat processing business was a steep learning curve for him. He said they purchased the land and the building in October of 2020.

The tour of his facility started at the kill floor, and Kerns explained what was happening there. He pointed out some carcasses with yellow fat, saying that it was a grass-fed cow, and probably an older cow, as opposed to the carcasses with lighter colored fat which were grain fed.

Ranchers using The Western Heritage Meat Company for their meat processing can bring the livestock directly to the company where they are killed, dressed out and USDA inspected.

Attendees also saw the cutting room, where the meat is cut to the customers specifics, size of cuts, size of packages, any custom cuts they want.

Kerns said that the cutting instructions for each animal are displayed on the screen in the cutting room. He added that each cutter usually does 100 pounds of meat per hour. As a full-service process plant, Kerns said there was a smoker for the hams and bacon as well, and they also make snack sausages.

They also work closely with SCSD#2 and the producers that donate or sell discounted beef for the school lunch program.

They not only cut beef for producers, but they also have a retail store with beef and pork from local ranchers. Cathryn Kerns explained about the retail part of the business

Kimberly Jacobson of the Sheridan Chamber was on the tour, and she talked about the manufacturing tours.

A good crowd attended the event. There are still a few more tours that will be available until the end of October, go to the website https://sheridanwyomingchamber.org/ for a complete list of manufacturing tours that are coming up.