Location: Richland, Mo.
Owners: Keith and Kim Phillips
History: Keith and Kim Phillips were working at Richland High School as custodians overnight when they began to offer seasonal deer processing on their farm.
“We started with deer only in 2015,” Kim said. “I don’t know how many we had the first year, but it doubled the second year, and doubled the third years.
“There was such a demand for a processor in our area, and people kept asking if we could do a beef or a pig. I told Keith we were either quitting the school and building a butcher shop, or not doing deer. We build the butcher shop four years ago on our farm. It’s been non-stop ever since.”
Keith’s family had always processed their own deer and hogs, but starting their own processing operation was a new adventure.
“Tom Winn, who used to own Tom’s Slaughter House, and Nicky Winn came over and showed us how to process deer then we asked them to train us how to do beef,” Kim said. “We’ve went from there.”
Products and Services: K&K Meat Processing is a state-inspected processor, processing beef, pigs, lambs and goats. And, of course, they still process deer.
“We also sell whole, halves and quarters of beef from our farm, or from local farmers in our area. We also offer pigs as well,” Kim said.
Beef processing is the primary request for services at K&K Meat Processing, and they have a growing clientele of farm-to-plate customers.
“We are state inspected so do we process a lot for folks who do farmers markets,” Kim said. Their client list includes beef and pork producers, as well as those offering lamb and chevon (goat meat). “There are just a lot of those folks we’ve been able to help. There’s even some Wagyu farms we’re processing for.”
In all, they process about 50 animals a month. K&K Meat Processing also offers retail sales on-house made items, such as their specialty products.
“We cure and smoke all of our own bacon, we make our own brats, including all-beef brats, and when you have deer summer sausage and snack sticks, you get only your deer,” Kim said. “We sell a lot of chicken. Since Jan. 1, we’ve done 16,000 pounds of chicken breasts.”
They also offer sea food, including catfish, shrimp and crab legs.
“We have everything; you just have to call ahead and see what we have,” Kim said.
Future Plans: Kim and Keith hope to add their own meat market to K&K Meat Processing, and Kim said they are looking for the right property to build the facility.
“We couldn’t do it here because we are off the beaten path, but we would love to expand.”
