Red Plains butchery opens

The Red Plains Grand Butchery finished up its first week of business and owner Trey Clinkenbeard said he was pleased with the way things went in the opening week.

“It’s rough and wild, but we’re getting there,” Clinkenbeard said.

The business had a soft opening last Tuesday and they still have a few things to complete.

“We’ve got 99 percent of the building done, it’s just some small things,” Clilnkenbeard said.

There is a learning curve right now, but he does have some experienced staff.

“It’s just a matter of getting other people trained and construction finished,” Clinkenbeard said. “We were just rushing at the end to get all our dates met and so we still have some stuff to get to.”

There have been no mechanical issues so far as the machinery has been running smoothly.

“It’s just making sure it is in the right flow and right place,” Clinkenbeard said. “Everything is going a lot smoother than I expected. The USDA has been a little difficult to deal with, but I kind of expected that though. But nothing has been just out there and crazy.”

He hopes to have everything up and running at 100 percent next week.

“We’re having a hard time getting the word out that we are taking dates and all that stuff,” Clinkenbeard said. “So, we’re pretty much ready to go.”

Another point is to let people know that they are not limited to USDA, which is used for selling commercially to retailers.

“We also do custom exempt work, which is doing it for self-consumption,” Clinkenbeard said. “We can do both USDA and custom exempt work.”

They can take between one to 20 cows at a time for processing.

Red Plains Grand Butchery, 1200 Texas Ave., Comanche, is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The phone number is 580-333-7586.