B & R Meat Processing

Jeremy Nowak

Several issues to work out before I'll be back. We now went thru about 40 lbs of hamburger and keep hitting bb sized bones.. it seems to average one+ bone hit per package.. etc... experienced good and bad stuff. After hearing good things about B and R i decided to make the hour and 15 min drive for the processing of 1 beef and 1 hog. At arrival they could not find our name on their calendar I had to find it for them, as they wrote it down misspelled and barely legible. when asking for help preparing my beef cut list...as it was my first time bringing in a beef. Which was raised on my farm..grass fed no chemicals...so i was excited to bring it in for non usda processing... the employee I was dealing with was not much help...kept grabbing her hat and putting her head down in frustration while trying to answer my questions. I thought it was unprofessional. And I was told critical processing information that needed to be corrected by another employee. But, overall I think the employees tried to be helpful. The Live scale was broken so I could not get my live weights. Good thing I did not need it, but it is always good to know for an estimate of what I can expect back. I wanted lots of beef summer sausage made but upon finding out the price of it at $4 per pound **using my meat to make it mind you** this was close in cost to me buying it whole in the store, so i had it kept as hamburger instead. To bad because I love summer sausage. I wish they lowered the price for a large order but I was told same price. Upon pick up, and i am pressed for time,...my hamburger packages were jammed into their plastic mesh bins and then frozen. My hamburger packages froze into the mesh sides making them impossible to pound out without tearing many of the bags. At this point i'm not happy at all. of 350 lbs of hamburger -well over- 50 of the packages were torn, trying to pound them out by me and another employee ...they did re-seal them fairly quick..which was expected. And they did offer lots of apologies. This made me think to myself several questions about their operation and what I could expect next. Literally, my first bite of the much anticipated home raised hamburger and I hit a bone, no joking. I was so dissapointed! I told myself maybe just a fluke. We now went thru about 40 lbs of hamburger and keep hitting bb sized bones.. it seems to average one+ bone hit per package. And it really is uncomfortable to hit one of these. I have several children in my household and we are all chewing lightly. Also we make food for others..now we have to say "watch out for the bones". My most sought after....Arkansas bacon /cured pork butt was not what i was expecting. I do not like the taste of the cure, which was overpowering and the slices have a green shimmer on the meat making them look radioactive, and extremely unattractive to eat. (I guess its the angle of cut?) all of which I never had experienced on several previous butcher hogs done at other butchers. This was a Hugh disappointment because I love this stuff. The good news.... The steaks, chops, brats, sausage and other cuts are all good no complaints there. The taste of the pork sausage was excellent. The packaging was good. I liked the labeling. The seasonings on the sausage and brats are very good. The sausage links, although the size of hotdogs tasted good. I came here because many people told me this place is the "best around". Well my experience did not fully prove that out. I might be back if I had to have USDA inspected, as they are the only ones to offer that as far as I was told. If I did come back we would need to have a serious conversation about bones in the hamburger first. I could overlook the rest but the bone pieces did it for me. Talk about frustrating. When I told this experience to others who were there before, they are surprised to here it and comment they must have new help. So.. I do not know what is going on there, I see a couple other recent posts share my frustration. I was not satisfied. But I think the issues could be easily fixed.

matt beyers

Great place! I'm in Siloam Springs & have had problems here & there with my local processor. I was looking for a new one as I bring both deer & cattle to butcher. Very happy with their service & pricing. Will definitely be using them again, even though it's a bit of a drive.

Heather W

Very pleased with service and price. They are fast and we will process and age the meat how you want. They vacuum seal the meat and it last easily a year without freezer burning. Would recommend them, very clean facilities and very patient folks will answer all your questions.

Ryan Townsend

Many thanks to everyone at B&R for the outstanding service! I'm very happy with how well everything was vacuum sealed and packaged. I especially appreciated how Scott handled my particular situation and went above and beyond. He was extremely accommodating and helped make sure my cow was treated with the utmost care. Scott and Roxy also took the time to answer all my newbie processing questions and definitely made me feel as though my business was appreciated.