-Farm News photo by Doug Clough
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, left, visits with Will Friedrichsen at the Friedrichsen Meat Company processing facility at the intersection of East Southern Street (Highway 10) and South Beech Street in Sutherland.

SUTHERLAND — Will and Macey Friedrichsen met in 2017, marrying in August of 2019, starting the trend of taking two years to research what is best in their common interest.

During the next two years, they would process the idea of opening their own meat-processing facility, and that’s what they did just east of Sutherland in 2021.

“We’re scheduled out in processing through the end of this year,” said Will. “We’ve been pleased with the support and the repeat customers.”

In December of the same year, the couple was also happy to welcome their son Zeke — currently 19 months — to their family and family business.

Friedrichsen Meat Company provides start-to-finish meat processing services and a retail meat market for customer walk-in purchases of their high-quality meat products.

“We dreamed of becoming more involved in getting food on Iowan’s tables,” said Macey Friedrichsen. “We strive to provide great reliability and convenience of meat processing for local producers.”

The Friedrichsens specialize in butchering services and are not technically a meat locker as they do not have lockers on the premises. Their facility has a walk-in freezer, two walk-in coolers with hanging rails, a processing room, and a retail showroom. In-take pens for livestock were also constructed.

The locker caught the attention of Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, who visited the Friedrichsen’s O’Brien County processing facility as part of his annual 99-county tour, on July 18.

“It’s impressive to see what the Friedrichsens have accomplished,” said Naig. “I’m always interested in knowing how the venture has gone, and if needed resources were available. There are grant programs for meat lockers that is managed out of economic development, and we’ve got a Choose Iowa program for value-added projects that can include meat. We’d like to know if these opportunities are a good fit for businesses.”

Naig spent an hour touring the facility, speaking with the Friedrichsens and their two employees, Kelly Stevens and Anna Friedrichsen.

Stevens, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the meat locker business, came out of retirement to assist the Friedrichsens in their endeavor.

Anna Friedrichsen is interning for her brother this summer; otherwise, she is attending Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.

“Historically, we’ve had a strong network of meat lockers in the state of Iowa,” said Naig.

“When it came to COVID and the disruption of the supply chain, we had an increase in demand.

Also, we have people who want to shop locally, which is a trend that’s been happening for a couple years. My team has been receiving a couple phone calls a week regarding exploration and resources regarding meat lockers. There’s a small meat-processing facility revival, and I think there’s more opportunities out there. Iowa’s got great genetics, great production; we do it better than anyone else.”

The couple’s favorite part of their business is seeing and helping all the customers, especially those they see regularly.

“Just the other night, I hauled out meat for a gentleman,” Macey Friedrichsen said. “It was his third whole hog and a whole beef within the year, and it all went to his freezer. Retail-wise, we have customers coming in weekly to pick up their steak and their bacon.”

Will Friedrichsen said that the main challenges involve keeping up with demand and the rare case when bad winter weather sets back orders.

The Friedrichsens also farm 80 acres, with some of their harvest going to feed their 30 head of cattle. They also manage a hog operation with a fluctuating headcount throughout the year.