The Producer Partnership Helping Remington Wildfire Victims
September 5, 2024
The Producer Partnership would like to help the counties affected by the devastation the Remington fire has caused by picking up animals from ranchers that have been injured from the effects of the fire.
"You know these guys and fires, these animals get injured, they get burned, and especially be we thought we'd see a lot of animals, but they get really bad, you know, after an event of this nature," said Matt Pierson, The Producer Partnership. "We wanted to be here to offer up another, another solution for them. You know, they can donate the animal. We can bring them here. We'll come pick them up. They'll get a tax letter back. But we can then process them through our federally inspected plant and then bring that protein back into those partners."
The animals must be able to walk into the trailer for us to transport them to travel to our facility. We take sheep, pigs cows and goats and even bison. We are able to expedite the processing so the protein can get into the community and benefit those who are in need.
Pierson himself isn't a stranger to picking up the pieces after a devastating wildfire. His ranching family was impacted by the Derby Fire in 2006. He says the emotional toll both during and afterwards can be overwhelming, and that's why the producer partnership is there to help.
"Yeah, the stress that these guys have, you know, not only out there trying to fight the fires and and watching everything that you worked so hard for, just sort of coming at you at that kind of a speed," said Pierson. "But then what to do afterwards when the realization hits of how much fencing you have to do, how many animals you have to locate. I would hazard a guess. It's going to be weeks before these guys know where all their animals ended up. And the emotional toll that it just takes on them."
Their program is the only USDA federally inspected, owned, and operated nonprofit processing facility in Montana. They take in cull animals, we process the animals at no charge, the donor receives a tax contribution letter stating the amount of protein processed from their contribution.
They can mobilize immediately and want to help in this horrible situation.
Please reach out to Matt Pierson 406-220-7223. He'll handle the delivery and coordination of the animal transport, etc.
More information is also available at www.producerpartnership.com.
Source: Western Ag Network
Photo Credit: Lloyd & Marla Otterby
