Plans are continuing to proceed for the building of a small meat-processing facility that would go up near the site of the Taos Regional Landfill, which is located off U.S. Route 64.
The project is being spearheaded by the Taos County Economic Development Corporation and would see the renovation of an existing structure on Bertha Street, with the idea of creating what would be an 800-square-foot refrigeration facility by combining two existing 400-square-foot structures.
The project has received a $1.4 million New Mexico Food Security Grant and may see actual work beginning sometime next year.
The project has additionally received $600,000 in capital outlay funding passed by the New Mexico State Legislature and approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
According to Luis Salazar, a project manager for TCEDC, the facility will be capable of processing between six to a dozen animals a week. In an interview with the Taos News, Salazar said that actual number will “vary based on the type of animal, whether cow, lamb, or pig, and whether the facility is aging animals, which would slow the processing rate.”
Plans for what is officially called the Matanza Project have been in the talking and studying stage for around two years. It was previously thought that the facility would be up and running in 2024.
Proponents of the project have said that it will reduce by several hundred miles the distance currently required for northern New Mexico ranchers to travel to the nearest slaughterhouse.
August 21, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
