Most Alaskans know Kodiak for its fleet of fishing vessels and cannery facilities — essential components to bringing Alaska seafood to dinner tables worldwide.

But Kodiak beef? Locally raised and processed?

It’s what’s for dinner, thanks to the efforts of Bob and Nathan Mudd, of Kodiak, and the Alaska Meat Company. They are unveiling Alaska’s first mobile meat processing facility — dubbed the Multi-Location Abattoir (abattoir is the French word for slaughterhouse) — this Thursday from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Bell’s Flats Road, off south Sargent Creek Road.

Free samples of the locally raised meat from Sitkinak Island will be available at the open house. It is USDA-approved, shelf-stable, certified all-natural, organically raised, free-range and without additives like hormones or steroids.

Nathan Mudd said there are few major differences between their meat and other products commonly found at local grocery stores.

“Knowing where your meat comes from is an important thing to me, and I know there are a lot of other people who share that feeling, to know where it comes from and who the people are that are caring for the animals and processing them.”

He said the animals here are grass-fed rather than grain-fed. Mudd said grass-fed animals are reputedly better in omega-3 fatty acids and have other nutritional benefits.

The Multi-Location Abattoir is the first of its kind in Alaska. There are four 28-foot mobile trailers, one is a support trailer for the other three. The three are connected in a fashion closely resembling the letter L.

“The idea behind building this facility is for it to be mobile and take it to remote islands, where there’s livestock, and be able to process their meat and end up with a final product that’s shelf-stable,” said Mudd.

The first section is the kill floor — kept between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit — where the cattle are stunned (and effectively killed). The non-edible parts, like heart and lungs, are removed. The rest is weighed and USDA-inspected in clean conditions.

“Everything has to be sanitary,” Mudd said. “That’s a good thing and that’s something that’s required by the USDA. No rust, no bacteria, no cracks.”

The second section is the cutting room. It’s like a walk-in cooler and is kept between 36 and 38 degrees, though it can go as low as 32. Here the meat is de-boned. Some is put into a packing table where it’s mixed with seasonings. Other meat is put into a grinder.

The third room is the cook room. Here the ground meat, stuffed into casings, goes into a commercial smoker and then is put in a vacuum-sealer. The meat then goes into a pressure cooker at a high temperature, killing all bacteria.

The Multi-Location Abattoir, valued at around $400,000, was 50 percent funded through a grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a subsidiary of the USDA. It takes seven people to run the facility: one outside managing the cattle, one in the kill room, four in the cutting room, one in the cook room and one in the fourth support trailer.

The Mudds first worked on their facility part time, purchasing the trailers beginning in October 2007. By the fall of 2008, the work started up again and there are now only a few odds and ends left before it’s finally complete.

This year the facility will process about 150 head, totaling about 45,000 pounds of meat.

“The idea is to make it sustainable,” Mudd said. “Each year we’re reaching increased numbers to make it a healthy capacity … the idea is to be able to someday have a normal domestic cow herd out there (on Sitkinak).”

Mudd said Kodiak meat will be able available at Cost-Savers Dec. 15.

The Mudd family, who came to Kodiak in 2002, is originally from eastern Oregon. Bob Mudd, his father and his brothers were cattle ranchers but not meat processors. Up north, they had to learn that side of the beef business. Nathan Mudd was required to attend various training, including taking classes in Kansas City, Mo.

“There have been a few new things coming to Kodiak. One has been realizing that we have to process our own meat because there’s no service available. Secondly, we had to learn boats. We came from desert country in eastern Oregon. We didn’t know boats, and so I have my captain’s license now. But when we first got here, we were clueless.”

On Sitkinak Island — south of Akhiok on the southern end of Kodiak Island — there are about 650 adult cows and extra bulls roaming freely, Mudd said. He said the free-range cattle weren’t being put to good use for meat.

“The cows just ran wild and made good fishermen’s bait and good food for families,” Mudd said. “But it was never processed or harvested on a commercial scale. It was never managed. It was a challenge to be able to round-up wild cattle and make use of animals that are otherwise just dying.”

Sitkinak Island is state-owned land. The Mudds obtained a grazing lease to legally process the meat.

The Mudds are hoping to expand Alaska Meat Company. The company, owned by Sitkinak Cattle LLC, hopes to process bison and reindeer in the future. Targeted local areas for processing on the island are Saltery Cove, Pasagshak and Narrow Cape, Mudd said.

The Mudds and their meat processor are a curiosity in Kodiak, but Nathan Mudd said he’s been able to mix some Alaskan with a little cowboy Western to the surprise of a few locals.

“People look me with Xtratufs and a cowboy hat and say, ‘Who are you?’”

Mirror writer Bradley Zint can be reached via e-mail at bzint@kodiakdailymirror.com.