Having the right people onboard makes all the difference at Deerview Meats

By Carlie Connolly

For Perry Deering of Deerview Meats in Irvine, it all began with farming and ranching, and then becoming diversified. He took over his family’s farm and doubled their livestock numbers, and on top of that he added a feedlot with around a thousand animals. He and his wife, Chris were running a full operation, working morning till evening,which he said took tons of discipline. His wife has a large business background and together, the two make a great team.  Deering’s diversified livestock operation ended up as one of the largest venison producers in Western Canada.

With all of the long hours and dedication, they found they were spreading themselves too thin and needed to make a business decision for what looked more stable and manageable. And so, they made the move to go into the processing side of things.

Deering tips his hat to agriculture for absorbing lots of risk with enduring Mother Nature and its tough times.

“We in the agriculture sector, we relate farming and ranching to gambling in Vegas.”

Farming looked to be solid to him, but then all of a sudden, they have never seen this kind of moisture, which hit the farming community really hard.

When he and his wife went into processing, they were going to do it right and be set up for the future.

They established and designed a very modern facility with high standards built to accommodate all sorts of species.

They took training and meat inspection and the full processing of multi species and behind that they took an intensive amount of animal welfare training.

The company began to move forward in 2010 with construction, but they like many others in the business world endured an enormous setback with a flood. They were just about to start their operation with their first clients as the District 4 h kids, but that never occurred.

The water came through on June 18, and the building was submerged so Deering went into rebuilding it.

“If there was any advice I would give to an entrepreneur, I would say make sure you have the right people and the right managers in place. That starts with your insurance company,” he said.

He said they wouldn’t be here today if they didn’t have a very strong supportive insurance agent along with an accountant who suits their business model.

“Chris and I are just two people. We cannot operate a successful business if we don’t put the right staff in place. Staff is the backbone of the business.”

The first animals came through on Feb. 1, 2011.

Deering said it was a shorter period of time to build the building than to fix it, but it was fixed and is now a reputable company known to many.

With it being a high-end facility, Deering takes great pride in providing the best quality to customers.

“Anybody that does business with us can be assured that the tracking, tracing of any product through my building is all recorded and monitored.”

They run a HACCEP (Hazard analysis critical control points program) of their own and need to be able to not only minimize but also eliminate any form of cross contamination. He has people with a different set of clothing attire that work on different floors segregated, not allowing them to go into different rooms.

“Having those rooms segregated and monitored is how I can guarantee a higher quality of food safety,” he said.

Working seven days a week, firing up the company at five in the morning and sometimes not shutting down until midnight is the stamina and endurance Deering and his wife take on.

“Being able to reap the fruits of your labour later. Remember, they come later. They will never happen in the first 4 to 5 years of your business venture but they will come. You just have to have the dedication to get it there.”

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