Text and photos by Jim Beyer

Jerry Bath and Sandy Bath, husband and wife, founded JB’s Wild Wyoming 12 years ago. Jerry started the sausage and jerky business because “I always cut up my game, my family’s game and friends’ and friends of friends’ game. They would bring me a case of beer for cutting up their deer or elk. Then they would sit there and drink the case of beer and watch me cut up the animal.”

Jerry is a self-taught butcher but took the Safeway apprentice course in college. He is a fifth generation cattle rancher from northeastern California. “I first came to Wyoming looking for a cheaper place to raise a cow.” He found several places but the wind blew so darn much that he got out of the meat raising business and into the meat business. “I bought a lot of cattle through the auction yard and sold meat that way. Then I got into game processing because there was so much of it here.”

JB’s Wild Wyoming processed 1,864 animals last year. They had to turn away about 30 percent of the business brought their way. The other big game processors are in Dubois, Thermopolis or Rock Springs. “There used to be quite a bit of competition. The only reason why we survived is because it is not all that we do,” Jerry said. They ship jerky and sausages all over the country. JB’s sells a lot of buffalo and elk products.

JB’s Wild Wyoming is a state-inspected facility. The building was purpose built. The freezer is currently filled with frozen chokecherry juice. He boils the juice and makes jellies and syrups. He has a smoker room, and a product cooler for jerky and processed meat. To one side of the back door, there is a carcass cooler. In the ceiling near the doorway, Jerry installed a hoist and track so that carcasses can be lifted right out of the back of a pickup truck. As the animal hangs from the hoist, the processors pull the hide off and hose down the meat before putting it into the cooler.

Every room has a sloped floor and a floor drain for easy cleaning. “Half the battle in the meat business is clean up,” Jerry said, “especially when you have federal inspectors.” He carefully tracks each batch of meat and logs the information on tally sheets each day. Jerry also has to file monthly and quarterly reports to the inspectors. “I don’t see a problem, it just keeps you on your toes.” The wild game part does not need to be inspected. Jerry said, the other game processors are not watched as closely as JB’s Wild Wyoming. “They just have to have their water sampled and their place clean to start out the season” The inspectors do not come back, so what goes on in the meantime…”

Jerry turns away a lot of meat if the hunters do not take care of it. “I understand that if you shoot a moose and it falls into a swamp, there is nothing you can do about it. If I have the time to help you clean it up, I will. But the season is so short and getting shorter every year. There are so many animals that come at you, that you pick the good ones.” If he does not spend an extra 15 minutes to clean a crusty and dried animal, he can process 30 animals a day instead of 25. “That’s a no-brainer from an economic stand point,” Jerry said.
Game processing is 80 percent of JB’s Wild Wyoming’s business. Jerry will make sausage and jerky from customers’ meat if they put in at least 20 pounds per item or kind. However, customers have to wait until after the peak of the season.

“What makes us unique is that we don’t just do game processing or make sausage just during game season. We are here all year long. A lot of people in Riverton or Rock Springs know how busy we are, so they bone their animal out and bring it to me. I cut steaks out of it and bag up the rest for trim. In January or February or May even, they will bring it back to make sausage, because they know I’m here to do that at that time too.”

JB’s Wild Wyoming sells packages of spices so that people can make their own sausage and jerky. They sell little kits that have all the spices and seasonings and they have the casings and directions. JB’s tries to help people who like to prepare their own meat. “I fiddled around making jerky when I was little. People come to me for advice all of the time, and I give it to them—to a point.”
Recipes are included in the spice kits. Jerry keeps his proprietary recipes. “I’m not giving that stuff away.” JB’s sells the spices in bulk too, the same spices Jerry uses in his recipes.

Jerry said that an amimal’s flavor is determined by its diet. “Any animal is what it eats.” People tell him, “Oh, I don’t like antelope,” but he said if you get an antelope from those alfalfa fields in Farson, its meat is marbled with fat and tastes very good. If you harvest an antelope from the top of Beaver Rim, where it has been nibbling on sagebrush, it will be strong flavored.

Jerry does not anticipate a repeat of his record 1,864 animal processed, nor does he want too. He has six employees and that’s enough. Perhaps you should call and make an appointment before bringing in your game. Contact Jerry and Sandy Bath at 307-332-2065, or stop by JB’s Wild Wyoming at 628 Main Street in Lander.

http://www.jbswildwyoming.com/

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