Petty Brothers Meats Presentation to the Annandal History Club on October 8, 2018 by Paula Petty

Paula Petty has been part of Petty Brothers Meats for two generations. The first two Petty Brothers were her husband Jim and his brother John (Mic), and the current owners since 2011 are her twin sons, Tom and Bob, 2003 graduates of Annandale High School.

Petty Brothers Meats began in 1980 when Jim and Mic purchased the old locker plant at 131 Cedar Street built in 1946 by the Annandale Co-op Creamery. They learned meat cutting in the 1960s at Knaus in Kimball and in the 1970s worked at Zayre in St. Cloud. Mic retired in 2005 and Bob became Jim’s new partner. When Jim died in 2011 Tom joined Bob to become the second generation in Petty Brothers Meats. In 2016 the business moved to a new location at 320 Elm Street, Hwy 55 on the sight of the former Tom Thumb. They continued to do their slaughtering in the old building on Cedar Ave until 2019 when it moved to the new building.

In the early years the Petty Brothers business was mostly custom slaughtering and locker service, but soon after they moved into retail with sausages and smokehouse. Now they do beef, hog and venison processing in addition to smoking fish, making sausage and jerky, and processing wild game in season. They also sell seafood, freezer packs and fully cooked heat n’ eat products but still take great pride in providing an old fashioned meat market.

For a time in the 1980s and 1990s there was very little butchering but it has increased lately because now people want to eat their own locally grown meat. One recent week they butchered 20 pigs and 16 beef. In the fall usually around 85% of their processing is venison. In 2017 they processed 400 deer, and one year they processed a record 600 when a second deer season opened.

The regional USDA (United States Dept of Agriculture) inspector has his office at Petty Brothers and inspects many other businesses including the local McDonald’s.  Before the move they only needed to comply with state regulation, but with the addition of USDA  inspection they can sell wholesale and now sell locally to Casey’s and meat raffles. All wholesale products are sourced externally. Some comes fresh, some comes frozen, and then it is cut up by Petty Brothers. None of the processed local meats can be sold.

The business is thriving in the new location with greater visibility and twice the retail space. They have new modern equipment including an automated smokehouse and a grinder that grinds, then mixes, then grinds again all in one machine. There is a separate room for sausage making. They sell 30 kinds of brats, and many other popular items include smoked turkey and ham, and potato sausage. People have been known to travel 60 miles for their potato salad. Their full line of products is on their website: http://pettybrothers.com/.

Paula ended her presentation to History Club with a delicious lunch of products from Petty Bros Meats.

Original Petty Bros Meats building at 131 Cedar Street
built in 1946 by the Annandale Co-op Creamery

Petty Bros Meats moved to their new location at 320 Elm Street, Hwy 55 in 2016.

Tom and Bob in front of their new smoker

Aging beef 

Grinding meat

Processing meat cuts

Fresh Sausage