By RICHARD SITLER
Indiana Correspondent

WINCHESTER, Ind. — When one walks into Dishman’s Quality Meats at 1625 East 300 South in rural Winchester, the first thing that will most likely get their attention in the small entryway are two mounted heads.

One is the head of a buffalo and the other is of a Scottish Highlander Cow, which looks like a bovine version of an English Sheepdog. Both represent animals butchered at Dishman’s, which is a wholesale operation doing custom butchering and processing for local farmers.

Natural chemical-free meat is a specialty. According to Bob Dishman, who has been in the business 13 years since taking over for his father, Felix, there has been a movement the last 10 years toward meat that is lower in cholesterol, calories and fat.

For that reason, they have been offering such products as buffalo and elk meat, as well as the more common products of beef and pork. They package the meat while it is fresh so no preservative chemicals are used.

“Local farmers are our primary customers for buying finished products,” Dishman explained. He also said that he gets business from Amish farmers, from whom he likes to buy animals because they don’t feed their livestock chemicals.

Dishman’s primary business is local, serving Randolph County, but it also gets customers from the surrounding counties of Wayne, Delaware and Jay. Dishman has seen an increase in his wholesale custom butchering business, as more people are raising their own animals for meat.

Besides seeing animals such as buffalo and elk, he said that livestock growers are also experimenting with different breeds of cattle, such as the Scottish Highlander, because these varieties provide leaner meat.

While leading a tour of his spotless production facility, Dishman stopped to show an example of a rare-for-Indiana specie of cattle they had just butchered. Still on the floor was the head of a Watusi cow, with straight horns. He said the cow’s meat is quite good and very lean.

For more information about Dishman’s Quality Meats, call 888-ANY-MEAT (269-6328).