Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Pocahontas County Extension Agent Greg Hamons and Greenbrier County Extension Agent Josh Peplowski received the Award of Excellence in Team Creativity, at the West Virginia University Extension Annual Conference in Morgantown, for their development of an at-home meat processing course.
The agents filled a need in their communities for individuals who raise their own livestock and want to process the meat at home instead of going to a slaughterhouses for a small order.
“We partnered with FFA to use their meats lab at [Pocahontas County High School] and we basically had a series of classes on processing beef and pork at home,” Hamons said. “We brought them in and showed them how to properly and safely handle food as far as meat goes – the temperatures it has to stay at and how to handle it, how to process it and how to keep it clean.”
The classes also included techniques on making proper high-end retail cuts of both beef and pork.
After the success of those classes, Hamons and Peplowski expanded into the rest of the state and shared the program in areas where there was an interest in learning meat processing.
“We’ve kind of replicated that throughout the state,” Hamons said. “We’ve done probably ten or twelve of those programs. We’ve done them at the West Virginia Small Farms Conference in Charleston and at the Women in Ag Conference this year. We’re starting to plan some courses at the campus in Morgantown for this spring.”
The next course will be in Monroe County in February. Like Pocahontas County, the high school there has a meats lab where the course will be taught to the public.
With the success of the new program, Hamons said he hopes to continue to expand it further and sees the potential to help individuals gain skills they can turn into a career.
“I think further development of that program could definitely be a thing,” he said. “Slaughterhouses are always lookng for people who have that skill, so some of the kids that go through our ham and bacon program have more exposure to that –if they wanted to do that, they could. Then, as well, adults and young adults who want that skill of meat cutting, meat processing, there’s a possibility for them, too.”
Hamons explained that while there are slaughterhouses in Greenbrier and Randolph counties, they are booked so far in advance that it is hard for individuals to get small orders processed. He added that those interested in selling their meat need to have it processed at a federally inspected facility which are sparse in the area.
“Greenbrier Meats is federally inspected, but for the last six or seven years, they’ve been booked solid,” he said. “The one that we have to use for our ham and bacon program is actually in Harrisonburg. That’s the closest federally inspected facility that we can get in.”
T&E Meats in Harrisonburg, Virginia, is so booked that Hamons said he has already scheduled the ham and bacon program processing for 2026.
Hamons has been the Pocahontas County Extension Agent since May 2009 when he moved back to the county from Morgantown.
Growing up on a small farm, Hamons was raised in the agriculture business and began his career with the forestry extension service in Morgantown after graduating from WVU.
He lived in Frankford for a time with his wife, Dwan, and their daughters, Sienna and Riley, until they bought a farm in Hillsboro in 2019. Dwan grew up on a beef farm in Harman and had horses as well.
The pair are raising their girls as farm kids and both are members of 4-H. They show livestock and participate in the ham, bacon and egg show. They also participate in rodeo and have horses – an affinity they gained from their mom.
“When we bought our farm, that was one thing we wanted was for our kids to have that experience of being outside and being on the farm, raising animals,” Hamons said.
In addition to all the work extension does with 4-H programs and collaborations with Pocahontas County High School FFA, Hamons said he works a lot with local farmers and gardeners one-on-one.
“I get to go visit a lot of people at their farms and see their livestock operations or their fruit trees or their garden,” he said. “I would say the biggest part of my work is one-on-one. We get tons of questions about trees, soil sampling, sick plants, sick animals, tons of stuff.”
There’s never a dull moment in Hamons’ job and that is what he likes about it.
“You never get bored,” he said. “That’s my favorite thing because we’re doing something different all the time. We’re working with kids. We’re doing youth livestock; we’re doing ham and bacon; we’re doing 4-H camp in the summertime; we’re doing state fairs and county fairs.
“I don’t like sitting in the office,” he continued. “It’s nice being here on a day like today when it’s five degrees outside, but on a beautiful day – it’s easy to go out to a farm and hopefully have some impact on those folks, whether it be soil testing or improving their garden or whatever it may be.
“It’s just nice to be able to get out and do that.”