The brothers were introduced to the business by their father. After working in the old Swift plant for years, William "Buster" Dunn opened a custom slaughter plant in Montezuma, Ga., in the 1960s and 70s, Judy said. Danny got hands-on meat processing experience as a senior in high school working the second shift in Swift's bacon department.

Daniel Dunn worked at the local plant through high school and college and stayed with the family business to apply his marketing degree.

Stripling's got its start when Ricky's uncle, James Stripling, opened a small butcher shop on the family farm, selling whole hog sausage and fresh pork cuts. After his uncle died, Ricky and his father, Jack, bought the shop.

Now, Stripling's has two Cordele locations: One on Ga. Highway 300 at Lake Blackshear and Ga. Highway 280 across from the Georgia Veterans State Park.

Ashley and her husband Clint are changing their careers and moving from Gwinnett County to run the Moultrie facility. She worked with Edward Jones Investments, while Clint was a mathematics teacher and coach, she said.

Dunn Meats has been a solid community citizen donating sausages time after time for fundraisers.

"We appreciate everything the community did for us too. We couldn't have done it without them or their employees. We give our employees the credit, because they did a great job over the years and stuck with us," Judy said.

On the Internet: www.striplings.com.