U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced last week USDA will invest nearly $4 million to help 10 regional meat processors in Kansas expand capacity. The funding will come in the form of grants from the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program.
Recipients include Diamond A Processing LLC of Junction City, Hat Creek Butchery in Plains, Meade Locker & Processing LLC, Meatworks of Kansas LLC in Riley, Mitchell Bolling of Moran, Plainview Beef Company LLC in Peabody, Randel Inc. of Grinnell, Stroot’s Meat Company in Goddard and Mulvane, T & W Meat Co. LLC of Kingman and Walnut Valley Packing LLC in El Dorado. Grant amounts range from $116,280 to $2 million. Plainview Beef Company received the largest award to renovate and equip a newly acquired facility.
While the processors’ end goal is to increase capacity and, thereby, local producers’ marketing opportunities, each has a different plan for reaching it. Some of the listed improvement projects among the 10 companies include buying processing and packaging equipment, expanding refrigeration and cold storage, adding specialty beef product lines and enhancing facility infrastructure.
For more information, go to www.bit.ly/KSMPPEP.