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(Des Moines, IA) -- Western Iowa's getting a new beef processing plant. A new corporation called Cattlemen's Heritage is planning a $325-million facility near the Pottawattamie-Mills County line. The plant will employ 750-people. The company plans to break ground next spring and open in 2023.
Cattlemen's Heritage says the facility will handle 15-hundred head per day.
“Cattlemen’s Heritage will fill a critical gap between the conglomerates and the outdated, under-sized lockers and plants that aren’t equipped to meet the needs of consumers, producers or retailers,” said project developer Chad Tentinger, founder and owner of TenCorp. Inc., a cattle industry construction firm with offices in Des Moines and Marcus, Iowa.
“Cattle producers and retailers have recognized for quite some time that as more cattle production has moved north to the Upper Midwest that we need the processing capacity to match it,” Tentinger said. “The Cattlemen’s Heritage facility will go a long way to resolving that ongoing challenge and delivering more quality beef from family farms to consumers.”
“Creating value-added agriculture opportunities is important for the success and sustainability of the ag community and our state’s economy. That’s especially true when our livestock producers are seeing large disparities between live cattle and boxed beef prices,” said Iowa Agriculture Secretary, Mike Naig. “There’s a significant opportunity to expand meat processing capacity around the state. This facility will create additional market access for our producers, new jobs and economic activity in our rural communities.”