U.S. Ranchers Working Together to Build Local Meat Plants

While consumers saw increasingly higher beef prices at the grocery store, U.S. cattle ranchers suffered from bottom-of-the-barrel prices, continued supply chain struggles, pandemic-related closures and drought-impacted feed concerns. Now, some ranchers are taking it into their own hands. While just four processing companies slaughter over 80% of the nation’s cattle, ranchers in Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin are reportedly fundraising for locally built and run processing plants. Once such examples comes from North Platte, Nebraska, where a rancher is working to raise more than $300 million to build a beef plant on nearly 400 acres, with construction slated to start this fall. The move comes at the right time, as USDA recently announced several incentives for increased processing capacity, especially for smaller plants. Read more on homegrown beef processing here.