By Emmy Powell
Communications Specialist

One Texas business was awarded funds through the latest round of grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program and Local Meat Capacity Grant Program.

Producer Owned Beef, a new beef harvest and processing plant in Amarillo, received a $10 million grant.

The funds will go toward buying equipment for the new beef processing facility. The facility is expected to increase regional processing capacity by 15% and national capacity by 3%.

Once complete, the facility is expected to process 3,000 head of cattle or more each day. It will serve 250 cattle producers and create more than 1,500 new full-time jobs.

The grant for Producer Owned Beef is one of 50 grants in 30 states, totaling $110 million in funding from USDA.

Of the $110 million, more than $83 million in grants will be used to build or upgrade 24 independent processors in 15 states under the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program.

The rest of the equipment will be used for equipment and facility upgrades to 33 facilities through the Local Meat Capacity  Grant Program to expand processing within the meat and poultry industry.

“USDA is working to give farmers and ranchers a fairer chance to compete in the marketplace, which will increase local food options and lower costs for American families,” Vilsack said.

The funding is an expansion of opportunity for small and midsize producers and creates an additional choice for farmers and more competition for their products.

“All of which help to provide a lower cost for working families, a more resilient food system and obviously help opportunities for farmers to have more, new and better markets,” Vilsack said.

Click here to learn about all of the awarded grants.

Click here for more information on the grant programs.