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RICHFIELD — A brand new cattle processing plant in central Utah is anticipated to enhance the state’s meals provide chain.
“You wager I really feel strain,” Henry Barlow stated. “I do not sleep effectively, but it surely’s OK.”
Barlow is the proprietor of Utah Beef Producers, and his new meat packing plant in Richfield is opening in March — simply in time because the cattle trade may use extra processing vegetation.
“We’re going to convey cattle in from the West, and we’re going to harvest them, and we’re going to feed American beef to the People,” Barlow stated.
In the course of the COVID pandemic, meat shortages started to occur, not due to the shortage of cattle, however due to the shortage of packing vegetation. Most of the vegetation closed in the course of the pandemic.
Barlow stated it opened his eyes and he knew one thing wanted to be completed to assist the meals provide chain.
“Simply a few years in the past, ranchers could not get in. Folks could not purchase good beef,” he stated. “Not solely is it scary for the buyer, however are you able to think about being a rancher and having 100 head that you may’t go get harvested someplace? They’re proper fed out, and it’s a must to feed them one other 5 or 6 months. I imply, these issues affect these guys large time.”
Zack Jensen of M&Ok Farms in Sanpete County remembered these days. He stated there was no option to get his beef to prospects.
“In our space, we simply have a number of small, little customized vegetation, and so they have been backed up virtually two years out on getting stuff completed,” Jensen stated. “We had folks calling each day questioning if they may purchase beef from us.”
Issues have gotten higher since then, however Jensen feels having a brand new, bigger plant close by will solely assist, particularly regionally.
“We all the time hate having to take care of folks not in your space, however sadly, in Utah, that is the perfect market is the surface market,” he stated. “Having this new plant, it is going to be nice. When you can go to the shop and you may see it’s raised in Utah and it’s packaged in Utah, how rather more good of a situation for a purchaser that lives in Utah?”
Barlow is making his meat-packing plant as fashionable as doable. A wastewater therapy facility was additionally constructed to avoid wasting an estimated 8 million gallons of water yearly.
“We stay in a desert. That’s vital,” he stated.
Utah Beef Producers can even make biochar on the facility, which helps scale back methane fuel in animals when used as a feed complement. Biochar is the product of turning plant or animal waste right into a charcoal-like product.
“We’ve been advised that we would be the first plant in america to make biochar out of plant waste. So, we can’t be filling up the landfills,” Barlow stated.
He’s additionally teaming up with Snow Faculty and Utah State College Extension to create academic alternatives for college kids who’re on this as a profession. Barlow expects the plant to create 100 jobs and course of about 150 cattle each day when it opens.
He feels not solely will it assist Utah keep as unbiased as doable, however it can additionally assist ranchers maintain folks fed.
“Every little thing that I’ve completed in my life to date has been getting me prepared for what I’m doing proper now,” Barlow stated. “That is going to be good.”
The grand opening for the plant is March 30.
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