Two beef packing plants proposed seven hours drive from Moose Jaw

One of Saskatchewan’s beef U.S. competitors has two new beef packing plants in the works.

Two proposals have landed on planners’ desks this last month for packing plants in a state with 1.5 million beef cows and shipping 1.5 million head of cattle out of state every year.

The first plan comes from a company based in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Friesen Foods has applied to Cascade County Planning Division for approval and a permit to build a multi-species plant near Great Falls.

The plant will employ up to 3,000 people with three species processed: 1,800 head of cattle daily, 9,200 hogs and 135,000 chickens.

The 3,000-acre site near the BNSF rail yards has future plans that include expansion to process milk, cheese and run a distillery.

An environmental-friendly feature is the plans to produce methane gas for electricity from the 103,000 pounds of waste a day.

Friesen Nutrition and Livestock, operated by a father and two sons, has been in business for two decades supplying feed products to the livestock industry in Alberta. The other packing plant proposal entails a Chinese investment.

During President Donald Trump’s visit to China a deal was announced to invest $100 million in a Montana beef plant and to buy $200 million of Montana beef over the next three years.

The trade deal is a partnership between China’s largest online retailer JD.com, the Bank of China and the Montana Stockgrowers’ Association.

JD.com agreed to buy a minimum of $50 million worth of beef next year with $70 million in 2019 and $80 million in the third year. Beef will be purchased from Stockgrowers’ Association members at fair market value. While the agreement only represents four per cent of the state’s herd, it is seen as a major breakthrough in meat exports

Both plans have opposition.

Some Montana cattle producers say the Chinese deal will undermine the market value determined by the livestock auction process.

Detractors of the Friesen Foods proposal claim that waste smells from the plant will create “a stinky city” out of Great Falls.

In 2014, ONE Montana, a nonprofit think tank, conducted a feasibility study on beef plants that concluded the state could support a 250 head a day plant processing beef and bison.

Now the state has two plants on the drawing board. Public hearings on the Friesen Foods plan will be held shortly. Meanwhile the Moose Jaw XL Beef plant sits empty and is no longer listed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website as a registered facility.

Two major beef packing plants left in Western Canada are Cargill near High River, Alberta and Lakeside near Brooks, Alberta. Together they can process 8,700 head a day.

Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net