State to help meat processors; grants will fund workforce, facilities growth
State to help meat processors; grants will fund workforce, facilities growth
By Andrew D. Brosig
Torrington Telegram
Via Wyoming News Exchange
TORRINGTON — Applications are now open for a program designed to address supply-chain concerns in Wyoming’s meat industry.
The Wyoming Meat Processing Expansion Grant will funnel as much as $10 million from federal CARES Act funding to grants for Wyoming-based meat processors looking to expand their facilities.
The grant comes in response to “supply chain disruptions and regional shut-downs of processing facilities resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency,” according to a press release announcing the program from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.
WDA is administering the program, announced Sept. 1 by Governor Mark Gordon. “The pandemic really shook up how we look at animal processing,” said Brian Lee, an agriculture economist at the James C. Hageman Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center southwest of Lingle. “I think it’s really hard to tell right now what’s going to happen (economically).”
The cattle market specifically decreased by about 500,000 head in April, near the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic in Wyoming, Lee said.
It bounced back some in June, he said, to approximately the levels it was at in 2019, before COVID-19 descended upon the Cowboy State.
Now, the biggest challenge both producers and processors are facing is scheduling animals for processing, particularly at the state’s roughly 50 small to medium sized processors.
“The goal of this is to address supply chain disruptions, regional shutdowns,” said Derek Grant, public information officer for WDA. “This is a way to increase capacity for Wyoming’s local food supply chain. More capabilities are good for producers (leading to) more for processors and good for consumers across the state.”
At the start of the pandemic, a combination of panic buying and transportation issues led to temporary supply shortages across Wyoming and the rest of the country, Grant and Lee said.
While some of those concerns have resolved themselves, they said, a sudden influx of livestock needing to be processed has stressed the processors.
“Right now, during the COVID epidemic, my understanding is farmers and ranchers are having a hard time getting product processed,” said John Hansen, director of institutional development at Eastern Wyoming College.
Hansen has been working with WDA, the Wyoming Business Council and others on programs to assist the state’s meat producers.
“This grant provides immediate funding for businesses that are open now or opening by December,” Hansen said. “It will help producers bring products to market.”
Grants total a maximum of $500,000 per applicant. Funds may be used to finance capital improvement, building rental or technology to increase processing capacity, among other applications.
To qualify for a grant, equipment, technology, personnel, etc., must be in place and operating by Dec. 30.
“That timeline is reflective of the Treasury Department guidance in the CARES Act money,” said Jill Tregemba, Huntley-area rancher and Agribusiness Manager at the Wyoming Business Council.
“I’ve been hearing, in the last six months, as a processor, business has been for most of them really good,” Tregemba said. “People have wanted beef and it’s given ranchers an opportunity to sell to new markets.”
Another difficulty processors have faced in recent months, even as demand and supply rebounded, is finding qualified workers to handle the processing duties, she said.
Grant funds may also be used to increase the size of the workforce at individual processors.
“While some (processors) want to expand and need more equipment, others needed workforce quickly,” Tregemba said. “That’s why we see processing dates pushed back well over a year, in some places, into 2022 now.”
But it’s that relatively short lead time before money must be spent that’s led to some concerns.
Goshen County rancher Colby Oschner said the grants may not be of much help to new businesses wanting to open their doors in Wyoming.
“If somebody is ready to break ground tomorrow, they could probably take advantage” of the grants, Oschner said. “If they’re in the early planning stages, I don’t think they could plan for this as a source of funding.”
Lee at SAREC agreed.
“It does have a pretty stringent cap on timelines,” he said. “If there are established businesses already operating when the pandemic (started) – that’s the way I kind of read it. It’s for businesses whose supply chain was negatively affected because of the pandemic.”
That doesn’t mean there won’t be benefits, both to producers and consumers, from the grants.
“My understanding is beef is so important to the state, people see a possible solution in more or expanded processing facilities, to help return some of that money to the family rancher that’s otherwise going to big corporations,” Oschner said.
And the survival of smaller, local processing facilities benefits the communities they call home.
“I would hope these businesses can experience some kind of economic benefit from this, whether it’s improving their operations to better process animals,” Lee said. “And surely, there’s some trickle-down through the economy in those communities. That’s the whole hope of the program.”
To learn more about the grants, or to apply, go to agriculture.wy.gov.