An area meat processor is getting funding from the USDA as part of 223-million dollars in grants and loans that were announced today (Wed).
The Cherokee Locker is getting a grant of over a half-million dollars to support the relocation and expansion of their business. The Cherokee Locker’s new facility at the site of the former Olhausen Trailer Park off of U.S. Highway 59 is expected to be completed this coming spring.
The grants and loans are going to small and mid-sized meat processing plants to help them expand and boost competition. U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the funds are expected to increase cattle and pig slaughter capacity by more than 500-thousand head a year, and help poultry plants process nearly 34 million more birds while adding more than 11-hundred jobs mostly in rural areas where the plants are located.
