Nebraska Rural Development Director Kate Bolz announced March 9 a $25 million Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program grant awarded to Wholestone Farms in Fremont for a significant plant expansion.

“This major initiative will create new jobs, expand processing opportunities for farmers, and benefit consumers. USDA Rural Development is proud to support Wholestone Farms and their cooperative of independent pork producers through this investment,” said Bolz, as her entity will oversee administration of the grant.

Whetstone is a cooperative owned by 195 independent pork producers that employs over 1,000 plant professionals and 200 office workers. The proposed plant expansion will add approximately 112,000 square feet directly connected to the existing facility, which will include an 89,000 square foot cut floor and 23,000 square foot rendering building. The expansion will enable second shift operations and add approximately 950 new jobs. Second shift operations will double the processing capacity.

As part of this total investment, the University of Arkansas was awarded a $5 million grant from the AFRI Center of Excellence for Meat and Poultry Processing and Food Safety Research and Innovation. In addition, $13.9 million in grants from the Meat and Poultry Processing Research and Innovation—Small Business Innovation Research Phase III—program were awarded to 14 small and mid-sized meat and poultry processors. These grants are administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Another project, Biotronics Inc. of Ames, Iowa, developed and commercialized technology with funding from USDA SBIR Phase I and Phase II grants that uses ultrasound scans for measuring backfat, muscle depth and intramuscular fat in its products. With this $878,000 funding, Biotronics will optimize its technology for small and mid-size packers to reduce operation size and costs, streamline processes, and minimize plant installation.

Biotronics will validate online scanning and carcass processing, install a compact prototype system, and train plant operators for scanning and maintenance procedures. Biotronics will work with a small packing plant, The Pork Company LLC, Warsaw, North Carolina.