Montana Farmers Union and Northern teaming up in unique venture

Montana Farmers Union has announced it is partnering with Montana State University-Northern to develop the country’s first-ever meat processing curriculum, which will teach meat processing from harvest to retail.

Montana Farmers Union received a $150,000 Montana Meat Processing Infrastructure Grant, which is part of the federal coronavirus relief funds, and the grant will be matched with another $150,000 from MFU and cooperative partners, a press release said. The funds will be used to purchase a mobile harvest unit for slaughtering beef and pork.

“We’re going to set it up as a cooperative so producers in the area can belong to the cooperative and supply cattle to it,” MFU President Walt Schweitzer said in an interview. “Butcher shops in the area can belong to the cooperative and get USDA for-sale meat that they can process and put in their retail counter.”

The beef and pork will be processed into whole carcasses, halves and quarters that are USDA-inspected so they can be sold to butcher shops around the state to cut up, package and sell retail, he said.

Northern students who enroll in the program would earn anywhere from a one-year certificate to a bachelor’s degree with a focus on business management and marketing, the release said. These courses will provide opportunities for students to join the meat processing industry as butchers, managers or inspectors.

The meat processing curriculum being developed and implemented at Miles Community College in Miles City only deals with the meat packing process starting with cutting up the carcasses, Schweitzer said. And people working at the large meat packing plants know only what they need to do at their station, which is one small part of the whole process.

As a fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers had rationed meat and high prices and producers were forced to hold onto livestock, ship farther and sometimes euthanize their animals. This has shown that the U.S. has a huge hole in the food supply chain, he said, adding that, in Montana, producers had cattle, but not enough places to process the meat from slaughter to the sales counter or the skilled labor to do this.

“It’s not very sexy … but that’s our missing link here in Montana. Right now, if you wanted to get an animal slaughtered you would have to schedule for sometime in the spring or maybe next summer,” he added.

MFU hopes to have the USDA-certified mobile harvest unit operational by early next spring depending on permits and inspections, Schweitzer said.

Though the facility is a mobile unit, it has to be set up at a single location due to permitting, he added, and they have a few locations in the Havre area that they are looking into.

Northern plans to have a curriculum in place by fall semester 2021.

“Our intent is that once we have this curriculum up and running to place more of these mobile harvest unites in our state, utilizing the students that we train at Northern, Schweitzer said.

The business will be set up as a cooperative among the contributing farmers unions in Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin and the Farmers Union Enterprise, along with beef and pork producers and butcher shops that want to utilize the services, Schweitzer said.

“We appreciate Gov. (Steve) Bullock’s commitment to help Montana ranchers and meat processors by awarding Montana Farmers Union with a Montana Meat Processing Infrastructure Grant,” Schweitzer said in the release. “The MMPIG coupled with funds from FUE will help make this cooperative project a reality. Now more than ever it is critical to build the infrastructure necessary to increase local meat processing. Cooperative projects like this one will help achieve food security, which is a key to building a more resilient food system.”

And, he said in the interview, the Farmers Union is equally excited about the partnership with Northern, which has solid programs and a good record of job placement for their graduates.

“MSU-Northern is such a good fit because they do have a really good programs for their diesel techs and their electricians, their plumbers,” he added. “I mean this is just a natural fit.”