A livestock economist says the USDA’s recently announced $500 million in grants for small meat processors will help improve competition in the cattle industry.
But, University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says it will take time. “It’s difficult for those smaller processing investments to offset some of the large plants that we have,” he says. “It isn’t necessarily the fix that we need at the end of the day. But it helps in terms of getting some of those new plants on board.”
He tells Brownfield, there is an opportunity to fill some niche markets and provide more support to local producers.
