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Work continues on new Iowa pork processing plant

Construction continues on the new Prestage Foods pork processing plant in north-central Iowa.

Company president Ron Prestage says a lot of work this summer was done “below ground” on the site in southern Wright County.

“We’ve already dug one of the two wells,” Prestage says. “That well is almost 2,000 feet deep and will produce 2,000 gallons of water a minute. So, it’s a big well. We’re going to do another one this winter, primarily as a backup.”

Prestage says they’re shooting for a November 2018 start-up. He says the buildings will be done and equipment installed by next fall, but the processing of animals won’t happen right away.

“As you can imagine, having to train a new workforce, get all the equipment fine tuned – there’s a lot of computerization that’s going to be in this plant,” Prestage said. “It’s going to take a lot of work and coordination to get all of those things operating smoothly.”

Once fully operational, the Prestage plant will be able to slaughter 10,000 hogs per day.

Radio Iowa contributed to this story.