A New Meat Processing Facility in Whitehall, Montana?

Here’s a big question that people really started asking at the start of the pandemic. Where’s the meat? That’s what many of you were probably wondering when you showed up at grocery stores looking for fresh meat during the COVID-19 shutdowns.

Meanwhile, ranchers were not getting the prices they deserve with the increased demand for beef. That was a question many ranchers were asking even before COVID-19.

Both questions combined have made more people wonder why we don’t process more meat locally here in Montana. Why rely so heavily on out-of-state meatpacking plants? Can we use local butchers and meat processors?

Since then, a few new facilities and programs have popped up across the state, including a meat processing program at Miles Community College in Miles City, Montana. Read more: Where’s the meat? Great Opportunity at Miles Community College |

I was chatting with Evelyn Pyburn of the Big Sky Business Journal and she told me how economic development officials in Butte are now pushing for a meat processing plant to be built in Whitehall. Sounds like a great idea if you ask me.

In 2020, Montana Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) announced that he had “obtained $26,250 for Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Area Inc. to investigate the feasibility of a meat processing operation in Whitehall.”

Here’s what Joe Willauer of the Butte Local Development Corporation had to say about the idea in a recent story for KXLF-TV:

There’s definitely a big element of job creation and being able to increase that role so more people work locally and just the big picture of being able to keep more Montana cows in Montana.