HAVRE — Montana Premium Processing Co-Op in Havre is rapidly expanding. Founded in 2023, the co-op allows ranchers to process their livestock for retail without suffering a profit cut found with middlemen packing plants.
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“MTTP was set up to where you join as a member. And that, membership gives you first rights to the hook space that's available,” says Chief of Staff with the Montana farmer’s Union, Matt Rains. “Plus voting rights and the right to be on the board of directors. So, all the board of directors are members, and thus these individuals who drop off animals and have them harvested have a vested interest to make sure that MPPC runs smoothly."
In 2024, its first full year, MPPC processed 398,918 pounds of protein, and is now on track for increased output thanks to a $50,000 Growth Through Agriculture Grant courtesy of the Montana Department of Agriculture.
The grant will be used toward accelerating the construction of an on-site smokehouse - think smoked sausages, salamis, hams and more.
The facility will be built at the rear of the building and measure 20x20 feet in space. It will also have its own cooler.
“We’ve had several hog producers and they're desperate for it because there just aren't very many smokehouse’s on the Hi-Line. There's a few, but it's very limited capacity,” says General Manager of MTPP, Bill Jones.
The co-op had originally planned to fund the smokehouse entirely themselves, which they expected would take up to three years.
This injection of $50,000 secured not only funding for the smokehouses’s construction, but also for the installation of its equipment.
“It’s going to shorten what we figured would be a two or three-year project down to literally probably under a year,” says Jones.
“It was definitely across the board, a guaranteed slam dunk win for the state,” adds Rains.
The added value of the smokehouse also includes the job sector, as MPPC anticipates a number of jobs will open as a result of the addition.
“We’ll add at least two, if not three employees immediately when we add the value added [smokehouse] room and then be able to add maybe another three beyond that,” says Jones.
He’s aiming to add between five and seven new staff.
Simultaneously, MPCC is constructing a new, larger cooler to drip their slaughter. The construction is funded by a USDA-backed loan from Bear Paw Development. The current drip cooler in use now will become an aging cooler.
In total, the Growth Through Agriculture Grant program secured $915,360 for 25 agricultural businesses throughout Montana.
