There’s a lot going on at Luverne’s Premium Minnesota Pork plant, which began processing hogs in the newly improved facility on the west edge of town.
The first hogs showed up in June, and momentum slowly built to the current 1,400-head-per day production with 225 hourly employees.
The target goal has been 2,500 hogs per day and 250 employees with a future goal of 4,500 per day and 450 employees.
However, PMP president Dan Paquin said the future arrived sooner than originally planned.
Due to market demand for processors, the company is building a 10,000-square-foot cooler addition, which will double the capacity of the plant.
“The original intent was to build this in the future and have business come to us, but the business is here already, so we decided not to wait,” Paquin said. “As we move into 2021, at least it will be available.”
Value-added for agriculture and for city tax base
The $7 million cooler addition joins $30 million worth of existing improvements, expansions and retrofits to the plant that once housed Iowa Beef Processing and later Gold ’N Plump.
The investment bodes well for the city of Luverne’s tax base. The more taxable value on the property rolls, the less burden for each property tax payer.
“This is an agriculture value added business,” said Mayor Pat Baustian. “Without PMP, our farmers would be struggling to find harvest capacity for their hogs.”
Baustian said PMP has been good for Luverne in more ways than jobs and tax base. The company requires waste water treatment capacity greater than the city was able to provide, so PMP agreed to pay for half of the $14 million waste water treatment plant improvements that will be completed this summer.
“It’s been a great marriage with our waste water treatment plant improvements,” Baustian said. “We had to do Phases 2 and 3 anyway (to replace aging equipment), and this guarantees PMP the capacity they’ll need.”
He said city wastewater staff have reported that effluent arriving from PMP has so far been clear, thanks to a state-of-the-art water treatment system at PMP that cleans water before it gets sent to the city.
“It’s not putting a huge biosolids load on our system,” Baustian said. “It’s just the hydraulic load.”
With Luverne’s plant improvements, PMP will be guaranteed a 200,000-gallon-per-day treatment capacity, which should more than accommodate its new production goal of 4,500 hogs per day.
Help wanted
At the moment, Paquin said hiring has been a major focus.
“We’re a family-owned company with good paying jobs and we need help,” he said. “We don’t have thousands of employees. Instead we have hundreds. Our employees are names, not numbers.”
Starting wage is $13 per hour, but the pay is graded, and advancements are offered quickly.
“If you can perform a job, you’ll get the grade right away,” Paquin said.
Full-page advertisements in local and regional papers promise living wages and generous benefits.
So far, workers are former Gold ’N Plump employees, workers from plants that have had pandemic-related layoffs, and those seeking work closer to home.
Antibiotic-free pork waits for markets to settle
PMP’s niche market is antibiotic-free pork, the pandemic has strained regular processing outlets, so Paquin said the company is filling those needs first.
“The demand for fresh pork and availability of processors during COVID means that we’ll process commodity hogs in the meanwhile,” he said. “It’s always nice to have a local guy around — another option they can take their business to as they choose between JBS and Smithfield.”
He said PMP continues to lay groundwork for contracts with local antibiotic-free growers in order to ensure those supplies are in place when processing switches to antibiotic-free production in the plant.
“We can do both,” Paquin said. “It’s just a matter of labeling the packaging appropriately.”
Luverne’s sister plant, Premium Iowa Pork, will continue processing antibiotic-free pork in Hospers, Iowa, where 415 employees handle 3,100 hogs per day.
Both plants are owned by Lynch Livestock, headquartered in Waucoma, Iowa.