Beef Co-Op Project
To Take New Shape

BISMARCK, N.D. —(AP)— Plans for a rancher-owned beef processing plant in the upper Midwest are taking a new form.

The Northern Plains Premium Beef cooperative board, which wanted to build a producer-owned processing plant in Belle Fourche, S.D., voted to dissolve last month after two failed equity drives. But Chief Executive Officer Keith DeHaan said the idea is still a good one, and a new board has been formed to take another try at a value-added beef venture.

The Dakotas Beef Marketing Project, based in North and South Dakota, is requesting an $84,000 grant from the North Dakota Agricultural Products Utilization Commission to look into forming a producer-owned processing and marketing enterprise.

Paul Rechlin of the Lewis and Clark Regional Council in Bismarck said the new venture will combine the ideas of two previous projects.

"It combines the Northern Plains Premium Beef concept with another study, combining the various meat producers and putting them into a partnership with Cloverdale Foods," said Rechlin, whose group is handling the grant request.

The grant would go toward creating a business plan and determining how big an area the project would cover, Rechlin said.

The APUC board, which gives grants to developers of North Dakota farm products, will consider the request Oct. 29-30 in Mandan.