The Arkansas Department of Agriculture is pleased to announce the complete list of recipients for funding through the Arkansas Meat and Poultry Processing Grant Program. The program was previously approved and provided funding of $5 million by the CARES Act Steering Committee and the Arkansas Legislative Council. An additional $5.4 million in funding for the program was approved October 16 bringing the total funding available through the program to $10.4 million. The following 31 facilities were selected for funding:
- A&C Meat Company – Hot Springs, Arkansas
- Arkansas State University – Jonesboro, Arkansas
- B&R Meat Processing – Winslow, Arkansas
- Bee’s Mobile Butchery – Lamar, Arkansas
- Buck Mathews – Waldron, Arkansas
- Centerpoint High School – Amity, Arkansas
- Central Arkansas Mobile Processing – Lonsdale, Arkansas
- Clarksville Processing and Taxidermy – Clarksville, Arkansas
- CR Custom Meat Processing – Bismarck, Arkansas
- Cut to Taste – Perryville, Arkansas
- Cypress Valley Meat Company – Pottsville, Arkansas
- Deaton Slaughterhouse – Caddo Gap, Arkansas
- J&D Custom Meat Processing – Greenwood, Arkansas
- JACO Meats – Hope, Arkansas
- Key’s Family Butcher Shop – Van Buren, Arkansas
- Moore’s Mill, Homestead Food – Charleston, Arkansas
- Morrilton Packing Company – Morrilton, Arkansas
- Natural State Processing – Clinton, Arkansas
- OK Beef – Nashville, Arkansas
- Ouachita Valley Meat Company – Arkadelphia, Arkansas
- Prewitt Farms Cattle and Meat Market – Texarkana, Arkansas
- Prime Country Meats – Horatio, Arkansas
- Ramsey’s Red River Smokehouse – Judsonia, Arkansas
- Ridge Runners Processing – Jonesboro, Arkansas
- T&A Womack Farms – Pleasant Plains, Arkansas
- Taylor’s Custom Butcher Shop – Cave City, Arkansas
- Tilton’s Processing – Harrison, Arkansas
- Williams Baptist University – Walnut Ridge, Arkansas
- Wynne Meat Processing – Wynne, Arkansas
- 2B Butchered Custom Mobile Slaughter – Vilonia, Arkansas
- 4-M Butcher Barn – Gillham, Arkansas
A review committee consisting of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, Arkansas Farm Bureau, the Livestock Marketing Association, Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and the United States Department of Agriculture evaluated the applications and selected recipients. The Department received 45 applications requesting a total of more than $30 million in grant funding. Selected recipients will receive 85.9 percent of the amount requested up to a cap of $500,000 per application. Collectively, the applicants receiving awards anticipate increasing processing capacity throughout the state by over 2,000 head of cattle, 850 hogs, 7,400 poultry, and eight goats and sheep per month. The applicants also anticipate utilizing 258 full-time positions and 75 part-time positions. Recipients will also provide additional further processing and value-added capacity and assist with education and workforce development.
Arkansas ranks 10th in the nation in the value of animals and animal products that provide more than $5.6 billion to the state’s economy annually. In the 2019 production year, Arkansas was ranked 10th in the nation in beef cow inventory and 25th in the nation in cattle and calves with 510,641,000 pounds of production.
