Construction is now passing the two-year mark on the massive Prestage Farms pork processing plant in north-central Iowa. Ground was broken near Eagle Grove in July of 2016. Ron Prestage, C-E-O and president of the North Carolina-based company, says they’re entering the final stages of building the 240-million-dollar facility in southern Wright County.
Key staff members are being put in place, but Prestage says the big hiring push won’t come for a while yet.
Prestage says they’re planning to employ a total of 922 people at the facility.
Other arrangements are being made, like working with UnityPoint to provide health care to the staff along with an in-house medical clinic. Initially, the plant will slaughter 10,000 hogs per day, with half of those hogs coming from Prestage’s own barns. The other half will come from independent producers. The 922 workers is for the first shift only. It may be a year or two before it’s determined whether a second shift will be created.
