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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
B Y WA LT E R S C H W E I T Z E R PRESIDENT
I am nearing the end of my first term as MFU president and look back at the last two years, wondering what the next two
MPPC HOLDS FIRST MEMBERSHIP MEETING B Y M AT T R A I N S M A N AG E R O F S P E C I A L P RO J E C T S
On September 30th, the Montana Premium Processing Cooperative (MPPC) held their first annual membership meeting with great success at the Celtic Cowboy. During the meeting, pledged individuals purchased their common Stock to join the cooperative. Through these first members, the Board of Directors was elected. MPPC is now a fully-formed cooperative on track to be harvesting livestock by early 2022. The cooperative concept supports Montana livestock producers with a vested interest in processing USDA-certified meat for their retail plans. MPPC provides a processing service fee for a rancher to take their
fall, we continued the tour in MFU was forced to cancel the Corvallis, Missoula, Ronan, and Cultivating Healthy Communities Whitefish but chose to cancel tour due to the pandemic. We our southern time because of years will bring. It started worked with MSU extension to the Covid resurgence; with with a whirlwind tour of state put on educational webinars that hospitals at capacity and needing conventions, visiting with members covered livestock nutrition, soil National Guard assistance, it felt in other farm organizations like health, plant breeding, trade, irresponsible the Stockgrowers, Farm Bureau, rangeland weeds, and provided Northern Plains, Grain Growers, pesticide certification. We held I am looking forward to the state Aero, Montana Cattlemen, virtual debates and townhalls convention in Great Falls. We putting on a hemp workshop, that were broadcast statewide have a great lineup of speakers and traveling to the national discussing rural and ag issues and entertainers. We will also conventions of NFO and NFU. with the candidate. MFU held have our mobile livestock harvest All of this was in the first four its first-ever online convention, unit available for everyone to tour. months, then the covid pandemic where we successfully debated This unit is the main component roared in, shutting down most of and voted on bylaws and policy. of the Montana Premium the world. We offered the Winter Thaw Processing Co-op that MFU and the Women’s Conference launched in September. We are The last 18 months were a bit virtually and had a great lineup of looking for more opportunities to surreal. Before the pandemic, speakers. All of these programs develop producer-owned co-ops “zoom” meant you were traveling can be found on our website at to add value and markets for our quickly to a new destination. montanafarmersunion.com. products. Now Zoom means you stay home for yet another virtual meeting. This spring, we went back on the I am excited to visit with you at Some days started with a 6 am road with our Rebuilding Food our 2021 convention. zoom meeting and didn’t finish Resiliency tour in Lewistown, until you left your last zoom Havre, Shelby, Choteau, Billings, meeting at 10 pm. Miles City, and Sidney. This livestock from hoof to package. These fees are set by the elected board of directors. It is a “ranchers taking care of ranchers” situation. Currently, producers are left to decide between utilizing the large processors who are states away, custom butchers where they cannot retail the finished product, or private local state/USDA certified meat processors. These private certified butcher shops are ideal and supported by Montana Farmers Union, but their capacity has been maxed out for a long time with wait times of up to two years. This wait-time challenge has made it difficult for ranchers to develop their retail potential without a guaranteed year-round processing schedule. Annual schedules will be offered to members first in the MPPC with no wild-game taking up hook space. Another incredible opportunity was negotiated where Montana Farmers Union and Farmers
Union Enterprises(FUE) will back the MPPC by purchasing the future facility, mobile harvest unit, and covering all renovations. These assets will be owned by a MFU/FUE holding company and leased to MPPC. Essentially, MFU and FUE will take away the up-front financial burden of purchasing the facility and, in turn, lease it to the cooperative under an agreement to allow MPPC to get its feet underneath itself. MPPC will be a focused meatprocessing operating business without the distraction of owning the facility. It truly is a win-win for all sides.
facility. MPPC has had very positive visits with the Hill County Commissioners, and they are supportive of the new opportunity for the Havre economy. Although performing renovations in winter in Havre will come with its challenges, the MPPC should be operational with minimal roadblocks.
Moving forward, standing up the meat processing facility in Havre is the principal focus now that MPPC is formed with their Board of Directors. An agreement has been made to purchase a retired Schwan’s facility in Havre. This purchase fits the MPPC footprint perfectly and expedites the timeline to move animals through the
MPPC is offering both Common and Preferred Stock. Common stock is a ONE Share per ranch/ household which entitles membership and ownership to the cooperative, voting rights on the board of directors, and priority hook space.
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The Board of Directors is Jess Alger, Eric Bergman, Brett DeBruycker, Paul Neubauer, Ben Peterson, and Walter Schweitzer. The seventh Board of Director position has been approved and will be voted by the end of November.
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