Tester secures $450,000 for meat processing facility in Ekalaka

As part of his ongoing push to support Montana small businesses and agriculture producers, Senator Tester secured $450,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for OCC Legacy Cuts in Ekalaka, Montana. This funding is part of more than $7.8 million in ARPA funding Tester secured for 30 Montana small businesses, including 17 meat processing projects, and resources for three new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified meat processing facilities.

“Consolidation in the meat packing industry is hurting our ranchers, small processors, and consumers, and it’s critical that we support small businesses right here in Montana,” said Tester. “I’m proud to have secured these American Rescue Plan resources for OCC Legacy Cuts in Carter County to expand their operations, and look forward to seeing increased competition, protection for producers, and lower costs for consumers.”

Tester helped negotiate the ARPA, which provided this funding, and he was the only Montana statewide official who supported the legislation.

OCC Legacy Cuts is owned and operated by Ty and Sarina O’Connor with assistance from their eight children. They plan to use their funds to expand their USDA/Certified Organic meat processing facility.

In 2020, Tester held hundreds of meetings with Montana's workers, small business owners, frontline health care workers, educators, Tribes, and local officials to solicit input about what Montanans need to make it through the pandemic. Tester used that input to help craft the American Rescue Plan, which provided $20 billion in vaccine funding, $382 million for Montana K-12 schools, and billions for small businesses, rural hospitals and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

As the only working farmer in the U.S. Senate, Tester has long been an advocate for increased market transparency and more competitive practices for Montana producers. He introduced his bipartisan Meatpacking Special Investigator Act which will create a new dedicated office within the Department of Agriculture's Packers and Stockyards Division, addressing anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries; legislation to return fairness to cattle pricing and help ensure Montana ranchers have certainty at the farm gate; and legislation to reinstate Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL), to ensure that only beef raised in the United States is labeled “Product of the USA.”