Prestage Foods making big progress

The $275 million construction project of Prestage Foods of Iowa is underway just five miles south of Eagle Grove. What once used to be 160 acres of farmland is now transforming into a 650,000 square foot pork processing plant that will directly employ more than 1,000 people.

Since April, crews have been working 10 - 12 hour days. At first glance to the average person, it may not look like much more has been done other than digging up the dirt.

“You just haven’t seen anything yet because it’s all been happening underground,” said Jere Null, Prestage chief operating officer.

Some of that underground work includes the digging of the first of two wells. This 1,980 foot (200 stories) deep well will provide the facility with 2,000 gallons of water per minute. Put another way, the completed well will be able to fill an Olympic size swimming pool (660,000 gallons of water) in only 5.5 hours. Only one well is completed, the other will be started after the testing of the first well.

Read the full article in the August 10 edition of the Eagle.