There’s no confirmation, but JBS’s acquisition of the Mountain States Rosen lamb processing plant at Greeley, Colorado was scheduled to close this past Friday. This plant is the second largest lamb processing facility in the United States, representing 20 percent of the country’s sheep processing capacity. JBS won the bid for the site in a bankruptcy auction in mid-July. Mountain States Rosen bought the facility five years ago from JBS. JBS plans to stop processing lambs and convert the plant to produce retail-ready beef cuts. This action would leave the sheep industry with a processing surplus of about 350,000 lambs. Agriculture groups and lawmakers are concerned about the impact on the sheep industry and are calling for an immediate investigation by the Department of Justice.
