JEROME, Idaho — Boise-based Agri Beef is partnering with ranchers in a new venture, True West Beef, to process beef at a new state-of-the-art facility, officials said during a press conference on Friday.

Agri Beef has operated the Washington Beef processing plant in Toppenish, Wash., since 2003 and has focused on working with ranchers to differentiate its high-quality products. The Jerome plant will continue that mission, said Jay Theiler, Agri Beef executive vice president of strategy and public relations.

Production will support the company’s Snake River Farms and Double R Ranch brands. The company also produces beef under its St. Helen’s Beef and Rancho El Oro brands, as well as Kurobuta pork under the Snake River Farms brand.

Agri Beef is partnering with respected cattle producers around the West as equity partners, Theiler said.

True West is a new business model and a way to expand processing to meet growing demand. Agri Beef products are available across the country and the globe.

The plant will employ about 400 people, with an annual payroll of $21 million. It will initially process 500 head a day. The number of ranching partners has not yet been determined.

“There are a lot more steps to go through,” he said.

The company did not release any other details, with a company spokesman telling Capital Press more would be released as the project progresses.

A Jerome County Planning and Zoning spokeswoman said the agency has not yet received an application from the company.

Larry Hall, executive director of Jerome 20/20, a local economic development organization, said the organization has been putting together the background needed for the application.

It could be submitted as early as Aug. 31, he told Capital Press.

The company made the choice to announce the venture before receiving a special use permit but feels reasonably confident it will come through, he said. It wanted to go ahead and announce and let people talk about it; it’s pretty tough staying quiet about a venture like that, he said.

About 400 acres have been purchased by ZV Trust, a subsidiary of Agri Beef, and will be transferred to True West. The location is east of the Jerome airport on the east side of Highway 93. The plant will be nearly 240,000 square feet, he said.

Jerome County has about 80,000 head of beef cattle, and producers want to grow their herds to be part of the new venture, he said.

Robert Rebholtz Jr., Agri Beef president and CEO, said the project is all about sustainability and the viability of ranchers in the West, and it will offer ranchers more processing options — one of the newest policy goals of National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, he said.

The plant will be small and flexible in scale, according to the company.

Gov. Brad Little said the new facility for an incredible Idaho-based company is “very, very welcome.”

The new plant will produce value-added products that will make Idaho producers more competitive. The company provides good jobs and is a good environmental steward, he said.

“This company epitomizes all the things you want. I couldn’t be happier,” he said.