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The northern South Dakota city of Aberdeen has reduced the number of cattle that a new processing plant is allowed to slaughter because Northern Beef Packers has fallen behind on installing wastewater equipment.
The plant is restricted to 125 cattle per day. It had been allowed to slaughter up to 500 animals daily.
The city cleared the plant for testing and limited production on Oct. 16, allowing it to gradually increase production as long as it continued to pass inspections. Plant officials have not said how many cattle they are actually processing.
The $109 million plant that was delayed by problems including financial issues, flooding and lawsuits eventually will process 1,500 cattle per day from the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.