A massive new abattoir is to be built in the United States, with the capacity to process 8000 cattle per day.

Sited in the state of South Dakota, the slaughterhouse will be the biggest in North America and will cost an estimated $1.1bn to build by time is it running in 2026.

The project is being run by Kingsbury and Associates and Sirius Realty, both run by Megan Kingsbury of one of the rural state's ranching families. She told Reuters she expects construction on the plant to begin in 2023 and to take three years.

The US beef supply chain has been in the spotlight after Covid-19 outbreaks temporarily shut slaughterhouses in early 2020, leaving farmers with nowhere to deliver cattle and consumers facing meat shortages.

The ‘big four’ companies – Cargill, Tyson Foods Inc, JBS SA, and National Beef Packing Co – slaughter about 85% of all US fed cattle, according to industry data. The administration has blamed a lack of competition in the sector for rising food prices.

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Once complete, Kingsbury's project would slaughter around 1000 more cattle per day than the current top processor, a Tyson's plant in southeastern South Dakota.

"That's the kind of investment the industry is going to need in the coming years," said Derrell Peel, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University.

But some industry analysts said the plant may struggle to find labour, develop supply chain relationships from scratch, and be profitable amid tighter cattle supplies. Currently cattle farmers have reduced the size of the US herd due to historic drought and low profitability, leaving fewer cattle for processors to slaughter.

Ms Kingsbury said she was confident the new plant will overcome tight cattle supplies and labour issues. The plant aims to employ 2500 people and use advanced technology seen in Europe and Asia to process beef with less labour, she said.