Billy Madison will soon open his new business venture in Bourbon County, Spring Hill Pork Processors.
The pork processing plant will be located on 47 acres south of the Kansas Department of Transportation facility on Hwy. 69 south of the LaRoche Ball Park.
The business will manufacture pork for the Asian and Hispanic markets, Madison said.
The business will employ 15-30 people, and depending on experience, wages will start at $14 an hour.
“If you can bone meat, $18-20 an hour, depending on experience is our starting wage,” Madison said.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector will be on-site every day, as required by law.
“The U.S. government provides their pay (for the inspector), we pay overtime if we have overtime,” he said.
“There are places in big towns where there are Asian and Hispanic markets,” he said. “It’s all in how you cut the pig up. Both like the skin left of the pig.” He said the meat cuts are a little different as well.
“We box a lot of meat and send it to meat markets, like Fanestil Meats in Emporia,” he said.
Madison is not sure how long the process will take to break ground at the site but estimates approximately three months.
The plant will not be a smell to the surrounding area, he said.
“There is no smell,” he said. “People don’t understand the process. We are not raising hogs (at the site).”
“All the (Bourbon County) commissioners came to our plant in Spring Hill,” he said. “They found out it doesn’t smell.”
The estimated investment in the plant will be over $2 million dollars by Madison, he said.
“We don’t have the numbers yet,” he said. “The bidding process is quite in-depth.”
Billy and his wife, Becky are the sole owners of the processing plant.
They live five miles south of Louisburg, but Billy lived in Fort Scott for a period of his early life.
He still has family who lives here.
“My dad, Warren, still lives there and my Uncle Frank Madison is a cattle rancher there.”