For Joe Rotta, a hog farmer in Merrill, a new hog processing facility expected to op­­en in Sioux City in 2017 means fewer miles to truck his hogs to market and a lower cost to get them there.

Rotta currently sells his market hogs to the Triumph Foods processing facility in St. Joseph, Missouri, nearly 500 miles round-trip from his farm.

"It’s $1,200 to run a semi down there," said Rotta, the Plymouth County Farm Bureau president and member of the Iowa Pork Producers Association board of directors. "For me, being 25 miles away from the new plant, that’s going to be quite a savings."

Rotta said he markets about 22,000 hogs per year. He’s also a part owner of a sow unit where he sources pigs and custom feeds some pigs,...