HARVEY - Tons of beef and bison hang in a chilled locker here, thanks largely to government-backed loans given to keep this struggling meat packaging plant and slaughterhouse out of the red.

The dozen or so jobs Central Dakota Beef provides in this Wells County town of about 2,000 are important, said Tammy Doubek, the plant supervisor. She has been with the troubled company through three makeovers, beginning in 1998.

"There should be no reason it shouldn't make it," Doubek said. "We have a very good product coming out of here."

Even in a state with 11/2 times more cattle than people, the plant has had a tough time getting enough animals. Agriculture officials say a lack of feedlots and a U.S. ban on Canadian cattle has tightened supply.

"More animals mean more jobs for more people," Doubek said.

The $2.7 million plant, about 120 miles from the Canadian border, was built seven years ago in a city-owned building. It opened first as a plant to process meat to Islamic standards. Cattle destined for the facility were not given any feed containing animal byproducts, and were slaughtered facing Mecca by a Muslim invoking the name of Allah.

Its operators at the time said the halal meat plant was dogged by debt and a drop in sales after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Two years ago, Central Dakota Beef took over the Dakota Halal Processing project, after it went bankrupt.

The idea then was to market hormone-free beef and bison raised by North Dakota ranchers to "health-conscious" consumers. That plan didn't pan out either.

Now the plant will process beef, bison and elk from all sources, said Keith DeHaan, who runs the company and Maddock-based Sheyenne Valley Marketing, which finds meat buyers, from his base in Kansas City, Mo.

"We want to be able to accommodate every customer that we can," DeHaan said.

A $300,000 refinancing package for the plant was approved at the end of April, DeHaan said. The money came from First State Bank in Harvey and the state. It was backed by a federal loan guarantee.

DeHaan said the deal, developed after months of negotiations, has enabled the company to move away from a day-to-day operation.

An equity drive also raised about $100,000, DeHaan said.

"It's looking good," said Todd Toso, vice president of the First State Bank in Harvey, the plant's only private lender. "It's the most stable the company has been."

DeHaan was a consultant for a failed cooperative venture called Dakota Beef that tried to set up a processing plant in the Dakotas about five years ago.

He said there are no guarantees with Central Dakota Beef.

"It's the best shape it's been, but we're not taking any deep breaths yet," DeHaan said. "We're still in the very embryonic stages and we're still straddled with a lot of liability."

The plant, which was designed to slaughter about 7,800 animals a year, has been slaughtering about 30 cattle a week and about a dozen bison. It also slaughters some farm-raised elk.

"There are so many ideas and so many opportunities," DeHaan said.

In the plant, knife-wielding workers wearing hair nets and bloodied lab coats cut excess fat from chunks of carcasses. The meat eventually will be packaged as individual cuts and precooked products such as sausages, jerky, roasts and ribs.

"It's physical work," said Tim Wagner, who enjoys cutting meat more than his former job as a mechanic. "Cutting T-bones makes me hungry for some."

DeHaan, Toso and Doubek believe growth in the company will come from across the border, once the ban on importing cattle from Canada into the United States is lifted.

"We want that border open desperately," DeHaan said. "We'll be flooded when the border opens."

The U.S. ban on Canadian cattle imports came after the first mad cow case there in May 2003.

State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said he believes growth in the company and the 14 others like it in the state should come from North Dakota-produced cattle.

"The cattle supply is limited - I understand that," Johnson said. "At some point, the border is going to open."

The key to a successful slaughterhouse in North Dakota, Johnson believes, is to increase the number of feedlots in the state.

Most of the state's cattle are sent to feedlots in Nebraska and Kansas to fatten before slaughter and processing, he said.

Steps have been taken to encourage more feedlots in North Dakota, such as guaranteed loans for producers willing to build them, Johnson said.

If a meat plant cannot make it in the heart of cattle country, he said, "we need to work harder at promoting livestock feeding in the state."