Tyson Foods is closing its Eagle Mountain meat processing plant and laying off hundreds of Utah workers as the company restructures to address a historic cattle shortage.

The Arkansas-based food giant announced the layoffs Thursday. The Utah County plant, at 3817 N. Tyson Parkway, opened in 2021 to meet “growing demand,” the company said at the time.

At least 723 workers at the Eagle Mountain plant will lose their jobs, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (or WARN) notice filed Thursday with the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

The WARN Act requires Utah employers to provide at least a 60-day notice before a mass layoff, plant closure or relocation.

“Today was a very difficult day at work,” one Tyson Foods employee shared on Facebook late Thursday. She said workers were told the Eagle Mountain facility will permanently close on or around Oct. 12.

“Honestly, I’m still trying to process it,” she wrote. “I’m so sad — not only because I will miss my job, but because I will miss the people who made these five years so special.”

Tyson said the decision to close the Utah plant comes as the U.S. faces one of the “most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced.”

Ranchers are retaining fewer female cattle for breeding, which required “strategic action,” the company said, citing cattle inventory data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that suggests cattle supply constraints are likely to continue.

“Tyson Foods recognizes the impact these decisions have on team members and communities,” the company wrote in a news release, adding that it plans to help affected employees apply for open positions at other Tyson Foods facilities.

Tyson Foods is also closing its beef plant in Illinois and looking to sell another facility in Washington, according to the news release.

The Eagle Mountain plant is a case-ready facility, where beef and pork are cut, weighed and packaged into portions for grocery store shelves, according to the company’s website.

Before construction, Tyson Foods said it projected the plant to provide an annual local payroll of $44 million. The company expected to initially offer about 800 jobs at the plant and up to 1,200 jobs within its first three years.

The state offered Tyson Foods tax incentives in 2019 to help bring the plant and its jobs to Eagle Mountain, according to the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity.

The deal called for the company to create 500 high-paying jobs and invest about $286 million into the plant; Tyson Foods planned to invest about $300 million.

The state estimated the project would generate nearly $27.8 million in new state tax revenue over the deal’s 10-year lifespan.

In return, over the same decade, Tyson Foods would be able to earn up to about $5.3 million in state tax credits. The economic development office still lists the deal as active; Tyson Foods has received between 25% and 50% of the tax credit it was eligible for.