Leveraging Nolan Ryan’s popularity as a baseball legend and his passion for the beef business, the team at Nolan Ryan’s All-Natural Beef are getting a head start on grilling season by launching Nolan Ryan’s Beef and Baseball Bonanza.

Progress Energy Carolinas has signed a contract with Poultry Power USA to purchase the output of a poultry waste-to-biogas energy plant, to be located in Montgomery County, N.C. Poultry Power USA will build, own and operate the 36-megawatt (MW) power plant and sell the electricity to the utility for use with its customers, reports the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Cargill reported $763 million in earnings from continuing operations in the fiscal 2011 third quarter ended Feb. 28, up 30 percent from $588 million in the same period a year ago.

Butterball LLC celebrated food safety month through a children’s coloring contest and a series of employee challenges at the company’s Mount Olive, N.C. facility.

Just in time for barbeque season, Pat Boone All-American Meats announced the addition of American-Style Kobe Beef Hot Dogs and Gourmet Burgers to its product line up, along with a new collection of Pat's Signature Sampler Packs.

Firehouse Subs announced the signing of nine Area Representative development agreements totaling 429 restaurants to open over the next several years.

Sea Best, a Beaver Street Fisheries brand that provides frozen fish and seafood to grocery stores and restaurants coast to coast, has announced the expansion of its product line with the addition of several new items.

XL Four Star Beef Inc. said Friday that it will close its Nampa, Idaho, beef processing plant at the beginning of June. The plant employs more than 500 people, reports the Idaho Statesman.

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of the employees at Creekstone Farm's Arkansas City, Kan., facility is seeking unpaid wages and overtime. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court names employees Paz Sanchez and Elvis Posadas as the representative plaintiffs and seeks to include anyone who worked at the facility in the past three years.

The North American Meat Processors Association has confirmed that FSIS headquarters yesterday told all district managers that all inspectors in the plant, all front line supervisors, and all EAIO’s are deemed “essential employees” and should work as usual if the federal government shuts down at midnight Friday.