Nebraska Firm To Build New Packing Plant
A group of Nebraska cattlemen and businessmen announced plans to launch a new beef packing and processing facility in North Platte. Sustainable Beef LLC will build a $300 million, 300,000-square-foot plant about a mile from Interstate 80’s Exit 179 in west-central Nebraska.
“We have seen tremendous support from the cattle industry and the city of North Platte in bringing the idea of more capacity to the beef industry,” said David Briggs, chief executive officer for Sustainable Beef. “The team we have put together to help us build this new plant is top notch and committed to Nebraska beef and our tag line; Right People – Right Place – Right Time.”
At a press conference last week in North Platte, Briggs said the group expects to break ground in the fall of 2021 and operations to begin in 2023. The new facility expects to process about 400,000 cattle per year and employ about 875 people with an average annual salary of $50,000.
The plant could pump up to $1 billion annually into Lincoln County, Briggs said, while offering producers new profit opportunities and addressing nationwide supply issues exposed by COVID-19.
“We’re not looking to take on the Big Four packers,” McPherson County rancher Rusty Kemp, another firm co-organizer said, according to the North Platte Telegraph. “But there’s a lot of room to operate between a 5,000-head-a-day plant and your local butcher.”
The firm has been organized on a “modified cooperative” model with cattle producers who subscribe their beef for slaughter in North Platte also receiving profits from their sale. About 30% of the plant’s production would be sold internationally.
Briggs said Sustainable Beef will use the latest technologies to control odor and limit environmental impact. He said the facility will capture methane emissions to supply 70% to 80% of the plant’s power and thermal oxidizers and scrubbers will be used to control the plant’s odor.
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