San Angelo Lamb Plant To Reopen
A Colorado family will reopen the former Ranchers Lamb of Texas plant in San Angelo, TX.
Once online, the San Angelo plant could breathe new life into America’s lamb industry after it suffered a significant set-back this summer with the bankruptcy of Mountain States Rosen, Greeley, CO.
According to the City of San Angelo, Jay and Jo Hasbrouck and family of Ault, Colorado, and Double J Meat Packing/Double J Lamb Feeders acquired the former Ranchers Lamb of Texas plant, and plan to begin the task or reopening immediately.
In an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network, Jeff Hasbrouck said the family is eager to bring another harvesting and fabrication facility to the U.S. after the loss of Mountain States Rosen, which was processing 20% of U.S. lambs.
“We also own Double J Lamb Feeders, so for our customers, we’re a custom feeding operation,” Hasbrouck said. “The [Colorado] plant that closed down processed about 350,000 lambs a year, and the big majority of those were Mountain States Lamb Co-op members. Our customer base is mostly those co-op members, and we felt like we needed to do something to keep the industry going as far as having a place to harvest and fabricate lambs.”
The family aims to begin harvesting animals in San Angelo within a few months and begin fabrication about a month later. Once the plant is running at full speed, Double J Lamb will process around 1,800 head a day, according to Hasbrouck.
Ranchers’ Lamb of Texas opened its doors in 1998, and the fabrication facility was added in 2001. The plant shut down in 2005 due to a lack of animals.
“We’re hoping to start off with 80 to 100 employees and go from there and see how it works. We’re looking forward to opening it up as soon as we can,” Hasbrouck said.
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