Page 35 - MWC 10-5-2023s

Packer Capacity By Greg Henderson The Midwest Cattleman · October 5, 2023 · P35

The global COVID-19 cattle producers toward fi- building their own packing creased packing capacity has
pandemic provided histor- nancial ruin. Harvest-ready plants, bypassing the bottle- begun. At least eight projects
ic windfall profits for beef cattle backed up in feedlots necks and keeping the profits that have the potential to add
packers, but at its peak, the as packers were banking ob- for themselves. 11,700 head to daily harvest
packing industry was a bot- scene profits. That scenario Fast-forward three years capacity are in various stag-
tleneck that drove many spurred producers to explore and progress toward in- es of completion. The three
smallest of those projects, all
with a daily harvest of 500
head, are operating now.

BEEF PLANT PROJECTS

TruWest Beef
Jerome, Idaho| 500

InterMountain Packing
Idaho Falls, Idaho | 500

TruWest Beef, a division of
AgriBeef, and Intermountain
Packing, both began opera-
tions last year.

Sustainable Beef, LLC
North Platte, Neb. | 1,500

Sustainable Beef LLC
broke ground on its $325
million project in October of
last year and expects to open

continued on page 36

Bextra Haysaving
Easy Way
Bale Feeder
Cattle Saver

Maximize Your
Feed Dollars
by Minimizing Loadbars for Chutes EID Tag Readers
Your Feed Loss

11025 OO HWY. - BOONVILLE, MO