It’s only been running since May 2017, but the $100 million CS Beef Packers plant constructed near Kuna, ID, southwest of Boise already employs 625 workers and processes 1,350 head of cattle each day. As one of the nation’s newest, most modern meat packing and rendering enterprises, CS Beef is ambitiously ramping up operations.
Developed as a joint venture between Caviness Beef Packers of Texas and the J.R. Simplot Co. of Idaho, the 400,000-square-foot, world-class plant incorporates state-of-the-art designs and processing technologies to humanely and safely harvest cull cows and bulls from dairy farms and cattle ranches in the Intermountain West—within a radius of 600 miles. It’s estimated there are more than 600,000 dairy cows and more than 600,000 beef cows in the region.
CS Beef Plant Manager Steve Cherry told the Western Livestock Journal that his company is gearing to ultimately process 1,700 head per day and hire between 650 and 700 people, easily making it Kuna’s largest employer and creating a profound economic impact in the region.
“The future is very bright. This plant is the best designed beef plant in the country.” — Steve Cherry
As he was growing up in Eastern Oregon’s Jordan Valley, Cherry said Kuna’s population averaged 1,500, but it now stands at 15,000 and is projected to surge to 30,000 in the next five years. It’s been quite an awakening for the formerly sleepy little rural town tucked away from the pulsating, congested Interstate 84 corridor linking Boise and Nampa via Meridian.
“The labor piece has definitely been the most challenging,” Cherry said, noting all of the plant’s construction and environmental permits are in place. He commended his company’s smooth working relations with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ), the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare and Ada County.
The Kuna area was selected for the major beef packing operation because of its strategic location not far from I-84 and its sprawling, remote land and availability of water. CS Beef uses a million gallons of water per day and operates its own waste water treatment plant on site, emphasizing sustainability. The waste water is recycled to grow alfalfa, corn, and triticale (a hybrid grain crossing wheat and rye) on 1,200 acres.
As part of its waste water treatment process, methane gas is captured to run boilers. CS Beef recently requested from IDEQ permission to modify an air quality permit to allow the increase of bio gas combusted in the boilers. It’s in the process of adding a grinding facility that would be operating later this year, Cherry said.
“The future is very bright. This plant is the best designed beef plant in the country. It’s a great location from a cattle supply standpoint and from a market standpoint. There’s no other operation like us anywhere close to us,” Cherry said. “We have changed the industry dynamic. From the minute we opened, we’ve had an impact on the beef industry. … It’s definitely had an impact.”
CS Beef’s cattle comes from Utah, the West Coast, Montana and Wyoming, in addition to large volumes from Idaho. Cherry estimates 40 percent of the cattle processed at the plant are milk cows and 60 percent beef cows. CS Beef also plans to tap into fat fed cattle herds at Simplot Land & Livestock’s huge feedlot at Grand View, ID, about 45 miles southeast of Kuna, where about 110,000 head of livestock can be kept.
“Initially, we’ve been kind of ‘piggy backing’ off Caviness’ sales and marketing team built the last 40 years—as a ‘default setting,’ so to speak,” Cherry said, stressing that CS Beef’s own buyers now are aggressively developing long-term relationships with cattle producers, dairy operators and customers throughout its territory. “We’re reaching every market that’s available to us.”
Both Caviness and Simplot are well-established, family-owned businesses with international operations. Caviness operates processing plants at Amarillo and Hereford, TX. Boise-based Simplot is a giant agribusiness corporation that integrates farming, ranching, cattle feeding, seed production, fertilizer manufacturing and frozen food processing, specializing in potatoes.
Food safety, animal care, employee safety and efficiently running cattle through the plant are top priorities for CS Beef, Cherry said. “It’s part of our overall philosophy. We strive to be very good stewards of not only the land, but all resources for which we are responsible, including animals. They were put on the earth for a purpose. It’s our job to take care of them.”
Bambi Watkins, CS Beef’s yards superintendent, is one of only a few women who holds an animal handling leadership role in the livestock industry, Cherry noted.
Watkins told WLJ she ensures that cattle arriving at the CS Beef plant are humanely treated from start to finish in the packing process—or from where they are unloaded to the kill floor. Company employees unload the cattle themselves to ensure they are handled properly and ownership is confirmed.
“I watch everybody work the cattle and follow our guidelines,” Watkins said. “It’s all about organizing and getting everything written down as we go so things don’t go wrong.”
[inline_image file=”79ed08f9061e0423e3428fb9cfa843ed.jpg” caption=”An aerial photo of the CS Beef Packers facility in Kuna, ID.”]
All of the animals are inspected when they arrive by USDA veterinarians looking for any signs of sickness to ensure the cattle are wholesome, healthy animals, she emphasized.
After the cows or bulls are inspected outside the plant, they are moved into the plant in single file as they circle gently and head gradually toward “knock boxes” where they are painlessly rendered brain dead by captive bolt guns and summarily bled.
CS Beef carefully incorporated “Temple Grandin” standards in the design of its plant to humanely minimize frightening or agitating cattle about to be slaughtered by including soft corners and curves instead of hard right angles in holding pens and elsewhere. Lighting also is softened so cows are kept calm and not spooked or caused to balk as they proceed through the plant.
[inline_image file=”f56049f24bf62fc62af5a70725a5c3f3.jpg” caption=”Bambi Watkins (left) and Dr. Temple Grandin at the CS Beef Packers facility. Watkins is the yards superintendent, ensuring that the cattle are handled humanely throughout the entire process. The facility was designed using Grandin’s standards for slaughter facilities, including using soft corners and curves in the holding pens as well as an attention to light changes that might make cattle nervous.”]
Grandin is an autistic Colorado State University animal science professor renowned in the livestock industry for designing meat handling facilities. When she inspected the CS Beef plant prior to its opening and gave her blessing on its pens, she and Watkins hit it off very well, Cherry mentioned.
“This plant was a thought-out design process. It was an idea that had a building built around it. Every other beef plant has had existing plant processes adapted to the building. This is the opposite,” he said, adding the plant’s layout and design distinguish it from other packing plants. Rail heights and stand widths throughout the building, spray and wash cabinets, and trimming stations make it easier to use food safety interventions, Cherry said.
The L-shaped precast concrete CS Beef plant is the 13th and largest beef processing plant to be designed and constructed by Schmeeckle Brothers Construction Co. of Fort Morgan, CO.
Onsite USDA inspectors with final say ensure pathogens are not introduced to the meat post mortem as hides are removed and carcasses are rendered before going to coolers where they are chilled to 32-38 degrees Fahrenheit for 24-48 hours before going to the fabrication floor where they are disassembled. Hides have all flesh removed from the inside and are kept in a salt brine for 24 hours, folded, sorted, stacked on pallets, and removed by Southwest Hides.
CS Beef’s prepackaged boxed beef is marketed toward food service suppliers and retail outlets initially under Caviness brand names, including Top Shelf, Palo Duro, and Farm Fresh.
“Everybody here is extremely excited to be part of this brand new plant. We all feel blessed to be part of it,” Cherry said, adding if founder J.R. Simplot, who died in 2008 at the age of 99, could see the CS Beef operation, “he would be beaming from ear to ear.” — Mark Mendiola, WLJ correspondent
