Tight Cattle Supply Prompts Cargill to Close Plainview, Texas Plant
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
Cargill Inc. announced on Thursday, that it plans close its Plainview, Texas plant effective Feb. 1, 2013. The company said that the tight cattle supply and years of drought were the driving factors for the scheduled closer.
“The decision to idle our Plainview beef processing plant was a difficult and painful one to make and was made only after we conducted an exhaustive analysis of the regional cattle supply and processing capacity situation in North America," said John Keating, president of Cargill Beef, based in Wichita, Kansas.
The beef cattle herd experienced its seventh straight year of liquidation in 2012, the US now has its smallest herd size since 1952.
Cargill will continue operations in Friona, Texas; Dodge City, Kansas, ., and Fort Morgan, Colorado. The company’s other beef cattle plants located in other parts of the US and Canada will not be affected.
The closing announcement will affect 2,000 jobs.