Tyson Foods is closing its plant in Lexington, Nebraska, in an effort to right-size the company’s business. Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen said it’s a hard thing for the company’s employees, and it was a difficult decision.
“I think for anybody to think that they’ve made that decision lightly and without any care is just not the way it is. However, what’s really important is we’ve got to pick up the pieces and work together, because we have a lot of great families in Lexington. Hey, Lexington is an All-American city. In the 70s, it was recognized as the All-American city. In my view of the world, all the people that I know in Dawson County are exactly that way. And so, we’ve got to work hard to figure out how to make some things happen.”
Despite the obvious blow to Nebraska agriculture, Pillen said the news isn’t all bad for the state’s cattle producers.
“The good news for the Nebraska cattlemen is we have a new producer-owned plant that’s ramping up sustainable beef in North Platte. We’ll be able to be strengthened and create great opportunities for the people. The number that I’ve gotten from sustainable beef is like 35 percent of the new workforce is already from Lexington, and they’ll be able to have more, so that’s going to be a good step. The beef plant in Hastings, that plant is going to go from 500 head to 1,200 head, providing kosher beef for Israel and Jewish communities, so those are good news with growth.”
Pillen said Nebraska is working on all possible options to help fill in the gap left by the plant closure.
“I talked to lots of cattlemen. There are a lot of cattlemen who would really, really like to be involved in a possible purchase of the plant and keep it running. Speeding up and making the sustainable beef plant be able to take care of more processing. There could be possibilities. Everything’s on the table. We’re all in the early exploration stages of making that happen, so to get into the details publicly certainly wouldn’t be appropriate, but you can be rest assured that there’s everything on the table to be able to create opportunity.”