PLEASANT HOPE, MO. — Nextgen Cattle Co. and its partners recently announced that a 100,000-square-foot beef processing plant, Missouri Prime Beef Packers, would begin production in January 2021. 

The facility was previously operated as a pork processing plant under the name Moon Ridge Foods. The company said the facility is undergoing upgrades and modifications for both fed and non-fed beef cattle. 

Derek Thompson and Stacy Davies are two of the co-owners of Missouri Prime Beef Packers. Nick Paschkov will serve as chief operating officer.

“The ownership has shown their commitment to the longevity and success of this plant by empowering us to use our experience to design a state-of-the-art beef processing plant that will be a model for future facilities,” Paschkov said. “This company emphasizes food and employee safety and product quality over volume production, and our design accounts for that.”

Missouri Prime Beef Packers is expecting to process 500 head of cattle per day. The company says the plant size is ideal for processing a quality beef product. 

“We are not a big plant that is too solely focused on the number of head processed per hour,” said Mike Schmeling, director of operations at Missouri Prime. “We are flexible. We can respond to market changes, consumer demands, or other unexpected factors like COVID-19 as well as, if not better than, anyone in the industry.”

Job fairs will be held for open positions from Jan. 7 to Jan. 20. More information can be found here.