NORTH PLATTE, NEB. — Sustainable Beef LLC celebrated the groundbreaking of its $325 million beef processing facility in North Platte, Neb., which is expected to begin operating in late 2024.

The facility will be over 500,000 square feet with capacity to process more than 1,500 cattle per day and up to 100,000 per year once fully operational. Sustainable Beef projected it will create 875 jobs. 

Funding for construction is aided by $20 million of Nebraska’s American Rescue Act funds and through a recent partnership with Walmart.

Walmart will help bring beef from the North Platte facility to consumers nationwide once the plant begins operations. As part of the equity investment, Walmart will have representation on Sustainable Beef’s board of directors.

The beef processor has committed to following Walmart’s Position on Antibiotics in Animals, which requires suppliers to adopt and implement the American Veterinary Medical Association Judicious Use Principles of Antimicrobials.

“We set out on a journey two years ago to create a new beef processing plant to add some capacity to the industry and provide an opportunity for producers to integrate their business of raising quality cattle with the beef processing portion of the industry and do it in a sustainable manner,” said David Briggs, chief executive officer of Sustainable Beef. “During this journey we found that Sustainable Beef and Walmart aligned on continuing to improve how we care for our animals and crops and provide consumers the positive experience of enjoying quality beef.”

Sustainable is spearheaded by a group of Nebraska ranchers, who, according to the Office of Gov. Pete Ricketts, decided to form a producer-owned processing plant to combat consolidation in the meat industry.