Meat + Poultry - October 2016 - 17

Tyson's beef
battleship
The former mothership of IBP's fleet, the Dakota City
plant dwarfs the original facility in size and capacity
BY S T E V E K AY | m e a t p o u l t r y @ s o s l a n d.c o m

Editor's Note: MEAT+POULTRY's longtime
Contributing Editor Steve Kay first visited
Tyson Foods' Dakota City, Nebraska, beef
complex in 1987 and the feature story,
"Inside the Green Machine," appeared in
M+P's December 1987 issue. The story offered
a surprisingly candid peek at how then-IBP
operated. Exactly 29 years later, Kay returned
to Dakota City to tour a complex that is vastly
different from what he first saw.

T

he four-story office block is still the
same and gives you a clue that you have
arrived at Tyson's Dakota City, Nebraska,
beef complex. Then you get a glimpse of the
massive plant hidden behind white-washed
walls. But not until you pass a security desk
and walk hundreds of yards down spotless
corridors do you begin to get a sense that you
are entering the belly of a giant.
The complex celebrated its 50th year
of operations on Sept. 2 with a picnic for
employees and invited guests. Three days
earlier, the author joined Jason Poole, complex
manager, and Dan Brooks, Tyson senior
vice president and general manager of Beef
Operations, on a private tour.
IBP and now Tyson Fresh Meats have
always regarded the complex as its flagship
beef plant. In M+P's 1987 coverage of the plant,
it was described as the battleship of the IBP
fleet. The plant then covered 600,000 sq. ft.
and dominated the nearby community and the
greater Sioux City, Iowa, metropolitan area.
Today, the complex is a startling three
times larger, so it might be more appropriate

to call it an aircraft carrier. The complex has
expanded from 18 acres on the ground to
29 acres. More impressively, the area under
roof covers 42 acres and 1.8 million sq. ft.
To achieve this and to install the very latest
technologies in worker safety, ergonomics
and food safety, Tyson Foods has spent $237
million in the past 10 years. Tyson Fresh Meats'
President Steve Stouffer could thus be forgiven
for telling the picnic crowd that the complex
is "the best, biggest and most important beef
plant in the entire world."
The plant dwarfs its neighborhood more
than ever. Dakota City has a population of
about 1,900. The complex employs 4,800
people at the plant and in the four-story office.
Its annual payroll is $148 million. It locally
spent $50 million in fiscal 2015, excluding
livestock purchases. Tyson spent more than
$2.5 billion in 2015 to buy area cattle to supply
the plant.

"The best,
biggest
and most
important beef
plant in the
entire world."
- STEVE STOUFFER

THEN AND NOW
IBP began construction of the plant in 1964. Its
total sales that year were a mere $181 million.
Today, Tyson's beef business generates more
than $17 billion in sales. But IBP designed
the plant to be a monster and to give it a
big advantage over its competitors in the
production of boxed beef. Plant operations
began on Feb. 18, 1966, and it was soon
harvesting 12,000 cattle per week. That same
year, IBP moved its corporate headquarters to
Dakota City from Denison, Iowa, where the
company had opened its first plant in 1961.
Some basic facts give an initial idea of
the size of the complex. Tyson spent three

Jason Poole (left), complex
manager and Steve
Stouffer, Tyson Fresh
Meats' president, at Tyson's
Dakota City, Nebraska,
beef processing plant.

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