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Milo meat locker12/31/2023 ![]() “Our sales tax numbers are off the charts high,” Dinkel said. The combination of the re-opened locker plant, and having Fort Riley nearby have both contributed dramatically to the local economy this year. ![]() Fort Riley’s website says there are approximately 15,000 active duty service members with more than 18,000 family members, 29,000 veterans and retirees and 5,600 civilian employees who live in the region and/or work at the post. Army installation and home of the 1st Infantry Division nearby. Junction City is also proud to have Fort Riley. “We’re considered an essential business, and we have different regulations.” I’m waiting for plants in the whole region to get caught up.” Then, he’ll figure out the next plan, going forward.Īlong with keeping up with demand for meat processing, Dieckman is also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and making sure workers are protected. As far as any other plans, Dieckman said, “This is it for now. The plan is to keep both processing plants. The newly re-opened Junction City plant has about 6,000 square feet. The Clay Center locker plant has 9,000 square feet including the additions on the original building. We will hire more people.”Ĭurrently, to keep up with the demand for processing beef at both of their locations, some employees are traveling back and forth from one plant to the other. “But, we will have more jobs when that opens. “It’s just been incredibly busy,” said Dieckmann. However, due to so many bookings, those additions are temporarily on hold. Other plans for the Clay Center location are adding a slaughterhouse floor, new offices and a processed product and retail store, where beef jerky, summer sausage and bratwurst will be sold. “We’re actually not even going to do deer processing now. “Meat lockers usually made a big living processing deer in October and November.”įor the immediate future local deer hunters will have to find other means of processing their prey. “I am hearing however, how deer hunters are having difficulty getting their deer processed,” Dinkel said. He is also an auctioneer on weekends and a former county agent with an animal sciences degree, has 250 employees and now more of them are looking to buy a half of beef, which they can have done right at home, said Dinkel, who grew up on a cattle operation and raised hogs. Also, it’s great for people who want to buy cattle by the half, or have one harvested. “It’s great to have that many more jobs, especially in the middle of a pandemic. “We’re glad they re-opened,” said Allen Dinkel, Junction City manager. We had been at 35 employees before we re-opened the second plant. “With all the part-time help, we have over 50 employees. 26, even after hiring an additional 20 people. “We’re still overwhelmed now,” he added on Oct. “We’re overwhelmed,” Dieckman said back in May, in the midst of the pandemic peak. The new again facility, which was outfitted over the past few months with all new updated refrigeration systems, is now open and in full operation. ![]() Suddenly, the Clay Center plant was instantly booked up well into 2021, with a waiting list into 2022, as were other locker plants in the region and across the country. The need for increased processing space became apparent during the peak of COVID, when business at the Clay Center plant rapidly increased. ![]() That’s what it’s been like to own a beef processing facility, to get swamped with phone calls, then to open a second locker plant, and try to outpace yourself to meet public demand for beef during the pandemic.Īfter getting deluged with business and daily racing against the clock to accommodate beef customers, owner Brad Dieckmann at the Clay Center (Kansas) Locker Plant recently opened his second processing plant located just 35-minutes away in Junction City, Kan., called the Clay Center Locker JC Plant. We re-opened the other processing plant, and it’s still busy.” “It’s overwhelming, it’s tough to catch up. Beef carcasses are hung in the cooler at the new Junction City, Kan., locker plant, officially called Clay Center Locker JC Plant.
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