CALF_News_Oct_Nov_2018

32 CALF News • October | November 2018 • www.calfnews.net A s the head cattle buyer for a regional packer in Roswell and Amarillo in the late 1950s, Pete Cavi- ness dreamed of running his own beef- processing plant. He made it happen in 1962 when he bought a small custom-kill company in Hereford, Texas. Caviness Beef Packers was born. And over five decades later, the family opera- tion has grown from processing about 60 per day to one that harvests up to 1,800 head. Once a new expansion is completed next fall, it will harvest 2,600 head and employ some 1,400 people. Located about five miles southwest of Hereford, Caviness is in its third genera- tion of family members running the ultra- modern beef-processing facility. Pete’s son, Terry Caviness, is CEO. His sons, Trevor, president, and Regan, vice president, are right there with him in running a plant that currently processes approximately 1,800 cattle per day. “We’ve always been primarily a cow and bull processor,” Terry says. “My dad’s early operation handled 60-70 head per day. The plant kept growing from there and eventually was processing about 700 head.” The company outgrew the original location located closer to Her- eford. In 2005, construction was completed on its new location.“The old plant had a gravity rail on the kill floor,” Terry says.“The new loca- tion had the most advanced, high-tech slaughter handling equipment available. We quickly expanded our capacity to about 950 head. It has grown from that to our current capacity.” Further advancements included the addition of a new fabrication floor.“This expansion complemented the harvest facility and allows us to efficiently produce wholesome beef products meeting or exceeding the requirements of our customers,” Trevor says. “Most plants have rebuilt their harvest floor to have the latest food safety innovations,” Regan adds.“We had that in mind when we built this plant in 2005. We built the design to provide a good flow for fabri- cation and the ultimate in food safety.” In 2010, rendering and hide operations were added. In August of this year, Caviness announced it would increase its capacity to handle an additional 800 head. Construction is set to begin this October. The expansion will add another 600 jobs to the already strong workforce of more than 800. Completion is planned for October 2019. The expansion will include additional carcass coolers, box coolers, freezers, a larger rendering cooker and additions to hide processing, and storage and dry storage facilities. Construction will also include Caviness Beef Packers Third-Generation Family Adds Capacity, Boosts WTAMU, TTU Ag Programs By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor Regan, Terry and Trevor Caviness are major supporters of both the WTAMU ag sciences center and the proposed Texas Tech University veterinary school in Amarillo. Regan, Terry and Trevor Caviness outside their Hereford plant that will see its capacity increase from 1,800 to 2,600 with new expansion that begins this fall.