Cargill Plans Nearly $90 Million Upgrade to Fort Morgan, Colorado, Beef Plant
Cargill will invest nearly $90 million in automation and new technology to upgrade its Fort Morgan, Colo., beef-processing plant over the next several years. The project will help improve operational efficiency, increase yield and enhance employee safety and inclusion, and is part of the company’s “Factory of the Future” initiative. The new spending plan builds upon the nearly $24 million in capital spent to upgrade Fort Morgan since 2021, the company noted.
Highlighting the project will be implementation of the company’s proprietary, patent-pending computer vision technology, called CarVe, which measures red meat yield in real time to offer instant insights into cutting techniques and results. Line managers and employees can then take that feedback and apply it to improve form and technique in a much quicker fashion.
Jarrod Gillig, senior vice president of Cargill’s North American Beef business, explained in the news release why CarVe matters.
“Now, we’re making decisions in the moment and saving product that would’ve been lost,” Gillig stated. “By applying smart technology to the problem, we’re getting more meat from every animal, reducing waste, and making protein production more efficient and sustainable from start to finish.”
With CarVe, Cargill is able to provide even more meat to the food system, and yield becomes even more important in this day and age, when the U.S. cattle supply is at its lowest level in years.
In addition, Cargill continues to support the Fort Morgan community, having backed a $40 million housing development project to help address a regional housing shortage and give its employees a shot at finding a good home nearby. Cargill also has provided more than $500,000 in grants to local organizations as well.
