'Financially unstable' Wolf Pack Meats to close; ranchers fear for future of Nevada agriculture
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Tue, 09/20/2022 - 10:27am
Wolf Pack Meats, the only USDA-certified meat processing facility for the region, will be temporarily stopping operations beginning Oct. 31, 2022.
According to Shauna Lemieux, Director of Marketing for UNR’s College of Agriculture, the closure is occurring due to financial instability, and the University will be attempting to secure an outside vendor to take over the production operation.
Lemieux stated that the facility will be reopening in early 2023.
“The temporary closure will allow for facility maintenance,” said Lemieux. “These facility improvements combined with a new production operations vendor will allow Wolf Pack Meats to reopen as a more robust facility that is better able to meet the needs of Nevada’s ranching community, increasing production capacity and turnaround time.”
However, a source who wished not to be named, stated that the news was not a welcomed one for some Wolf Pack Meats employees who were rumored to have quit the processing floor when the news came regarding the shut down on Sept. 9.
However, when asked if employees had quit en masse, Wolf Pack Meats stated they would not comment.
“On Friday, employees of Wolf Pack Meats were informed of the timeline for the temporary closure,” said Lemieux. “Other than that, we cannot comment on confidential personnel matters.”
Regardless of employee issues, Lemieux repeated that production is still planned to continue through Oct. 31.
The University as a land-grant university is required to teach practical agriculture. Wolf Pack Meats has been a working and teaching facility since the mid-1960s, and in recent years, has become the only USDA facility within the region.
Carson Now reached out to Carson Valley Meats, a local ranching business that relies on Wolf Pack Meats for their processing.
“The sudden closure of Wolf Pack Meats creates an enormous void in the Northern Nevada food chain,” said Karin Sinclair, owner of Carson Valley Meats. “It is the last full-time USDA processing facility in the northern half of the state, and the only reliable plant to process more than just beef. Many ranchers, besides Carson Valley Meats, will be impacted.”
Sinclair stated that the only alternative is to ship livestock to California to be processed, and if it is to be sold in Nevada, it has to be shipped back.
“The economic and environmental impact on our state is immeasurable, and the additional strain it puts on our local food chain and regional producers places negative results on Nevada’s ability to sustain itself,” said Sinclair. “Nevada will become even more food-dependent on states like California.”
But it won’t only be ranchers who suffer from the closure, said Sinclair, but students who participate in 4-H, FFA, The Grange, and other agricultural-based education programs will be denied the opportunity to raise, care for, market and sell livestock.
“Wolf Pack Meats serves as the main processor for the Nevada Junior Livestock Show and others in the region,” said Sinclair. “This may irreparably harm Nevada’s culture and heritage of agriculture for future generations of Nevada families.”
Carson Valley Meats has tried unsuccessfully to create an alternative USDA processing facility, first in Douglas County and then again in Carson City, to no avail. Had they been approved, Sinclair says, the news of Wolf Pack Meats’ closure would not be so devastating.
“The rejection of our proposed processing facility, first in Douglas County, and second in Carson City, was short-sighted and damaging to the rural heritage of our state by placing all the responsibility for processing Nevada’s main agricultural crop — livestock — on one facility, which is now closing,” said Sinclair. “We would welcome the opportunity to re-open discussions on the topic of opening a regional processing facility with local governments who have the foresight to ensure their populations will have access to ranch-fresh, locally sourced proteins.”
