TFI’s Mark Inglis backed by an overhead map of the company’s new South Australian beef and sheep processing plant site.

THOMAS Food International’s new South Australian meat processing plant aimed to process 900 head a day by this spring, students were told at the Intercollegiate Meat Judging Competition conference in Wagga Wagga New South Wales today.

Progress was being made to introduce sheep processing at the state-of-the-art meat processing facility at Pallamana near Murray Bridge.

The new plant was opened in May 2023, replacing the company’s original Murray Bridge plant that fire destroyed in January 2018.

TFI farm assurance and supply chain manager Mark Inglis said there not too many plants he had not been in during his career in the industry across Australia.

“But I’ve never seen anything like this, it’s an unbelievable plant.”

Just Mr Inglis said the beef component of the plant was currently processing about 700-720 head a day with a single shift.

“The aim is to get to 900 on one shift by the spring.”

Mr Inglis said the capacity of the plant is 1400 head a day with two shifts, but more work and expansion is needed to achieve that.

The current staff level is 400, processing two days of grain-fed EU and non-EU stock, one day of grass-fed (farm assurance program), one day organic and one day of market stock.

Facilities at the plant include an accredited laboratory and facial recognition cameras for the staff, onsite medical facilities and clean/dirty dining areas with an onsite chef supplying meals to staff.

Sheep plant mapped out

Mr Inglis said he couldn’t say when the sheep and lamb processing component of the plan would be completed, but its location is mapped out.

“The cold storage room is already built to capacity to be able to take about 15,000 (smallstock) head a day.

“So it’s already mapped out and certainly in the future we will see a lamb processing facility there as well.”

Bourke goat meat plant to increase production

TFI’s plant at Bourke in western New South Wales is currently processing about 4000 head a day.

“We’re soon to go to 4500 head a day, goats don’t seem to be a problem as far as inventory goes at the moment – so there’s plenty there.”

He said the plant is currently doing about 200 skin-on goats a day as the process was refined, with the aim of moving to 500 head a day.

“We’re only doing a single shift and we can do rams there as well – we do about 50 head of rams there when we need to.”

The plant’s current 170 staff mainly come from the PALM (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) scheme.

Mr Inglis said the main goat meat market is America, but TFI would also be moving some skin-on product into Taiwan. Export carcases, cuts and products are consigned frozen, chilled or diced and domestic product is either skin-on or skin-off. Further processing is also done in the United States into a cubed product sold in major US supermarkets.

He said accommodation has been an issue, needing the purchase of two motels in Bourke.

Mr Inglis said demand for goat meat is positive and expanding.

He said the location of the plant in the centre of Australia’s rangeland goat catchment area made 365-day-a-year operation possible.

“If you’re only doing it seasonally then you are going out of business.”

Mr Inglis said the plant had substantial lairage and could also hold goats in surrounding land.