Getting beef from the pasture to the consumer’s plate is no easy feat. Today, a challenge many ranchers face is locating a facility that will harvest, age, and package their meat. Many California producers have shared how difficult it is to find a one-stop shop for their needs and that many have to travel to multiple facilities before they have a finished product. Facing similar experiences as other producers, Park Ranch, located in Minden, Nev., opened a harvest and processing facility in February of 2024, ready to serve their community and fellow cattle producers for all of their processing needs.
Park Ranch is a multigenerational operation run by David Park. “I’ve been in the ranching business all my life,” said Park who took over the family business in the ‘90s after he returned from college at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In addition to the new processing facility, Park Ranch raises their own livestock and produces feed for themselves and other ranchers.
In 2020, David and the ranch’s executive manager Sarah Shannon were selling cattle for under a buck a pound during COVID. “We work hard for what we do, and during COVID it was challenging,” said David. “We wanted to see how we could vertically generate our business and sell Park Ranch Beef.” With this reality and wanting to find another outlet to bring in an income to the operation, both David and Sarah knew that they had to do something to help not only their business but other producers who, at the time, were facing the same struggles. Their original plan was to create a mobile meat slaughter unit, but as they began their research, they realized that the mobile unit would only be able to process 12 animals in a day. “That’s when we decided we were going to brick and mortar our own processing facility,” said Sarah.
Moving forward with their plans, David and Sarah proposed their idea to the town and county commission to build the facility. After some discussion and approval, Park Ranch moved forward with building the custom meat plant in the back bay of a warehouse Park Ranch already owned. Working with an engineer to bring their vision to life, the construction of the facility was done in phases, coming together piece by piece four years later. After a USDA inspection and a few minor changes, the facility was up and running.
“The kill floor has been running for six months and the processing for nine,” said David.
“Honestly, I think we are doing pretty darn good in the first six months.”
Open to the public, Park Ranch Meats offers custom exempt and USDA processing and is working diligently to get the word out about their facility. “We are at about 25 percent capacity,” said Sarah. Starting out, the facility processed two to four animals a week but has most recently processed up to 15. Park Ranch’s meat processing facility itself can process up to 60 head a week and are ready to work with any producer that comes their way. “We are just ramping up,” said Sarah. In addition to processing cattle, Park Ranch also offers custom-exempt processing for hogs, lambs and goats.
Now the executive manager of Park Ranch, Sarah originally started out as an admin for the ranch doing all of their bookkeeping. “It quickly turned into me getting to do all the things,” said Sarah. Today, she helps with calving, tractor driving, and keeping track of the financials. “I am the glue that holds everyone together and keeps them in line,” said Sarah.
Being in business for a little over a year now, a challenge of running the facility has been finding employees who are skilled within the processing field. While at times staffing may be difficult for Park Ranch, the positive side of the business outweighs the struggles. “The people we do have employed here are passionate and they take pride in their work,” said Sarah. David shared that one of his favorite parts of this venture is the challenge and new learning processes. “It’s fun to see the challenge not only for myself but for my employees and how everyone here is dedicated to making the facility a success,” said David.
Identifying a community need, the facility has brought jobs to its residents and has given fellow ranchers a facility that they can use and meet all of their needs with less travel time compared to previously having to drive to Reno, Fallon or over the hill to California to get their animals processed. Reflecting on her job, Sarah shared that she enjoys that each day of work is different from the last, with no dull moments. “We are very tight-knit, we are like family,” said Sarah.
Park Ranch doesn’t stop at serving Nevada-based producers, their customer base also includes ranchers from the northern part of California, the Eastern Sierras and Central California. As the word of their opening continues to spread, people are coming from farther away to bring their animals, with the facility gaining new customers each week. “In our customer base, we probably have about 25 customers having their animals processed through us,” added Sarah.
For California cattle producers looking for a place to process their animals Sarah shares, “We are open for business, send us an email and we will get you scheduled.” For those who choose to use Park Ranch for their processing needs, they are given a wide array of options for how they would like their animals to be processed. Customers can decide how long they want their carcasses aged, and any additional specifications they may have will be met by the Park Ranch team. Customers are also able to track the processing of their animals from start to finish at the facility.
With the increased popularity of purchasing beef shares directly from the rancher, Sarah shared that many of their clients have shared that their meat is already sold before it is even picked up from Park Ranch’s facility. “People want to know where their meat is coming from,” said Sarah. With their sales increasing by the month, Park Ranch has tripled in sales since last February when they initially opened. Sharing the story of Park Ranch and all of the additional facets of the industry David is involved, is a draw-in to their customers. “David is a fifth-generation rancher, and customers always enjoy when they can meet the face behind Park Ranch Beef,” Sarah shared.
In addition to their livestock operation, feed and processing facility, Park Ranch has just recently started its direct-to-consumer retail. Park Ranch’s meat can be purchased online and at the Great Basin Brewery retail shop in Minden. Park Ranch is part of a closed-loop food system with Great Basin Brewery. David knew an operator over at Great Basin Brewing and one day while we were chatting came up with the concept of a full-circle deal of using the brewery grain to feed cattle. What a closed-loop food system means is that once the grain is used to brew the beer, the brewery hauls the spent grains out to Park Ranch, and it is fed to the cattle. Once the cattle are harvested and processed the meat then goes back to the brewery and is served in their restaurant.
With their meat processing and direct-to-consumer businesses kicking off Park Ranch is looking forward to all that is to come in this venture. “We’ve learned so much over these last few years,” said Shannon. “What an amazing project it has been to be involved in from us writing it on a napkin to us here and doing it.”
To learn more about Park Ranch and the processing facility, call Sarah Shannon, Executive Manager, at (775) 782-7275 or visit parkranchmeats.com.
By Maureen LaGrande, CCA Associate Director of Communications
