Once-in-a-Century Opportunity

Putting Shared Values into Practice

As family-owned businesses, Gray and Clemens put worker safety, food safety, and animal welfare first. The Coldwater facility delivers all three with innovation and a commitment to premium quality.

The facility follows Temple Grandin’s humane livestock handling methods, designed to provide comfort, fresh water, and freedom of movement. Each hog is tracked throughout the process and passes through multiple USDA inspections.

Learn more about Temple Grandin’s approach to animal handling in Part I of her exclusive interview with Gray.

Gray provided a variety of design, construction, and engineering services for the project, including extensive work for the facility’s refrigeration systems and other process utilities. Gray incorporated fully automated conveyance equipment and AS/RS into the facility’s design, resulting in improved efficiencies, a reduced building footprint, and a higher quality, more consistent product. At full capacity, the plant can process approximately 11,000 hogs per day.

Additionally, Gray implemented patented chilling procedures to ensure food safety and minimize product shrinkage, including a -25 °F Snap Chill freezer with a 3,128-ft chain, the longest and fastest such system in the world. Clean-in-Place and Clean-out-of-Place ensures thorough sanitation and food safety technology throughout the facility.

Most importantly, the Clemens and Gray teams celebrated 1,000,000 safe man-hours with more than 1,000 workers onsite during the 34-month project.