Hope Kiwanis Hears Tyson Program From Rob Martin
The Hope Kiwanis Club heard a program on Tyson from Rob Martin, the company’s local Senior Live Operations Manager. Martin says the local plant employs about 1,400 in Hope and in February the plant upped its starting pay to $15 per hour. He said the company could use over 160 more employees in the processing plant.
Martin talked about the company’s new feed mill located between Fulton and Cross Roads. Martin said the mill is what’s called a “mega mill”. He termed it one of the “largest in the country”. The main tower is 198 feet tall. It will serve both the Hope and Nashville complexes. He said there are 7,800 cubic yards of concrete in the three structures comprising the new feed mill. There’s 1,684,500 pound of reinforced steel in the structures. The new mill will employ 55 to 60 Tyson team members. The current mill located off Hazel and Compress in Hope employs 35. Martin said there will be state of the art equipment for measuring in the new mill.
The new mill will produce between 18,000 to 20,000 tons of finished feed a week in five days. It can expand to almost 30 tons in seven days should the need arise. Martin said such a situation might arise if they had to pull feed from this new mill to Broken Bow or Pine Bluff.
The new mill can hold 450,000 bushels of corn. Martin said the unloading system will allow the train cars bring corn in a large circle around the mill and allowing the train cars to remain connected to the train engines.
The current Hope mill dates back to the 1970’s and was designed for 6,000 tons a week. Martin says it has been running at up to 12,000 tons a week for the past year to serve the Hope and Nashville growers. About 750 truckloads of feed per week will be delivered to Hope and Nashville from the mill. It is expected to be operational in February 2022.
During the course of the program, Martin shared some information on the local plant’s charitable and community activities. During this past Christmas, the company donated hams to Harvest Texarkana, Hope In Action, the Prescott Food Pantry, and a rehab center near Camden. Martin said they donate product every month to Hope In Action. Other charitable activities include helping with the Rainbow of Challenges Angel Tree. Last year, hourly employees of Tyson gave over $7,000 for this effort. In other community activities Tyson is a major contributor to the Hope Watermelon Festival, Train Day, and the Prescott Fall Festival. Additional cash donations went to Rainbow of Challenges, Domestic Violence Prevention, and the Christian Charitable Medical Clinic. The company also offers a variety of scholarship activities.
The club greatly enjoyed the program.