What cowboys think you need to build a packer:

1. Cows
2. Money
3. A building
4. A consultant who was middle management for Cargill 30 years ago

What you actually need to build a packer:

1. Prevacid, Prozac and Pendleton Whiskey, dosage to vary
2. A realistic business model
3. Investment capital scalable based on the amount and kind you intend on killing and a damn good banker
4. A QA consultant for USDA and audits

5. A sales outlet before you turn the lights on
6. A labor pool or proximity to a population center where you can recruit high churn labor
7. A skilled production manager who can manage high churn employees that probably don’t speak English

8. An insurance company willing to find you workers comp insurance and the cash to afford it
9. A box company willing to sell you board (currently 8 weeks out)
10. Cold storage/blast freezer and a way to transport product daily or be willing to build one and pay the bill

11. An offsite laboratory for mandatory sampling that picks up daily
12. A freight forwarder
13. An equipment sales guy who won’t bankrupt you before you get started
14. A sanitation company
15. A rendering company
16. A hide company

17. City permits for water, storm water, slug, etc.
18. A DAF treatment system
19. A chemical company to support your DAF system
20. Chemical company for production chemicals
21. A payroll company or an HR manager to manage compliance which will be a headache from day 1

22. A head of maintenance that can fix anything from a broken toilet to the computer system the $1M packaging machine to the transmission on the DAF system...in the same day.

And here is to hoping you decided it’s in a geographical area where you can get inspectors, vets and graders on a schedule you need them to be on. Since you pay for it and really have very little say in the matter.

23. A line of credit
24. A million other things: DOT, trucks, reefers, forklifts, OSHA compliance, lock out tag out, safety training, first aid equipment, a clinic agreement, a covid policy, PPE, employee equipment, I9 verification, a payroll system, a flexible accountant...

And then.......after you’ve built, remodeled, stocked, refrigerated, written HACCP/SSOP’s, trained, insured, set up, and cleaned—-

You can then buy a god damned cow.

Oh you also need a healthy distaste for spending anytime with family or friends during the startup phase.

A tolerance for having to teach adults where and how to shit....over and over again.

Be adaptable enough to handle the building catching on fire, someone shitting in the floor, an employee getting stabbed, talking to a parole officer or an arresting officer, pissed off neighbors because the bone truck dumped carnage in the street again....

....and you’ll go home after second shift ends and try not to be a raging lunatic to your family...and you’ll take a nap so you can be back for pre-op and hope everything starts on time and people show up to work and nothing breaks down and that people pay their invoices...so

You can pay for the damned cows in the 48 hour window you have (unless you can finance them out) because packers and stockyards will shut you down if you don’t.

Because the packer isn’t guaranteed a paycheck, but the government enforces that the cows you bought get paid 1st.

Before you pay employees. Before you pay utilities. Before you pay your mortgage. Before you pay insurance or taxes or for boxes and bags or machinery.

If you don’t pay for the damned cows first—-you’ll go to jail.