Meet Project Ribeye

DE MOTTE, Ind. — The founder of Project Ribeye, a meat-processing facility coming to northern Indiana, is gauging local interest for the business.

Farmers and 4-Hers are invited to attend an informational meeting at 7 p.m. March 22 at the Jasper County Fairgrounds community building.

The business is set to open in 2023 in DeMotte, Indiana, just east of Interstate 65.

“It’s an informational meeting to let them know what we’re doing and get their contact information, so we can send updates,” said Nelson Schoon, a certified financial planner who is starting the meat-processing venture.

“We want to get an idea how many animals they’ll bring us in 2023 and 2024, specifically with beef cattle. That will be a determining factor as to how we design the building.

Project Ribeye plans to process around 100 beef cattle and 15-20 hogs per week.

Seventy-five percent of the business will include custom processing for local farmers. The remaining 25% of the business will include meat sold as freezer beef or individual cuts in a retail space of the building.

“The impact of this is what excites me the most,” said Schoon. “With the size of plant, we’re going to impact 200-300 farmers to continue to raise livestock. We’re going to impact 4-Hers in six surrounding counties — their buyers will have a place to have animals processed.

“We will impact 30-40 employees with very high wages and full benefits. We’ll be feeding over 20,000 families.”

Purdue University will help train future employees at the facility.

Project Ribeye is also working with Indiana Board of Animal Health, the local economic development team and others to get the business up and running.

Deidra Dezelich has been hired as general manager to run the business.

Schoon has worked as a financial planner for more than 30 years. His career helping farmers with succession planning led to this opportunity.

“Because I work with farmers and small businesses, I was hearing from those who raise livestock that they could not find a place to get meat processed,” he said.

“My own meat processor that I buy my smoked turkeys from and take my 4-H steer to was telling me they were booking out to 2022 — that was back in 2020.

“We want to resolve that issue. We’re going to set aside a lot of processing slots for 4-H animals at fair time.”

For more information, contact info@projectribeye.com.