An open day at an abattoir may not appear an appealing prospect but on Tuesday 418 people turned up for a guided tour of Silver Fern Farms' brand new $67 million Te Aroha processing operation.

Te Aroha plant manager Lance Warmington, who guided the first bus load of visitors, says the open day followed earlier ones for farmer suppliers and was held in response to keen interest in the facility from the local community.

Lance Warmington – plant manager of Silver Fern Farms' Te Aroha processing operation explains to visitors how packaged meat is loaded onto refrigerated containers ready for transport to markets.

The new Silver Fern Farms' Te Aroha processing operation is state of the art.

The plant's name is Te Kaauta - a place to hear, see, speak and prepare food and it was built following the fire which destroyed virtually all of the former beef processing operation in December 2010.

Among those to visit the plant was Heather Hazelton and her four-year-old son Brodie.

'We wanted to come because my husband Russell works here and we haven't been able to go inside before.”

Heather says when fire destroyed the original facility there was initially fear in the community that it would not be re-built and many people would lose their jobs.

'The facility is very important to Te Aroha.”

Groups of visitors were guided through the high-tech facility, where some of the equipment is so new, sophisticated and secret, photos were not permitted to be taken.

The plant, officially opened in December last year, will employ up to 380 staff when operating at full capacity with two shifts in peak season and an annual capacity of 125,000 cattle.

The plant's new hot-boned beef processing operation has been designed for the best processing of manufacturing cows, bulls, steers and heifers from farmer suppliers across the Waikato region.

The processing system has the capability to monitor and to deliver rapid feedback to plant staff on how closely they are meeting customer requirements for particular cuts.

This fits with Silver Fern Farms' ‘plate to pasture' strategy where consumer requirements are driving process improvements in order for the company to extract higher value returns from products, says Lance.

The data collection system is underpinned by the Primary Growth Partnership FarmIQ joint venture programme which is an investment of $151 million by Silver Fern Farms, Landcorp Farming, Tru-Test Group and the Ministry of Primary Industries.

For farmers, information collected at the Te Aroha plant on meat yield and quality can be used to inform farm management decisions as they look for avenues to lift farm system performance. This information can also be married with insights that FarmIQ will bring from consumers, so farmers can produce to target higher-value returns from specific consumers.

During the seven years of the programme the aim is to integrate the red meat value chain to maximise returns to farmer partners.

During the time when the plant was being re-built, most staff were deployed elsewhere within the company which also contributed to a dedicated Te Aroha Community Fund during that period. Working in partnership with the Matamata-Piako District Council to identify where the fund might be best deployed, $500,000 was directed to establishment of the Silver Fern Farms Te Aroha Event Centre in association with the Te Aroha Event Centre Charitable Trust.