Meat & Poultry Briefs:Hormel Foods Corp., Austin, Minn., saidGary Ray, president of the company's protein units, andRussell Potter, vice president of operations-grocery products division, will retire effective Dec. 31, 2008. Afterward, Hormel said thatSteven Binder, refrigerated foods group vice president, andMichaelTolbert, president of Jennie-O Turkey Store, will report directly to Jeffrey Ettinger, chairman, president and chief executive officer.James Snee, director of purchasing, has been named vice president for the refrigerated foods segment's affiliated units, effective Oct. 27, 2008. Hormel saidMelanie Faust will succeed Snee as director of purchasing. . . . Citing record feed costs, theNebraska Turkey Growers Cooperative, Gibbon, Neb., said it plans to close its Gibbon turkey processing plant this December for an indefinite period. The operation employs 225 full-time workers and processes more than 20,000 turkeys per day.