Tyson Foods Inc is halting production at a Dakota City, Neb., beef plant today so it can deep clean the facility and screen workers for the coronavirus. The plant, which is one of America's largest, can slaughter up to 7,000 cows per day.
It's the latest closure from Tyson as meatpacking workers around the country test positive for coronavirus. Local news outlets reported 23 cases at the Nebraska plant last week with more tests pending.
The fight to keep the U.S. meat supply flowing has been a tough one. Industry officials have pushed for ways to keep production going despite thousands of workers being sickened from covid-19, and many are afraid to go to work. More than 20 processing plants have closed at some point in the past two months for disinfecting and to conduct adequate testing. Some are reopening after President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order to keep meat and poultry plants operational during the crisis.
"We had a legal roadblock more than anything else Trump said Thursday in an Oval Office meeting with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. "I expect to see the supply chain strong as ever, maybe stronger."
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Critics are worried about the safety of the plant workers, including state and city officials who have ordered companies to stop production and stop the virus spread in their facilities. Tyson Foods, JBS, Smithfield and other major packers have said they are doing their part by checking workers' temperatures and implementing social distancing measures at the plants. Some are working with local health officials to test workers before reopening.
Tyson Foods Chairman John Tyson said in a letter published last weekend that the ramifications of keeping the plants closed are dire for farmers who have nowhere to sell their livestock.
"Millions of animals -- chickens, pigs and cattle -- will be depopulated because of the closure of processing facilities," Tyson said. "The food supply chain is breaking."
Several Tyson plants have stopped production because of coronavirus in recent weeks. Three were closed last week, including the company's largest pork plant in Iowa.
Five beef and pork processing plants are currently idle, spokesman Derek Burleson said in an email. They are in Dakota City; Logansport, Ind.; Pasco, Wash.; Perry, Iowa and Waterloo, Iowa.
With these closures, Tyson's daily slaughter capacity is down by an estimated 9,300 cows and 42,000 hogs, according to Urner Barry, a market research firm focused on poultry and meat products. Tyson slaughters an average of about 155,000 cows and 461,000 hogs a week.
"It's pretty bad right now," said Jason Apple, a meat science professor at Texas A&M, Kingsville. Some grocery stores are limiting meat purchases because of the bottleneck created by idled meatpacking plants.
"We've got thousands of cattle that need to go to slaughter but there's nobody open to get them there," Apple said. Several facilities are running at a reduced rate, including Tyson's recently reopened plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa.
Tyson plans to reopen its Dakota City plant on Monday and compensate workers while the plant is idled. About 4,300 people work there. Health officials are investigating a possible outbreak at another Tyson plant in Madison, Neb.
There are a few subtle ways ranchers can hold back cattle for a few months before plants reopen, but pig farmers don't have that luxury, Apple said. JBS euthanized more than 3,000 hogs in Worthington, Minn. this week and gave them back to farmers for disposal, the Star Tribune reported.
"There's talks of things not getting back to normal for a year," Apple said.
Business on 05/01/2020