Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Tuesday released the initial list of designated regions in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan where livestock tax deferral has been authorized for 2022.

Those include most of southern Alberta up to around Stettler and Olds; nearby rural municipalities in western Saskatchewan; most of agricultural Manitoba; and some parts of west-central Saskatchewan southwest of Saskatoon (full list and map below).

Regions eligible so far were identified based on weather, climate and production data in consultation with industry and affected provinces, the federal agriculture department said Tuesday. Criteria include forage shortfalls of 50 per cent or more, whether caused by drought or excess moisture.

In areas designated for the deferral in a given tax year, eligible producers who had to cull breeding herds by at least 15 per cent may defer part of the income from those sales until their next non-designated tax year.

If the herd was cut by at least 15 per cent — but by less than 30 per cent — then 30 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Where a producer reduced a breeding herd by 30 per cent or more, 90 per cent of income from net sales can be deferred.

Thus, in the 2023 tax year — or in the next tax year in which the designation is lifted off a specific municipality — the deferred taxable income from those sales can be at least partially offset by the cost of reacquiring breeding animals.

The ag department said Tuesday it would keep monitoring conditions across Canada to see if more designations are needed.

Some farm and ranch organizations had already been calling for deferral designations for the 2022 tax year to be made as soon as possible.

“Many areas of western Saskatchewan are still dealing with unprecedented drought, which is leading to herds of cattle being sold,” Scott Owens, a farmer in the western RM of Eldon and vice-president with the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), said in such a statement in early June.

“If they haven’t already, many producers are running out of feed, and the pastures have not recovered from a lack of moisture last year and during the winter.”

By mid-November 2021, drought designations for the deferral for the 2021 tax year had reached all of Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario, all of agricultural Alberta and Manitoba, and much of agricultural British Columbia. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

Initial list of designations, 2022

Alberta: Calgary, Taber; counties of Cardston, Cypress, Foothills, Forty Mile, Kneehill, Lethbridge, Newell, Paintearth, Pincher Creek, Rocky View, Starland, Stettler, Vulcan, Warner and Wheatland; the municipal district of Willow Creek; and “special areas” 2, 3 and 4.

Saskatchewan RMs: Antelope Park, Biggar, Buffalo, Chesterfield, Deer Forks, Enterprise, Eye Hill, Fertile Valley, Frontier, Grandview, Grass Lake, Happyland, Harris, Heart’s Hill, Kindersley, Maple Creek, Mariposa, Marriott, Milden, Milton, Monet, Montrose, Mountain View, Newcombe, Oakdale, Perdue, Pleasant Valley, Prairiedale, Progress, Reford, Reno, Rosemount, Round Valley, Snipe Lak, St. Andrews, Tramping Lake, Vanscoy and Winslow.

Manitoba: municipalities of Alonsa, Argyle, Armstrong, Bifrost-Riverton, Boissevain-Morton, Brenda-Waskada, Brokenhead, Cartier, Cartwright-Roblin, Clanwilliam-Erickson, Coldwell, Dauphin, De Salaberry, Deloraine-Winchester, Dufferin, Elton, Emerson-Franklin, Fisher, Gimli, Glenboro-South Cypress, Glenella-Lansdowne, Grahamdale, Grassland, Grey, Hanover, Harrison Park, Headingley, Killarney-Turtle Mountain, Lakeshore, Lorne, Louise, Macdonald, McCreary, Minto-Odanah, Montcalm, Morris, Norfolk-Treherne, North Cypress-Langford, North Norfolk, Oakland-Wawanesa, Oakview, Pembina, Portage la Prairie, Prairie Lakes, Rhineland, Ritchot, Riverdale, Rockwood, Roland, Rosedale, Rosser, Souris-Glenwood, Springfield, St. Andrews, St. Clements, St. François Xavier, St. Laurent, Stanley, Ste. Rose, Tache, Thompson, Victoria, West Interlake, West St. Paul, WestLake-Gladstone, Whitehead, Woodlands and Yellowhead; city of Winnipeg; Division No. 17, Unorganized; and Division No. 18, Unorganized (east part and west part).

The post Initial drought list ready for 2022 livestock tax deferrals appeared first on Farmtario.

An acute shortage of butchers and slaughterers in the meat processing industry has been exacerbated by COVID-19 and Britain’s post-Brexit immigration policy, which has restricted the flow of east European workers.

The government on Sunday announced a plan to issue temporary visas for 5,000 foreign truck drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to alleviate shortages but has given no indication it will introduce schemes for other areas. It argues businesses should invest in their workforce and improve pay and conditions.

Lizzie Wilson, policy services officer at the National Pig Association (NPA), said the shortage of butchers meant processors were operating at 25 per cent reduced capacity.

As a result mature pigs ready for processing are backing up on farms, causing welfare issues.

“There’s about 120,000 pigs sat on farm currently that should have already been slaughtered, butchered, be within the food chain and eaten by now,” said Wilson.

“It is getting to the point where we are saying to government if we don’t get some help soon we’re going to have to look at culling pigs on farm, because that’s our only option now,” she said, adding “there are some producers that have already had the conversation.”

Britain’s biggest pork processors are Cranswick, Morrisons, Pilgrim’s Pride and Karro Food Group.

Wilson said consumers were already seeing the impact of the crisis on supermarket shelves as processors had rationalized pork product ranges.

Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union, said a cull of up to 150,000 pigs was “potentially a week, 10 days away.”

“I do not feel anybody can preside over a welfare cull of healthy livestock. I don’t believe it has happened in the world before and it cannot happen now,” she told the BBC.

Batters said she wants an urgent meeting with interior minister Priti Patel and immigration minister Kevin Foster.

She said she has been trying to get a meeting with Patel for two years.

David Lindars, technical operations director at the British Meat Processors Association, said a cull “was getting very close.”

“I don’t understand this government any more. It has to get to white shelves in the supermarket scenario before they believe it,” he said.

A spokesperson for the government said it was aware of the challenges that the pig industry has faced in recent months.

“We are keeping the market under close review and continuing to work closely with the sector to explore options to address the pressures the industry is currently facing,” the spokesperson said.

— James Davey reports for Reuters from London, England.

The post Britain facing mass cull of pigs due to butcher shortage appeared first on Farmtario.

The cows were kept in what an animal rights activist called “hellish” conditions on the Karim Allah, which docked in the southeastern Spanish port of Cartagena on Thursday after struggling to find a buyer for the cattle during the past two months.

The beasts were rejected by several countries over fears they had bovine bluetongue virus. The insect-borne virus causes lameness and haemorrhaging among cattle. Bluetongue does not affect humans.

The veterinarians’ report concluded that the animals had suffered from the lengthy journey. Some of them were unwell and not fit for transport outside of the European Union, nor should they be allowed in the EU. Euthanasia would be the best solution for their health and welfare, it said.

The report did not say if the cattle had bluetongue disease.

“It is not even mentioned, which is very surprising,” said Miquel Masramon, a lawyer representing the ship owner Talia Shipping Line. The ship is registered in Lebanon, according to VesselFinder.

“My impression is that they will definitely go ahead with the slaughter and destruction of the animals and it’ll be difficult for us to prevent it,” he said.

Masramon said he would push for the return of blood samples taken from the animals and impounded by authorities on Thursday to be released and tested “to prove if there is any bluetongue.”

The agriculture ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It said earlier on Friday that it would make appropriate decisions after analyzing information from the inspection.

The vessel originally left Cartagena to deliver the cattle to Turkey. But authorities there blocked the shipment and suspended live animal imports from Spain, fearing bluetongue infection.

That rejection turned the ship into an international pariah. Several countries refused it entry even to replenish animal feed, forcing the cows to go several days with just water.

The cows likely have severe health problems after their “hellish” crossing, said animal rights activist Silvia Barquero, director of the Igualdad Animal NGO.

“What has happened to the waste produced by all these animals for two months? We are sure they are in unacceptable sanitary conditions,” Barquero told Reuters.

The agriculture ministry’s experts counted 864 animals alive on board. Twenty-two cows died at sea, with two corpses still aboard. The remains of the others that died were chopped up and thrown overboard during the journey, the report said.

Ownership of the cattle is unclear. The exporter, World Trade, said it is not responsible because it sold the animals, Masramon said. Reuters has been unable to reach World Trade for comment.

A second ship, the ElBeik, also set sail from Spain in December with a cargo of nearly 1,800 cows. It is currently moored off the Turkish Cypriot port of Famagusta.

— Reporting for Reuters by Emma Pinedo and Nathan Allen in Madrid, and Juan Medina and Marco Trujillo in Cartagena; additional reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen in Istanbul; writing by Nathan Allen and Jessica Jones.

The post Spanish report calls for cull of over 850 cattle on pariah ship appeared first on Farmtario.

Denmark’s entire herd of some 17 million mink, one of the world’s biggest and highly valued for the quality of its fur, was ordered to be culled in early November after hundreds of farms suffered outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus and authorities found mutated strains of the virus among people.

Lawmakers on Monday agreed a deal that includes compensation to the farmers for idle machinery and lost revenue until 2030, the country’s finance ministry said in a statement.

Denmark was the top exporter of mink to luxury fashion labels, with its pelts in high demand due to high breeding standards.

The move to cull Denmark’s entire mink population left the government reeling, and prompted its agriculture minister to step down after it admitted it did not have the legal basis to order the culling of healthy mink.

Monday’s deal also allows farmers to begin breeding mink when a temporary ban ends next year.

In Canada, two mink farms in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley were placed under quarantine last month after animals at both properties, and workers at one of the properties, were confirmed to have COVID-19, believed to be the first such cases in Canadian farmed mink.

Testing at the site of the first outbreak showed the infected people and animals had an “identical or nearly identical strain” which has already been circulating in people in the province, “indicating COVID-19 spread from people to animals and not the other way around.”

As for the second farm, the provincial ag ministry said Dec. 24 that it’s “not currently known how the mink contracted the virus and the ministry is currently working with stakeholders to identify potential sources.”

Canada’s mink farms — fewer than 100 across the country, mainly in Ontario and Nova Scotia — reportedly began tightening their biosecurity in 2020 after COVID-19 cases began to appear in farmed mink, first in the Netherlands in April, then in Italy, Spain, Sweden and the U.S. as well as Denmark.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Denmark to compensate mink farmers after nationwide cull appeared first on Farmtario.

Denmark ordered all farmed mink to be culled early this month after finding that 12 people had been infected by a mutated strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, which passed from humans to mink and back to humans.

The decision led to 17 million animals being destroyed and to the resignation last week of Food and Agriculture Minister Morgens Jensen, after it was determined that the order was illegal.

Dead mink were tipped into trenches at a military area in western Denmark and covered with two metres of soil. But hundreds have begun resurfacing, pushed out of the ground by what authorities say is gas from their decomposition. Newspapers have referred to them as the “zombie mink.”

Jensen’s replacement, Rasmus Prehn, said Friday he supported the idea of digging up the animals and incinerating them. He said he had asked the environmental protection agency look into whether it could be done, and parliament would be briefed on the issue on Monday.

The macabre burial sites, guarded 24 hours a day to keep people and animals away, have drawn complaints from area residents about possible health risks.

Authorities say there is no risk of the graves spreading the coronavirus, but locals worry about the risk of contaminating drinking water and a bathing lake less than 200 metres away.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen.

The post Denmark wants to dig up ‘zombie mink’ that resurfaced from mass graves appeared first on Farmtario.

Global health officials are eying the animals as a potential risk for people after Denmark last week embarked on a plan to eliminate all of its 17 million mink, saying a mutated coronavirus strain could move to humans and evade future COVID-19 vaccines.

The U.S. states of Utah, Wisconsin and Michigan — where the coronavirus has killed mink — said they do not plan to cull animals and are monitoring the situation in Denmark.

“We believe that quarantining affected mink farms in addition to implementing stringent biosecurity measures will succeed in controlling SARS-CoV-2 at these locations,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture told Reuters on Tuesday.

USDA said it is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state officials and the mink industry to test and monitor infected farms.

The U.S. has 359,850 mink bred to produce babies, known as kits, and produced 2.7 million pelts last year. Wisconsin is the largest mink-producing state, followed by Utah.

Sick mink in Wisconsin and Utah were exposed to people with probable or confirmed COVID-19 cases, the USDA said. In Michigan it is still unknown if the mink were infected by humans, according to the agency.

In Utah, the first U.S. state to confirm mink infections in August, about 10,700 mink have died on nine farms, said Dean Taylor, state veterinarian.

“On all nine, everything is still suggesting a one-way travel from people to the minks,” he said. Coronavirus testing has been done on mink that die and randomly on the affected farms, Taylor said. Like people, some mink are asymptomatic or mildly affected, he said.

The CDC said it was supporting states’ investigations into sick mink, including testing of animals and people.

“These investigations will help us to learn more about the transmission dynamics between mink, other animals around the farms and people,” the CDC said. “Currently, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to people.”

Coronavirus is thought to have first jumped from animals to humans in China, possibly via bats or another animal at a food market in Wuhan, although many outstanding questions remain.

In Wisconsin, about 5,000 mink have died on two farms, state veterinarian Darlene Konkle said.

One farm is composting the dead mink to dispose of the carcasses without spreading the virus, Konkle said. Authorities are working with the second farm to determine how to dispose of the mink, and dead animals are being kept in a metal container in the meantime, she said.

“They are basically in a metal container, a roll-off type container, that is sealed off at this point,” Konkle said.

Michigan declined to disclose how many mink have died, citing privacy rules.

U.S. authorities are urging farmers to wear protective gear like masks and gloves when handling mink to avoid infecting the animals.

State officials said they are working with USDA to determine whether farmers can sell the pelts of infected mink. The pelts are used to make fur coats and other items.

“It’s our desire and certainly the owners’ desire to be able to use those pelts,” Konkle said.

The coronavirus has also infected cats, dogs, a lion and a tiger, according to USDA. Experts say mink appear to be the most susceptible animal so far.

“Whatever we learn about mink is going to help understand the virus across species,” Taylor said. “It’s going to give us a better response to people to stop this pandemic.”

Canada, at the end of 2018, was home to 98 mink farms, mainly in Nova Scotia and Ontario, down from 237 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.

Canada’s mink farms as of Jan. 1, 2018 included an estimated 500,600 mink in total, down from 861,500 four years earlier, StatsCan said.

— Tom Polansek reports on agriculture and ag commodities for Reuters from Chicago; additional reporting by Carl O’Donnell in New York. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Coronavirus kills 15,000 U.S. mink appeared first on Farmtario.

The government said on Wednesday that it would cull all minks — up to 17 million — to prevent human contagion with a mutated coronavirus, which authorities said could be more resistant against future vaccines.

Seven municipalities in northern Denmark, home to most of the country’s mink farms, will face restrictions on movement across county lines, while restaurants and bars will be closed, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference.

Schools will be closed and all public transport will be shut until Dec. 3., she said, encouraging inhabitants in the region to stay within their municipality and get tested.

For Denmark’s mink pelt industry, which racked up exports of around US$800 million last year and employs 4,000 people, the cull could amount to a death knell. The industry association for Danish breeders called the move a “black day for Denmark.”

“Of course, we must not be the cause of a new pandemic. We do not know the professional basis for this assessment and risk… but the government’s decision is a disaster for the industry and Denmark,” chairman Tage Pedersen said.

At his family-owned mink farm west of the capital Copenhagen, 34-year-old Hans Henrik Jeppesen said he was devastated by the decision.

“This is a very, very sad situation for me and my family,” he told Reuters. Jeppesen’s 36,000 minks have not been infected, but will be culled and skinned within the next 10 days.

Some lawmakers demanded to see the evidence behind such drastic action.

“We are asking to have it (the evidence) sent over, so we can assess the technical basis,” a spokesperson for the Liberal Party told broadcaster TV2 on Wednesday.

More restrictions

Outbreaks at mink farms have persisted in Denmark, Europe’s largest producer and exporter of mink furs, despite repeated efforts to cull infected animals since June.

Animal rights groups welcomed the mass cull imposed by the government, and called for a general ban on what they said was an “outdated” industry.

“Although not a ban on fur farming, this move signals the end of suffering for millions of animals confined to small wire cages on Danish fur farms,” said Joanna Swabe of Humane Society International.

In a meeting with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control held earlier on Thursday, experts agreed with Denmark’s strategy to tackle the situation, state epidemiologist Kare Molbak said.

Hans Kluge, WHO European regional director, said Denmark showed “determination and courage” in the face of a decision to cull its mink population, which has a “huge economic impact.”

While no coronavirus has been detected on mink farms in Poland, another major mink pelt producer, authorities in Sweden on Thursday imposed restrictions on mink farms after infections were found.

However, they have not observed the mutation found in neighbouring Denmark.

Canada, at the end of 2018, had 98 mink farms, mainly in Nova Scotia and Ontario, down from 237 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.

Risk to future vaccines

In a report published Wednesday, the State Serum Institute (SSI), the Danish authority dealing with infectious diseases, said laboratory tests showed the new strain had mutations on its so-called spike protein, a part of the virus that invades and infects healthy cells.

That poses a risk to future COVID-19 vaccines, which are based on disabling the spike protein, SSI said.

Ian Jones, a virology professor at Britain’s University of Reading, said the virus would be expected to mutate in a new species.

“It must adapt to be able to use mink receptors to enter cells and so will modify the spike protein to enable this to happen efficiently,” he explained.

“The danger is that the mutated virus could then spread back into man and evade any vaccine response which would have been designed to the original, non-mutated version of the spike protein, and not the mink-adapted version.”

Authorities in Denmark said five cases of the new virus strain had been recorded on mink farms and 12 cases in humans.

James Wood, a professor of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, cautioned that the true implication of the changes in the spike protein had not yet been fully assessed by scientists.

“It is too early to say that the change will cause either vaccines or immunity to fail,” he said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam, Johan Ahlander and Colm Fulton in Stockholm and Anna Koper in Warsaw. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Denmark tightens lockdown as mink cull devastates industry appeared first on Farmtario.

Health authorities found virus strains in humans and in mink which showed decreased sensitivity against antibodies, potentially lowering the efficacy of future vaccines, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a press conference.

“We have a great responsibility towards our own population, but with the mutation that has now been found, we have an even greater responsibility for the rest of the world as well,” she said.

“The mutated virus in mink may pose a risk to the effectiveness of a future vaccine,” Frederiksen said, adding that it “risks being spread from Denmark to other countries.”

The findings, which have been shared with the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, were based on laboratory tests by the State Serum Institute, the Danish authority dealing with infectious diseases.

The head of WHO’s emergencies programme, Mike Ryan, on Friday called for full-scale scientific investigations of the “complex, complex issue” of humans — outside China — infecting mink which in turn transmitted the virus back to humans.

Outbreaks at mink farms have persisted in the Nordic country, the world’s largest producer of mink furs, despite repeated efforts to cull infected animals since June.

The country’s police, army and home guard would be deployed in order to speed up the culling process, Frederiksen said.

Tougher lockdown restrictions and intensified tracing efforts would be implemented to contain the virus in some areas of northern Denmark, home to a large number of mink farms, authorities said.

“The worst-case scenario is a new pandemic, starting all over again out of Denmark,” director at the State Serum Institute, Kare Molbak, said. The new strain showed diminished sensitivity towards antibodies, he added.

“That’s why we have to take this extremely seriously,” Molbak said.

Minks have also been culled in the Netherlands and Spain after infections were discovered.

Authorities had registered five cases of the new strain on mink farms and 12 cases in humans.

There are between 15 million and 17 million mink in Denmark, authorities said.

Canada, at the end of 2018, had 98 mink farms, down from 237 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada.

Of the 98, 43 were in Nova Scotia, 28 in Ontario. six each in British Columbia and Newfoundland, four each in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and three in Quebec.

Canada’s National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) maintains a code of practice for the care and handling of farmed mink. A five-year review was completed in 2018.

NFACC, on its website, says the code is “currently undergoing an amendment,” expected to be completed in March next year, with a public comment period now running into December.

Issues flagged as “major challenges” expected to be addressed in those amendments include pen sizes, access to nest boxes and methods of euthanasia.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nikolaj Skydsgaard and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; additional reporting by Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Denmark to cull entire farmed mink population appeared first on Farmtario.

“Clearing the infected farms is in the interest of both human health and animal health,” Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten said in a letter to parliament, adding the cull would commence on Friday and farmers would be compensated.

Each farm houses several thousand of the ferret-like animals, which are bred for their fur.

“The Animal Welfare Commission has been informed and will see to it that the animals are treated in a responsible manner and killed,” Schouten said.

Coronavirus outbreaks have occurred on eight farms in the Netherlands, and Wednesday’s letter confirmed a ninth.

“The expectation is that further infections will be seen in the coming weeks,” Schouten said.

Last month her ministry reported two cases where mink were believed to have transmitted the disease to humans, in what are the only animal-to-human cases on record since the global outbreak began in China.

The outbreaks on the Dutch mink farms are all thought to have originated from their human handlers and then spread among the minks. The country’s National Institute for Health (RIVM) has said that the risk of animal-to-human and human-to-animal transmission remains “minimal.”

The Dutch mink farm outbreaks were first reported in April, when keepers noticed animals having difficulty breathing, prompting a wider investigation.

A law banning mink farming in the Netherlands was passed in 2013 and the remaining 120 farms are due to cease operations in 2023. The government said it is considering buying out the remaining mink farms and a preventative cull of their minks.

The Dutch mink industry says pelts are sold in European countries and to North America, with China an important growth market.

Canada, at the end of 2018, had 98 mink farms, down from 237 in 2014, according to Statistics Canada. Of those 98, 43 were in Nova Scotia and 28 in Ontario.

Canada’s National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) maintains a code of practice for the care and handling of farmed mink. A five-year review was completed in 2018.

NFACC, on its website, says the code is “currently undergoing an amendment” expected to be completed in March next year. Issues flagged as “major challenges” which are expected to be addressed in those amendments include pen sizes, access to nest boxes and methods of euthanizing mink.

— Toby Sterling is a Reuters correspondent in Amsterdam. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Dutch to cull mink at farms hit by COVID-19 outbreak appeared first on Farmtario.

U.S. farmers have been forced to cull livestock as they run short of space to house animals after some of the largest U.S. slaughterhouses closed due to outbreaks of the coronavirus among workers.

JBS said it will need only 10 to 20 employees of the 2,000 workers at its Worthington, Minn. plant, about 100 km east of Sioux Falls, S.D., to manage the “humane euthanasia” of pigs, reducing the risk for the virus to spread.

Hog carcasses will be rendered, sent to landfills, composted or buried, JBS said.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to mandate meat plants continue to function during the pandemic after warnings of looming shortages.

“Recent U.S. pork plant closures and reduced production levels at pork processing facilities across the country have left American producers with few options,” JBS USA said in a statement. “Humane depopulation and proper disposal is the unfortunate last resort for some producers.”

The JBS Worthington plant stopped operations on April 20 to curb the spread of coronavirus. It processed 20,000 hogs per day.

U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House agriculture committee, said on a webcast that the plant started euthanizing about 3,000 pigs on Wednesday. The number is “not adequate but it’s better than nothing,” he said.

“It’s not as many hogs as we thought but it’s working,” Peterson said. “Now we’re out of trucks.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said shuttered plants need to reopen to feed the country and the only way to do that is to ensure worker safety.

“No executive order is going to get those hogs processed if the people who know how to do it are sick or do not feel like they can be there,” he said on the webcast.

Following Trump’s executive order, Smithfield Foods, the world’s top pork producer, said it was evaluating reopening its shuttered plants and Tyson Foods said it would work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Smithfield has reduced operations at the world’s biggest pork plant at Tar Heel, N.C., according to a person in contact with the company and information from the Pork Checkoff. Smithfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Unions have said personal protective equipment and coronavirus tests must be available for workers and social distancing must be practiced at the plants.

Peterson said the JBS plant in Worthington will not be able to produce as much pork as before when it reopens, as employees will be more spaced out.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek; writing by Caroline Stauffer.

The post JBS reopens Minnesota pork plant to cull pigs appeared first on Farmtario.