Tyson Foods is selling five hog farms and eliminating 76 jobs, a move that will reduce its sow herd by 20,000 head, company spokesman Gary Mickelson confirmed to Meatingplace.
Tyson will sell five company-owned hog farms in Benton and Washington Counties in Arkansas, and McDonald County in Missouri. The move will leave the company with an inventory of 50,000 sows.
The Tyson Pork Group, primarily based in Arkansas and Oklahoma, produces finished hogs, feeder pigs and weaned pigs for sale to pork processors and finishers. The farm sales will eliminate 76 jobs in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Affected employees have been notified and are being encouraged to apply for other job openings within the company.
"The sale of feeder and weaned pigs has slowed because of unfavorable economic conditions such as high grain costs, lack of available capital and a reduction in pork demand," explained Mickelson. "While this is a difficult process, we believe it’s necessary as we navigate through the challenging conditions facing the pork industry."
The move comes one month after Smithfield, a much larger hog producer, announced it was already in the process of cutting its sow herd by an additional 3 percent, on the heels of last fiscal year’s 10 percent reduction.
Source:
MeatingPlace.com, July 15, 2009
By Rita Jane Gabbett