Livestock Association Cancels
The Colorado Livestock Association, like so many other organizations, is cancelling its annual meeting due to the COVID-19 crisis.
CLA Executive Director Bill Hammerich says the meeting can wait but unfortunately, livestock producers can not.
Bill Hammerich: “This is a serious, serious situation. That can not be emphasized enough.
The losses that have been sustained by the industry starting from the first of the year were unimaginable six months ago.
Hammerich says getting meat packing plants back up to speed needs to be a priority while taking care of the workers’ safety.
Hammerich: “That is a difficult job. Those folks God Bless them they work shoulder to shoulder, literally in some conditions.”
At a Greeley JBS plant, worker absenteeism was about 30 percent, according to Bloomberg news. At last check there were at least 280 cases linked to the plant and seven deaths.
Hammerich says he’s confident that with the increased safety rules and an increasing capacity for testing, workers will see that measures are in effect to protect them and will feel better about going into work.
Hammerich says he has been told by feedlot operators who are shipping to the JBS plant that it is at about 50 percent capacity. He expects that will improve over the next days and weeks.
The next CLA Annual Meeting is now set for June of 2021.
