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Thousands of cattle impacted by Tyson’s Illinois closure

The executive vice president of the Illinois Beef Association says work continues to assist producers impacted by the abrupt closure of the Tyson beef processing facility in Joslin, Illinois.

Josh St. Peters says thousands of head of cattle that were committed to the western Illinois plant have been left without a final destination.

“We did have 15,000 head of cattle that Tyson confirmed that they had committed to in the countryside that were not able to be delivered to Joslin.”  He says, “I know we’re down to about 11,000 head of those cattle that we’re still working through in the last 24 hours here, so we’re chipping away at that.”

AUDIO: Josh St. Peters – Illinois Beef Association

Jerry Costello, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, says state officials have been assured that Tyson plans to remain an active cattle buyer in the Midwest.

“Some of the commitments that were made by the COO were encouraging, essentially saying that they will be in the market at our sale barns and they will be eating the trucking cost to get those animals to the Nebraska plant,” he says.

St. Peters tells Brownfield that he received similar assurances from company officials, however…

“I followed up with sale barns over the last forty-eight hours here, and who hasn’t been in those sale barns? Tyson,” he says.

He says the association will work with state and federal officials to investigate several aspects of the closure, but right now…

“Our priority at this moment though is our family farmers who have cattle on feed, our family farmers who have feeder calves that were being sold into these channels,” he says.

The plant represents about 3% of the nation’s beef processing capacity and was vital to the region’s economy.  Costello says finding answers is a priority for the state.

“Obviously losing 2,500 jobs is a tough situation, but I can tell you Governor Pritzker has been on the phone with other agency heads looking to try to help or do anything we can to make sure that facility at some point in time hopefully goes back into use,” he says.

Tyson has not responded to a request for an updated statement.  The company’s initial release stated the closure is part of a plan to create a more competitive footprint as the industry continues to face historically low cattle supplies.

AUDIO: Jerry Costello – Illinois Department of Agriculture