Another Cargill Plant in Calgary Dealing With COVID-19 Outbreak

Aug 24, 2020

The union that represents workers at the Cargill processing plant in northeast Calgary is hopeful a handful of positive COVID cases there won't mean the plant will have to shut down.

Unlike the outbreak south of the city in High River earlier this year, the union isn't asking for the plant to close, saying the company learned some valuable lessons from the outbreak in April. That's when dozens of workers became infected and at least 2 died. The High River plant shut down for two weeks and later, the province admitted it could have done a better job containing the spread.

In Calgary, just five of the roughly 400 workers are affected. The last confirmed case at the plant, according to the company was back on August 10th. AHS and Occupational Health and Safety have visited the plant and are testing the employees according to Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.