Tyson Will Close Poultry Plants in Virginia and Arkansas That Employ More Than 1,600

Mar 16, 2023

Tyson Foods is closing two facilities that employ more than 1,600 people in an effort to streamline its U.S. poultry business.

The company said Tuesday it plans to close its processing, broiler and hatching operations in Glen Allen, Virginia, and a plant in Van Buren, Arkansas. Both closures are scheduled for May 12.

Tyson said the closures will help it better use all available capacity at remaining plants.

The Springdale, Arkansas-based company said it will work with its 692 employees in Glen Allen and its 969 employees in Van Buren to apply for open positions at other plants.

Tyson has made other efforts to consolidate its operations in recent months. Last October, the company announced it would relocate 1,000 corporate staff from offices in Illinois and South Dakota to Arkansas.

Tyson said operating inefficiencies were partly to blame for its lower-than-expected profit in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31. The company said its operating income dropped 68% to $467 million in the period.

Source : usf.edu

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”

Tyson Will Close Poultry Plants in Virginia and Arkansas That Employ More Than 1,600

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

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