We're sharing with you, as a DPI member, this message about one way the COVID-19 crisis is affecting Delmarva's chicken companies, so that you know important facts about your chicken community.
- The health and safety of people within our chicken community, including processing plant employees, is of the utmost importance. Chicken producers and processors are making significant efforts to protect employees from coronavirus (COVID-19), while continuing to replenish the food supply our nation depends on.
- However, the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. chicken industry is becoming more apparent as the disease continues to spread throughout the United States. Additional cases of COVID-19, additional testing, and people practicing the “stay home if you’re sick” social distancing guidance from public health officials has led to reduced employee attendance at every chicken company processing plant on Delmarva.
- With reduced staffing, many plants are not able to harvest chickens at the pace they planned for when placing those chicks in chicken houses several weeks ago, before any COVID-19 quarantine and social distancing measures took effect. In some cases, this leads to more birds waiting on chicken farms to be harvested than plants have capacity to harvest and process. If no action were taken, the birds would outgrow the capacity of the chicken house to hold them.
- A difficult but necessary decision a company facing this situation can make is to humanely depopulate birds in chicken houses on farms instead of transporting the birds to a processing plant. Currently, there is one company on Delmarva practicing this last-resort option.
- Before taking this step, the company exhausted the study of other alternatives, including allowing another chicken company to transport and process the chickens and taking a partially processed product to rendering facilities to utilize for other animal feed.
- The company will depopulate nearly 2 million chickens on several farms in both Delaware and Maryland using approved, humane methods – the same methods approved for depopulation in cases of infectious avian disease. The methods used are accepted by the American Veterinary Medical Association and all state and local guidelines.
- The company is continuing to operate its processing lines to produce safe, healthy chicken. It is not closing any processing plant.
- The company will compensate the affected chicken growers for their contracted work in raising the chickens.
- The company has adjusted their processes, hatchery and capacity to be able to continue with business as quickly as possible to meet the market demands while reducing the oversupply of chickens to be harvested.
- The company will continue to use all possible methods to encouragehealthy employees to continue working, as they are deemed as essential employees, to maintain processing capacity to the greatest degree possible.
- Nationally, efforts are being made to make sure that essential employees in food production receive additional benefits and support in economic stimulus and recovery legislation.
These are extraordinary times, and everyone in the chicken community is doing all that we can to stop the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining a safe food supply. We are grateful for, and proud of, every member of the chicken community for stepping up to the challenges this situation presents. If you have questions about this, or if friends and neighbors have questions, DPI is here as a resource; send us a note. And we'll continue to advocate for you at the federal, state and local level. |
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43 comments:
Holy crap.. that's really disturbing...
This awful! Let them go and run free, it will help keep down the ticks and other bugs.
Lots of people need jobs now.
Hire more temporary workers.
THINK HOW MANY MEALS ARE GOING TO WASTE & THE PRICE OF CHICKENS WILL GO UP
That sucks. They'll all end up in the landfill.
April 10, 2020 at 1:24 PM
YES you got it. The end game.
The price of everything is rising, quickly.
And they said, don't worry, the food supply chain is fine ......
I have no doubt there is more to this story. Something else is going on.
2 million birds?
several farms?
hmmmm.
The company will depopulate nearly 2 million chickens on several farms in both Delaware and Maryland using approved, humane methods – the same methods approved for depopulation in cases of infectious avian disease. The methods used are accepted by the American Veterinary Medical Association and all state and local guidelines.
let’s make it impossible to come from Central America and Mexico seeking work. Give the poultry jobs to Americans!
2:16. If Americans wanted poultry jobs the industry wouldn’t need to hire workers from Central America and Mexico. Why don’t you just run on down to Perdue and sign up?
Being vegetarian would solve this problem and the needless suffering of billions of animals, including the 2 million chickens wiped out. We get so scared at human suffering and death from coronavirus but continue to support the suffering of animals.
Depopulate = kill. Sound like proper spinsters and lobbyists.
THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL JOB! WHY THE WASTE? HIRE MORE PEOPLE! MANY LOST JOBS DUE TO THIS VIRUS SO HIRE THEM!
Americans do not want those jobs, they are too entitled and lazy for any Ag jobs.
Yeah right I can see Americans around here standing all day reaching over their heads and cutting out chicken anus's for minimum wage. They'd be out on disability in no time.
1:07 Let nearly 2 million chickens run free? Are you out of your mind? You probably would be the first one to complain about them pooping everywhere. Chickens are domesticated not wild birds. They are used to being taken care of 7 - 24 for the time they are on the farm.
1:10 Hire more temp help would be great. Want a job? The company will train you.
1:29 In the landfill? Hell no! They will be humanely euthanized in the poultry houses. They will then be composted, using the litter that is in the houses, until they are completely decomposed. During this time, the poultry farm will NOT be able to have poultry in those same houses for whatever time it takes to decompose. This could take several weeks but more likely months. During this time, the poultry grower, who has bills just like you, has no income. We as poultry growers are self-employed and can not receive unemployment.
2:04 Up to 2 millions birds doesn't take to many farms to make up that number. If I remember correctly, the average poultry farm today is 6 houses. Six houses today could house 30,000 or more per house depending on the contract. There's really nothing here "going on".
This is an unfortunate thing that is happening right now. Something in my 20+ years of growing poultry I never, in my wildest dreams, could have imagined happening to us. Thinking that this could happen to my poultry farm makes me sick to my stomach and is not what I want to have happen to any grower.
Signed, A worried poultry grower
All of these jobs were filled by Americans. Many were filled by African Americans before globalists imported cheaper labor.
Well said!
April 10, 2020 at 3:52 PM
Ok sheeple - yes there is something more going on.
What they say and what they do will not coincide.
But you believe the formal published propaganda.
Another funny story, if you had a clue. During the corona virus outbreak in china they also killed birds on farms due to an avian flu outbreak
Maybe you should google that instead of lecturing people with your bogus fake "opinion" since you have not actually supplied anyone with any facts.
And there it is...animals have feelings. We are definitely living in the melting pot of the world. Again "in" the melting pot.
SMH.
There is too much chicken. It can't be shipped to many areas/states because of covid19.
Americans refuse to work them. Americans feel they are to good for these jobs.
These jobs will never go back to Americans. All this does is accelerate robotics and automation to remove people entirely. This way another covid can’t stop business. You’ll watch everything be automated in the next ten years. I hope your a programmer or someone in the service industry who will support this as everyone else will lose there jobs.
There is too much chicken. It can't be shipped to many areas/states because of covid19.
April 10, 2020 at 5:58 PM
LOL WTH?
No, no. That is not true at all. But workers are sick, and well, supposedly our supply chain is just fine, except for chicken. One would think they could freeze the stuff.
April 10, 2020 at 3:52 PM Your comment should actually say, signed DPI
I know how to clean a bird. Let me have some.
Take that peta bs somewhere elae
Minimum wages with undesirable working conditions. You try it 6:00 PM
Have a giant BBQ
Northwest Woodsman: Why not send them to Popeyes in Richmond? I understand they need chicken urgently.
They cannot get enough to eat by free ranging. Understand that these are big fat birds that mostly just sit where they are and constantly eat. What chickens free range for Just won't come along in front of them and wait to be eaten. They were bred to grow fast not to have any sense!!
Each farm can have 8 houses. Each house contains 60,000 chickens. More than 200 farms...2,000,000 chickens are a lot but multiply the above and you find 96,000,000 chickens on those farms.
Yep!!! That is why we need migrant Hispanic workers to begin with. If we didn't, your food would sit and rot on the ground. If you drive here during harvesting time, check out how many white or black Americans are out in those fields harvesting anything that can't be done by a machine!!
The Mexican "staff" at the processing plants are smart enough to realize that the US government is going to pay them to stay home during this pandemic. Like other low income people have figured out, "why work?" It's a shame for our chicken industry, as Americans need this food now more than ever. Now watch your price for chickens at the market to skyrocket.
April 10, 2020 at 6:01 PM:
When unskilled human labor becomes more expensive than robotics, robotics will becomes the "labor" of choice. Is is pure economics. Raise the minimum wage high enough, and people won't be necessary for labor to produce goods and services. Denial and excuses will not change anything. It is the direction of our new and constantly changing IT future.
But do the farmers get compensated for the birds they raised to market weight over the seven to eight weeks the birds were in their houses?
Allen Poultry should be ashamed!! There are many many other options! Think outside the box for once people! Make low level prisoners do the work, offer it to the military, something!!! Speak up people!!!
Plan to raise chicken prices!
It’s pretty simple, the workers can sit home for couple weeks and get unemployment and the government just threw another $600 on top of that. That is why the chicken s can’t get processed. Bottom line.
The dairy farmers are getting rid of milk instead of giving it away.Seeing it running into the drains is upsetting.
They are begging for food at the foodbank and begging people to help out yet thousands of chickens going to waste and gallons of milk going down the drains.
Pathetic when people are Hungary
So, restaurants are nor ordering chickens, when people get poor people eat chicken, we are just not allowed to order at the local restaurant
. We are all still eating chicken and eggs, just at home, not at restaurants, However, there are no chickens or eggs at the grocery!
Hey, delivery driver, we are all till eating just as much chicken and eggs, just not at the restaurants,
Does your delivery vehicle have a steering wheel?
You could go 3 blocks down and fill the local grocery store with everything missing there, namely chicken and eggs.
Go to the grocery store, there's no chicken, no eggs.
Gosh, who would have known we're eating the same amount of chicken and eggs, just not from restaurants!
I know, it's hard to understand, but maybe you will get it someday.
Why not just donate them to the general public?
They will spray a foam in the house that's kills and decomposes them, in a day or 2 you wont even be able to tell there were chickens in there
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