Pork producers and packers in the region are being negatively impacted by the April federal court ruling against NSIS line speeds. Scott Webb, CEO of Wholestone Farms in Fremont, Nebraska, is one of the six pilot plants in the country running at the higher NSIS line speeds until the ruling went into effect on July 1. It has effectively cut their harvest capacity by 12-percent as they are now back down to the federally mandated 1106 pigs per hour.

Webb says they set their harvest numbers nearly two years in advance and so they have had to adapt operations to accommodate those hogs while they wait for word from USDA on a possible waiver.

He says they are exploring other options as well such as splitting the line into two at the point of slaughter and merging in back together after that point.

Minnesota Pork CEO Dave Preisler says the slowdown at the plants that were running at the higher NSIS line speeds is effectively like taking a plant offline.

Webb says over the nearly 20 years they have run at the higher line speeds they monitored worker and food safety and both improved over that time.