Meat processing capacity is slowly coming back online but pork producers are still disposing of several thousand pigs per day. Thursday’s hog slaughter was 398,000 head which is still down 15-percent from a year ago. Minnesota Pork Producers Association CEO Dave Preisler says many pork plants have reopened but are running well under maximum slaughter capacity. So, hogs are still backing up and having to be euthanized.
He says pork plants in the region such as Smithfield in Sioux Falls and JBS in Worthington, Minnesota are processing but it may take a while to get operations back to normal.
Preisler says many plants are following OSHA and CDC guidelines for worker protective gear and social distancing which is slowing chain speeds. So, he says it’s a work in progress.
He’s not sure if meat processing plants will ever get back to full capacity. It depends somewhat on the age of the plant and the amount of robotics.
