File photo
File photo
A lobbyist for the Illinois Farm Bureau reports that while pork producers are back operating at their full potential, COVID-19 outbreaks at meat-processing facilities across the state have disrupted the supply chain.
Adam Nielsen told The News-Gazette that farmers are only able to deliver partial loads of hogs to the processing plants.
“Farmers are taking a semi load to the packing plant, for example, and then find out at the front gate that the plant is not open that day, or is at the minimal capacity, so they end up driving back home,” Nielsen said. “It’s just really a disruptive situation.”
Nielsen says that many farmers also receive income from growing vegetables, but having hogs that they can't sell creates cash-flow problems.
“It’s across the state. A lot of farmers may grow corn and soybeans, but they also have a couple of barns of pigs, and we have a number of processing plants,” Nielsen told The News-Gazette.
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