Regional poultry industry fared flooding fairly well

Tyson Foods President and CEO Tom Hayes said this week severe flooding in Noel. Mo., hindered production in that area a bit but the facilities were back up and running as of Monday (May 8). He said poultry growers have come through the floods without any significant losses.

“Our growers have been pretty-well protected, but I think that it was certainly something we were very concerned about as the storms were unfolding,” Hayes told the media during the earnings call Monday. “Hopefully we will come through it and everybody will be either in good shape or rebuilding with our support.”

Tyson Foods also said it provided disaster relief in the form of feeding people in Noel and Dexter, Mo., where the company operates poultry processing facilities.

The Arkansas Poultry Federation said there have been no bird casualties reported, but there were some poultry houses across the state that took on some flood waters.

Todd Simmons, CEO of Simmons Foods, said luckily the company was not impacted for the recent flooding.

Peco’s new poultry plant located in Pocahontas was also impacted for the flooding in northeast Arkansas late last week. Arkansas Poultry Federation Chairman Marvin Childers has said Peco workers had some issues getting to work at the plant because of the heacy flooding related to torrential rainfall and the multiple levee failures of the Black River, which forced the evacuation of more than 500 residents in the community.