Tyson Foods Closes Beef Plants Amid Historic Cattle Shortage

Tyson Foods Inc. is closing a beef plant in Illinois and a case-ready facility in Utah while attempting to sell another beef plant in Washington. The company is restructuring its beef operations to center them around three plants in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas to create a more competitive footprint amidst one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced.

These closures follow steep operating losses and a reduction in the company's annual profit outlook. The U.S. cattle herd is currently near its lowest level in approximately 50 years, which has forced meatpackers to pay elevated prices for scarce livestock. To mitigate these supply constraints, Tyson and competitors including JBS NV and Cargill have reduced overall capacity to cool competition for available cattle.

In response to the crisis, the United States Department of Agriculture announced a plan to resume live cattle imports from Mexico in late August to help alleviate the shortage. Meanwhile, JBS NV's incoming CEO Wesley Batista Filho stated that the company's U.S. beef business has not yet benefited from its own restructuring efforts.