Foster Farms: Feds say Union Pacific must deliver grain to California chickens

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Feds say railroad must deliver grain to California chickens

By JOSH FUNK
January 3, 2022

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal regulators have ordered Union Pacific railroad to make sure a livestock producer gets the grain it needs in California to prevent millions of chickens and hundreds of thousands of cattle from starving.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board told the railroad it must improve service to Foster Farms to keep it from running out of feed for livestock it raises. It’s is the second time in the past year regulators issued an emergency order related to delivery problems at Foster Farms, which is based in Livingston, California, as the railroad struggled with a shortage of crews.

This time, however, Union Pacific blamed the weather for its problems. Spokesman Mike Jaixen said last month’s extreme cold and blizzard conditions slowed deliveries in 20 of the 23 western states the railroad operated in, and additional problems are possible because of the forecast for more severe winter weather.

-snip-

Foster Farms called on the STB to get Union Pacific to give priority to grain trains heading from the Midwest to the livestock producer’s facilities in Traver, Turlock, and Delhi, California.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-transportation-california-omaha-28652f6baad4048b30315d9e6a58a3e7

[Ziggysmom]

1. Why don't they purchase more feed in advance and store it themselves so they don't

run out? Obviously using a Just-in-Time inventory system for their feed is not working out. Who cares if animals die as long as the big corporations save a few dollars?
Corporations like Foster Farms suck. They house thousand of chickens, in ammonia filled warehouses, who never see daylight. Yet they label their chicken as humanely raised.
More chickens are raised and killed for food than all other land animals combined, yet not a single federal law protects chickens from abuse. Sigh........

[Warpy]

2. I don't think there's any way to anticipate the kind of drought we've seen out west

and I doubt cattle meat and dairy farms had adequate storage facilities for what they'd need this year.

I'd love to see the dairy herds moved north and the meat herds moved to the east. Cattle farming in the far west is getting to the point of being impossible, cowboy mystique and all. There's just not enough water to sustain it.

Chicken farming is more efficient in the amount of feed per pound of protein, but still only a little more sustainable than growing cattle.

Water shortages out west have been catastrophic. That's what this is about, not an admittedly stupid business model.