Most of the U.S. beef packing infrastructure was built in the 1980s. Cattle inventories in the decade of the 1980s averaged 108.3 million head, 15% greater than the 92.1 million head average of the past decade. The industry was characterized by excess capacity for many years as cattle inventories declined.

Global meatpacking giant JBS S.A. and its parent company J&F Investimentos S.A. (J&F), have pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and will pay fines of more than $256 million for bribery, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) news release.

True West Beef, a partnership between Boise, Idaho-based Agri Beef Co. and cattle ranchers and feeders from around the West, recently announced its intent to build a new regional beef processing plant in Jerome, Idaho.

The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have signed a two-year alliance to provide NAMI members, the public and other stakeholders with information, guidance and access to training resources that will help protect workers.

True West Beef has announced plans for new beef packing facility in the city of Jerome, Idaho, with estimates of 400 jobs and the capacity to process 500 cows a day.

Over the past two months at the time of this writing, U.S. beef packers had to implement new health protocols for dealing with COVID-19 that might have hindered their ability to process cattle.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered the country’s four largest meat-packing companies to provide information as part of an ongoing probe of possible antitrust violations, according to a report from Bloomberg.

COVID-19 began impacting workers at beef packing plants in early April. In the last five weeks, cattle slaughter decreased by an average of 27%. This compares to the previous five weeks in March, when cattle slaughter averaged 5.5% higher than year-ago levels.

In a webinar hosted by the University of Nevada – Reno on May 5, Don Close, senior animal protein analyst at Rabobank and Ty Lawrence, professor of animal science at West Texas A&M University, discussed the present pandemic and what they predict is coming down the pipeline for the beef industry.