Farming, Animal Production and COVID-19

Our manufacturing facilities are an essential and critical part of the food supply chain – and they remain open. Cargill is taking many precautionary actions to keep all our plants safe and operational to ensure we can continue to serve our customers.

The Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration are the leading resources on this topic. Based on what they’ve shared, there is no evidence that pets, livestock, or their owners can infect each other with COVID-19, but there’s also very little research about potential crossover.

Coronaviruses are common among farm animals. Among livestock, pigs seem to be the most susceptible to coronaviruses. One of the more devastating coronaviruses among livestock in recent years was porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), which affected only pigs. It’s important to remember that anytime people are around an animal, they should use good hygiene. And if the animal caregiver is sick with COVID-19 (either suspected or confirmed), they should restrict contact with pets and other animals, just like they would around other people.

While there is no evidence to suggest that feed is a vector, Cargill is taking all precautions, including limiting our on-farm visits to only those that are critical and ensuring proper personal protective equipment (boots, visibility vests for visitors to be identified, scrub in and out if working with animal, etc.).

We continue to deliver animal feed to customers. We’ve changed our delivery process to ensure no human interaction when picking up or delivering feed on farm. We’re calling ahead to ensure there are no symptoms on the farm, and the Cargill team is OK to proceed with delivery without any human contact.  

We believe producers are accepting larger orders to limit the number of deliveries on-farm. At this time, we’re confident in the supply of animal food ingredients, both coming in from international suppliers and produced domestically, and the ability for feed manufacturers to deliver feed for our farmer customers.

Farmers and ranchers are key to our food supply – and they continue to take great care of their animals. We have seen increased demand as our customers respond to the uncertainty in front of them. In response to this, we are operating many of our plants at high capacity to be able to meet our customers’ needs. One of the key elements to the supply is ensuring we have the ingredients available to make feed. We continually monitor supply and logistics. Our risk management and sourcing teams are working harder than ever to ensure that ingredients can reach our 270 plants on time; at this time, we’re not seeing any disruption in our supply chain, while we are managing to answer to a stronger demand from our customers. We believe producers are accepting larger orders to limit the number of deliveries on-farm. At this time, we’re confident in the supply of animal food ingredients, both coming in from international suppliers and produced domestically, and the ability for feed manufacturers to deliver feed for our farmer customers.

We see increased demand across all the species we provide nutrition for – cattle, poultry, dairy cows, pigs and even salmon.

This is an unprecedented time. As governments around the globe put measures in place to contain and mitigate COVID-19, the biggest risks we see are related to workforce, supply chain and transportation.

From a workforce perspective, Cargill is first and foremost focused on keeping people safe. If we face reduced staffing due to COVID-19 quarantines or restrictions, we may scale down activities or adjust shift patterns. However, by following Cargill safety practices and local regulations, we are confident our facilities will continue to remain operational.

This situation may cause logistic/supply chain issues for the Industry, but as Cargill, with operations in 65 countries and our One Team approach across sourcing from the farmer to the consumer’s fork, we’re well-positioned to continue to deliver what our customers need every day and keep our plants in service. We see increased demand across all the species we provide nutrition for – cattle, poultry, dairy cows, pigs and even salmon.

Moving ingredients and produced feed across borders is an important part of the supply chain. We are experiencing some issues with border crossings in a few geographies and are working with our suppliers, trade associations and governments to work through these challenges.

We’re working closely with the USDA and Customs and Border Protection to quickly clear up quarantines that may be imposed at US-Canadian border crossings. Our goal is to continue to serve our customers and facilitate trade. In addition, Cargill is providing ‘comfort letters’ to our suppliers that are crossing the border.

In Europe, we’re working with our trade associations – food, feed, grains and oilseed groups – to document issues and advocate with the European Commission to urgently extend ‘green corridors’ for the agri-supply chain, including certificates for use and document checks in the EU.

Across the world, the agriculture industry is playing a critical, life-sustaining role during the pandemic to provide food and feed to nourish the world. In order to ensure agriculture can continue to play this role, Cargill continues to advocate with national, state and local governments for the entire agriculture sector to be considered an essential business that is allowed to operate during this time. Recognizing the importance of keeping our workforces safe, we are engaged with government regulators to obtain proper personal protective equipment and to ensure government guidelines are applied to protect the health and safety of our workers and those working across the agriculture and food industry. Finally, we recognize the challenges that agricultural producers across the world are facing as markets and consumer demands change in response to the pandemic. Cargill, working with key agricultural trade associations, continues to urge governments to provide assistance to agricultural producers to ensure they can continue providing food and feed needed by us all.

In March, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law, which authorized $19 billion in aid for agriculture, including $16 billion in direct payments for producers. Starting on May 26, 2020, producers impacted by COVID-19 can apply for direct financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). The sign-up period will be open through August 28, 2020.

Livestock eligible for assistance under CFAP include cattle (including dairy cull cows), lambs, yearlings and hogs. Assistance is available to livestock producers who have an ownership interest in eligible livestock that have suffered a five percent-or-greater price decline as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and face additional significant costs in marketing their inventories due to unexpected surplus and disrupted markets. Click here for more details on eligibility and payment rates specific to livestock.

For dairy, assistance under CFAP is available to all dairy operations with milk production in January, February, and/or March 2020. Any dumped milk production during the months of January, February, and March 2020 is eligible for assistance. Click here (PDF) for more details on eligibility and payment rates specific to dairy.

More details about payment rates, eligibility, and how to apply can be found on USDA’s website at www.farmers.gov/cfap. 

Cargill has resources to help producers of all backgrounds thrive. Here are additional materials organized by species:

Aquaculture – Aquaculture Feed and Nutrition
Beef – Beef Cattle Feed
Dairy – Cargill Dairy Dreams, Dairy Cattle Nutrition
Poultry – Poultry Performance and Productivity Challenges
Swine – Swine Nutrition and Production Solutions