I have a 20-year-old son who is trying to figure life out. He just lost his job to downsizing. His employer needed to be more efficient with labor and time. Store hours will be shortening, and they needed fewer people to get the job done. I get it; efficiency is the key to a successful business. I feel bad for him. I know he is on the hunt looking for a job, but this setback doesn’t make life easy. It is definitely stressful for me as his mom! All companies are facing the same issues: labor and efficiency.

This week we all learned that Tyson is closing two plants in the next few months. I feel for all those people. I get the why, but the why doesn’t make anything easier for their employees. We have seen plant closings in the past, but this news seems a little more impactful to me. Maybe it’s because I see my son struggling with similar challenges.

We may be seeing more of this happening soon. Supply chain issues, labor shortages, and higher feed costs all mean that improved efficiency is critical to keeping food costs down and keeping the supply chain full of chicken and turkey.

What does improving efficiency look like? I really hate to define things pre- and post-COVID, but I really think the effects of closing the nation down will be felt for many years. Pre-COVID, I used to think efficiency was about more birds on the line and bigger birds. My mindset has changed now that we are “post-COVID." I now think efficiency is more related to labor, specifically automation and robotics.

The poultry industry has always had labor issues. This is nothing new. But the labor issues have changed. Most people just do not want to do manual labor anymore. I have written blogs on this topic pre-COVID, and the responses were always similar: Big business is taking away needed jobs making it harder for people to earn a living. Now, post-COVID, there are the continued labor issues and now a lot more issues with cost and supply chain. Plants have no choice but to consolidate and improve efficiency. These are the current solutions, along with future research with robotics/automation and artificial intelligence.

I have followed the robotics and artificial intelligence research over the last 10-ish years. Back then, we all thought it would be so far removed to replace a person with a robot to debone chickens on conduct other tasks. However, now I think it is becoming a reality. The COVID pandemic created a need for technology to replace labor shortages and improve efficiency of production.

The University of Arkansas and Georgie Tech just received a $5 million NIFA grant to look at robotics and artificial intelligence, meaning this post-pandemic era of efficiency is high on USDA’s mind as well. I think we will be seeing more of this research and these types of grants and an increased need for robotics and artificial intelligence to improve efficiency in poultry production. As far as labor, we will still need people to run these robots and artificial intelligence systems. Maybe a better trained workforce is needed in these areas, leaving open some opportunities for trade schools and other offerings at the university level.

My son found another job (thankfully), and I believe so will these Tyson employees. But I cannot help but wonder where we will be in the next 10 years as our industry continues to feed the growing number of people in the world with a reduction in the labor to do it.

Robots are coming

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