Livestock Trucking Industry Also Struggling with Labor Shortages

Labor shortages continue to plague the ag industry, and the livestock sector is no exception. Jara Settles with the Livestock Marketing Association says the labor squeeze goes beyond processing facilities. “Even our own livestock auction markets members have been seeing labor as a huge challenge,” she says.  “But particularly in the trucking context, going into the pandemic, we already had a trucking shortage.”

Settles shares that one of the unique challenges facing the industry is that not just anyone with a CDL is able to haul livestock. Of those who do know how, many of them are cattle people themselves. “You put in 50,000 pounds of livestock and they move around on you, you need to know how to handle that.”

Settles says concerns over new technologies, like the Electronic Logging Devices, would create even more labor shortages.

EDITOR’S TAKE:

It seems labor shortages are being manifested across our economy these days. But one area that is particularly challenging is finding enough well-qualified truck drivers. Let’s face it, if the cattle can’t get to market in a timely manner, it will impact every other element in the supply chain. It was recently reported that the pandemic caused over 3 million workers to retire ahead of their normal time frame. Add that to the over 4 million fewer participants in the work force, compared with pre-pandemic levels, and it provides a pretty clear picture of the challenges facing businesses. Let’s hope there are some qualified people interested in becoming truck drivers out there in the near future.