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DOT creating red tape for cattle industry following Tyson fire

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says its disappointed in the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) efforts to help cattle producers following the fire at the Tyson plant in Holcomb, Kansas.  

NCBA’s Colin Woodall, senior vice president for government affairs, says the organization recently asked the Department to provide an Hours of Service waiver to allow trucks to transport live cattle to other plants for processing.  “And instead of recognizing the emergency situation we were dealing with, DOT has blown us off and basically wrapped this up in bureaucratic red tape,” he says. 

Woodall says the Department has ignored the needs of the cattle industry.  “I think this is very telling,” he says.  “Especially when you look at that in terms of our bigger fights like Hours of Service and Electronic Logging Devices.  DOT has not been a friend to the industry.”

While some plant operations have resumed, Woodall says Tyson has indicated it will be the end of this year or early 2020 before the plant resumes full operations.