Olymel Reopens Red Deer Facility

Mar 05, 2021

Olymel's Red Deer, AB pork processing facility started its gradual reopening on Thursday.

The company has been working with Alberta Health Services and Occupational Health and Safety during the process.

Slaughter operations resumed on Thursday with cutting room operations set to return on Friday

Since the temporary closure, Olymel had been managing the flow of pigs from its own farms in order to facilitate a return to normal when operations resumed.

The Olymel plant was closed in mid-February following a COVID-19 outbreak that has been linked to at least 500 cases since November, and now a fourth death is also related to that outbreak.

The Olymel plant at Red Deer is one of the largest hog slaughter plants in Western Canada.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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